CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 52: EXPERIMENTAL FIELD

Looking at the large expanse of newly cultivated land where the vines had just been planted, Austin’s heart was filled with a sense of satisfaction. From nothing to something, overcoming numerous difficulties to accumulate this foundation.

Soon, this foundation will usher in a new era.

If the planting can succeed, it will basically solve the food problem for the beastmen. Only then can the population under the Blue Young Dragon’s command rapidly expand to form a formidable force.

Initially, the beastmen didn’t understand why Austin was cultivating this land. They only obeyed because of the unparalleled prestige of the Blue Young Dragon. Later, when the Blue Young Dragon said that completing this task would solve the beastmen’s food problem, the enthusiasm of the beastmen was immediately ignited. However, they still found what the Blue Young Dragon was doing quite inexplicable.

Until now, seeing all the work Austin had done, planting the vines in the furrows, the smarter beastmen had already guessed what Austin intended to do.

The Kawa Great Forest is not completely closed off. At the turn of the cold winter, large numbers of beastmen always surge out of the forest borders to breach the Iron Wall Defense Line set by the humans and raid human food supplies.

The beastmen have some understanding of how humans manage to survive without hunting in the forests, and that’s because humans know how to farm.

As Austin would say, farming allows humans to sustain a large portion of their population with limited land.

The beastmen of the Kawa Great Forest had tried planting in the past, too.

However, their planting methods were very crude. For example, they would directly cast rice seeds onto the grasslands, leading to the seeds being completely devoured by birds and rats, or perhaps barely sprouting only to have all the nutrients sapped by the lush grass, leaving just a couple of scrawny stalks to mature and bear fruit, eventually yielding less than the original seeds.

The same went for other crops. The beastmen had no concept of land preparation, nor did they consider the environment, indiscriminately scattering seeds in the wild. As a result, the yields never matched the effort, and naturally, the beastmen of the Kawa Great Forest lost the inclination to farm.

Of course, in this vast and endless Kawa Great Forest, anything can happen. There may be exceptions where some tribes accidentally discover suitable land for planting appropriate crops, obtaining considerable harvests annually, but such lucky instances are extremely rare. Compared to the countless tribes in the Kawa Great Forest, the fortunate ones are one in a million.

Without related farming knowledge and given the simple-minded nature of the beastmen, developing agriculture naturally yielded no results.

Therefore, seeing what Austin was doing and realizing his goal, the beastmen, though surprised, were also filled with immense expectation.

Even the simple-minded beastmen could see the difference between Austin’s farming method and the bold techniques used by other beastman tribes.

Perhaps, His Highness Blue Dragon could succeed.

No, His Highness Austin is bound to succeed!

The various experiences over time, coupled with political brainwashing, had led all the beastmen to develop absolute trust in Austin.

Subsequently, the development of events did not disappoint the beastmen’s expectations.

After the planting was completed, the heavens were kind enough to bring several showers. In the ensuing two days, sprouts emerged from the buried vines, as spots of tender green dotted the yellow earth, giving the fields an exceptionally vibrant and lively look.

This surprised the Blue Young Dragon, as compared to his past life, where it was impossible for planted vines to sprout so quickly in just two days. But perhaps due to a different world or species, the results differed.

In any case, by the third day after the vines were planted, the shoots had indeed emerged.

This growth opened a promising Chapter for Austin’s farming endeavor.

For the time being, there was basically no need for management until the new vines were substantial enough to climb up the branches.

Next, Austin didn’t let the beastmen idly wait but sought another plain to continue clearing the land.

Austin chose not to clear the previous plain further, considering that excessive tree felling in such a rain-abundant world could easily lead to soil erosion.

Therefore, to avoid complications, Austin decided to start clearing another piece of land about twenty meters away from the original field.

Even though the first field hadn’t yielded crops yet, the sight of sprouting vines had all the participating beastmen filled with passion, diving eagerly into the next clearing task.

With the experience from the first field, the beastmen’s work efficiency significantly improved.

They coordinated seamlessly, cutting down and dragging away trees, pulling up weeds from the ground and burning them on the remaining stumps, with ash left for the base of the ridges as fertilizer.

Then they used wooden spades to turn over the hard soil, leveling the ground, making ridges, and planting anew.

The clearing of the second piece of land no longer required Austin’s direct supervision. Except for occasionally checking the progress and offering guidance, the work was mostly left to the beastmen to organize. With the first round of planting experience, the work wouldn’t falter.

As some beastmen busily worked on the second field, Austin led another group to traverse the Blue Dragon’s territory within a ten-mile radius.

Apart from the unexplored Spider Cave, the Blue Young Dragon didn’t discover any other places where extraordinary magical beasts gathered.

Of course, Austin’s main goal wasn’t to find another place like the Spider Cave but to locate the growth areas of wild rice.

Although the first plant chosen for cultivation was the kudzu root, it didn’t mean Austin wouldn’t plant other grains.

Previously, due to various reasons, the Blue Young Dragon had abandoned the idea of planting wild rice in the first field, but he hadn’t entirely given up on cultivating it as a crop.

After all, if agricultural planting succeeds in the future, grains will yield much more than kudzu root.

For security and compatibility with the growth habits of rice, Austin decided to directly sow these grain plants in areas where rice naturally grew.

After three days of exploration, under the guidance of the beastmen, Austin discovered more than a dozen low wetlands with wild rice growing.

The Blue Young Dragon decided to select the three ponds nearest to Dragon Nest Village as experimental fields.

Of course, compared to the multiple steps like seedling cultivation from the past life, Austin’s planting technique was much simpler and more straightforward.

He instructed the beastmen to clear all the weeds from the ponds, turn over the muddy soil once, and then directly cast the wild rice seeds.

In the future, during large-scale wild rice planting, the method of seedling cultivation might be employed, but for now, it was merely an experimental field, also serving to record the growth patterns of wild rice.

By the time the first cultivated field matures enough to plant these wild rice, at least a year would have passed.

They directly sowed the seeds, burying them in the mud, ensuring they wouldn’t be taken by birds, thus completing the wild rice experimental fields. All that remained was to wait for the future growth and harvest.