CHAPTER 775: [750] BEAST WORLD FARMING 60 (2 UPDATES)_2

Because it was still cold, the food could be preserved. When they set out, not only did they carry cured pickles and meat, but also cornbread, dry cakes, mixed grain pancakes, century eggs, cured sausage, seaweed rice balls, savory Northeast sticky rice dumplings (without red beans, filled with fried soybean paste)—all these were to stave off hunger, ensuring they had food on their journey.

Additionally, she led the females in making a plethora of shoes from animal hides. Although not as sturdy as modern shoes, they were much better than walking barefoot on the icy ground. Everyone had two or three pairs, with spares for when they wore out.

Besides shoes, they prepared cloaks, clothing, bags, and other military supplies from animal hides. She prepared everything she could think of for them.

Such meticulous arrangements aroused the envy of many Beastmen. Of course, influenced by Tiantian, their own females also changed a lot, earning everyone’s admiration.

Soon, as the ice and snow began to melt, Tiantian started to use bran and other materials to cultivate mushroom compost and nurture plant seedlings in the warm house, such as tomato seedlings. She had kept some seeds from previously eaten tomatoes but wasn’t sure if they would germinate.

After the ground thawed, external clan members came to ask if they needed short-term workers. This time, the tribe members directly rejected them, spreading the news of Tangtang’s murder by Beining of Wanshou City. The external clan members sighed regretfully, lamenting that they might not be able to enjoy Tangtang’s cuisine anymore.

Meanwhile, Tiantian delegated the task of tilling the fields to the tribe’s Beastmen. Cooking and iron forge for bronze were arranged together. The Nandi Clan was gradually developing toward something akin to a communal canteen of the 1970s.

With the iron farming tools they made, like plows, and the addition of oxen for help, the work became much easier.

Once their lands were plowed, the females planning to farm convened these Beastmen to help with their fields; they would provide meals in return. In this way, you help me, I help you, everyone worked together, fully utilizing the available land in the tribe.

To improve the quality of seeds and protect them from insects in the soil, Tiantian prepared some plant toxins to mix with the seeds. As the ground warmed, planting began. She taught as they sowed, starting with soybeans, sweet potatoes, potatoes, rapeseeds, and other high-yield cereal crops; followed by last year’s gathered sesame and peanut seeds, which she had not enough to share and hence didn’t distribute.

Seeds of common crops were distributed, while rarer ones needed to save seeds this year to distribute the next year.

Before the rainy season, they weeded, plowed, and tidied up the fields in the first month, fertilized and sowed in the second; everyone worked zealously.

This year, she even marked out a plot specifically for growing sugarcane. Before discovering beets, brown sugar had become an indispensable part of their daily lives.

Half a month after Pan Lin and others left, the second ox cart departed to meet them, and another half-month later, the third cart set off. Before the rainy season, they managed to maintain the efficiency of building one ox cart every half month. Later, when their oxen were not enough, they switched to human power because the wild oxen outdoors were too feral and needed taming before they could be used for labor.

Thus far, they had constructed five ox carts, with only three adult oxen at home; the rest were alternately powered by human effort.

After the trial, Tiantian’s relay-hunting method proved very successful. As everything was prepared as semi-products beforehand, there were not only no attacks or loots from their kind, but even wild animals couldn’t attack and instead became the prey themselves.

Everyone was trained to know how to process food locally; every team carried salt, which had become an essential part of their lives.

After six months of brewing, Tiantian’s soy sauce, vinegar, and rice wine were successful, despite the variable temperatures on the kang affecting the flavor, making them significantly less than perfect, though still edible. Eager to produce a more perfect product, she started the next brewing cycle at the beginning of the rainy season.

With the previous experience, she called over the females while she worked, giving detailed explanations.

This way, once their cereal crops were harvested, they could produce their own sauces and condiments.

For instance, soybeans could be made into Korean-style bean paste, Northeastern Soy Sauce, as well as tofu, soy milk, tofu skin, and be ground into bean flour for dry foods. Simply put, as long as you can imagine it, soybeans can create it—if you put in the effort, you definitely reap rewards.

Millet was likewise versatile. It could be used to brew rice vinegar, steam millet rice, cook cornmeal porridge, and grind into flour for various mixed grain flours, cornbread, and other cereals. Any grain could serve as raw material for alcohol, as long as the perfect yeast was prepared.

Last year’s soy sauce was considered light soy sauce because she omitted a step.

Dark soy sauce required the addition of caramel color, making it more useful for coloring meat. Since she didn’t add it last year, it resulted in a purely flavor-enhancing light soy sauce.

This year, to make dark soy sauce, she had to particularly include caramel color, which required brown sugar made from boiling sugar. That’s why she specifically cultivated sugarcane this year.

Fortunately, she had kept the sugarcane roots from last year in her space, so she could plant them directly this year. Although she wasn’t sure if they would thrive, it was worth a try.

After all, the sugarcane she had cut from the fields previously had sprouted on its own, proving that leaving some roots in the ground was feasible.

Moreover, after adapting year after year, even at temperatures below several tens of degrees and with the ground frozen, the plants due to sprout next year would still stand upright, firmly establishing the ecological system formed in the Beast World.