Chapter 69: Chapter 67: Results
Previously, due to food issues, Austin had to pause the momentum of clearing nearby tribes, something he hadn’t foreseen at the time.
A mistake made once should not be repeated. Austin has decided to consolidate the foundation within the next month, integrating the beastman captives into the Dragon Nest Tribe’s system, greatly expanding farmland to plant kudzu. Only when the troops are well-prepared and the granaries full, will they attack again.
The first plot of farmland had a bountiful harvest, which was unimaginable excitement for the entire Dragon Nest Tribe. If reality were a game, the morale +100 would be visible on the game panel.
Motivated by the agricultural harvest, the beastmen of the Dragon Nest Tribe have shown immense enthusiasm in both training and fieldwork these days. With such high work efficiency, the entire Dragon Nest Tribe is transforming day by day.
The training of beastman captives, village expansions, and farmland development are all proceeding at a brisk pace.
Aside from the kudzu harvest, Austin also hasn’t forgotten to check the results of wild rice cultivation in the wetlands where beastmen are planting them.
Initially, Austin replaced wild rice with kudzu in the first farmland plot for various reasons, but this doesn’t mean he completely abandoned wild rice cultivation.
At the time, Austin had the beastmen remove weeds from the wetlands where wild rice grew and sowed wild rice seeds. Now that kudzu is ready for harvest, the rice should soon follow.
Sure enough, as Austin expected, when he and several beastmen arrived at those wetlands, they saw that the rice leaves had already begun to spike and fill. Although not yet ready to harvest, they were close, and it had only been about a month and a half since the wild rice seeds were sown.
This unusual growth cycle of crops in the Otherworld contradicts the cycles of Austin’s previous life, but considering the entirely different seasonal climates of the two worlds, it’s understandable.
However, the rice yield is not high, roughly thirty to forty pounds per acre, far less compared to the yield of kudzu.
Although rice contains more starch and energy than kudzu, at least rice can potentially serve as a staple food, while kudzu cannot.
Austin was not too satisfied with the rice output, yet it was as expected.
Moreover, he already had plans on how to increase rice yield.
After harvesting the wild rice, Austin would set up a trial field and have beastmen carefully nurture the rice, selecting the rice with the most spikes and fullest grains as seeds for the next planting in the trial field.
Through generations of selection and elimination, improving the rice seeds manually would enhance the yield of wild rice through seed quality optimization.
While much of Austin’s high school knowledge has faded, he still remembers these basic seed cultivation methods.
Of course, this primitive method requires ten or even twenty years to genuinely domesticate these wild rice and increase yield; it cannot be rushed.
Although manual seed improvement takes a lot of time, it’s essential to do these things, and the earlier they are done, the more beneficial it is for future development.
This method of improvement is also applicable to kudzu, which Austin plans to apply since the current yield is far from its potential.
During each harvest, Austin plans to select the strongest and highest-yielding kudzu vines from the fields for replanting.
Thus, while improving these wild kudzu vines, they also produce a considerable amount of food, solving the Dragon Nest Tribe’s food shortage.
Having made up his mind, Austin assigned Quik to handle this task.
As the leader of the Dragon Nest Tribe, Austin can’t personally attend to every detail, hence delegating tasks to others is the way to go.
After assessing the rice growth and giving instructions, Austin spread his wings and flew back towards the Dragon Nest.
Soaring high in the sky, the fierce winds blew past him. Looking down from above, he saw plots of newly developed farmland radiating from the cliff where the Dragon Nest was located.
To prevent soil erosion from excessive deforestation, every farmland plot was separated by a stretch of forest ten to twenty meters wide, creating a picturesque view from above.
In the fields, beastmen, as small as ants, labored away. The trees felled during development were piled together, emitting white smoke from burning.
Around, on the flatlands, captive beastmen stood motionless, receiving military training from Dragon Vein Beastmen.
At the foot of the cliff, houses were rising one after another. Although the beastmen’s craftsmanship was not too refined, it gave the village a primitive and rugged appeal.
This is the result of Austin’s efforts over the past six months.
Although the strength of the Clan Tribe is still somewhat small now, it has achieved self-sufficiency and autonomous development.
Furthermore, Austin believes that one day the entire clan will grow into a towering tree, becoming his greatest protector.
"Next, it’s time for the tribe’s development plan."
Returning to the Dragon Nest, Austin began to contemplate the next steps.
"The food problem is basically solved, but the land development must continue... Hmm... The captive beastmen can train while developing land. With the growth cycle of kudzu, in a month or two, food will no longer be an issue... The war to annex other beastman tribes must continue, set for a month from now. This time, there’s no need to mobilize the entire army."
With the success of land development, removing the food constraint, the main theme of the Dragon Nest Tribe will be
War! War! War!
War sustained by war, never-ending warfare.
This time, the war will not only annex the remaining tribes from last time, but after gathering enough military strength, Austin plans to wipe out the largest nearby Jackal Wolfman Tribe in one go, to seize the possible presence of the Breathing Technique.
With the Breathing Technique, the Dragon Nest Tribe’s strength will significantly escalate, ultimately preparing for another cleansing operation in the Spider Cave.
After finalizing the plan, the whole Dragon Nest Tribe entered a latent farming phase, intensely practicing inner power, while integrating the captive beastmen and aggressively developing farmland.
A month slipped by in the blink of an eye.
During this time, nearly six hundred beastman captives had been integrated into the Dragon Nest Tribe, and the developed farmlands had advanced significantly, with rabbit and wild boar farming also starting to produce meat.
The war annexation plan has entered the second stage.