We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 167 Rabbit Farming

"Painted Face, take the rabbit back and give it to Mu Ling. The rest of you stay here and start digging!"

Quickly send these little rascals back, and the big rabbits too.

Xia Minghao then began to direct everyone to start the excavation work, with himself at the center.

He then took an entrenching tool and began digging at the ground beneath his feet.

After digging through the surface layer and reaching the depth of the rabbit burrow, they were able to find gold dust with every shovelful.

There was quite a lot of it. The deeper you dug, the more gold dust you found. In the end, you could even dig down half a shovel full of gold dust!
This far exceeded Xia Minghao's expectations.

Why is there so much gold dust here?

It's unreasonable...

Logically speaking, even if there were surface gold deposits, they shouldn't be found in this place, let alone in the form of gold dust.

This kind of gold dust could only have been formed by water transport, and its source must be a legitimate gold mine.

"Chief, there are so many here!"

At this moment, a voice came, and Xia Minghao walked over and saw that he had indeed dug out gold dust, which was exactly the same as the one on his side.

"what about you?"

Looking at the group of people who were digging, Xia Minghao checked them one by one.

It was only then that the difference was discovered: some people found significantly less gold dust, and some didn't find any at all.

"Wait! All of you, don't move!"

Upon seeing someone who hadn't found any gold dust wanting to see what it looked like, Xia Minghao quickly said something.

Upon hearing this, the man didn't know what had happened, but he still obeyed the order out of habit.

This is a conditioned reflex that has been formed after a period of training.

That means obeying orders and following commands.

Because these people will all be professional soldiers of the Xia tribe in the future, they must have sufficient professional skills.

Once everyone had stopped moving, Xia Minghao picked up a twig and first drew a large circle.

The locations of the individuals were then marked on the circumference of the large circle.

Now it's very clear that the distribution of the gold dust is offset to one side by a line from the center of the circle. One part has no gold dust at all, while the other part has a gold dust accumulation.

Seeing this, Xia Minghao immediately issued a military order.

Line up!

In the Xia tribe, military orders were often accompanied by the sound of drums, not only to attract attention but also to reinforce the impression of the orders.

Although there was no drumbeat now, the group immediately lined up in a row.

"Spread out! Keep your arms' lengths apart."

These relatively technical terms would be incomprehensible to other Xia tribesmen, but the trained deer riders immediately dispersed.

Satisfied, Xia Minghao continued to give orders to begin digging.

This time, the excavation will no longer be carried out within a circular area, but rather horizontally.

As the excavation progressed, one person after another raised their hand to indicate that they had found gold dust.

Xia Minghao examined each pit one by one and could easily see that the density of the gold dust varied significantly.

At the same time, an even more important point was discovered: the density of these gold particles is closely related to the soil quality.

From a geological perspective, these soils containing gold dust are very different from soils in other places.

Why are there such differences in the same piece of land?
Unless the landscape here wasn't always the same.

Could it be that a great river once flowed through this area, which is why so much gold dust was transported here?

But now the river has changed its course!

The change of course of a great river is something that cannot be seen by people, but it is clearly recorded in the long river of history.

It seems that the big river in my riverside village once flowed to this place, which means that the source of this gold dust should be from the upper reaches of the river.

The gold dust found in the stream did not originate from the small lake; it was only a few specks that were carried by the stream flowing from the lake into the ancient riverbed.

To verify his hypothesis, Xia Minghao had the group dig vertically again, and sure enough, every shovelful contained gold dust.

We're rich now!

Ancient riverbed with a history of thousands of years!
How much gold must that be!

……

……

……

After returning to the Xia tribe with a large amount of gold dust, Xia Minghao put all the gold dust in his home.

After the initial joy, I started to feel a headache again.

This thing hasn't been given any economic value yet, but it's already quite attractive.

When the currency is then given the attributes of a general equivalent, it will inevitably arouse the greed of the Xia tribe.

It's time to plan ahead to avoid any tricky problems that might arise when promoting the currency, leaving us unprepared.

Upon seeing the large and small bags of gold dust, Huo Li's eyes widened in surprise.

Why so many?
Last time, it was just a tiny grain...

Before I could explain to Huo Li, Mu Ling unexpectedly came looking for me.

Not only Mu Ling, but also Mu Ling's father, Mu Tuo.

The sight of these two people at the same time gave Xia Minghao a bad feeling.

I had previously asked the tabby cat to hand the rabbits over to Mu Ling. Could it be that something happened to the rabbits?
"Chief, they... they're not eating..."

"Not eating?"

"And I could sense the emotions of the bald men; they were panicked, and also, sad..."

hiss……

This is troublesome.

Xia Minghao knew nothing about rabbit farming. He originally thought it was a domestic rabbit, and the big rabbit looked silly, so he thought it would be easy to raise, just like Brother Chicken.

Surprisingly, these rabbits exhibited stress behavior after being moved to a new environment. How many days can rabbits go hungry?

Based on Xia Minghao's experience of raising a large rabbit that died when he was a child, this thing would be pretty much doomed if it went hungry for even a day.

We definitely can't let them go hungry, but what should we do?

Seeing Xia Minghao hesitate, the kind-hearted Mu Ling's eyes flickered, as if she had made up her mind, and she still spoke softly.

"Chief, how about we release them and let them go home..."

Let them go?

Looking up at Mu Ling's melancholy expression, he immediately guessed that it was just another instance of his overflowing sympathy.

The Mu clan is indeed kind, but if they let them go, what will they eat?

It's definitely not okay to release it...

but……

Recalling Mu Ling's words, Xia Minghao suddenly realized something.

Yeah, why bother bringing them back to the Xia tribe to raise? We could just raise rabbits directly on the other side of the ancient riverbed.

The ancient riverbed area would require almost three walls to enclose, and even if gold mining were to take place in the early stages, it would be better to turn it into a settlement now.

"Mu Tuo, could you take some people to a place that is relatively far from the Xia tribe?"

"what?"

Suddenly hearing Xia Minghao change the subject, Mu Tuo didn't react for a moment.

Xia Minghao repeated it again and explained the role of the settlement in detail.

For Mutuo, it means rabbit farming.

Mu Tuo was quite cooperative, and even seemed a little happy.

As a somewhat eccentric tribe, Mu Tuo was actually quite unaccustomed to life in the Xia tribe.

Now that he has found such a place to return to his former way of life, he is naturally more than happy to do so.

The only difference is that they are no longer vegetarians, but have added meat to their diet.

After this period of assimilation, the members of the Mu clan have actually adapted to eating meat.

The shift from a vegetarian to a meat-based diet is revolutionary, and the changes to their bodies are equally revolutionary.

Not only did I gain strength, but I also felt noticeably more comfortable, all of which I couldn't get from being a vegetarian.

Therefore, most people have already accepted this.

Mu Tuo readily agreed, while Mu Ling, standing to the side, looked at Xia Minghao with a hint of lingering affection in her eyes.

"Chief, if I go there, will I ever be able to come back?"

"Of course, you will always be people of the Xia tribe."

What kind of talk is this? It's as if you're going to abandon these highly talented people.

While proposing that Mu Tuo lead people to establish a settlement, Xia Minghao immediately thought of a way to prevent these people from wanting to become independent.

First and foremost, there must be members of the Xia tribe themselves to serve as monitors and check and balances.

Xia Minghao immediately thought of one person: Datan.

This guy loves to tattle, so it's best to let him keep an eye on things.

Meanwhile, Datan led his men to start mining gold dust, but only for storage, not for immediate smelting.

In addition, Xia Minghao also plans to use the ancient river settlement as a transit point for future trips to the Great Lake Tribe. He will also bring some of his deer cavalry there, as the area is rich in water and grass, which will provide the herd of war deer with a good supply of food.

In this way, the ancient river settlements would have three forces. Even if civilization developed and people's hearts changed in the future, the three forces could still check and balance each other, forming a dynamic stability.

Mu Tuo was unaware of all this and was still looking forward to returning to his former life.

Xia Minghao offered no explanation on this matter, nor was there any need for one.

It was already dusk, almost midnight, but the entire Deer Cavalry set out immediately.

Having trained in the Xia tribe for a long time, and with their parents, brothers, and sisters all left behind in Dahu, unable to be brought over, it's inevitable that some people are homesick.

Upon hearing the order to mobilize the entire force, I assumed we were returning to the Great Lakes tribe, just as the chief had previously mentioned.

But when they finally heard the order to move bricks, they were immediately disappointed.

Led by himself, Xia Minghao led everyone back to the ancient riverbed.

Also brought were carpenters, who were responsible for logging and processing timber. Xia Minghao also arranged for the people who were working on the city wall to start digging clay from the lakeside, which would be used for bricklaying.

Fires were lit, and construction began overnight.

There was never any night work, but watching the flames of a dozen or so bonfires illuminate the night as if it were daytime was a unique experience.

First, Xia Minghao had someone build a rabbit fence.

Because rabbits are so small and can jump so high, the height of this fence is comparable to that of a small saber-toothed tiger.

Once the rabbit was put into the enclosure, it immediately started eating the plants on the ground.

This time I'm guaranteed not to die.

Xia Minghao was overjoyed. All that was left was to make a burrow for the rabbits, while Mu Tuo would take care of collecting hay.

Under the firelight, everyone worked with great enthusiasm, and the first large dormitory was quickly built.

This is where the dozen or so people that Mu Tuo brought will temporarily reside. Once the main construction of Yucheng is completed, labor can be transferred here to improve the settlement.

In reality, this can be considered an expansion of the Xia tribe's territory.

By the time everything was finished, it wasn't long into the night.

After a busy day, they returned to the Xia tribe and had dinner, which they enjoyed even more because of the great physical exertion they had.

Xia Minghao sat by the fire in the riverside village, looking at the nearly full moon reflected on the calm river in the distance, and did some calculations in his mind.

The ship is expected to arrive tomorrow. This time, it will be carrying a large amount of red salt, instead of limestone.

With the full moon approaching, it's time to return to the Great Lakes and start trading with the privileged class in the hinterland.

In a daze, Xia Minghao seemed to see large quantities of palm fruits being transported to the Xia tribe, and olive oil being filled into earthenware jars one after another, loaded onto boats, and delivered to every corner of the Xia tribe!

Under the moonlight, in the corner of the wooden house, the foxtail grass that had taken root had sprouted, and it was completely different from all the other foxtail grass seedlings near the river.

Even though no one is paying attention, it has already begun to grow wildly...

(End of this chapter)