Chapter 27: The Grand Development of Phoenix Perch Valley—A Hint of Flavor

Chapter 27: The Grand Development of Phoenix Perch Valley – A Certain Flavor

This chapter has a rather intense flavor; please proceed with caution.

Li Hongshen equipped these luxurious residences with a water supply system. He expanded the water tower on the northern slope, increasing it from one to five towers. Bamboo pipes followed the natural terrain, connecting the towers to the water tanks atop each household, making water use effortless. However, this system was unusable in winter, as both pipes and towers would freeze solid. This left Li Hongshen scratching his head—no matter how clever the housewife, she can’t cook without rice, and he cried out that he simply couldn’t manage it.

Aside from these elegant homes, Li Hongshen constructed around a dozen public toilets in Phoenix Perch Valley. Previously, when everyone lived on the northern slope, the toilets were built there, but after moving to the basin, this was no longer suitable. After all, when nature calls, you can't expect people to climb a hill in distress. As the saying goes, "Holding back a bowel movement, one can travel a thousand miles; holding back urine, a hundred meters; but with diarrhea, even a step is impossible." Crude as it may be, the truth is undeniable.

Li Hongshen spared no effort in designing these toilets. First, they were all placed at the southernmost end. Instead of pit latrines, they featured ceramic toilets. Since Li Hongshen had already introduced tile-making, ceramic glazing wasn’t difficult, though the yield rate was low. The craftsmen in the camp called the making of toilets extravagant, but Li Hongshen insisted, if only for his own convenience.

Above each toilet was a medium-sized water tank, below a large cesspit. The water came from household wastewater, saving many resources. Behind the toilets was a large wooden box; every morning, people collected leftover ash from their kitchen stoves and deposited it here. Besides wood ash, there were designated workers who added animal bone ash and dried weeds. The box connected directly to the cesspit below.

After a thorough mixing, a super eco-friendly, highly fertile organic fertilizer was freshly produced. This was regularly spread across the terraced fields, the plains at the valley entrance, and the plains within the territory.

In addition, Li Hongshen built three large bathhouses, opening every evening at set times. Specialists heated water and poured it into the bathhouse pools, with bamboo showerheads for convenience. The area once reserved for gathering spirit trees was fenced off to ensure their proper growth. The tribe’s salt refinery was moved out of Phoenix Perch Valley to a spot near the salt fields in the territory, saving transport time and improving efficiency. Now, they no longer had to worry about disasters or invasions threatening the territory.

The cattle and sheep purchased from Senior Luo Si were placed on the northern plains, which had been completely transformed. Pens surrounded by fences dotted the landscape, where cattle and sheep roamed. Breeding stock labored diligently every day. They were herded to Phoenix Perch Valley for walks and to graze on the pasture at the valley entrance, then returned to the barns at night.

Sometimes, the cattle were harnessed with farming tools to work the terraced fields. Dedicated workers collected sheep and cow milk daily, but it was only distributed after boiling. Using the hand-churning method, they produced some butter. Upon seeing the butter, Li Hongshen ordered the breeding cows to work overtime; once more cows gave milk, cheese production would be no problem.

As for the flock of sheep, Li Hongshen had them shorn; after washing, the low-quality wool was used as insulation in houses, while the better wool was mixed with hemp fibers to make stronger cloth. Though these animals were ordinary beasts, Senior Luo Si had raised them for generations in the endless wilderness. Enriched by spiritual energy, their meat, milk, and wool had all improved in quality.

Parts of the territory’s plains had been cultivated into farmland, where grains were planted. While these crops were mundane and couldn’t absorb spiritual energy like those in Phoenix Perch Valley’s terraced fields, they were Li Hongshen’s backup and his confidence.

After all, with grain in hand, the heart need not fret; food is paramount in maintaining a territory.

With a plentiful supply of grains, Li Hongshen successively established a tofu workshop, a sauce workshop, and a brewery in Phoenix Perch Valley. His experimental production of distillers' grains and fermentation starters, initially intended to attract the white-bellied sea eagle, now found real purpose.

The tofu workshop featured a stone mill as large as a heated kang bed, and a small waterwheel placed in the water channel. Water power turned the mill, but it could be switched to manpower or ox power if needed. Gypsum was used to coagulate the tofu, mined from sedimentary rock near the salt fields in the southern bay discovered during salt field expansion.

The sauce workshop produced bean paste and soy sauce—a slow, meticulous process. Li Hongshen had passed the craft on: first, soybeans were ground into flour, kneaded thoroughly into dough, then cut into cakes and steamed. These were placed in shaded spots to await natural fermentation. Once fermented, the cakes were mixed with brine and sealed in jars, exposed to sunlight for half a year, with daily monitoring of temperature and humidity.

A long stirring rod was used to mix the contents according to their state, bringing the soy sauce from the bottom to the top, and the drier beans from the top to the bottom. After stirring, pointed iron lids were placed on the jars to prevent dust. When maturity was achieved, the sauce base was packed into clean hemp bags for filtering, finally yielding sweet soy sauce.

The brewery was relatively simple: rice was steamed, cooled, mixed thoroughly with starter powder, then sealed in jars. After two months, it fermented into distillers' grains. Distillation involved ground and sky pots, with a wine vessel and funnel in between. The distillers' grains mixed with water were poured into the ground pot, covered with the sky pot, and all gaps sealed. Throughout distillation, the sky pot’s temperature was kept lower than the ground pot’s, so the liquor vapor rose, condensed under the sky pot, and dripped into the funnel, flowing out along its channel.

Thus, after nearly two months of development, Phoenix Perch Valley’s construction reached a conclusion. Muddy roads were now smooth, paved with stone slabs and cement. Workshops sprang up, greatly improving the residents’ quality of life in every aspect. Phoenix Perch Valley was renewed.

Meanwhile, Li Li and others returned from hunting and exploration with a wealth of information, and a new batch of warriors was about to awaken.

(End of chapter)