Qiao Yu explained, "Building a house requires laying a foundation with stones. Carrying them by hand is both tiring and awkward, and if you slip, you could easily hurt your feet. Carrying them in rattan baskets is different; it's both convenient and safe. Small stones can be packed into two rattan baskets, and one person can carry them. Larger stones can be placed in a large basket and carried by two people."

"Oh, I see." Everyone suddenly realized and immediately offered sincere praise, "Yu, how did you come up with that? You're so smart."

A hundred or so men spent a full month clearing the land, the tribal gate, and the future farm. Hundreds of wicker baskets were piled beside the cabin. They also wove straw mats and covered the roof and walls of the cabin to prevent wind from blowing in through the cracks in the wood.

After everyone had transported the stones down from the mountain and cleared and leveled the road planned by Qiao Yu, there was a sudden sound of thunder, and spring had arrived.

"Yu, it's spring now. Can we build a house now?" Everyone rubbed their hands excitedly.

Because the ground was frozen in winter, they could only do some preparatory work and had no way to build a house. Although everyone continued to work, they were always looking forward to the arrival of spring so that they could build the legendary "house" and quickly bring the women and children over to reunite the family.

They had never been away from their family for so long. In the past, they would only go out for ten days or so, such as to attend a trade fair. But now, they had been separated for almost two months.

"It's almost there. Thawing will take some time. Everyone needs to hurry up and clear the planting area. Once the ground thaws, we'll build the house." Qiao Yu said, "Next, teams one, two, three, four, and five will clear the planting area. Team six will follow me to make molds and build ships."

She had specially selected the members of Team Six. Compared to the others, they were more intelligent and skillful. Yan was appointed team leader.

She led everyone here, a journey that took ten days over land. This was a group of mostly strong men. If spring arrived, returning to the tribe to bring the women and children would likely take more than two weeks.

It would be fine if it took more time, but what she was most worried about was someone getting sick or having an accident on the way.

Therefore, she wanted to use the river below the cliff to migrate the tribe members over by water.

The first time she arrived here, she didn't see any bamboo. After leading everyone here, she circled the area twice more but still couldn't find any bamboo. Her plan to use bamboo to make a raft was shelved, so she had to make a wooden raft instead.

"Mold? Shipbuilding? What is that?" Everyone was very curious when they heard this.

It couldn't be explained in a few words, and Qiao Yu wasn't interested in explaining. He just said, "Everyone will understand once it's built."

The other teams followed their leader to work in disappointment, while the members of Team Six looked at Qiao Yu excitedly, waiting for her orders.

"Choose a tree of this size, cut it into strips, and carve it into my shape." Qiao Yu showed everyone a mold he made.

Seeing everyone passing around the mold, Qiao Yu couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. Iron tools are what she wants most now.

Without tools like axes, saws, planes, and chisels, it was a huge effort to shape a piece of wood into a square, let alone other parts. She used a stone axe to carve the mold, and then asked a stonesmith to make a chisel, only then did she create the mortise and tenon structure.

"Yu, how did you make this?"

The square bars are fine, but the mortise and tenon structure is amazing.

Qiao Yu didn't say much. She took out the square bar she had prepared, took out the chisel, aimed it at a certain place on the wooden bar, and hit the top of the chisel with a stone. After a few hits, a mortise hole appeared in front of everyone.

She then inserted the wooden strips with falcon heads that she had prepared in advance into the mortise holes, thus securing the two square strips.

"We will make a lot of things in the future. This mortise and tenon structure is the most critical link, which can fix the wood." Qiao Yu said.

The sixth team was the reserve carpenters. They would be responsible for everything from doors and windows to tables, chairs, and benches, and even for building actual wooden boats. Therefore, Qiao Yu was particularly patient with them.

Seeing everyone passing around the two square strips she had just made with amazement, she took out a bunch of prepared parts and started assembling them.

That's the good thing about being strong. Where carpenters would have to hammer in places like mortise and tenon joints, Qiao Yu could do it with just a tap.

She took a few wooden sticks and patted them here and there, and a small bench without a back was made.

She put the stool on the ground, walked over and sat down, introducing it: "This is a stool. Every family should make a few from now on, so that everyone doesn't have to sit on the ground."

Then she made tables, windows, doors, and even a model of a log cabin with roof beams.

Everyone held the cabin model and marveled at it.

"Okay, these are what we're going to make. You'll be the tribe's carpenters. Doors, windows, and beams are what we'll need to build the house. Once you've made the brick molds, we can make a batch of doors, windows, and beams. As for the tables and chairs, we'll make them after everyone in the tribe has moved out."

"Okay." Everyone responded excitedly and started making molds under Qiao Yu's command.

You don’t actually need many molds to make mud bricks, but Qiao Yu wants to make a lot of bricks in a short period of time, so everyone needs one.

The people in the sixth team started out slowly, but as they became more proficient, their speed gradually increased, and they finished more than a hundred molds in just two days.

Next came the beams. Because they required mortise and tenon joints, the wood needed to be hammered into the beams to create the joints and mortise holes. The doors and windows required wooden panels, a more delicate process, and had to be completed after the beams.

Just when everyone was excited and immersed in improving their carpentry skills, the ground had almost thawed and they could start building the house.

Qiao Yu called back the people who had cleaned the planting area, gave each of them an adobe mold, and asked them to dig soil at the designated location, mix it with a certain proportion of crushed straw, add water to mix the mud, throw it into the mold and compact it, then remove it from the mold, and an adobe brick was ready.

"Just do it this way. Rewards will still be given based on the number of completions each group makes each day." Qiao Yu said to Man and Liushui.

The attendance, competition and award ceremonies during this period were all managed in a streamlined manner, and Qiao Yu only grasped the general direction.

Full and flowing mean that they are noted down.

Qiao Yu gave some instructions and when he saw that everyone was doing it right, he said, "I will come to teach you how to build a house in five days." Then he returned to the sixth team.

As soon as everyone saw Qiao Yu coming back, they gathered around him and asked, "Yu, can we build a boat now?"