Chapter 10 Smoked meat and fired pottery (please add to collection and recommend)

Luo Chong planned to arrange for the lame man to fire pottery, but firing pottery is not such a simple matter, and many things need to be prepared, so he had to arrange some other things for the lame man first.

The fish caught yesterday had not been air-dried yet, and there was no salt. In this weather, it would rot in a short time, so Luo Chong told the lame man the smoking method, cleared the bushes in the open area around the cave, and then used those wet bushes to burn fire to smoke the fish.

Smoked meat can be stored for several years without rotting. Even in modern times, some ethnic minorities in the mountains are still using this ancient method.

Luo Chong demonstrated it to the lame man, and then left it to him. He found a flat land in front of the cave and started digging a pit. It was quite laborious to dig the soil with branches and stones, but it was much better than digging with hands. Moreover, the soil here was very soft. If it was used to grow food, it would definitely be a good land. Unfortunately, there was no food to grow.

The pit was dug to build a kiln. The kiln was not big. It was divided into three layers, two underground and one above ground. The bottom layer was used to remove ash and let in air. The middle layer was used to add firewood to burn fire, and the top layer

was used to place pottery. In fact, this was very similar to the outdoor smokeless stove taught in the army, but it was larger. The pit dug below was round. Water and hay were added to it to make mud. The soil from the pit was used to build the kiln. It was directly built on the pit, using local materials, and the kiln pond with grass was not easy to crack.

The kiln pond was about one meter square and about one meter and two meters high. The top of the kiln had a round opening, which was convenient for the kiln pond to gather heat. There was a grate made of clay underground, which was a soil plate with many holes drilled in it. Stone strips and bone sticks were used to separate the fire pit and the air outlet.

It took three or four hours to build this kiln. The main reason was that it was too strenuous to go back and forth to the river to scoop water and make mud with a stone basin. It was better to burn the pottery as soon as possible, otherwise it would be too troublesome to use water.

A wet kiln is useless, so Luo Chong asked the two friends who went fishing with him yesterday to light the fire. All three layers were burned together, and a layer of firewood was piled outside. This way, it would dry faster and should be ready for use in the afternoon.

There is fire in the cave, and the fire in the cave will not go out, because they don't know how to make a fire. If the fire goes out, they have to walk a long way to other tribes to borrow fire, or even exchange things.

After arranging the manpower, Luo Chong personally selected clay and molded pottery pots. Now this work cannot be directly handed over to the lame man. It is impossible for him to give up the grinding stone basin without seeing the finished product. If the finished product is burned out, he will rush to do it even if you don't let him do it.

There is a lot of clay by the stream. In fact, there is clay on the riverside. Even if the clay is used up, the soil that is often in contact with the water source will become clay. It can be said that it is inexhaustible.

Nature is like this. As long as you are good at discovering, everything is useful. It depends on whether you know how to use it. Soil can be used to make bricks, and sand can be used to make glass. As long as you are good at mathematics, physics and chemistry, these are not a problem. Of course, it is not difficult for Luo Chong, a graduate of the National Defense University, to make explosives with his bare hands.

Find a relatively smooth and flat large cobblestone by the river and use it as a workbench. After beating and kneading the clay dug from the river, first pinch out a round mud cake, then rub some mud strips, and stick them layer by layer on the mud cake. Finally, shape it, dip your hands in water to smooth the inner and outer walls, and repair the joints to make sure there are no gaps, and then put it aside to dry.

A finished product is a small water tank with a small bottom and a large mouth. The bottom diameter is about 35 cm, the diameter of the tank mouth is about 40 cm, and the height is about 50 cm. The tank wall is one finger thick. Because there is no ruler, these data are approximate values ​​and are not accurate. However, Luo Chong used a wooden stick to record the size of this tank, which can ensure that the next one will be the same size as this one.

In this way, four identical jars were made and placed beside the cave to dry. The fire-burning friends watched and no one was allowed to touch them, but there were many people watching.

Several pregnant women and children who had nothing to do were watching. The one who was in the front was the lame man. He had nothing to do after lighting the fire. He was observing when Luo Chong was working on the kiln just now, but he didn't understand anything. He wanted to study carefully the large basins made of soil by the new leader. This basin looked very deep and was larger than the stone basin in the original cave. He just didn't know if it could be used to hold water.

It was still early, just after noon, and Luo Chong went to the river to pinch 4 double-handled casseroles and pottery bowls, as well as pot lids with handles on them. The pot was neither big nor small, with a diameter of about one foot, which is about 33 cm, and a depth of about 20 cm when a palm was standing up. It would be a large casserole in modern times.

The bowl has a deep mouth, and looks more like a temple alms bowl. The mouth of the bowl is as big as a palm. It is not beautiful, but practical. Luo Chong made a lot of these things, about twenty or so, and eight soup spoons. He himself didn't know how many finished products he would have in the end.

When the things are done and half dry, they are placed next to the smoked meat fire to bake. When it is almost halfway through the afternoon, the kiln is loaded. It usually takes three or four hours to fire pottery. If you fire now, you can stop the fire in the evening.

The two friends and the cripple were all watching. The new leader had made so many earthen pots in one day, but they didn't know if they could be used. The cripple was the most conflicted among the three. He hoped that the earthen pots could be used, but he also hoped that they couldn't be used, otherwise the stone pots he had worked on for so many years would be in vain.

Luo Chong was loading the kiln alone. No one else could help him with this job, and they didn't know how to do it. There were also some rules for loading the kiln.

Pottery must be fired upside down in the kiln, so that the clay embryo has the largest area in contact with the flame, the temperature is even, and it can be burned inside and out.

First, put the four largest vats upside down at the bottom. The one-meter square kiln pond can easily hold these, and then stack four double-handled casseroles on top. The remaining pot lids, bowls, and spoons are all placed in the gaps between the vats and pots. The kiln is full, and I hope there will be more finished products.

A big fire was lit in the fire pit under the kiln. The three-story kiln room was well designed, with the fire pit in the middle and the air inlet below. The blazing flames penetrated through the grate and drilled into the square kiln room. The orange-red flames shot out high. The upper opening of the kiln room was steaming with flames. The kiln mouth was covered with wet branches and soil, leaving only a small observation hole.

Luo Chong sat under the fire pit, constantly fanning himself with animal skins, and added some firewood after a while. He sweated a lot in the autumn afternoon, and before he felt cold, the sweat was dried again.

This went on until the evening, when the tribesmen who went out returned one after another. The women had a good harvest. The backpacks they carried out were filled with unknown wild fruits, and the animal skin bags were also filled with a lot of pine cones and chestnuts, as well as large bundles of rattan, which seemed to be prepared for weaving backpacks.

The men also had a lot of harvest today. There were two big birds, which looked about the same size as turkeys. I don't know what they were. There were also more than a dozen bird eggs, three snakes, and five yellow-skinned rats, which should be rodents like groundhogs.

Together with the more than 100 fish caught today, the entire tribe had a considerable harvest. As long as the harvest exceeded the daily consumption, the rest could be saved.

Autumn is the season with the most food and the season for all things to reproduce. Seeing that the pregnant women were about to give birth, it seemed that primitive people also followed the laws of nature. Breeding offspring in the season with the most food can greatly increase the survival rate of offspring, just like most animals follow the same natural laws.

The fire in the kiln pond was fierce. Looking in from the observation port, the top bowls were already red and white. It should be almost done. If it continued to burn, the bowls would probably melt.

There was no need to add more firewood now. Let it go out naturally and cool overnight. The kiln can be opened almost tomorrow morning.

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Well, well, you guys should understand, I want recommendation votes... Of course, collections or comments, ratings, I want them all, anything is fine.

(End of this chapter)