Chapter 552 New Copper Mine and Cinnabar (Please vote and subscribe)

After some discussion, the Raccoon Tribe, which had a total population of only 82 people, finally decided to join the Han Tribe. They would leave here with Youfu's fleet, and of course, the civet cats they raised.

Youfu finally achieved his goal, and packed up and tricked the people and cats away. You said you would not change the cats for me, so you should take the people with you.

In order to stabilize the relationship between the two sides, and also because the fleet had more than 80 people, which led to the increased consumption of food stored on the ship, Youfu ordered to stay in place for two days.

First, to let the Raccoon Tribe pack up the things they wanted to take away. Of course, they didn't have much to take away.

The main reason was that Youfu wanted people to search around the Raccoon Tribe's residence to see if there were any specialties that the Han Tribe needed, as well as the records of the surrounding geographical features.

The second was to bring the Raccoon Tribe and the Han Tribe closer. Don't they like the steel weapons and tools of the Han Tribe? Then let them use them first, so that they can have a taste of it, and it would also be a good time to replenish the food reserves of the fleet.

So for the next two days, You Fu asked the women of the Li tribe to lead the team, and mobilized 50 crew members to follow them. The mission was to scout the surrounding terrain and collect whether there were any fruits or crops that could be planted around, as well as forest resources or mineral resources.

The men of the Li tribe and the remaining crew members of the Han tribe were stationed on the river bank, wantonly killing crocodiles in the river and wild animals drinking water on the shore. They hunted in the morning and evening during the drinking period, and used the noon time to smoke and roast meat or pickle animal skins.

For the short-term storage of animal skins, if there is not enough time or the conditions are not available for fine nitration, it is also possible to temporarily apply salt and pickle them, which can keep the animal skins from rotting for a period of time.

The young men of the Raccoon Tribe had used their sharp steel weapons to indulge in hunting these past two days. They could kill crocodiles that they had never dared to provoke before. Moreover, after having been in contact with the crew members of the Han Tribe for a long time, they heard from them that there were more good things in the Han Tribe, including tools, weapons, and everything else. As long as they arrived in the Han Tribe, their lives would definitely be better than they were now. This also strengthened their determination to join the Han Tribe.

They didn't particularly care about clans, mainly because the tribe didn't have any heritage of its kind, and there wasn't even an old man over 30 years old. The clan was nonsense. These young people were more like pragmatists and cared more about the practical benefits they could get after joining the Han Tribe.

In addition, in the past two days, the collection team was lucky to find two useful minerals. One is the copper mine that they are very familiar with, but the quality of this copper mine is a bit low, but it is also a bit low compared to the Babaoshan mining area. In fact, it is also a good mine. This is a chalcocite, which is mainly composed of blue-purple copper sulfide crystals. There is also malachite on the surface. This is mainly because the copper mine on the surface has been corroded by rain and air for a long time and has been oxidized. The deep layer is still mainly composed of copper sulfide.

The other mine is a mineral that Youfu and his team have never seen before, but intuitively, Youfu thinks that it is a kind of mine, but they can't think of what it can be used for.

It is a vermilion stone, some of which are dark in color and look like dried blood. It looks a bit reddish-brown. The texture is not very strong and can be easily smashed.

The team members must think that this is the reason for the mineral, because these stones are distributed very densely, in a limited area, the number of distribution is very large, and the color is very special, bright red, and very pure. Anyway, this is definitely not an ordinary stone.

The first thing You Fu said when he saw this kind of stone was, "No matter if it is a metal ore or not, such a red stone, and so soft, it will break into pieces when crushed, it is suitable for use as a dye or pigment."

In fact, what he didn't know was that this was indeed a metal ore, which was called cinnabar in ancient times. It was a raw ore for smelting metal mercury, that is, "mercury".

This is also a metal mineral that humans have mastered mining and smelting technology for a long time, but ancient people didn't do much good with it. Most of them used mercury's highly toxic function to prevent tomb theft and corpse preservation technology.

For example, the microscopic map of China in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang used mercury to simulate the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, causing the mercury vapor content in the tomb to exceed the standard, and entering it would be fatal. Therefore, only a few sacrificial pits (terracotta warriors) have been opened to this day, and Qin Shihuang's real tomb is still sealed.

Of course, this is not just the cause of excessive mercury, but also mainly because they are afraid that opening it will change the air composition inside, thereby destroying the cultural relics inside, so it is better not to open it.

In the Han tribe, the current role of cinnabar is just as Youfu said, it is only used as a pigment, such as making ink. Although the Han tribe currently uses red ink, it is made of the juice of the red grass, vegetable oil and kaolin, and the effect is not very good. If cinnabar can be used to make it, then only cinnabar and oil will be used, which can be much simpler and the effect will be much better.

Because Youfu believes that cinnabar is not an important mineral, and the Han tribe is not short of copper mines, he did not report it to Luo Chong immediately, but asked people to mark the location in detail. After collecting some samples, he took the crew and the newly joined raccoon tribe to continue sailing downstream.

Fortunately, the sailboat is large enough, and there are not many adults in the raccoon tribe, half of them are children, so although the boat is a little crowded, it does not hinder its use and living. The food of the fleet is also sufficient again, so they continue to move forward.

During the time on the ship, You Fu did not let anyone idle. Instead, he asked the crew to take out the various cloths in the cargo in the bottom hold and teach the women of the Li Tribe to make clothes, at least to make clothes for the adults and children of the Li Tribe first.

Under the guidance of the crew, the men of the Li Tribe also began to learn the skills of living on the ship, as well as the techniques of rowing and sailing, so that they could also help on the ship.

Although the people of the Li Tribe have not yet reached the residence of the Han Tribe, just this kind of life on the ship makes them feel advanced enough. At least the life of the Li Tribe before cannot be compared with the current life.

Although the crew all agreed that life on the ship is relatively "hard", after all, no matter how good the ship is, you will miss your own doghouse after being out for a long time.

You Fu is still the same, recording the navigation log every day according to Luo Chong's instructions. Although this is not a sea ship, the navigation log of this unfamiliar route is relatively important. First, it can summarize experience for subsequent voyages, and second, it can effectively monitor the psychological and physiological conditions of the crew for a long time. These are talents that a fleet commander should have and master.

On the Han tribe side, after seeing off the delegation visiting the Xin tribe, Luo Chong also took the time to inspect the newly established counties, including several newly established counties in Hanyang County, Ruyang City, the capital of Ruyang County, and Sitong County under its jurisdiction.

Now that half a year has passed, the construction of these new cities needs to be checked. If the progress is slow, then we need to consider the people's wintering in advance, and what kind of supplies are needed. We need to start preparing and planning now, and we can't wait until the end of autumn when everything is planned. If we have nothing in our hands by then, we can only stare blankly.

It is now late July, the last month of the long summer. Most of the crops planted in Hanyang City are rice, and now they are in the intense summer harvest. When Luo Chong arrived at the Fuma Pass in the north of Hanyang City, the second season corn planted here was just as high as the thigh.

The construction and management of Fuma Pass has always been presided over by Ying Rui. This is also in order to train him. Luo Chong first gave him a county town to practice and adapt to the work. In the future, Luo Chong planned to let him be the governor of the new county and had high expectations for him.

Ying Rui has been accompanying Luo Chong and introducing him to the current construction of Fuma Pass.

"Chief, the people in our county will have no problem surviving the winter this year, and we do not need material support from the county.

Fumaguan is the earliest built of the several newly established county towns this year. The city wall and the urn were built as early as last winter, and the canals and reservoirs for irrigating farmland have also been dug.

Since this spring, I have been organizing the people and slaves to build houses together. The people are responsible for construction, and the slaves are responsible for hauling soil and moving bricks. Although it has not been completed yet, there are not many left, with about 200 houses left to be completed. I am confident that by the end of the first month of autumn, all the people living in temporary wooden houses will be able to move into brick and tile houses, and every family will have more than two kangs, so it will not be a problem for all the people in Fumaguan to safely survive the winter."

It is hard to imagine that the two senior leaders of the Han tribe would start discussing the issue of their people's wintering in the hot summer of late July, but there is no way. It is impossible not to prepare for such things early. Besides, in fact, there are only three months left before this winter, which is just a blink of an eye.

Luo Chong nodded, looking at the busy figures of the tribesmen building houses in the city, and the number of houses was indeed similar to what Ying Rui said.

"What about food reserves, how are the grain and grass, and the situation of breeding? Tell me about it."

"Yes, in terms of grain, because we are building a new city, the amount of grain required is relatively large, so we all plant corn. Now the first batch of fields reclaimed have harvested two crops, and the second crop that is a little slower is almost ripe. It is expected that another batch will be harvested at the beginning of next month. The latest batch has now grown to thigh height and can be harvested at the end of the second month of autumn, that is, before frost.

This grain is enough for us to store for the winter. Even if we can't pay taxes now, there won't be much grain left. But the leader said before that immigrants who agree to relocate can be exempted from grain taxes for three years." Ying Rui took a breath and continued.

"In terms of breeding, we have done well in this area. We have natural advantages here, hehehe." Ying Rui smiled when he said this.

"That city wall is a military facility when the enemy attacks, but we don't leave it alone at other times. We spread some alfalfa seeds inside and raised rabbits there. We also raised some antelopes there. Come with me to have a look."

"Okay, let's go and have a look."

As they talked, they climbed up the steep steps of the city wall and looked down at the entire city wall from the top of the wall.

The city was full of waist-high grass, which looked like a green wheat field from a distance. However, among these tall grasses, there were a lot of white "small dots" that kept moving inside. Luo Chong knew that those were rabbits.

"We collected these breeding rabbits from Hanyang City, and some were brought here by the immigrants from Hanyang City themselves. Now the immigrants are either busy farming or building houses, and they have no time to take care of these livestock, so I thought of a way to concentrate the rabbits in the urn city and raise them freely.

There are no natural enemies of them here, and there is plenty of food, so they can reproduce very quickly. We go in and collect rabbits once a month, which not only ensures that the immigrants have enough meat, but we even have some left over that we can sell to Hanyang City and Ruyang County in exchange for some rice, which can provide the people with some refined grains. After all, eating only corn is not a good thing."

"But rabbits like to dig holes. If you raise them in the urn city, be sure not to dig down the city wall," Luo Chong reminded.

"Don't worry, Chief. Although the wall of our city wall is made of rammed earth, it is as hard as stone. The foundation is under the heavy pressure of the wall and the early pounding, so it is even more solid. It is difficult to dig with a shovel now, let alone the four legs of the rabbit.

And every time we go in to collect rabbits, we will deliberately check the foot of the wall. If any stupid rabbit runs to the base of the wall to build a nest, we will clean it up immediately." Ying Rui explained immediately.

"Well, that's right, but the ground inside the city wall has been dug out of shape. Now there must be holes all over the ground. Oh, by the way, what about the antelopes you raise? It's okay to raise more antelopes. That thing grows very fast, has a lot of meat, and the fur can also be used." Luo Chong asked in confusion.

"Chief, I have good news for you. We have found a way to increase the production of antelopes." Ying Rui immediately frowned and said seriously.

"Oh, what is the way?"

"We have a newly built city. We are building everywhere and we need to open up new land. The people have a lot of work to do. We originally wanted to assign some people to herd sheep in the grasslands north of the city every day, but no one has the time. We are also worried about sending children out alone, so we locked up the antelopes.

After raising them for such a long time, our tribesmen who are proficient in raising sheep found that the antelopes that are raised every day have similar reproduction times and frequencies to wild antelopes. They all give birth to one to three babies per year.

However, they have never been raised in captivity. The reproduction speed and frequency of antelopes that have never left the sheepfold will increase from one birth per year to two births per year, and the number of lambs born per birth has not decreased significantly, and it is still about two or three at a time.

According to statistics from our breeders, these captive antelopes that have increased production have no difference in breed, but the age group is three to six years old. Even if the other age groups are in captivity and eat the same feed, they still have one birth per year, and there is no increase in production. "

Luo Chong was also surprised after hearing this. This is really good news.

(End of this chapter)