After shaking her head to get rid of these messy questions, she continued with the previous question: "How did he fetch the water?"
"Fill the pottery jar with water, put it in the rattan basket, and carry it up with Lin." Shandao said.
"Oh, okay." Qiao Yu felt sorry for his two younger brothers.
The wooden barrels had to be made. Each household also had to build a pool to store water. In short, there was so much to do.
But she didn't have time to think about these things, her mind was completely focused on the various plants.
The ginger has grown leaves, and the seedlings in the two fields where she was conducting experiments have also grown.
When she was harvesting the millet, she had carefully observed that the area where the millet was growing was dry, with no water underneath. However, this did not rule out the possibility that the area was low-lying and rainy in the spring and summer, keeping it moist until the dry autumn when the soil dried up.
These millet seeds were so precious that she was worried that they would bring disaster if she failed to plant them successfully. So she kept a small half and divided the rest into two parts. One half was spread thinly on the dry land, and she asked Xiaoquan to water it once in the morning and once in the evening; the other half was planted in the paddy field.
This two-meter-square paddy field took her immense effort. To prevent water from seeping in and maintain its condition, she dug a one-meter-deep pit and lined the ground with stones. When she moved to the tribe, she even dug up a lot of clay from a pottery maker near the valley and filled the cracks between the stones with it. This made the area watertight. Then, she covered it with fertile black mud she had scoured from the river, and finally planted the seeds, which had been soaked in water for a day.
Fortunately, the seeds in both plots of land have sprouted. The dry land, however, is growing sparsely. The rice in the paddy field is different. Although she tried to plant it as thinly as possible, fearing it would not grow well if it was too dense, it has now grown to almost a foot tall. As the plants have grown larger, they appear crowded together, and their color is much more vibrant green than in the dry land.
You know, the dry land was also replaced with mud from the river. This shows that millet is suitable for planting in paddy fields.
Thinking of clay, Qiao Yu remembered another thing.
She asked Shan, "Did the pottery team find any clay around here?"
When they moved, worried about the lack of clay nearby, the women in the pottery team dug up more than a dozen rattan baskets of clay and brought them with them. The pottery they made for the Sanyin people during this period was made from this clay.
As the tribesmen gained more food, the demand for pottery would undoubtedly increase, and the raw materials for pottery making had to be available locally. Otherwise, dozens of people in the tribe would have to spend more than 20 days traveling back and forth to dig clay from the valley tribe just for the sake of clay, which would be uneconomical.
"Found it." Shandao said, "It's inside the tribe, at the foot of the mountain next to the farm."
Qiao Yu became happy: "That's great."
Qiao Yu also checked the planting conditions of other plants.
For some plants that everyone wanted to plant, the Valley Tribe had brought many seedlings, so she had everyone plant them directly in the planting area. For some plants that had no seedlings but only fruits, Qiao Yu planted the remaining fruits here.
Some of these plants sprouted, some did not. Some grew well, while others died soon after sprouting.
However, these can be collected by returning to the valley tribe in autumn, and they are not starchy and filling. Qiao Yu is not worried about them, and she doesn't care if they cannot be grown.
And the hemp grew very well under the careful care of Shan and Koizumi.
Seeing Shan watering the plants, Qiao Yu hurried over and snatched the wooden ladle from him: "I'll do it."
"No need, you go in and rest for a while, we will be having dinner soon." Shan said.
Although he was lame, he was actually a young and strong man with plenty of strength, so it was no problem for him to do the watering work.
Seeing that he did a good job, Qiao Yu stopped paying attention to him and turned to go in.
A glance revealed a multitude of new wooden planks, covering most of the room. Fortunately, her corner wasn't completely occupied by them. She sorted them out, stacking some up, and soon used them as benches for the meeting attendees.
The carpentry team had made her a set of tables and chairs, but the table was square, with a long bench on each side, seating eight people in total. It was commonly known as the Eight Immortals Table. These four benches weren't enough.
She had just finished tidying up the room when she heard Koizumi's voice outside, "Sister, sister."
Qiao Yu hurried out and saw Koizumi coming in from the door.
After not seeing him for a month, Koizumi seemed to have grown taller and looked like a young man.
"Sister, you're back?" Seeing Qiao Yu, Xiaoquan ran over happily, stood in front of Qiao Yu, and showed his white teeth.
Qiao Yu touched his head out of habit, and then discovered with a heavy heart that Koizumi was taller than her.
She was also growing, but it was nothing like the small spring that was bubbling up like fertilizer and water.
"What did you eat? Why are you growing so fast?" she asked.
Xiaoquan didn't notice her sister's depression at all. She blinked and said, "You didn't eat anything? Just broth, barbecued meat, and wild fruits. Oh, and wild vegetables too."
When Qiao Yu was leading the men of the Dragon Tribe to carry out construction in early spring, he dug up the only wild vegetables he knew and force-fed them to the rabbits. After proving that they were not poisonous, he asked everyone to dig up some wild vegetables every day, put them in a pot of meat or fish soup, and boil them before eating.
Although it was a little bitter, it tasted okay. Furthermore, clever Yu was so forceful and unreasonable that she insisted everyone eat it, so everyone just went along with her.
After eating it for a while, the men discovered the benefits of this wild vegetable. Apart from other things, going to the toilet was much better than before.
So after moving, Qiao Yu asked the members of the collection team to dig wild vegetables to eat. Everyone was educated about this by the men in the family and accepted it well.
This is also what Qiao Yu will do next: find wild vegetables that taste good and cultivate them artificially.
Oh, there are so many things to do, and I have to arrange them all soon.
"Is it time to eat?" Qiao Yu asked.
"Yeah." Xiaoquan nodded. "Uncle and aunt want to see you. They brought the broth to our house. Let's eat together later."
"Let's go," Qiao Yu said.
When we arrived at Shan's house, we saw Shu's family waiting for us.
Naturally, there was another round of greetings. Qiao Yu sat down and ate with everyone while telling them about his own experiences. Everyone was so engrossed in their bowls that they forgot to eat.
"So are you planning to take people to transport the slag back?" asked Shu.
Qiao Yu nodded.
"But what if the raft can't get there?" Shan asked with a frown.
"Nothing is difficult for a person who sets his mind to it. You can paddle a raft to a place where you can't walk in the water, then walk a little way ashore to the next place where you can raft, then build another raft and launch it into the water."
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