Cutting bamboo tubes takes too much time, and in order to make the bamboo tubes more airtight, they have to be plugged, which is a great test of the craftsmanship.
If we come this way, we may have to waste a day or two before we can leave.
In order to make this bamboo tube, my parents cut their hands twice, and blood flowed out happily. Even so, the two of them didn't take it seriously, and when Lin Rui tried to stop them, they said it was no big deal.
I don't know why, but the wild bamboos in this mountain are not very thick, and I don't know what species they are.
Several other families were also busy chopping bamboo, and some of their knives were even bent.
How long will this take?
Lin Zikun, who happened to be in charge of keeping watch nearby, ran over and said, "Uncle, second uncle, third uncle, we have to hurry up. Chengzi and I saw wild wolves in the nearby woods. There are so many of us and the smell is strong. They must know we are here. We really can't stay any longer!"
Lin Zicheng also hurriedly urged his family: "Yes, hurry up, just fill the tank with enough water. If you delay any longer, you might not be able to leave."
Before the rainstorm, everyone was suffering from thirst due to lack of water. They had been working hard to cut bamboos in order to make the road ahead a little easier, at least so that they wouldn't have to die of thirst due to lack of water.
After hearing what Lin Zicheng and Lin Zikun said, no one dared to delay any longer. They buried the bamboo tubes that had been cut into pieces in the stream to scoop water. After filling them up, they hastily stuffed the crudely made stoppers in. The sealing was not good, and if they walked too fast, the water inside would spill out.
Because these bamboo tubes are very thin, each section can only store about 500 ml of water, which is equivalent to a medium cup of milk tea in modern times. It is not enough for one person to drink when you are thirsty.
Moreover, when the bamboo tube is filled with water, it will spill due to bumps on the road. In fact, the water in a bamboo tube is less than 500 ml.
Ugh! It's nowhere near as convenient as modern plastic bottles. Just a can of water, twist the lid, throw it on the oxcart, and let it bounce like a trampoline without spilling a drop.
Speaking of plastic bottles, Lin Rui suddenly remembered that there were still many 5-liter barreled water bottles of NongX Spring in the storage room of his house. He was used to boiling this kind of barreled water to drink, so naturally he had saved a lot of such bottles. His mother liked to use this kind of big barrel to pickle vegetables and store eggs, so she asked him to save the bottles after drinking them, so that she would not have them when she needed them.
In order to save space, he also used a vacuum pump to suck out the air from the bottles and put the deflated bottles together.
Since it is so difficult for everyone to cut bamboo nowadays, these plastic bottles will come in handy!
Thinking of this, he immediately turned around and ran to the shed where the oxcart was. His elder sister Lin Susu was tidying up there. Lin Rui sent her away: "Sister, mother asked you to help. It's right by the stream!"
Lin Susu put down the work in her hands and said, "Okay, I'll go right away."
After making sure that there was no one around, he hid in the shed and disappeared quickly back to the house. He ran to the storage room and searched up and down, and finally found a large cardboard box of compressed plastic bottles.
"Found it!" Without any delay, he took all the plastic bottles in the box outside, to the livestock shed, quickly tore off the NongX Spring packaging paper on the bottles and threw them into the house, then wrapped the bottles with cotton cloth and pulled them to the stream in the mountains.
Now everyone is still busy, continuously pouring water with bamboo tubes.
Zhang Dacui couldn't help but complain: "Why didn't we make two more water bags at the beginning?"
In ancient times, most farmers' water bags were made of saltpeter from pig and cow bladders, covered with a layer of cowhide. Or, like the village head's grandfather, they used large gourds to store water, but they only had two or three gourds, which were not enough to store enough water for the whole family to drink for a day.
Now the two brothers Lin Changtai and Lin Changshou dare not delay in cutting bamboo to make bamboo tubes, trying to meet the water needs of the whole family to the greatest extent.
Chen Mei wiped the sweat from her head and said, "How long will this take to end? I think Changfa's house is almost cleaned up!"
Lin Changtai was annoyed by her noise: "Not only do they have more water bags than we do, but they also have a large water tank. They pushed it on a cart all the way here and were reluctant to throw it away. Now they're using it."
Brothers Lin Ziming and Lin Ziren came running over excitedly: "Dad, Mom, go check on Uncle Changxi. My cousin got a strange water bag that can hold so much water. I saw Uncle Changfa and Uncle Changhe gave it to us when we asked for it. Let's go get one and see if it works. It's much faster than using these bamboo tubes to hold water!"
After hearing this, Chen Mei and Chen Zhi immediately put down their work, stood up and rushed towards Lin Rui's house.
Sure enough, they saw that Lin Rui had been surrounded by them, and they also saw Zhang Dacui and Yu Lanhua carrying some strange-looking containers and going to the stream to fill water.
Lin Rui collected twenty-six bottles. He kept eleven for himself and distributed the rest to the other three families, giving each family five large barrels.
The deflated bucket had to be expanded back to its original shape by inserting a stick into it. Although it didn't look very good, it had the function of storing water. They really needed this kind of water storage bucket right now.
Compared with the ancient water bags with limited water storage, this plastic bucket is a dimensionality reduction attack.
Plastic, so despised by modern people, has become a cherished treasure in the hands of Lin Changtai, Lin Changhe, and others. Once-sought-after water bladders seem insignificant now. They fill NongX Spring plastic buckets to the brim with five liters of water, carrying them in both hands and onto their carts.
With the addition of plastic bottles, Lin Changhe and others became much bolder, and bamboo tubes and water bags were placed in rows next to the buckets and plastic bottles.
"Let's go!" Lin Changtai shouted and drove the ox cart forward steadily. Bedding was placed on the ox cart, and lying on the top layer was the unconscious Lin Pingmao.
The two sons, Lin Changtai and Lin Changshou, were quite thoughtful. They asked their wives to weave a small curved door with leaves, which fit perfectly above Lin Pingmao to shield him from the scorching sun.
The mountain road was not easy to walk on after the rain. It was muddy everywhere. It was difficult to walk on this road. In some places, the ground was too soft and rotten. When the wheels of the ox cart got stuck, everyone had to lift it out together. In short, it was very difficult to walk on it.
Lin Changfa couldn't help but sigh: "It would be better if we could take the official road."
Lin Rui comforted: "Uncle, if we take the official road, our food might be robbed. When fleeing famine, you have to take the road with fewer people. Otherwise, you will become someone else's food at any time."
"The starving people are going crazy with hunger. The gang in Linjia Village has started eating children. Maybe those in other places will start eating young men and women. When we were returning to Longting Town from Linjing, we saw with our own eyes that a young lady from a kind family who gave alms was insulted to death by the bandits. Not even the servants and maids who protected her were spared."
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