After returning, I must fumigate every cave in the tribe inside and out!

Han Cheng made the decision with a trembling heart.

That night, the people of the Qingque tribe did not rest in the cave of the Tengshe tribe, but rested in the open air in a sheltered place more than 100 meters away from the cave entrance, because the fire in the cave had not been completely extinguished.

In fact, they didn't have to sleep outdoors at the beginning, mainly because Han Cheng was concerned about the copper mine. After arriving here, he was thinking about finding the copper mine as soon as possible. He didn't think about the fumigation cave until it was getting dark and he was about to move in.

Fortunately, it is summer now, and as long as it doesn't rain, there is no big problem spending the night outside.

Several bonfires were lit, two men were left to keep watch, and the rest slept on the skins spread out, covered with some skins, and soon fell into a dream.

Fu Jiang and his other lackeys, as well as Uncle Lu, were resting nearby. With Fu around, these highly alert guys made camping outside at night much safer.

The next day, after breakfast, a few people watched the deer grazing near Tongshan Mountain, while Han Cheng and the others went to the top of Tongshan Mountain and continued to fight against the mine they found yesterday.

As copper mines grow larger and deeper, the rate at which copper is mined is gradually decreasing.

But there are new surprises too.

This was not a big surprise, but as they continued to dig deeper, some yellow copper ore began to appear under the malachite.

Han Cheng was a little melancholy, and the thing that made him melancholy was still the copper ore.

It's not the mining of copper ore, but the transportation.

In this era, the best way to transport is by water.

Not only can it transport large quantities, but it also saves people a lot of effort and has a low risk factor.

However, Han Cheng could only imagine transporting copper ore by ship, because there was no waterway from here to the Qingque tribe.

There are two small streams here, but after converging three or four miles away, they flow all the way north.

Han Cheng led his men and walked another seven or eight miles from the confluence of the two streams before the stream finally turned into a winding river.

The water in the river is far less abundant than the small river in front of the Qingque tribe. The narrow bamboo raft can still be used to travel on it, but if it is changed to a boat with a deeper draft, especially one loaded with copper ore, it is no longer possible to travel on it.

This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the river flows northward in a winding way. Han Cheng and his men walked along the river for more than 20 miles, but did not find any trend of flowing eastward.

Thinking about the width of the small river in front of his tribe and its annual water volume, the river near the Tengshe tribe would obviously not be the upstream.

After a day of searching, Han Cheng had no choice but to give up water transportation and switch to land transportation.

Land transportation is undoubtedly extremely time-consuming and resource-intensive, and it is still not easy to handle even if there is a herd of deer in the tribe.

However, there is no better way, and the only option is to use land transportation which consumes manpower and material resources.

After the loose ore on the surface is mined, it becomes increasingly difficult to dig deeper, and the speed becomes slower and slower.

But the key to everything is persistence. Even so, by the eighth day, there was a lot of ore piled up on the copper mountain.

Han Cheng estimated the weight and calculated the time, then told everyone to stop mining and start moving the ore to the side of the mountain and rolling it down.

After everything rolled down, someone put it into the leather bags they brought.

There wasn't much in each pocket, only about 40 kilograms.

After they were packed, the two bags were tied together and then placed on the deer's back for the deer to carry.

People were not idle either. They used poles made from tree sticks found locally, and each of them carried two bags.

However, it is lighter than the ones carried by deer, with one bag weighing only about 30 kilograms.

However, one should not travel far with a light load. Fifty or sixty kilograms of things may not seem very heavy at the moment, but as long as you think about carrying them for several days, you will immediately feel uncomfortable all over.

However, with almost everyone involved, the effect is still very obvious.

In addition to the weapons, food, cooking utensils, some fodder for feeding deer, rain gear, bedding and other things they carried with them, they brought back about 3,000 kilograms of ore on this trip.

Three thousand kilograms of copper ore should be able to produce a lot of copper.

However, it is regrettable that Han Cheng did not find any tin ore or lead ore near Tongshan in the past few days.

It seems that we can only produce copper first, and then consider tin or lead ore.

Food has to be eaten bite by bite, and many things cannot be done in a hurry. So although Han Cheng felt a little regretful about not finding the other two types of mines for the time being, it did not affect his mood too much.

Traveling has never been an easy task, even if you are empty-handed, let alone carrying a heavy load.

On the way back, they walked much slower than on the way there. In addition, it was summer and the weather was hot. After carrying things for a while, they were all sweaty, which made everyone even more tired.

After a day's journey, Han Cheng immediately changed his schedule, starting early, staying in the shade during the hot noon, and then moving on when the weather was cooler.

This makes walking slower.

The sunlight leaked through the branches and leaves, and the terrifying temperature spread unscrupulously in the world.

Han Cheng, shirtless, sat on a piece of bluestone, with his back against a big tree, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face.

After opening the water bottle he was carrying and gulping down a glass of salted boiled water, he felt that he had saved his life. He turned his head and looked around, and saw a group of disheveled people in the same condition as Han Cheng.

If Han Cheng had not issued a strict order prohibiting people from stripping naked in public as linen clothes gradually became popular, there would probably be many more "free" people by now.

Looking at the bags of ore, and then at the sweaty people and the deer, Han Cheng, who was too tired to move, could not help but sniff.

The tribe has many bronze artifacts, and is far superior to other tribes in terms of farming and warfare. How exciting it is to think of such a scene, and how painful it is to work hard for such a scene.

There don’t seem to be many things in this world that can be accomplished easily, especially what you want to do the most.

Even if you put a lot of effort into it, you may not succeed, let alone thinking about being lazy and slacking off.

“Let’s go!”

The sun gradually set. After eating and drinking, Han Cheng stood up with the help of a tree and shouted to everyone.

Everyone took action, putting supplies on the deer and starting to carry their own loads.

After Han Cheng shouted this, he gritted his teeth, squatted down, and carried his burden on his slightly swollen shoulders.

Although he had thought more than once about throwing away the ores while picking them up, he did not throw them away in the end. Instead, he picked them up all the way and continued to walk towards the tribe...