The weather was hot, and the surrounding grass and trees were motionless, with their leaves wilting under the scorching sun.
In such weather, the road construction team of the Qingque tribe is still working.
Although they had avoided the sun's climax, they were still sweating profusely while repairing the road in the scorching sun.
The sun is the least of our worries. The most unpleasant thing is that the weather is so hot that it is almost suffocating.
Many men chose to go bareback, and some bolder women also unbuttoned the front buttons of their clothes.
It was just that the weather was too hot and humid. Even though they tried to wear as few clothes as possible, the sweat still kept pouring out. There were circles of white marks on everyone's clothes.
This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that many of the people who were building the road had lost their appetite.
It was under such circumstances that several two-wheeled donkey carts drove towards this side along the built road.
There was a green bird flag on the donkey cart in the front.
"Someone from the tribe is coming! Someone from the tribe is coming!"
Even in such weather, the road builders couldn't help but cheer when they saw the fluttering green bird flag and the man driving the donkey cart.
"The Son of God knows that you can't eat because of the heat, so he asked us to bring some delicious food!"
As soon as the coachman met the road builders who came to greet him with cheers, he announced the good news with joy on his face.
After these words were spoken, the already excited crowd became even more excited.
"What delicious food? We are so hot that we don't even feel like eating..."
Someone asked.
"You'll know in a moment. I guarantee you won't get enough of this kind of food!"
The visitor spoke with a mysterious and proud look on his face, and even kept the secret.
Then they began to carry down the things pulled by the donkey cart.
The first thing to be carried down was a set of stone mills.
This kind of stone mill is different from the first stone mill made in the tribe. The bottom mill and the surrounding grooves used to collect ground soy milk and other things are carved from the same piece of granite.
Such a millstone is easy to move.
After the stone mill was moved down, there were two jars of peas that had been soaked in water since the start.
There were also three bags of dry peas, and some other food.
A few people found stones and other things, set up a platform under the shade of a tree on the roadside, and then placed the movable stone mill on it. After placing it firmly, they began to scoop the soaked peas into the mill eye and started grinding the peas in circles.
The road repair team was repairing the road while looking over here expectantly, waiting for the new food that the Son of God had sent to them to appear...
“Delicious! Delicious!”
"Anything else? Another bowl..."
When the jelly was made, someone scraped it into a basin with a bronze scraper, mixed it, and announced that it was ready to eat. Suddenly, the open-air canteen was filled with the sound of people slurping the jelly, mixed with people's vague exclamations of praise.
The people from the tribe were right, this is indeed a good food that can whet one's appetite in this kind of weather!
"Hiccup~"
After Big Foot burped, he licked the corner of his mouth. After swallowing three bowls of jelly, he felt that all the pores in his body opened up comfortably.
Looking at the bags of peas packed in animal hide bags, Big Foot shook his head with some regret.
Big Foot was a slave from a semi-agricultural tribe. He shook his head not because he thought the jelly made from peas was not tasty, but because he remembered what happened before.
Before his original tribe was broken up, the current tribe did not have this kind of food called feed peas by the Son of God.
However, after the peas arrived at this tribe, under the leadership of the Son of God, they not only grew stronger than in their tribe, but they were also used to make such delicious food!
Even though he had seen with his own eyes how the people in the tribe used peas to make the delicious, appetizing and irresistible jelly, Big Foot still found it a little unbelievable.
You know, their tribe has had and grown this kind of food for many years, and there is no other way to eat it except boiling it in a clay pot with water.
But now the tribe uses it to make jelly that is not only beautiful but also delicious...
It was not just this person who had this idea. The rest of the original semi-agricultural tribes had basically the same idea at this time.
In this comparison, not only did they feel that their former tribe was far inferior to the current one, but they also had greater respect for the Son of God and a stronger sense of identity with the current tribe...
After eating the delicious and refreshing jelly, the road construction team members took a short rest and then continued to build the road with full enthusiasm.
The Son of God did not forget them. He prepared some delicious food and even had someone bring some from the tribe on a donkey cart a long distance to cook it specially for them.
Under such circumstances, what reason do they have not to repair the roads properly?
The gloomy weather also couldn't stop people from working hard to repair the road...
In the Qingque tribe, after making jelly, a delicious summer food, Han Cheng's happy mood did not last long before he was affected again.
It's not because the jelly lacks various seasonings and is not flavorful enough, but because there is a problem with the rattan armor in the tribe!
Bo's craftsmanship is naturally impeccable, and the other people in the tribe who followed Bo to learn the craft also did not learn the "noble" quality of cutting corners.
The quality problems of the rattan armor in the tribe have nothing to do with their craftsmanship, but rather with problems in the subsequent maintenance.
Rattan armor is different from the rattan shields in the tribe. Rattan shields are usually only worn during training or a few times when going out to fight, while rattan armor is required to be worn by everyone in the road construction team when they start building the road.
This was an order issued by Han Cheng to prevent any unexpected events during road construction.
The people in the tribe naturally obeyed Han Cheng's orders. Except when they couldn't stand the heat, basically no one took them off.
Under the conditions of being exposed to wind and sun all day long and covered with dew from time to time, these rattan armors that were frequently worn by people gradually developed problems.
Compared to when they were newly woven, these rattan armors have begun to fade slowly.
This is not the most serious part. The most serious part is the edge of the vine armor.
When weaving rattan armor with rattan, the edges need to be folded in half with a large amplitude.
During this process, many vines will be twisted and cracked.
The cracked vine not only loses the protection of the bark, but is also divided into several parts. Its firmness and toughness will not be affected, but its ability to resist corrosion will be greatly weakened.
In the summer, these places are easily corroded by the wind and sun, the humid air, and the sweat.
Looking at the edge of the armor in his hand, where two vines had broken off after being pinched a few times with fingernails, Han Cheng's eyebrows twisted.
Lame said that he could repair the broken vine armor.
Han Cheng shook his head and disagreed.
Han Cheng knew how to repair the rattan armor, which was to pull out a part of the broken rattan and replace it with a new one.
This kind of rattan that was filled in later is naturally not as strong as the rattan that was woven in directly before.
This reason is secondary. The most important thing is that Han Cheng feels that doing so is really too troublesome.
The service life of the rattan armor is too short. Quality problems appeared in half a year, and various repairs were needed afterwards. This feeling is really bad.
If quality problems appeared after two or three years of use, it would still be within Han Cheng's acceptable range, but now there is only half a year...
The number of rattan armor in the tribe will eventually grow to several hundred. If we don't find a way to solve the problem fundamentally, there will be more trouble later. We will have to arrange for special people to repair the rattan armor...
Han Cheng knew how to make rattan armor stronger and more corrosion-resistant, because in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Mr. Kong Ming wrote about it when he burned the Nanman rattan armor army.
That is to soak the woven rattan armor in oil, then dry it in the sun, and after it is dry, continue to soak it and dry it in the sun.
The rattan armor made in this way will become extremely tough and can withstand being chopped by knives and axes, and will not be exposed to rain, because when water falls on it, it will turn into water droplets and slide to the ground, and will not be able to absorb it at all.
Moreover, the rattan armor produced by this method has considerable buoyancy and can be used as a life jacket at critical moments.
The only drawback is that it is afraid of fire.
However, it is not easy to burn the Rattan Armor Army with fire. They need to be forced into a desperate situation first.
From this point of view, this kind of vine armor is indeed very suitable for the current Qingque tribe.
However, just knowing the solution is not enough because there is no oil in the tribe.
If there was oil, Han Cheng would have started processing the rattan armor as early as when it was made.
The oil used to soak the rattan armor is not ordinary cooking oil, but tung oil.
Tung oil is squeezed from the fruit of the tung oil tree. Even in later generations, it is still an important industrial oil.
In the past few years, the Qingque tribe and other tribes have never stopped exchanging new seeds and stones for salt, pottery and other things. However, Han Cheng did not find any trace of tung oil eggs among these fruits.
Han Cheng was no stranger to tung oil trees and their fruit, 'tung oil eggs', because they had planted tung oil trees more than once on the hillsides in their area.
However, most of the tung oil trees did not grow.
Because within two years, these trees will be dug up and replanted with other trees.
As far as Han Cheng can remember, the trees that have been planted one after another include gardenia trees, tung oil trees, jujube trees, pear trees, and chestnut trees.
How about trying some fatty oil?
Without tung oil, Han Cheng could only turn to fatty oil.
Although I know that it will most likely not work, since I can't get tung oil, I can only give it a try.
After all, fatty oil also has the word "oil" in it. If it works, wouldn't it be wonderful?
So, next Han Dashenzi did something that made many people in the tribe feel distressed. That was to use a brush made of wild boar hair to dip the semi-solidified fat oil and brush it on the rattan armor over and over again.
After asking the Son of God, I learned that this was done to make the rattan armor stronger and more durable.
The second senior brother stared at the grease-covered rattan armor and kept swallowing his saliva.
The second brother didn't really believe what the Son of God said about applying oil might make the rattan armor stronger, because he felt that he could eat the rattan armor coated with oil!
Han Cheng stopped brushing grease on the rattan armor and then drying it in the sun after doing it for a few days.
This is not only because the effect is not good, but also it is particularly easy to attract flies. More importantly, doing so is extremely wasteful of oil!
Animal fat oil is the only edible oil in the tribe and has a very high status in the tribe.
To obtain fatty oil, the animal must be killed, the fat part must be picked out and then boiled in a clay pot.
But at that time, the Qingque tribe did not have feed that could be used to raise all kinds of animals into pigs, and often after slaughtering an animal, they did not get much fat.
In addition to being used for eating, these fatty oils have another use, which is to make soap by adding wood ash and stirring them continuously after boiling.
This also consumes a lot of fat.
In this case, even if fatty oil really has a good effect on rattan armor, Han Cheng cannot choose to use it too much to brush the rattan armor, because it is really too wasteful!
He is simply the number one prodigal son in the Qingque tribe!
In this case, it would be more cost-effective to directly arrange someone to specialize in weaving and repairing rattan armor.
After going through all this trouble, he was back to the starting point. The damaged rattan armor had to be repaired by Bo. This made Han Cheng quite depressed.
But no matter how depressed he was, Han Cheng had no other choice but to continue being depressed until he was no longer depressed...
While Han Cheng was feeling depressed about soaking the rattan armor in oil, something went wrong with the Qingque tribe's road construction team working ahead!
A light autumn rain fell, and the raging autumn tiger was driven away.
The saying that every autumn rain brings a chill is absolutely true.
The weather was very hot and humid before, but it suddenly became cool after the autumn rain fell.
This made the people who were building the road ahead breathe a sigh of relief and feel refreshed all over.
The autumn rain was drizzling, and the road construction work could not be carried out for the time being. The tired road construction team had a rare leisure time.
Most of the people on the road construction team stayed in a temporary semi-cave circular house that served as a work shed, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to catch up on some sleep and give their tired bodies a good rest.
But there is never a shortage of energetic people in this world, such as Big Foot and the other two.
While the others were resting, they put on their straw raincoats and hats and went out of the makeshift shed together.
Autumn has arrived and many fruits have ripened. Some of them are sour and sweet and delicious. The purpose of Big Foot's trip this time is to find some fruits to eat.
Humans are omnivores. If they only eat one kind of food, they will get tired of it after a long time and want to find other foods to change the taste.
The two people who went out with Big Foot were one who was also a slave from the Semi-Agricultural Tribe, and the other was a citizen of the Green Bird Tribe.
Unlike the general tense confrontation between slave owners and slaves, under Han Cheng's conscious adjustment, this kind of confrontation among the Qingque tribe was not obvious.
On the contrary, the relationship between the two classes is quite harmonious.
This can be seen from the fact that a citizen, two slaves, and three others went together to look for fruit.
However, these three people were not very lucky today, because there were not many fruit trees growing around this temporary residence.
They searched for a long time but didn't find many, not even enough to fill their small pockets.
Under such circumstances, the three Big Foots began to move away from their residence...
"go back!"
After walking forward and searching for a while, they still didn't find much. The citizen of the Green Bird tribe looked back and could no longer see any trace of the temporary residence among the layers of buildings.
The man thought back to the distance he and others had traveled, then looked at the surrounding environment, and suddenly he felt a surge of fear.
He immediately called out to the two people to go back with him and not look for any more fruits.
As soon as he said this, the big foot walking in front of him on the left shouted in surprise.
"Fruits! Fruits! Lots of them!"
He held a medium-sized tree with one hand and pointed to the sunken place in front with the other hand. He turned his head and shouted in surprise to the citizen of the Green Bird tribe and another slave.
The two people who had originally wanted to go back gave up the idea of going back temporarily after hearing Big Foot's call.
After all, they came out on this trip but didn't gain anything, which made people feel a little unhappy.
At this time, hearing that there were so many fruits in front of me, I naturally wanted to go over and take a look.
The two men came to Big Foot one after the other and stretched their heads to look forward.
This is a relatively steep slope, with many dark brown round fruits scattered among the fallen leaves and grass.
It is quite big, bigger than a four-year-old child's fist.
Moreover, many of the fruits that fell to the ground had cracked open, revealing the kernels, which looked very similar to chestnuts without the thorny shells.
Seeing this scene, the two people who rushed over suddenly became excited!
The fruit inside this fruit looks similar to chestnuts, and the taste should be similar.
Chestnuts, acorns, and pecans were the foods that people of this era loved to collect and store in the fall.
Because these foods are very durable in storage, not only do they taste delicious, but they are also very filling.
It would be strange if they were not excited when they saw so many chestnut-like fruits at once!
The three of them immediately pulled the tree down the not-too-steep slope and happily picked up the fruits into the bags they carried with them.
It didn't take long to fill up the three bags.
Without the bags to carry their things, the three of them could only stand here and look at the many fruits with regret.
After resting for a while, Big Foot found a stone, picked up a fruit from the ground and smashed it open.
After smashing it open, put it into your mouth.
“Don’t eat it!”
The citizen of the Green Bird tribe spoke up and stopped him.
On the one hand, when the tribe collects food, most of them follow the principle of handing over the food and then redistributing it. Eating food privately while obtaining food is generally not allowed.
On the other hand, the fruit they discovered today was one they had never seen before. Although it looked very similar to chestnuts, it was not a real chestnut.
When faced with food you have never eaten before, it is best not to eat it easily.
This is the understanding that the people in the tribe gained at the cost of their lives in the past. After being reinforced by Han Cheng, it has become even more solid.
I used to eat a lot of chestnuts. They would become softer after roasting over a fire, and taste even better.
He thought that this fruit, which looked very similar to chestnuts, would not be dangerous if eaten.
But after hearing the warning, I thought about it and decided not to eat it.
A few people stayed here for a while, then carried the fruits and excitedly climbed the not-too-steep slope, and then headed towards the temporary residential area...
"so much?!"
Just as Big Foot and the others thought, when the three of them carried so many fruits back to the temporary residential area, the three full bags of fruits immediately attracted the attention of many people.
Even many of those who were sleeping woke up and asked Big Foot where they had picked up so many fruits, and whether there were many there, and prepared to go over and pick some up as well.
When everyone was extremely excited, the citizen of the Green Bird tribe who went with them said that this kind of fruit had never been eaten before.
The person who led the road construction team to build the road here was the former Green Tribe leader Gu. After hearing about this incident, he looked at the many fruits carefully and found that this fruit looked similar to chestnuts, but it was definitely not chestnuts.
Of course, this new food cannot be consumed directly on a large scale; it requires people to taste it.
As soon as he expressed this idea, Big Foot jumped out and patted his chest to express that he was willing to try it.
On the one hand, it was because he stubbornly believed that this fruit, which looked very similar to chestnuts, must be as delicious as chestnuts. Even if it was not as delicious as chestnuts, it would not be poisonous.
On the other hand, Big Foot wants to contribute to the tribe as quickly as possible and become a citizen of the tribe.
Not long after joining the tribe, he witnessed a ceremony presided over by the Son of God himself, which freed slaves from slavery and granted citizenship cards. It left a deep impression on him.
And the longer he lived in the tribe, the more he accepted the Qingque tribe, and the more he wanted to join the Qingque tribe, become a citizen of the tribe, and bring his own ID card!
Since there was such a fearless person willing to taste the food, Gu of course agreed. However, before Big Foot tasted the food, under the guidance of the old man from the Green Bird Tribe, someone prepared some tasty food outside...
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