The bitten animal stopped screaming after struggling and choking a few times. It is usually quieter at night than during the day, so the sound of the thing chewing bones can be heard very clearly. What can be confirmed is that the bitten thing should be the wild jackal that often squats at our door, a carnivorous canine that is smaller than a wolf.

I remember that they live in groups, and they are positioned as hunters in the ecological chain. Even if they cannot hunt food, they are rarely hunted back. However, tonight I could hear one of them screaming and being eaten by bones. It seems that the thing I saw was really terrifying.

"That thing has already started trying to use this place as a hunting ground, and we don't have enough time. Are you sure you can make something that complicated? The wooden ox and flowing horse require a lot of ingenuity. Even if you can make them, we can't finish them in one night. It's time-consuming and laborious, and may delay things. It's better to make a cart." I said.

"I can do it, but I've only done miniature carpentry work before. However, I am familiar with the parts and principles, so you just need to saw out the parts according to my requirements and make them as smooth as possible, and I can make the wooden ox and horse." Yingchun said.

"Brother Zhou Bo, my sister does have this ability. Why don't we give it a try? It was difficult to transport grain along the Shu Road back then. It was Prime Minister Zhuge's wooden ox and flowing horse that helped overcome the dangers of the Shu Road. Although our rough carts are not as good as the ones carefully carved, at least it will save us a lot of effort when transporting goods tomorrow. Carts are mostly used on flat roads in the market, and this mountain road is rugged and steep, so it will probably be much more difficult." Song Bailu advised.

"Anyway, the cart takes time to make, so why not spend more time to see if we can rush it out?" Yunwen said.

Since they all said so, I couldn't go against everyone's wishes, so I had to agree to this plan. However, I was worried in my heart, fearing that this girl was incompetent and would waste my time.

"Well, since everyone has said so, I have no objection and let's follow this plan. Now we will immediately divide into two teams. Yunwen, you and Bailu will be responsible for cutting the wheat stalks with stone pieces. When a certain amount is harvested, we will bundle them up with the stalks and put them on the ground for easy carrying. If you encounter any dangerous situation, blow the whistle immediately. As for the other team, Yingchun and I will be responsible for quickly making the wooden ox and flowing horse." I said.

The girls nodded, and Yunwen and Bailu also went out to the other end of the wheat field with torches.

Yingchun and I discussed the details of the production in the house. She probably couldn't explain it clearly and I couldn't ask for details. The final solution was that she used charcoal to draw the necessary parts and sizes on the ground, and I completed them one by one according to her requirements.

Fortunately, not all of the wood that was sawed before was burned, and there was some piled up that could be used.

Yingchun seemed to be serious about her carpentry work. After I found the wood, she planned to make a sample for me first. She took the saw and cut off a piece of wood about two finger joints thick. After drawing lines on the wood with charcoal, she began to saw the wood. She roughly sawed out a fan-shaped piece, then used a bayonet knife to cut off the excess part, and asked me to saw out four pieces based on the reference.

I grew up in the countryside, so I am much better with a saw than she is. It took me about an incense stick of time to saw the fan to her specifications. During this time, she made two rectangular mortise and tenon joints on the left and right sides of the thick wooden pieces of the semi-arc and on the inner side of the arc. When she saw that I was done, she proceeded to process the other three wooden pieces of the fan in the same way. At the same time, she drew rectangular wooden strips with tenons on the ground for me to make. A total of eight strips were needed, and four of them were relatively shorter, but they were just ordinary small wooden strips.

Since there was no precise measurement, we could only use my knuckles as the measurement standard, one knuckle, two knuckles, to indicate the distance of the wood. The width of my index finger is basically one centimeter, which is also a relative standard. Song Yingchun took a look at this and specially found an unused wooden stick. He used charcoal to measure the width of my finger. Ten lines would be about ten centimeters and he used it as a ruler.

I was pretty good at using the saw, so I finished the task quickly. While I was doing it, she was almost done with hers as well. Then she asked me to make an octagonal rhombus, which I quickly sawed out and asked her to refine it. In order to ensure smooth operations, she arranged the next task, and I sawed a small octagonal rhombus out of the middle of the rhombus with a bayonet, and then stuffed in a small piece of wood that fit perfectly. The middle of the wood piece was hollowed out to form a circle.

Until now, I still couldn't figure out what she was doing, until she combined the four sectors with four small wooden strips, used the wooden tenons of the slightly longer wooden strips to connect with the mortise and tenon joints inside the sectors, and then used the same mortise and tenon principle to connect the octagonal diamond in the center. The whole thing looked like a wooden wheel!

"Wow! Is this a wheel?" I couldn't help but pick it up and weigh it.

Since this is the mortise and tenon technology used in ancient times, it is particularly strong and will not fall apart easily unless you try to dismantle it intentionally.

Not long after, Yunwen and Bailu came in after finishing their work over there. When they saw the exquisite appearance of the wheel, they couldn't help but admire Yingchun and me, but Yingchun didn't accept it. After all, all this was just something in her mind, and I was just an assistant.

With four people working together, the work could be done faster. I was in charge of most of the large parts, while the mortise and tenon joints, and using stones to grind an octagonal wooden strip into a cylindrical shape were all done by the girls. During this time, Yingchun was the one who basically directed the work as she went along.

The engineering work is progressing more and more rapidly.

In the past, people thought that the wooden ox and horse were a very difficult task to complete, but now that it has been broken down into individual parts for assembly, it can basically be completed as an assembly line operation. The only difficulty lies in the use of woodworking mortise and tenon joints, and these techniques are exactly what Yingchun is good at.

Soon the parts were completed one after another. After Yunwen had completely ground the octagonal wooden strip into a cylinder, Yingchun made two mortise holes on the edge of the cylindrical wooden strip and used the wooden tenon plugs that had been prepared in advance to fit the cylindrical wooden strip into the middle circle of the wheel that had just been assembled. After all the parts were assembled, the cylindrical wooden mortise holes were jammed with wooden tenon plugs.

The entire wooden ox and horse was completed in this way. How I feel about it is that all the parts are arranged and combined, and connected with mortise and tenon joints, which is basically more refined than many modern crafts.

It looks similar to a one-wheeled cart, but is more sophisticated. It feels almost negligible weight when pushed. There is a combined wooden trough on top, and a lot of things can be placed next to the trough. The most important thing is that it is not afraid of bumps when traveling on mountain roads. The device is simple but has many ingenious features. It can move and stop, avoiding many dangers.

Before we knew it, the whole night had passed and the sun had come out. We were all immersed in the production line, forgetting about our tiredness. Only after this thing was completely completed did we all stretch ourselves, looking exhausted.

Then I put all the bundles of harvested wheat into the wooden trough. The capacity here is quite good, and most of the bundles of wheat can be put down. The rest are tied on both sides with ropes, and a few long wooden sticks are also tied up. In this way, all the belongings can be transported on. It can also help save effort when pushing the cart.

I couldn't help but say, "The wisdom of our ancestors is truly infinite."

"It's also our sister Yingchun's ability, right?" Yunwen said.

I nodded immediately, she was such a great help!

"It's nothing. This can't be called the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse now, because the ox head hasn't been made yet. There's not enough time. If there's a chance, I'll make the ox head and put it on to be completely finished. This is at most a semi-finished product." Song Yingchun said proudly.