Chapter 206 Salt Lake Floating Island (Please vote, please)
Luo Chong was destined not to be able to go back so soon. He finally came out once, and now he has the opportunity to explore more unknown worlds. How could he go back without a few more turns?
On the afternoon of the day when he separated from the main force, since Luo Chong and his party were all cavalry, they soon arrived at the former residence of the Qi tribe. It was a very flat area, surrounded by sparse woods and shrubs, and there were many animal footprints. This was a good place.
There were rich animal and plant resources, firewood could be used as fuel, and animals could provide food. The terrain was flat, but the safety was a little poor, but it would be good if a city could be built.
The residence of the Qi tribe was all semi-underground dome-shaped earthen houses. First, a pit was dug on the ground, the bottom was flattened with stones, and then branches were used to weave the walls and roofs at the edge of the pit, and the excavated soil was pasted on it. After a long time, grass would grow on it, and it would not be easy to find it unless you walked up to it.
The lacquer grass the guide was talking about grows in the bushes. It is a plant that looks like a sunflower, green all over, about 1.5 meters tall, with a palm-sized flower disk on the top, but it is different from a sunflower.
There are many closed small holes in the center of its flower disk, and inside are its seeds. It is estimated that there are about 200 seeds, which are about the size of soybeans, and look somewhat similar to lotus pods.
The lacquer grass has a straight main stem, about 2 cm in diameter, slightly thicker than a finger, with a layer of fine fluff on it, but in fact they are all short thorns, which are very prickly. Luo Chong was pricked when he touched it, and his finger swelled up soon after the prick. This is not poisonous, but humans have an allergic reaction to the lacquer-like colloid secreted by it.
The guide of the lacquer tribe told Luo Chong that the people in their tribe would not be like this. They would become desensitized after being pricked, and their bodies would produce antibodies. This made Luo Chong speechless. It seems that the tribesmen will suffer a lot when collecting lacquer in the future.
There are many large oval leaves on the main stem of the lacquer grass. They are dark green, and each leaf is one foot long and thick, like the leaves of a persimmon tree. There is a layer of bulges on the back of the leaves, like the blisters formed after a person's skin is burned. They are densely packed and filled with raw lacquer.
Luo Chong used his bird-beak dagger to cut a hole in the main stem, and a sticky white colloid soon flowed out of it. The flow rate was very slow, but in the end, a lot of it could be collected. The lacquer yield of a lacquer grass is about 300 grams. To describe it in modern terms, an ordinary disposable paper cup can hold about two cups. This yield is already considerable.
But there is something even more amazing than this. The guide told Luo Chong that if the juice of the lacquer grass is collected like this, it will recover its original reserves after seven days, which means that two cups of lacquer liquid can be collected every seven days.
"When can we collect it every year? How many times can we collect it like this?" Luo Chong asked with some surprise.
"You can collect it after it blooms. You can start collecting it when you see the bumps on the back of the leaves. The lacquer grass blooms in early summer and can bloom for two consecutive months. As long as it blooms, it can produce this juice.
The flowers will wither in mid-summer, and then after another month, its seeds will mature. At that time, the closed small holes on the flower disk will open, and the seeds will burst out by themselves and fall into the soil. New lacquer grass will soon grow, and it will mature again in autumn.
Its seeds can also be eaten, but it has a strange smell. We basically don't eat that thing, but many large birds and small animals such as mice like to eat it. We often use its seeds to make traps in winter and catch some prey." The guide introduced to Luo Chong.
Luo Chong was so surprised that he could not say more. It can mature twice a year, which means it has a flowering period of four months. It can produce about 300 grams of lacquer liquid in seven days. In two seasons a year, there are 120 days to produce lacquer, and 17 times to collect lacquer. In this way, it can produce about five kilograms of lacquer in two seasons. This is just two lacquer plants. It is simply amazing. What
is even more amazing is that its seeds can be eaten. Although they are not delicious, they can be used to feed poultry and livestock. After all, feed is also a resource. The Han tribe raises red-tailed black chickens. It is just right to use this seed to feed them. When the seeds become chicken, they will still go into people's stomachs.
Oh, by the way, the guide just said that the lacquer tribe used its seeds to make traps in winter, which means that they must have stored lacquer seeds.
"Do you still have lacquer seeds now?" Luo Chong asked.
"Yes, but not many. They are in those mud houses. I don't know if they have been destroyed. I'll go look for them." The guide said and went to look for seeds in the mud houses.
The Qi tribe was invaded by cannibals before, and some mud houses collapsed, so Luo Chong asked people to help dig. Under the guidance and identification of the guide, he did find a lot of black spherical seeds, which looked like black soybeans.
After an afternoon of digging and collecting, they were finally gathered together, weighing about 50 to 60 kilograms. After all, this is also edible, and the Qi tribe still has a lot of storage for backup food.
After collecting these seeds, it was already evening. Luo Chong didn't plan to go back at night, and planned to spend the night here, so the group began to collect firewood and grass again. Some people took bows and arrows to hunt nearby, and also caught a few pheasants and rabbits, so they didn't have to worry about food for two days.
When it was time for dinner, Luo Chong took out white salt as usual and started to sprinkle it, but after eating, the guide suddenly said to Luo Chong that he had seen this thing, which surprised Luo Chong. Is there a salt mine nearby?
"Have you ever seen white salt? Where did you see it?" Luo Chong asked curiously.
"From here to the direction where the sun rises, walk for five days, and swim across a river. There is a fairy lake on the other side. There is this thing on the rocks by the lake, which is white salt, but that white salt is not as white as yours, and its lake water is also salty." The guide introduced.
A salt lake? Is there anything like this nearby?
"Then why is the salt lake you mentioned called the fairy lake? Is it because it contains salt and the water is salty?" Luo Chong continued to ask, he was very curious about the unknown areas around him.
"Not only that, there are many wild beasts guarding around the fairy lake, and there are also many horned beasts that eat grass, and there is a floating hill above the fairy lake."
Luo Chong analyzed it carefully. If there are wild beasts guarding, it is naturally false. There should be many animals that go there to drink salt water. After all, animals also need salt, and this forms an ecological environment.
Large herbivores go there to replenish salt, and large carnivores wander around to hunt, which also forms the "guard" mentioned by the guide.
As for the floating island, the density of salt water is very high. If there are some light objects, or some plants, or perhaps some naturally formed basin-shaped rocks, they may float on the salt lake, which can be explained.
But when Luo Chong asked about the specific situation of the floating island, the guide's words made Luo Chong stunned.
"The floating island is floating in the sky, just above the fairy lake, not very high from the water surface. There are many particularly strong vines on the lakeside, which have grown all the way to the floating island and held it.
The old people in the tribe said that if those vines hadn't held the fairy island, the island would have flown away."
Luo Chong: ... ...
(End of this chapter)
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