Chapter 281 Exploding Belly Pulp Wood (Please vote and subscribe)
The group wandered around the northern mountainous area for an afternoon, and then found a place to camp. They planned to go to the southern mountainous area the next day to see if there were any special resources.
That night, there was another moderate snowfall. Fortunately, everyone brought enough animal skins, and the campsite was also a small valley sheltered from the wind. There was also a lot of firewood to burn, so they didn't feel very cold.
The next morning, the snow stopped and the sky cleared up. Everyone ate a bowl of steaming salted meat porridge and quickly ran to the southern mountainous area. About an hour later, more than a dozen people entered the mountains and forests.
Compared with the north, the southern mountainous area has a steeper terrain and more stones, but Luo Chong did not find any useful mineral resources. Instead, the forest resources are relatively rich. To put it bluntly, there are many trees, and there are several kinds of trees that Luo Chong has never seen. One of them is the most special, which makes Luo Chong very interested.
It was a very tall tree, each of which was more than ten meters high. The crown was very dense, like an umbrella, with a diameter of more than ten meters and a trunk diameter of about half a meter. But this was not the most important thing. What attracted Luo Chong the most was its bark.
The bark of this tree was grayish white and had a very fine texture, but it felt very rough, squiggly, and not very strong. It could be easily picked off with your hands. If you rubbed it in your hands, you could rub out a large ball of fluffy fibers. The fibers were thin and long, and very tough. They were not easy to break, and were very suitable for use as tinder for starting a fire.
However, this was only one of its uses. Luo Chong soon discovered the more peculiar thing about this tree. The inside of the tree was actually hollow and contained a large amount of pulpy liquid.
In winter, water would freeze, and if it was frozen for a long time, it would not only not expand with heat and contract with cold, but would also expand as it got colder. This was common sense that we all knew. Just like when we were young, when we put a bowl of water outside in winter, after freezing overnight, a bulge would appear on the surface of the ice. Naturally, there was no exception here.
Such a tree with a lot of water in its body did not escape this law. Luo Chong found a frozen and cracked tree among the same trees around him. The slurry contained in the tree expanded after freezing, cracking the bark and exposing the contents inside. That’s why Luo Chong knew that this tree was actually a hollow structure.
The slurry that expanded out of it was milky white and frozen very hard, but if you cut off a piece with a sword, you can easily find that the slurry is made of the same material as the bark and contains a lot of fiber.
This major discovery made Luo Chong overjoyed. He had seen dragon blood trees that could ooze out red juice and trees that contained a lot of clear water before, but he didn’t expect that there were trees in this world that contained fiber slurry. If this thing is diluted, isn’t it natural pulp? If it is used to make paper, even the pulping step can be saved.
There are sword grass in the north mountain that can be used to make cool mats, and pulp trees in the south mountain that can provide pulp. Now the raw materials and tools for papermaking are all available. It seems that the papermaking industry of the Han tribe is bound to develop and grow in the new city. This is simply God's will.
Thanks to Luo Chong's personal investigation, otherwise, these primitive natives would be placed in front of them, and they would not know how to use these resources. Therefore, modern people's vision is very important. It seems that every time a new area is developed in the future, Luo Chong must personally investigate.
This major discovery made Luo Chong very happy, and he asked everyone to search around to see if there are many such pulp trees and whether the output of raw materials for papermaking will be large in the future. He also told everyone seriously that this tree is very important and must be protected. In the future, not a single pulp tree can be cut down when cutting wood.
Everyone wandered around the southern mountainous area for another day and found that there were still many pulp trees, occupying as much as 30% of the entire forest, which was very good news.
There are many other tree species. Luo Chong also found a spice-producing tree in a valley, which is the star anise. Many people don’t know that star anise grows on trees, just like chestnuts, wrapped in the fruit of the tree. Peel off the skin and you will find the star anise inside.
After harvesting, the star anise is green. It should be boiled in a pot with boiling water for more than ten minutes, and then taken out and dried. After a few days of natural drying, it can become the star anise we usually use for cooking.
There are also some fruit trees. Although there are no fruits on them, they look like pear trees according to the shape of the trees. I just don’t know what kind of pears are on them. These tall pear trees can not only be used to harvest fruits, but also as wood for high-end furniture. Even in modern times, pear wood is very valuable, especially Huanghuali.
There are other tree species, that is, locust trees, willow trees, poplar trees, and pine trees. They grow in different places, but they are all useful wood.
After surveying the small plains and the mountains in the north and south directions, the group returned westward. When passing by the place where Yu Mao chose to build a village, Luo Chong asked to stop and observe again.
This is a valley. At the bottom of the valley is a road that connects the east and west.
The mountains on both sides of the valley are not steep. The slopes are very gentle, with a large number of trees and bushes growing. There are mountain springs and streams around as water sources, which solves the problem of water supply.
Luo Chong observed at the bottom of the valley and found that it was indeed appropriate to mark out a gentle slope as a village. The surrounding slopes can be cleaned up and transformed into terraces. Planting rice or wheat is not a problem. It can also provide food for about 1,000 people. Raising some livestock can fully meet the needs.
A villa can be built here based on the terrain, mainly serving as a transfer station between Hanyang City and Xincheng, and can be built as a supply center for passers-by. A small horse farm can also be built as a post station to change horses for passers-by.
A hotel will also be built in the villa to provide accommodation services. Although there are not many good fields here, it is not a problem to develop the breeding industry. It is very suitable to build a large chicken farm to raise the red-tailed black-feathered chickens that the Han tribe currently mainly raises.
In addition, this place is located on an important transportation line. The trading and turnover of goods coming and going will definitely greatly promote the economic development of the villa. Even if the people here do not grow crops, they can make a lot of money just by developing the service industry. However, this will have to wait until the new city is built. The initial development of the villa must still grow crops.
After development, the grain fields can also be converted to large-scale economic crops, such as lacquer grass or ramie, which are both good development directions. You can also grow more fruits, pears, peaches and other crops to provide some fresh fruits for the hotels in the villa.
(End of this chapter)
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