Chapter 463: Imperial Astronomical Observatory (5,000 words long chapter, please vote)
Fish is a good thing. The meat can be eaten, the fish scales can be made into fish jelly, and it can also be eaten with some spicy seasonings. The fish bones can be ground into powder and used to feed livestock, increase their nutrition, and prevent and treat diseases.
Although the internal organs are of no use, they can be used to feed dogs. In the past two years, in addition to the dozen wolf cubs raised at the beginning, the Han tribe also has a large number of sheepdogs introduced from the grassland. Now the combination of the two has derived many new dog breeds for the Han tribe. Even these wolf dogs usually have a big appetite. Now with countless fish internal organs, the feed situation can be greatly alleviated.
Of course, the above are not the most important. The most important thing is that the Han tribe harvested a large number of fish bubbles in this winter fishing operation. Fish bubbles are actually fish bladders. There is no need to elaborate on the use of fish bladders to make super glue. Unfortunately, due to the rise of farming in Hanyang City in the past two years, the amount of fish caught has been sharply reduced. In addition, a large number of wooden utensils have been mass-produced, and the fish bladders in stock in the past two years have become increasingly insufficient.
However, this winter is the most critical winter in recent years, because starting this winter, the Han tribe will mass-produce recurve composite bows, and a lot of various woods have been stockpiled. Important materials such as ox horns and tendons have also been stored in the grassland trade in the past two years. There is no shortage of sisal fiber used as bowstrings, but only this fish bladder glue is very tight.
You should know that fish bladder glue can not only be used to make bows and arrows, but also any wooden furniture, tables, chairs, benches, bookcases, doors and windows, and even a large number of agricultural and spinning utensils. A lot of fish bladder glue is needed. The consumption is getting bigger and bigger, while the output is getting lower and lower. So when encountering such a grand fishing activity, Luo Chong also wants to catch as many fish as possible.
And now these fish not only represent food and meat, but also military strength.
Luo Chong, who urgently needs to improve his armed forces, did not waste time. After fishing for three days in Liuyang County, he led a long convoy back to the city. Countless tribesmen went out of the city to see him off. Whether it was a newcomer who had just come for three months or an old man who had joined for more than a year, everyone looked at Luo Chong with respect.
This winter fishing operation undoubtedly made Luo Chong, the leader, crazy in front of the tribesmen. This is a god-like figure, their own leader, he can do everything.
In fact, this era is like this. Whoever can bring them countless food is their reborn parents and their heaven. The people of our Celestial Empire have always been so simple.
The caravan is from Liuyang County, and the fish are from Liuyang River. However, in addition to meeting the needs of Liuyang County, many of the remaining fish were taken away by Luo Chong. Some were given to the more than 1,000 people in Ruyang County, and the rest were taken back to Hanyang County, as well as the countless fish bladders.
Of course, when you arrive in Liuyang County, you have to bring back another batch of white paper.
It is very troublesome to make a composite bow. The ancients paid attention to making wood in winter, making horns in spring, kneading tendons in summer, and harmonizing in autumn. This means making wooden bow tires in winter, preparing ox horns in spring, mixing ox tendons in summer, and gluing them together in autumn.
Although Luo Chong didn't know what the mystery was, the ancestors had summed up thousands of years of experience, and thought it had its reasons, so Luo Chong also arranged it this way.
When they reached the vicinity of the original Black Rat Tribe, Luo Chong asked Dali to take a few carts of frozen fish to Ruyang County, and then he led the rest of the caravan to the west, crossed the wooden bridge, and returned to Hanyang City again.
Ten days had passed in a hurry, including the round trip and fishing. When Luo Chong led the caravan into the city, it was Shu Da who came to greet him. However, when this guy saw the countless frozen fish on the car, his face did not show joy, but a sad mood. This made Luo Chong's heart skip a beat. What happened? Could it be that the census also found something wrong?
"What's wrong? You look like your mother has died. Didn't you see that we have returned with a good harvest? Who are you crying for?" Luo Chong saw Shu Da's expression and asked angrily.
"Wow, chief, the old witch is dying. He hasn't eaten anything for several days. Wow."
It would have been better if Luo Chong hadn't asked. Unexpectedly, as soon as he asked, the five-foot-tall Shu Da burst into tears. It turned out that someone was really dying.
Seeing Shu Da crying like a tearful man, Luo Chong couldn't bear to continue blaming him. It can be imagined that although Shu Wu himself couldn't remember his age, according to Luo Chong's observation, this old guy must be in his forties or fifties. In this era, it can be said that he is very old. Many people don't even live past the age of thirty.
It is no exaggeration to say that if he hadn't taken on the position of witch and didn't have to go out to hunt and gather, he would have died eight hundred times earlier. This is why older people were very popular in primitive times and generally had a high social status. The reason is that older people have more survival experience. In this era of lack of writing, they rely on word of mouth and teaching by example to master a lot of knowledge passed down by their ancestors.
Such an important person is often highly valued by every tribe. According to the early childbearing age of this era, the Rat Witch should be two generations older than Shu Da. It can be said that he watched Shu Da's father grow up, and then watched Shu Da grow up. Even if there is no deep blood relationship, the family affection between them is extraordinary.
When the Rat Witch was alive in the past, Shu Da might have been heartless. Knowing that he was living well in Hanyang City, he didn't think much of it. Now the old man suddenly doesn't eat much, and it is obvious that he is going to die. This is understandable.
The old guy was fine before Luo Chong left. How could he die after only ten days?
"What's the matter? Is he not in good health? Why doesn't he eat?" Luo Chong asked.
"I, I don't know. He just said he couldn't eat and wasn't hungry. The food sent to him was cold and he didn't eat it. He didn't say anything when asked what happened. Chief, you must have a way. Please save the witch. Please." Rat Da couldn't help but grab Luo Chong's hand and said excitedly.
"This, I'm not a god. It's normal for me to die when I'm old. Can I bring him back to life?" Luo Chong couldn't help but complain in his heart, but he didn't say it out loud. Instead, he sighed deeply and patted Shu Da's hand to comfort him.
"Let's go, take me to see first."
"Oh, I knew the leader would have a way." Shu Da happily wiped away his tears and pulled Luo Chong to rush to the Shu Wu's house.
""
Luo Chong was speechless for a while. When did I say I had a way, eh? Don't make up your own mind.
When we arrived at the Shu Wu's house, the door was open. To be honest, in Hanyang City, people really don't lock their doors at night and don't pick up things on the road, because there is really nothing to steal, so there is no habit of locking doors in Hanyang City.
Entering the yard, smoke was still slowly coming out of the chimney of the Rat Witch's house, obviously there was a kang burning in the house. The Rat Witch's grandson, who had already grown up, was squatting in the yard chopping firewood. When he saw the leader come in, the first person to come out to greet him was an old mixed-haired dog, which wagged its tail at Luo Chong and circled around him.
"Chief, why are you here?" The grandson of the Rat Witch greeted politely.
"Oh, I came to see your grandfather. I heard that he didn't eat well?" Luo Chong asked directly.
"Well, it's been a few days." When his grandson heard Luo Chong asking this, he couldn't help but lower his head with a sad face.
"Oh, I'll go in to see him." Luo Chong didn't say much and went in directly.
There was a long table and several benches in the main room. Firewood was burning on the stove against the wall. There were people in the two side rooms. In the east, a woman was sewing clothes facing the window, and there were five people on the big kang in the west room.
The old Rat Witch sat on the kang with a dazed look against the wall, looking at the white paper-covered window with empty eyes, as if thinking about something. In his hand was the bone calendar that he had shown Luo Chong before, rubbing it constantly.
There was also a young woman on the bed, taking care of three children alone. One of them was already one year old, and the other two were still wearing open-crotch pants and short clothes made of woolen cloth. They crawled around on the kang, and occasionally climbed into the arms of the rat witch to touch the bone fragment in his hand.
One of the three children was the rat witch's grandson, and the other two were his great-grandsons. Two of them were the children of the guy who was chopping wood outside just now, and the other was his brother.
Well, this is actually nothing strange. People of this era generally give birth early, and after joining the Han tribe in the past two years, their lives have been relatively stable. It can be said that they have enough food and clothing. This has led to a common phenomenon, that is, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law compete to give birth to children.
In fact, those who have become grandparents are not very old. The two generations together are not even thirty years old, and they are still fully fertile. The human tradition is naturally to have more children if conditions permit. In these days, the infant mortality rate of children is very high, and the life expectancy of adults is also short. How can the race continue if more children are not given birth?
It is not uncommon for parents to compete with their sons in having more children after their sons marry and have children. What's worse, the mother-in-law's milk is not enough, so she sends the child to her daughter-in-law's home for foster care. The uncle grows up eating the milk of his sister-in-law, or the grandson grows up eating the milk of his grandmother. Such cases are common, not to mention the Han tribe, even in the early days of the founding of the Rabbit Country, such cases were not uncommon.
This is the situation in the Rat Wizard's family. Although he is a wizard, he also has women and children. In the primitive era, resources are not allowed to be wasted. Anyone who can reproduce offspring will definitely spare no effort. However, there are not many of the Rat Wizard's sons who are still alive now.
"Rat Wizard."
Luo Chong entered the house and called out to the stunned and absent-minded Rat Wizard.
"Master, the leader is here to see you." The young woman who was watching the child also called out to the Rat Wizard.
As if hearing the movement, the Rat Wizard's scattered eyes gathered again, and then looked at Luo Chong.
"Leader."
His voice was hoarse and small, probably because he drank too little water, so Luo Chong couldn't hear it clearly.
Rat Da also followed behind and moved a bench for Luo Chong to sit in the house.
"I heard that you suddenly stopped eating. What's wrong? You were fine before I left. At that time, you went to check the warehouse every day." Luo Chong couldn't help but wonder. He was still alive and kicking a few days ago. He said he was going to die and died. This was too sudden.
"Chief, I, I look at the food in the warehouse, I am happy, we all have food to eat, we won't be hungry in winter, we have a house built of bricks, we have this big kang, it's not cold in winter, I think of the days we lived in the past, at that time, people would die every winter, many people, we survived year after year, winter after winter, and finally saved our tribe, now these kids can live well"
he said, hugging a little guy who climbed into his arms, the child immediately giggled.
Rat Da heard this and just covered his face and buried his head in tears, as if the rat witch had brought back memories of his hard life.
Luo Chong also sighed, although he had not experienced such hard days, but his flesh had experienced it, and those flesh memories also had such memories, as if Luo Chong had experienced it personally.
He knew that old people love to reminisce, and the older they are, the more they have this problem. Only young people will always look forward until they are old and mature, and then they start to reminisce.
But what Luo Chong didn't understand was why he was saying this. Since life is good now, he should be happy. Why not eat when he has nothing to do?
"Rat witch, since our life is good now, you should eat well. Why bother with your stomach? Why are you doing this?" Luo Chong couldn't help asking.
"I want to guard the warehouse and watch the food. They said the leader won't let me." The Rat witch seemed to hold his breath and couldn't help complaining to Luo Chong, and seemed to be blaming Luo Chong. "
They
won't let you watch the warehouse, and they said I didn't let you watch it. Who is this?"
But Luo Chong thought about it for a while and immediately understood that this couldn't be done by the group of people in the county government.
Luo Chong asked them to learn about governance, to conduct a census, to measure the land, and to count the reserves of various materials. This was indeed an order from Luo Chong.
But if we want to count the materials, we have to take over first. You are a rat witch, but you guard the warehouse every day. The distribution of materials for all the tribesmen must be handled by you. What identity do you have? Do you have the order from the leader? But we do. We are officials appointed by the leader to manage all the affairs of Hanyang City. Now the leader wants us to do this. Can you still object?
Although Luo Chong did not see it with his own eyes, he could roughly guess that the scene must have had a conflict between the officials of the county government and the rat witch. Maybe it was just a quarrel, and the possibility of fighting was not great.
Thinking about this matter, Luo Chong should really be blamed. It was Luo Chong who did not coordinate the scope of responsibilities with them in advance. It is normal for conflicts to occur now.
When Hanyang City was first established, the population was small at that time, and young and middle-aged people of the right age were participating in various constructions. Therefore, the coordination of logistics materials naturally fell on the heads of the two "idle people" of Elder Han and the rat witch, and they have been in charge until now.
But Luo Chong has now begun to gradually implement the new system in the Han tribe, so the original managers will naturally be excluded. They are the people who have been eliminated by the new system, and it is normal for them to have some resentment in their hearts.
You don't let me manage the warehouse, and the Han tribe doesn't need me to offer sacrifices now, so what use am I? I am so old and can't do anything else. Instead of wasting food for you, I might as well die.
This is the simple idea of the rat witch. There is both resentment of being excluded and the persistence of the older generation. The rat witches who came from this pure primitive tribe have their own set of ideas, that is, not to support useless people, including the elderly who can't work, the disabled, the sick, etc. Once they encounter difficulties, these people are always the first to be abandoned, otherwise there will not be so many wild people in the mountains.
And the current rat witch has this idea in his mind. He thinks that he is already an idle person and can't continue to work for the tribe, so he wants to starve himself to death. This situation is indeed a bit radical.
Now if you want the old guy to continue to live, there is only one way, to arrange something for him to do, so that he feels useful.
But he is already an old man, what else can he do? With this body that is about to fall apart at any time, he may not even be able to grow vegetables.
At this moment, a little kid on the kang took the calendar made of shoulder blade from the Rat Wizard, held it above his head with his little hands and shook it, shouting with joy. This scene made Luo Chong's eyes light up.
Yes, how could he forget the Rat Wizard's old business?
"Rat Wizard, don't worry about those warehouses. We will have more and more things in the future, and you will definitely not be able to remember them. Why don't I give you an official position and let you be the Imperial Observatory of our Han Dynasty?" Luo Chong suggested cheerfully.
"Sword, what sword? I want to learn blacksmithing, but I can't lift the hammer anymore." The Rat Wizard was stunned when he heard this, and then couldn't help sighing.
"It's not the sword, it's the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. This is the name of an official who is responsible for observing the moon, the sun, and various stars. Not only do you have to observe them, but you also have to record their movement trajectories to determine the seasons, solar terms, calendars, and time.
Your Black Rat Tribe has passed down this method of observing the movement of the moon to determine the seasons and months from generation to generation. Now I will assign you a new task, observing the movement of the sun to determine the time of the day. How about I let you be the Imperial Astronomical Observatory and you do this." Luo Chong immediately explained to him in detail.
After hearing about the affairs that the Imperial Astronomical Observatory was responsible for, the Rat Wizard immediately became interested. This matter was really only suitable for him. You know, no one is better than him in studying the stars and the moon in the sky, but this sun
"Chief, I would like to be the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, but looking at the sun will make you blind," the Rat Wizard could not help but remind him.
"No, I'm not asking you to stare at the sun. I'll make you a recording tool when you get back. All you have to do is record the sun's shadow every day."
(End of this chapter)
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