In the blink of an eye, it's March, the flowers have all fallen, and the mountains, rivers and vegetation are even more lush.
After several heavy rains, the river gradually filled with water, the riverbanks were waist-deep with water and grass, and wild birds once again flew and played in the sky.
Under the strong sunshine and the river breeze blowing, there is already a faint atmosphere of midsummer.
Many edible wild fruits have begun to appear in the mountains, including thorn berries, snake berries, paper mulberry, wild mulberries, big milk berries, drumsticks, goat's milk berries, prickly pears...
Xu Chen just traveled through time last year and missed the spring. Of course, he was ignorant and didn't pay much attention. But this year he discovered that in this primitive and wild world, he knew a lot of edible wild fruits. Of course, he didn't know them.
of more.
However, this did not prevent him from following Gu Heju and a group of children to have a great time eating near the river beach and the foot of the mountain all day long.
The wild fruits that ripen in spring are mainly berries.
These wild fruits have one common characteristic, which is that they are relatively sour.
This is caused by insufficient light during early ripening and insufficient sugar accumulation.
But this sour taste not only refreshes the mind, but also greatly replenishes the vitamins that the body lacks.
Therefore, for both humans and animals, spring is a season of rapid growth and weight gain.
However, as the temperature rises, there are more and more venomous snakes and venomous insects in the wild, and the tribe's activity range has become smaller and smaller.
In this barbaric era, every step in the wild needs to be done with caution.
Xu Chen and a group of children no longer dare to leave the yard too far. They can only wander around the front and back of the house and near the riverbank and farmland, but these places are enough to cause trouble for them.
The empty space left behind after burning down the house around the house is now once again covered with thorns and weeds, which are even more wild and lush than those growing elsewhere.
Some of the hemp seeds that were sown in the spring and can be used for spinning and weaving have now grown to more than two feet tall, mixed in with waist-deep weeds, and seem to be growing well.
In addition, the thorn melon seeds planted in holes dug near the wall have also grown a lot. They climbed up the wooden frame to the roof and have begun to bear fruit. Although they are sparsely hung here and there, they still look like they are there.
Very gratifying.
With this kind of purposeful planting, the harvest will definitely be much greater than searching for it in the wild.
The farmland that Xu Chen and his tribe are most concerned about is now growing more rapidly. Day by day, the ears are beginning to grow taller and densely swaying with the wind. Although there are too many weeds in it to be cleaned, it looks a bit like the farmland of later generations.
, carrying the tribe’s full hope of harvest.
The few straw men that were previously inserted in the farmland looked very dilapidated after being exposed to wind and rain for two months, with only half of their bodies exposed. They had gradually lost their intimidating power. Recently, many of them began to eat grass again.
Animals frequently visit farmland.
Therefore, Xu Chen and Gu Ju had to patrol more diligently with bows and arrows every day. However, there were overgrown weeds inside and outside the farmland, and insects and snakes emerged in an endless stream. In order to improve safety measures, Xu Chen and Gu Ju took out a group of monkeys and small animals every time they patrolled.
The wolf also takes the lead.
Animals are relatively alert and can sense many unknown dangers and threats.
Monkeys like this kind of wild patrol very much. Every time they see three people patrolling with bows and arrows, they get excited and scream and jump.
The two wolf cubs have been fed for half a year, and now they are both half-sized wolf cubs that are more than two feet long and weigh more than ten kilograms. Although their ferocity has not subsided, they have never hurt anyone, which makes Xu Chen feel
The taming plan still had some success, but as they grew older, the wildness of the two wolves became more and more obvious. He believed that as long as he let go, the two wolves would definitely run away without a trace.
With the help of these animals, almost every day's patrol will yield a small harvest. If it is not a big colorful snake, or a hedgehog and a turtle, I even pick up a nest of eggs.
The eggs were grey-green, larger than pigeon eggs and smaller than chicken eggs. Xu Chen didn't know whether they were bird eggs, snake eggs, or turtle eggs, so he didn't dare to eat them, so he gave them to a group of monkeys.
In March, after the rain, some mushrooms began to grow in the thorny bushes at the foot of the mountains and around the farmland.
Some of these mushrooms looked like gallinobacteria and straw mushrooms, and some were completely unfamiliar to them. After Xu Chen hesitated several times, he decided to pick some and try them out.
Because now there is a group of free drug testers.
Of course, such experiments are conducted in very small quantities.
Put a separate kind of mushroom on some meat bones or fish and cook it, then let the monkey eat it first.
If the monkey is fine after eating it, it can be harvested in large quantities for consumption.
If the monkey appears in trouble after eating it, it means it is poisonous and needs to be kept away from.
This experiment has been carried out several times, and the results are extremely good.
Because several monkeys were poisoned several times, causing diarrhea and diarrhea and even convulsions and foaming at the mouth. Of course, there were also two times when the poison was not deep enough and they had hallucinations, staggering around in the yard and doing drunken punches.
After several consecutive poisonings, a group of monkeys began to have a great fear of mushrooms. Every time they saw Xu Chen bringing a bowl of fragrant mushrooms in front of them, the monkeys would scream and run around like a nest.
Those who couldn't escape simply lay on the ground and pretended to be dead, unwilling to take a bite even if they were given nuts and vine fruit wine.
So Xu Chen could only give up slowly and suspended this poison testing method.
However, after several attempts, he still gained a lot and experimented with several edible and delicious mushrooms.
The busy and leisurely time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was time to participate in Mother's Day.
Half a month after the first quarter, Muba took a large group of young and strong men and women and set out again for the Uzbek tribe.
Xu Chen followed as usual, but this time Ye also followed, while Gu Heju stayed at home to take care of the patrolling farmland.
Mainly women went there this time. Eleven of them, including Ye, were there. The younger ones, those without pregnant babies, basically all went with them.
As for the men, there are only four men led by Feng, and the only one who is underage is Xu Chen. The rest all stay at home to hunt and work and take care of the family.
This combination made Xu Chen a little frightened.
If they encounter robbery from other tribes, the Ba people will almost be annihilated.
But this is the best combination at the moment. If more men are taken away, the tribe will have a food crisis.
At present, there is a shortage of food, and the tribe has almost no surplus food. Without a group of young and strong women to collect wild vegetables, they can only rely on men to fish and hunt every day to make a living. Therefore, the men who stay behind in the tribe need more.
Although Mother's Day is not mainly about trading, trading has always been an essential activity for tribal gatherings, so this time the Ba people still brought a lot of pottery and linen.
But I'm a little confused about what to replace it with.
The tribe is not short of clothes right now. The animal skins they replaced last year, plus the accumulated accumulation of their own tribe, plus the increasing amount of linen, there are enough clothes for the four seasons.
Although exquisite bird feathers are also very valuable, their use is limited after all. They are just for decoration. In addition, Feng led a group of hunters to kill many wild birds in winter and obtained many beautiful feathers. There was no need to exchange them from foreign tribes.
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As for other things like animal teeth, horns, amber, gold, etc. that looked valuable but were actually worthless, Xu Chen felt that they would be of little use in exchange for them.
Therefore, he felt that the main target of this replacement was useful metal ores, and copper ore, lead ore and tin ore were the best.
At the current low-temperature processing stage that relied on burning firewood and grass, smelting bronze was the best option. As for smelting iron, it was too troublesome. Even if he found iron ore, he would not be able to produce iron because the conditions did not allow it.
Of course, if we find coal, that will be another story.
But according to the current terrain conditions of intertwined mountains and abundant water, there should be no conditions for the formation of coal mines nearby.
Because coal is the product of large-scale geological changes hundreds of millions of years ago, it was generally required to be in a low-lying seabed or basin state in ancient times. A large amount of carbonaceous organic matter was enriched and slowly formed through high temperature and high pressure. Therefore, coal mines are generally in plain areas, like now
This landform is all mountainous, formed by orogeny uplifting from the ground, and there is no basis for coal formation.
However, this violent orogeny will produce various metal minerals.
So it's not surprising that there are gold and copper mines nearby.
In addition to these useful ores, what Xu Chen was thinking about most was salt.
However, judging from his interactions with some surrounding tribes, this hope is slim.
On the way to the Uzu, Xu Chen kept thinking about what he could exchange for this time.
In fact, after the last Witch Lords Conference, he no longer had any hope for this kind of exchange.
As for seeing the world, this kind of gathering, which together is not enough for the population of a small town, is actually not attractive to a traveler like him who has seen the world.
So this time he went out with a traveling mentality.
Look at how primitive people worshiped their ancestors and intermarryed.
From autumn to spring, nearly five months have passed in the blink of an eye.
The vegetation in the valley blocks out the sun. Except for the path that a group of hunters take out of the valley every day, it is almost inaccessible. The grass and thorns along the way are filled with the sound of crawling insects, snakes, birds and beasts running and climbing.
The banks of the river outside the valley are even more lush.
The big river flows mightily. Thousands of birds gather at the mouth where the small river meets the big river. Their flocks cover the sky. On the wide river beach, groups of wild beasts are leisurely looking for food. Newly born little beasts are running back and forth among the herds.
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The sky is vast and everything is competing with each other, creating a barbaric and primitive ecology.
There is no road in the world, it becomes a road when there are more people walking on it.
Unfortunately, although the journey from Ba to Uwu is not far, there are very few people walking it.
Therefore, it was impossible to say that there was a road. A group of people stepped on waist-deep weeds, constantly driving away insects and snakes to guard against wild beasts. Therefore, the walk was more difficult and slower than the last time. It took nearly six hours, starting from morning to walking
The sun reaches the valley where the Wu people live only when it reaches the west.