Entering June, the temperature is hotter, but the rain is significantly less. Under the strong sunshine and without abundant rain watering, the climate has become drier, and a large number of plants have slowly begun to mature.
Although the fruit trees planted in the yard were only receiving some fruit sparsely, they had already been ruined by a group of children.
However, the taste of these wild fruits is not good. They are either bitter and sour or have less flesh and large cores, so they do not have much edible value.
Xu Chen gave up completely after taking a few pills.
Save it for the spring flowers and shade as they grow.
Or wait until you find a better variety before replacing it.
The thorn melons planted around the yard have also begun to grow old. In view of the good harvest this year, a group of women left many thorn melons early for seeding, and they will not pick the seeds until they grow old.
The stems of several large pieces of plants that were sown to be used to make hemp are beginning to grow strong, more than two meters high and lush, with wide leaves that look like mulberry leaves, but the seeds grow like cockleburs, and there is a layer of burrs on the outside.
The seed coat has now begun to crack and mature.
There are also some other melons and vegetables that were specially planted, and they are also growing well, and they continue to provide a lot of food for the tribe after summer.
The good harvest brought by this kind of deliberate planting has made Muba and a group of women deeply appreciate the benefits of planting. They have recently begun to collect a large number of seeds to dry in preparation for sowing a larger area next year.
With the expansion of the sowing area, in the future they will no longer have to risk being attacked by snakes and insects or being driven by wind and rain to collect food in the wild where thorns and weeds can regenerate.
The farmland that the entire tribe cares about most has begun to mature in large areas since June. Oats and wild beans have grown so densely that the entire farmland has been completely submerged, and the field ridges and ditches cannot be seen clearly.
In a large area of undulating hills at the foot of the mountain near the river beach, there are also a large number of wild oats, wild beans and other plants that can be collected. They have also grown to their strongest state, and the wheat ears and pods have begun to turn yellow and mature.
The harvest season is coming soon.
Several men in charge of making tools were busy cutting back a large amount of ivy every day to weave new rattan baskets in preparation for the annual harvest.
Hunters have also been very busy recently. With the arrival of summer and autumn, the beasts that have had enough food for several months are also the time to get fat and strong. A large number of cubs born in spring are now half a child in size and can enter the stage of hunting.
Hunting time.
Gu Heju became even busier.
Because as farm crops mature, a large number of birds begin to visit frequently. If you don't pay attention, a large swarm will appear, and a large area of the sparse seeds will be destroyed.
The few straw men created in the spring have long been covered up by the wildly growing crops and weeds, and only one head can be seen exposed. This appearance has long been unable to scare any animals. Those who were once frightened by the straw men have not dared to do so for several months.
Wild animals that live close to farmland also begin to visit farmland after June.
After all, to eat nutritious oats and wild beans elsewhere, you need to carefully look for and distinguish them, but they grow densely here and you can eat them as you like.
In particular, the group of wild horses, due to their height and long legs, would visit them almost every day. Although they didn't eat much each time, they still caused damage to half an acre after all.
But right now, it is actually not yet fully mature, so it will take about half a month to actually collect food, and then it will continue to be collected until July and August.
Human beings, these herbivores and birds have always been in a state of competition for food. The more animals eat, the less people gain. If you want to gain more, you have to work harder.
Every summer and autumn is the busiest season for women in the entire tribe.
This is especially true this year.
The farmland they had worked so hard to cultivate was about to be harvested, but animals frequently visited it, which made a group of women anxious.
In fact, now is not the time to get angry the most.
Xu Chen believes that if we wait another half month, the harvest time of oats and wild beans will really come, and that will be the prime time for wild birds to really grab food.
Humans know to harvest when mature, and animals also know that mature plant seeds are the best food.
Xu Chen is mainly responsible for organizing the drying yard and granary these days.
I used to live on the mountainside, and the open space in front of the cave was small, and there was not much harvested grain. I could dry it casually, but this year it was definitely not possible. Hundreds of acres of farmland had to be harvested in the shortest possible time, dried and stored in the warehouse. In addition, there were also many crops in the fields.
A lot can be collected, at least four to five thousand kilograms of grain. To dry such a large amount of grain in a centralized manner, a larger drying area is definitely needed.
So Xu Chen took a few men to level the yard again. They mixed clay with lime and spread it on a layer. After sprinkling water, they pressed it carefully with wooden sticks to make it firm. Then they poured water and used willow branches to smooth it. After it was exposed to the sun for a few days, they used a wicker broom.
Once it is swept clean, it will be a very good drying area.
The granary had already been repaired during the winter and spring house renovations. Now it only needs a simple cleaning and fumigating the inside and outside with dried Polygonum spp.
To the left of the kitchen, there was thick smoke billowing from two warehouses used to store grains. Xu Chen rushed out with a layer of linen wrapped around his face, coughing and smelling spicy and pungent breath.
He hurriedly rushed in from outside the yard. When he saw Xu Chen, he ran over and said angrily: "Go to the field...go to the middle of the field!"
Xu Chen untied the linen on his face, poured some cold water at the well, took a breath and said, "Just drive away, why don't you come back and tell me Gaha?"
Ji was a little ashamed, blushed and said quickly: "We are all... rushing, there are too few people..."
"Isn't it okay to play the willow flute?" Xu Chen asked helplessly.
He raised his head and shook it like a drum: "It was OK at first, but not now, even wild sheep are not afraid of it!"
Xu Chen couldn't help but feel a bit of toothache.
He remembered that when he was a child, he also chased animals and birds in the farmland, usually by beating copper or steel basins, and some people broke gongs. Anyway, the louder the better.
At the moment, not to mention broken gongs or copper or steel basins, there are no wooden basins. There are quite a few pottery basins, but those things cannot be knocked.
"You'd better go to the farmland and watch first, and I'll think of a solution!"
After Xu Chen dismissed the move, he held his chin in thought and walked into his room next to him, looking everywhere to see if there was anything he could make that could make a loud sound.
Two dragon-tooth scimitars were placed quietly on the wooden stand. They looked luxurious and mysterious. However, apart from being beautiful, these things were of no use at the moment.
Dragon skin doesn't work either.
In addition to being scary, beast skulls are not afraid of animals or birds.
Gong...
Xu Chen's eyes fell on several kilograms of broken copper pieces inside the pottery bowl, but he gave up immediately.
The gong is not made of ordinary copper. It must be made of tin-containing bronze. The gong must be hard enough. Otherwise, even if you try to make one, it will never ring because it is too soft and cannot vibrate at all.
For example, the cymbals on the drum kits used by rock bands need to use alloy copper with more precise and complex elements depending on the sound effect.
As for the chimes widely cast by princes during the Spring and Autumn Period, in order to determine the five-tone rhythm, the casting process was more complicated. The bronze composition of each bell was different. It was a complete mystery to archaeologists. It could not be copied using traditional techniques.
The chimes reproduced by technological means look exactly the same, but the taste when struck is completely different. They can replicate copperware, but they cannot replicate the ancient charm and taste of the sound.
What's more, it's not possible to make bronze at the moment.
Therefore, it is definitely not possible to play a musical instrument.
Xu Chen's eyes looked around, and finally stopped at a few horns.
In ancient wars, you advance with the beat of drums and retreat with the sound of gold. The sound of the horn is the order to charge.
If you can't make anything else, this horn shouldn't be difficult.
Xu Chen took off a medium-sized horn. It was pointed at the front and wide at the back, shaped like a crescent moon. It was indeed hollow in the middle. He inserted a branch into it to check the depth, then took it out and lightly scratched the outside with a copper knife.
mark.
But staring at this shallow mark, Xu Chen was silent for a long time before hanging the horns back on the wall.
There should indeed be no problem with the horn horn, but it cannot be made right now. The horn is too hard and there is no suitable tool to cut it off.
So he could only rack his brains and think hard, and suddenly his eyes lit up and he had an idea.
In Guizhou and Hunan, there is an ancient ethnic group called the Dong people.
The Dong people are said to be descendants of prisoners and immigrants left behind by the First Emperor of Qin when he conquered Baiyue. They are called Qianshou, and the abbreviation of Guizhou, Qian, is said to come from this.
In ancient times, the Dong people were also called Dongman or Dong people, which means they have always lived in caves. They have inherited many ancient traditions and habits from the pre-Qin period. Every year during various Dong festivals, they will play a kind of trombone, and this kind of trombone
The horn was neither copper nor horn, but made of tree bark.
Xu Chen happened to encounter the local Sheba Festival during his inspection in Guizhou, and was fortunate enough to experience the elegance of this kind of bark horn.
It doesn't sound good, but it's simple to make and the sound is pretty loud.
Different caves compete with each other to see who can blow the loudest bark trumpet.
For those who don’t understand, please refer to the small speakers used during the World Cup in South Africa.
After listening to the noisy excitement, Xu Chen's head was buzzing for more than half a month. It was like a nightmare. When he closed his eyes, his head was filled with the sound of horns...
So Xu Chen went out with a loudspeaker BGM on his forehead and a small copper knife, and went straight to a willow forest on the river beach.