Some wild flowers have begun to bloom sporadically on the river beach.
In the fields on the hillside, various trees also began to sprout buds and buds.
After two spring rains, the weather has become warmer and colder, rising and falling. It is still cold in the morning and evening and you still need to wear furs to keep out the cold, but you can already start wearing linen and straw sandals at noon.
In just a few days, a layer of light green grass began to appear on the river beach, and the wild fruit trees planted on the hillsides and inside and outside the compound began to bloom in large numbers.
The seeds of the large farmland sown on both sides of the river have begun to sprout, and from a distance they already have a fresh green color.
Mother and grandmother were patrolling the farmland all day long, grinning from ear to ear with joy.
This large area of farmland carries the tribe’s hope for a year’s harvest.
For generations, ever since they were sensible, there has never been a year that has made them feel unparalleledly leisurely and full of hope like this spring.
Women no longer need to go out early and come back late every day to collect wild vegetables.
Men no longer have to be busy fishing and hunting every day.
Women have a lot of time to spin and weave and take care of the family, while men can focus on more construction projects.
The planned embankment construction in front of the compound is constantly getting higher and wider, and there are men carrying stones and carrying earth on their backs coming and going.
Some strong men cut down large oak trees in the nearby mountains and carried them to the kiln for stacking.
Although they didn’t know what Xu Chen was doing by cutting down so many big trees to burn charcoal, Mu Ba and others knew that Xu Chen would not be aimless. Seeing how he was busy working in the kiln factory with a smile on his face all day long, he must be holding back a big move. It seemed that the new
The things you smelt are different.
Feng led a group of hunters to prepare for their third trip to the Mongolian and Gonghuo tribes.
This time they prepared more goods. They used more than ten horses to transport pottery and a lot of linen back and forth with baskets every day to the river dock outside the valley.
With the arrival of spring and summer, the demand for linen among tribes such as Gonghuo will definitely increase a lot this year. It does not matter what can be exchanged for. What is important is that this kind of commercial activity will greatly promote the connections and economic development of various tribes.
Even if the Ba tribe currently has sufficient animal skins, for the development of each tribe, valuable and non-valuable things can be exchanged. Animal skins can be made into armor, horse gear, leather goods, pockets, books and other items, and the demand in the future will still be very large.
The exploration and opening of the two waterways of Wulong River and Jicang River have greatly strengthened the connections between several large tribes, making economic exchanges and information exchange faster and smoother.
In the past, we might only communicate briefly every six months through the Tribal Conference, but now we have contact almost every month.
The node of communication is the Gonghuo Clan.
With the acceleration of this kind of tribal exchanges and the flow of goods, the Gonghuo Basin will continue to become prosperous and lively.
After a few days of busy preparations, there were more than ten large bamboo rafts at the river bend, all of which were fully bundled.
As they became more and more familiar with waterways, Feng and a group of hunters became more and more courageous. In the past, only six or seven people could control a raft, but now two or three people can control it very skillfully.
The most important thing is that after the beginning of spring, the southeast wind picks up, and when you come back from the downstream, you don't need too many people to paddle. You only need to control the sail well to go upstream quickly and steadily.
Therefore, spring is the best time to travel from south to north, and it is limited to January and February. When the rainy season comes in March, this waterway will basically be interrupted, and then it will be completely cut off throughout the summer, and the deep forest
Dense land routes will also cut off communication. Wild animals such as tigers, leopards, wolves, bears, and ubiquitous poisonous insects and snakes will greatly restrict the activities of each tribe, and all activities will be limited to the vicinity of their habitats.
This time Feng went to the Gonghuo Tribe and sent back twenty captives from the Gonghuo Tribe and the Qia Tribe.
There are still twenty people left, and Xu Chen doesn't plan to return them. In fact, these people don't want to go back at all. When they heard that they were going to be let back, they felt as uncomfortable as if their parents and wives were dead. Some even
She cried and rolled with her arms around Xu Chen's thighs, saying that she was born as a Ba ethnic minority and died as a Ba ethnic ghost. She would never go anywhere in this life and would rather work in the Ba ethnic group until she died.
Faced with this situation, Xu Chen could only reluctantly agree to help them redeem themselves.
Therefore, Feng also had a very important mission this time, which was to make a request to the Gonghuo Clan to redeem these captives. To this end, he asked Feng to prepare a lot of pottery and linen alone to express his sincerity in exchange.
In order to make the great shaman of the Gonghuo tribe less resistant, Xu Chen also wrote a letter with animal skins, saying that these captives stayed with the Ba tribe voluntarily and were not forced to stay by him. In order to compensate the Gonghuo tribe's losses, Ba
The clan will send the Gonghuo clan several magical gifts to express their gratitude in the future.
This animal skin letter is stamped with both the Great Seal of the Witch King and the Seal of the Great Witch, indicating that this transaction has been approved by the gods and is absolutely fair and just.
In mid-January, Feng officially set off with a huge team, leaving the Ba tribe and heading towards the Yu Gong tribe and the Gonghuo tribe.
The construction of Xu Chen's smelting workshop was also officially completed, and the first bronze alloy smelting in human history began.
Among the kilns, the smelting workshop occupies about half an acre, which is actually just a relatively large pavilion.
One of the smelting furnaces is only half a person tall.
After several days of fumigation and simple repairs, the smelting furnace has met Xu Chen's requirements.
In the five small stone houses next to it, there are many smelted copper ingots piled up. Most of these coppers were smelted and sent by the Uzbek people, and some were kiln workers who used copper ore sent by the Uzbek people.
After smelting, some lead and tin were also placed in several other rattan baskets.
Several smelting workers took out three metals: copper, lead, and tin.
Xu Chen asked people to use his own golden scale to weigh out fifty kilograms, eight kilograms and two kilograms respectively, put them into the crucible, then put them into the heating furnace, lit the fire and started smelting.
Xu Chen didn't know how much proportion of the three metals bronze was used in ancient times, but generally speaking, copper used the largest amount.
Tin, as the main alloy material, not only lowers the melting point of copper, but also increases the hardness of the alloy. Too little is not enough to effectively lower the melting point of copper, and smelting is difficult. Too much will inevitably affect the properties of the alloy and may become very brittle.
Hard, greatly reducing the toughness of copper.
As for lead, the amount used should be the minimum, mainly to increase the fluidity of the molten metal when casting large objects with complex shapes and patterns. If too much lead is used, it will become brittle after cooling and will reduce the quality.
Xu Chen had already tested the properties of the copper-lead alloy last time. Although the proportions were a mess, it was obviously not suitable for making knives. It was toxic and easy to break.
Therefore, although Xu Chen did not know the appropriate proportions of these three metals in bronze, he at least had a rough idea of it due to the influence of his ancestors' thousands of years of bronze civilization accumulation.
That is, copper is definitely the main one, followed by tin, and lead is the supplement. The ratio of copper to tin is maintained within the range of seven to three, eight to two and nine to one. Even if it is not accurate, the smelted alloy will definitely not be too precise.
Difference.
At the moment, Xu Chen doesn't need sharp swords that are weapon-level for pretending to fight, but needs axes, chisels and saws for logging.
As long as the bronze sword and ax are not as sharp as stone knives and axes, and are more durable than stone knives and axes, it will be fine.
Although tin was added to lower the melting point, Xu Chen also knew that the lowest melting point of bronze is at least around 800 degrees. Without charcoal and coal, two heating materials with high combustion values, it would be very slow to use this small wood stove to reach this temperature.
, it definitely couldn't be done in a day or two, so he was not in a hurry after the smelting started. He just told the two kiln workers and several smelting workers to carefully look after the fire and make sure to keep the furnace in the most violent burning state.
The two kiln workers were very experienced and were confident that there would be no problems and that they would burn all the metals.
After all, they have been smelting copper ore and smelting copper-lead alloys. Years of burning kilns gave them enough smelting experience.
Several newly joined smelters are responsible for helping to transport wood and fans, and at the same time learn how to take care of the furnace fire and observe the furnace temperature, etc.
Xu Chen had some free time and started making molds for casting out of clay.
Molds are actually a more delicate technical task than smelting. Xu Chen has made several simple clay molds with swords, axes, hammers, and poured some samples, but those were all playful in nature.
In fact, it is crooked and very small, and the copper hammer, which is the largest among them, does not need to have any shape. It just looks like a hammer and can be used.
But this time, I need to be more strict and know how to look presentable.
Because bronze alloy cannot be forged repeatedly like steel, once it is cast and molded, its properties will be fixed once it is cooled. At best, it can be heated and then lightly beaten and trimmed in a small area, but it must not be folded and forged, otherwise it will be completely useless.
Therefore, in the manufacturing of molds, it is necessary to do it in one step as much as possible without too much deviation.
Because he was not in a hurry and had experience in making clay molds twice before, Xu Chen decided to work slowly and carefully this time. He sat next to the stove and started slowly tinkering with clay on the pottery board.
First, use pottery bricks to form a square mold according to the object to be cast, fill it with pottery clay, beat it tightly and flatten, and then cut it into upper and lower halves with a thin line for cutting pottery clay.
Next, use a scraper made of wood and bamboo slices, and the digger begins to hollow out the inside, and a hollow shape of a knife and ax head is taken out.
The tool is easier to handle because it is in the shape of a long strip. The handle and body are connected together. You can simply dig out the shape. You only need to ensure that there is no leakage after the upper and lower pieces are molded together.
But the ax head is more troublesome, not only because of its complex shape, but also because of the opening for installing the ax handle. This requires that the hole is exactly in the center after the mold is closed, and there cannot be too much deviation, otherwise the ax handle will be installed.
It's a crooked thing, it looks so awkward and awkward.
Fortunately, he had cast copper hammer heads before and had some experience with them, so Xu Chen spent three days and slowly completed more than ten models.
After these models are completed, they are placed under the pergola to dry in the shade for later use.
According to Xu Chen's plan, a machete would cost about two kilograms of material, and an ax would cost about five kilograms.
This kind of weight must be considered a heavy weapon for later generations of advanced humans who cannot carry it with their shoulders or resist it with their hands. After a few rounds, their arms will become weak.
But for these savages with thick hands and big feet and hair all over their bodies, they are probably just light and can do tricks with one hand.
These savages can throw spears weighing seven to eight kilograms nearly a hundred meters away. When hunting or throwing stones in playful competitions, they can easily throw stones weighing more than ten kilograms twenty or thirty meters away. It is as easy as eating and drinking.
Same as water.
Therefore, only if you do it more carefully, the effect will be better.