A group of hunters who went to the pier to greet the cargomen came back with large and small items on their backs and threw them in the middle of the yard. They complained loudly and out of breath that Feng and others had ridden their horses away, causing them to walk back carrying the cargo.
Xu Chen couldn't laugh or cry.
The invention of any new tools will make human civilization progress, but as the reliance on new tools becomes stronger and stronger, people's inertia is also getting bigger and bigger, and their physical constitution is getting worse day by day.
He remembered that it was extremely easy for the hunters of the tribe to go outside the valley in the past, running back and forth as fast as flying. But since the arrival of horses, these guys have become more and more lazy. They don't even bother to go out of the valley without riding a horse. If this continues, it will only take a few years.
, everyone is starting to gain weight lazily, because it can be seen that the hunters in the tribe have generally become thicker in the past two years, and they are obviously gaining weight.
It seems that they need to increase their training intensity on weekdays to maintain sufficient exercise and physical strength. Otherwise, if this continues for a long time, they will become a group of pampered and obese primitive people.
However, with the continuous innovation, invention and application of new tools and weapons, they will also greatly supplement the weaknesses in human physical fitness.
Just like the invention of the bow and arrow, humans can attack prey and enemies more easily and accurately, and the use of horses will also greatly enhance the speed of human movement.
With the emergence of rafts and horses, communication between tribes has become faster and more convenient. Tribes no longer only rarely visit each other every six months or a year as before.
At least now, it has become commonplace for the Ba and Uu people to ride horses to each other.
Even the Yu Gong Clan and the Gong Huo Clan, which are a hundred or two hundred miles away, have at least one trip every month.
However, the speed of exchanges is accelerating, and there will be more and more freight exchanges. The transportation of large amounts of goods takes up a lot of manpower and animal power. Just the Ba people transporting goods back and forth from the valley to the river dock every time also consumes a lot of manpower.
Material resources, more than ten horses are completely insufficient.
It seems that it is time to invent the horse-drawn carriage.
He can't control other tribes for the time being, but it is still necessary to build a road for the Ba tribe to go back and forth to the mouth of the river for twenty miles. If there are carriages, today's goods will only be arranged for two carriages and two horses at most.
That's it.
What's more, with a carriage, even if women, children, old and young want to go to Hekou or even the Uzbek people, it will be much more convenient. It can also save a lot of horsepower and avoid the huge waste of having to go out every time.
Thinking of this, Xu Chen turned around and went into the house again, erased some useless weapons painted on several pottery boards, and began to draw the structural diagram of the carriage.
The structure of the carriage is very simple, just two wheels and a frame, which is not much different from the ox carts in the countryside. If you want to make it more sophisticated, you can add a body or even a shed.
But if you want to make a carriage, the wheels are the most difficult part.
If he hadn't made bronze-level swords and axes before, he really wouldn't have been able to do anything, but now that he had these sharp metal tools, he could still give it a try. He didn't know if it would work, but he believed he would be able to make it.
After all, I have never eaten pork and I have seen pigs running away.
He had indeed never seen an ancient two-wheeled carriage, but he had seen a lot of rural two-wheeled carts, ox carts and even the carriages of walking tractors.
When he was a child, the cart wheel at home was his toy. He and his friends used to push it back and forth in the yard and chase it wildly.
So Xu Chen sat in the room drawing and scratching, and slowly the structural diagrams of the frame and wheels appeared on several pottery boards.
Outside, the wind and a group of hunters were running in and out of the yard, shouting and shouting, carrying axes and hatchets, as if they had discovered a new toy and couldn't stop.
A group of women such as Mu Ba and Ye were cleaning up the items brought back by Feng from the two tribes and registering them in the warehouse.
The little witch who was reading the diary in the next room was so noisy that she had no choice but to put down the animal skin diary and come out. She found that Xu Chen was not in the yard. She habitually walked to the door of Xu Chen's room and took a look, and found that he was concentrating on drawing.
The little witch held up the hem of her skirt and walked softly behind him. She looked at the square and round figures painted on several pottery boards, her face filled with confusion.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, did you draw Moga?"
The little witch finally couldn't help but asked softly.
Xu Chen actually knew that this little girl had come in, so he said with a smile: "This is called a cart. After it is made of wood, it can be pulled by human or animal power. It can pull many people and goods at one time."
"Really?" the little witch's eyes widened instantly.
"Well, there were no metal knives and axes before, and it was very troublesome to process wood, but now it should be possible to make one. Look, these are the wheels... This is the shaft, and above it is the frame. When pulling goods, it is trapped in the frame
If there are people sitting on it, you can also add a carport like a wooden house, so that people can sit inside and not be afraid of wind and rain..."
Xu Chen gently and carefully explained to the little witch the structure and purpose of the carriage on the pottery board.
The little witch basically didn't understand. She was completely stunned by this man-made object with extremely complex structure.
This thing is much more complicated than a raft with a sail.
As for the raft, she only understood how the sails used the power of the wind to move forward in the river after listening to Xu Chen's explanation for a long time.
Of course, the Ba people are not without complicated things, such as strollers, deck chairs, double-layer hammocks, etc., and their structures are also very complicated.
However, this kind of rattan household utensils is completely different from large rafts and carriages. After all, the uses and sizes are hugely different.
Let's talk about rafts. They are tools that can go up and down the mighty river.
According to Xu Chen, horse carriages are also large tools that can carry a large amount of goods and people in a flat place. The carriage can run as fast as the horse can run.
The little witch knew that Xu Chen had a huge imagination, but when faced with this sudden innovation, she was still shocked and couldn't close her mouth for a long time. Unknowingly, she almost leaned on Xu Chen's back.
.
Through the touch of clothes, Xu Chen felt a little distracted.
Although he had always thought that the little witch was still a little girl, with the pampering and adequate food and nutritional supplements in the past two years, the previously soft and frail body began to grow and grow unknowingly, and it was no longer the same body as before.
A little miko who ran away and couldn't even put on clothes.
Time flies so fast!
If I count on my fingers, I've been traveling through time for almost four years.
Xu Chen sighed inwardly.
Unknowingly, he had grown from a boy of twelve or thirteen to a mature and tall young leader of sixteen or seventeen.
Ye rushed in from the outside with a ceramic plate in his hand.
The little witch instantly blushed and took a step back, her heart beating a little fast.
She knew the relationship between Xu Chen and Ye, and she also knew that she could not have any relationship between a man and a woman with Xu Chen.
But she just couldn't help but want to be close to Xu Chen and want to stay with him all the time. Even in the dead of night, she would always think about Xu Chen next door and couldn't sleep. Sometimes she would listen to Xu Chen's music in the middle of the night.
He and Ye made some noises in the room, and they felt the blood rushing all over their bodies, and they were so hot that they couldn't sleep.
Occasionally when she communicated with Xu Chen alone, she would always lean in unknowingly, as if Xu Chen had an irresistible temptation, exuding an aura that made her intoxicated, and she was trapped in it and couldn't extricate herself.
However, Ye now no longer felt jealous and hostile towards the little witch. Instead, he walked to the table enthusiastically, handed the pottery plate in his hand to Xu Chen, and started to report the goods brought back by the wind with excitement on his face.
More than forty animal skins, more than ten kilograms of gold, a basket of various gemstones, ten animal horns, twenty brocade feathers of various colors, one hundred and twenty kilograms of salt, two hundred kilograms of lead, three hundred kilograms of tin...
Except for salt and tin, Xu Chen was not interested in anything else at the moment. After asking a few more questions, he learned that the salt sent back this time contained a bag of salt powder that looked like snowflakes, so he threw down the ceramic plate and went out very excitedly.
Watch.
Evaporation to produce salt is very slow, especially in winter. The first two salts sent by the Mongolian people to the Yugong people were rock salt crystals, which they and the indigenous savages cleaned up after digging from the salt brine area, but this time it was finally delivered.
He got the first batch of real sun salt, which made him very happy.
After the goods in the yard have been counted, some have begun to be moved into storage.
The four bags of salt are still in the backpack.
The salt was held in animal skin bags, two of which were salt crystals and two were white salt grains.
Although it is a little damp and there are still some sediment impurities in it, it can be seen that this is indeed real salt, which has completely different properties from rock salt. If you dip your finger into it and lick it, you will get a very pure taste of table salt, which will melt in your mouth.
, also very salty.
The Ba people are very familiar with salt crystals and eat them every day, but they have never seen this kind of snow-white salt grains. Therefore, a large group of men, women and children gathered around to watch, and some people couldn't help but grab some and put them in their mouths.
taste.
"Xianga!"
People who have tasted it can't help but exclaim with excitement.
Xu Chen said with a smile: "These are called salt grains. They are made by drying out salt water. They taste better than salt crystals and are more convenient for cooking and curing meat. However, drying salt takes a long time and is more troublesome to get out."
"
"Chen Ga, the Mongolian people say that it rains a lot in spring and summer and it is difficult to get salt particles. There may be less of them. I hope you don't blame them!"
Feng held a big golden ax and squeezed over to report.
"Well, I don't blame them. I'll tell them next time that if there is a lot of rain in spring and summer, there is no need to dry the salt. Just dig more salt crystals. By the way, how many did the Thunder Clan leave this time?"
"ThunderClan left five bags, all of which are salt crystals!" Feng replied quickly.
"Well, it's done well. We only need a few dozen kilograms per month at the moment, but spring is when wild vegetables are fresh and tender. The excess salt can be used to make some pickles, which can be packed in clay pots for autumn and winter consumption."
Xu Chen smiled and nodded.
"What are pickles?" someone couldn't help but asked curiously.
"Pickled vegetables are just like pickled fish. After washing and drying freshly collected wild vegetables, rub them with salt and put them in clay pots for storage. They will not go bad for a long time. Pickled vegetables are salty and sour. Pickled vegetables are salty and sour.
If it’s good, it tastes very delicious, as delicious as cured fish and bacon!”
As soon as Xu Chen said this, there was a sound of swallowing saliva from all around.