All the tribes who came set off home in groups under the warm spring sun and warm wind.
At the river mouth outside the valley, dozens of large and small rafts started to set off one after another, going down the river.
Many tribes from the Yugong Alliance and the Gonghuo Tribe came by raft.
Although we were traveling against the current, the southeast wind was strong in March, and the raft equipped with leather sails was not very slow. The journey of 100 miles only took two days, which was easier than when Xu Chen returned in winter and relied solely on paddling.
many.
And now the water in the Wulong River has risen a lot, and the speed of going back down the river will be faster.
Therefore, even the Uzbek people rowed a lot of rafts to come here this time. Going back along the river is faster and easier than riding a horse.
The invention of the raft not only made the travel between tribes along the river more convenient and faster, but also greatly enhanced the exchange of people and goods. This was very prominent in this Mother's Day gathering, and the convenience and speed of waterway transportation was undoubtedly revealed.
However, the raft is not a wooden boat after all. Not only does it have a small carrying capacity, it is also very unsafe. It is very easy to capsize and fall into the water, and the cargo is easy to get wet.
Therefore, looking at the raft floating down the rapid river, Xu Chen lightly clenched his fist and decided to build the wooden boat as soon as possible.
No matter how simple a raft is, it can only be regarded as a transitional product. It cannot withstand strong winds and waves, let alone protect it from wind and rain.
To conquer the Wulong River Basin and successfully reach the tribes farther downstream, it is necessary to build a strong and strong boat. This small raft that can only carry eight or ten people at a time is completely inadequate.
If you want to successfully upgrade to become a shipbuilder, you must at least build a carriage first. This will not only solve the land transportation and traffic problems, but also accumulate a lot of experience in making woodware. You must first train a group of qualified carpenters.
Therefore, after Mother's Day ended, Xu Chen almost returned to his appearance a year ago. He no longer cared about foreign affairs, but devoted all his energy to the two important upgrading tasks of smelting and wood processing.
Two months have passed since the bronze smelting was successful in January.
Under Xu Chen's continuous guidance and guidance, a group of kiln workers and smelters have become very familiar with the steps of smelting and casting. They are very familiar with the entire set of processes such as metal ratio, heat, mold making, casting, assembly, and polishing, and are almost familiar with it.
Xu Chen needs to watch all day long.
As the weather temperature got higher and higher, Xu Chen ran to the smelting workshop less and less, because the heat wave inside was so intense that if he stayed for a little longer, he would be covered in stinky sweat.
Therefore, Xu Chen went there every morning and evening for inspection and guidance, and spent most of the rest of his time in the woodwork workshop.
In order to better make various wood tools, Xu Chen built a pergola on the newly filled courtyard dam at the entrance of the compound.
Although the compound is spacious, there are actually a group of people living in it, especially more and more newborn babies and young children who have to sleep during the day. The clinking, chopping, and chopping all day is very disruptive to life, so he simply moved the woodwork workshop to the yard.
Outside.
This pergola is made of large wood with a thickness of more than a foot. It is spacious and bright, and can also provide shelter from wind and rain.
And this pergola is not only used for wood processing, but it is also used for storage and rest. It can temporarily store animal skins and grains that are dried outside. A large number of cast bronzes can also be placed here to assemble handles and polish. Daily use of wheelbarrows and
A large number of tools can also be placed inside.
Therefore, this big pergola is completely like a grocery store, with everything.
Moreover, sitting in the pergola, you can have an unobstructed view of both sides of the entire valley and riverbank. You can clearly see the pigs and sheep in pens, the donkeys and horses grazing, and even the children running and playing on the riverbank.
So since the pergola was repaired, it has not only become a paradise for a group of children to shelter from wind and rain, but many adults also like to gather here to talk and chat, while taking care of livestock and playing children.
The valley now is completely different from the situation two years ago, with almost no aggressive beasts left.
As the area burned for cultivation becomes larger and larger, there are fewer and fewer snakes and insects, and there are fewer and fewer dangers. It is almost like the countryside of later generations. You can travel unimpeded during the day, and you can live in a single family outside the courtyard.
status.
The independent compound no longer has a protective function, but has become a place to shelter from wind and rain, eat, sleep and live.
March has gone by in a blink of an eye, and it rains more and more.
After a few heavy rains, the river in the valley began to fill up, and the pebble beaches were all submerged, leaving only the lush green grass beaches and farmland on both sides.
As the rainy season gradually approaches, Xu Chen spends most of his time in the valley and does not go out. He stays in the woodwork workshop almost all day, instructing a group of woodworkers to start making a two-wheeled carriage based on a wheelbarrow.
After the most difficult problem of making the wheels has been solved, there will be no difficulties in making the carriage. At most, the structure still needs to be explored slowly, and the success of the production is just around the corner.
There was a lot of chatter and laughter as time passed day by day. As the weather got hotter, a carriage slowly took shape.
Not only was a group of carpenters very excited about this cart, which was several times larger than a wheelbarrow, but the entire tribe was also full of expectations.
In mid-April, after more than half a month of busy work, the first carriage was officially put on wheels.
The mechanism of this carriage is actually very simple, just like the ox-carts and human-powered carts of later generations. It has two long shafts for traction, wheels on both sides, and a frame in the middle. A few wooden boards are simply installed on the frame.
, not even railings were installed on both sides.
Although the style is so crude that Xu Chen feels ashamed, it is undeniable that this is a genuine two-wheeled vehicle.
Xu Chen acted as the coachman himself, dragging the carriage back and forth in the open space several times. Except that it felt very heavy, it was no different from the carts he had pushed when he was a child.
The appearance of this car also caused a sensation in the entire tribe. The whole tribe, men, women, old and young, gathered in front of the compound and watched the complex structure of the car. In order to let everyone understand the benefits of this large car, he asked a group of people to
The children all sat on it, and then directed a few strong men to push it back and forth for several hundred meters on the flat river beach. Now no one finally doubted that he had been busy and hardworking for the past few months.
You must know that Xu Chen started proposing to make a carriage at the end of January, but it took many twists and turns, and he successively solved the problems of tools, wheels, axles, loose rings, first built a unicycle, and finally accumulated this huge two-wheeled vehicle.
Of course, it is no problem to use human power to pull a two-wheeled vehicle. Older children can push it smoothly. For these powerful primitive people, it can be easily used by both men and women. Therefore, this kind of vehicle can also be subdivided and optimized.
to create several different vehicles.
The most common one is of course the human-powered cart. The frame, wheels, and shafts only need to be made smaller to make the cart lighter. It is very convenient for transporting goods on flat roads. Two people can pull it forward and push it, and it can be used as a seven-wheel cart.
The load of eight people.
The second type is a small wooden bucket truck, which is made by making the body shorter and adding a square wooden bucket on top. It is used to transport soil, stones and other items. Its transportation capacity is several times higher than that of a wheelbarrow on flat roads.
The third type is the carriage, which uses wide wheels to adapt to road conditions to the greatest extent and is conducive to long distance travel.
Of course, carriages are also divided into two types: cargo-carrying and passenger-carrying. The cargo-carrying car is a flatbed car, and the passenger-carrying car is equipped with a carriage roof to protect it from wind and rain when going out.
At present, the total number of men, women, and children of the Ba tribe has reached close to 200. On weekdays, more and more goods are traded with the Gonghuo tribe, Wu tribe, etc., so the demand for trucks has become very obvious.
Even if it is just to the ferry terminal outside Wagong, it would take two or three hours to go back and forth just by foot, and half of the day would be spent walking.
Moreover, each time a large amount of salt, lead, tin, animal skins and other materials are transported back from places such as the Mongolian and Gonghuo people, and a large amount of pottery is transported. Most of them are very heavy, and it consumes a lot of manpower to carry them on horseback.
Animal power is very uneconomical, so it is imperative to build several horse-drawn carriages.
In addition, in order to reflect the dignity of the witch's identity and facilitate the exchange of witches between tribes, it is also necessary to build a carriage with a carport and roof for traveling.
So after the first carriage was successfully built, Xu Chen drew several different graphics of two-wheeled vehicles and started working again with a group of carpenters.
Either don't do it, or sit on the full set.
With the arrival of horse-drawn carriages and the construction of roads leading to the entrance of the valley and the Uzu, both logistics and personnel exchanges will be more convenient and faster in the future.
As for the built car, Xu Chen installed the traction rope and chose two docile mares to try to train the car.
Horses are no longer unusual for the Ba people and even other tribes in the alliance. Now they have become the most precious wealth of each tribe, and special personnel are arranged to take care of them and herd them.
He even heard that some people ate, lived and slept with horses. They fed and groomed them carefully every day according to the method taught by Xu Chen. They were more interested in horses than women.
Of course, this is also understandable. As human beings communicate more and more, and the scale of war becomes larger and larger, the role of horses will also become greater and greater. By the time of the feudal emperors, there were many people who loved horses as much as their lives.
It has become a high-end profession, and horse grooming is a professional talent passed down from generation to generation.
The founder of the Great Qin Empire was the horseman of Emperor Zhou, who was knighted for his merits in raising horses. The Qin State overcame obstacles and grew up to become one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, and eventually created the first imperial system to unify the Chinese nation.
After Xu Chen rounded up and distributed wild horses on a large scale, the status of horses in each tribe was higher than that of the tribesmen. They could not only be ridden, but also plow fields and carry goods.
Now, Xu Chen invented the horse-drawn cart.
Male horses are strong and strong and are generally used as human mounts, while female horses are weaker and play a role in reproduction, so the tribesmen cherish them more and ride less. They are generally used to carry goods and plow the fields, and only do some simple auxiliary labor that is not heavy.
, it is also suitable for pulling a cart. It does not require high speed, but it is much faster than walking.
In the first two days, Xu Chen just used a horse to pull an empty cart back and forth on the river beach for training. After getting familiar with it and feeling that it was no problem, he started pulling a group of children to run slowly back and forth on the flat areas in the valley.
Although the tribesmen are not surprised by Xu Chen's magical creativity, when faced with such a magical and complex new thing as a carriage, they are still excited. Every time they train, men, women and children will watch and cheer, and some people even endure it.
I couldn't help but climb up, sit and run a few laps.
After a few days of training, Xu Chen tried to use two horses to pull the cart and at the same time began to transport some wood and stones back and forth.
At this time, the power of the horse-drawn carriage became apparent. Normally, a large group of people would need to carry a pile of wood and rocks back and forth and they would be as tired as dogs all day long, but with a horse-drawn carriage, it only took three or five trips, and it was extremely easy.
Faced with the terrifying labor efficiency of the carriage, everyone in the Ba tribe was very excited. Men, women, old and young walked around the carriage every day, and also urged a group of carpenters to speed up the construction of more carriages.
As for the wheelbarrow that had always been Xiao Tiantian, it soon turned into Mrs. Cow, covered in mud and busy back and forth on the construction site, and no one paid attention to it anymore.