In the mountains and fields at the end of July, some plants have begun to glow with red and yellow colors.
The autumn air is crisp and the sky is clear.
The farmland on both sides of the Ba Valley looks a lot yellower, with a slightly withered flavor.
Although the farmland harvest has ended, the wild fruit harvesting in the mountains and fields is now in season.
Vine fruits, hawthorns, aphrodisiacs, chestnuts, hazelnuts, fungus, xianggu and many other wild fruits and mountain products that may or may not exist in later generations are beginning to mature. A group of young men and women with nimble hands and feet are like hard-working bees, carrying basket after basket every day.
Keep carrying it home.
In the open spaces and dams inside and outside the compound, there are various harvests spread out to dry.
These things were life-saving food in the difficult years in the past.
But in the past two years, it has turned into snacks and nutritional supplements.
Although they are just snacks, there are actually quite a lot of them. They are picked and put into storage throughout the autumn. They weigh several thousand kilograms at least, and they will still fill several rooms.
In fact, the houses of the Ba people are no longer enough.
At first, there were two people per room in the compound, but it could accommodate more than fifty people, with a few more rooms being used as warehouses.
In the second phase, more than 30 houses were expanded. I thought it would be spacious enough to accommodate everyone, but with the addition of two new mothers during Mother's Day and the addition of more than ten women from the Yu Gong clan, the room suddenly became crowded again.
With the increasing amount of food and various fur goods and property, more and more warehouses are needed. In order to free up more warehouses, many men and women are now living in a room with three or four people, and the children are seven or eight years old.
One room.
Although the situation has stabilized for the time being.
However, with the abundance of food and the improvement of living environment, as well as the large number of young men and women joining every year, more and more people are pregnant and giving birth.
In just the past four years, nearly 30 children have been born to the Ba people.
Xu Chen remembered that in the first year, only Thirteenth Aunt gave birth to one child, in the second year, five were born, and in the third year, the number suddenly increased to nine. However, only eight months have passed this year, and thirteen more have been born.
There are many women who are already pregnant, and many of them are due to give birth in the autumn and winter.
This is the first baby boom for the Ba people.
Tribal women rush to conceive and give birth, which is a sign of prosperity for the Ba tribe. While mother Ba and grandma laugh from ear to ear every day, they are actually full of surprise and sorrow.
Naturally, I was surprised that all the children born in the past three or four years were born smoothly and healthily. There were no difficult labors or unexpected stillbirths, and there were not even any children who died in infancy.
This has to be said to be a miracle.
Of course, this miracle can be attributed to the fact that the Ba people have their own great witch and the blessing of their mother goddess, so they are more happy and excited.
But with all the joy, sorrow and annoyance also followed, that is, taking care of so many children consumed a lot of time and energy of the adult tribe, resulting in a continuous reduction in the labor force.
In addition, housing has become more scarce. Ordinary people can live in a room with three or four people. It is no problem to squeeze in a little bit. However, pregnant women have difficulty moving and those who have given birth need to breastfeed and take care of their children. Generally, only two people can live in a room. Otherwise,
Life is not good for adults and children.
In short, this sudden baby boom has made the entire Ba people both happy and worried.
Of course Xu Chen also had brain pain.
The crying of infants and children aged two to three can be heard day and night, sometimes all night long, seriously affecting sleep.
In addition, when he thought that in a few years, the riverside inside and outside the yard would be full of scenes of a group of mud dolls chasing and fighting without stopping, he felt goosebumps all over his body.
They say that children who can walk are like dogs.
Although Xu Chen grew up, his childhood memories are very clear and profound. He chased chickens, chased dogs, stole food, climbed walls, and was naughty and mischievous. But at that time, no matter how naughty he was, there was still a limit.
Compared with the group of primitive savages now, they can be called good babies.
You must know that these little guys are truly wild and have not yet been disciplined by their father. They are only played with by a group of older children every day. In addition, the adults are busy working every day. It is conceivable that these children are
What kind of active character will be developed when growing up in such a free and brutal environment?
Catching fish in the river, climbing trees to dig out bird's nests, digging in the soil to catch snakes, and playing the trumpet are all normal entertainment. Other daily pursuits are simply unimaginable.
Therefore, looking at the increasing number of children, Xu Chen would always observe a few seconds of silence for these wolves every time he saw Wolf Two and his five cubs who had just started to learn to run.
In the not-too-distant future, he could imagine what would happen to these five little wolves. It was estimated that a few handfuls of hair would be removed every day.
Siluke
It seems that we have to find ways to expand the living conditions. Hundreds of people live in one courtyard. Although it is lively, there are too many messy things to worry about. Just eating, drinking and defecating can give people a headache.
Based on the current development of the tribe and the environment of the valley, the entire tribe can start to live in a dispersed manner and form several scattered villages in the valley. This structure will be more reasonable, and it will also be more conducive to farming management and the development of private ownership.
At present, the farmland area has expanded to 800 acres, covering most of the area on both sides of the river valley.
According to the appetites of Mu Ba, A Mu and others, this is not enough. In the future, all the riverbanks on both sides of the Ba valley that cannot be flooded will be reclaimed into farmland, with an area of no less than 1,500 acres.
In other words, only half of the entire valley has been cultivated.
As the farmland area becomes larger and larger, it takes longer and longer to manage and take care of it. Even if there are horse-drawn carriages, this kind of long-distance farming will consume a lot of time and energy, and the gain outweighs the gain.
If the Ba people are divided into several groups and dispersed to build houses in different parts of the valley, this will perfectly solve the problems of crowded compounds and farmland care and management.
Of course, we can also take this opportunity to turn the farmland grouping into a real production contract. At that time, it will be distributed to each group in the form of public grain payment. They will cultivate and manage it by themselves, harvest and store it themselves, and the public grain payment will be used to support the kilns.
The development of other independent workshops such as smelting, wood processing, stone tool making, etc. is also focused on supporting hunters' daily training and official business.
The only thing that can be done now is to treat the farmland in this way, and the spinning and weaving can also be arranged in this way. Other industries and work are still based on the entire tribe as a whole.
Of course, with excess disposable food, linen and other basic living materials, the scattered ethnic groups can also exchange these things with each other or exchange them with the compound for other items, such as more pottery, salt, and better bronze tools.
, favorite animal skins, feathers or other items, etc.
In short, dispersing large ethnic groups and managing them as village groups is not only conducive to better and faster development of tribes, but also conducive to the reform of ownership.
But it will definitely be too late this year.
Because after the autumn harvest is over, Xu Chen plans to start the construction of roads leading to the Uzbek people.
No matter how decentralized management is within the Ba tribe, it will only affect such a small tribe with a population of more than a hundred people. However, the construction of an important transportation road leading to the Wu tribe will benefit more than 600 people from both tribes in the future.
It is especially important for exchanges and trade between the two ethnic groups.
What's more, Xu Chen also wants to build this road into a model road to open the eyes of all the tribes who come to participate in the Mother's Day in mid-September.
The total length from the mouth of the Ba Valley to the mouth of the Uu Valley is about thirty-five miles. There is still a distance in the valleys of the two ethnic groups, about seven or eight miles. If the construction is to be completed until the two ethnic groups are fully open to traffic, it will naturally be included in the plan.
.
Xu Chen has inspected this section of the road seven or eight times, and all plans along the way have been completed.
The whole road is built along the foot of the mountain from the Bazu to the Uzu river bank. Most of it is in the low mountains and forests. The road is fairly straight. Except for a few small hills and valleys with flowing streams, it is basically
The surface is all soil, and it is easy to dig except for some thorn trees.
Of course, this is based on the fact that there are already a large number of bronze knives, axes and hoes. If we had relied on stone knives, stone axes and a few wooden hoes, this road would have taken two months, not two years.
Finish.
And this is why Xu Chen had the confidence to build roads.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it was that I couldn’t.
Before there were horses, just relying on foot power to go back and forth between the Uzbek people was not very necessary, not to mention the time consuming, because even if it could facilitate travel, there would be nothing worthwhile to come and go. Everyone would guard the development of the valley, and they could die of old age.
Communicate with each other.
But things are different now. With the Mongolian people’s salt, the Five Ghost people’s lead, the Youqiong people’s tin, the Uzbek people’s copper, and the demand for pottery and bronzes from the large and small tribes near the Gonghuo Basin, inter-tribal conflicts have
Contacts are becoming more frequent and closer.
There are several trips a month between the Ba people and the Uzbek people. Of course, most of them are the Uzbek people who come to send copper or buy pottery or bronze. They even came to buy a few vehicles at the end of June.
wheelbarrow.
On Mother's Day, in order to support the Uzbek people in mining and smelting copper, Xu Chen specially gave them two wheelbarrows. However, after going back to use them for a while, he became addicted. After the rainy season, he came over and exchanged three hundred kilograms of copper for six wheelbarrows.
.
This exchange ratio does not determine who suffers.
Three hundred kilograms of copper seems like a lot, it is only half a month's output of the Uzbek people.
For six unicycles, the axles and collars consume more than 30 kilograms of copper and dozens of kilograms of carbon. In addition, it takes half a month to make the frame and several carpenters. In fact, the time consumed is about the same.
, it’s just that smelting copper consumes more manpower.
But right now, the least valuable thing is time and manpower.
Xu Chen had already greeted the Uzbek people about the road construction matter, and even made two special trips to meet with their clan leader and a group of leaders to discuss it.
Although most of the Wu people have never seen a carriage, Feng and a group of other hunters who come frequently have seen it and are very familiar with the performance and use of the carriage. Of course, they all agree with the road construction plan proposed by Xu Chen.
According to Xu Chen's description, as long as this road is built, it will be very convenient and fast for the two tribes to travel by carriage, and the exchange of goods will be faster. Not only will the Wu tribe go to the Ba tribe to visit the great witch, worship in the temple and study.
It’s convenient, it takes more than half a day to get back and forth, and there’s no need to walk at all.
As a die-hard fan of Xu Chen, the little witch also wants to spend a long time together with her sister, who is also from the Uzbek ethnic group. Therefore, she agreed with Fang Yun's proposal and said that the Uzbek ethnic group will fully support the construction of this road.
The witches of their own family have expressed their stance, and the leader of the Wu tribe naturally has nothing to say. The remaining family leaders who have made a fortune with Xu Chen are even more excited, saying that they are ready and must build this road.
Then, every now and then, you can go to the Ba tribe to see the great witch and worship the mother goddess, and obtain the blessing and protection of the mother goddess.
After receiving the support and guarantee from all the Uzbek people, Xu Chen could finally get back to work on this epoch-making project.
The last time he was with the Gonghuo Clan, he had already helped with the overall planning of roads, ditches and the construction of trading places. Although he hadn't visited it yet, he had heard reports from the Lei Clan and Gonghuo Clan on Mother's Day.
Road ditches have been constructed since the beginning of spring.
The road is only about four miles long and connects the Lei Clan, the Gonghuo Clan, the Five Ghost Clan and two other small tribes belonging to the Gonghuo Clan, forming a village road.
But that road is completely incomparable to the traffic road between tribes.
Because the project on this road is so large that it is basically impossible for a tribe to complete it.
Therefore, although Xu Chen had arranged for Feng and a group of hunters to go back and forth in May to inquire about the survey plan, he waited until all the autumn harvests were basically over in August before officially starting the construction.