The rest of the tribe, the men lived in one courtyard, the women lived in another courtyard, and a few old ladies lived in the west wing of the courtyard where Yao Xiaoqing's family lived.
On the first night of moving into the new house, Yao Xiaoqing leaned on the bedside and blew out the resin oil lamp, gently shook the cattail leaf fan made of palm leaves, and watched the moxa velvet mosquito coils light up on the wooden bench in the corner of the room.
Hong Guang thought that he had finally taken a big step forward with his tribe and was no longer an ancient man living in a cave.
Yao Hu and the others were busy building houses. The skins of the pumpkins in the field had turned yellow and gradually began to mature. Yao Xiaoqing and others began to pick pumpkins.
Yao Xiaoqing led people to pick the old pumpkins that were dark yellow in color and had no insect bite scars on the skin, and stored them in the cave. The ones with scars were put outside to eat first.
More than a dozen people worked for four or five days before picking the ripe pumpkins back. The heavy pumpkins were placed in the cave, filling half of the cave. There were still many pumpkins and tender pumpkins in the ground that were not yet ripe enough.
Everyone looked at the pumpkins in Cave Mountain and blossomed with joy.
After picking the pumpkins, Ah Shui went to the field and looked at the taros, "Xiao Qing, why don't you dig up the taros and put them away?"
Yao Xiaoqing shook his head, "No, if you dig it back and eat it, it will rot. When the taro stalks wither, just cut off the taro stalks."
Ah Shui nodded, "That's right. No one digs the taro outside, and it doesn't rot. It grows more and more."
Yao Xiaoqing nodded and said with a smile: "After a busy few days, let's eat pumpkin pie tonight.
Hua Cui responded: "Hey! I've wanted to taste it for a long time. What does it taste like?"
"I'll go down the mountain to collect the fish cages and feed the ducks."
"Uncle Shui, put the small fish and shrimps in the pond and raise them before eating them."
"I know." Ah Shui went down the mountain happily.
Yao Xiaoqing picked a dozen scarred pumpkins, cut them open, scooped out the pumpkin seeds inside, squeezed out the pulp and dried them in a dustpan.
Hua and Yaozi exclaimed: "There are so many seeds growing in one pumpkin, no wonder you said you would replace it with ten sheep!"
Yao Xiaoqing glanced at them arrogantly, "Of course, I have never deceived anyone before."
Wash the pumpkin, slice it and steam it. Use a wooden spoon to press it into pumpkin puree. Add Poria cocos powder, scoop out some lard and mix it evenly. Knead it for a while and roll it out with a rolling pin. Then use a bamboo knife to cut it into squares and place it on the steamer.
Steam.
The steamed pumpkin and tuckahoe cakes are golden in color and have a hint of sweetness after several people tasted them. They are soft and delicious.
Hua and Taro couldn't help but nod, "It's delicious, so sweet!"
Yao Xiaoqing felt that it was not sweet enough, "The taste is a bit bland. Let's get some honey back sometime. It will be more delicious if we add it in."
Talking about honey, Hua recalled the time when Dashi stole honey and was stung by a bee and turned into a pig's head. She shook her head and said, "That thing hurts like hell when it stares at you."
Yao Xiaoqing nodded, "Let's go after I think of a way."
When Yaohu and the others came back, they all ate pumpkin and tuckahoe cakes and fell in love with the taste.
Yaohu looked at the pumpkins in the cave, smiled and said to the people behind him: "When winter comes, we don't have to worry about running out of food."
"Yes, we are not afraid of winter anymore." Everyone laughed.
The bull said loudly: "This winter, let's spend the winter well and have babies."
Zhi smiled and said, "You have to wait until the house is finished before you have a baby!"
Yao Hu smiled and said: "Everyone, please work harder. Soon, everyone will have their own house."
The men responded loudly: "Yes, leader."
After Yao Xiaoqing saw Yan Yu at the foot of the mountain, he thought that Muya was now in the Dawu tribe, and felt that Muya would definitely reveal the situation in the tribe to the Dawu tribe.
Back at the foot of the mountain, Yao Xiaoqing found Yao Hu and told him his worries.
After hearing this, Yao Hu nodded and said, "Muya is a poisonous snake. My father shouldn't have let her go for the sake of Muba and the others."
"It is a disaster for people like this to keep her in the tribe, unless she is killed to avoid future troubles. Father, the food we have saved can last until next summer. We should keep more people in the tribe, and Uncle Ashui and the others should also practice archery more.
"Put your bows and arrows within easy reach and prepare bamboo ladders. Once we find out they are invading, we will take action."
Yao Hu nodded, "We have prepared a lot of bows, arrows and stone spears. My father has asked everyone to move them down the mountain. I will rearrange the manpower. Starting from tomorrow, I will also arrange for people to guard the forest at the foot of the mountain!"
Yao Xiaoqing added: "We live inside now, so we need to prepare enough firewood. If we are surrounded by people, we won't even have firewood to cook food."
Yao Hu felt a little sad when he saw that Yao Xiaoqing had thought so much in a short period of time. He felt that the giant bear tribe killed her mother and two brothers, which made her become so careful and vigilant.
He stepped forward and rubbed her ball head, and said: "Xiaoqing, don't worry, my father will have people take care of what you said. You go to bed first, I will talk to Dashi and the others."
Yao Xiaoqing knew that Yao Hu wanted to go somewhere else, but he didn't say much. He nodded in agreement and went to the bathroom to wash up.
After coming here for a few months, even though she had been very frugal, she still used up all the toothpaste and shampoo. She could use salt to brush her teeth, but she couldn't find any soap locust, so she had to use plant ash to wash her hair. Animal fats had to be saved for consumption.
, how can I be willing to use it to make soap.
Yaohu went over to gather the men and told them the situation. Everyone understood that the tribe was willing to reduce their rest time and practice more intensively before they could live a stable life.
Yaohu arranged his men, lit a bonfire and practiced with them for two hours before falling asleep separately.
Early the next morning, Yaohu arranged sentries in the back mountain and the woods on the north and south sides. Ah Shui and Ah Chong led people to cut down firewood and come back to stock up.
Taking advantage of the bright sun, Yao Xiaoqing took the taro and the others to move out the beans, millet, and pinto beans they had exchanged and dried them in several yards.
The millet in the field was also ripe, and it took them less than half an hour to collect all the flowers and taro.
Seeing the two of them coming from nowhere, Yao Xiaoqing brought back a long stone and placed it in the center of the courtyard dam. He grabbed a handful of millet and slapped it hard on the stone, and the grains fell into the courtyard dam.
Only a handful of millet was harvested from that small piece of land, and the yield was surprisingly low.
When the sun goes down, everyone passes the exposed grains through a sieve, puts the plump grains into baskets, and carries them to the warehouse for storage, so that they can grow more grain next year.
From beans and pinto beans, we sort out the rotten beans and pinto beans that have been bitten by insects and store the plump ones for sowing next year. We use the picked grains and rotten beans to feed wild ducks and pheasants.
The number of wild ducks in the duck shed increased by thirty or forty, and there were also ten or twenty pheasants, all of which had their wings clipped and were kept in the duck shed.
Yao Xiaoqing's ancient farm plan has taken another small step.
A few days later in the evening, the rock salt collectors all returned to the tribe.