"Come on, put all the fish in here!"
The basket has long been seen by people in the tribe, but due to production issues, not many people use it.
The children had naturally seen it before, and had heard from their parents how useful the basket was. When they heard Song Xuan and the others put the fish in, they were somewhat excited.
There is no problem with the baskets made by the tribe for adults to use. Even if they are full of things, everyone can bear them, but these children are a little bit choked.
Therefore, Uncle Lu and others had to cooperate. Fortunately, there were Shi Shui and others. After the children brought the fish over, they helped lift the fish into the basket. Otherwise, these children, who were about the same height as Uncle Lu, would have carried the fish. It's a little difficult to put it up.
Feeling the increasing weight on his body, Uncle Deer did not move at all, uncharacteristically. Maybe it was because he saw children around him. Uncle Deer still liked these children very much, because they often found the most delicious grass and gave it to them. Go inside the deer pen.
As the saying goes, cannibals have short mouths, and frequent feedings are not just about making them look familiar, but at least their feelings are deeper.
There are not many fish in the two baskets, and everyone put in slightly larger fish, so they only filled a little more than half. Even so, the children could relax a lot, and one person could carry the remaining small fish. Just two or three are enough.
In this way, when every fishing is about to end, let one or two children go back and pull Uncle Deer and the others over, and the fish can be transported back to the tribe without much effort. After all, the distance is not too close now, so let It was really hard for the kids to get it back.
Uncle Lu's family was quite cooperative and walked slowly and leisurely, treating it as an evening walk.
It has entered midsummer. Although it is not as hot here as it will be in later generations, it is true that it is not much cooler.
Moreover, there are no air conditioners or fans here. They rely entirely on natural cooling. Especially after wearing thick animal skins, it becomes even hotter. Most people also wear a small apron to cover up their appearance. Women At most, it would be better to wrap a slightly wider animal skin around the chest to ensure that there is no leakage.
Song Xuan still wanted to be more traditional. He really couldn't bear to be so exposed in front of so many people. In addition to a small rubber band, he also wore a small vest on his upper body. Although it was hollowed out in many places, he was definitely still hotter than the others. A lot of it.
Fortunately, it is close to the forest and river, so it will cool down quickly at night, and there are not as many mosquitoes here as in later generations. You can wait outside until it cools down before going home.
In summer, the creek has become everyone's favorite place. Song Xuan usually urged everyone to take a bath, but now they would take a dip in the water every day. This has become a reserved item after dinner.
Soaking in the cold river water and looking at the rice that was already covered with rice, Song Xuan was also very satisfied.
Since the flowers bloomed, Song Xuan has increased the amount of water in the rice fields, so the rice grows quite well, with ten or twenty grains on each plant.
Most of them are relatively plump, and there is not much hollowing. Compared with the field of wild rice across the river, the ones grown in the tribe are obviously much better.
It looks like it won't be long before it's time to harvest, because the earliest batches planted have already begun to turn yellow, indicating that they should be fully mature in the next few days.
Song Xuan was also thinking about whether to wait for Shi Meng and the others to come back this time and then wait for the rice to be harvested before taking the next step. From Song Xuan's point of view, rice was still more important than hunting.
It has been more than a month since the last time the salt was refined. Everyone has hardly relaxed during this more than a month. The hunting team hurriedly set off again the next day after returning.
The collection team is also running back and forth, bringing back as much food as possible. Although wild fruit rhizomes cannot be stored for long, eating them now can save some meat consumption. Some unknown rhizomes can also be stored for a while. Time, if the weather is not too hot now, and even if it is well protected, wintering will not be a problem.
Four or five acres of rice will definitely not require so many people in the tribe, but Song Xuan still wants everyone to participate in advance, because with these rice seeds, the planting area will definitely increase by several levels next year.
By then everyone will know Song Xuan’s purpose of doing this. Even if the production this year is good, everyone can taste it once or twice in advance this year. It will definitely be very wonderful to cook meat porridge in winter.
Although the planting area was not large, Song Xuan asked Shi Ban and others to start making a tool for harvesting rice. Song Xuan initially wanted to make a saw sickle that was commonly used in later generations, but whether it was made of stone or bone, , the durability is not very good.
In particular, the newly matured rice plants are very tough and even if they can be cut, they will become blunt after just a few uses. Song Xuan found it a bit awkward to use them to cut grass, let alone the tougher rice plants.
In the end, they could only let Shi Ban and the others polish a small scimitar that looked like a moon, which could be held directly in their hands. Then they could use both hands to find an angle and cut off the top section of the rice. Anyway, all they needed now was the rice.
Although the ones below are also useful, in addition to making fires for cooking, they are also good for building houses, but without suitable knives, it is still difficult to harvest them.
Although thatch is just as troublesome to make, fortunately it is much wider than straw. The tribe still has no way to use this short plant less than half a meter long.
The first batch of rice planted was ready for harvest, and more than 20 stone knives for harvesting had been polished. Song Xuan took a dozen people in the tribe to get used to it in advance.
Point the edge of the knife just below the ear of rice and cut it with a single bend. It is not so easy to use at first. Some people even want to break it directly with their hands, but the speed becomes faster after they really get started.
Although it is not too labor-saving, the speed is definitely much faster than pulling it down one by one.
But even so, the small scimitar still needs to be re-polished every once in a while. The good ones are smaller in size and can be polished much faster than ordinary weapons.
It took more than a dozen people half a day to harvest the rice on the land.
The next step is to remove the rice, dry it and preserve it. This set is not too difficult at all.
In the current weather, the rice can be completely dried by leaving it outside in the sun for two days.
Although the rice has to be harvested one by one, Song Xuan feels that it is still necessary to do so. First, if it is like this in the field, the speed will inevitably be much slower, especially the current weather is really bad. It was so hot that even if Song Xuan took everyone out as soon as it started to dawn, everyone could not stand the heat by noon.
This is not like other places. Whether they are hunting or gathering, most of them are in the forest. In such weather, Shi Meng and the others will also avoid hunting on the grass. Firstly, it is too hot and they can't stand it. Secondly, there is no What kind of beast would be stupid enough to bask outside in the sun on a day like this?
As for the children fishing, although they are exposed to the sun, they can still soak in the river most of the time. If they really get hot, just dive into the river and they will cool down quickly.
Harvesting rice here is different. The whole process is under the scorching sun. Do you have any equipment that can block the sun? Use animal skins to hold it up. It is very boring. Fortunately, I only worked for half a day. If we went out in the hottest time of the afternoon, everyone would probably suffer from heatstroke.
Although Song Xuan took everyone out to work in the morning because of the hot weather, he didn't expect it to be so hot.
It’s not too late to make a remedy now. The easiest way is to wear a hat or something, but to be honest, even a hat is not easy to make. At that time, everyone will have to weave a grass ring out of weed branches. Just think of it as sunshade.
However, although the sun protection items are out, you can add a few small sheds in the fields. When you are tired, you can take a rest under the sheds.
Although it is not far away and is close to the river, when I am busy, I definitely don't have time to take a bath or run back to the tribe. Having such a place where I can cool off can relieve the heat to some extent.
While Song Xuan was picking up the rice, he was thinking about the large-scale harvest in the future. Although it only looked like two parts of the land, the amount of rice harvested was not small. Although it was not fully dried now and could not represent the actual yield, Song Xuan After weighing it, I estimated that there must be forty kilograms. Even if the water in it evaporates in a day or two, it should not be a problem to have about thirty kilograms left by then.
This yield would definitely not be seen by future generations. If anyone could grow rice like this in such a good environment, they would probably be laughed at by the people of the whole country for the rest of their lives.
But this is a primitive society. Song Xuan has also seen that even in the later agricultural dynasties, the rice output was only three to four hundred kilograms. Although the yield of the rice grown by himself was not high, it was only one hundred and fifty kilograms in this conversion. It weighs about a kilogram, but you must know that this is a pure wild rice seed. This is also the first time the tribe has planted it. It is quite perfect to have this yield.
Just these two plots of land are almost as many as the number of rice seeds planted.
What will be harvested next will be pure profits. Based on this calculation, it is estimated that the area that can be planted next year will not be a problem if it is multiplied by ten on the current basis.
If everything goes well, the daily needs of ordinary people in the tribe can be met by planting rice.
Of course, this depends on how the remaining rice grows. These last few days are the most critical, and it should be all mature in six or seven days.
Fortunately, the weather has been quite good recently. Since the heavy rain for more than half a month, there has been no threatening rain here. Although people are a little hotter, it is not a bad thing for rice cultivation. In the tribe There is no shortage of water near the river, and if it rains, it will be a bad thing for the rice that is about to mature. If it cannot be harvested in time, it will definitely rot in the fields.
