Southern Wasteland, Vine Tribe.
"Finally finished carving the herbs I used before."
In the bamboo house, the old witch put down his stone chisel and hammer, stood up from a large round stone, and beat his waist.
The big stone is oval in shape, like a round egg, and the surface is polished very smooth, standing upright.
On the right side of the big stone, there are several ancient shamanic inscriptions carved on it: The Great Wilderness Hundreds of Sketch Maps.
Then, there were rows and rows of witchcraft characters in smaller fonts, neatly arranged.
Some of these witchcraft words resemble strange-shaped grass, some resemble flowers, some resemble birds, and some resemble certain parts of animals...
These are witchcraft words. From the perspective of ordinary people, these witchcraft words are messy and it is difficult to understand what they mean.
But in the eyes of witches with witchcraft power, every witchcraft text contains a lot of information.
There are two types of shaman writing. One is ordinary shaman writing, which can be understood by anyone who has studied it specially.
For example, those tribes that have lost their totem gods, although their witches have no witchcraft power, still inherit part of the witchcraft and can use witchcraft and pictures to record the major events that have happened in the tribe.
The other kind is the witchcraft inscriptions carved by the old witch. This kind of witchcraft inscriptions is more mysterious and cannot be understood by people without witchcraft power.
Because it is not just as simple as connecting words to form a sentence. Each mysterious witchcraft text contains a large amount of information. It is necessary to use witchcraft power to activate these witchcraft texts in order to see what the writer really wants to express.
There are a lot of herbs that need to be recorded in the Great Wilderness Hundred Sketches. If I use ordinary witchcraft and want to record them all, I don’t know how many animal skins and how many stones will be used to carve them.
Moreover, because there are too many record carriers, it is inevitable that there will be deficiencies due to various reasons during the inheritance process.
But it is different when using mysterious witch scripts. Each witch script can record a kind of herbal medicine, which can save a lot of materials and is also conducive to complete inheritance.
The old witch walked around the egg-shaped boulder twice, observing the witch inscriptions, and was quite satisfied with the partially carved sketch of the Great Wilderness.
The old witch said to himself: "The herbs used before have been carved, and it's time to look for new herbs."
The reason why the old witch named it Great Wilderness Hundred Sketches instead of Eastern Wilderness Hundred Sketches was because he wanted to record as many various herbs on this continent as possible.
He knew more about the herbs in the Eastern Wasteland, but the old witch knew less about the herbs in the three major wildernesses: the Southern Wilderness, the Western Wilderness, and the Northern Wilderness.
Because of this, the old witch is ready to continue riding the giant eagle to various places to find more herbs, understand their efficacy and growth habits, and then record them in the Great Wilderness Hundred Drafts.
This is bound to be a difficult and time-consuming job.
The old witch rested for a while, ate something, then walked out of the bamboo house and came to the bamboo forest under the stone mountain. He found red peony root and told her that he wanted to continue traveling and looking for medicinal herbs.
Chi Shao couldn't help but said: "Old Witch, why don't you stay here? I'll ask the Teng tribe warriors to pay attention to various herbs when they go out and bring them back to you."
The old witch knew that Chi Shao was worried about his safety, and a smile appeared on his old face.
"Although I am old, I have not yet reached the point where I can no longer walk. I want to ride a giant eagle to go to more places and find more herbs."
Rice Ball Exploration
"For every herbal medicine, I want to see with my own eyes what it looks like, where it grows, what effects it has, and then record it."
"The Hundred Sketches of the Wilderness is what I will pursue for the rest of my life. I hope I can complete it myself."
The old witch paused and then said: "If I really have an accident outside, I believe you will help me complete it in the future."
Chi Shao nodded and said: "Don't worry, old witch, I will try my best to do it."
The old witch smiled and nodded. He believed that Chi Shao was a trustworthy person and a talented witch. Even if he died outside, Chi Shao could still complete the Hundred Sketches of the Wilderness.
The old witch asked again: "Where's Xuan? Why haven't you seen him these past few days?"
Chi Shao said: "I took the hunting team out, and I didn't say how many days we would be back."
"Then don't wait for him. I will leave on the giant eagle tomorrow. If everything goes well and I find enough new herbs, I will come back."
After the old witch finished speaking, he left Chishao's yard. He needed to make some preparations for this trip.
The next day, the old witch brought his own salute, closed the door of the bamboo house, and then left the Vine Tribe on the giant eagle.
"Hey..."
The giant eagle circled into the sky, then flew into the distance and gradually disappeared.
In the yard of the bamboo forest, Chi Shao looked at the direction of the giant eagle and silently prayed that the old witch could return safely.
…
On the barren mountain northwest of the Teng tribe, Jiang Xuan led the hunting team to dig for two days and dug out a large amount of copper ore and tin ore.
"That's almost it. Let's bury the veins first."
Jiang Xuan felt that enough ore had been dug out, and any more would affect the speed of the soldiers, so he ordered part of the soil to be backfilled.
The purpose of backfilling the soil is to cover up the mineral veins to prevent them from being excavated.
After all, even if people from other tribes don't know how to smelt metals, tribesmen still like beautiful stones like malachite and are likely to dig them out when they see them.
The soldiers of the hunting team backfilled some soil with a bang, then pulled some dead branches from nearby, and covered them with weeds, making some simple camouflage.
After everything was done, Uncaria said to Jiang Xuan: "Chief, that's it."
"Okay, take all the stones and return to the tribe!"
Jiang Xuan thought for a while and then said: "After returning to the tribe, no one is allowed to reveal our whereabouts and harvest to others, otherwise we will be expelled from the tribe!"
Jiang Xuan's words made everyone in the hunting team feel shocked. Expulsion from the tribe was the most severe punishment for them.
Everyone secretly warned themselves to keep their mouths shut.
Undo asked: "Chief, what if someone asks?"
Jiang Xuandao: "Let's just say that we found some good stones and dug them back to make stone tools."
Uncaria nodded, and then shouted to the people in the hunting team: "Did everyone hear clearly? If anyone asks, they will say that we went to dig stones."
The hunting team soldiers nodded.
In fact, Jiang Xuan did not tell them what kind of stones these ores were or what they were used for.
The hunting team soldiers thought there was nothing wrong with the idea of digging stones and it was not a lie.
"Okay, go back!"
Jiang Xuan tied two large bags of ore together, then placed them on Yue Ya's back, and sat on them himself.
The Black Wind Rhino is extremely strong. It can bear two heavy bags of ore and one person sitting on it.
The soldiers of the hunting team also put large and small bags of ore on the backs of their mounts, and then followed Jiang Xuan back to the tribe.
One day later, they successfully returned to the Vine Tribe with all the ores.
In order to keep it secret, all these ores were put into the cave in the mountain on the other side of Feiyu River, and that area was designated as a restricted area, with soldiers taking turns to guard it every day.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Shen Teng didn't like flames, Jiang Xuan would have wanted to put these ores at the foot of the stone mountain. It was the safest place in the entire tribe and no one would dare to break in.
Next, it’s time to consider how to smelt these copper ores and tin ores into bronze.
Jiang Xuan's understanding of bronze was limited to knowing that it was an alloy of copper and tin. As for the ratio of copper to tin, he was not very clear and needed to try it out bit by bit.
However, he had some impression of how copper ore was smelted into copper.
The first step is to burn the charcoal.
Whether copper or iron is smelted, charcoal or coal are essential fuels.
If possible, it is best to use coke, because coke has stronger firepower and burns longer.
The Vine tribe has not yet obtained coal and can only use relatively primitive charcoal.
If you want to get charcoal with stronger firepower and longer burning time, you can't save the trouble and just go to the fire pond to pick up the defective products.
Jiang Xuan planned to build an earth kiln and burn several kilns of high-quality charcoal.
He first found people from the Teng tribe who were good at building, dug a big hole on the hillside, and built an earthen kiln.
The earth kiln is oval in shape and about two meters high. Half of it is built with the help of the mountain and half of it is made of mixed mud. There is a wide air inlet at the bottom and a flue at the top.
In fact, the earthen kiln is equivalent to a large stove, except that the upper part is directly closed without a pot.
After the earth kiln was built, Jiang Xuan personally led people to chop down many thick branches with stone axes, cut them into wood sections of similar length, and then piled them neatly into the earth kiln from the wind entrance.
When the charcoal is piled up in the earthen kiln, it can be ignited.
Jiang Xuan found some dry firewood and piled it in the spacious entrance to the wind. Then he borrowed kindling from the nearby fire pit and lit the firewood.
The dry firewood burned quickly, and the temperature in the kiln rose sharply.
After the air in the kiln is heated and expanded, it will be quickly discharged from the flue at the top of the kiln. Then, more air will be added in from the air inlet. After being heated, it will be quickly discharged from the flue, forming a circulating air flow. Fuel the fire.
"Crack, crackle, crackle..."
Soon, the thick wood in the kiln was also ignited, and a large amount of thick smoke billowed from the flue at the top of the kiln.
After a while, all the wood in the kiln was ignited. The inside of the kiln was ablaze with red, and a fire tail more than half a meter high appeared on the flue. It was very spectacular.
"The fire port can be sealed."
Jiang Xuan and two members of the Vine tribe used large pieces of mud to block the air inlet of the earth kiln, and finally blocked all the air inlets.
After the air inlet is blocked, because no new air comes in, the tail of the fire on the exhaust pipe quickly turns into smoke again, and it is not as thick as before.
Jiang Xuan waited patiently for a while, and then sealed the exhaust pipe above the earthen kiln with branches and soil, completely blocking fresh air from entering the earthen kiln.
In the earth kiln, the wood is still burning, but it has changed from burning with open fire to simmering with dark fire.
The high temperature in the earth kiln will last for a long time, converting all the charcoal into charcoal.
Next, it’s just a matter of waiting patiently.
One day later, the earthen kiln slowly cooled down, and Jiang Xuan once again led people to open up the air inlet and flue of the earthen kiln.
Because a large amount of carbon monoxide had accumulated in the kiln at this time, in order to avoid poisoning, after opening the air inlet and flue, Jiang Xuan immediately led them to stand far away.
Half an hour later, the carbon monoxide in the kiln was discharged and replaced by fresh air. Jiang Xuan took them over to check the situation in the kiln.
In the earthen kiln, all the wood had turned into black charcoal. Jiang Xuan picked up a relatively thick piece of charcoal and broke it gently. The charcoal broke with a sound, indicating that the charcoal had been burned thoroughly.
"Ding ding ding..."
Jiang Xuan tapped two pieces of charcoal a few times, and the sound was very crisp.
Jiang Xuan nodded with satisfaction and said: "Yes, they are all good charcoal."
Later, Jiang Xuan and his people moved all the charcoal out of the kiln, packed it all in bark woven bags, and stored it in a dry place.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
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