Volume 1: Farming Chapter 11 The Wise Patriarch
It was sad to say the least. Without a container for soaking beans, Xiao Yun could only spread the black beans directly at the bottom of the bean sprout pit and soak and ferment them at the same place...
The first time he soaked the beans, Xiao Yun was more cautious. After blocking the drain, he spread out about ten pounds of black beans estimated by hand (completely based on feel) in a bean sprout pit that was one meter long and half a meter wide, and poured in two buckets of water that he had worked hard to heat and then cooled to room temperature (although natural water can also be used for soaking, Xiao Yun was always worried that too many bacteria in the water would have an impact), and then covered it with a straw lid woven with reed stalks, and that was it - because black beans are not a completely domesticated bean variety on Earth and still have the disadvantages of wild soybeans with thick skins and few cores, Xiao Yun estimated that the soaking process would not be like soaking mung bean sprouts for about ten hours, so he decided to change the water every other day.
Another day of volunteer work for the tribe...
The next day, Xiao Yun ran to the river in the dark before dawn to observe his bean sprouts. He lifted the reed lid slightly and reached in to feel inside... Well, after soaking for more than 24 hours, the shells of the black beans had all cracked and small sprouts had emerged.
Dig a drainage hole and wait for the water inside to drain. Instead of blocking the hole, put a handful of crumpled hay inside the hole to ensure that no insects can get in and to maintain a certain level of drainage and ventilation (if water accumulates inside, it will cause the bean sprouts to rot and deteriorate).
Next, the reed cover that was originally placed flat on the bean sprout pit is pressed down to the surface of the black beans, and two more layers of animal skin are placed on the reed cover - appropriate pressure can make the bean sprouts grow taller, and the roughly processed animal skin has a certain weight, which can also maintain the temperature and humidity in the bean sprout pit. There is no need to worry about crushing the bean sprouts. The swelled bean sprouts can even push a Bodhisattva statue weighing more than 100 kilograms out of the ground...
"If we had large pottery jars or vats, we wouldn't have to go through so much trouble."
After completing the most basic soaking work, all that was left was to water it twice a day, morning and evening. Xiao Yun's work focus once again shifted to the mud brick house that he had always dreamed of building to "surprise" his fellow tribesmen.
"The average height of an adult snow wolf is 2.2 meters. Even if we only build one floor, the height of the house must be about 3 meters, otherwise it will be too stuffy... The roof can't be flat, otherwise it will be in danger of collapsing under the snow in winter. Just imitate the mud houses in the countryside and build the walls into a sloping roof with a high front and a low back... As for the beams, using reed stalks as the roof is not very picky about the material of the beams, but we still have to find a few suitable trees. Well, we have to cut down the trees in advance to cool down the moisture."
Xiao Yun did not expect the mud brick house to last for decades, but the most basic requirement was that it could be lived in for two or three years without collapsing or having major problems. After using an ox horn to build a river bank of mud bricks and laying them out to dry, Xiao Yun began to look for wood like a headless fly, dragging the ox horn.
It's not an exaggeration to say this. The trees on the grassland are all grown naturally and have all kinds of strange shapes, but there are only a few with straight trunks... I haven't even seen any trees with branches as straight as Xiao Yun expected!
After leading Xiao Yun to run for half the morning without finding a suitable target, Niu Jiao was getting annoyed, so he simply took him straight to the primitive jungle just west of the tribe - of course Niu Jiao would not be stupid enough to bring the cub into the jungle, but the number of trees on the periphery was astonishing enough.
This was probably the second time that Xiao Yun had seen scenery far away from the tribal safety zone since he came to this world. After walking straight west of the tribe for half a morning (at least three hours based on the movement of the sun), Xiao Yun finally saw the high mountains that were different from the earth slopes with an altitude of no more than 100 meters that could be seen everywhere on the grassland - at a glance, there were endless continuous mountains. Compared with the flat grassland, it was as if the earth had been violently rubbed by an invisible hand billions of years ago, leaving wrinkles with no visible edges.
As the saying goes, "A horse will die if it is seen of a mountain." Being able to see the mountain range does not mean that the two have entered the mountain range, but it is indeed enough... The primitive jungle that has not been cut down has expanded wantonly over countless years. When the mountain range can be seen, the trees in front of them have also increased. Compared with the sparse number of trees on the grassland, it is not an exaggeration to call it a forest.
Xiao Yun was about to move forward, but Niu Jiao reached out and grabbed him back, holding him down by the shoulders. This usually silly brother was serious for the first time: "Stand here, I'll get you the tree you want."
"..." Xiao Yun was too lazy to complain whether he was overprotective or stubborn. He had already experienced that it was impossible to convince the Snow Wolf Man when he was stubborn. "Okay, there are three or four tree trunks or branches that are about your height and thicker than your thighs. If you see them, bring them back."
Anyway, the roof can be made of reed stalks and wood chips, and it does not require too high a load-bearing capacity.
Niu Jiao tilted his head to think, trying to remember Xiao Yun's words. Before leaving, he did not forget to continue to remind him: "Stand here and don't move, or I won't play with you anymore."
Xiao Yun: “…Okay, okay, okay.” He would listen to you even if you told him to go buy oranges.
Niu Jiao ran towards the forest with his cranked bone machete made of some unknown animal bone. Xiao Yun looked around and simply squatted down to pick some wild vegetables... He had also developed the habit of "not wasting if you can eat" as a snow wolf. There was no other way. No matter who lives in this painful world with almost no productivity, it is not noble to go hungry for a few meals...
Maybe it's because it's close to the forest, but the plants around here are not only lush but also of many kinds. Unfortunately, Xiao Yun only knows the common wild vegetables, and he can only look at the ones he doesn't know... He did find several bunches of raspberries growing together behind a relatively large rock. He quickly found a few slender grass stems, picked the parts that were not eaten by birds under the leaves, and strung them together - uh, the sharing spirit of the snow werewolves has also been influenced by the company.
"I remember that migratory birds are an important way for species to spread in the natural environment. It is common for birds to eat seeds from the south and bring them to the north. Therefore, there are many more species around this forest than on the grassland. It is really a treasure trove—" Xiao Yun looked up at the sky above the forest. The sound of cattle horns chopping trees startled many birds, which chirped non-stop. "It's a pity that the underage cubs are not even allowed to graze without parents to watch over them, let alone let me enter the forest... I can't run away secretly. If I run too much, the tribe leader might tie me to his belt."
The tribe leader counts the number of cubs in the tribe every day. The tribe's reproduction is the most important thing for the tribe leader. If the tribe leader does not allow it, even if Yangmao insists on running away, he will be brought back by the tribe members... According to Yangmao and his friends, every snow wolf cub has been brought back by the tribe members more than once. For example, he was brought back by Ashan before...
When Xiao Yun put the raspberries he picked among the wild vegetables and wrapped them with straw, Niu Jiao came back carrying four tree trunks of uniform thickness and about six to eight meters in length. After coming back, the buddy didn't say anything, but just looked at him with resentful eyes, which made Xiao Yun's skin crawl. Then the buddy raised the broken bone machete in his right hand with a wronged expression on his face.
Xiao Yun: "...Niu Jiao, you've worked hard." He opened the bag of wild vegetables and handed him all the raspberries he had picked.
...Just with a few ounces of raspberries, Niu Jiao's aggrieved old face immediately turned from gloomy to bright...Xiao Yun didn't even have the energy to complain.
Going hungry is a common occurrence for the Snow Werewolves, so the two of them didn't even bother to hunt for food. They just carried the four hard-earned beams all the way back to the tribe. Then the diligent tribal warrior Niu Jiao immediately ran to his patrol area, while Xiao Yun used his claws to peel tree bark...
It was not an easy task to use his claws to scrape off the bark of four logs. After he finally finished, his four fingers were sore. Even so, when they were having a big pot meal that night, Yangmao and the others righteously accused him of playing the whole afternoon and not working with his friends. The tribe leader had to talk to him after dinner, and all he said was to persuade him not to be too playful, and even if he was playful, he should try to play with his friends and not be so unsociable.
Xiao Yun couldn't hold it in any longer, so he had to confess to the tribe leader: "I'm really not kidding. In fact, I've been busy these days preparing to build a mud brick house. The trees I asked Niu Jiao to chop with me today and the mud bricks I made in the past few days are all materials for building a house."
"House?" The patriarch paused and repeated the word.
"Chief, do you know the word 'house'?!" Xiao Yun was immediately excited. God have mercy on him, when he mentioned the word 'house' to Niu Jiao, Yang Mao and even his uncle A Shan, they all looked confused.
The chief nodded, but judging by his expression, he seemed even more confused: "The Tauren tribe has houses made of wood, the tiger tribe's royal court has houses made of stone, and human cities also have many houses... can houses be built with mud?"
Xiao Yun was refreshed. As expected of an elder in the tribe, the tribe leader was well-informed. It was much better to talk to a sensible person than to argue with a fool. "Of course it won't work just with mud. It will collapse when it's washed by water and fall apart when the wind blows. So I asked Niu Jiao to help me make mud bricks for a few mornings. This mud brick is made of yellow clay mixed with black soil, grass stalks and reed stalks. After mixing with water, it is stomped hard to make it sticky, and then fixed into blocks with wooden molds. After drying, although it is not as strong as stone, it can be used to build houses. Compared with the manpower and material resources consumed by quarrying stones, mud bricks are much simpler to make. Niu Jiao and I can do it."
The wise patriarch was stunned by such a long sentence: "You mean, mud...mud bricks, mud bricks can also build houses like wood and stone?"
"Yes, the cost of building it, uh, is the time and manpower required, which is less than that of wooden and stone houses." Xiao Yun explained with gestures, "A house built with collected stones is built one by one, right? Then the solidified mud bricks can also be built in this way. Build four walls, leave doors and ventilation windows, use thick wood as beams and thin wood chips as the frame, and then lay reeds from the river, press it down with stones or wood, and the shape of the house will be formed... uh, tribe leader?"
The clan leader, who was originally sitting cross-legged and talking to him, now moved his buttocks back and forth until his whole body was almost touching Xiao Yun's nose, staring at him with shining eyes.
"I've lived in a wooden house of the Tauren. Can a house built of mud bricks be as warm as a wooden house when it snows?" The chief asked in a low voice, panting.
"It's warmer than a wooden house!" Xiao Yun said firmly. It's not like he hasn't lived in a wooden house before. What a romantic pastoral style. Sleeping in a wooden house when the weather is cold is simply life-threatening - when building a wooden house in the countryside, a layer of mud and straw is applied to the outer layer of the wooden wall. Why? Because it's cold!
"Starting tomorrow, the ox horns are yours!" The patriarch slapped Xiao Yun's arm vigorously, resolutely.
Xiao Yun: "..." Wait, there seems to be something strange about this statement? !
The next morning, the tribe leader actually picked a strong man from the tribesmen in charge of herding to serve as a new tribal warrior, and brought the ox horns to Xiao Yun...
Niu Jiao who was out of his mind: "Eh, huh? I'm not going on patrol anymore?"
Xiao Yun: “…”
In any case, the chief didn't care at all why the young cub Ayun in the tribe suddenly became "knowledgeable and talented", nor did he waste time and energy guessing whether Ayun was possessed by the devil. Instead, he fully supported Xiao Yun in building a house. This was always a good thing - Xiao Yun had discovered that the human Sal would never eat wild vegetables and his improved barbecue, as if bowing his head in front of food would be a shame to the clay god he believed in.
It's really lucky not to travel through time to the human society in this world, sighing again. Xiao Yun honestly and unceremoniously made use of Niu Jiao, the strong laborer: the first batch of mud bricks have dried up, and it is time to choose a site to build a house and dig the foundation - it is not possible to build it directly on the mud ground. Xiao Yun's uncle also had to dig the foundation to build a pigpen, and he would not suffer this loss in silence.
After walking around the tribe twice, Xiao Yun decided to build a mud brick house behind his collapsed tent. Without a tape measure, he used a few straws to mark the ground, roughly marking the scope of the foundation to be dug. After letting Niu Jiao do the hard work, he took the chicken feather order given by the tribe leader and asked Yang Mao and others to go with him to pick up stones... Anyway, there was no concrete to use, so he had to find a substitute. So after thinking about it, it was not impossible to inject stones of different sizes into the riverbed mud mixed with reeds as the foundation.
Tools are also needed to transport the mud from the bottom of the river, which is a bit troublesome. Xiao Yun scratched his head for a long time... He simply took out two pieces of animal skins from his own private property and covered the rattan mat with them. He then tied two rattans of the same length to the four corners of the mat and used branches of appropriate length as shoulder poles. In this way, an extremely primitive carrying pole was made.
After collecting a mountain of stones and carrying the load, Xiao Yun went to check the foundation dug by Niu Jiao. He almost vomited blood when he saw him... Not to mention that the foundation was dug crookedly along the lines he drew. Anyway, Xiao Yun had already prepared for his own secondary processing. This guy was so capable that he even dug an amazing height difference at the bottom of the foundation.
Xiao Yun had no choice but to let Niu Jiao do brainless tasks such as moving bricks and cutting reeds , while he resigned himself to his fate and transformed into a wolf, using his claws to dig the foundation...
