Volume 1: Farming Chapter 14: Exploring the Kiln
The main reason why nomadic peoples find it more difficult to live together, give birth to villages, cities, national systems and develop civilized culture than agricultural peoples is that nomadic peoples need dozens or even hundreds of times more land to feed the same population as agricultural peoples.
If the population cannot live together, there is naturally no civilization to speak of.
Is it impossible for nomadic people to transform into agricultural people? Well, some people who are obsessed with tribal totem culture will probably say that it is impossible. They will think that tribal warriors who are born brave and warriors will never envy the life of two-legged sheep who farm the land. They will think that the people of Changshengtian only love the vast grasslands for their whole lives. They will think that wolves can never be domesticated into dogs. And so on.
This kind of fanatical argument that has lost its normal IQ naturally has no market in Xiao Yun's opinion. What an idiot! If wolves cannot be domesticated, then how did dogs come about? There are so many cities in Inner Mongolia. Are all aliens?
In short... In the eyes of Xiao Yun, a natural materialist who was born and raised under the red flag in New China, as long as a person or intelligent creature has normal IQ, they all pursue and yearn for a better life. He definitely does not have the kind of virgin heart that is willing to be a primitive man all his life just to protect the original ecology of the grassland and the snow wolf. This kind of stupid behavior is useless except for moving himself. Human beings say such arrogant remarks about protecting nature, but they are only qualified to show compassion for the conquered nature after they stand at the top of the food chain on the earth. Besides, whether nature needs human protection is another matter... Human beings only protect their own living environment. If human beings are destroyed by their , the earth will still be there, and a new nature without human beings will be born tens of thousands of years later.
So, after accepting the fact of time travel, all Xiao Yun had to do was to lead the snow wolves in the direction of living in groups, developing urban civilization and even national civilization. Then, after building houses to improve the snow wolves' ability to survive the winter and letting them get used to settling down in advance, the next thing to do was to increase the productivity of the snow wolves as much as possible, or in other words, to improve the snow wolves' ability to transform nature.
Farming has to wait until next spring, but making a kiln is something that can be done right now. With a kiln, qualified pottery can be made, and brick making is no longer an empty talk. If bricks can be made, there is hope for making cement. If cement can be made, will iron smelting still be a mirage?
Well, ideals are full, but reality is very... well, Xiao Yun squatted on the ground with a branch as a pen to prepare to draw, but he just stared blankly for a long time and didn't know where to start.
"What the hell, I've never seen a cave dwelling in real life, I've only seen it on TV... The brick kiln built by the Australian guy looks similar to the ovens used by Western primitive people to bake bread. Can that thing be used?"
Xiao Yun’s face turned pale and he held his head in his hands.
"Wait, isn't the principle of ovens and stoves the same as that of cave dwellings? They all use concentrated heat to heat the things inside... Hmm, there seems to be flue technology, isn't it the same principle as the kang? Anyway, the idea is to use the heat as much as possible, prevent cold air from entering, and keep the temperature inside as high as possible?"
"Then the question is, how does the flue in the cave work?!"
After squatting there motionless for five minutes.
"Forget it, let's try making a small kiln using the principle of heating a kang first."
It is common knowledge that hot air is lighter than cold air, which is known to all primary school students. Then, if we apply this common sense to the kiln theory that we have never come into contact with, there should be a height difference between the combustion point and the pottery firing space that requires heat. Xiao Yun thought about this principle and first dug a pit about 30 centimeters wide and half a meter long in the open space outside the tribe.
"Leave a downward fuel input port here, and the heat generated by the combustion in the pit will be input into the kiln chamber from the other end... Well, build the kiln chamber smaller first, roughly from here to here..."
Xiao Yun used a branch to scratch marks on the ground, then stood aside and observed.
"It doesn't seem right. Combustion requires a lot of oxygen. The fuel inlet is small and the kiln chamber is sealed. How can it keep burning and maintaining high temperature without oxygen?"
"But even if we open the ventilation, it won't work. If there's too much cold air, the temperature will drop... Oh my!"
Xiao Yun scratched his head for a long time but still couldn't figure out how to solve this problem. He decided to just build an experimental kiln first, fire it once to see if there was any problem, and then make some modifications.
"……etc!"
Just as he was about to ask Niu Jiao to bring the bricks over, Xiao Yun suddenly remembered that in the kiln firing scenes he had seen on TV, the place where the fuel was added was indoors, not in the open air!
"Yes, the fuel is delivered indoors. If we open the input port to deliver the fuel, of course we won't be sending in a lot of cold air. So how can the indoor temperature be higher than the outdoor temperature?"
The more Xiao Yun thought about it, the more he felt that this was the case, and then he felt a little annoyed... If he had to drill holes in the two houses of the tribe in order to build this experimental kiln that he was not sure whether it would be successful, not to mention the tribe leader, the ox horns would hold him down.
"Forget it. We have plenty of mud bricks anyway. We can build a small house to put fuel in. When the kiln is burning, the house will be warmer than the mud house. Maybe the tribesmen will like to play in it."
Qingcao and Dahe went to get clay, so Xiao Yun had to bring Niu Jiao to build the small house. They only required an area of about eight square meters to store firewood, and the foundation needed to be dug shallowly to a depth of one meter.
The miniature house, including the foundation and the roof, was completed in two days. A hole for replenishing fuel was left at the bottom and base of the wall on the east side of the fuel replenishing room. Xiao Yun dug a pit for burning outside the house corresponding to the hole, sealed the top of the burning pit with mud bricks, and provided a channel for the hot air to flow obliquely upwards. Then he built a tomb-like... uh, earth-mound-like cave house. It's done!
The cave, which is one meter high, is made of mud bricks and swamp mud and earth cement. The thickness is about the same as two mud bricks placed vertically. The smoke outlet is a design that Xiao Yun has worked hard to come up with: the smoke outlet in the cave is opened at the bottom, along the interlayer of the cave wall that was left with much effort, and the smoke is led to the upper part and discharged from the chimney above. Xiao Yun hopes that this design can prevent cold air from entering the cave as much as possible during the smoke exhaust process. As for whether it is effective... it depends on actual combat.
The opening for putting pottery in and out is at the bottom of the cave. In order to make this opening, Xiao Yun persuaded the tribe leader to let all the tribesmen, including patrolling and hunting warriors and herdsmen, help and find a square stone slab with unequal sides... Use this stone slab to block the opening during kiln firing and seal it with mud. When the kiln is opened, dig out the mud seal.
The kiln-firing project consisting of the firewood room (fuel replenishing room), combustion pit and cave took a full five days. During this period, Xiao Yun consumed more physical strength and energy than building a mud brick house... It is indeed a hassle to explore things you don't understand. No wonder investors will frown when talking about R&D funds in any field.
During this period, the tribesmen began to move fodder for the cattle and sheep to the tribe to survive the winter - this is what the tribesmen who have been grazing since the autumn have been doing, harvesting fresh grass, drying it, tying it into bundles and piling it in the wild, and moving it back before winter. The more than 2,000 cattle and sheep herded by the Snow Wolf people rely on this fodder to survive the winter.
The newly built kiln cannot be fired immediately. At least it has to be allowed to dry naturally in the shade before being baked over a low fire. Xiao Yun then took Qingcao and Dahe to play with mud... no, to make a clay model.
The yellow clay brought back from the river is finely ground into powder after the gravel mixed in is removed. After adding water and mixing with swamp silt, it is left for about a day. Then it is rubbed and stepped on vigorously to squeeze out the air in the soil until the soil is soft and hard enough and has enough ductility for processing. First, take a piece of clay, flatten it, spread it out, and stand the edge upwards to make the bottom of the pottery jar. Then divide the other clay balls into small pieces, roll them into long and thin strips, and stack them up in circles. Smooth the joints to ensure a smooth and integrated whole... This is the simplest way to make clay molds by hand without the assistance of pottery turning tools.
Qingcao and Dahe watched with amazement as Xiao Yun shaped the clay into pottery jars, and then they imitated him. However, although they were considered to be dexterous among the snow wolves, their sharp claws on their ten fingers could not always do what they wanted. They would either accidentally pierce the clay or scratch it...
"Use the pads of your fingers to exert force, but don't use your claws. Especially when kneading the clay strips, don't use your claws to exert force. Yes, that's it. Use the pads of your fingers. This place is the pads of your fingers. Use force here."
Xiao Yun taught him patiently and didn't feel annoyed at all - after all, he was very satisfied that he could shape the grass and the river. Unlike that funny guy Niu Jiao, he always put on an innocent and confused face to show him.
It's not easy to make something big right away, but it's not difficult to make a water cup or a pottery bowl. Xiao Yun and two people made a few clay pottery bowls, put them in the cool room for a day, and then put them in the place where the big stove and the kang were connected to test burn them. Qingcao and Dahe didn't dare to believe that the mud they played with could be turned into practical pottery. They were very confident in Xiao Yun. Even piling firewood on flat ground could make the most primitive pottery. Relatively speaking, there was nothing that couldn't be burned inside the kang where the heat was more concentrated and the temperature was better... It's just that the quality would be a little problematic.
After firing for a day and a half, the ceramic bowls were taken out. Well... four of the six ceramic bowls put in were formed, and I don't know what the problem was with the other two, they were either cracked or deformed. Among the four successfully fired ones, one was probably not pinched properly, and it broke when I picked it up and used a little force.
However, there were three usable pottery bowls, which was enough to make the snow wolves happy. Qingcao and Daha were ecstatic. Each of them held a pottery bowl and went around showing off to their tribesmen... uh, sharing the joy.
Xiao Yun took the last of the three successful ceramic bowls, turned it over and over, knocked on the bowl wall, and sighed: "It's really not good if the temperature is not high enough. The quality is so watery."
Niu Jiao looked at Xiao Yun curiously, then at the bowl in his hand, and asked strangely: "Ayun, is there anything wrong with this pottery bowl?"
"Take it and have a look." Xiao Yun handed over the ceramic bowl.
Niu Jiao took the ceramic bowl happily, but just as he held it in his hand, the wall of the bowl cracked where his fingers pressed.
Niu Jiao: “?!”
"Look, it's very watery." Xiao Yun said without any conscience.
Niu Jiao... Niu Jiao didn't know whether to be scared or at ease.
Anyway, the two pottery bowls fired near the big stove were indeed pottery bowls, although the quality was very poor... But the Snow Wolf people who had been relying on exchanging pottery with human caravans did fire their own pottery. This news quickly spread to the grassland, and the tribe leader personally ran back to see what the tribe's homemade pottery bowls that were crushed by the horns looked like...
When the cave was almost dry, Xiao Yun squatted in the firewood room (fuel replenishing room) and burned a small fire to dry it for half a day, and then the kiln firing could officially begin.
Making pottery for the first time in the tribe was a big deal. The tribe leader once again left his work on the grassland and came back to participate in person. He looked at Xiao Yun eagerly, hoping that Xiao Yun would assign him another job. Xiao Yun scratched his head and once again bluntly asked the tribe leader and Niu Jiao to make bricks. He himself was not confident that the pottery making this time would be successful, so he prepared for the rainy day by making the bricks for the next kiln rebuilding.
Even though Xiao Yun was a complete novice in kiln firing, he knew that stone kilns were stronger and more heat-resistant than mud (brick) kilns. The problem was that the environment on the grassland was different from his hometown, which was full of mountains and rocks. Niu Jiao would not let him enter the primitive jungle with mountains and rocks no matter what... He could only sigh helplessly.
After sending the dried clay figures into the cave, Xiao Yun sealed the cave with stone slabs and covered it with mud. Then he went into the firewood room to start burning. He put in the charcoal that had been burned in advance and stuffed in wood and cow dung. Soon the combustion pit was burning fiercely, and the temperature in the room where Xiao Yun was also began to rise.
"Hmm... it seems like there is still a bit of waste of temperature. Alas, I can't care about that. After the room is heated up, the temperature loss should slow down." Xiao Yun turned his head and looked at the room full of firewood and cow dung. After thinking about it, he went out and moved the extra stone slabs that the tribesmen had found before and quickly brought them in. He placed the stone slab on the top of the firewood adding opening and supported the two ends of the stone slab with mud bricks.
Firewood and cow dung are not as durable as coal, so someone must add firewood at all times. After all, it was the first time to burn a kiln, and Xiao Yun didn't trust others to do this job, so he took a piece of animal skin and sat in the room, sewing and watching the fire.
The tribesmen knew that Xiao Yun was doing something very important to the tribe: making pottery, so they tried their best to control themselves and not disturb him. The tribe leaders, who wished they could witness the successful pottery making with their own eyes, were quietly making bricks with Niu Jiao by the river. Qingcao and Dahe were trying hard to learn how to make clay molds. Yangmao and the others didn't even dare to get close to the kiln, for fear of disturbing Ayun. Xiao Yun had a rare moment of peace and quiet around him.
Perhaps knowing that Xiao Yun was "alone" at the moment, Uncle Ashan, who had not had a good talk with Ayun for many days, quietly returned to the tribe, walked into the firewood room silently, and sat down next to Xiao Yun.
"Uncle?" Xiao Yun was quite surprised when he saw who it was. Ashan was a tribal warrior who was more diligent than anyone else, and he had never seen him end his patrol early.
Ashan looked at Xiao Yun in silence, moved his mouth and then closed it again, as if he wanted to say something but didn't know how to start.
"What's wrong, uncle? Do you have anything to say to me?"
Ah Shan hesitated for a moment before he said, "Ah Yun, did you...did you encounter anything when you left the tribe before?"
Xiao Yun was stunned for a moment, then he understood what Ashan meant. He immediately broke out in a sweat... The busy days in the past had made him numb and careless about his identity and origin. As a relative of the original owner, uncle Ashan might not be able to think of what the change of Ayun into a completely different person meant, but what about over time?
The Snow Wolf Man was indeed born with thick nerves and atheists. Whether it was the original owner's memory or the days Xiao Yun lived in the tribe, he had never seen any signs of the Snow Wolf Man performing sacrificial activities like humans. This was Xiao Yun's confidence that he would not worry about being burned to death. But what if the original owner's uncle thought that he had killed the original owner and robbed the original owner's body? Would A Shan still think that he was his nephew and protect and bless him unconditionally?
Xiao Yun thought a lot in an instant. Before the cold sweat broke out on his forehead, Xiao Yun made up his mind... He certainly couldn't tell Ashan directly that the original owner was dead. Who knew if Ashan would be so sad that he would go crazy? So the most appropriate way to ensure his personal safety... was to fool this matter, uh, to deceive Ashan.
"...Yes." Xiao Yun showed his best acting skills and made a vicissitudes of life expression, "Actually... on the day I left the tribe, I could feel that I was dead."
Ashan's eyes suddenly widened.
"I lay in the grass, missing my mother. I was tired, hungry, and weak all over. I vaguely saw my mother waving at me in the sky. I felt my soul rising up, getting closer and closer to my mother..."
Xiao Yun showed a painful expression: "But I didn't touch my mother's hand. I seemed to be sucked in by something. I felt cold all over and it was dark around me..."
Ashan showed a sad look. He reached out his hand, gently put his arm around Xiao Yun's shoulders, and patted him slowly.
Fortunately, Ashan now likes to sleep on the kang, and his body doesn’t stink so much after taking a few baths, otherwise Xiao Yun would not be able to continue this play... at least his emotions would not be so full.
"I don't know if this is a dream, uncle. I forgot about you and my people... I was born in a strange world. In that world, I also had a mother who looked exactly like my mother ... That mother held my hand, took care of me, and taught me a lot of knowledge..."
"I feel very happy. That mother has always been with me, just like a mother to me... Suddenly one day, that mother said to me, Ayun, you should go back. You are not a useless person. The tribe needs you..."
Xiao Yun pinched his thigh hard and started crying. A Shan was shocked and hugged him with both hands.
"I held my mother's hand and didn't want to leave her. She was very sad, but she still shook my hand off..."
"When I woke up, I remembered you and the tribesmen again, but my mother was gone..."
Xiao Yun felt that it was time to cry out loud, but his grief was still brewing when the wailing sound exploded right beside his ears.
Xiao Yun was stunned, he slowly looked up... Well, good, it was indeed a snow werewolf, his emotions were not hidden, Ashan was crying like a child, it was a waste of his handsome face after washing it clean.
Uh... my conscience seems to be a little bit hurt. I am still a good person after all. Although I was forced to tell a harmless lie, I still feel bad for making someone cry...
