"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 thumped his waist.
The big stone is oval in shape, like a round egg, with the surface polished very smooth and standing straight up.
On the right side of the big stone, there are several ancient shamanistic inscriptions carved on it: The Great Wilderness Hundreds of Sketch Maps.
Then, there were rows and rows of smaller fonts of witchcraft characters, 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, one is ordinary shaman, which can be understood by anyone who has studied it specially.
For example, those tribes that have lost their totem gods, although their shamans have no witchcraft power, still inherit part of the witchcraft and can use the witchcraft plus pictures to record the major events that have happened in the tribe.
The other kind is the witch writing carved by the old witch. This kind of witch writing 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 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 carved.
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's different when using mysterious witch scripts. Each witch script can record a kind of herbal medicine, which can save a lot of materials and help to pass it on completely.
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 I 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 Wilderness, but the old witch knew less about the herbs in the Southern Wilderness, Western Wilderness, and 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 effects 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 went to the bamboo forest at the foot of 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."
"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 is Xuan? Why haven't you seen him these past few days?"
Chi Shao said: "I took the hunting team out, 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 took his luggage, closed the door of the bamboo house, and left the Vine Tribe on the giant eagle.
"Hey..."
The giant eagle circled into the sky in circles, then flew into the distance and gradually disappeared.
In the courtyard of the bamboo forest, Chi Shao looked at the direction of the giant eagle and silently prayed that the old witch would 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 one after another.
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 think there is nothing wrong with the idea of digging stones, and it is not a lie.
"Okay, go back!"
Jiang Xuan tied the two large bags of ore together, put 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 a 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 is time to consider how to smelt these copper ores and tin ores into bronze.
Jiang Xuan's understanding of bronze is limited to knowing that it is an alloy of copper and tin. As for the ratio of copper to tin, he is not very clear and needs to try it bit by bit.
However, he did have 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 pit 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 does not need to hold a pot and is directly closed.
After the earthen kiln was built, Jiang Xuan personally led people to chop down many thick branches with stone axes, cut them into pieces of wood of similar length, and then piled them neatly into the earthen 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 air inlet. Then he borrowed kindling from a 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 earthen kiln was ignited. The inside of the earthen 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 vent 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 wood into charcoal.
The next step is to wait 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 inside the kiln.
In the earth kiln, all the wood had turned into black charcoal. Jiang Xuan picked up a relatively thick piece of charcoal and broke it lightly. 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 earthen kiln and packed it all in bark woven bags.
Next, is the second step of smelting bronze, building two smelting furnaces, one for smelting copper ore and one for smelting tin ore.
Due to limited conditions, Jiang Xuan planned to build the simplest vertical smelting furnace.
The vertical smelting furnace actually looks like a large chimney, with an air inlet at the bottom and an open top. It is very simple to build.
Building a smelting furnace directly in a cave is a very stupid behavior. Let’s not talk about the problem of light. The smoke and various toxic gases produced by smelting can choke people to death.
So Jiang Xuan sent people to build two tall wooden houses next to the cave, and then built a smelting furnace inside the wooden houses.
In this way, even if someone flies through the sky on a flying mount, they can only see the smoke coming from the house and cannot see the situation inside the house.
Smoke coming out of a house is very common among primitive tribes. Which tribe doesn't have a fire pit burning day and night?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Jiang Xuan first dug a trench more than half a meter long inside the wooden house to serve as the air inlet of the smelting furnace.
Then, he used the reconciled clay to build a vertical smelting furnace on the ditch. Two tribesmen who were good at construction and loyal were assisting him.
Time passed quickly, and half a day later, there were two vertical smelting furnaces more than one meter high in the wooden house.
The smelting furnace just built needed to dry for a period of time, and Jiang Xuan used this time to make some pottery models.
A pottery model is a ceramic model used for pouring bronze vessels.
After the copper and tin are melted, they will turn into high-temperature liquid bronze. The liquid bronze is then poured into the ceramic model. After the bronze cools and the ceramic model is broken, a bronze of a specific shape can be obtained.
The Vine tribe had wax and experience in making pottery, so Jiang Xuan planned to use the lost wax method to make pottery models.
He first took two pieces of insect wax and soaked them in hot water.
The melting point of insect wax is very low, and it softens quickly after being put into hot water.
Jiang Xuan took the opportunity to pick up the insect wax and quickly shaped it into the shape of a hammer with a handle like a clay figure.
When the insect wax cooled and solidified, Jiang Xuan got a hard insect wax hammer.
Then, he used a small stone knife to carve the totem pattern of the rattan tribe on the side of the insect wax hammer, and modified the corners of the hammer to make it look better.
Then, he used a lump of clay made from the mixed clay to wrap the insect wax hammer little by little. In order to facilitate placement, the clay finally turned into a conical object, and the top of the cone was the end of the hammer handle.
After the clay is left to dry in the shade, the texture has become relatively hard.
Jiang Xuan put the conical clay mold into the fire pit and baked it. As the temperature increased, the insect wax inside quickly melted.
Finally, the melted insect wax is poured out, and a ceramic model of a bronze hammer is created.
Then, Jiang Xuan used the same method to make a bronze ax model, a bronze knife model, and a bronze saw model.
After making these pottery models, the smelting furnace was almost dry, and the work of smelting bronze officially began.