"There is no excrement of other animals on the ground, which means that this cave is not a nest of other animals. Coupled with the water source, this is simply a natural sanctuary."
Zhao Qian became more and more satisfied with the cave. He felt that moving into the cave would save them a lot of trouble.
Otherwise, just building a shelter will take a lot of time, not to mention that the problem of water sources has not been solved.
However, just in case, Zhao Qian continued to go deep into the cave.
During the exploration, Zhao Qian found that the cave was really big. He went tens of meters deeper and still did not reach the deepest part of the cave.
And, as he went deeper, he found that the space was getting bigger and bigger.
For example, when he first entered the cave, the space could only accommodate four people at the same time, but after going more than a hundred meters deep, the space could accommodate more than ten people at the same time.
In shape, it is like the ground cage he made, but in reverse, with a small entrance and a large space inside.
Bang...
Just when Zhao Qian was concentrating on looking ahead, he stepped on something and almost tripped.
He quickly lowered the torch on his hand and found that what he had stepped on was a bone. To be precise, it was a rib, a very big rib.
Unfortunately, Zhao Qian had no knowledge in this area and could not tell what kind of animal ribs it was. However, one thing he was sure of was that the owner of the ribs was very large during his lifetime.
"It doesn't matter whose rib it is, if it's polished a little, it can be used as a weapon."
Zhao Qian did not delve into what kind of animal rib this was, but thought about using this rib to make a weapon.
But just as he was tying up his ribs and carrying them on his back, he suddenly saw a black shadow not far away.
Just now, he was holding a torch and his eyes were not used to the darkness, so he didn't see the black shadow. But when he was tying his ribs, he put the torch aside and his eyes adapted to the darkness, and he discovered the existence of the black shadow.
Suddenly, Zhao Qian felt his heart tighten and his whole body became cold. He didn't dare to take a breath for fear of a dark shadow rushing towards him.
However, after a while, the black shadow remained motionless, like a dead thing.
After waiting for a while, Zhao Qian saw that the black shadow was really not moving, so he suppressed the fear in his heart, picked up the torch, and slowly approached the black shadow with the stone ax in his hand.
As the distance got closer, the worries in Zhao Qian's heart gradually disappeared, because he could be sure that the black shadow was a dead thing.
However, when he walked up to the black shadow, he took a sharp breath of air and couldn't say a word for a long time.
The dead thing in front of him was the skull of an animal, and this animal was called Tyrannosaurus rex a long time ago.
Inside the camp…
Although Wang Qianqian and Liu Yun had not eaten anything all day, they did not feel hungry because their attention was focused on iron-making at this time.
Of course, it was not that they had collected enough iron sand, they just wanted to try it first to avoid failure in making iron and wasting time.
"Xiaoyun, is this all right?"
Wang Qianqian first dug a small pit in the ground, and then built a very tall cylindrical stove with soil. There was a simple bellows next to it, which could continuously deliver air to the stove.
"Well, it's almost done."
Liu Yun was not idle either, she was busy preparing charcoal.
Although coal is the best way to smelt steel, they can't find it in their current situation, so they can only resort to charcoal.
The method of making charcoal is very simple. As long as the wood is not completely burned, the rest is charcoal.
Therefore, she first collected a large amount of wood, piled the wood into a pyramid shape, and then buried the wood with soil, leaving only a small hole that was not too big.
In this case, when the wood is ignited, because there is insufficient air entering it, the wood will not burn completely, thus forming charcoal.
However, although the production method is not difficult, it does take a lot of time.
Liu Yun started preparing it in the morning, and it was only now that she made the charcoal.
"Xiaoyun, will we be able to make iron next?" Wang Qianqian asked excitedly.
"Um!"
Liu Yun looked at Wang Qianqian, who was treating ironmaking as a game, and said, "Don't be so excited. I'm so nervous right now. If we fail, our day's work will be in vain."
Wang Qianqian said nonchalantly: "As the saying goes, failure is the mother of success. As long as we keep playing... No, if we keep persisting, we will always succeed."
Liu Yun smiled without saying anything, and put the collected iron sand into a clay bowl. The bottom of the clay bowl was cushioned with stones, and the height was lower than the middle of the stove.
Then, the charcoal was put into the stove until the entire stove was filled, leaving no room left.
"It's time to light the fire!"
Liu Yun thought for a moment and felt that there was no problem, then asked Wang Qianqian to light the charcoal.
In fact, Liu Yun wanted to do this step by herself, but Wang Qianqian had to do it by herself. She said it was fun, but Liu Yun didn't see what was fun about it anyway.
As the charcoal was ignited, the temperature in the stove began to rise continuously. In just a short time, heat waves were emitted around the stove.
At this time, Wang Qianqian gave up and asked: "Xiaoyun, how long will it take for you to recover? It's so hot."
Liu Yun kept turning the simple bellows to send air into the furnace, while saying: "The burning temperature of charcoal is not as high as that of coal, so it takes longer to make iron... If you feel too hot, just go and rest.
!”
Wang Qianqian waved her hands quickly and said: "I'm fine, I can still hold on, I don't need to rest."
After saying that, she took over from Liu Yun and started turning the simple bellows.
The temperature in the furnace is getting higher and higher. Looking inside from the top of the furnace, you can see that the inside is like volcanic lava, all orange formed by high-temperature flames.
As time goes by, the charcoal is burned little by little, the temperature of the furnace reaches its maximum, and the iron sand finally begins to change.
Half an hour later...
As the charcoal burns out, the temperature in the furnace begins to drop.
after an hour……
After the temperature of the stove dropped a lot, she finally dared to open the entrance to the stove and use a wooden stick to pull out the clay bowl.
However, the ash produced by burning charcoal covered the clay bowl, and the smelted iron could not be seen for a while.
"Xiaoyun, I didn't find the iron we smelted, have you found it?" Wang Qianqian searched for a long time but found nothing.
"This is it."
Liu Yun found a black, soybean-sized ball at the bottom of the clay bowl and said to Wang Qianqian.
"Is this iron made by us?"
Wang Qianqian had a look of disgust on her face. She had never thought that the iron she made was so ugly. It was completely different from what she imagined.
"The steel you usually see has been processed by modern industry. Our primitive method can only smelt such iron."
Liu Yun noticed Wang Qianqian's dislike and explained with a smile.
"I'm back!"
At this moment, Zhao Qian's voice sounded in the darkness.