I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 419 – Longing for the Green Tribe – Repairing the Pig Pen
The Green Sparrow Tribe is immersed in the joy of harvest.
Near the rabbit hutches, at the farthest corner of the courtyard from the residential area, Eldest Senior Brother and others followed Han Cheng’s plan and dug foundations there.
Shang led a group to transport stones from the quarry.
They were building a pig pen.
Compared to deer and rabbits, constructing a pig pen required more care, primarily to ensure it was sturdy enough to withstand the pigs’ rooting. After all, the pigs the Green Sparrow Tribe was now going to raise had never been domesticated before, vastly different from the tame domestic pigs of later eras that only cared about eating and growing fat.
Therefore, after careful consideration, Han Cheng decided to have the foundation dug and lined with stones. It was feared that if built with rammed earth walls, it wouldn’t last long against these ferocious creatures.
Another consideration was the cleanliness of the pig pen. When pigs came to mind, the first impressions were generally fat and lazy, followed by dirtiness. This impression wasn’t entirely wrong; these creatures were indeed quite dirty.
In later times, in villages with numerous pig-feeding households, the smell was somewhat tolerable on ordinary days. However, once summer arrived, the stench could be pretty pungent.
Because of such experiences, Han Cheng chose to locate the pig pen farthest from the Green Sparrow Tribe’s residential area.
Fortunately, the Green Sparrow Tribe’s courtyard was spacious enough that this distance would hardly affect the living area. This was one solution. Another was regular cleaning and scrubbing of the pig pen, flushing away all the filth to minimize the odor.
This was the fundamental solution. However, if they were to clean the pig pen daily, merely using stone for construction wouldn’t suffice, and the floor of the pig pen couldn’t be ignored either.
Han Cheng planned to use stones and cement to pave the entire pig pen, making cleaning easier.
Upon hearing this news, Eldest Senior Brother and others who received Han Cheng’s message couldn’t help but marvel silently.
How grand would this need to be? How extensive would the project be?
After all, the houses they lived in still had earthen floors without bricks or stones. Yet now, these wild pigs causing havoc in their tribe were to enjoy such high treatment…
Of course, it was necessary.
Han Cheng looked at the seven wild piglets confined in the makeshift stone enclosure, thinking this to himself.
They were only starting to raise them now, and the number of wild pigs wasn’t significant. But as time passed and their numbers grew, Eldest Senior Brother and the others would come to understand the power of these creatures.
Their attack through scent was no less formidable than their tusks!
This was why he urged the tribe’s people to quickly establish the foundation of the pig pen two days before the corn was ripe.
As for constructing the pig pen with stones, which Eldest Senior Brother and others found to be quite grand, Han Cheng wasn’t too worried.
For one thing, if everything went as expected, by the Lunar New Year this year, the Green Sparrow Tribe’s population would significantly increase. The source of this growth would be the Green Tribe, which was already gradually being ensnared.
The Green Tribe’s population wasn’t too large, but it wasn’t small either. With their inclusion, the labor force of the Green Sparrow Tribe would significantly increase.
By then, the two roads leading to the fields, which had not yet been constructed, would also commence. There would be hands available to lay the pig pen as well.
Another thing was that some time ago, about a mile from the quarry, they found a type of stone that Shang and his team classified as unusable. These stones were like stacked leaves, peeling off one by one, but they were unsuitable for building walls or houses due to their insufficient thickness.
Han Cheng had gone to see it himself. There wasn’t much shale on the ground, but after digging around with shovels, they found quite a few buried under the soil.
These large slabs of shale gave him the confidence to pave the pig pen.
Of course, they could also pave the roads in due course.
Also, when the time came, they could dig a large pool near the pig pen or elsewhere, cover it with a lid, store the waste from washing it, and then use it to fertilize the fields…
There were all kinds of things that needed many hands to do, and fortunately, they had the Green Tribe.
“Achoo!”
In an unseen place, with leaves around his waist, the leader of the Green Tribe sat there and looked at the empty salt jar again, continuing to worry. Suddenly, he sneezed loudly, blowing bubbles of mucus out.
He skillfully wiped it away with the back of his hand, then continued to worry about the empty salt jar.
He continuously wondered how he could get more salt to eat; there wasn’t much skin in the tribe.
At the same time as he was worrying, some things he had never thought of before quietly emerged in his mind.
He was lost in thought for a while, then suddenly reacted, his body trembling violently, and shaking his head like a rattle drum…
By the simple, temporary construction of the pigsty, Han Cheng did not know about this scene happening in the distance, nor did he know that the Green Tribe’s leader’s concerns had caused him to blow bubbles of mucus.
At this moment, he was still lying next to the pigsty, looking at the seven wild piglets huddled together in fear, indulging in reverie.
Twelve wild boars, ten small and two large, with the largest already dead in the trap. The other adult was in good spirits and not seriously injured, so it could be kept alive.
But in the end, it was not alive. Under Han Cheng’s command, the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe stabbed it to death in the trap before dragging it out.
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe had no psychological pressure to kill the wild boar that fell into the trap, even though its cries were particularly miserable before it died.
Instead, many people looked at the blood on the muddy ground and felt sorry for it.
After solidifying, this blood was put in a basin and sprinkled with salt, which made it extremely delicious.
Adult wild boars are not ideal for domestication as piglets have not grown up.
With it around, the seven piglets will be even harder to tame, which is why they died.
Han Cheng watched for a while, then threw a lot of green grass into the makeshift pigsty and turned away.
He would do it later and use the wild boar he had hunted today to make a sumptuous meal for the tribe’s people.
Just before the sickle was opened, it was a reward for the tribe’s people.
After all, there are hundreds of acres of corn this year. Once the harvest begins, there will be a long time when they can’t relax. It is necessary to have a good meal before the sickle is opened.
Translator’s notes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale