I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 236 – Finally produced charcoal.
“Ha ha ha…”
Flakes of snow fluttered down like willow catkins, covering the earth in white. All around was silent, with no birds to be seen.
It seemed as though the snow and cold had completely sealed everything off.
In this environment, a group of people suddenly poured out from the gates of the Green Sparrow Tribe. Leading the way was a young person.
They hurried towards the west side of the wall, coming to a raised area.
This protrusion had already been dug open, and the scattered clay and the black substance inside the protrusion were even more conspicuous against the surrounding white snow.
The visibly respected young person didn’t mind the dirtiness and directly entered the darkness.
As his hand moved, the black substance made a crisp sound, as pleasant to the ears as the joy in his heart.
Hei Wa wasn’t wrong. The firewood hadn’t been destroyed by the kiln. All the firewood inside had turned into charcoal, which was of the best quality!
“Ha ha ha…!”
Han Cheng finally couldn’t suppress the joy in his heart, lifting his two blackened claws and laughing heartily.
The heavens seemed unwilling to hear his unpleasant laughter and sent snowflakes into his mouth, attempting to shut it, but to little effect.
A series of joyful laughter continued to emanate from his mouth.
What an unexpected joy! This was indeed an unexpected joy!
Originally just an idea out of desperation, who would have thought it would actually result in such fine charcoal?
A problem that had troubled him so long was unexpectedly resolved in such an unforeseen manner…
Thinking carefully, it was somewhat similar to the story of Yu Zhan’ao in “Red Sorghum”, urinating into the wine mash and brewing excellent sorghum wine. It felt eerily similar to what he was experiencing now—unintentional success.
Reflecting on it, some things in this world are indeed quite helpless. The harder one tries to obtain something, the more difficult it becomes. On the other hand, some things that were not paid much attention to bloomed and bore fruit.
Han Cheng suppressed his laughter and realized that the people around him were looking at him bewildered.
He inwardly sniffed, thinking, “These guys haven’t seen such carefree laughter before?”
Then, he composed himself and instructed people to return to fetch grass baskets and carriers to collect the charcoal.
He also had some people gather firewood here. He wanted to strike while the iron was hot and burn another batch. If this kiln could still produce good charcoal, then the matter of making charcoal was truly resolved by himself.
Hei Wa stood aside, looking at the Divine Child with endless admiration. To him, the Divine Child unexpectedly solved a problem that had seemed unsolvable.
Such a significant change occurred just by simply changing the order of lighting the fire. The wisdom of the Divine Child was truly admirable.
Little did he know that what he admired resulted from Han Cheng’s desperation.
If he knew the truth, I wonder if Hei Wa would be dumbfounded and cough up three liters of blood and if he would think about starting a fire from above when they started firing pottery next year…
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe were thrilled today. Not long ago, they had just witnessed the power of the bow and arrow, and now they received news of the Divine Child’s successful charcoal burning, which made them all smile from ear to ear.
Including the ice wind chimes the children loved can be considered three pieces of good news.
Of course, the most joyful thing among them is still the bow and arrow, a very useful weapon for the tribe. As for the charcoal burning, they just followed the Divine Child and enjoyed the fun.
Among the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe, even the wisest shaman didn’t think that the charcoal the Divine Child tried so hard to make, in the presence of firewood as a readily available substitute, would have much significance.
However, Han Cheng had already developed a blind obedience mentality, and it was quite normal for them to follow the godson and enjoy some silly fun together.
This time, much charcoal was produced to fill two large grass baskets, more than all the previous batches combined.
The cold and falling snow dampened Han Cheng’s enthusiasm for charcoal burning. The cylindrical earthen kiln that had just been emptied was soon filled with firewood again.
Next was plastering the top of the cylinder with clay, leaving only a hole the size of a bowl.
The problem of clay was easily solved. The dried clay peeled off from the kiln earlier needed to be crushed and mixed with water, and it could be reused repeatedly.
Learning from the experience of freezing hands when plastering the top, Han Cheng used hot water to mix the clay this time.
After mixing the clay, they quickly started plastering with Hei Wa, which was much better.
The flames were sent in from above and soon ignited the firewood inside the kiln. As time passed, the flames inside the kiln began to descend.
Han Cheng stood on a stone, watching this happen, pondering why there was such a big difference between igniting the fire from below and igniting it from above using the same method.
After thinking for a while, apart from understanding that it had something to do with oxygen, he knew nothing else.
At this moment, he regretted being a liberal arts student in his previous life. If he were a science or technology enthusiast, he would encounter fewer difficulties in these aspects, right?
Thinking like this, he shook his head with a smile. Then, he felt fortunate because he remembered the approximate proportions of bronze.
He had seen this in comprehensive history books when studying the history of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Since the proportions were all integers, Han Cheng wrote them down.
This gave him some confidence in the upcoming tasks.
The proportions of bronze recorded in the book were somewhat inaccurate, but the general framework was there, which would significantly reduce the workload in the future.
Experiments could be conducted based on these proportions to achieve better bronze performance.
Han Cheng didn’t remember the proportions of bronze at first. It was only after continuous recollection later that the memories of that period suddenly surfaced.
Worried that he might forget later, Han Cheng recorded them on a piece of pottery.
From about a year ago, Han Cheng occasionally wrote things on pottery.
A good memory is no better than a bad pen. This saying is quite true. As he gradually adapted to life here, when he recalled the future, sometimes it felt very close, and sometimes it felt very distant.
But one undeniable fact was that many things were gradually becoming fuzzy in his mind.
This was the most fundamental reason why Han Cheng recorded some valuable things that he could remember and were helpful in this era.
Because this era is too far from the future, many things that seem very ordinary in the future are groundbreaking here. By recording more of them, he could avoid many detours in certain aspects in the future.
For example, the remembered proportions of bronze, the vaguely remembered but existent steelmaking method from somewhere, the curved plow for cultivating land, the primitive plow, and the ox-drawn hoe used for weeding and tilling the fields…
These are all essential things for this era that will make his and the Green Sparrow Tribe’s future path broader and easier.
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