I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 331 – Iron-oxidizing bacteria
“Brother Cheng, what’s that?”
Carrying a half-wattled pot of loaches, Bai Xue bounded over to Han Cheng with great joy, eager to show him their catch.
After a while, she saw something and pointed to a place near the riverbank, asking Han Cheng.
Excitedly, Han Cheng followed Bai Xue’s gaze and saw a yellowish-red substance on the riverbank about half a meter from the water, gleaming with some oil droplets from the water.
This substance was common in small rivers, streams, and muddy ditches.
Han Cheng had asked adults about this when he was young, and the answer he got was eel urine.
He believed this until he grew up and learned the truth from his teammates.
It wasn’t eel urine; it was iron bacteria.
So Han Cheng told her the name of the iron bacteria.
Bai Xue didn’t know what bacteria were, nor did she inquire further; she just nodded vigorously.
With an empty basket and the loaches, Han Cheng, feeling very happy, returned to the tribe with Bai Xue and the others, eagerly anticipating a delicious meal.
There was a famous dish whose name Han Cheng couldn’t remember, but he remembered the recipe clearly.
First, let the loaches soak in clean water for a few days, changing the water frequently to let them expel the mud and sand from their stomachs.
Then, boil the live loaches in a pot of water. Add a piece of tofu when the water is hot and the loaches are about to give up.
These loaches, which couldn’t stand the boiling water, would burrow into the cooler tofu and be cooked together…
The Green Sparrow Tribe didn’t have beans, so there was naturally no tofu. A good cook couldn’t make a good meal without rice. Han Cheng could only imagine this dish in his mind.
However, there were many ways to cook loaches, not just this one.
All the caught loaches were killed, and then a type of leaf called “gou tree” was used to wrap the loaches tightly and rub against them.
The surface of the gou tree leaf was rough, which could remove the slime from the loaches.
Afterward, the loaches were gutted and salted for an hour or two, then fried in animal fat until golden brown, with an unexpectedly delicious taste.
The only regret was the lack of flour.
Otherwise, the taste would be unforgettable if coated in flour and deep-fried, and the neighboring children would cry with envy.
It seemed unnecessary to go through so much trouble now. The loaches fried like this already had the tribe members praising them non-stop, their mouths full of oil!
Although they had caught quite a few loaches this time, it was still not enough for the many people in the Green Sparrow Tribe. Each person couldn’t even get one.
So, a few teenagers like Chen started learning from Han Cheng, making fishing cards one after another, clamoring to catch all the loaches in the river and eat them up.
Han Cheng also joined them in making the cards, finding feathers to tie to the top of the cards.
“Snap, snap, snap!”
A few soft sounds rang out by the riverbank as Han Cheng vigorously slapped his head.
Bai Xue, holding several dozen cards filled with earthworms, was stunned for a moment, then hurried forward to stop Brother Cheng, who was self-harming.
Of course, Han Cheng wasn’t trying to harm himself or get a concussion; he just had a sudden realization.
“Give me those cards, and give me the pot!”
Han Cheng said excitedly. Not waiting for Bai Xue to react, he picked up the ceramic pot beside her and, to her extremely shocked gaze, jumped straight down the riverbank.
Han Cheng didn’t jump into the river, as the riverbed wasn’t entirely water.
He didn’t care if the mud would dirty his grass shoes. He quickly arrived at the spot where Bai Xue had asked about the iron bacteria the day before. He found a piece of bark and carefully scooped up the iron bacteria, which looked similar to rust, along with some soil into the pot.
His sudden excitement wasn’t surprising because he remembered what his teammate had said when introducing iron bacteria: these bacteria had a very high iron content!
Since the iron content was high, could these substances be used to refine iron into solid blocks? Even if these iron bacteria weren’t as productive as iron ore, as long as they could be smelted into some iron, even if it was just enough to make a small iron knife or chisel, it would be possible!
Han Cheng felt confident he could make a functioning plow with such a tool!
Bai Xue and the others by the riverside didn’t understand why Han Cheng suddenly became so excited and attached such importance to these seemingly ordinary iron bacteria.
Could this stuff also be eaten? Like salt, could it make food exceptionally delicious?
Following Han Cheng’s example, everyone couldn’t help but become excited and collect iron bacteria along the riverbank.
By the afternoon, they had collected enough iron bacteria to fill half a pottery jar, weighing about 3 kg.
Han Cheng scooped out a lump of iron bacteria from the jar, rolled it into the size of a ping-pong ball with his hands, and placed it on a stone slab to dry.
These iron bacteria, mixed with mud, were heavier than the mud of similar size.
Han Cheng was delighted; it seemed that this iron-making endeavor had hope!
Such peculiar behavior from the Divine Child quickly caught the attention of the Green Sparrow tribe.
Something harder than stone? More robust than stone?
The shaman looked at the lumps of mud on the stone slab before him, finding it hard to connect them with what the Divine Child had just said.
Stones were the hardest and most robust things the shaman and the people of Green Sparrow tribe had ever seen. What could be harder and more robust than stones? He couldn’t think of anything.
He and the rest of the Green Sparrow tribe also had the same confusion.
Could this stuff be as hard as stones?
The shaman glanced at the lump of mud on the edge, puzzled. It had an imprint from when he had poked it with his finger just now.
Wasn’t this just ordinary mud?
He thought this way, and his doubts suddenly lessened as he remembered the pottery and cement in the tribe.
These two things were made of soil and the ungrouped ash of grass and wood, but they ultimately became highly robust…
Feeling comforted for a while, his doubts resurfaced.
The Divine Child said he wanted to use “iron” to create more practical tools.
This stuff was harder than stones, so how would he craft it?
He couldn’t understand, couldn’t understand…
The shaman shook his head, feeling dizzy.
Let’s see what the Divine Child does next.
The shaman resorted to his old method – wait and see.
The road ahead is tortuous, but there might be a way out of darkness and into brightness.
This line from the poet Lu You is well-written.
Han Cheng looked at the lumps of mud on the stone slab before him, feeling sincerely moved.
As for them, Han Cheng wasn’t planning to explain too much for now. Everything would become apparent when the iron was refined and the tools were made.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron-oxidizing_bacteria