I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 399 – Cart
After much effort, the relatively small quantity of high-quality linen, which had been manufactured with considerable effort, was transformed into what appeared to be of little use: items referred to as masks by the Divine Child, which made many people in the tribe feel very uncomfortable.
It wasn’t just Bai Xue, the fabric enthusiast, who felt uncomfortable; even those wearing masks felt the same.
Because these things covered their mouths and noses, it was uncomfortable to breathe.
However, when they descended into the kiln, the Divine Child insisted they must wear them, and nobody was allowed to slack off.
He said that if they didn’t do this, they would easily contract a very uncomfortable illness.
It wasn’t until they realized the seriousness of the situation and the possibility of illness that the people who descended into the kiln began to take it seriously and dared not disregard wearing the extremely uncomfortable masks.
Although Han Cheng felt a bit sorry for using linen originally intended for clothing to make masks, he did not skimp or hesitate in the slightest.
This was something that had to be done; otherwise, if several people in the tribe ended up with tuberculosis, it would be unbearable.
That was a disease that could reduce a strong man to the brink of death!
The temperature inside the brick kiln was much higher than outside, and Han Cheng was sweating profusely soon after entering.
However, he didn’t pay much attention to this; instead, he focused intently on the bricks inside the kiln.
Compared to before, these brick blanks had changed significantly.
Each was dark green, and they made a crisp sound when two were struck together.
Han Cheng held a green brick in his hand, a smile on his face. His luck and skill were not wrong; these bricks from the first kiln were successful!
He had the bricks transported outside; out of the five hundred bricks, forty-three had cracked, which was still within an acceptable range.
The middle part of these cracked bricks was black, indicating they had not been fully fired.
It seemed that the kiln had been extinguished too early this time; next time, they would need to fire it for a more extended period.
He didn’t discard these broken bricks but had them all transported back to the tribe. They could still be used when it was time to build houses; after all, “better a wall with cracks than no wall at all.”
“Ding, ding, ding…”
Beside him, Hei Wa, holding a green brick in one hand and the red bricks left over from building the kiln in the other, collided them together. After doing this for a while, he had to admit that bricks fired this way were more durable than the previous red bricks.
“Divine Child, when firing pottery, can we also pour water inside?”
After confirming that pouring water could make the bricks more solid, Hei Wa immediately thought of applying it to pottery firing.
Pour water while firing pottery.
That would almost certainly not work.
Although both pottery and bricks were made from clay, there were still many differences between them.
However, Han Cheng did not directly state what he knew. Instead, he looked at Hei Wa, eagerly anticipating his response, and said, “I’m not sure. If you want to know the result, try it yourself.”
Han Cheng gradually cultivated the ability of people in the tribe to think actively and discover problems.
He had already figured out that while there were many things he could indeed lead the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe to shortcut if they wanted to continue developing further down this path, the tribe’s people would need to work hard and discover things for themselves.
After all, he, the pseudo-shaman, was not almighty, and he only had partial knowledge of many things.
“Yeah, I’ll give it a try!”
With a gleam in his eye, Hei Wa nodded vigorously before turning and running towards the place where he usually fired pottery…
The bricks used for the experiment in the first kiln were all transported to the interior of the tribe. After cleaning up the brick kiln, the bricks for the second kiln were also loaded. This time, there were a lot more—two thousand in total.
It turned out that carrying bricks was not an easy task, even if they were just brick blanks.
This was the most direct feeling Han Cheng got after helping the tribe members load the bricks for the second kiln into the kiln.
The other people in the tribe were okay. After all, they had more muscular bodies than Han Cheng, and secondly, they had been living a life worse than the current one since they were born.
To Han Cheng, shoulder-carrying and lifting these extremely laborious methods were already rare in their eyes!
“A gentleman says: ‘Learning should never cease. Blue comes from indigo but is bluer than indigo; ice comes from water but is colder than water. A straight piece of wood becomes a wheel, and the square is rounded in the middle. Even if it is rough and uneven, the wheel makes it so…’ Therefore, without accumulating small steps, one cannot travel a thousand miles…”
Watching the brick kiln emitting blue smoke and the tribe members sweating profusely as they carried bricks back and forth, Han Cheng recited an excerpt from Xunzi’s famous work “Encouraging Learning.”
He wasn’t trying to motivate himself or encourage the tribe members to persevere and adhere to their efforts. Continuing in this way, the light would belong to them, and the large brick houses would appear.
After all, even the stone in the tribe, who was the best at learning Chinese, was equally bewildered when hearing the words uttered by the Divine Child.
If they couldn’t understand, it naturally wouldn’t serve the purpose of awakening and educating the people.
The reason why he suddenly recited this famous excerpt was because he wanted to make a cart!
Master Xun had already given the most critical method for making wheels in “Encouraging Learning.”
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe had also used similar methods to make wooden forks and handles with an overall curvature exceeding 270 degrees.
With the existence of iron tools at this time, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to spend a little more effort making wheels.
After solving the key technical problem of the wheels, the rest would be figured out.
Han Cheng could not make four-wheeled cars or three-wheeled motorcycles with buckets. However, making a single-wheeled cart like the red-faced Guan Gong selling dates should not have been a problem.
Han Cheng clenched his fist, full of fighting spirit, and then couldn’t help but smile. Selling dates for the red-faced Guan Gong and Old Luo was indeed narrow-minded.
Han Cheng didn’t need to personally handle the kiln’s firing. He instructed the fire, which was about to develop occupational diseases from frequent firing, and then returned to the tribe.
As an idle person, there was nothing major to manufacture, so he started making the windows for the large brick house that had not yet been built.
“Lame, take a break first. Let me tell you something more interesting.”
Han Cheng glanced at the busy bees coming and going, approached Lame, and spoke up.
“Something interesting?”
Lame perked up.
When people achieve a sense of accomplishment in a particular field, they will become more immersed in it and want to do more challenging things.
Woodworking was also an activity that could intoxicate people, such as Emperor Chongzhen’s brother, who was obsessed with woodworking and now Lame.