I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 402 – The completed wheelbarrow
The most important thing, however, was not the appearance of the wheelbarrow loaded with so many bricks; Lame, who was not known for his strength, was pushing it!
If this had happened with the Second Senior Brother, known for his strength, people would have been surprised, but not to the extent they are now. But seeing Lame, with his limp, pushing the cart alone with such a heavy load, everyone involuntarily widened their eyes and opened their mouths in sheer astonishment.
Tools capable of transporting a lot at once were not unheard of to them. For example, when building bathhouses in winter, the Divine Child and Lame made a deer-drawn plow. However, that plow differed from this wheelbarrow because a deer pulled it, while now, only a person was pushing it. This was a testament to their ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Watching Lame, his face beaming with pride, push the cart back and forth, Han couldn’t help but smile.
The first hand-pushed cart in the Green Sparrow Tribe was still relatively primitive compared to the cart Han remembered from his memory. It was even inferior to the two-wheeled carts commonly used on construction sites in later years. But it was still a cart.
In a broader sense, the wheelbarrow marked the beginning of vehicle manufacturing. Before its appearance, it might have taken a long time and a lot of trial and error to create a more efficient cart than carrying things by hand. But with the wheelbarrow in place, the appearance of other wheeled vehicles became a natural progression.
Transporting one hundred and twenty bricks at once was too much for the wheelbarrow. After all, the road from the brick kiln to the Green Sparrow Tribe was challenging, and the wheels were still made of wood.
Carrying so much at once was to test the wheelbarrow’s load-bearing capacity. Another reason was that Han, especially Lame, wanted to elicit admiration from the tribe.
Could Lame, who had finally managed to produce the wheelbarrow, resist showing it off?
But after waiting for the road to be smoothed out a bit, carrying seventy or eighty bricks at a time wouldn’t be too difficult. It would be much easier than using a shoulder pole.
“I’ll give it a try!”
After watching for a while, the Second Senior Brother couldn’t help himself. He stepped forward and said.
By now, Lame had received enough admiring looks from everyone, and the effort of pushing the cart had made his forehead slightly sweaty.
Although pushing the cart was lighter and more accessible than carrying a pole, carrying a heavier load would still make him tired, so he let go.
After Lame let go, the wheelbarrow didn’t lose its balance and tip over. Instead, it stood steadily there because two wooden supports acted as legs at the back of the wheelbarrow.
“Let’s load some more bricks on top…”
Taking over from Lame, the Second Senior Brother, under Lame’s guidance, quickly became familiar with the wheelbarrow and proudly exclaimed.
Han quickly intervened to stop him.
After all, the wheelbarrow’s bearings were made of hardwood, not steel, and the wheels were also made of wood. If more weight were added, this handcrafted wheelbarrow would likely be scrapped before it could be put into actual use…
The novelty of the hand-pushed cart immediately caught the people’s attention of the Green Sparrow Tribe. Not only adults but also curious and active children were running around the wheelbarrow, waiting for the adults to have some free time so they could play with the cart.
The wheelbarrow’s appearance significantly reduced the workers’ burden of carrying clay bricks and finished bricks. Originally, five people were needed for this task, but now only two are required.
Although the number of workers suddenly decreased by more than half, the work speed had not slowed; in fact, it had even increased. And the two workers didn’t feel as tired as before.
The great success of the first hand-pushed cart significantly boosted the morale of the first carpenter, Lame. With the experience of the first successful attempt, he quickly began working with two assistants, and half a month later, he produced two more carts.
Some of the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe were currently wielding tools for compacting earth, taking advantage of the ground not yet completely dry after a rain. They were not building earth walls or compacting the ground inside newly built houses but working on the road outside the Green Sparrow Tribe’s perimeter wall that led to the brick kiln.
The road they were compacting was not just a dirt path; it was covered with a layer of fine stones transported from the quarry. Over time, many small broken stones had accumulated at the quarry and were useless until now.
With these fine stones, the people of the Green Sparrow Tribe violently compacted the earth, ensuring that the ground wouldn’t turn into mud after rain, providing added security when it was time to harvest and transport crops.
This road was divided into three sections: one leading to the brick kiln and the other two leading to the fields on either side of the tribe. These three roads converged fifty meters outside the main gate of the tribe and then led into the tribe together.
No wonder they said that you must first build roads to become rich. While this road might not make the Green Sparrow Tribe wealthy, at the very least, it would make traveling much more comfortable.
Walking on this newly repaired section of the primitive “village road,” Han Cheng couldn’t help but feel emotional. However, when he looked at the two roads leading to the fields, which were still in the planning stage and hadn’t started construction yet, Han couldn’t help but sniff.
After all, the tribe’s manpower was limited, and there were many things to do. It wasn’t possible to devote all manpower to road construction.
So far, only one section of the “village road” leading from the tribe to the brick kiln had been completed, and the standards weren’t exceptionally high.
Currently, more than 11,000 clay bricks have been fired and stacked in the tribe, forming a large pile. Many roof tiles have also been made, mainly for the construction of the school’s brick and tile building, which was about to begin. As a result, the workers who had been compacting the road will be diverted to the construction of the buildings, and the construction of the two roads leading to the fields will be postponed.
Infrastructure development was indeed not easy. Han Cheng shook his head in contemplation.
Population, always insufficient, he sighed once again.
Let’s wait a little longer. If my salt plan, which I’ve been working on for so long, doesn’t have the desired effect by this winter, then I’ll have to take some other measures!