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Chapter 241 Using Bamboo as a Ruler
The sweetest sleep since my migration.

Everyone wakes up in the morning feeling energetic and radiant.

Everyone was very satisfied with their new residence, but they were quite critical of their new roommate. Even primitive people with extremely high sleep quality would take some time to adapt to a thunderous creature like Tiger Head.

Zhang Tian's expectations were actually not high. The original intention of building the bamboo house was not for comfort. After actually staying there for one night, he found that it was better than he expected.

The insulation of the bamboo house is very good, so you won't feel cold even after the kang is turned off in the middle of the night.

I have lived in ivory castles and semi-cave-style buildings of the prairie people before. This kind of narrow and airtight house has a common problem: the air is not circulated, especially in cold weather, and you will feel stuffy if you stay indoors for a long time.

This problem also exists in bamboo houses, but because there are ventilation vents such as chimneys and fireplaces, it is not as serious.

In the final analysis, there are more people and fewer rooms. The comfort of housing is directly related to the per capita usable area. In the future, when only two or three people live in a room, the comfort will naturally be higher.

There is still a lot of bamboo left after mining.

Zhang Tian carefully selected a piece of bamboo.

Then he called Jing, Black Snake and Qingque who performed outstandingly during the construction of the bamboo house, and praised them first: "You learned quickly in building the bamboo house, which shows that you have talents in this area. I will teach them." You have more knowledge about construction, and after you learn it, you can teach it to others.”

The three of them were flattered and praised the sky priest for his generosity. They solemnly expressed that they would study hard and live up to their expectations!
"very good."

Zhang Tian nodded, pointed to the bamboo he picked out and said, "Did you see the knots on that bamboo? Use your rope to measure its length."

Measuring the length. When Zhang Tian first proposed this concept a few days ago, the men were all confused. Jing, Black Snake and Qingque were the quickest to understand among them all, one step faster than Xiao Xiao. This is also a gift. A manifestation.

The three people straightened the rope, aligned it with the two ends of the bamboo joints, and then cut off the excess. The length of the remaining rope is the length of the bamboo joints.

Zhang Tian said: "This length is called one foot. From now on, when I say one foot long, you must be able to realize that I am referring to the joints of this bamboo and the length of the rope in your hands."

"One foot..."

The three of them looked at the bamboo joints and then at the rope in their hands, repeating this unfamiliar word in their mouths.

They couldn't understand the significance of this yet, but they knew that the Sky Priest would not do meaningless things, so they kept it in mind silently.

Zhang Tian then said: "Jing, fold your rope in half."

Jing Yi did as he was told.

"Cut it, fold it in half, cut it again, fold it in half again, cut it again... Now the length of the rope in your hand is called an inch."

The three people's eyes fell on the small piece of rope in Jing's hand at the same time, and they repeated "one inch" thoughtfully.

Zhang Tian did not interrupt their thinking. He knew that they needed some time to accept the new knowledge and new vocabulary. Xiao Xiao on the side was also deep in thought.

Length, volume and weight, these three quantities were collectively referred to as weights and measures in ancient times. Only with the establishment of standard measurement principles, it will be more convenient and efficient in the future, whether engaged in construction or economic and cultural activities.

Zhang Tian didn't have a measuring ruler at hand, so the one foot he settled on now would definitely be different from the one foot he set in later generations.In fact, the weights and measures standards of each era are different, so there is no need to apply them mechanically.

The length of the bamboo he selected should be about thirty centimeters. A foot in this era is only that long, and it will not change in the future.

The inch in this era was obtained by folding the ruler rope in half three times. In other words, it was one-eighth of a foot.

Compared with one-tenth, folding it three times is obviously easier to understand, which is why Zhang Tian chose to start from the bamboo section.

The established standards of feet and inches are sufficient to cope with most scenes in life, so Zhang Tian did not introduce new units of length.

As for volume and weight, there is no need to accurately measure them yet. It will not be too late to make regulations when they are needed.

Seeing that the three of them seemed to have figured it out, Zhang Tian decided to test them.

He picked up the rope that had been cut in half and asked, "How long is this?"

The three of them thought for a moment and replied: "Two are as long as an inch."

"So it's two inches. What about this one?"

Zhang Tian picked up the rope that had been cut in half and asked.

"Three...no, four inches!"

"Good. What about this?"

Zhang Tian asked, pointing to the rope in Black Snake's hand.

"One foot!" The three of them said without thinking.

"So how many inches is a foot?"

The three of them were stunned for a moment, unable to react. Xiao Xiao quickly replied: "Eight inches! One foot is eight inches!"

For numbers, the owl is obviously more sensitive than the thorn, black snake and green bird.

The three of them clasped their hands and counted, confirming that what Xiao said was correct.

Zhang Tian took out ocher powder and asked: "If I asked you to apply ocher powder on every other inch of this rope, can you do it?"

"Of course!"

This is not difficult, Jing uses a one-inch long rope, measures on a foot-long rope, and paints every other inch with red ocher powder as requested by the Sky Priest.

"Very good." Zhang Tian continued to lead with questions, "Now, I need a six-inch-long bamboo. How can I get it?"

The three people thought for a moment, and their eyes suddenly lit up. Now, they somewhat understood the intention of the sky priest.

"You can use this rope to measure!"

Xiao Xiao also thought about it and said excitedly: "One red line on this rope means one inch long, and six red lines mean six inches long!"

Zhang Tian showed a slight smile, nodded and said: "You have made a tool that can measure length. This rope can measure the length of one foot, so it is called a measuring ruler. Of course, the measuring ruler should be made longer so that it can be measured. Something longer. But no matter how long, the method of making it is the same."

The three of them suddenly realized that they immediately found a longer rope and made a measuring ruler in the same way. They used ocher to mark the inch scale and chalk to mark the scale of the ruler.

With new tools, of course you have to put them into practice.

Everyone was surprised to find that the sky priest had started building a new house after just finishing building the bamboo house yesterday.

However, no foundation was laid this time, and the area of ​​the house was not large. According to Jing, the house being built now was only ten feet long and six feet wide.

When Jing said this, he also took out a long rope with red and white lines on it, and the pride on his face almost overflowed.

He told everyone that this rope was called a measuring stick and could measure the length of anything.It sounds impressive, but the men are more concerned about another thing: "The bamboo house is enough for us to live in, what else do you want to build?"

"We need to build two toilets." Jing conveyed the Sky Priest's instructions, "One for men and one for women."

"bathroom?"

"what is that?"

Suddenly a new word popped up, and everyone was confused and started talking about it.

Jing raised his voice and said: "The toilet is a place to poop! The priest knew that it was inconvenient for us to poop, so he specially built two toilets for us, so that we don't have to go so far to poop in the future!"

After the forest was burned down, everything within a kilometer radius was reduced to scorched earth, with no shelter.

We are all fully evolved Homo sapiens, and we are somewhat ashamed. No one wants to poop in public, so we have to hold in our poop every morning and run to a meadow a kilometer or two away to deal with it. It is really troublesome.

Build a house just for shit?
They are used to pooping wild shit. No one has ever thought about it in this direction before. Now that I think about it, you are worthy of being a priest. This is a great idea!With the shelter of the house wall, you can defecate freely in the future without worrying about being embarrassed.

Someone with a rather strange brain circuit asked from a very tricky angle: "What if the room is full?"

Jing asked immediately.

Zhang Tian said: "So we have to dig pits, pull the feces into the pits, and then clean them regularly."

On the one hand, the purpose of building toilets is to solve the inconvenience of life, and on the other hand, it is also to collect the excrement of the tribesmen. After compost fermentation, it becomes good farmyard manure.

With the experience of building a bamboo house, building a toilet couldn't be easier. Just dig a few pits and set up a simple enclosure structure. There is no need to worry about heating and insulation. Who would spend the night in a latrine?The side walls are not sealed, and a gap is exposed at the top for ventilation and lighting.

The two toilets were completed in one day, with four pits in each toilet, separated by bamboo. Zhang Tian painted the Qian hexagram representing men and the Kun hexagram representing women on the outer walls to avoid confusion.

Zhang Tian used the remaining bamboo to build several shacks for the wolves and padded them with thatch.

He lets out friendly wolf barks, inviting the wolves into a warm den to sleep.

Due to the threat of local wolves, Wolf Boy's wolf companions are unable to dominate the nearby forest and can only live with Wolf Boy in a human camp.

The wolf boy spent the night in a warm bamboo house, and the wolves naturally did not receive such treatment.

The current temperature is not too cold for wolves with thick fur, and it is okay for them to use the quilt as a bed. They have long been used to it, but when winter comes, they must hide in a relatively warm place and huddle together to keep warm.

Zhang Tian is happy to provide them with a warm shelter.

It is not without reason that wolves are the first animals to be domesticated. Like humans, they are social animals and have strong social attributes. The most important thing is that they are smart enough to understand words and emotions, and can distinguish between good intentions and bad intentions.

In a sense, the unconditional obedience of the wolf pack to the alpha wolf is itself a kind of self-domestication. This group of wolves is even more special. Although they have a nominal alpha wolf, the truly powerful leader is the wolf boy.

In other words, they have been tamed by the wolf children and are therefore more receptive to human kindness.

However, the tribe's inherent fear of wolves made it difficult for them to show kindness. Only he and Lin Yu could do this.

Lin Yu is very positive. She has long wanted to raise a dog.

Although Zhang Tian is not a dog lover, from a practical point of view, there are many benefits to domesticating wolves. They can take care of the house and care for the family, and they can also be raised as meat animals when hungry.

The wolves turned their heads to look, rested their heads on their front paws and closed their eyes, paying no attention to him.They are wolves, wolves who are uninhibited and love freedom!The vast world is their home, and they will not live in such strange and small things!
Zhang Tian shrugged and didn't take it seriously.As long as the goodwill is conveyed.

He walked into the bamboo rat breeding farm to inspect the progress.

Like the toilet, the breeding farm is not completely sealed, and there are gaps on the sides for air convection.

The men built small compartments with wood, threw the aggressive male bamboo rats into the compartments, raised them separately, and placed a female bamboo rat in each compartment.

This group of bamboo rats were all individuals captured from the wild. They had never experienced the group raising stage of young rats and were very unfamiliar with each other.Because bamboo rats have a strong memory, if they are not raised in the same group, they often need to live together for two to three months before they can adapt to each other and mate. Therefore, let them live together to cultivate their relationship first.

The task of feeding the bamboo rats was carried out by women such as Honghua, Maple Leaf, and Snake Tail. Zhang Tian tried his best to involve tribesmen from each tribe so as not to appear to be favoring one over another.

He took the women to check each bamboo rat and taught them how to distinguish the health status of the bamboo rat.

"This bamboo rat has eaten too much. How many days has it passed? It has grown so fat! Being too fat will affect its desire to mate. Take it, grab its tail, and roast it later."

"This bamboo rat doesn't move much. It's injured. Did you see it? It must have been a fight, so the male bamboo rats must be raised separately. Take it and roast it later."

"This bamboo rat has lost its appetite, urinated more often, looks restless, and keeps cooing... What are you doing?"

Zhang Tiangang grabbed the bamboo rat by its tail and picked it up, but saw the snake tail immediately reaching out to pick it up.

Snake Tail blinked and said, "Don't this one have to be roasted too?"

"This one is fine. Look at its butt. Is it swollen? This is a sign of heat."

Bamboo rats will go into estrus all year round, with spring and autumn being the peak periods. These bamboo rats are all sexually mature individuals, and estrus is perfectly normal.

Zhang Tian put the estrous female rat back into the compartment, picked up the male rat in the same room, and said earnestly: "Young man, if I give you a chance, you will make use of it! You don't want to go to the river to warm up by the fire, do you?"

The women all laughed.

The male rat was hanging upside down, his two dull little eyes showing a bit of fear, and he didn't dare to move at all.

Bamboo rats will go into estrus basically every month. Each estrus lasts about three days, and the gestation period is two months.

Generally speaking, a female rat can be called a "hero mother" if she can give birth to four babies a year, a true breeding rat.

The first batch of breeding rats are selected entirely based on their "appearance", but they may not really be suitable to be breeding rats. Therefore, performance must be assessed, which rat has strong sexual ability, and which rat has more babies. Women need to pay attention to these. thing.

At night, a cold north wind blew indiscriminately, covering the ground in the mountain forest with a thick layer of fallen leaves. During the day, the sunlight poured down from the bare branches, drying the piles of fallen leaves all over the ground. The animals The slightest movement will cause a loud rustling sound.

As the weather warms up, the crickets and grasshoppers become active again and sing songs energetically.Unlike the dawn chorus of spring birds, autumn's nurturing crickets are at their loudest at noon, playing a piercing trill.

The women walked through the crispy leaves like walking through a field of potato chips, deftly turning them over with digging sticks in search of food that might be hidden beneath them.

They have collected enough food, and now they are more familiar with the environment and memorizing the areas where various plants are distributed.

The men also formed small teams, fully armed, and wandered around the nearby mountains to learn about the terrain and catch some prey along the way.

In the next few days, the temperature dropped rapidly and the strong wind howled, adding another layer of thick fallen leaves in the mountain forest.

A week ago, the forest canopy was still covered in thick metallic colors: the bronze of pecans, the gold of maple leaves... Now there are only scattered residual leaves hanging on the trees, and the situation has passed.

(End of this chapter)