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Chapter 245: Ten Thousand Years of Clothing Ancestor Begins from Hemp

Before farming, Zhang Tian had not accurately measured the land. Although he had measuring feet, the area of ​​cultivated land was too large, far beyond the measurable range of the unit "foot".

In contrast, it is more convenient to roughly estimate the area using footsteps.

The division of fields is also measured by steps. Each person is responsible for cultivating a piece of land. They are only responsible for farming. The means of production are still publicly owned. It is similar to the model of agricultural production cooperatives. The food grown does not belong to individuals but belongs to the collective. The collective materials are then owned by the collective. Allocate on demand.

It is far from the time to implement private ownership. The population of the clan is still relatively small and the internal cohesion is very strong. Everyone has received "primitive communist" education since childhood. They think in the same place and work hard in the same place. There is no need to worry about anyone. Cheating, cheating, and being passive and sabotaging work.

Not all of these [-] acres are planted with millet, but about one-tenth is broomcorn millet.

Millet and broomcorn millet belong to different genera in terms of plant classification, but they are often grown in the same area. They are both typical domesticated food crops in the Yellow River Basin and the areas north of it. Their cultivation conditions and eating methods are similar, and they are often called together in custom.

Millet is commonly known as millet or millet. Our country has long formed a pattern of millet in the north and rice in the south. However, the two have different historical destinies: the former always flourishes and eventually declines, while the latter rises step by step.

In modern times, millet is no longer among the major food crops, but it is still an important cereal due to its high nutritional value.Millet in northern Shaanxi has nurtured a generation of revolutionaries. "Millet plus rifles" defeated "aircraft plus cannon" and contributed to the victory of the revolution.

The decline of millet is ultimately due to the fact that the yield is not as good as that of wheat, corn and potatoes that were introduced later. The yield of millet is lower than that of millet, and it is not as delicious as millet. The results can be imagined.

However, millet also has its own advantages. Compared with millet, millet is more drought-tolerant, has a shorter growth period, and has a stronger ability to compete with weeds. It is most suitable as a pioneer crop for reclaiming wasteland. To put it bluntly, it is cheap and requires almost no plowing. If you understand, you can live a good life.At the same time, it is also a good raw material for wine making.

In addition to millet and broomcorn millet, there are also some bean sprouts, wild soybeans, planted in the fields. The quantity is not large.Because the seeds provided by the Gu tribe are mixed together and difficult to distinguish, they can only be mixed and sorted after maturity.

The root nodules of soybeans can fix free nitrogen in the air and increase the fertility of the soil. The ancients said that "beans have paste", which refers to the fertilizing effect of soybean root nodules.

Millet, broomcorn millet and bean are the main cereals they grow now, and probably will be for a long time to come.

"Is it possible to find wild wheat in this area?"

Zhang Tian knew that wheat originated from West Asia, but he was determined to be evil.

Traditional crops in the Central Plains are planted in spring and harvested in autumn, but winter wheat is harvested in early summer, which coincides with the period of drought, which has the effect of "continuing the shortage and continuing the shortage".If wheat can be found, it can be flexibly combined with other spring or summer plants to increase the index of multiple crop rotations.

"Impossible. Wheat is a perennial crop and has natural adaptability to the natural environment in the winter rainy areas of West Asia. However, in North China, winter and spring are the seasons when rain and snow are scarce. Without artificial measures, it is not suitable for wheat growth. Yes. We have explored almost all the mountains and forests nearby, and indeed we have not found any wild wheat."

Lin Yu came to a conclusion and completely dismissed Zhang Tian's thoughts.

……

Fishing is much easier than hunting.

Recently, because they are busy with farming, in order to save trouble, the men often go to Huxi River to block the river and catch fish for a month.At first they used baskets to scoop, and later they used spears. By the time they completed spring plowing, the revenue from damming the river was no longer enough to meet everyone's meat needs.

Everyone turned their attention to Shuijing Lake.

All kinds of fish and shrimps have thrived here for countless years. The population is so large that it can be called flooding. Only a small part of the fish swimming into the Huxi River. Shuijing Lake contains extremely rich aquatic products. Even if you don't farm, Living only on fish, they can live in peace for a long time, just like the riverside tribes.

Shuijing Lake is very deep. The method of fishing by blocking the river works well in shallow water, but it does not work in deep water.

If you want to catch aquatic products in the lake, you have to build rafts and nets and train a group of fishermen.

It is not feasible to weave fishing nets with bark fiber or bamboo fiber. High-quality linen must be used.Now that spring is coming, it is the season when all kinds of fiber crops grow vigorously. If we don’t retting hemp now, when will we wait?

Lin Yu and the women were responsible for collecting. They knew better about the distribution of various hemp crops in the mountains, so Zhang Tian taught them the task of cutting hemp; he took the men to the bamboo forest to cut bamboo and build rafts.

my country's hemp textile has a long history and is known as "the source of national textiles and the ancestor of clothing for thousands of years".

The main hemp crop distributed in this area is hemp, and there is also a small amount of ramie.

Both hemp and ramie are native to my country. After being introduced from abroad, they were called "hemp" and "Chinese grass" respectively. The former is mainly distributed in North China, and the latter is mainly distributed south of the Yellow River.

Hemp is quite special. It has two identities: it is the earliest known cultivated "fiber crop" in my country, and it is also a food crop. It was one of the "five grains" in the Yellow River Basin in the Pre-Qin Dynasty.

This is because hemp is dioecious. Male hemp mainly uses its fiber, while female hemp seeds are the main food of ancestors. Female hemp fiber can also be used, but the quality is poorer.

When he mentioned marijuana, the first thing that popped into Zhang Tian's mind was the drug marijuana, and he couldn't help but ask: "Won't you become addicted after eating this stuff?"

Lin Yu smiled and said: "Cannabis does contain toxic ingredients that cause hallucination and addiction. According to their different contents, it is divided into three types: drug cannabis, intermediate cannabis and industrial cannabis. Among them, industrial cannabis is hemp and has no drug value. "

Lin Yu taught the women to identify the male and female hemp, cutting the stems of male hemp and the seeds of female hemp.

In fact, Lin Yu had already harvested some of them a few days ago and tried planting them in her experimental field.

Because this year is the first year of land reclamation, the planting scale is not large, and almost all of the crops planted are food crops.

The planting scale will be expanded year by year in the future. The two have already planned to grow not only food crops but also some cash crops, among which soybeans and hemp are the first choices.

Ramie is not widely distributed in this area, and the climate here is not suitable for large-scale cultivation. However, its fiber quality is better than that of hemp and can be woven into higher-end fabrics, so Lin Yu also cut some and planted them for trial planting.

The women lowered their heads to harvest wild hemp.

Before that, no one cared about hemp. Women passed by it many times, treating it as weeds and letting it grow wildly.

Now, the hemp that no one cares about is growing rapidly, and it is time to harvest it like crazy.

In one morning, a lot of harvest has been achieved. It is tied into bundles with canes and two people carry one bundle.

After coming down the mountain, Lin Yu asked the women to put bundles of hemp into the harvest canal.In addition to facilitating irrigation, the construction of harvest canals can also be used for water transportation, which is convenient and labor-saving.

The women knew that the grass was cut to spin thread, but they did not yet know how to do it.

It is definitely not used to spin thread directly. One thread is already thick enough. How thick can the thread spun from several threads be?
The wizard said that the threads spun from these grasses are soft and fluffy, and can even be used to weave clothes!

It was really difficult for them to connect the humble hemp with the soft and fluffy thread, which only aroused their curiosity even more, and they couldn't wait to see the wizard turn decay into magic.

Return to the camp, take a short break at noon, and continue working in the afternoon.

Under Lin Yu's instructions, the women removed the excess leaves of hemp and beat them with sticks to break the wood fibers inside to shorten the retting time.

Linen needs to be retting before it can be used for weaving. If the hemp is not retting, the dry skin on it will stick to the fiber and cannot be torn off at all. Moreover, the spun hemp thread is not tough enough and will break easily.The women were beating hemp, and suddenly they heard the sound of singing in the distance. When they looked up, they saw that the men were returning from transporting bamboo, and they were also walking through the channel.Bundles of bamboo floated on the water, and the men dragged them forward like trackers on the shore, shouting unintelligible chants - naturally taught by Zhang Tian.

"You came back just in time!" The women laughed, "I was planning to dig a pond, and said I wanted to retose hemp! Can you do it? Do you still have the strength?"

This question... The men immediately beat their chests and waved their arms to show off their muscles. Even if they were exhausted, they still squeezed out their strength!

Tiger Head rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thick upper limbs, and said concisely: "How to dig? How big should I dig?"

This time was spent digging the soil, first digging ditches, then digging ridges, and now digging ponds for retting.

The men picked up their own stones and bones and dug skillfully in the ground. After a while, they dug out several simple retting ponds and filled them with water from the harvest canal.

The women smiled and praised the man's majesty, then brought bundles of hemp with the leaves removed and tied into balls, tied big rocks at the bottom, and threw them into the hemp pond.

The stone dragged the bundles of hemp into the water.

"What are you doing?"

Only then did the men remember to ask why.

"Let the hemp soak in water until it is soft and soaked. This is called retting!"

The women told the men exactly what Lin Yu said.

"How long will it take to soak?"

"Half a month!"

Xiao Xiao told his mother immediately after discovering the pattern of moon phase changes, and then told He, Snakeberry, Songzi and other sisters, and then everyone knew about it.

The moon phase changes in a cycle of one month, which lasts for 30 days. This concept has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Retting hemp was not difficult, and the tribesmen finished it happily.

The next thing to do is to wait for the microorganisms to break down the adhesive between the fibers and let all the hemp fibers scatter out. Then they can be fished out and dried in the sun, and then they can be spun into threads with a spinning wheel.

The men have built bamboo rafts, and fishing and hunting require division of labor.

Older men are happy to abandon hunting and pursue fishing, such as Aba, Miao, Langya and others. As they grow older, they have to trek across mountains and ridges every day to hunt, which becomes more and more difficult for them. It is better to go boating in the middle of the lake and spend their time peacefully. In his later years, he can still make some contribution to the clan.

Young men who are good at water and good at swimming, such as owls, tiger tongues and sables, are the new force among fishermen.

The hemp is still soaked, and there is only one fishing net, which was brought from the tribe along the river.

Under the guidance of Xiao and Langya, everyone else made fishing rods from the remaining bamboo.

After many days, we can finally fish again, and this time we will be fishing on an open lake. Just thinking about it makes Miao so excited that she can’t sleep!
Except for him and the people of the Great River Tribe, no one else knows how to fish.

So Miao put on the attitude of a senior - he was indeed worthy of being a senior at his age - and enthusiastically taught the novices how to fish.

In the next half month, everyone lived and worked step by step.

Millet itself is also a very tenacious crop and does not require much care before it emerges.

After the seedlings emerge, it is necessary to frequently weed and block the seedlings. On sunny days, some water should be poured appropriately.

Everyone finally took a breath and spent a few days of relative leisure.

Zhang Tian still had a big project in hand, but considering that everyone was tired, he did not implement it immediately.

As the days passed, the stench in the retting pond increased day by day.

The strong stench is simply more disgusting than an old latrine, and people can't help but recall the fear of being dominated by manure.

After half a month of decomposition, the originally clear retting pond has become filthy.

The hemp is retting and ready for fishing.

Without any pretense, the women took a deep breath, then held their breath and jumped into the hemp retting pond, which was comparable to a cesspool, to salvage hemp.

The hemp is fished out of the retting pond, peeled and dried, and the smelly water in the pond is poured into the nearby wasteland. When microorganisms degrade the residue in the water, it will no longer stink.

After doing all this work, the women's bodies were stained with a strong stench that could not be washed away. It took several days to slowly dissipate.

In the past, when men were digging out cesspits, women would avoid them, but now it's completely reversed.In those few days, Xiao finally fulfilled his vow. He didn't even touch a woman's finger. Just smelling her scent made him completely lose his desire to reproduce.

The peeled and sun-dried hemp fiber is indeed as the wizard said, soft and fluffy, just like the clouds in the sky!
Then we enter territory familiar to women.

Lin Yu warned: "Be careful when spinning the threads. These threads are too thin and easy to break."

They use earthenware spinning wheels to spin strands of hemp fiber into thread.

When spinning hemp for the first time, most people break it after spinning it for about one foot.

A few people such as Mint, Iris, and Green Snake can spin several feet in one breath without stopping. They are considered very talented.

The more you spin, the easier you become, and the threads you spin become longer and longer, and fine threads are continuously produced.

Lin Yu tinkered with her simple loom again. The cloth spun last time was as hard as a paper shell. This time with high-quality twine, she could finally make real linen cloth!
Linen from 1 years ago!
Lin Yu was so excited that his eyes gleamed!
Lin Yu used a simple and primitive loom and unskilled fingers to spin the thin threads into cloth bit by bit, threading the warp and inserting the weft.

Finally, the first linen cloth in human history is freshly baked!
Everyone's eyes fell on the linen cloth, which was only the size of a handkerchief.

They have never seen such thin material, much thinner than animal skin!
The women touched the soft fabric, and their hearts were filled with a sense of accomplishment. The blood marks on their fingertips caused by the twine seemed to be less painful because of the soft touch they felt at this moment.

(End of this chapter)