back to prehistoric savage

Chapter 247 The chirping of cicadas in midsummer and the long journey
The weather is getting hotter. In the past two weeks, the temperature and humidity have been rising day by day. The heat has slowed down people's pace. With the revival of the cicada chirping in the mountains and forests and a sudden heavy rain, summer is coming quietly.

While Zhang Tian was teaching the men to weave fishing nets, Lin Yu was teaching the women to weave cloth with newly retting hemp thread.

Women are far more ingenious than these rough guys who are used to wielding knives and spears. They are more durable and efficient in weaving work. However, due to the backward tools, they often cannot weave a piece in a night. cloth.

One piece is the new length unit set by Lin Yu, which stipulates that a piece is forty feet long. The width of the cloth depends on the loom, usually about two feet.

The simple loom that Lin Yu built with small wooden sticks is not a loom in the strict sense. At most, it can only be regarded as the prototype of a loom.

If a real loom could be built, weaving efficiency could be greatly improved.

That night, Zhang Tian finally completed all his teaching tasks. As soon as he sat down to take a breath, he saw Lin Yu approaching with brisk steps.

Instinct told him that it was Party A's father who was walking towards him now - he had a new job.

Sure enough, the first thing Lin Yu said was: "Do you know about waist skills?"

"Waist loom...you mean the original loom?"

Zhang Tian didn't know much about the origin and development of looms, but he still had common sense about the waist loom being one of the oldest and simplest looms in the world.

The earliest waist machine found so far in the world was unearthed from the Hemudu site. Yes, it was the Jiangnan people who lived in stilt-style buildings and proved that the Chinese ancestors were the pioneers of rice farming culture, about 7000 years ago.

Lin Yu smiled warmly and sweetly: "Can you do it? You know I'm not good at carpentry..."

"I only know what a waist machine is, but I don't know its structure."

"I drew a schematic diagram! It's very simple, about the same difficulty as the farm tools I made before."

Lin Yu took out a small notebook and looked like he was going to the manufacturer to place an order with the design drawings.

This design drawing uses quite concise lines to draw the various components of the waist machine, with names attached. Of course, the dimensions are not marked, and Zhang Tian needs to feel the stones to cross the river.

"A waist loom is a loom that sits on the floor. It has no frame and mainly uses the strength of the waist to apply warp surface tension. Hence the name 'waist loom'. Because the human and machine are closely integrated, the size is consistent with the human body. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little bigger or a little smaller.”

"Are they all wooden components?"

"Correct."

Cloth rolling reel, shuttle, beating knife, heddle lifting rod, warp dividing tube, winch rod, warp winding board... His eyes scanned the simple drawings and Juan Xiu's handwriting on the paper.

Although Zhang Tian did not understand the structure of the waist loom, he knew the working principle of the loom. He knew the purpose of these wooden components at a glance, and he had a better idea of ​​how to make them.

Just do it!

He fetched the dry wood stored in the warehouse and began to work.

As Lin Yu said, they are all wooden components with a single structure, which is not difficult for him.

It will definitely take a lot of effort, after all, the most primitive tools are used. If I exchange a full set of woodworking tools at home, I can finish it tonight.

But Zhang Tian resisted, wondering if it was worthwhile to waste his faith on such a trivial matter. People in Hemudu could use primitive tools to make a waist machine, so naturally he could do the same!

Seeing the sky priest starting to tinker with something new, the men who had finished weaving the fishing nets all came over to watch with curiosity.

One set of waist machines is definitely not enough. Not to mention one set for each tribe, at least two or three sets must be obtained by each tribe.

With such a huge workload, one person has to work until the end of the year?
Just when the men were close to the gun, Zhang Tian captured them as young men.

"Make it exactly the same as this!"

Every time Zhang Tian made a wooden component, he would throw it to the men as samples and then mass-produce it.

Men may not be good at weaving, but they are first-rate at carpentry. There were no pottery before, so the tribe’s bowls, spoons, and various exquisite wooden toys were all carefully carved moment by moment by them. , the experience is not lacking.

Everyone gathered firewood and the flames were high, and the physical fatigue was diluted by the excitement.

This warm day is harder than any other warm day in the past. They have been busy since the beginning of spring, with almost no time to stop.

But it's worth it.

Everything they do and every drop of sweat they put in has been rewarded. They live in warm bamboo houses, the millet seedlings in the fields are growing well, and there are countless fish waiting to be caught in the lake, which can be worn in the future. Wear light and comfortable cloth...

These changes are real and can be felt personally, and they are not given by nature, but are realized through their hands.

They finally realized that they had underestimated themselves all along. It turned out that people can do so many things that seemed unbelievable before. It turned out that life is not only living, but also creating!
Everyone was having sex until late at night.

One week later, the first batch of twelve sets of waist machines was delivered as scheduled.

Lin Yu opened a prehistoric textile training class in the open space reserved in the camp. He first gathered women who were good at textiles such as Mint, Iris, and Green Snake to train the first batch of "female textile workers."

Compared with the simple loom she tinkered with, the waist loom is naturally much more advanced, but the principle is the same.

To put it simply, weaving is the process of intertwining warp and weft threads.Whether it is a waist loom, a treadle loom, a bias loom, a multi-heddle multi-skirt loom or a modern spinning machine, they remain true to their origins.What has changed is nothing more than how to twist the thread faster and better, and how to move from two people working together to one person using their hands and feet to intersect the longitude and latitude lines.

As long as you understand the principles, you can learn quickly.

The women sat on the floor with their legs stretched out straight like doing yoga, and "installed" the waist machine according to Lin Yu's instructions.

The so-called installation actually means to put the wooden components in the correct position and to thread the warp threads to connect the wooden components.One end of the cloth-rolling shaft is tied around the waist, and the other end is fixed to form tension on the warp surface.By supporting the warp beam with the weaver's legs, the fabric can be tensioned and the width of the fabric can be controlled to be uniform.

Women rarely use this kind of sitting posture, not to mention there is a pile of wood on their legs, so they can't help but look at each other, feeling awkward.

The wizard is very calm, with a relaxed posture, as if she has long been accustomed to this kind of sitting posture, and... her legs are so long!After sitting down, it became even more obvious, and he was much longer than other people.

The waist loom is the most primitive loom. It has long been eliminated by more advanced looms in the Central Plains. However, in areas where my country's Li, Wa, Dong, Miao, Yi and other ethnic minority groups inhabit, the waist loom technique is still spread.

Lin Yu has gone on field trips before, and even participated in the waist machine weaving competition at the Wa New Rice Festival!

She patiently taught women how to use the strength of their waists, how to coordinate their hands and feet, how to use the heddle lifting rod, warp dividing tube and beating knife to open the weaving mouth up and down, insert the weft thread left and right, tighten the weft thread front and back... and so on. The warp and weft threads gradually interweave into cloth.

The women had to concentrate at first to ensure the coordination of their hands, feet and waist, and the smooth and smooth insertion of warp and weft. They weaved very slowly. Later, they gradually became familiar with this process and became methodical and calm. They could even joke with others while weaving. !
Although the waist machine has a simple structure, it already has complete loom functions and is much more efficient than the previous semi-finished products. Now almost everyone produces a piece of cloth every day!
Of course, there are also disadvantages: the width of the cloth woven with a waist machine is limited to a certain extent due to the scale of the combination of man and machine, and is only about forty centimeters.

This is not a big problem. The woven cloth has to be sewn to become clothing and quilts. If the width is not enough, just sew several pieces of cloth together.

As pieces of cloth were woven, pieces of cloth were sewn.

The first batch of commoners was naturally distributed to the sky priests, wizards and chiefs of each tribe.

Among them, Zhang and Lin were given clothes made of ramie.

Ramie fiber has the characteristics of moisture absorption, quick moisture dissipation, wear resistance, and strong thermal conductivity. After degumming, it is white and mercerized. The clothes made of it are good-looking, cool, and easy to wash, and are very suitable for spinning summer cloth.

Although the tribesmen do not understand the advantages of ramie compared to hemp, the differences in color and feel of the clothes spun from these two types of linen are very obvious. Of course, the "Weaver Girls" know which material is better than anyone else.

Ramie is very rare in this area, and it is rare and expensive, so clothes spun from ramie are naturally "high-end goods."

Who in the tribe is most qualified to receive such high-end goods?
Of course, it is Tianhe Lin who has contributed the most. This has nothing to do with class thinking, but follows the tribe's tradition of "whoever contributes the most will get the most."

But just because we don’t have this idea now, doesn’t mean we won’t have it in the future.

It is an indisputable fact that two unique people appeared in a group where everyone originally had the same food and clothing standards.

Class has not really emerged yet, but there are already signs of it.

Zhang Tian and Lin Yu did not reject the "high-end goods" sent by their tribesmen. When productivity increases to a certain level and resources accumulate to a certain extent, the emergence of classes is an inevitable trend, so just let nature take its course.

……

The tiger head threw a big bone towards the blue sky, and a gray shadow jumped out, chasing the big bone happily!

The wolf quickly picked up the big club bone and lay down at the tiger's head and feet to chew it.

Tiger Head squatted down and stroked Erlang's hair, grinning.

Erlang was named by Lin Yu because he was the second eldest child in the pack.

It was Zhang Tian's idea to throw the big stick bone. Erlang obviously liked playing this game and always had a great time.

When they go hunting in the mountains, Hutou and Erlang are partners who work well together, and they are close partners at ordinary times.

This pack of wolves is very familiar with humans.At the turn of spring and summer, two female wolves in the wolf pack gave birth to babies one after another. One of them was very old and had difficulty giving birth. Thanks to Lin Yu's help, the danger was averted.The two female wolves were well taken care of. They didn't have to worry about food and had plenty of milk to feed their cubs.

A dozen bamboo rats also gave birth to their second litter during this period, giving birth to two litters in half a year. They are all potential stocks that are expected to become heroic mothers and deserve to be cultivated.

The number of bamboo rats has increased to about 150.

Rodents have the second fastest reproductive rate among mammals, and no one dares to claim the first place.

Bamboo rats are held back by their peers. It takes half a year to reach sexual maturity. They can give birth to up to four litters a year, with each litter containing 4 to 1 animals.Based on three litters per year, with an average of three per litter, each breeding rat can produce 4 pups per year.

Zhang Tian plans to control the number of breeding rats to about 300, 200 female rats, and 100 male rats. The expected annual income is 1800 bamboo rats, which will be divided among everyone. Each person can get 4 Get 5 bamboo rats for food.

Pretty good.

After all, their labor force is limited. Just to raise 300 breeding rats would require expanding the breeding farm and adding more breeders. Any more would not only be difficult to manage, but would also consume a lot of bamboo.

As the weather gets hotter, Zhang Tian asked the women in charge of breeding to regularly sprinkle water on the ground and pay more attention to the health of the bamboo rats.

There were still many bamboo rats suffering from heat stroke, so Zhang Tian had to take them to the river and ask them to warm themselves up by the fire.

After getting along for almost a year, Zi Yan and Lang Boy have basically mastered the Northern language, and communication is no longer a problem.

This year has brought them so many novel experiences: building bamboo houses, raising bamboo rats, building ditches, growing grains, retting hemp, weaving fishing nets, weaving cloth...

Not to mention the food, it was absolutely amazing!The wolf boy didn't eat much cooked food originally, but after living with these two-legged beasts for a year, he could never go back. Now he loses his appetite when he sees bloody pieces of meat.

Ziyan likes spinning clothes the most!
The injuries on her body should not be covered or exposed in the sun. The light and breathable cloth solved her troubles, effectively relieved her pain, and covered the large burns on her body, making her look normal. Same as people.

She couldn't be happier!
On the contrary, the wolf boy dislikes spinning clothes. She can't sit still and doesn't have the patience.

She found Ziyan who was weaving cloth by the pond. Lightweight and easy to carry is another advantage of the waist machine, which can be used anywhere.

"Purple smoke..."

"Ok?"

"The cold weather has long since passed. Do you want to go back to the forest and take a look?"

Zi Yan stopped what she was doing and raised her head to look at her.

The wolf boy said: "We have been here for a long time, and you seem to be used to the life here. Like my wolf companions, they even find it very happy here and don't miss the forest very much."

"What about you?" Zi Yan asked, "Do you miss the forest? Or are you simply tired of staying in the same place?"

The wolf boy laughed: "You still understand me. You know that I'm used to being wild. I like running around since I was a child, otherwise I wouldn't have met you. My wolf mother always said that I don't look like a wolf. Like a person, but like a swift, a swift that never lands and wanders all its life."

"Yes, that's how you are! Even if you return to the forest, you will leave soon. Where do you want to go this time?"

"Go to a distant place that no one has ever been to! Do you want to come with me? It's been a long time since we went out together."

The softest part of Zi Yan's heart was touched, and she couldn't help but ask: "Just like when I was a child?"

The wolf boy nodded vigorously: "Just like when I was a child!"

(End of this chapter)