back to prehistoric savage

Chapter 249
An adult wild boar can easily weigh two to three hundred pounds. It can run extremely fast, reaching a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour. It also has very good endurance. It can run more than ten or twenty kilometers in one breath without any problem. It can also roll mud with rosin. The rosin sticks to the wild boar's hair, and then sticks to the soil, branches, and stones. When it dries and hardens, it is like wearing a layer of armor, which is difficult to break through.

If you want to catch wild boars alive, you can't rely on brute force, you have to rely on traps.

After daybreak, Zhang Tian led his men to retrace the tracks and confirmed that the beasts came from the direction of Daxiong Mountain.Animals have strong inertia and will not change their habits easily. In other words, they will most likely take the same route next time they visit.

There is a piece of wasteland 200 meters deep outside the field ridge. It is a trace left by the forest burning in autumn. Due to the lack of labor, it can only be temporarily idle. It should be fully reclaimed next year.

Zhang Tian stared further away.

Lush green grass and trees are shrouded in the early morning mist. In late summer, the meadows grow to waist height, and some grasses are even higher than the head.Rows of trees grow in the ravines in the distance, indicating the meandering direction of the water. Eventually, the trees spread along the ravines to the hills, which are covered with dense forests.

Vegetation provides good cover for the animals that live among it, and of course, for hunters.

Zhang Tian led the men to dig pits in the wasteland outside the fields and on the wild boar's route. They dug a large pit three meters square and two meters deep, covered it with linen, compacted the edges with stones, and covered it with some Weeds camouflage.

Animals are very sensitive to changes in the environment. It is unrealistic to expect them to fall into a pit on their own. Even if they don't notice anything suspicious, they will at most slip and fall down one or two heads. They are unlikely to be stupid enough to be wiped out.

If you want to catch all the wild boars that come to your doorstep, you must put enough pressure on them to make them panic, panic, and run towards familiar routes based on instinct.

Hunters have to work hard.

Zhang Tian divided all the hunters into eight groups, with about ten people in each group. The two groups took turns every night and ambush the wild boars in a surrounding manner. The torch was the main weapon, responsible for scaring and driving the wild boars to ensure that they ran in the direction of the wild boars. On the "right" path.

He thought the herd of wild boars would be quiet for a few days, so he told the hunters to be prepared for a protracted war.

Lying in the grass all night, unable to move, it was very tiring just thinking about it, but the hunters were very aware and had no complaints.For the freedom of eating meat in the future, no matter how hard and tired it is, it is worth it.

However, the local wild boar has obviously not been severely beaten by humans, and its arrogance is far beyond Zhang Tian's imagination.

There is no such thing as calm. The solitary male wild boar strayed into the corn field last night, and returned to the group the next day. He gathered his friends, took his cubs, and marched majestically towards the lush corn field.

The male wild boar snorted and arched his nose, not making much movement, but it was extremely loud in this quiet night, and the hunters lying in the nearby grass could hear it clearly.

If Zhang Tian knew pig language, he would be able to understand the male wild boar describing how delicious the meal he enjoyed last night was. He had never eaten such delicious plant seeds!But it encountered a herd of deer last night, and they had to arrive before the herd finished the grain, otherwise they would have nothing to eat.

The male wild boar led the herd along the same path it had walked yesterday, passing through the lush meadow. What came into view was a wasteland. Not far away, the corn field was already in sight, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of ripe grains.

The pigs are so happy!
At this moment, a loud whistle broke the silence and spread far away.

Immediately afterwards, terrible fires ignited from all directions, and the strong smell of smoke was approaching quickly!

The pigs were frightened and immediately ran towards the only direction without fire!
The hunters also ran at full speed, roaring at the top of their lungs, and Zhang Tian let out a terrifying wolf howl.

Here comes the wolf!
The pigs were frightened, their hooves were flying, their horses were at full speed, and there was only one thought left in their minds: escape!The sooner the better!

The male wild boar leading the way rushed into the trap first, and suddenly his feet were empty. Then there was a bang, and he fell to the bottom of the pit together with the "ground", and he was knocked unconscious.

The pigs following behind quickly braked, but they were too fat, had too much inertia, and did not have the abnormal steering ability of the cheetahs. Forcibly slowing down resulted in rear-end collisions, and they also fell into pits one after another.

By the time the hunters arrived with torches, the pit was filled with noisy pig squeals.The depth of two meters is simply an insurmountable chasm for wild boars with a shoulder height of less than one meter. The pigs huddled at the end away from the fire and grunted in horror.

The hunters looked down at the huddled wild boars and felt excited.

Zhang Tian counted the number and found that a total of thirteen wild boars were caught, eight of which were young pigs of different sizes. Some of them should have been just born this summer and were estimated to be only two or three months old. It looked like they were all out of the nest.

"Tiger heads and big pythons, you stay here and someone will replace you later. Trap them for a few days, deprive them of water and food, and then bring them out again when they are exhausted."

Adult wild boars are very ferocious, and they are easily attacked if they approach rashly. Even if they are as strong as a tiger, they cannot withstand the powerful and heavy collision of a wild boar.To be on the safe side, let’s starve for a few days first.

The news that the wild boar was caught soon spread to everyone's ears, and the tribesmen came to watch one after another. The children were especially excited and threw wood and small stones into the pit from time to time, scaring the wild boar.Under the dual physical and mental pressure, the wild boar is weakening day by day.

Zhang Tian led the men to build a pigsty and connect it with the toilet, which not only saved one wall, but also facilitated the accumulation of manure.

Raising pigs is no better than raising bamboo rats. Bamboo rats are so small that there is no pressure to raise them in captivity. Pigs eat too much, so it’s okay to raise them at the beginning. But when the number increases, they must be released and let them find food on their own. .

In fact, until the Han Dynasty, grazing was still the main method of raising pigs; during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a combination of confinement and free-range farming gradually replaced it; until the 60s, pigs were designated as the "first of the six animals" , the pig industry has gradually moved towards large-scale, intensive and factory-oriented.

With current productivity and conditions, stocking is undoubtedly the best method.

Of course, before considering raising methods, wild boars must first be domesticated into domestic pigs.

The degree of domestication of wild boar can be judged from its body shape, structure and physiological functions, among which the changes in body shape are the most obvious.

Wild boars have a typical three-headed body, that is, the ratio of head length to body length is about 1:3, with well-developed forequarters and short middle and hindquarters. This is because wild boars often dig and dig in the soil for food. The utilitarianism of natural selection Principles make it look top-heavy and funny.

After long-term domestication, modern domestic pigs have a six-headed body, which has become a meaty body shape with light forequarters, long middle body and plump hindquarters, and their temperament has also become docile.

After catching the wild boar, the hunters did not take it lightly. The next night, they squatted down again and caught the deer who were trying to eat for free.There is no free dinner in the world. The gifts of nature have already been secretly marked with a price.

The hunters waited patiently and cooperated with the wolves to kill five deer in one night. From then on until the day of harvest, there were no large artiodactyl animals damaging the farmland.

But after the deer were driven away, the birds came again. They coveted this field of corn that was about to mature all the time. If they found an opportunity, they would fall on the stalks and peck at the ears of grain. They were hard to guard against.

Zhang Tian initially tried to negotiate with birdsong, but after the negotiation broke down, he had to teach the women to make scarecrows and stand them in the fields, which had a somewhat deterrent effect.

Fortunately, birds don't eat much, so they will inevitably lose some, but not much.

The wild boar was trapped for three days, hungry and thirsty, and lay dying on the ground.

So Zhang Tian organized everyone to "capture and bring the wild boar to justice."

To be on the safe side, first put down the noose to catch the young pig. If the sow still exerts her strength, she will definitely rush to stop her at all costs.

The sow struggled twice, trying to support her strong body, but failed. She could only watch the child move away from her sight and let out a sad low.

The hunters fished the young pigs out of the pit one after another, then dug out a slope and dragged the adult wild boar out.

Take them to the pig pen, adult pigs and young pigs are in separate pens, and feed them appropriate amounts of water and food.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... a total of eight piglets!"

Xiao Xiao tied eight knots on the rope and hung the rope outside the pen where the young pigs were raised.

Things are different now. In the past, there were dozens of people living in caves, and the various supplies they hoarded were not large in terms of type or quantity. They could help themselves when they needed it, and they would know immediately if there was not enough.

Now there are four hundred mouths waiting for food, and a large amount of food is consumed every day, so the stockpile of supplies has naturally increased.

Therefore, we can no longer be as casual as before. Reserved materials must be managed and distributed uniformly, and production activities for the next day or the next few days can be arranged according to the remaining amount of materials. If any material is insufficient, it must be replenished as soon as possible.Lin Yu was mainly responsible for this matter. Xiao, Snakeberry, He and others helped count the quantities and learn how to manage the warehouse.

If the quantity is small, knots can also be used to represent it, but there are almost no items with a quantity less than ten in the warehouse. Tens and hundreds are very common. It is very troublesome to use knots to count items of this order of magnitude. You cannot always tie a hundred knots. Bar?

This question was originally raised by Lin Yu. She originally wanted to take the opportunity to introduce numbers.

Xiao Xiao thought of another way.

He got inspiration from the measuring scale, which consists of two scales: inches and feet. The red scale represents inches, and the white scale represents feet. Eight feet are equal to one inch.

He proposed: "We can use different colors to represent one, ten and hundred! A knot without color represents one, a knot painted red represents ten, and a knot painted white represents hundreds!"

Xiao Xiao's inferences made Lin Yu very surprised.

This method is certainly more complicated than counting with numbers, but it does work and is easier to understand than abstract numbers. The most important thing is that this is an idea that Xiao came up with through independent thinking. Lin Yu believes that it should be encouraged and praised, and Non-negation.

Now they use Xiao's improved knotting method. For example, there are 147 bamboo rats in the farm. They only need to tie one white knot, four red knots and seven ordinary knots. It can be expressed clearly and everyone can understand it.

But during distribution, they encountered new problems.

All means of production in the clan are publicly owned, and every day the income from gathering, fishing and hunting must be collected first and then distributed.

With six tribes and more than 400 people, how can we ensure fairness in distribution?

Allocate by quantity?

A fish and a bamboo rat are obviously different in size. Even if they are the same fish, it is difficult to find two of the same size.

This question was raised by Zhang Tian.

Xiao was stumped.

In the past, grandma had the final say in allocating food. Grandma was highly respected, and even if it was not fair sometimes, no one would raise it.

It is different now. Everyone respects the Sky Priest and the Wizard, but this does not prevent them from expressing their dissatisfaction and raising opinions outright.

Unfair distribution can easily be interpreted as favoring one over another, and something similar has already happened once during migration.

Xiao doesn’t want to have pointless arguments about food every day!

But... how to do it?

He thought hard and couldn't find the answer.

Seeing this, Zhang Tian pointed to the fish in the fish basket and said: "Distribute your own food first. You take the fish according to your appetite."

Xiao didn't think much and did as he was told.He squatted down, caught a palm-sized small fish from the fish basket, weighed it, put it on the ground, and caught another one...three fish in total.

"That should be enough."

Zhang Tian asked with a smile: "How did you determine it? It doesn't seem to be the quantity or the size..."

Xiao Xiao was stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately and said loudly: "Weight! It's weight! We should distribute food according to weight!"

Zhang Tian's smile became even stronger, and then asked: "Then how do we determine the weight?"

Xiao was asked again.

Zhang Tian didn't make things difficult for him. This issue was seriously out of control for him.

Zhang Tian found two pieces of wood of even thickness, drilled a hole in the middle of one of the sticks to serve as a vertical stick, and inserted the other stick horizontally. He hung a plate with a rope on both ends of the horizontal stick, using a mortise and tenon structure. Connect the base.

Balance, the oldest weighing instrument.

Zhang Tian was not in a hurry to make a steelyard. It is difficult to understand the principle of leverage, so he should start with the simplest scale. A good teacher should know how to impart knowledge step by step.

Unfortunately, due to limited materials and technology, this scale is not very flat, and the left end is slightly raised.

The children all thought that Brother Tian was making some novel toys again, and gradually gathered around, watching everything with curiosity.

Zhang Tian asked: "Now, the two sides of this wood are not the same weight, right?"

Children, you look at me, I look at you, and remain silent.

Xiao Xiao said "Huh", somewhat understanding.

"Which side do you think is heavier?"

Some of the children said the one on the left was heavier, and some said the one on the right was heavier. They couldn't agree, and they were obviously guessing.

Zhang Tian's eyes fell on Xiao and asked with his eyes.

Xiao thought for a moment and gave a firm answer: "The right side is heavier!"

Zhang Tian was noncommittal and then asked: "Under what circumstances do you think both sides are equally heavy?"

"If both sides are flat, they weigh the same!" Xiao said without thinking.

Zhang Tian smiled happily, knowing that Xiao had completely understood.

"This is called a scale."

He said, smearing some soil on the light end until the two ends were balanced.

Then put the three fishes that the owl caught on one end of the scale, find a cloth bag, put it on the other end of the scale, and keep filling the bag with stones until the two ends are balanced again.

Xiao's eyes suddenly lit up: "Now both sides have the same weight! The scale can determine the weight!"

"Yes."

Zhang Tian nodded, took off the bag with stones at one end of the scale, tied the opening with a rope, put it in Xiao Xiao's hand, and said seriously: "The weight of this bag is one catty. One catty is the amount of your full meal." .”

(End of this chapter)