back to prehistoric savage

Chapter 261 A trip to the coast and a master of taming bulls

In an era without precise timing tools, whether time is long or not depends purely on subjective feelings.

The children all felt that this cold day was extremely short-lived, and the melting of ice and snow was so sudden. When the sky priest announced the end of this semester, they felt nostalgic for the cold weather for the first time, and wished that the next cold day would come soon.

The children in the upper class are a little more nervous than the children in the small class. They are not mentally prepared to deal with the next challenges, and they may never be ready, but time will push everyone forward.

But in front of other students, they always behave calmly and don't take it seriously. In private, they work hard to review the knowledge they learned in class, praying that they can perform well in the internship and be among the best.

Zhang Tian and Lin Yu's teaching plan focuses on a step-by-step approach. They would rather be simpler and more interesting than put too much pressure on the children.

There is no need to rush, there is no point in rushing. I can't even count the numbers within a hundred. It is not appropriate to take out the multiplication table and press the children's heads to memorize it by rote.

Zhang Tian’s requirements for small class students are simple: understand and master numbers within one thousand.

From a modern perspective, do we still need to learn this?But such a simple content has already stumped more than half of the children.

For children with weak abstract thinking, it is not difficult to remember these numbers. What is difficult is to truly understand them.

Children in small classes are not required to practice, but they are required to participate in the final assessment. Of course, it is simply a test of the children's mastery of the knowledge they have learned. There is no scoring or ranking.

Zhang Tian gave each student three test questions of the same type.

The first question is to count the number of items given.Almost everyone answered this question correctly.

The second question is to find items with corresponding quantities based on the given numbers.This question stumped a third of the people.

The third question is the most difficult. Zhang Tian randomly picks up two numbers and the children compare their sizes.

He usually gives two large numbers, such as "Which is bigger, 985 or 996?" The purpose is to let the children answer based on intuition instead of counting from "one" habitually.

In the end, less than one-fifth of the students passed the exam, and these children will learn advanced courses next winter: the written form of numbers and simple addition and subtraction arithmetic.

The difficulty level can be called hell. Even if you are as smart as an owl, you have to practice for two and a half years before you can barely master addition and subtraction within three digits.Zhang Tian doesn't have high expectations for the children. It would be great if one out of ten people can understand.

Lin Yunake's situation is similar to that of mathematics.

Ever since people learned to use symbols to represent physical objects, various symbols have been created.

It was nothing at first, but as the number of symbols increased, some confusion gradually emerged. For example, one thing was represented by multiple symbols, the same symbol had several different writing forms, and so on.

Lin Yu has standardized these situations and formulated a unified format and standard for each symbol. The purpose of starting the class is to popularize this set of standards so that people in the tribe can write the same text in the future.

However, it is too early to tell stories with the same text. The existing symbols in the clan are far from rich enough, and they are all nouns that correspond to real objects one-to-one. There are no words without entities such as verbs, function words, and pronouns, and they are not systematic. Can't even form a sentence.

However, even with these existing symbols, more than half of the children cannot remember them!
Lin Yu relied on his own understanding of ancient characters and the wisdom of his ancestors to create a batch of the simplest and most commonly used verbs.Her next stage of teaching goal is to teach these verb symbols to the children who pass the final assessment.

As for the writing method, small chalk made of chalk is used in class, written directly on the desk, and linen is used as an eraser.There are not many situations where symbols are used in life. They are generally used for warehouse management. Usually engraving is used, so the symbols will last longer.

Of course pen, ink, paper and inkstone are more efficient, but they are more difficult to make, especially paper and ink making.

Zhang Tian only knew the principles of papermaking, but he was not very clear about the process. He might be able to make it after a few attempts.

I really don't know anything about making ink.

Lin Yu only knew about the origin and development of ink. He knew that ink evolved from mineral raw materials. The earliest ink used natural graphite or charcoal ground into powder. Later, it was discovered that the soot left after burning pine branches was a good writing material. So he began to use pine smoke to make ink.

But Zhang Tian and Lin Yu didn't know exactly how it was done.

Considering that there would not be a large demand for writing in the short term, and superior writing tools would not be available for the time being, the two of them did not rush to invent and create.

There is a long way to go, so take your time.

……

After the Spring Festival, without Lin Yu's instructions, the tribesmen took up their hoes and grass voluntarily and went to the fields to reclaim the unfinished land in the autumn.

With the experience of the first two years and having tasted the sweetness of growing grains, the tribesmen have regarded it as the most important food source and production activity, even more than the fishing, hunting and gathering they are accustomed to.

This is not only true for farming, but also for breeding, whose status in their hearts is increasing day by day.

After many times of breeding and breeding, the number of bamboo rat breeders has reached Zhang Tian’s small goal: 300.

When the goal was set before, the number of clan members was only over [-]. Now the population has exceeded [-], so the goal naturally needs to keep pace with the times.

So Zhang Tian ordered construction workers to build new breeding farms to further expand the scale of bamboo rat breeding.Now, it is easy for men to build bamboo houses, and he does not need to worry about it at all.

Pregnant sows also gave birth one after another in the spring, giving birth to a total of eighteen piglets. The number of pigs exceeded thirty, of course, most of them were young piglets.

In the first year, one-on-one breeding is still used. Those pig couples that failed to conceive or gave birth to a small number of offspring were marked by the women. If they change partners this year, if they are not strong enough, they can only sacrifice them to heaven.

Farming and breeding have stabilized, primitive accumulation has been roughly completed, and we have found our footing. It is time to expand outward.

What Zhang Tian wanted to expand was not to merge with other tribes, but to explore places outside their usual range of activities to find various mineral and biological resources.

At this time, I couldn't help but start to miss the wolf boy. If we could use the power of Yellowstone, whether it was mapping or prospecting, it would be much more efficient.

Speaking of which, it's been almost two years since Wolf Boy and the other four left, and they haven't come back yet. It seems that they are addicted to traveling and can't extricate themselves.

However, they had been praying, and Zhang Tian had been paying attention to the movements of the four of them, knowing that they had encountered some primitive tribes on the way, and were revered as gods by the local natives because of their extraordinary strength. Later, they learned about the existence of the ocean from the natives. So I changed the direction of travel and headed east to the seaside.

Just yesterday, they finally arrived at the seaside and described the spectacular sight in their prayers, with the crow vividly calling the ocean "a reflection of the sky."

seaside...

The biological resources in the ocean are far richer than those in the forest. More importantly, it is not too convenient to extract salt from seawater!

Zhang Tian thought to himself, if he could open the game at the beach, why would he be hungry every day?On second thought, this may not be a good thing. Without the sense of crisis of not having enough to eat, it would only be more difficult to persuade the tribesmen to migrate.

If you live by the sea all your life, you will only be a fisherman for the rest of your life.

There is nothing wrong with being a fisherman, but farming is the way to go!
After sowing the seeds, Zhang Tian gathered the hunters, formed a small team on the pretext of "looking for the lost people of Rock Castle", and ordered them to explore further afield.

The people of Rock Castle are so happy!
Zhang Tian also gave them another task: "If you see stones that you have never seen before, remember their locations and bring some back to me. If you find herds of bison, wild sheep, wild horses or wild donkeys, , don’t hunt, try to catch them alive, if you’re not sure, send someone back to call for help.”

In fact, this is the real mission, and finding the Rock Castle Man is just incidental.

The reason why they were not asked to pay attention to the traces of chickens was because Lin Yu said that there was a high probability that there was no red jungle fowl, the ancestor of domestic chickens, in this area.

According to research by ornithologists, Jungle Fowl is a tropical forest bird that mostly inhabits virgin forests below an altitude of more than 1000 meters. It is also found in sparse woods or bushes. The ecological environment in northern Hebei is completely unsuitable. Jungle fowl roost.

Archaeological work has also confirmed this from the side: no chicken bones have been found in prehistoric sites north of the Yellow River, only pheasants.

Therefore, domestic chickens were probably first domesticated in the traditional habitat of the red jungle fowl, and then gradually moved northward through cultural exchanges. It was not until about 3000 years ago that they arrived in northern Hebei.

Zhang Tian ordered: "Don't go too far and make sure you come back within five days!"

The exploration team headed by Hutou nodded in agreement and headed south over Daxiong Mountain.

Five days later, Tiger Claw came back panting and brought back two important news, one good and one bad.

The good news is: they found the bison!

The bad news is: they are not the only ones targeting the bison!
After Zhang Tian asked about the situation, he immediately joined Lin Yu and brought twenty strong men to accompany Huzhao. There was no need to bring too many people, as they were not there to stir up trouble. Even if they did start a fight, Lin Yu would still be unparalleled.

Everyone climbed over Daxiong Mountain and found the mark left by Hutou and others. They followed the mark and found the exploration team in a woods.

Hutou explained the situation to Zhang and Lin.

Five days ago, they crossed Daxiong Mountain and found traces of a herd of bison near a wetland.

The hunters kept the sky priest's instructions in mind and did not shoot the cow with a bow. Instead, they discussed how to capture the cow alive and how to transport it back alive.

At this moment, the earth suddenly rumbled and shook slightly!
Everyone looked up and saw a group of savages rushing out with claws and teeth, scaring the cattle into running wildly!

The group of savages successfully isolated a bison from the herd and eventually captured it.

"You mean, they captured the cow alive?"

"That's right! In the past few days, they have captured three cows alive, and that's not enough! Now they are lying in the forest opposite. When the cows relax their vigilance, they will probably rush out and attack them."

Zhang Tian and Lin Yu looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

Kind of weird.

If it is a hunting activity, there is no need to capture it alive; if the other party has successfully domesticated the bison, there is no need to capture it alive.

Could it be such a coincidence that the other party had just begun to try to domesticate them, so they caught a few live cows and used them as breeding cattle?

"How many people are there?"

"Not many, just a dozen or 20 people. But their camp should be nearby. Every time they catch a cow, they will send it back first, and it will take about a day to go back and forth."

"Take me to see."

Zhang and Lin followed Hutou to the edge of the woods, hid in the bushes, and observed the group of giant creatures by the lake.

Wild aurochs, the ancestor of cattle.Like wild boars, they are much rougher than their domesticated descendants. Their shoulders are high and broad, their waists and abdomen are narrow and strong, and their huge heads covered with thick hair have two huge black horns on the top. The one-meter-long body is covered with tendons, which makes it look like it's not someone to be trifled with.

Cattle are one of the earliest animals domesticated by primitive ancestors, and their domestication history can be traced back to 1 years ago.

Although the aurochs look ferocious, they are actually very honest. This kind of honest and obedient animal is most favored by humans who bully the weak and fear the strong.

As long as they are cattle, almost all breeds cannot escape the hands of the murderer. Taking our country as an example, the cattle in the north, the zebu and buffalo in the south, the yaks in the plateau...all were domesticated and enslaved.

I can't help it, the beef is too fragrant!

The role of domestic cattle in food resources, sacrificial animals, leather and aggregate processing, animal power development, milk and dairy products is irreplaceable. In some areas, cattle are even regarded as "holy animals", and they are revered as gods and given to them. Name him, talk to the cow, and baptize him with cow urine.

But even in these areas, most cattle have been domesticated and have long lost the wild appearance of their ancestors.

Zhang Tian raised his hands to block the dazzling summer sun, looking past the cattle to the woodland on the other side.

The other party did not hide it deliberately. Zhang Tian saw a black shadow shaking in the sparse trees.

These black shadows suddenly disappeared from sight.

They hid in the meadow and should be hunching forward at this time.

They chose a good location, downwind of the cattle, which allowed them to conceal their presence and approach silently from the meadow.

After waiting patiently for a while, Zhang Tian saw a lone bull leaving the herd and walking towards the direction where the natives were lurking.

"coming!"

Tiger Head growled.

Before he finished speaking, a group of people rushed out, spread out in a fan shape, and quickly rushed between the herd of cattle and the lone bull, waving spears and axes and yelling.

As the herd gathered in surprise, several natives struggled to catch up with the lone bull, forcing it to turn around and prevent it from joining its companions.

These natives run so fast!I'm afraid it's almost time to catch up with the pine cones!
They split up, a few of them chased the lone bull, and the rest drove the other cattle at full speed. The commotion outside gradually spread to the entire buffalo herd, and thousands of iron hooves ran wildly, kicking up dust on the dry land. The sand makes even the earth tremble!
(End of this chapter)