Chapter 4: Preparations for Salt Making and Pottery Firing

Salt is one of the most important strategic resources; human survival cannot be separated from salt, and Baifeng is no exception.

Searching for salt is a very difficult task; Baifeng has no idea where he is, nor can he rely on the memories of his past life to deduce where salt might be.

The main sources of salt are nothing more than sea salt, well salt, lake salt, and mineral salt. It is impossible for there to be sea salt in this temperate inland area, but there is a great possibility that lake salt exists.

All Baifeng can do is wander around; whenever he sees a pool of water, he goes over to taste whether it is salty or not. Unfortunately, the water sources Baifeng encounters are not only not salty, but even a bit sweet.

This makes Baifeng very frustrated, and he can only look for another way of thinking, which is to see if there is any alkali efflorescence on the ground. As long as there is a white layer on the ground, it indicates that there is salt water nearby, or that the soil itself has a very high salt content.

Using alkaline soil to extract salt is a method used by ancient people in the northwest to produce illicit salt, but the yield is small and the quality is poor, so very few people are willing to do it.

Baifeng has already walked a great distance from the Battalion; seeing the sun gradually moving toward the west, Baifeng has no choice but to turn back. If he couldn't find it today, then he will look for it again tomorrow. Safety first; he must return to the Battalion before dark.

Before Baifeng returns to the Battalion, he comes to the side of the pool again to draw water for himself with a Bamboo Tube, and sees many birds like pheasants and quails returning to the Reed Marsh to prepare for the night.

Baifeng thinks he should find an opportunity to go into the Reed Marsh to gather some bird eggs to eat, or simply go all the way: when the reeds are dry in autumn, he will set a fire at night, burn the Reed Marsh, and eat roasted chicken directly.

Reeds, setting a fire? These two seemingly unrelated words trigger some knowledge in Baifeng's head. It should be very important, but the inspiration flashes by and is gone. Baifeng knocks on his head heavily to reboot; sure enough, this time Baifeng remembers: Luyanyan!

Luyanyan can be extracted from the ash after reed stalks are burned. Although there are many impurities, for the current Baifeng, it is a life-saving medicine.

No sooner said than done, Baifeng takes his Knife and begins to cut the reeds frantically. Unfortunately, the Stone Knife is not sharp enough, and he can only cut a few stalks at a time.

Baifeng simply presses the reeds together and uses the Stone Axe to chop; sure enough, the speed is much faster.

Baifeng soon harvests a large pile, but he does not move them to the Battalion because the reeds need to be dried a bit before burning; leaving them by the pool is fine.

When the light turns yellow, Baifeng returns to his Battalion. The Smoked Fish is already very black, but Baifeng feels it is not enough and plans to continue smoking it tomorrow, and he must catch some more to smoke together as future reserve food.

Dinner is again plain grilled fish, along with a tube of cool lake water.

After arriving in this era, Baifeng discovers that the savage's stomach and intestines are truly excellent; otherwise, like his former self, just this one tube of cold water would surely turn him into a "spraying soldier."

Full and satisfied, the tiring day ends. Baifeng builds the campfire up high and then goes into his small shack to sleep.

The next day, as soon as the sun comes out, Baifeng cannot sleep anymore. He crawls up and discovers that there are many marks on his body from being poked by small pebbles.

Fortunately, even without a pillow or a bed, Baifeng didn't sleep comfortably, but he didn't get a stiff neck either. However, it seems he must find time to improve his living environment today.

Baifeng still maintains his habits as a modern person; first thing upon waking up is washing his face, just wiping it with the water in the Bamboo Tube to go through the motions.

However, he must brush his teeth. Retaining a good set of teeth in the primitive era is very important; he does not want to have a mouth full of yellow teeth like those savages.

Without a toothbrush, he just breaks off a tree branch and chews one end with his teeth until it becomes fuzzy; that is a temporary toothbrush. Poor people in ancient times used this thing. Without toothpaste, using wood charcoal ground into powder is fine, although the experience is indeed very poor.

In his past life at this time, he should be having a leisurely breakfast, but what Baifeng lacks most now is time. Before his body can no longer bear it, or the weather changes, he must collect all the basic supplies he needs.

After tearing off a few mouthfuls of grilled fish, he adds some firewood to the campfire, and Baifeng begins to take action.

Today, Baifeng plans to make a Fish Trap, so that he won't have to spend a large amount of time catching fish in the future and can go do other things.

The structure of the Fish Trap is very simple: a large tube fitted with a funnel, which one can enter but cannot exit.

The material is bamboo, which is everywhere. It is more convenient to make it with thin bamboo. After tightening one end and tying it with vines, the other end is very wide; he puts a structure woven like a funnel inside. After fixing it on the outside, a Fish Trap is finished.

Baifeng makes two, takes the Fish Traps to the pool, catches many pond snails in the Reed Marsh, smashes them, throws them into the Fish Traps, and then finds a place to set them up.

It is very easy for fish to enter the fish trap from the wide mouth, but when they go out, because the fish's intelligence is not high, they are blocked by the narrow mouth and cannot get out.

After placing the Fish Traps, Baifeng looks at the reeds he cut last night; there is still too much moisture, and they need to be exposed to the sun for a day.

However, Baifeng also discovers that reed stalks are good things for making mattresses, so Baifeng begins the reed-chopping project again.

For the chopped reeds, he removes the leaves and keeps only the stalks. They only need to be dried a little to remove some moisture, and when they are tough enough, he can start weaving.

At the same time, Baifeng also collects a large pile of reed catkins. Reed catkins are not only available in autumn and winter, but also in summer. This thing is very soft for bedding, which is the best.

Seeing that the reeds still need some time to be processed, Baifeng returns to the Battalion.

The pottery pots and such made yesterday are already mostly dry today, and there are no cracks; for now, they are giving Baifeng face. However, to fire them, they still need to be dried for another day.

In order to prepare for firing pottery, Baifeng begins to chop wood, chop wood, and chop wood.

It is just that the Stone Axe is really too difficult to use; it is not sharp enough, and it is not tied securely enough. Baifeng is terrified that if he uses too much force, the axe will be destroyed directly.

He wonders when he will be able to enter the Ironware age.

After chopping for the whole morning, with a pile of firewood as high as a mountain in the Battalion (the firewood is thick and long, as if he had chopped a section of a tree directly), Baifeng feels it should be enough for a long time.

To fire pottery, a kiln is needed. Baifeng decides to make a small firewood kiln himself.

Baifeng digs up soil, pours water, and mixes a lot of mud. A kiln doesn't necessarily need clay.

First, he uses mud to pile up a circle; it must be made thick, piling it higher bit by bit. Then Baifeng uses mud to make a round lid that can cover the circle, but there are many large holes on it. After letting it dry slightly to set, Baifeng throws it directly into the campfire to burn.

This round plate is used to place the pottery to be fired, and it is also a partition layer between the pottery and the fire.

After the round plate is fired hard enough, Baifeng installs it on the kiln that is piled up halfway, and then continues to add height to the base until there is enough space to put all the pottery in, then he stops.

At the bottom of the kiln, he opens a large mouth to put in firewood and burn the fire. Baifeng also makes a kiln lid, a real lid, after all, it must be sealed tightly after putting things in.

Baifeng rubs the mud off his hands; all the preparations for entering the pottery age are considered complete.