Chapter 56: A Worker Must Sharpen His Tools

The boring and difficult Winter has finally ended; although the weather is still very cold, at least many new year tasks can begin.

After a Winter of nourishment, not only did no one in the Baifeng Tribe freeze or starve to death, but everyone became even more plump and robust, though they mostly had frostbite on their hands and feet, and their faces were red and peeling from the cold wind.

Those women who were about to die of old age and were bought back by Baifeng at a low price have now regained their youth, and they are always surrounded by many men holding onto the food they saved, wanting to exchange it to do something.

Winter is boring and the tribe has no entertainment activities, so the number of pregnant women has naturally increased; over a hundred women in the tribe are pregnant, and many are even already showing.

These pregnant women have been placed on a list by Baifeng that forbids men from touching them; if you cause the tribe to lose a child for the sake of your own desires, then you go to another tribe and snatch two children for me to make up for it.

However, while Baifeng is happy, he also feels the pressure; by this time next year, the tribe will have over a hundred more mouths to feed, and although they won't be eating food yet, he must increase supplies to keep their mothers well-fed, and the children will also tie down this labor force, making it impossible to leave the children behind to go work.

Looking at the city wall over two meters high that the tribe built over the Winter, Baifeng is still quite satisfied; although it is only built of earth, given the current attack power of humans, they have no way to deal with this wall, unless they have Gunpowder.

Baifeng knows how to make Gunpowder, knows the optimal ratio, and knows how to make it more powerful; Charcoal and Saltpeter are everywhere, it is just that Sulfur takes some effort to find, but Baifeng does not want to release this demon right now; if he lets humans enter the age of firearms thousands of years early, causing the number of deaths in every war to double and leading to the extinction of humanity, Baifeng cannot bear that responsibility.

The Bricks of the Baifeng Tribe can now be mass-produced, because after the process became proficient, Baifeng directly had them use an assembly line method, which allows the Brick Kiln to fire day and night; the tribesmen at the Brick Kiln have no complaints either, because this position can earn more food, allowing them to eat their fill every day instead of staying at home eating the most basic allocated meals.

What is fired are high-quality Red Bricks, and the quality is completely fine; they are all neatly and orderly stacked in the open space of the tribe, and the tribesmen do not know why they are not used after being fired, but Baifeng just tells them to wait a bit longer; what would it look like to have Bricks without Cement?

Baifeng is very familiar with the process of firing Cement and also knows how to change the properties of Cement to make it more durable and dry faster, but there is no large area of limestone mine available near the tribe, which makes Baifeng very distressed; not every resource will be tilted toward the Baifeng Tribe.

Although there is no progress on the Cement matter for now, as long as a limestone mine is found, Cement will naturally not be a problem, and the tribe living in Brick-Concrete Houses is just around the corner.

Besides these, the Iron workshop is also almost running day and night under the efforts of several apprentices; now the Soldiers of the tribe each have a Changdao, and they are also equipped with small Dajian, which can be used more conveniently in daily life.

Of course, not all tribesmen are suitable for using a Knife; like a strong man such as Xiong, he should use long and heavy weapons like a Park Knife or a Spring and Autumn Great Blade; as long as he swings it, who would not be terrified?

Not just weapons, Baifeng also forged small items for the women, such as needles and awls, and even scissors, but it was truly too difficult; after Baifeng forged two pairs, he refused to forge any more no matter what. One pair was given to Sui for safekeeping, and the other was given to Huangpo, who has the most authority among the women exchanged from the Suiren clan; if the women in the tribe need to use scissors, they go to these two to borrow them.

Baifeng has always said they are from the Suiren clan, but they are very resistant to these words, only saying that they are people of the Baifeng Tribe, and asking the Tribal Chief not to use the Suiren clan to refer to them in the future.

Farm tools were not left behind either, but large farm tools consume too much Iron; even if Baifeng were willing, the tribesmen would not be willing to use precious Iron to make tools that cannot be used for fighting; stone, wood, and bone can all be used, and at worst, it just takes more time.

Baifeng could not win against them, and they do not understand the principle that "a worker must sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well"; in the end, Baifeng only forged three Plow shares; when Baifeng was forging them, the tribesmen thought he was making Spear tips for Xiong, so no one stopped him, and when Xiong saw the huge sharp heads, he really thought they were weapons made for him, serving him diligently.

They do not use their brains to think; can such a large thing be used as a weapon? Even someone with a physique as abnormal as Xiong's would not be able to use it.

Shovels, hoes, sickles, and the like were successively made by Baifeng; each time, the tribesmen thought he was making some kind of Weapon, but time and again they were told they were farm tools; although they could also be used as weapons, they were still very disappointed.

Therefore, after Baifeng forged one or two samples of each type of farm tool, all the rest were made by the tribesmen imitating the shapes using wood, bone, and stone; grinding stone tools is their old profession, and their skills are still proficient.

Baifeng also worked with the Carpenter Ben to make a Handcart, but the body of the cart was made of bamboo and wood, so its own weight was very large, and the wheels were also round logs without outer tires; however, the most important thing was that the axle, wheels, and the several connection points of the cart body were all Iron, so he was not afraid of them being worn out from casual use.

Ever since the Brick Kiln construction site used the Handcart to pull Bricks, they fell in love with this thing; although it is heavy, it can save more energy wasted on walking, so they immediately requested Baifeng to make a few more.

Baifeng could not just make one of these things, and the craftsmanship was not difficult; the most complex parts were made by Ben and Baifeng, and other tribesmen only needed to help make the cart body; they could easily build two carts in a day, and this cart could completely run on flat ground with one person pulling three or four hundred jin of things, which was completely unthinkable before; even on an uphill slope, it could walk at will with two more people pushing.

It was enough for the Brick Kiln, but other Production Teams also felt they needed one; even for pulling coal or firewood, it would be much more convenient; Baifeng was sick of building carts, but there was absolutely no way around it; he had to build them.

Once the Rain Water Solar Term passed, Baifeng's mind was almost entirely on the land; he kept staring at his feet every day, and although he was still wearing the warmest Mongolian Robe, he always felt that the weather would warm up unknowingly and the wild Grass would suddenly grow out.

The planned farmland was dug into neat ridges, and the feces and plant ash produced by the tribe over half a year were piled together to rot into fertilizer, just waiting for the weather to warm up and the fertilizer piles to thaw, so they could be spread over the entire farmland and then plowed and sown.