Traveling through ancient times: Savages are hungry for food

Chapter 257 Making a Plow

Five days later, the tribe officially began hunting.

If there are still houses and toilets that have not been built, you can build them yourself during the break.

The females are not in a hurry to collect them for the time being. After all, there is nothing to eat except wild vegetables in early spring.

Now, the females’ task is to open up new land.

Since there aren't many vegetables that can be planted in early spring, don't clear too much land yet. It's important to familiarize yourself with the area first.

The first thing to do was to make a plow, which could be pulled by animals to cultivate the land. This ancient soil had never been loosened by digging, and it would take a lot of effort to dig it with human power alone.

Plowing is really a challenge for Sang.

During the internship, Sang Tian went with his mentor to a village where tea trees and grapes were the main products for sale. He had seen their plows.

Sang Tian only knew the general structure and shape of the plow, but it was extremely difficult to complete it.

However, there is an old man in the tribe named He who is particularly good at carpentry. Sang Tian might be able to ask him for help.

Sang Tian described the difficulties he encountered to He, and He said that he could try to do it if Sang was beside him.

……

The thing that was most in short supply in this ancient and barbaric era was wood. Wood was easy to find, as long as it was hardwood.

He was good at carpentry and had his own tools, large and small, made from animal bones, for cutting and shoveling wood. Although they were very different from modern carpenters' tools and took more time and effort to use, they were still useful.

To make a plow, you first have to make a plowshare. Its shape is a bit like an inverted number 7, but this number 7 has a slight curve at the top of the head and the handle.

The thickness is set at four centimeters and the length is one meter and four.

After Sang Tian measured and marked the wood, He took his bone-milling tools and began to work on the wood. He started with a larger tool, a bit like the spatula used at a pancake stand, and gradually, as the excess wood was scraped away in large pieces, he moved on to smaller tools.

Gradually, he shoveled the wood to the shape drawn by Sang Tian, leaving about five millimeters.

This alone took He a full half day. By this time, the wood had taken the shape of a plow shaft, but the marks left by the tools were deep and bumpy. Now He took out his extremely thin and sharp spatula and slowly smoothed the surface and sides of the plow shaft.

No wonder he wanted to leave five millimeters, it turns out he had foresight.

Sang Tian could also do this job, but she had never done it before, so she had to take it slowly, control her strength and not use too much force.

The two men spent another hour shoveling the surface of the plow shaft smooth.

But it can only be described as flat, not smooth. The surface still has the texture and roughness of wood.

The current task is to grind its surface smooth.

There is a tool specifically used to grind wood in the core. It is a flat, round stone with large particles and gaps.

This work can be handed over to the tribesmen, and the two of them will then work on the other structural parts except the plow shaft.

The next step is to make the plow tip, which should be a little shorter than the plow beam, about 1.2 meters long.

It has a curved middle section, with two square crossbars protruding about five centimeters on each side, and a similar crossbar at the top, with a square crossbar protruding about eight centimeters in the middle. This crossbar is used to inlay the plow base.

First, use an animal bone that looks a bit like an axe to split the bark of the whole piece of wood.

After Sang Tian measured the size and marked it, He cut off the excess part with a hard-toothed saw and then began to split the plow tip.

Another two hours passed, and the shape of the entire plow tip had been roughly sawed.

All you need to do is keep improving, smooth out the bumpy areas with a small bone shovel, and then hand it over to the tribesmen to grind.

Twenty minutes later, the two of them finished their work and handed it over to the tribesmen to polish.

Next, the plow base is made. It's only about the width of a person and is simple to create. It's a rectangular block with a slanted surface at the lower left corner—a trapezoid, if you will. A pointed crossbar is also inlaid at the point where the slanted surface meets the flat surface. A groove is cut in the center of the plow base to the size of the raised crossbar at the tip of the plow.

The plow tip and the plow bottom can be inlaid together.

The plow bottom is short and not difficult to make. It took me half an hour to make it. I tried to fit the plow tip into the groove of the plow bottom. The size was just right. When the time comes, I can put in a short piece of wood to make it tighter.

Leave it to the tribesmen to polish the surface smoothly.

Then the smooth plow tip and plow base are inlaid together, and the plow base is placed at the bottom to stand it up firmly.

Next, you need to insert the plowshare onto the protruding crossbar where the sloped and flat sides of the plow meet. The plowshare is shaped like a shovel, with a groove in the center. Insert it into the plowshare and it protrudes outwards. This way, the tip of the plowshare just touches the ground, and the tail just touches the plow tip. Tie it down, and you're done.

The plowshare is used to loosen the soil. It relies on its hardness and sharp tip, as well as the power of the beast, to break up the soil on the ground.

Sang Tian had given Shi this piece of animal bone the day before. He used the horns of the horniest rhinoceros to grind a plowshare into the shape Sang Tian had given him.

It goes without saying how powerful the rhino's horn is. In terms of explosive power and hardness, it is far more powerful than Sang Tian's long sword.

When the stone was ground, even the tribe's hard-toothed leaves could only slightly wear it down. The four males worked patiently for a day and a night to create a plowshare.

It’s really not easy.

By the time the plowshares were set, night had already fallen.

The lanterns in the tribe swayed in the wind, like a sea of candles.

But the two of them were exhausted after a busy day, so they decided to leave the rest for tomorrow.

Lan brought them a beef brisket casserole and pumpkin pancakes. This physical work was exhausting, and the two, starving, devoured their food in big gulps before dispersing.

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