We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 147 The Real "Old Man Pushing a Cart"

The large ship slowly sailed in under the ambiguous sunlight of an autumn afternoon. Xia Minghao stood on the fish weir and watched, a hint of joy in his eyes.

This ship is carrying the last batch of bricks and tiles.

Although the plains of Dahe are full of soil suitable for making bricks and even pottery, Xia Minghao did not set up brick kilns or pottery kilns here.

Yanquanshan has already developed sufficiently specialized brick and pottery firing techniques, as well as brick kilns and pottery kilns. Directly relocating the industrial chain here would not only be troublesome, but would also completely eliminate the need for such strong brick and pottery production capacity.

So these past two days, the large ships have been delivering nothing but bricks and tiles.

To be honest, there's not much else to give as a gift.

Food resources include fish, so there is no shortage at all. The only building materials needed nowadays are bricks and tiles. There is also timber available, and logging camps and sawmills have already been built.

Lipa began to arrange for the men of the Wa clan to start loading and unloading, while Xia Minghao continued to walk to his shed—the timber processing plant.

Unfortunately, it's now just a name; the entire wood processing plant consists of only one large stone stove and one large, round firebox.

At this moment, Huo Li was sitting on a "stool" made of ordinary wood, Jianmu wood, and tree bark, controlling the flames gushing from the stone stove and skillfully licking the wooden sticks on the stove.

The wood processing plant can only be described as Xia Minghao's final vision related to wood, the last and most crucial step in realizing the industrialization of wood production.

The construction of the timber industry chain consists of three steps: logging sites, sawmills, and timber processing plants.

If these three steps of construction can be completed one day, then Xia Minghao can declare that in this primitive era, the first step of industrialized timber production has been completed, and a production chain has been established.

The establishment of a production chain represents an improvement in efficiency. A group of people who are most skilled at a certain task will all be doing that task, which can avoid the waste of human resources and achieve refined "talent utilization".

But this was only the first step. Before Xia Minghao could even finish the first step toward primitive industrialization, he was immediately tripped up by the second.

That is the change from hand tools to specialized machines.

Regarding the fine processing of wood, Xia Minghao had Yanquanshan draw up a blueprint for a bronze artifact over the past half month, but when he received it, he found that it was completely unusable.

As a result, the wood finishing area was empty, with only a few hand tools.

The sawmill does have a few specialized tools, such as a large saw specifically for sawing wood.

The large saw consists of a saw blade that is wedged into a large wedge-shaped wooden board, which is then suspended from the beams of the sawmill shed.

This way, you can use your own weight to increase the friction with the wood during cutting.

This method is indeed efficient, but it also creates a problem: it makes the saw blade wear out too easily.

Especially when cutting Jianmu (a type of timber), Jianmu has advantages everywhere, the only drawback is that it has too many advantages.

Its dense structure makes it resistant to wear and tear, which also makes it more difficult to process.

Therefore, every time a large saw blade is used to cut a blade, it inevitably becomes dull, and sometimes it even becomes dull before all the blades are cut...

This means that one batch of saw blades can only be transported back, and then a new batch of saw blades can be transported over by ship.

At first it took some time, but now we can do it seamlessly.

However, this only solves the surface problem. Currently, there is only one fundamental problem in the process of building the production chain: the lack of breakthroughs in materials.

With only bronze and no iron, there's very little you can do...

Xia Minghao also had some iron ore from Yanquan Mountain brought over by ship, and built a small multi-channel blast furnace. This allowed the women of the Feng clan to participate, and with the help of charcoal made from precious waxwood and Huo Li, they conducted experiments.

Good news, it did indeed melt.

The bad news is, it only melted a little bit.

Iron smelting is not about melting iron ore, but about converting iron oxide in iron ore into elemental iron through a chemical reduction reaction at high temperatures.

Therefore, simply melting it at a huge cost is not enough to even take the first step of smelting iron.

And what temperature is this?

Xia Minghao estimated that the temperature would reach 2,000 degrees Celsius!

Such a high temperature only melted a tiny bit of the "iron ore" from Salt Spring Mountain. If this really is iron ore, then what's the point of playing around with it?
Xia Minghao had no choice but to put the matter aside for the time being and focus on solving the problems he could manage.

Although for the time being, all the problems seem to be stuck on the materials, there are many other issues that have not yet appeared but have already begun to emerge and need to be addressed.

That was the seemingly most smoothly operating and most typical logging camp.

The logging camp did not require specialized tools; a bronze axe was sufficient, and there were no material limitations.

However, logging sites will soon face problems beyond materials, namely transportation.

The large-scale logging over the past two weeks has significantly reduced the timber supply around the logging sites. It is estimated that in another two weeks, either the logging sites will be relocated entirely, or the loggers will have to travel further afield. In any case, this will increase transportation costs.

Xia Minghao is currently working on solving this problem, which is to manufacture cars!

I've wanted to make a spinning wheel for a long time. Back in Yanquan Mountain, the spinning wheel was made from a failed wheel.

The reason for the failure was obvious: the material of the axle. Wood was not enough; a stronger material, bronze, was needed.

Besides bricks and tiles, there were also ten bronze rods on the ship, which were actually wheel axles.

While Xia Minghao was inspecting the bronze axle, Huo Li had already completed the fourth wheel.

"I'm done..."

Huo Li looked somewhat tired and looked at Xia Minghao.

Setting the bronze axle aside, Xia Minghao walked toward the wheel that had just been taken off the fire.

Xia Minghao made his wheel manufacturing skills using just two sentences.

"If a piece of wood is straight as a plumb line and made into a wheel, its curve will conform to the compass. Even if it is dried and exposed to the sun, it will not straighten again, because of this."

"Thirty spokes share one hub; it is the absence of the hub that makes the vehicle useful."

Relying entirely on these two proverbs from our ancestors and the knowledge in his mind, Xia Minghao managed to figure out a wooden wheel with a fairly high degree of completion.

In fact, in the 20th century, the wheels of wooden carts were probably no more than this.

The spokes are inserted into the wheel to provide sufficient axial force to withstand heavy pressure.

It was then installed on the vehicle.

After some effort to secure it, the first car was completed.

"What's the use of this?"

Huo Li saw Xia Minghao push the cart and try it out, so she quickly asked.

She was incredibly curious because she had come to understand that these were the things the legendary Dragonborn would bring to the world.

Bricks, tiles, fish weirs, and so much more—all brought by the Dragonborn, each with an unexpected use for her, naturally sparking her curiosity about this new thing called a car.

"What is the use?"

Hearing Huo Li's question, Xia Minghao was about to explain, but then he suddenly remembered something, smiled faintly, and looked at Huo Li. "Come sit down."

"sit?"

Huo Li looked at Xia Minghao with some doubt, then at the car, and with a mixture of belief and skepticism, she actually got in.

The posture was rather indecent; even with the robe binding her, her legs, raised on the carriage, still revealed glimpses of her private parts, creating a unique scene in the slightly chilly autumn season.

"Sit like this."

Xia Minghao grabbed Huo Li's fair ankle and started manipulating it. He then brought her legs back together and placed them in the car in an S-shape.

"Oh."

Huo Li obediently tucked her legs into the car, finding a comfortable position, and then looked at Xia Minghao with curious eyes.

"Ready? Let's go!"

"Well……"

Xia Minghao suddenly started pushing the cart and running towards the woods that had been visited by others.

When Huo Li first "rode in a car", she immediately felt a sense of novelty she had never experienced before. Looking at the scenery moving quickly around her and the strange inertia, Huo Li felt a strong sense of excitement.

Having lived in the primitive era for so long and frequently participated in labor, Xia Minghao's physique had long since improved, and he pushed Huo Li at high speed through the forest.

After more than ten minutes, he finally stopped, panting heavily.

It wasn't just a passing fancy or a game with Huo Li; Xia Minghao was also testing the car's quality and whether it could meet his desired usage needs.

When discussing usage needs, one cannot only consider the quality of the vehicle itself; more importantly, one must analyze specific issues based on road conditions.

Based on this user experience, it can only be described as barely acceptable. It can save effort, but the improvement in efficiency is very limited.

Simply because the road is not smooth enough.

Fortunately, this is in a plain area. If this vehicle were used in the Salt Spring Mountain, even if it had an iron axle, let alone a bronze one, it would still cause problems.

Road construction seems inevitable. Once the roads are built and vehicles are added, it will not only save manpower but also greatly increase efficiency.

A road without cars, and a car without a road, is imperfect.

"What can this be used for?"

Having experienced the thrill of riding in the car, Huo Li was now completely overwhelmed with excitement. Her fiery red hair was damp with sweat and clung to her forehead. Her body had returned to the original position with her legs on the frame, spread open towards Xia Minghao.

Meanwhile, Xia Minghao was observing the surrounding area. The forest was quite dense, making it a good timber-producing area. He was considering whether to build the next logging camp here.

Hearing Huo Li's words, he continued to observe his surroundings and casually replied.

"With this, you can transport heavy things to faraway places. You can do it with just a piece of wood, and one person can do it. Just like me, I can push you this far away, and you won't get tired."

Hearing Xia Minghao's words, Huo Li finally understood what this thing was used for.

One person can move a large log!

Huo Li had seen people from the logging camp transporting timber to the sawmill; it took at least two or three people, and for those huge Jian timbers, it even took five.

At the same time, she was comparing herself to those people she had ridden under in the Fire Tribe, none of whom could have taken her so far so quickly and effortlessly.

This is a really good thing, even better than a human-made machine!

but……

Huo Li looked at Xia Minghao, who was still adjusting his breathing, and suddenly spoke.

"But you'll get tired..."

"I get tired? That's true."

Xia Minghao offered a reminder after hearing Huo Li's words.

Having cars and roads is not enough; something is still missing: the revolution from human to animal power has not yet been born.

Did they grow up relying on those wolf cubs?
While wolves can pull people along, they have difficulty pulling anything heavier.

The Xia tribe has trained wolves and chickens, but it has not domesticated any usable animal power.

The replacement of human power with animal power is an inevitable trend, thereby liberating people from heavy physical labor, allowing some to turn to more complex production activities, and promoting the deepening of the social division of labor.

In other words, it means making people stop doing things that even animals can do, and only doing things that only humans can do.

In the course of civilization, the replacement of human power with animal power has accounted for the vast majority of historical events.

However, from its inception to its end, it also showed a certain trend, which, from a human-centered perspective, was a process from animal power to human power and back to animal power.

As productivity developed, tools gradually became more specialized. Especially after the advent of the steam engine, animal power became almost useless, and human power became a "new animal power" whose essence remained unchanged but whose manifestation changed.

The trend of civilization is still towards the liberation of this "new animal power." Just like the domestication of livestock, something will emerge to replace the "new animal power."

"Where can we find animal power to replace human power?"

Looking around, Xia Minghao's brows furrowed.

It's tough. I haven't seen a single donkey, horse, or ox yet. But I can use deer for pulling. I've seen the giant antlered deer from this other world before.

Deer are low-intensity, high-endurance animals; they can't pull very heavy loads, but their endurance is strong enough, even surpassing that of horses.

Of course, the deer in this other world are all much larger than the ones I've seen in the zoo, so they might be able to pull heavier loads.

Since there are no better options, Xia Minghao has no right to be picky.

However, taming deer is a troublesome matter. It would probably take more than ten years to tame those wolf cubs, and who knows how long it will take to tame deer.

I don't know where the giant deer have gone lately. I saw so many when I first came here, but I haven't seen a single one in the past two weeks.

Scratching his head, Xia Minghao looked around again before turning his gaze back to Huo Li.

"Let's go back..."

A rustling sound of wind blew through the forest, and a flock of birds took flight in fright.

Seeing the spring-like scenery beneath Huo Li's seated posture, Xia Minghao suddenly felt an impulse...

Having lived as civilized people for so long, why not truly immerse ourselves in this primitive era, right here in the forest, and return to nature...

Huo Li understood Xia Minghao's expression, her beautiful eyes filled with emotion, and she extended her finger.

She slowly pulled up her long robe, gradually revealing a patch of snow-white thigh...

But none of them noticed that a bush not far away trembled slightly...

(End of this chapter)