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

Chapter 174 Preparations Before Oil Pressing
Looking at the indigo blue totem stone fragment in his hand, still bearing traces of blood.

It is now confirmed that this thing can affect the intelligence of living beings through negative contact with the skull.

All of this was derived from yesterday's experimental investigation, on the subject of which was an unfortunate giant deer.

After the hard totem stone was embedded in its skull, the giant deer's intelligence level was significantly improved.

For example, faster reaction speed, etc.

However, it is of little use when embedded in other parts.

However, this conclusion does not lead to any "achievement transformation"; it merely confirms the speculation generated through that hairy man.

With only this one large totem stone, very few conclusions can be drawn.

Besides these, there are various unverified conjectures, such as the small totem stones dug out from the bodies of people with totem power, and the indigo light emitted by the large totem stone.

Xia Minghao speculated that the large totem stone might contain some kind of "radiation," which caused a genetic mutation and activated some genes that were not normally expressed.

These originally "silent genes" began to take effect, generating small totem stones within the body, thus giving them totem power.

However, this hypothesis is extremely difficult to verify because it requires a long time and a sufficient number of experimenters.

Moreover, gene mutations often do not occur directly in the first generation, but rather require multiple generations of inheritance before changes can occur.

I can't wait that long; by then, I might be long gone...

"If only we could find someone from the Zhi tribe, but those murals are from who knows how long ago they are. They're probably all dead by now."

Thinking of this, Xia Minghao couldn't help but sigh, then gave a self-deprecating laugh.

We haven't even established a civilization yet, and we're already thinking about doing scientific research?
That's truly a fantasy.

"Chief! All those palm fruits have been transported over."

Before he could even see anyone, Xia Minghao heard a clear, melodious sound, like the chirping of a shepherd bird, coming from outside.

Unlike before when he was weak and powerless, he is now full of energy, which is naturally thanks to eating meat.

As Xia Minghao walked out the door, he mentally counted the main sources of protein: meat, eggs, and dairy products. The first two are now gradually becoming established.

As for milk, it has actually been developed, mainly the milk of the giant deer.

While the giant deer surprised Xia Minghao in terms of being a mount and for transportation, it ultimately failed to meet his requirements in terms of milk production.

They produce very little milk, and the milking period is short each year, making milking extremely difficult. Based on personal experience, you have to squeeze the bighorn deer very hard to get even a few drops out...

Otherwise, you can only hold it and suck it with your mouth.

What dairy company lets you suckle milk directly from a deer?

Therefore, they had to abandon the idea of ​​developing the dairy industry based on the giant deer.

As they stepped outside, Mu Ling had just dismounted from the giant deer.

Today, the ancient riverbed has become a transit point for communication with the Great Lake. If anything happens, it is usually the Shepherd who runs over to relay the message.

"Chief, wait, this is for you."

Just as Xia Minghao was about to mount his great antler deer, he suddenly heard Mu Ling say something.

Give me?

Upon hearing this, Xia Minghao looked at Mu Ling's little fist.

What the hell?
The little fist opened somewhat awkwardly and was displayed in front of Xia Minghao.

What he was holding was actually a piece of jade?

To be precise, it is a carved jade piece, shaped exactly like a rabbit.

The jade had only been brought back a few days ago, and it had already ended up in Mu Ling's hands, indicating that an internal exchange had already taken place within the tribe.

Moreover, these exchanges were relatively frequent, which indirectly demonstrates the booming trend of commodity trade in the Xia tribe.

"Thank you, but I don't want it."

Looking at the jade rabbit, Xia Minghao smiled faintly and said to Mu Ling.

"Don't want it? Go ahead and take it, Chief! This is beautiful. I carved it out of stone, bit by bit."

Mu Ling, who had been hesitant, now showed a hint of worry in her eyes.

Seeing Mu Ling's state, Xia Minghao thought about it and finally accepted it.

The main reason for not accepting it is that the workmanship is rough and it will definitely not attract her. Moreover, if she forgets where she put it and Mu Ling asks about it again, it will hurt her feelings.

However, it seems that not accepting it would directly upset Mu Ling, so it's better to just accept it.

"Thank you."

After accepting the jade rabbit, Xia Minghao was only thinking about quickly finding the palm fruit he needed. After thanking the deer, he immediately mounted the giant deer.

Seeing that the chief was in such a hurry to leave, Mu Ling's face showed some anxiety.

She sent this with her own purpose: to send a subtle message to the chief.

"Chief, that rabbit has many children."

Having many children isn't important; what's important is why there are so many children?

Xia Minghao simply responded casually.

Seeing this, Mu Ling didn't know what to say anymore. Suddenly, the thought crossed her mind: should she just knock the chief unconscious with a stick, and then...

Before long, the ancient riverbed was within reach.

At this time, the ancient river channel area had completed the population relocation as Xia Minghao had previously planned.

At the same time, arrangements were made for the Yucheng Civil Engineering Brigade to build a dormitory here first, and the living conditions are now taking shape.

Just as they were about to enter the ancient river village, Xia Minghao suddenly heard strange noises coming from the bushes not far away.

With some doubts in his heart, he rode the great stag slowly toward the grass.

But what I saw was an "erotic picture" that was both reasonable and unexpected.

Good grief, are they having a field battle?
The two intertwined bodies were the man and woman who had been brought back from the Great Lake a few days ago.

The families these people brought back from the Great Lake were not only used to control the deer riders, but also stayed in the Ancient Riverway Village to assist the deer riders in raising the giant deer and, incidentally, to select and train the war deer.

Of course, now that they have palm fruit, they will also take on the production line for palm fruit oil extraction to alleviate the population pressure on the Xia tribe itself.

This group of people are all in family units, so the couple who had sex in the wild must be a married couple.

It's probably because they only had dormitory rooms built for them, and didn't have their own private space.

The Great Lakes tribe has always liked having children; it's probably become a habit. But doing this all the time isn't very hygienic.

It seems we still need to make arrangements for those individual houses as soon as possible. Now that we have seen this case by chance, there are probably countless other cases that we cannot see.

Without disturbing her, she was about to turn around when she saw Mu Ling tiptoeing towards her, as if she were about to ambush her.
"What are you doing?"

Xia Minghao asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No, it's nothing. They..."

Mu Ling swallowed hard, but didn't continue.

Xia Minghao didn't pay any attention, mounted the giant deer, and slowly rode away, finding it amusing and thinking of the Book of Songs he had read before.

The Book of Songs describes the society in the early stages of civilization, and it contains many erotic scenes. However, people nowadays like to pretend to be sophisticated and don't really interpret them.

In the Book of Songs, the union of wild animals is not uncommon.

For example, "The woman asked, 'Are you happy?' The man replied, 'Yes, I am. Shall we go and see?'"

"且" actually means "the protruding head of a turtle," which, under the influence of fertility worship, became a symbol and later became a memorial tablet.

According to Li Ao, this could be translated as, "The woman asked if he wanted to do it, and the man said he had just finished, so the woman asked if he wanted to do it again."

This translation is worthy of Confucius's evaluation of the Book of Poetry as "pure in thought," meaning that such things did not exist, but rather that they were sincere and not hypocritical.

The scene just now was so similar to what is described in the Book of Songs. It's a pity that Xia Minghao only had a brief understanding of it when he was a child, and later he was busy with exams and work, so he didn't study it in depth. Otherwise, he might have been able to find a scene that corresponds exactly to that.

"I wonder if the Xia tribe will have its own Book of Songs when written language becomes more widespread and literature develops."

Suddenly, this conjecture popped into Xia Minghao's mind, and he felt a little hopeful.

Once inside the lake, Datan and the others in charge of the construction all gathered around countless palm fruits.

Xia Minghao was also shocked when he saw the number, which greatly exceeded his expectations, more than twice as much as he had estimated.

After questioning those in the know, Xia Minghao learned that it was actually the beneficial action of the "businessman" he had personally facilitated.

Judging from this quantity, that person made at least a 50% profit by reselling it, which might not seem like a high percentage for merchants in later generations.

But this was the first merchant in primitive times, and to be able to do this was truly remarkable and ingenious.

His experiment with commercialization seemed to be going quite smoothly, and he estimated that the next time, the number of palm fruits produced would once again reach a level that would astound him.

The most urgent task now is to set up a palm oil production line as soon as possible to cope with the continuous influx of palm fruits.

Extracting oil from palm fruits is much simpler than setting up a cement and concrete production line.

Even if Xia Minghao had never pressed oil before, it would be easy for him to figure it out. It's simply a matter of crushing the fruit and pressing it; that's how you extract oil from palm fruit.

The only challenge lies in separating impurities. Xia Minghao plans to learn by doing, gradually improving his skills through practice.

Xia Minghao instructed Mu Ling to gather all the people who had come from the Great Lake Tribe.

The members of the Mu clan knew what this was, but none of them were interested; they simply went about their own business.

Datan and the others, on the other hand, were filled with curiosity. Looking at the palm fruit they had never seen before, they couldn't help but want to pick it up and take a few bites, but because Xia Minghao was there, no one dared to take it.

Soon, the families from the lake gathered in small groups, and a bitter look appeared on their faces when they saw so many palm fruits.

They had all heard the stories the deer riders' children told them about their good days in the Xia tribe after they returned.

In the past few days, they have indeed experienced that as long as they help dig up the stones that are the same color as the sun, they can eat meat that will keep them from being hungry, as well as something called taro.

If you can catch a thing called a rabbit, you can have enough meat to eat all day, and you don't even need to eat taro, you can be full just by eating meat.

But now that everyone sees so many palm fruits, they all think that after only a few days of good life, they will have to go back to their old ways.

Xia Minghao, however, did not notice the bitterness on the faces of the group of people. Instead, he watched a couple hurrying over from not far away.

The man and woman showed no unusual reaction when they saw Xia Minghao.

They were so oblivious to the world that they didn't realize the chief had already discovered them.

"Ahem, you, family, separate, the men are upstairs, pour the palm fruits in, then throw the basket down, the women are downstairs, scoop up the palm fruits."

Xia Minghao pointed to the small lake and said, "And today, this lake has its own name—Oil Lake."

Perhaps a thousand years from now, in this fertile and beautiful Guhe Village, this lake will become a famous tourist attraction, and Youhu Lake may be mistakenly referred to as "Youhu" or "Youhu" (meaning "secluded lake" or "lake tour").

Just like Mount Hua, which is actually a misconception called "Flower Mountain".

Throwing palm fruits into the oil lake and letting them flow downstream is naturally the first step in cleaning them, washing away dirt that cannot be removed by boiling, such as mud and insect eggs.

This is the first step in the production line: pre-oil extraction processing.

Then Xia Minghao instructed Datan and others, who were still digging for gold dust, to start using bronze tools to cut down trees and build sheds, thus preparing the work area for the second process.

The second step is to boil it.

The purpose of this step is not only to kill bacteria, but also to soften the material, preparing it for actual oil extraction.

Secondly, there's something else that Xia Minghao learned unintentionally.

It seems that all oil extraction processes involve heat treatment of the raw materials.

Based on a somewhat vague memory, it seems that it's because these things that can be pressed for oil all contain something called lipase.

Oils and fats can deteriorate more quickly during storage due to this enzyme.

This is going to be transported to Yanquan Mountain, so naturally the longer the shelf life, the better.

Therefore, we should pay more attention to the details, even if it costs us some charcoal and manpower.

Once the shed was fully set up and the charcoal on the stove was burning brightly, Xia Minghao saw that the women had almost finished washing, so he instructed them to throw all the palm fruits into the pot.

The condition of each earthenware pot is different; some are already boiling, while others have just begun to burn.

This was Xia Minghao's deliberate arrangement, in order to control variables and summarize the cooking process as much as possible.

This cooking session used almost all the earthenware pots in Guhedao Village, which was more than enough, and even more were divided into several sets.

Under the same cooking method, variables were controlled again to study the optimal cooking temperature for palm fruits.

The charcoal burned more and more intensely, and the water in the earthenware pot gradually boiled.

The shed was like a sauna at this time. It was already late autumn, and the weather was cold. With so many earthenware pots boiling water, steam was everywhere.

I was originally planning to seal off the shed, but now it seems unnecessary.

The temperature alone is enough to make busy people feel like it's summer in winter.

Xia Minghao walked among the earthenware pots, watching the palm fruits floating around in each pot.

Before long, all the palm fruits began to change color, becoming increasingly red.

Having found the pot of palm fruits that had changed the most, Xia Minghao waved his hand.

The charcoal was quickly extinguished, and the water in the earthenware pot gradually calmed down. The palm fruits were no longer floating on the surface of the water, but had all sunk to the bottom.

"Chief, chief, this is even worse."

As they watched the changes in the palm fruits in the pot, directing people to extinguish the charcoal fire and scoop out the fruits, they suddenly heard a person from the Great Lakes tribe speak.

"Disgusting?"

At first, Xia Minghao was a little confused, but he quickly understood.

It's estimated that these people also tried boiling palm fruit, but the results were obviously unsatisfactory.

"This one is different, it's delicious, you'll see in a moment."

Xia Minghao waved his hand, signaling him to continue doing his own thing.

But this person still wanted to try harder, thinking that this was probably his meal for the day.

If there's anything more unpalatable than palm fruit, it's steaming hot, freshly cooked palm fruit.

Having already enjoyed a good life in the Xia tribe, the thought of being dragged back to his former life is nothing short of torture.

But just as he was about to speak, he remembered what the shaman had said, and then suddenly realized that the chief in front of him was a man with yellow skin.

The shaman said that if one's life is not going well, it's because one has committed too many sins.

He hoped his life would improve and didn't want to bear any more sin.

Only one person raised the question; although the others could sense their reluctance, they still worked according to Xia Minghao's requirements.

After reading the report, Xia Minghao thought about the performance of the people he brought from Dahu over the past few days and suddenly felt a sense of admiration. These people were simply chosen workers.

Not only is he physically stronger, but he's also so obedient. If it were before, a bunch of people would probably be chasing after him with all sorts of questions, and he wouldn't be able to explain himself clearly.

After grouping the palm fruits to different degrees of doneness, the third step is to crush them.

Crushing is an intermediate step; the ultimate goal is to compress the material.

Crushing it is not difficult; you just need to take a wooden stick and do it without saying a word.

The challenge lies in how to extract the most juice efficiently.

"Which of you participated in the construction of the guillotine?"

The word "guillotine" left others bewildered, but those who came from Yanquan Mountain were all terrified.

For things I'd heard of but never seen, I immediately thought of what I'd heard from others.

If you violate the contents of the stone tablet, a guillotine will come and sever your head!
And they even cut off the head of the wolf tribe leader!

This fear born of rumors actually had a positive effect; they were the ones who remembered the contents of the stone tablet most vividly.

If several people work together, they might be able to complete most of the content on the stone slab.

Apart from these few, only a handful of other people raised their hands.

Most of the people who built the guillotine stayed in Salt Spring Mountain to provide a stable supply of timber for the rear.

Only a minority will follow.

But having these people is enough.

What Xia Minghao needs now is not just a simple frame, but a frame with fixed pulleys.

This changes the direction of the force, allowing the stone to be pulled up and then fall when released, thus achieving a rapid drying effect.

The rest were responsible for building the frame, while Xia Minghao directed the few who raised their hands to begin constructing a fixed pulley that could be anchored and bonded with fish glue.

The main difficulty lay in the production of the pulleys, as this was the first time precision was required, which made the group extremely meticulous.

Watching from the side, the fixed pulley was quickly made after a while.

Xia Minghao was initially considering whether to create some pulleys to save effort, but after a moment's thought, he immediately abandoned the idea.

It's still too complicated. When things get busy, there's simply no time.

After all the palm fruits were broken into piles and smashed, Xia Minghao hadn't finished yet, but the smell attracted a lot of bighorn deer to come and watch.

Meanwhile, Mu Ling, who had been observing Xia Minghao, stopped paying attention to the herd of giant deer and walked over.

As soon as I smelled the scent, I inhaled it deeply, just like everyone else.

Xia Minghao also smelled it.

To be honest, it smells really good.

Upon closer inspection, it tastes somewhat like roasted peanuts, likely due to its high fat content.

Realizing this, Xia Minghao felt even more hopeful.

I wonder if we'll get palm oil for dinner tonight?
(End of this chapter)