Xia Pingan opened his eyes once again and found himself lying in a deep patch of grass.
The blue sky above his head was a bit dazzling, and the clouds were so white that they seemed to have been bleached. Beside him, there were half-a-man tall bristlegrass, and he was holding one in his mouth.
Xia Pingan immediately sat up and looked at himself. He was wearing animal skin, with bone chains on his wrists and neck, and a sharpened stone sickle hanging on his waist.
This was a small hillside near the river. Not far away, there was a large tribe and houses, which had been built on the ground with mud, wood and reed strips.
Smoke rose in spirals from the chimneys of the tribe. There was also a muddy pit in the middle of the tribe. Numerous young and strong men were stepping on the mud in the pit, thinning the mud in the pit and mixing it with the dried grass and leaves.
Some people went back and forth between the tribe and the lakeside, using bamboo tubes to carry water from the lakeside and pour it into the muddy pit.
There were also some people who took out the mud from the mud pit and put it on the open space beside them. They used wooden planks to pat the mud into roughly square shapes and let it dry under the sun.
There were many dried mud cubes on the ground. Those dried mud cubes were taken to a place not far away and piled up with the mud cubes and reed strips to build simple new houses.
Was this the era of Shennong Clan? The ancients had improved their house building skills a lot!
Xia Pingan looked at the large tribe in the distance. Judging from the number of houses, this tribe had a large population, at least tens of thousands of people.
The houses of the tribe had been moved from the trees to the ground. Additionally, the main material of the houses had become mud. The grass and stems in the mud acted as steel bars in the concrete. After being dried, the mud bricks would no longer be loose.
Some of the people in the tribe were wearing clothes wrapped with animal skin, while others were wearing clothes woven with grass and leaves. Judging from the smoke rising from the chimney, it seemed that the fire seed had been completely popularized, and the productivity had been further released.
As for those houses built with reed poles and mud bricks, there were big and small ones. Those houses of different sizes also had different things to dry outside. This indicated that there were rich and poor families in a tribe.
The division of labor in some primitive societies may have already appeared. For example, some people were better at chopping firewood with stone axes and knives, some were better at hunting, some were good at making leather, some were good at making stone tools, some were good at picking fruits, or weaving clothes …
In some open places in the tribe, some wild fruits and many animal skins and bones were being dried under the sun. The breeze from the direction of the tribe carried the smell of those animal skins and bones. The smell of those animal skins and bones being dried under the sun was not pleasant, but in this age, such a smell was the smell of a prosperous and powerful tribe.
The men and women were busy with their own work, and a group of children were chasing some elk that had been reared in the tribe.
There were no farmlands around the tribe, but there were large areas of grasslands and woodlands by the river and the surrounding slopes and grasslands. There were many plants in those grasslands and woodlands.
Compared to the Suiren and Cho Clan experiences, the productivity of this tribe had obviously improved a lot, and the population of the tribe had also increased.
Looking at the scene in front of him, Xia Pingan's mind flashed with a passage from Zhuangzi's Robber Chapter, "In the era of Shennong, the people know his mother, but they don't know his father, coexisting with the deer …"
Xia Pingan then took out the stone sickle at his waist and looked at it. This stone sickle was more than 20 centimeters long and had been sharpened to a very sharp point. In this era, to be able to wear a stone sickle at his waist, this stone sickle should be worth a lot. The degree of flashiness was no less than when young people in the future held a mobile phone in their hands.
Just when Xia Pingan was looking into the distance, a young girl with slightly tanned skin wearing a tiger-skin skirt had already walked up the hillside aggressively towards Xia Pingan.
"Ah Di, you're hiding here again …" That young girl came in front of Xia Pingan. Before Xia Pingan could figure out her identity, she had already grabbed Xia Pingan's ear with one hand on her waist and started to lecture him, "I've been looking for you for so long to eat. Elder Brother and Uncle have already led people to hunt. You're the only one who's been wandering around all day, looking at the grass and fish. You said the day before yesterday that you could eat these weeds. From now on, I'll cut some weeds to feed you. Let's see if you're full or not!"
The weeds that the young girl was talking about were the green foxtails around Ping An.
Don't underestimate these green foxtails. These green foxtails were the ancestors of millets. Millets were called chestnuts in ancient times. The earliest chestnuts were selected from these green foxtails and gradually cultivated.
Large amounts of chestnut rice were found in the Peiligang Culture Site and the Donghu Forest Site. The latter discovery pushed back the history of chestnut rice cultivation to about 10,000 years ago.
Hearing this young girl's words, Xia Pingan knew that the Shennong Clan was indeed a god. The earliest millets should have been selected and cultivated by the Shennong Clan from the weeds.
"Sister, be gentle, be gentle. You'll know in the future that these weeds can really eat!" Xia Pingan cried out in pain and hurriedly stood up.
After fusing with the Realm Pearl twice in a row, Xia Pingan had become more and more familiar with the "role-playing" game in the Realm Pearl.
"If this weed can fill my stomach, I'll listen to whatever you say in the future …" The girl said fiercely. She didn't believe Xia Pingan's words at all. "If it can't, then listen to me and find something to do. Although Ah Ma is the head of the clan, you can't just wander around all day and wander around!"
Sure enough!
Xia Pingan had previously guessed that the Shennong Clan had so much time to invent and research herbs. There was a high probability that they had already broken away from heavy physical labor and didn't have an urgent need to survive. Therefore, they had the time and energy to research things that others couldn't.
Now it seemed that it was indeed so. The Shennong Clan's mother was the female Clan Leader of this clan, and the Shennong Clan should be one of the earliest ancient "aristocrats".
In a matriarchal society, the status of the women in the tribe was relatively high. The Clan Leader of the tribe was always a woman. For example, his fierce sister might inherit the position of Clan Leader in the future.
According to some historical records, the Shennong Clan might be the key figure in the transition from a matriarchal society to a patrilineal society in ancient China due to their outstanding contributions. Some historical records said that the Shennong Clan had seventeen generations, and the last Shennong Clan was the Yan Emperor. Some historical records also said that the Yan Emperor was from the Zhuxiang Clan and was the most important minister of Fuxi. Fuxi abdicated to the Yan Emperor, which was why the Yan Emperor "established the prosperity of the world"...
These historical legends and information flashed through Xia Pingan's mind. At this time, it was not the time for archeology research, but the task to complete. Seeing that the young girl's hand that was pulling his ear did not loosen, Xia Pingan hurriedly said, "I've already thought of what to do, and I'm about to tell Mother!"
"Really?" The hand that was pulling Xia Pingan's ear suddenly loosened. The young girl asked curiously, "What do you want to do?" “
"Ha, it's a secret. You'll know it later. What I'm going to do will definitely be praised by everyone in the tribe..."
The young girl looked at Xia Pingan suspiciously. Xia Pingan did not explain, and just smiled...
"Okay, then I'll see how you explain it to Mother when you go back..." The young girl did not believe him at all, but her hand that was pulling Xia Pingan's ear loosened.
...
After that, Xia Pingan rubbed his ear and followed the young girl back to the tribe.
When he saw the tribe before, he already knew what he had to do first.
The Shennong Clan had made a lot of contributions in their lifetime. He had just arrived here, and to shoulder the historical mission of the Shennong Clan, he had to first establish his prestige in the tribe.
Teaching people how to grow grains, identify herbs, raise silkworms, and weave cloth was not something that could be achieved in a few days. However, there was one thing that was easy to do, and if he did it well, he could rapidly establish his prestige in the entire tribe. What's more, it was very simple.
When they passed by those houses in the tribe, Xia Pingan carefully observed the things that were hung outside the houses. Looking at the quantity and types of supplies that different families had, he became more and more certain.
...
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