After no longer worrying about those troublesome deer, the speed of raising the walls also increased.
The method of raising the walls was the same as before, using the cobbing method.
The lower part of these walls was built last autumn, and after experiencing a cold winter, the earth walls had already dried thoroughly. Han Cheng also had to put some thought into it to ensure a solid connection between the newly added height and the existing part.
Concerning raising the walls, Han Cheng had planned for it even before the walls were successfully built. Therefore, during the construction, preparations were made in advance.
The gaps resembling the teeth of a lucky beast left on the top of the walls would play a significant role in stabilizing the structure when raising the walls. After being raised, the new walls would interlock with the old walls like teeth, making it much more solid than directly adding height on a flat surface.
The interlocking of newly raised and old walls could roughly be described as having canine teeth overlapping.
Han Cheng used a little trick to solidify the walls further into one entity: he sprinkled some water on the top of the section to be raised.
Water could dampen the loose soil, allowing the new mud to bond better with the old, dry mud.
This planning mainly referred to the systematic digging of the earth.
Last year, when digging the earth for the walls, they only took soil from the surroundings. This year's raising of the walls was significantly different.
Due to the impact of the tribe's previous attacks, with the consideration of strengthening the tribe's defense capabilities, Han Cheng had the idea of digging a defensive moat.
In fact, during the soil excavation for plastering the deer pen, efforts had already been made in this direction.
The wattle walls required a considerable amount of soil. Now, about twelve meters away from the outer edge of the raised wall, a three-meter-wide and over half-a-meter-deep trench appeared.
With the progress of future tasks, such as building houses and raising the inner side of the walls, this trench would undoubtedly become deeper. When the time came, they could fill it with water, and those troublemakers wouldn't dare to harbor any ill intentions toward the tribe.
The speed of raising the walls wasn't slow, mainly because the Green Sparrow Tribe suddenly gained thirteen more adults.
Of course, the appearance of bone shovels, rope hooks, and ash pouches also played a crucial role.
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe were enthusiastic about raising the walls because they had already experienced the benefits of the walls. Especially during the tribe's defense battle last winter. If it weren't for the Divine Child leading everyone to prepare the walls in advance, their tribe would have been in real danger.
The Pig Tribe, which came to seek refuge with them, was the best testimony.
If there were no walls, their fate could very well be similar to that of the Pig Tribe.
The people of the Pig Tribe, especially their former leader, had not forgotten the tragic fate of their tribe. After joining the Green Sparrow Tribe for a long time, he had long understood the role of the walls, especially in the detailed account of their effectiveness during wars against evil tribes.
Shang, who had been holding back a strong urge, put extra effort into building the walls. When Han Cheng looked at the wall to the west, which had been raised to three and a half meters, his sense of security increased significantly. If that unknown tribe dared to attack their tribe again this year, they would surely suffer even more casualties.
After the wall to the west was completely raised, the construction of the walls came to a halt again.
This time, the pause in progress wasn't due to the deer herd being troublesome again. Instead, the tribe was about to host a grand celebration called the "Happiness Festival."
When Han Cheng first heard about this from the Shaman and Eldest Senior Brother, like others, he was utterly confused.
Others didn't jump to conclusions, and the Happiness Festival was a joyful event.
Han Cheng, however, didn't expect such activities in these tribes. His confusion didn't stem from the potential suggestive nature of the Happiness Festival – he had seen enough of such things in the past year. Instead, he was amazed at the primitive people's ingenuity.
As a newcomer, Han Cheng knew the dangers of close-relative marriages. Still, he hadn't expected this issue to be discovered long before now, and solutions had been proposed.
Suppressing his surprise, Han Cheng asked the Shaman why they were doing this.
The Shaman said it would allow the tribe to have more children.
As for the deeper reasons, he didn't know.
Han Cheng couldn't help but feel a myriad of emotions. The fact that humans could struggle out of such difficult environments and move toward glory wasn't without reason. It was like the saying, "Eating pa without reading ba." Comparing it to the current so-called Happiness Festival, they might not fully understand its significance, but they were still moving along the right path.
After coming to his senses from this annual Happiness Festival held after a year, Han Cheng quickly had other thoughts.
Han Cheng learned that four tribes, together with the Green Sparrow Tribe, would come to participate in this grand event.
Originally, there should have been five tribes coming, but the Pig Tribe had already merged into the Green Sparrow Tribe. Therefore, the visiting tribes had been reduced to four.
Having tasted the sweetness of absorbing the Pig Tribe and greatly increasing the strength of his tribe, Han Cheng, upon hearing about these tribes' existence, found it strange not to have other thoughts.
Of course, this needed to be done step by step. What Han Cheng needed to do now was to plant a wedge in the hearts of those who came from the participating tribes of the Green Sparrow Tribe and achieve something significant through small actions.
The wedge insertion shouldn't cause too much commotion and could be easily accomplished.
"Divine Child, they will bring food; why do we also need to…"
Regarding food, Shaman remained as frugal as ever. When he heard Han Cheng say they should provide food to the visitors attending the Happiness Festival, Shaman seemed a bit reluctant and asked about it.
Han Cheng didn't see any problem with the Shaman's stinginess about food. It was just like families in the future; not only did they need to earn money, but they also needed to spend it wisely.
Han Cheng began to explain the rationale to Shaman. As the conversation progressed, he even brought up the Pig Tribe as evidence. Of course, the people of the Pig Tribe were busy building walls outside and couldn't hear Han Cheng's conversation with Shaman.
Even if they heard, based on their limited understanding of the basic language they were learning, they couldn't comprehend Han Cheng and the Shaman's conversation.
Drawn in by Han Cheng's enticing words, Shaman, who had been reluctant about the food, no longer cared about it. In the dimly lit inner cave, his eyes seemed to glow a bit, apparently still immersed in the beautiful things Han Cheng had mentioned, not yet snapping back to reality.