After moving to a new location, the tribe, after a brief rest, quickly got busy.
The strong men in the tribe carried stone axes and chopped down not-so-tall trees near a nearby stream.
Their stone axes were different from those used by most tribes.
Their axes were not tied to wooden handles with ropes, nor were they like the axes Han Cheng saw in the Green Sparrow Tribe, where holes were drilled in the stone and a wooden handle was inserted.
Their axes were made by first hollowing an oval hole at one end of the wooden handle, then hammering the polished stone axe head into it — the smaller end on top, the wider blade below — so the stone was firmly fixed to the handle.
Moreover, the axe would only get tighter with each strike, never loosening.
The felled trees were dragged about 400 to 500 meters from the stream to a gentle slope.
These were good construction materials.
Some searched around for tall, dry grass that had not rotted over the winter; others broke off branches from the dragged trees and gathered them.
Not all strong men cut trees; some worked on that gentle slope, digging soil within circles drawn on the ground by the female shaman.
They had done this many times, so they knew what to do.
When the digging got too deep and challenging, someone fetched water from the stream with pottery jars made by the shaman and poured it into the pits.
The diggers moved to work on other pits, waiting for the water to seep down before continuing.
Once the central circular pit was done, people began inserting broken branches around its edge, leaving one southern side branch-free — the location of the door.
After inserting the branches, they mixed the excavated soil with water from pottery jars, then piled it thickly on both sides of the branches, gradually building a circular mud wall.
Because the branches inside acted like rebar, the mud wall was very sturdy.
When the wall reached chest height, they stopped.
Next, some people placed bundles of five or six wooden sticks on top of the circular mud wall.
The sticks were only tied together at one end, spreading out like the ribs of an open umbrella.
After this, women took the collected dry grass and tightly tied it around the “umbrella ribs.”
When the grass was entirely tied on top, the half-underground, half-above-ground house was completed.
Compared to the Green Sparrow Tribe’s houses, which dug foundations, laid stone bases, rammed earth walls, then built wooden beams, rafters, lattices, applied mud, and finally thatched roofs, these houses were simpler and faster to build.
Of course, their houses were far less spacious and bright than those of the Green Sparrow Tribe.
After building four such round houses in a row, the tribe shifted focus to clearing fields.
Though it was autumn, the weather was still cold, especially at night, so building houses was necessary.
These four round houses weren’t enough for everyone, but they could barely accommodate the minors and those who weren’t in good health.
At night, it got a bit crowded.
This tribe was also very experienced in farming.
They picked a clear day, cleared dead yellow grass and plants to make a patch, and then set fire when new grass shoots just started growing…
Warm sunlight shone on the land, which had seemed barren before, but with these people, it gradually changed.
An older Priestess, barefoot and holding a digging tool made of branches, walked on the ash-covered ground.
She twisted her waist, dug a small hole in the ash-covered soil, then with her other hand took three gray-brown seeds from a pottery jar and placed them in the hole, pressing them down with her bare feet.
Many others were doing the same nearby.
This method of farming required minimal plowing, saving them a significant amount of time.
While they worked, many men, led by the tribe leader, went hunting in the surrounding area.
Since arriving, they hadn’t hunted much food, relying primarily on stored gray-brown seeds to fill their stomachs, which had been consumed quite a bit.
Now that they were planting a new batch, the seeds would decrease, so it was time to find more food.
The remaining strong adults started continuing house construction.
Living for a long time without shelter from wind and rain wasn’t a good thing.
Before building more houses, they first used sticks to make an animal pen, since livestock were precious for their tribe.
The advent of copper-plow deer farming significantly boosted the Green Sparrow Tribe’s productivity, especially on well-prepared fields, making farming incredibly fast.
Because of this, Han Cheng dared to send the trade team out halfway through spring plowing.
Not to trade or plunder the surrounding tribes, but to transport some stones back.
These stones were limestone.
The tribe had been aware of limestone for a long time, but Han Cheng never ordered large-scale transportation or lime burning.
Long-distance stone transport was difficult, and there weren’t many uses for lime within the tribe.
When needed, they improvised with ash-based mortar.
But now it was different.
With the walls finished and spring plowing coming to an end, many houses and other structures needed to be built, requiring a lot of lime.