Smoked Meat and Pottery Making (Please Bookmark and Recommend)

Luo Chong planned to have Lame fire pottery, but making pottery was no simple matter and required a great many preparations, so he could only assign Lame other tasks first.

Yesterday's fish had not yet dried in the wind, and without salt, they would rot before long in this weather. So Luo Chong taught Lame how to smoke them: clear the brush from the open ground around the cave, then burn the damp shrubs to smoke the fish.

Smoked meat could be kept for years without spoiling. Even in modern times, some ethnic minorities in the mountains still used this ancient method.

After demonstrating it for Lame, Luo Chong left him to it. He found a patch of level ground in front of the cave and began digging a pit. Digging with branches and stones was quite laborious, but it was still far better than using his bare hands. The soil here was loose and soft; it would certainly have made good farmland, if only they had grain to plant.

He was digging the pit to build a kiln. The kiln was not large, divided into three layers: two underground and one aboveground. The bottom layer was for removing ash and drawing in air, the middle layer for feeding wood and maintaining the fire, and the top layer for placing pottery. It was actually much like the Field Smokeless Stove taught in the army, only larger.

The pit at the bottom was round. He mixed water and dry grass into mud inside it, then used the excavated soil to build the kiln directly over the pit. It was all local materials, and the grass mixed into the Kiln Basin would keep it from cracking easily.

The Kiln Basin was roughly one meter square and about 1.2 meters high. Its roof narrowed into a round opening, making it easier for the kiln to gather heat. Underground was a clay grate, a clay disk drilled with many holes. Stone strips and bone rods separated the Fire Pit from the air inlet.

This single kiln took a full three or four hours to build. The main trouble was going back and forth to the river with the Stone Basin to scoop water and mix mud. Better fire the pottery soon; otherwise, even getting water would be too troublesome.

A wet kiln could not be used. Luo Chong called over the two little companions who had caught fish with him yesterday and had them tend the fire. All three layers were heated at once, with another layer of firewood piled outside. That would dry it faster, and it should be usable by afternoon.

There was already a source of fire inside the cave. The fire in the cave never went out, because the women did not know how to make fire. If the embers died, they would have to travel far to another tribe to borrow fire, perhaps even trade things for it.

Once he had assigned everyone their tasks, Luo Chong personally went to select clay and shape Clay Pots. For now, he could not simply hand this work over to Lame. Before seeing a finished product, it would be impossible to make him give up grinding Stone Basins. But once finished products came out of the kiln, even if no one asked him to do it, he would rush to make them himself.

There was plenty of clay by the Small River. In truth, the riverbank was all clay. Even if they somehow used it all up, soil constantly exposed to water would turn into clay again. It could be said to be inexhaustible and ever-renewing.

Nature was like that. As long as one was good at discovering things, everything had its use—it only depended on whether one knew how to use it. Soil could be fired into bricks, and even sand could be made into glass. As long as one was good at math, physics, and chemistry, none of this was a problem. Naturally, it could not stump Luo Chong, a graduate of National Defense University. He had even made explosives with his bare hands before.

He found a relatively smooth, flat goose-egg stone by the river to use as a worktable. The clay he dug from the bank was pounded and kneaded. First, he shaped it into a round clay disk, then rolled out clay coils and bonded them layer by layer onto the disk. Finally, he shaped it, dipping his hands in water to smooth the inner walls and outer surface, flattening the seams as well to ensure there were no gaps. Then he set it aside to dry.

The first finished piece was a small Water Jar, narrow at the bottom and wide at the mouth. Its base was about thirty-five centimeters across, its mouth about forty centimeters, and it stood roughly fifty centimeters high. The walls were a finger thick. Since he had no ruler, those measurements were only rough estimates and not exact. Still, Luo Chong used a wooden stick to record the jar's dimensions, ensuring the next ones would be the same size.

In this way, he made four identical jars and set them out beside the cave to dry. He told the little companions tending the fire to watch them and not let anyone touch them, though plenty of people gathered around to stare.

Several idle pregnant women and children crowded around. Closest to the front was Lame. Once he had lit the fire, he had nothing else to do. He had watched Luo Chong build the kiln earlier, but he had understood none of it. He desperately wanted to study the several large earthen basins the new Chieftain had made from soil. They looked very deep, even larger than the Stone Basin already in the cave. He just did not know whether they could hold water.

It was still early, only just past noon. Luo Chong went back to the river and shaped four double-handled Clay Pots, Pottery Bowls, and lids with handles on top. The pots were neither too large nor too small, about one chi in diameter—roughly thirty-three centimeters—and about the depth of an upright palm, around twenty centimeters. By modern standards, they would already count as large clay pots.

The bowls had deep mouths and looked more like monks' alms bowls. Their openings were about the size of a palm. He sought no beauty, only practicality. Luo Chong made more than twenty of them, along with eight soup ladles. Even he did not know how many finished pieces would survive in the end.

Once the pieces were made and had dried to half-dry, he placed them beside the smoking fire to bake a little. When the afternoon was about halfway through, he began loading the kiln. Pottery generally needed only three or four hours of firing. If he started now, the fire could be stopped right at dusk.

The two little companions and Lame were all watching. The new Chieftain had somehow made so many earthen basins in a single day, but could they really be used? Of the three, Lame was the most conflicted. He hoped the earthen basins would work, yet also hoped they would not. Otherwise, would not all those years he had spent grinding Stone Basins have been wasted effort?

Luo Chong loaded the kiln alone. No one else could help with this task, and besides, they did not know how. Loading a kiln had its own rules.

Pottery had to be placed upside down in the kiln. That gave the clay blanks the greatest contact with the flames, heated them evenly, and ensured they were fired inside and out.

He first placed the four largest jars upside down at the bottom. The one-meter-square Kiln Basin accommodated them with ease. Then he stacked the four double-handled Clay Pots on top. The remaining lids, bowls, and ladles were tucked into the gaps between the jars and pots. The kiln was packed to the brim. Hopefully, more of them would come out as finished pieces.

A great fire was lit in the Fire Pit beneath the kiln. The three-layer kiln design worked well. The Fire Pit sat in the middle, with the air inlet below. Roaring flames passed through the grate and surged into the square kiln chamber. Orange-red tongues of fire leaped high, and fierce flames churned from the chamber's upper opening. He sealed the kiln mouth with damp branches and mud, leaving only a small viewing hole.

Luo Chong sat beneath the Fire Pit, constantly fanning it with animal hide. Every so often, he added more firewood. The autumn afternoon baked him into a sweat. Before he could even feel cold, the sweat was baked dry again.

By dusk, the tribespeople who had gone out began returning one after another. The women had gathered quite a lot. The Back Baskets they carried out were filled with unknown wild fruits, while their animal-hide bags held plenty of pinecones and chestnuts. They also brought back large bundles of vines; it seemed they planned to weave Back Baskets.

The men had also brought back plenty today. There were two large birds, about the size of turkeys, though no one knew what they were. There were also more than ten bird eggs, three snakes, and five big rats caught by Yellow Weasels—probably rodents like Groundhogs.

Together with the hundred-odd fish caught today, the tribe's harvest was fairly considerable. As long as they gathered more than they ate that day, the rest could be stored away.

Autumn was the season with the most food, and also the season when all things reproduced. Those pregnant women were about to give birth. It seemed primitive people also followed nature's laws, breeding offspring in the season of greatest abundance. That could greatly increase their children's chances of survival, following the same natural pattern as most animals.

The fire in the Kiln Basin was fierce. Looking through the viewing hole, even the bowls at the top had turned white-hot. They should be about done. If they kept firing them, the bowls would probably melt.

There was no need to add more wood now. They would let the fire die naturally and let the kiln cool overnight. By tomorrow morning, it should be about time to open it.

Ahem, well, you should understand. I'm asking for recommendation votes... Of course, bookmarks, comments, and ratings are all welcome too. I'll take whatever you give.