Chapter Summaries

Luo Chong assessed the Cannibal Apes’ settlements and uncertain strength, then ordered new patrols and proposed that You Ye’s team capture prisoners and scout the rivers. He also checked preparations for the Han Tribe’s Labor Day Celebration, which he hoped would secure the new tribespeople’s loyalty.

• Luo Chong estimated that the enemy had at least twenty or thirty thousand people, but worried that the missing red-haired giant apes might greatly increase their strength.
• Luo Chong ordered Dashu and Big Mouse to form three ten-person horseback patrol teams to guard the new city’s northern approaches after the celebration.
• Luo Chong decided You Ye’s team should attempt to capture prisoners if they had a safe opportunity, question them about the giant apes, and return along the rivers while scouting whether boats could travel north.
• Dashu assured Luo Chong that the celebration preparations were arranged and that the trained participants were reliable veteran soldiers from Hanyang City.

The Han Tribe held its first Labor Day Celebration to honor workers and reward a Labor Model from each clan. After Luo Chong addressed the crowd, Dashu announced Xue Lei as the first winner and described his achievements and generous private rewards.

• As the city projects and harvest progressed, Luo Chong organized the Han Tribe’s first Labor Day Celebration, inviting residents and workers to attend.
• Luo Chong praised the tribespeople’s labor and explained that one Labor Model from each clan would receive recognition and rewards.
• Dashu announced Xue Lei of the Xue Clan as the first Labor Model for leading a fast, successful house-building team and teaching its members.
• Dashu listed Xue Lei’s rewards, including a loom, household tools, cloth, furs, piglets, and sheep, all of which would be his private property.

Xue Lei received a Labor Model award for his work leading construction teams, and Luo Chong praised and rewarded him at the ceremony. After other clansmen were honored with complementary livestock and production tools, the tribe eagerly turned to the activities where ordinary clansmen could win prizes.

• Xue Lei recalled joining the Han Tribe, learning construction techniques, and choosing to lead building work in the new city.
• Luo Chong called Xue Lei to the stage, tied a large red flower to his chest, and praised him for earning the Labor Model honor.
• Xue Lei accepted his rewards, showed a lamb to the crowd, and watched his family and neighbors carry the prizes home.
• The ceremony honored other workers, including Jian, Chai, Hu, Gu, and Jing, and gave families different textile tools so they could complement one another's work.
• After the labor awards ended, the clansmen eagerly prepared to take part in activities offering smaller prizes to ordinary members.

After the Labor Day celebrations and communal feast, Luo Chong traveled to Hanyang City with paper to prepare textbooks, train teachers and officials, and begin designing currency. He left with several urgent tasks ahead as the Han Tribe moved toward private trade and a new government.

• Families competed in the ranking assessment and labor games, while tribespeople watched a soccer match outside the city.
• The Han Tribe held a communal feast with roast saiga antelope, lamb offal soup, and porridge.
• Luo Chong considered castrating pigs to help them gain weight but postponed it until the tribe had more pigs and could learn the necessary skill.
• The celebrations ended, and tribespeople went home to raise the small animals they had won.
• The next morning, Luo Chong led students and several carts of paper toward Hanyang City.
• Luo Chong planned to compile textbooks, train teachers and officials, organize a population census, and design coins for the Great Han Empire.

Luo Chong inspected Hanyang City’s new buildings, arranged for paper windows and a convex lens, and established rules for the Han Tribe’s currency. He left the tribe with a decimal currency system and plans to mint coins that the Xin Tribe could not easily imitate.

• Luo Chong inspected the completed Teaching Buildings and the Office Building’s raised foundation, then ordered paper windows installed in public buildings and homes.
• Luo Chong asked Big Mouth to make a bronze mold for a convex lens, which he planned to cast from crystal glass for optical work.
• Luo Chong decided that Han Tribe trade would use barter or Han-minted coins, banning jewelry and other privately made silver goods as payment.
• Luo Chong adopted a Yuan, Jiao, and Fen decimal system and chose brass-and-lead alloy for small coins and pure silver for silver yuan.
• Luo Chong ordered solid stamped coins instead of square-holed cast coins and planned to use steel stamps to make counterfeiting harder.

Luo Chong opened the Han Tribe’s new teaching buildings and began training 320 adults in Chinese characters, mathematics, and practical skills needed to govern an agricultural society. He planned an intensive course that would leave the students able to read, write, and handle basic administrative calculations.

• Luo Chong finished planning the coins and turned to researching stamping equipment while other preparations continued.
• The Han Tribe completed its window-paper installations, and the two Teaching Buildings became ready for classes.
• Luo Chong began teaching 320 students, including Patriarchs, team captains, shamans, and selected residents, in four classes.
• Luo Chong taught Chinese characters through simple forms, related characters, radicals, and everyday words, while students practiced writing.
• The students began afternoon mathematics lessons covering Arabic numerals, arithmetic, multiplication tables, and written calculation methods.

Luo Chong prepared a crystal mold to make a glass plate and explained its use to Big Mouth. The chapter ended with Luo Chong taking crystal ore from his study to begin making the tool.

• Luo Chong struggled to compile simple poems for his students, then Big Mouth brought him the finished metal mold.
• Luo Chong warned his students that he would give them a dictation test and make them write each mistaken word a hundred times.
• Luo Chong explained to Big Mouth how clay-coated metal molds could be used safely for casting and asked him to prepare workers for future plants.
• Big Mouth guessed that the mold was for lead and silver, but Luo Chong told him it was for making glass.
• Luo Chong showed Big Mouth transparent crystal ore and explained that melting and reshaping it could produce crystal plates.

Luo Chong had Big Mouth grind crystal into powder and began melting it to make a convex lens. Seeing the powder inspired Luo Chong to consider making reusable water-writing cloth, though he lacked most of the materials its coating required.

• Luo Chong explained that Big Mouth should crush and grind the crystals before melting them into a transparent plate.
• Big Mouth processed the crystals into coarse white powder and brought it to the iron-smelting workshop.
• Luo Chong considered using finer crystal powder as silicon dioxide in a reusable water-writing cloth, but realized he lacked the other ingredients for its coating.
• Luo Chong told Big Mouth to begin melting the crystal powder and add a little alkali later.
• Big Mouth and his assistants worked the bellows and fed charcoal until the powder in the crucible began glowing red.

Luo Chong directed Big Mouth and the assistants in casting and finishing a large convex lens from molten glass. Big Mouth discovered that the finished magnifying glass made his hand appear enormous.

• Luo Chong instructed Big Mouth to melt the glass ingredients and pour the viscous liquid into a preheated mold.
• Luo Chong and the assistants pressed the mold halves together, squeezed out excess glass, and scraped away the overflow.
• Luo Chong had Big Mouth cool the mold carefully, and they opened it to reveal a transparent glass casting.
• Luo Chong broke off the glass burrs and ground the edge, completing an eighteen-centimeter convex lens.
• Big Mouth looked at his palm through the magnifying glass and marveled at how large and clear it appeared.

Luo Chong taught the apprentices how a Magnifying Glass enlarged details and focused sunlight, then demonstrated that it could ignite wood. The onlookers treated it as a miraculous toy until Luo Chong warned them to stop, intending to use it for carving fine patterns into coin molds.

• Luo Chong explained the Magnifying Glass’s magnification and fire-starting uses to Big Mouth and the apprentices.
• Luo Chong took the group outside and focused sunlight through the Magnifying Glass onto a blackened piece of wood.
• The wood began to smoke, and an apprentice shouted that Luo Chong had summoned Sky Fire.
• Big Mouth explained the tool to the gathering onlookers, including Patriarch She, Rat Shaman, and Elder Han.
• The crowd used the Magnifying Glass to ignite wood and roast ants until Luo Chong warned them that it could damage their eyes.

Luo Chong prepared tools and taught his students to make clay movable type, demonstrating how backward-carved characters printed upright and explaining how arranged characters could print whole passages. He asked the class to identify the advantages of printing, then recognized a promising student as Bai Qi of the newly joined Bai Clan.

• Luo Chong had Mutong make an adjustable frame for his magnifying glass and asked Big Mouth to arrange the forging of carving knives.
• Luo Chong assigned more than three hundred students to carve backward characters into clay blanks while they studied writing.
• A former Hunting Team squad leader tested a carved character with ink and paper, discovering that it printed an upright Han character.
• Luo Chong used a blackboard diagram to explain how movable type could be arranged to print entire passages and asked students to name its advantages.
• A young student explained that movable type could produce consistent, legible writing, and Luo Chong identified him on the roster as Bai Qi of the Bai Clan.

Luo Chong explained how printing could preserve and spread knowledge, winning the students’ enthusiastic pledge to serve the Han Tribe. As the lesson ended, he considered autumn planting plans for Lacquer Grass and mulberry trees.

• Bai Qi observed that printing could produce many identical copies quickly, and Luo Chong explained its purpose and the role of books in passing knowledge to future generations.
• A planted supporter recited Luo Chong’s declaration of allegiance, and the students stood and echoed their pledge to work for the Han Tribe and help the people.
• Luo Chong told the students to continue carving characters carefully, then looked out at the ripening rice paddies and planned to plant Lacquer Grass after the harvest.
• Luo Chong considered using Lacquer Bean oil to make ink for movable type and recognized that the arriving female leader of the Sang Tribe would add mulberry cultivation to his autumn plans.

Big Mouse brought Sang Qiu and more than 170 members of the Sang Tribe into Hanyang City, where they marveled at the Han Tribe’s buildings and bustling streets. After settling them in the military camp, Big Mouse found Luo Chong at the school, where he prepared to speak with Sang Qiu and her companions.

• Big Mouse led Sang Qiu and the Sang Tribe members through Hanyang City and arranged for them to stay in the military camp.
• The Sang Tribe members explored their bunk beds while Big Mouse took Sang Qiu and her translator to find Luo Chong.
• Big Mouse and his companions learned from two children that Luo Chong was at the school teaching Patriarchs to read.
• Big Mouse met Mutong at a construction site, and Mutong guided the group through the school building.
• Luo Chong left his classroom and invited Big Mouse, Sang Qiu, and her translator to talk in the next room.

Luo Chong explained why the Sang Clan could not settle in Hanyang City and proposed that they move across the river to help build a new city and develop Chestnut Silkworm silk production. Sang Qiu was left to consider whether to accept the arrangement.

• Luo Chong told Sang Qiu that Hanyang City had no spare housing and that residents would have to move out to make room for the Sang Clan.
• Luo Chong showed Sang Qiu a map and explained that Chestnut Silkworms lived in the forest south of the river crossing.
• Luo Chong proposed that the Sang Clan collect wild Chestnut Silkworm cocoons for experiments while mulberry trees grew in Hanyang City.
• Luo Chong offered to build a larger city near the Chestnut Forest and asked the Sang Clan to move there to help construct it and develop silk production.

Luo Chong arranged for Sang Qiu’s clan to help build a new city and raise silkworms, then explained his plans for two more cities and the Han Tribe’s expanding administrative territories. The chapter ended with Big Mouse staring in shock at the scale of the territory Luo Chong had mapped out.

• Luo Chong told Sang Qiu that her clan would help build a new city, raise their silkworms using other tree leaves, and learn farming and weaving.
• Luo Chong revealed to Big Mouse that he planned to build two cities before the end of next year, preparing for more than four thousand people expected from the northern Tribe Alliances.
• Luo Chong named the northern valley city Horse Binding Pass and the city near Chestnut Forest Ruyang Commandery.
• Luo Chong named the existing city Liuyang Commandery and outlined its townships, counties, and surrounding territories.
• Big Mouse stared in shock as Luo Chong marked the Han Tribe’s expanding administrative divisions on the map.

Luo Chong assigned Big Mouse to find a suitable site for a large new city in Ruyang Commandery, then visited the weaving workshop while hosting Sang Qiu and her people. After watching the Han Tribe’s textile machinery, Luo Chong asked Sang Qiu whether silk could be spun into thread and woven.

• Big Mouse asked Luo Chong for a new assignment, and Luo Chong tasked him with choosing a site for a city in Ruyang Commandery after the harvest.
• Luo Chong gave Big Mouse requirements for the site, including nearby water, flat and elevated land, ample farmland, and forest resources.
• Luo Chong visited the Weaving Workshop, where Sang Qiu and the Sang Tribe visitors watched the roving, spinning, and weaving machines.
• A student told Sang Qiu that Luo Chong had created the machinery and praised him as the Son of Heaven.
• Luo Chong approached Sang Qiu in the weaving workshop and asked whether silk could be made into thread and woven into cloth.

Luo Chong arranged for Sang Qiu’s group to gather Chestnut Silkworm cocoons while he designed a machine for reeling silk. Their plans met an unexpected obstacle when they discovered that another tribe had occupied the abandoned Chestnut Tribe settlement.

• Sang Qiu agreed to lead clanspeople to collect Chestnut Silkworm cocoons with Big Mouse as their guide.
• Luo Chong outlined the silk-reeling process and assigned Wooden Porpoise to modify a foot-powered spinning machine.
• Luo Chong planned a machine that could reel four strands at once using cocoons in divided sections of hot water.
• Another tribe was discovered living in the abandoned Chestnut Tribe settlement, disrupting the groups’ plans.

Big Mouse’s group encountered the Taro Tribe, whose people had settled in the Chestnut Tribe’s former home and cultivated taro. After a tense first meeting, Big Mouse offered White Salt and invited the Taro Tribe’s Chieftain to negotiate, while making clear that the Han Tribe would not be barred from the fruit forest.

• Big Mouse led Han Tribe members across the river to gather fruit, while the Taro Tribe hunted near its settlement.
• The Taro Tribe’s hunting team followed the smell of the Han Tribe’s breakfast, but a Han sentry spotted three scouts and sounded the alarm.
• Big Mouse surrounded the three Taro Tribe scouts and learned that their people had settled in the Chestnut Tribe’s abandoned camp.
• The Taro Tribe captain claimed the fruit forest for his tribe and asked whether the Han Tribe had Salt Stone to trade.
• Big Mouse offered the captain a pouch of White Salt and told him to bring the Taro Tribe’s Chieftain to negotiate.
• The Taro Tribe captain tasted the White Salt and recognized it as purer than Salt Stone.

Big Mouse negotiated with the Taro Tribe’s squad leader over a supply of White Salt and arranged to meet their Chieftain. While they waited, the squad leader saw the Han Tribe’s cooking and containers, and Big Mouse learned that the Taro Tribe had a filling food called mountain taro.

• Big Mouse promised the Taro Tribe a plentiful supply of White Salt if their Chieftain spoke with him personally.
• The squad leader sent two subordinates back with a sample of White Salt and agreed to lead Big Mouse to a meeting place.
• Big Mouse delayed their departure so his group could finish eating meat porridge.
• The squad leader watched the Han Tribe cook with unfamiliar containers and accepted a bowl of porridge from Big Mouse.
• The squad leader shared roasted mountain taro with Big Mouse, who found it dry and bland but asked what it was called.
• The squad leader tasted the hot porridge and said it was tasty and fragrant but burned his mouth.

Big Mouse led a Han Tribe group to meet Taro Earth and negotiate White Salt in exchange for chestnuts. He rejected Taro Earth's demand for an exclusive year-round harvest, leaving the tribes to seek other trade terms.

• After breakfast, the Taro Tribe squad leader rode in an ox cart as he guided Big Mouse and the Han Tribe group toward the meeting place.
• Taro Earth grew impatient waiting, then saw the Han Tribe arrive with horses, oxen, and carts and was stunned by their beasts.
• Big Mouse introduced himself as the Han Tribe's warrior leader and asked how much White Salt the Taro Tribe wanted and what it would offer in trade.
• Taro Earth offered the Han Tribe a year's supply of chestnuts from the forest in exchange for a year's supply of White Salt.
• Big Mouse refused Taro Earth's terms, said the Han Tribe would continue using the forest, and asked the Taro Tribe to offer something else for the salt.