The creek water flowed quietly. Along with the creek drifted one raft after another, and stones on the rafts.
The trade team moved forward along both banks of the creek, accompanied by deer and dogs.
Shang and Mao, along with others, held long wooden poles or bronze spades and walked on both banks, guiding the rafts along.
The rafts had very shallow bottoms, allowing them to travel in such waters.
However, the creek wasn’t straight; it meandered. Sometimes when the rafts turned with the creek, they would get stuck on muddy banks or stones and couldn’t move forward.
At those times, the trade team members would use their poles to push the rafts inward, helping them bypass the bends.
Sometimes, they encountered narrow spots with fast currents that the rafts couldn’t pass through.
At these points, the trade team would tie the rafts with ropes and wooden poles, then use bronze spades to dig and widen the channel.
Compared to the hardships of land transport, these troubles were negligible.
They proceeded in this stop-and-go manner. As they neared the downstream section where the small creek became a small river, Shang led some people swiftly to the confluence.
There, they controlled all the rafts that came through.
They then connected all the rafts in pairs, forming a long single-file line.
After finishing this, a long, dark, brown dragon-like formation appeared on the river.
Before connecting all the rafts, they had used a clever trick taught by the Divine Child before departure: placing some rafts horizontally across the river to form a simple floating bridge, ferrying half the deer and people across.
Now, those on both sides of the river—people and deer—were pulling ropes tied to the rafts in the water.
The rafts’ drafts were shallow, and the water flow was gentle, nothing like the exaggerated dragon boats of Yang Guang in the Sui dynasty.
So even with fewer pullers and animals, it wasn’t too strenuous.
Compared to pole-pushing rafts upstream, this hauling method was much faster and easier.
To meet the stone transport demand, the Green Sparrow Tribe proudly introduced part-time primitive haulers…
Such a long dragon of rafts moving upstream created a stunning scene.
Of course, this was impressive for people of this era.
Thus, when the trade team pulled this dragon-like formation upstream back to the Green Sparrow Tribe, the whole tribe quickly erupted with excitement.
Everyone hurried to see this extraordinary sight.
Though tired, the trade team’s fatigue vanished instantly. They lifted their heads, stepped more vigorously, and proudly marched toward the small ferry terminal the tribe had built.
Shang, Mao, and others felt very pleased.
They knew that as the Divine Child continued to introduce new things, the “well-informed” Green Sparrow tribe people had become harder to amaze.
They had a feeling akin to “once you’ve seen the vast sea, no other water suffices.”
Now, they succeeded in surprising the tribe again; it would be strange not to feel good.
Especially when the Divine Child came over, saw the rafts and stones in the water, and happily patted each of them lightly on the shoulder, their excitement was beyond words.
Han Cheng was naturally pleased because with so much limestone, the tribe could now burn lime.
Once lime was ready, it could serve as an adhesive to make houses sturdier.
More importantly, with white lime, they could try making century eggs!
Now the rapeseed flowers were almost done blooming, and temperatures were slowly warming.
Using lime and sawdust to make a batch of century eggs now would be perfect for eating in summer.
Century eggs were a delicacy, especially in summer — one bite of a century egg with two sips of chilled beer, and that feeling was pure bliss.
Of course, when the weather cooled, a finely chopped lean meat mixture, combined with chopped century eggs, scallions, and millet, cooked in a pot of century egg and lean pork congee, was also delicious.
This kind of century egg and lean pork congee was the real deal, not the cheap kind overloaded with noodles, little pork, and few century eggs that barely resembled the dish.
Foodies had vivid imaginations; they could link many things to eating.
For example, Han Cheng was now drooling just at the sight of a pile of stones.
Although he couldn’t make beer yet, his enthusiasm for producing century eggs was undiminished.
The stones on the rafts were unloaded onto the dock, forming a large pile. The rafts were untied and dragged ashore one by one.
At this time, spring farming in the tribe was more than halfway done. They only needed to harvest the rapeseed and then plant the last batch of late millet.
There were plenty of hands available for various tasks.
Han Cheng ignored Hei Wa’s suggestion to build the lime kiln near the brick kiln, not far from the river.
Instead, he insisted on transporting these limestones near the quarry northwest of the Green Sparrow Tribe.
Water is the source of life — this saying was very accurate, especially as the tribe grew bigger and its population and livestock increasingly depended on this small river for drinking water.
Han Cheng understood this importance better than anyone and spared no effort in protecting the creek.
In his plan, the tribe’s northwest downwind area would become the Green Sparrow Tribe’s “high pollution industrial” zone.
This area would concentrate copper smelting furnaces and lime kilns.
By autumn, charcoal kilns would also move here.
Only the brick kiln and pottery kiln, which required large amounts of water, would remain near the river.
Thanks to the diligent Green Sparrow tribe people, a stone-paved road connected the simple dock by the creek to the quarry at the tribe’s northwest corner.
This road was perfect for the tribe’s increasing number of wheelbarrows, so moving limestone over land here was relatively easy.