From Chief to Ball

"Okay, then you go. When we go back to the village, we will prepare and bring a few more people. We must wear good clothes, comb our hair, and carry the flag of our ancestors. After we go, don't exchange anything with them, just Just give it to them and tell more stories about the protection of the ancestors. If they ask you how you live now, don’t tell me.”

Song was a little puzzled, but nodded in agreement.

Chen Jian stood up, straightened his clothes and hair, pointed to the mountains in the distance and asked, "Civet cat, how far is it from that tribe?"

"Be there before lunch."

"Then let's go, tell me when we are about to arrive, everyone stop and freshen up."

……

Outside the cave, more than ten miles away, the leader of the tribe was leading a few people to check the sprouts that had just germinated, and checked every day to see if they had grown taller.

Everyone in the tribe knows that the wheat beans can only bear fruit when they are waist-high. Several tribesmen cleverly pulled up a few wheat seedlings with their hands, and they were indeed much taller than other wheat seedlings that day.They were so excited that they died a few days later.

The leader scolded him severely, and planned to tell the news to other tribes in the assembly half a month later, that they cannot grow taller by plucking wheat.

Almost every farming nation feels anxious after the first planting, with all kinds of fantasies that overwhelm the seedlings, and this tribe is no exception.

Although they are still doubting that these wheat beans will really change their lives as Chen Jian said, countless hopes have also arisen while doubting. They have eaten enough bitter acorns, and the village vowed that The wheat rice made them very nostalgic.

Now there are a few people in the clan who can't go to the toilet because of their bloated stomachs, and a few children with swollen stomachs, telling their mothers that their stomachs hurt every day. Although the mothers feel distressed, there is nothing they can do. Playing with the child's belly, I hope that my children will suffer less.

Hearing the distressed voices of the children, the leader could only tell them over and over again: "It's good to get through the snow, and we can eat wheat rice when the apricots are yellow. This is how we survived. It won’t be easy to bloat after eating.”

The children relished the taste of wheat rice, swallowed, and asked, "Grandma, brother Jian and his tribe also eat acorns? Will they be bloated?"

The leader was stunned for a moment, looked up into the distance subconsciously, and muttered in his heart: "Yes, Jian and his tribe also eat acorns... They have the guidance of their ancestors. Will the ancestors tell them how not to bloat?"

The moment he looked up, a few horned deer faintly appeared in the grass in the distance, followed by several people walking towards this side.

She thought her eyes were dazzled, so she rubbed her eyes, and a few sharp-eyed children had already seen clearly the front flag, and shouted excitedly: "It's brother Jian's flag!"

The leader's heart suddenly moved, he pulled the child and said, "That's not brother Jian's flag, it's our flag, and that's our ancestors."

The children agreed indiscriminately, and rushed over in a panic, wanting to get a piece of caramel from Chen Jian.

After running over, he turned around the grass sledge even more curiously, forgetting about the caramel.A few bold children asked: "Brother Jian, can we sit on it?"

Chen Jian laughed, and hugged the children on the grass sledge. The children sat on it, looking at the two marks left on the grass, and they were very excited.

The leader hurried over with his clansmen, said hello to Chen Jian first, and then noticed the clothes they were wearing.

A few tribesmen around Chen Jianjian noticed the envious eyes of these people, and naturally stood upright, with their chests straightened out, as if they were in the queue.

The people of those tribes wanted to reach out and touch them, but they were afraid that their hands would stain other people's clothes. They were a little at a loss, and they wanted to ask but dared not.

The leader let the playful children down, and led them into the cave by himself.

This is Chen Jian's first visit to another tribe. With the rules from last time, the leader will of course find the best treats. After thinking about it, he still didn't use acorns, but dried fish. Still reluctant to kill.

Chen Jian led some people to bring down a few baskets of food. Those people were a little curious, thinking it was delicious, but after opening it, they found that it was white powder, which smelled strange and didn't look delicious.

Only a jar of apricot vinegar attracted the favor of women. After they tasted it in the village last time, they wanted to eat it even more, but they didn't have it in their own tribe.Now the tribe has to prepare for winter, and there are not many things to exchange, so they have to hold back.

Chen Jian took out a few baked pottery sheep for the children to play with, and then pretended not to ask, "Are the acorns you eat bitter?"

A word immediately resonated.

"Bitter and astringent."

"I can't go to the toilet after eating too much. I need someone to help me with a wooden stick. It hurts..."

"It's been like this in previous years, and it won't be sweeter this year."

"Jian, do your tribe also eat this kind of bitter acorn?"

Chen Jian said with a smile: "Originally it was bitter, but our ancestors guided us and told us that there is a way to make acorns not bitter, and we won't feel bloated after eating them."

"Really?"

The leader stood up excitedly, looked at Chen Jian with burning eyes, and wanted to know this method. This is really important, and many of his clan members have to endure such suffering every year.

There was also bursts of excited roars from the side. They didn't ask whether it was true or not, because they felt that since they were good at talking, it must be possible to do it, because they had seen too many unimaginable things.

Someone had already brought some smashed acorns and asked what to do.

Chen Jian took some quicklime and added water to the large pottery basin. The quicklime dissipated heat when it met the water, and soon boiled. Those people looked curiously at the water that can boil without fire, and they were amazed.

After the lime water was clear, the smashed acorns were soaked in the skimmed lime water.The solubility of calcium hydroxide is very low, and slaked lime can be reused. Soak it for half a day each time, and keep soaking it for about six or seven times to get rid of the bitterness inside.

Chen Jian waited here for two days, and gave some plant ash crystals to those who had acid reflux in their stomachs. The potassium carbonate in them could relieve hyperacidity.Of course, it is best to use baking soda, but he doesn't have the ability to make it now, and plant ash should not kill people.

For those who have stomach bloating but no acid reflux, boil water with fried malt, hawthorn, bitter almonds and peony root. These are all things that promote digestion, and they should not kill people, and the effect may be slower.However, as long as the tannins in the acorns are not so much, these symptoms will gradually improve.

Two days later, those soaked acorns were carefully washed out by the clansmen, and they cooked a meal of acorns with an almost religious attitude.

When the rice was cooked, the leader pinched it a little bit first, and then said with bright eyes: "It's really not that bitter!"

Long after those acid-regurgitated clansmen drank plant ash to relieve them, she had already believed in the method Chen Jian said. Now that she has tasted it with her own mouth, she shouted it out just to make the clansman happy, and also to express the happiness in her heart.

The clansmen gathered around one after another, chewed it carefully, and let out a sigh of admiration.Not tasty, but at least less bitter.

Someone shouted, "I won't be afraid of eating acorns anymore!"

Those people also cheered. Chen Jian shook his head with a smile, pointed out of the cave and said, "No, it's not that we are no longer afraid of eating acorns, but that we don't need to eat acorns anymore."

The cheering people were slightly stunned, thinking of the sprouts that had grown, their hearts were filled with excitement, and they shouted excitedly.

"Yes! I will never eat acorns again!"

Chapter 24 The first encounter of the sexes

When a farming nation started planting, every time they ate an acorn, it meant war and famine, or the misery of being ruled by a foreign race.

Although Chen Jian said it with pride, he also knew that it was just a beautiful dream that he would never have to eat acorns again.

Pi Rixiu, a talented scholar in the late Tang Dynasty, once wrote a lament about acorns: Acorns are ripe in deep autumn, scattered in hazel and barrens, and yellow-haired women are picked up, and they are picked up by morning frost.As time goes by, the baskets will be full, and the baskets will be full every day, exposed and steamed several times, and used as three winter grains...

I'm afraid that this person with vested interests who once served as Dr. Taichang may also have a little dream of letting people in the world no longer have to eat acorns, so he joins the even more unreliable yellow nest.

Today's world, in Chen Jian's eyes, is only a hundred miles around, with a population of more than a thousand people, and they are more or less capable of keeping the "people of the world" from eating acorns.

In fact, he has long known the possible consequences of eating acorns, but he remembered what the old grandmother said, that only those who have experienced pain can know the value of happiness.Those who prevent suffering in advance are often forgotten.

In any case, during this winter of eating acorns, these tribes will definitely remember Chen Jian and the protection and guidance of their ancestors.

That black and white flag fluttering in the wind, and that rather weird-looking clothes will also become the hope and expectation of these people in times of suffering, and that's enough.