I am a Primitive Man-Chapter 797: Wild Duck Station and Pine Forest Station (Three-in-One)

I am a Primitive Man-Chapter 797: Wild Duck Station and Pine Forest Station (Three-in-One)

Chapter 797: Wild Duck Station and Pine Forest Station (Three-in-One)
Here is a stream, and if you follow the stream downstream for about ten or so miles, you will come upon a fairly large lake, roughly four to five miles across.
The convergence of several waterways forms this lake.
Building a road through such an area is particularly difficult because of the stream; in some places, bridges are required.
In fact, if the road were laid out in a straight line, the Bronze Highway would have to pass right through this wild lake.
Such a project, of course, is far beyond what the current Green Sparrow Tribe could accomplish.
Even if it were possible, Han Cheng wouldn’t lead his tribe to undertake such a laborious and unrewarding task.
After surveying, Han Cheng decided to bypass the lake and the two relatively large rivers feeding into it, ultimately shifting the road nearly ten miles south of the lake.
Still, this didn’t altogether avoid the streams.
However, compared to the lake and the two wider rivers, moving the road here drastically reduced the workload.
Han Cheng’s current concern was not building bridges.
Compared to standard road construction, building bridges is much more troublesome.
But with the manpower and resources of the Green Sparrow Tribe now, constructing some short-span stone bridges is not a problem.
What Han Cheng was thinking about now was lodging—in other words, establishing stations here.
The nature of the Bronze Highway, connecting the Green Sparrow main tribe and the Copper Mountain residential area, determines its future importance.
The final route Han Cheng roughly measured during his recent trip to Copper Mountain is about 170 li (approximately 53 miles) after straightening curves.
Covering such a distance in a single day without horses is impossible.
Therefore, building stations along this road becomes a necessity.
In the past and even now, tribe members—including the frequent trade teams—carry tents and ropes when traveling.
At night, they set up tents and rope off a relatively safe area around the camp.
This camping method is much safer compared to most tribes of this era, who camped openly in the wild without any protection.
However, from Han Cheng’s perspective as a man from the future, such camping is still not very safe.
Beyond safety concerns, there are many inconveniences.
For one, carrying tents and ropes is cumbersome and tiresome.
Furthermore, the routine of setting up tents and rope boundaries at camp, only to tear them down the next morning, is troublesome.
Trade teams often travel many places, so building fixed rest spots everywhere along the route is impractical.
Therefore, although Han Cheng previously thought that makeshift camps with tents and ropes were both unsafe and inconvenient, he had not suggested constructing permanent stations.
But now, applying this to the Bronze Highway, things are different.
The transportation volume from the Copper Mountain residential area will definitely be large.
Unlike the roads Mao and others take for trade, this road is fixed.
Under these circumstances, building stations along it becomes a practical consideration.
The location Han Cheng just mentioned, Wild Duck Bridge, is roughly sixty li (about 19 miles) from the Copper Mountain residential area.
It is roughly at the one-third mark of the Bronze Highway.
By building a station here and another at the one-third point farther along, the entire Bronze Highway can be artificially divided into three segments.
Traveling on flat roads rather than crossing mountains, it’s still feasible to cover sixty li from morning to night.
In emergencies, a person riding a donkey and leading two others could easily cover 120 li in a day.
This way, whether pulling a donkey cart or riding a donkey to urgent news, travelers have a safe place to rest.
Dividing the Bronze Highway into three nearly equal sections with two stations is very reasonable.
Of course, Han Cheng’s envisioned stations differ significantly from traditional ones staffed by people who care for horses and provide lodging and food.
The most significant difference is that these two stations won’t have dedicated guards after being built.
Their primary function is to provide the Green Sparrow Tribe members traveling between the main tribe and the Copper Mountain residential area a safe and comfortable place to stay, avoiding the current hassle.
In time, some stoves can be built here for making fires and cooking.
Some small storerooms might be set up to hold limited supplies as relief food for travelers.
If someone consumes some supplies, they can replenish them the next time they pass by.
Regarding concerns about damage or vandalism since no one guards the stations, this era does not require much worry.
If some tribe actually discovers these stations and settles in them…
For the Green Sparrow Tribe, that wouldn’t be a bad thing; rather, it would be great.
This is only Han Cheng’s preliminary plan for the two stations.
As the tribe expands and the land around them becomes unsuitable for farming, migrating to these two stations can be considered.
Then, using the stations as centers, development can expand outward through land reclamation and grain planting.
About ten miles north of here is a fairly large lake, surrounded by some rivers. Alongside developing agriculture, fishing could also be cultivated.
It’s foreseeable that these two stations—one near the Copper Mountain residential area and the other near the Green Sparrow prominent tribe, both located on the Bronze Highway—will definitely develop once there are enough people.
Perhaps in the future, guided by these nodes, an economic corridor could develop along the entire Bronze Highway on both sides of the road.
Indeed, building roads is the first step to prosperity!
Watching the green-headed wild ducks swim in the water, occasionally diving underneath and popping up elsewhere, Han Cheng felt great. He recalled a popular saying from the future that deeply resonated with him.
After considering everything, Han Cheng pulled out a large map from behind his back, which roughly depicted the terrain between the Green Sparrow main tribe and the Copper Mountain residential area.
He found this place’s location on the Bronze Highway marked in red and put a dot on it.
Then he drew a simple little house around the dot and wrote the four characters “Wild Duck Station” on it.
By this time, Mao had already led people to establish a campsite.
For trade teams that frequently travel, setting up camps with tents and ropes like this was something they were very skilled at.
When the campsite was prepared and the fire was lit, Shang, who had gone out with others, returned.
In his hands, he carried two green-headed wild ducks shot with bow and arrow, and a few others pulled out about ten greenish wild duck eggs from their pockets.
Han Cheng happily plucked the feathers from the two wild ducks and skewered them on sticks to roast over the fire.
As for the ten wild duck eggs—which were much larger than the tribe’s chicken eggs—Han Cheng did not let anyone eat them.
Instead, he pulled a bunch of grass, gently placed it inside an empty clay pot, and put the wild duck eggs inside.
To quickly have a flock of wild ducks in the tribe and breed them, relying solely on the three ducklings caught last time would be too slow.
These wild duck eggs were intended to be taken back for incubation to hatch more ducklings.
Han Cheng was not worried at all about how to hatch the duck eggs without adult ducks in the tribe.
The tribe indeed lacked adult ducks, but they had plenty of adult chickens.
After returning, they could have chickens incubate the duck eggs.
Having chickens hatch duck eggs may sound odd, but it is actually quite feasible.
When Han Cheng was young, he had often seen a mother hen leading a group of chicks that clearly were not her own, searching for food.
In fact, not only can chickens incubate duck eggs, but they can also incubate goose eggs, which require a longer incubation time.
Because chickens are very persistent, once they enter incubation, they won’t stop until something hatches from the eggs under them.
In other words, the length of their incubation period depends entirely on whether something hatches.
In the future, some people who disliked the long incubation period for hens would buy already hatched chicks from town.
At night, they would secretly place the chicks under a hen ready to incubate eggs, and the next morning, the hen would end her incubation and happily lead the suddenly appeared chicks around as if they were her own.
After the two roasted wild ducks were done, Han Cheng tore off a duck leg, and the rest was shared among everyone.
Without prior marinating or sauces, the taste wasn’t as good as the roast duck sold in the future, but at least they got to eat roast duck.
The next day, Han Cheng did not immediately set out but had people split into groups to search the nearby grass for wild duck eggs.
Although autumn was approaching and most wild ducks had finished laying and incubating eggs and had become mothers, the world is full of accidents.
Among so many wild ducks, some would have their eggs stolen or disturbed, causing them to abandon incubation and lay eggs again later.
The famous story of the Ugly Duckling was about such an accident.
Otherwise, swans born in spring would have grown enough by autumn to migrate with the flock, and there wouldn’t be an Ugly Duckling still covered in down.
Although the peak wild duck egg incubation season had passed, the large base number of wild ducks allowed the Green Sparrow Tribe members, under Han Cheng’s orders, to carefully search and find nearly twenty more duck eggs here.
Only then did they continue back under Han Cheng’s lead.
Among these nearly thirty wild duck eggs, hatching about half would be a success.
Han Cheng’s low expectation for hatching stemmed from the fact that many eggs had already been incubated for some time by wild ducks, but were abandoned midway.
Those eggs’ developing ducklings would have stopped growing and died.
This time, without the need to scout terrain, they could focus solely on traveling, so their pace naturally quickened.
Two days later at noon, Han Cheng and the group paused at a spot surrounded by towering pine trees, some so big that several people couldn’t hug them.
The overall terrain was relatively flat and suitable for land reclamation.
This was another one-third marker point on the Bronze Highway.
Under Han Cheng’s orders, the team stopped. Han Cheng wandered around for a while, then found a suitable spot and piled up stones to make a marker. A relay station would eventually be built here.
After making the marker, he found the location on the map, marked it, and drew a small, simple house next to it with the words “Pine Forest Station” written on it.
By the time these tasks were finished, the sun was already halfway down the western horizon. Seeing this, Han Cheng ordered the team to set up camp and decided to rest here for the night.
He and a few others started flipping through thick pine needles to find pine nuts—considered a small gift to take back.
About fourteen or fifteen miles from the old end of the Green Sparrow tribe’s road, a group was busily repairing the road.
Now that the road had been extended farther from the quarry, transporting stone slabs became more difficult, so they stopped laying stone slabs six days ago.
From now on, they were building purely dirt roads.
Because a large number of workers were involved—over eighty adults working on the road—and the Green Sparrow tribe members were already familiar with tools like pickaxes and copper shovels, the roadwork advanced quickly. In the last two days, they even achieved a daily progress of seven hundred meters!
“One, two, three! Hey-yo~”
Following the route they had cleared earlier, Han Cheng, leading the group back, heard the faint call of the work chant from a distance and couldn’t help but smile.
After waiting a short while there, Han Cheng quickened his pace and headed back…
“Divine Child! The Divine Child and his group are back!”
Someone spotted Han Cheng returning from the other side of the road and shouted excitedly. In the next moment, the entire bustling construction site erupted with excitement.
After the joy of returning, Han Cheng checked the time, saw it was still early, and didn’t rush to leave. After learning some details about the roadwork, he moved a few miles back with Shang, Mao, and other members of the trade team to clear the site and start building temporary shelters, getting ready for people to stay outside.
Evening fell on the Green Sparrow tribe.
The once lively tribe, stirred by Han Cheng’s return, had now settled into complete silence.
Stars twinkled in the night sky. Around the tribe, insect sounds rose and fell from the grassy areas. Green fireflies flew slowly under the dark sky, echoing the stars above.
The whole tribe was enveloped in the peacefulness of the night.
Inside a room, little Xiao Pea was already asleep—children’s sleep was always so sweet.
The orange-yellow lamplight flickered gently as Han Cheng lay on his side, pressing his ear against Bai Xue’s gradually swelling belly, quietly listening to the movements inside.
By now, Bai Xue was over five months pregnant, and sometimes fetal movements could be felt.
Looking over at his son, who had fallen asleep, holding his wife in his arms, and sensing the little one stirring inside the belly, Han Cheng felt that his life was already worthwhile!
The next morning, still half asleep, Han Cheng was woken up by Xiao Pea, who had already gotten dressed and was pinching his nose.
“Dad, look at the ducklings!”
Seeing Han Cheng awake, Xiao Pea excitedly tugged him to go outside.
Children never understood the hardships adults worked through day and night. Han Cheng, who still wanted to lie down and catch some more sleep, had to give up the idea upon seeing the child’s expectant face.
Yawning, he forced himself up, quickly washed, and followed the child to the small duck coop.
Xiao Pea was very fond of the three ducklings Han Cheng had brought back. During Han Cheng’s absence, he often caught grasshoppers with Panda Tuan Tuan to feed them.
Not having seen them for a while, the ducklings had grown noticeably compared to when Han Cheng left, thriving well.
“Well done, little guy!”
Han Cheng reached out to rub the head of Xiao Pea, who was squatting nearby, wearing open-crotch pants, watching the ducklings, earnestly praising him.
Xiao Pea instantly beamed with joy.
Encouraged by the praise, Xiao Pea was eager to go out again to catch grasshoppers for the ducklings.
Han Cheng called out to Bai Xue to join them.
Since Bai Xue was showing her pregnancy, she needed to take more gentle walks.
Han Cheng held Bai Xue’s hand with one hand and tugged the ever-restless Xiao Pea with the other. Following behind wagged Fu Jiang, the dog.
Before they even left the courtyard, the round, bouncing Panda Tuan Tuan bounced over like a ball and joined them.
“Yo-yo…”
Such occasions naturally included Deer Lord, the Green Sparrow tribe’s top animal figure.
This guy opened the deer pen gates with his antlers, then gently closed the door with a back kick.
He then walked elegantly, showing off his long legs, quickly catching up to Han Cheng’s group, lazily resting his chin on Han Cheng’s shoulder as they moved forward.
Han Cheng missed this mischievous Deer Lord and rubbed his long face affectionately.
But his fondness quickly turned into disgust.
Because Deer Lord took advantage of Han Cheng’s inattention and gave his face a rough lick.
Seeing Han Cheng’s disgusted face as he wiped his mouth and glared, Deer Lord didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he stretched his neck, lifted his upper lip, showing yellow teeth with a cheeky expression…
Throwing the caught grasshoppers into the duck coop with Xiao Pea and watching a duckling choke on a big grasshopper and stretch its neck, Han Cheng suddenly remembered the nearly thirty wild duck eggs he had brought back.
These needed to be quickly given to hens for incubation!
Han Cheng had miscalculated.
At first, he believed that among the many hens in the tribe, at least a few would be brooding and able to incubate these eggs.
But the result was not a single brooding hen!
This made Han Cheng very frustrated.
Without brooding hens, duck eggs wouldn’t hatch into ducklings, and the tribe’s duck population would grow slowly.
Slow growth meant it would take longer before they could enjoy roast ducks and salted duck eggs.
It was then that Han Cheng noticed the old rooster who always liked to sneak into the hen group and looked almost like a sister to the hens.
That was the neutered rooster.
No doubt, this challenging and important task had to be entrusted to him.
A moment later, Han Cheng caught the frightened rooster while the other panicked hens looked on.
After drinking half a bowl of fruit wine, the rooster that had been scared just moments ago suddenly calmed down, even though its comb remained bright red.
Han Cheng placed the drunken rooster into a nest built from bricks and golden millet stalks, then covered it with a bamboo sieve.
He then began removing the duck eggs from the clay pot.
Twenty-eight duck eggs were piled there, quite a large stack.
Usually, a hen incubating chicken eggs couldn’t handle twenty or thirty eggs at once, let alone much larger duck eggs!
Clearly, this rooster couldn’t hatch all twenty-eight eggs at once.
Should he neuter another rooster to incubate with this one?
Han Cheng thought about it but decided not to do this cruel thing.
Instead, he brought half a basin of warm water and placed the duck eggs in it.
Some eggs slowly sank to the bottom, while others floated on the surface.
Han Cheng took out the eleven floating eggs and set them aside—these no longer needed incubation and wouldn’t hatch.
He wiped dry the remaining seventeen eggs with a burlap cloth and placed them one by one under the drunken rooster.
Once the rooster sobers up, he will walk the honorable path toward becoming a proud “duck mother”…

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Chapter 797: Wild Duck Station and Pine Forest Station (Three-in-One)