Returning to hometown to farm: The apocalypse system arrived ten years earlier?

Chapter 28: Cat Mom's Private Life is a Bit Messy
While drying the clothes, there were two dogs watching over them, so there was no need to worry about chickens, ducks and birds coming over to "disturb". However, Li Xiang did not leave either. He was doing carpentry work in the pavilion.

The three-pronged steel fork I made earlier was still missing a fork handle, but I never had time to work on it before. It just so happens that I can do it today.

Then the rice needs to be turned frequently so that it can dry earlier.

According to his childhood experience, in autumn, the plants are usually turned over every hour and exposed to the sun for at least three days.

Li Xiang was holding a long birch log in his hand.

I cut it down when I went into the mountains before. I was originally planning to use it as firewood in the winter, but this one was thicker and longer, and grew straight, so I kept it thinking it might be useful in the future.

He used a saw to cut it into pieces of about two meters and four or five meters, and then used a high-density knife to cut along the surface, cutting in circles. The diameter of the birch was about 7-12 centimeters. Li Xiang cut it into a stick about five or six centimeters thick, and then switched to a woodworking plane to plan it and "meticulously carve it."

In the end, the birch wood turned into a straight, evenly thick, and very beautiful fork handle with a diameter of about 4 cm.

He squeezed it with one hand and it was just right.

Then, the "head" of the three-pronged steel fork was installed and reinforced with a nail.

Li Xiang stood up and danced a bit, feeling pretty good.

Although he forgot to make the melon hammer for the tail weight last time, the whole fork is a bit "top-heavy" because the fork head weighs five kilograms of special steel. However, Li Xiang is very strong and can "lift heavy things with ease", so this "incoordination" is not a problem at all.

Most importantly, if a three-pronged steel fork for agricultural use is made like an ancient cold weapon or a hunting fork, Li Xiang is worried that it will become a "controlled knife."

Well, in a word, the more earthy the better. Earthy to the point that people can tell it's for farm work.

Therefore, this three-pronged steel fork has no blood grooves and no barbs. Except for the sharp fork tips, each prong is round and the fork body is not bladed.

Birch is not actually a good wood for making gun barrels, oh no, fork handles, although in ancient times, birch was used to make spear handles because it is relatively hard and stable.

But there are better materials, such as ash, walnut, red oak, and ash.

Moreover, the gun barrels in ancient times were not made purely of wood, but a unique bamboo and wood shaft (bì).

That is, there is a hard wooden stick in the middle, with one or two layers of long bamboo strips wrapped around it, and high-quality rattan tightly wrapped around the outside of the bamboo strips, and then the rattan is tightly tied with strong silk threads. Finally, it is painted, and the raw lacquer is evenly applied layer by layer to make these materials tightly combined into one, smooth and beautiful.

The gun barrel made in this way is much better than those made of pure iron or wood. The wooden core inside the gun barrel maintains the hardness of the gun barrel, while the bamboo strips on the surface increase the flexibility, so it is not easy to break even if it stabs the enemy's armor with great force.

Pure iron lacks elasticity, is too heavy, and requires a lot of physical strength.

A more advanced craft than the bamboo and wooden shaft is the shaft of the lance.

The manufacture of a lance is extremely complicated and time-consuming, often taking five years to make. In ancient times, only wealthy and powerful families could own one.

Shan Xiongxin of the Sui and Tang Dynasties had a huge horse lance called "Han Gu Bai". It is said that the spear head alone weighed 70 kilograms. He almost stabbed Li Shimin to death with one lance. Fortunately, Xu Maogong stopped him in time, and Taizong escaped the disaster.

This is not recorded in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties", but in "Old Book of Tang Dynasty·Biography Volume 3".

Although the birch wood fork handle was not good, Li Xiang thought it was OK as a farm tool. Of course, if he had a chance to get better wood, he wouldn't mind changing it.

If he finds good wood, he would like to try the craft of making a lance and shoot a video: the ancient method of making a lance. But it takes a long time, and it will take three to five years for the video to come out.

Another thing is, if it is really made, wouldn’t the excellent lance be too ugly when paired with such a rustic three-pronged steel fork?

"Oh, you're thinking too much. We'll talk about it later."

Moreover, Li Xiang felt that when the end of the world came and no one would care, he could reforge the three-pronged steel fork into a suitable gun head.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, Li Xiang began to harvest the rice, still wrapping the rice pile with rain cloth, covering it tightly, and placing it in the yard. The weather forecast for the next few days is sunny, and it won't rain.

The next morning, when Li Xiang passed by the cat's nest, the old tabby cat gave him a big surprise.

Li Xiang took a quick glance and discovered that there were a few more little creatures in the cat's nest. He squatted down and counted them carefully. There were exactly five little ones, all huddled around the mother cat's belly, vying for milk.

"This mother cat's private life is a bit messy." Li Xiang couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the cute little kitten.

Because, among these five little ones, no two have the same color.

A white cat, a tabby cat, a calico cat, a cow, and a little orange cat.

The kitten was still too young to tell whether it was a male or a female. Li Xiang did not touch the kitten because newborn kittens cannot be touched.

The scent of a newborn kitten is very simple and pure. If humans touch it, it will be mixed with other scents. Human hands often touch here and there, so the scent becomes mixed. This will lead to a problem, that is, the mother cat may think that this is not her cub and will not feed it milk, or even bite it to death!

Although Li Xiang was the owner and the old cat should be familiar with his scent, Li Xiang still did not take the risk.

In addition, newborn kittens are very fragile. They only have maternal resistance. If people touch them, they may pass bacteria or viruses to the kittens, which may make them sick.

"Congratulations, both mother and child are safe." Li Xiang waved to the old cat. The old cat looked up and meowed a few times, seeming very proud.

However, Li Xiang could see that the old cat was very tired and weak, so he thought about making something delicious to nourish the old cat.

Li Xiang had not finished eating the rice fish he caught with rice field water last time, so he went to the "Dishui Waterfall" and picked out the biggest one, intending to make a pot of delicious spinach and fish porridge.

There are both meat and vegetarian dishes, and the nutrition is balanced.

At this time, grandma also got up and found that there were five more little creatures at home. She couldn't help but be very happy. Grandma is also experienced and of course she would not touch the kittens casually.

When Li Xiang told his idea, grandma became interested and said, "I'll go make the porridge first, and you can make the fish paste."

"Don't worry, leave it to me!" Li Xiang took a kitchen knife and a chopping board and killed the fish downstream of the "Dishui Waterfall", removing the scales, gills and internal organs, but leaving the fish bubbles.

This fish bladder, also called fish maw, is a good thing. It contains a large amount of nutrients such as collagen, amino acids, vitamins and trace elements, which help promote bone development, enhance immunity, beautify the skin, protect eyesight and promote brain development.

The most expensive fish maw should be the golden croaker fish maw, which is the maw of the yellow croaker, also called yellow croaker fish maw, and is known as one of the "Eight Delicacies of the Sea".

(End of this chapter)