We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 93 The Real Weapon of Destruction

Xia Minghao quickly took out a spare fishing line from his backpack, secured it with a wooden stake, and tried to pull it.

Although it's just a single strand of fishing line, it's already quite difficult to pull it, a stark contrast to when we were pulling the wolf tendon earlier.

Its strength and elongation are far superior to those of wolf tendon.

I never imagined that the best materials had been all around me all along—products of modern industrialization.

Unless, of course, a giant bow is made, the larger the bow, the higher the energy storage efficiency.

The fishing line ensures that the force can be transmitted efficiently.

The giant bow will be propelled by the combined efforts of many people, along with some simple mechanical devices such as pulleys.

In this way, although portability is lost, the power is greatly increased.

If then we have bronze or iron arrowheads, and arrows with feathers stuck in them...

In this primitive era, wouldn't it be possible to touch the edge from a thousand paces away, and to kill indiscriminately within a hundred paces?

This is a truly devastating weapon!
"Usa! Usa!"

After retesting the fishing line's performance, Xia Minghao turned around and called out to Usa.

Usa was leading his men to fetch water and fill the water tanks, and the water from the tanks was quickly poured into the grass and mud.

In just a short while, the grass and mud had piled up into a small mountain.

There's way more than enough of this...

It's clear that their enthusiasm has been mobilized, but unfortunately, they still lack the right mindset, leading them to blindly vent their passion.

"Usa, you don't need to fetch water anymore, and you don't need to gather any more grass mud. There's enough grass mud already."

"Is it enough?"

Usa and the other women from the U clan who came with her looked visibly off.

One of them mustered up the courage to ask.

"Chief, will we still have the caves you built in the future?"

"Of course."

Xia Minghao laughed at the question.

“As long as you are a member of the Xia tribe and have made contributions to the Xia tribe, those caves that were built are what you deserve.”

Hearing this, Usa and the others were relieved.

"Go and find me wood now, all kinds of wood, bring them all over."

"All sorts of things? Good chief."

Usa and the others understood their new mission and immediately followed Usa out of the cave.

Looking at the sky, although it was approaching dusk, there was plenty of wood nearby, so it was relatively easy to obtain.

We should be able to get a large batch.

Xia Minghao just noticed a common misconception: that only by participating in building a house can one own it.

That won't do. We have to leave first thing tomorrow morning. If the Xia tribe members are all only thinking about building houses, who will handle the trade and transportation issues with the Strange Tree region?

There's also the issue of net fishing, and all sorts of other miscellaneous things.

Approaching the group of people busy building the house, Xia Minghao explained the reasoning behind it in simple terms.

It's not only by participating in building houses that you can have your own house to live in in the future.

Instead, as long as you contribute to the Xia tribe and work hard, you can get a house.

After making sure everyone understood, Xia Minghao arranged for the others to start making fishing nets with thick ropes, boiling red salt, collecting tree branches, and burning charcoal, among other things.

According to Xia Minghao's estimate, the remaining manpower still building houses is just enough to match the production capacity of mud bricks.

If this group of people maintains this momentum and the next rain comes as scheduled, they will definitely be able to build at least a dozen houses before then.

Because of Xia Minghao's explanation, after the others stopped participating in building the house, they did not return to their previous leisurely pace.

In people's minds, obtaining their own "cave" is now associated with making labor contributions to the Xia tribe as a collective, rather than with "building a specific cave".

By dusk, the fishing nets were finished, but the Wu clan members who had gone to find various kinds of wood had not yet returned.

Xia Minghao then began to teach the women of the Xi clan how to fish with fishing nets.

"Throw the net!"

"Correct!"

After being taught two or three times, the women were finally able to successfully cast the net once, catching a whole bunch of fish at once.

This one haul should be enough to trade with the Da tribe. But we can't keep fighting forever...

The current situation of the Da tribe is a clear example of what not to do.

That is, overhunting has led to a significant reduction in the meat supply.

This river isn't very big to begin with; if people fish with nets every day without restraint, they'll eventually "drain the pond to catch all the fish."

In addition, Xia Minghao was also worried that if he always used this method to fish, the Da tribe would learn it.

Blackfish is considered a valuable commodity in trade with the Da tribe, and if they were to learn this trade method, the Da tribe might repeat their past "glorious deeds" and run out of fish, which would be disastrous.

Knowing that the Da tribe would probably be arriving tomorrow, Xia Minghao specifically instructed the Xi clan members on the fishing net fishing time.

The more of this technology we can hide, the more we'll hide it. Once the Da tribe is swallowed up by the Xia tribe, we won't need to hide it anymore.

Finally, the women of the Wu clan returned to the cave with various kinds of timber.

They brought back quite a few types of timber, a total of seven kinds.

Xia Minghao recognized only one of them: the sail tree.

After testing the performance of the sail tree, Xia Minghao shook his head slightly.

The most important properties of wood suitable for making bows are that it has two good characteristics.

First of all, it has good elasticity. After the bowstring is pulled back, it immediately returns to its original shape without permanent deformation. You can't say that once you bend it, it will never come back to its original shape.

In addition, it must have a certain degree of rigidity. It cannot be like the clumsy bow of the Da tribe, which can be easily broken with a little more force.

After trying several other types of wood, Xia Minghao's eyes lit up when he tried the fourth type.

The branch has both the elasticity and hardness to meet the standards for making a bow.

I'm perfectly capable of adapting to the bowstring of the wolf sinew bow. As for using fishing line as the bowstring, that should also work, but we'll have to try it out before deciding.

Xia Minghao had never seen this wood before, but since there was no unified name for it in primitive times, he didn't care what it was called before; from now on, it would be called the bow tree.

After discovering the bow tree wood, there was no need to look at the others, but we still patiently tried the remaining types.

In the last case, I just felt that something was wrong with what I had on hand.

It was so light that Xia Minghao found it a little strange.

After testing the hardness and elasticity a little more, Xia Minghao was surprised and immediately compared it with the bow tree he had just selected.

It's even better than the bow tree?
This type of wood has excellent energy storage properties, and when paired with fishing line, it's a perfect combination!
Thanks to the high strength and low elongation of the fishing line, efficient power transfer can be ensured.

The bow arms made of this type of wood can efficiently store and release energy.

Where did this timber come from?

Xia Minghao turned to Usa and asked.

"It's an ancient tree at the entrance of the cave."

It was that ancient tree...

Upon hearing this answer, the initial joy was instantly diminished.

This wood is certainly good, but it's actually from that old tree.

There's only one old tree.

We certainly can't be reluctant to use it, but we have to be frugal.

After a moment's thought, Xia Minghao decided to use the bow tree wood as the arrow shaft for the initial bows and arrows, and then use the fine wood of the ancient tree later when the bow-making technology was more advanced, so as to avoid waste.

……

……

……

The bonfire seemed brighter tonight than ever before, and the people sitting around it looked just like they used to, no longer appearing lifeless.

The women gazed at the three unfinished houses that had already been built, their faces leaping like flames in a hearth.

After finishing his meal, Xia Minghao began arranging the follow-up work.

The Mingtian tribe will most likely come tomorrow, so we must leave enough fighting force behind to avoid any unexpected events.

After leaving, the management of the tribe fell to Hima.

Trade with the Strange Tree region was handled by Lipa leading a group of people.

Two small boats, going out early and returning late.

Meanwhile, he, along with Liba and a few of the strongest men, as well as Yezi, boarded the flagship and set off towards the source of the river tomorrow to search for malachite!
(End of this chapter)