Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

Time slipped by unnoticed, and the date on my phone's calendar had already changed to October 30th.

Autumn on the island reveals another side, with daytime temperatures still bearable.

But once night falls, the temperature begins to drop sharply.

The sea breeze brings not only saltiness but also a biting chill.

Gulang has measured the temperature several times, and the outdoor temperature has dropped below 5 degrees Celsius late at night.

His "plastic greenhouse" hut does indeed provide good insulation thanks to the sealing properties of the PE film.

But it's no longer enough to keep out the increasingly cold nights.

Gulang had to keep the campfire burning at night to keep warm.

Fortunately, when he designed the campsite, he placed the earthen stove near the hut.

After the firewood is lit, the heat can penetrate the film and enter the room, dispelling the chill.

Even after the campfire burns out, the residual heat from the hearth and surrounding rocks can sustain the cabin for a while, preventing a sudden drop in temperature inside.

This heating method can prevent the small house from being filled with smoke all day long, and also prevent oxygen deprivation and poisoning in a confined environment.

Gulang has done its best to maximize fuel utilization and avoid any dry burning.

Once the fire is lit, multiple tasks will be carried out simultaneously: boiling water, cooking rice, making salt, baking biscuits, and drying clothes.

Even so, the rate at which firewood is consumed remains astonishing.

The abundant fuel resources around the camp, such as dead wood, hay, bamboo poles, and discarded planks, were quickly depleted due to continuous use.

Gulang had to start real logging, using chainsaws and axes to cut down living trees growing on the island.

But this brings a new problem: freshly felled trees have a very high water content and are difficult to burn directly.

Wet firewood is not only difficult to light, but it also produces a lot of smoke and low heat when burning, and it consumes more energy to evaporate its own moisture.

The felled timber needs to be split into firewood of appropriate size and then dried in the sun.

However, the island's humid environment and decreasing sunshine intensity pose challenges.

This makes the natural drying process extremely slow, often taking weeks or even longer.

In damp environments, such as rainy days, firewood is more likely to absorb water and become moldy.

This is impractical given the approaching cold snap and current fuel demands.

"Hey, we still need to process some firewood. There's always work to be done every day."

Gu Lang stared at the pile of damp firewood and thought of an ancient solution—to make charcoal.

Charcoal is a solid product produced by the incomplete combustion of wood under oxygen-deficient conditions.

It generates a large amount of heat when burning, produces little smoke, has a long burning time, and is easy to store and transport.

More importantly, charcoal making is itself a process of drying and concentrating fuel, which can convert a large amount of wet firewood into a small amount of efficient fuel.

He recalled the steps of traditional charcoal making and began to put them into practice.

They chose a location a little further from the camp as the site for the charcoal kiln.

Gu Lang selected the harder, more flammable trees from the timber he had previously cut down, such as the shrubs and trees on the island.

Split the wood into pieces about 50 centimeters long and of relatively uniform thickness.

Gu Lang arranged the logs vertically and closely together to form a cone-shaped pile of wood with a base diameter of about 1 meter and a height of about 1.5 meters.

The center of the woodpile is relatively loose, while the edges are tightly packed.

When stacking, he tries not to leave too large gaps to ensure adequate ventilation.

With the kiln completed, the next step is to seal it.

He used an entrenching tool to dig up the nearby damp soil, mixed it with some fine sand to increase its strength, and then thickly applied the wet mud to the surface of the woodpile.

When applying the mud, start from the bottom and work your way up, ensuring the mud layer is at least 5 centimeters thick and completely covers all the wood without leaving any gaps.

Eventually, the woodpile was encased in a sealed mud-shell cone, much like a makeshift earthen kiln.

At the top of the cone, a small opening with a diameter of 15 centimeters was left as the initial flue and observation port.

Next, he evenly dug out four square air inlets with sides of 10 centimeters at the bottom and stuffed them with lit matches.

The flames gradually ignite the woodpile inside through the air inlet. When thick smoke begins to continuously billow from the top flue, it indicates that the wood inside has been ignited and is undergoing drying and initial carbonization.

At this point, wet mud can be used to completely seal the top flue opening, and at the same time seal all the bottom air inlets.

After the kiln is sealed, the oxygen supply inside the kiln will be significantly cut off.

Wood cannot undergo sufficient oxidation and combustion; instead, it undergoes thermal decomposition under high temperature and oxygen-deficient conditions, a process known as dry distillation.

The volatile substances in wood, such as moisture and resin, will be removed or decomposed, leaving mainly charcoal.

The smoldering process requires a considerable amount of time, and after completion, it is necessary to wait for the kiln to cool naturally.

So Gu Lang waited until the next day to collect the charcoal to ensure safety and avoid burns.

He carefully used an entrenching tool to break open the hardened, dried mud crust and peered over to examine it.

The original firewood inside had turned into black, hard charcoal blocks that made a crisp sound when struck.

Although some carbonization is not complete, the outside is charcoal while the inside is still wood.

However, most of the charcoal was produced to a fairly good quality.

He took out the burnt charcoal and placed it in a dry place for later use.

Charcoal burns much more efficiently than firewood, and only a small amount is needed to provide sustained high temperatures.

The flame and smoke are controllable, making it ideal for cooking that requires a stable heat source.

The only drawback is that it doesn't burn as long as firewood.

Therefore, Gulang would keep the firewood that was not completely carbonized, specifically for use as heating at night.

After successfully using traditional charcoal-making methods, Gulang began continuous logging and charcoal production.

"The charcoal seller, cutting firewood and burning charcoal in the southern mountains, his face covered in dust and soot, his temples gray and his ten fingers black."

He couldn't help but recite poetry, feeling fortunate that he had made the decisive choice to head south a few months earlier.

As a former outdoor adventure streamer, he naturally knows how terrifying wilderness survival can be.

Based on his own experience, the pressure to survive in the North is far greater than in the South.

The difficulty increases exponentially, especially in winter.

Otherwise, why would ancient nomadic peoples keep moving south one after another?

In order to survive, even if it means facing a near-death experience, they must come to the Central Plains to spend the winter.

Even if it gets cold in the south, we can still tough it out.

In the northern wilderness, without sufficient supplies, staying for a long time in sub-zero temperatures can truly be fatal.

Putting aside other things, let's take the Northeast region, the starting point of his escape journey, as an example.

Gu Lang had previously watched live streams of "Sha Ge," a famous outdoor streamer from Northeast China.

One small detail reveals that the other party is not someone packaged by the "production team".

This old fellow is always recommending axes, and he goes to chop wood whenever he has free time. He knows everything about how long different kinds of wood can burn.

Why?

Because if the fire goes out, people will freeze to death.

Therefore, it is very important to know what kind of wood can burn for how long.

The "firewood burning brightly, and Meimei snuggling in bed all winter" scenario described in fantasy apocalyptic novels is nonexistent.

Once the central heating is lost, you have to set your alarm clock and hurry up and reheat the fire when the time comes.

I had to get up two or three times a night to check the stove; it was even more grueling than clocking in at work.

Because the temperature won't be lenient with you; once the fire goes out, your fingers will be so cold that you won't even be able to flick a lighter.