Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

The saying goes, "The seven necessities of life are firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea." Firewood is listed first not for the sake of rhyme.

Just the task of stockpiling fuel and maintaining temperature can be exhausting.

Otherwise, why would the Sanhe Gods all reside in the warm, unaffected south?

Try visiting a northern mountain village in late autumn and spending a night in an empty house.

This would ensure that the petty bourgeoisie would abandon all fantasies about pastoral life and learn to respect nature.

Gu Lang had this experience before when he was a wanderer.

On one occasion, he went on an adventure to an abandoned village in Yanzhao Province.

Although it was only late autumn, the temperature dropped extremely rapidly.

It felt cool as soon as the sun went down, and it got completely cold as soon as it got dark.

To travel light, he didn't bring a tent, thinking he could just find an empty house to make a fire and keep warm.

But he was so tired from that trip into the mountains that he didn't get up to add firewood.

As a result, even though I was in my sleeping bag, I felt colder and colder in the middle of the night, as if the blankets had no ability to keep me warm at all.

After being woken up by the cold, my calves were cold, almost to the point where "my feet were so painful that I had to stomp my feet hard to regain feeling".

I feel like if I don't get up and move around soon, I'll lose my body temperature and never be able to get up again.

He tried to relight the firewood, but it didn't help. The room felt gloomy and dark, and no matter how much fire he lit, it wouldn't warm up.

The temperature didn't improve until the sun came out the next day.

A single instance of laziness caused the indoor temperature to drop, and even doubling down the repayment wouldn't make up for it.

And this is still autumn.

In winter, it's impossible to survive without burning coal all day long.

Thinking about this, he felt a deep sense of awe for those who struggled in extremely cold environments throughout history.

Why was the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army the most arduous and heroic force?

That's because many martyrs really did freeze to death, possibly even more than the number killed by the Japanese.

In temperatures tens of degrees below zero, even going to the toilet in the wild is a skill in itself.

The Russians once built many settlements in the Far East, where many Russians were forced to drink industrial alcohol to survive.

As soon as the red flag was raised, the settlements that had been painstakingly built were quickly abandoned, and everyone fled back to Ouzhou.

Modern people have long been spoiled by industrial society and simply cannot endure the hardships of pre-modern times.

Not to mention high-latitude regions, a few years ago, the Qinling Mountains and Zhongnan Mountain were filled with "spiritual practitioners," and it is said that at its peak there were more than 5,000 people.

But once winter arrives, most people secretly slip away to their own homes.

Next spring, I'll go up the mountain again to continue showing off, with the main theme being "a wise man submits to circumstances."

The demand for fuel during the winter is an extremely alarming figure.

Before winter arrives, residents in remote areas without centralized heating have to haul several truckloads of coal to get through the winter safely.

If we switch to firewood, we'd have to cut down a huge forest.

"The entire history of the Dragon Kingdom is a history of cutting down trees."

Trees are felled to build palaces, trees are felled to cast great tripods. Trees are felled to forge iron swords, trees are felled to fire porcelain.

In the monotonous and repetitive process of chopping wood, piling up the kiln, sealing it with mud, smoldering, and taking charcoal, Gu Lang's thoughts drifted away.

If the Loess Plateau is cleared away, the great rivers will turn yellow.

The Guanzhong Plain was cleared of grain, and even the emperor had to search for food.

Starting in the Northern Song Dynasty, it became necessary to "replace firewood with coal" and promote the use of coal.

In order to protect the "geomance" of the land, the Ming Dynasty once banned coal mining, which led to the destruction of the Yanshan Mountains.

The Great Wall became useless, ultimately leading to the downfall of the nation and the world.

By the late Qing Dynasty, mountains in old photos across the country, both in the north and south, were all barren.

With no trees left to cut down, it has practically become a larger Easter Island.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, industrialization developed, and vegetation began to recover.

The ecological environment is also getting better and better, and we have escaped the quagmire of an agricultural society.

"If this island were located in the high-latitude northeastern region, just to meet my heating needs, these trees would probably be cut down very quickly."

He stopped what he was doing, looked at the relatively dense forest on Xizhai Island, and roughly estimated the amount of timber in stock.

In today's nuclear winter environment, in a world that has lost the support of modern energy sources.

Humanity's dependence on primitive fuels will devour the natural environment at an alarming rate.

"The vegetation that has been painstakingly restored in various places is probably about to face another catastrophe."

With this in mind, Gu Lang decided that he still needed to increase the diversity of energy supply.

"It's time to switch from hand-cranked generators to wind power."

He returned to the camp and retrieved all the prepared materials.

Since the core generator is readily available, all that is needed is to remove the crank handle from the hand-cranked generator.

The permanent magnet motor, rectifier capacitor, and charging controller are all readily available; only the wind turbine and tower need to be manufactured.

The design concept is a vertical axis wind turbine, which is not sensitive to changes in wind direction.

It has a simple structure, low requirements for machining precision, and no obvious manufacturing barriers.

Gu Lang found two PVC plastic pipes and cut them into identical 50-centimeter pieces.

Cut out an identical small square opening in the very center of each.

The two pipes were then fastened together to form a "cross", and then fixed to the motor spindle with screws and nuts.

Then, at the end of the "cross", four discarded plastic basins were installed and secured with screws and nuts.

He fixed the motor to a thick bamboo pole and then inserted a four-legged bracket made of wooden planks.

Finally, thread the wires through the wires and wrap it with a waterproof cloth, and a vertical axis wind turbine is complete.

I tested it in place, and as the wind turbine spun at high speed, the charging indicator light on the outdoor power supply lit up successfully.

Due to the lack of strong wind protection devices, Gulang placed the wind power equipment on an open space not far from the camp.

To prevent situations where there is not enough time to shut down the machine in case of strong winds.

He placed stones on the four-legged support and used three ropes to tighten and secure the bamboo pole in different directions.

The morning after the project was completed, he arrived at the base of the fan, ready to retrieve the power bank.

"Buzzing..."

A deep, continuous engine sound suddenly came from the distant sky, breaking the island's usual sea breeze.

Gu Lang froze instantly, his entire body tensing up.

"Something's coming!"

His mind was on high alert, and without hesitation, he untied the ropes and laid the wind turbine down.

At the same time, quickly lower your body and use the branches and leaves to conceal yourself.

He held his breath and strained his ears to listen carefully.

The sound wasn't the high-frequency hum of a drone, but it was quieter than the turboshaft engine noise of a helicopter.

It sounded somewhat like the engine of a lawnmower or motorcycle, and it was coming from the air.

The sound of engines grew closer, coming from the east of Xizhai Island.

The sound gradually approached the southwest side of Xizhai Island, getting closer and closer to him.

Since he couldn't see the sky, he could only identify the location of the unidentified flying object by sound.

As the noise level decreased, he sensed that the other party's engine speed was dropping.

"Landing on the beach? Is it a powered parachute?"

Gu Lang immediately frowned and rushed out.