Chronicles of Primitive Civilization’s Growth

Chapter 26: The Scenery Below Eight Treasure Mountain is Beautiful

The green color nearby soon confirmed Luo Chong’s guess; it was the color of malachite, and malachite is a sign of copper ore.

In fact, anyone who has studied junior high school chemistry should know that copper sulfate solution is green, so most green stones contain copper, including jade.

Yunnan in China and Myanmar are rich in jade precisely because there is an acidic volcano, the Tengchong Volcano in Yunnan. When the volcano erupts, the copper sulfate solution from the core of the earth erupts with magma. After tens of thousands of years, it seeps into the stones and turns into jade.

Therefore, if one has enough money, they could buy a piece of jade, smash it, burn it, and smelt copper out of it. Unfortunately, no one does that.

Digging further to the side, a lot of blue-purple azurite appeared, which is the natural crystallization of copper sulfide. It has layers of indigo, deep blue, and violet-blue, radiating crystalline patterns, very beautiful, like blue lingzhi mushrooms with rings of texture.

After climbing over a small hill, the view turned into a vast white expanse. Luo Chong dug around for a while, finding that the white veins were quite mixed. Most of the surface layer was Guanyin (a type of clay), also known as dolomite or kaolin, a refractory clay mainly used for firing ceramics or making crucibles for melting metals.

Kaolin contains lime, and digging further down reveals more lime, as well as semi-transparent white mica stones. At the bottom, there are chalk and calcite, also known as aragonite. The transparent block-like ones resembling rock sugar are calcite, while the pure white opaque block-like ones that are harder are chalk. In fact, all these things are limestone, but because they are buried deeper, they have been subjected to greater pressure and thus become variants of limestone.

Climbing over the ridge of Eight Treasure Mountain, only gray granite remained, along with tin mines coexisting beside the granite, which can be seen from the silver metallic sheen seeping through the surface of the granite.

After aimlessly digging around for half a day, Luo Chong lay on a piece of granite on the eastern side of Eight Treasure Mountain. The granite was warmed by the sun. Wu Da and Xi Men were leading the blue horse antelope herd eating the low shrubs around them, while Luo Chong was inwardly thanking the geology professors and chemistry professors at National Defense University for teaching him so much knowledge. Otherwise, even if he had this treasure mountain, he wouldn’t know how to utilize it.

Summarizing the exploration situation of the day, this was a rich copper mine, and the other mines were just accompanying ores of the copper mine.

However, those accompanying ores are also useful. Tin can be combined with copper to make copper-tin alloy, also known as bronze. Currently, bronze is the best metal Luo Chong can obtain.

Actually, bronze alloys are still widely used in modern times, generally for manufacturing machine bearings. However, most people don’t know that, thinking bronze should only appear in ancient kings’ tombs. In fact, bronze alloys excel in some aspects compared to steel, so they have not been eliminated after thousands of years.

When Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, the Qin army used bronze weapons, while the six states already equipped themselves with many iron weapons. But early iron weapons couldn’t compare with mature bronze, so the six states didn’t lose unfairly.

It wasn’t until the Han Dynasty that iron weapons fully replaced bronze weapons. By then, the early hundred-refining steel technology had become relatively mature, and the continuously folded and forged iron material was indeed sharper than bronze.

But the use of bronze did not get eliminated due to the rise of steel. Even during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, bronze was still used to manufacture firearms, such as the artillery of the Divine Engine Camp of the Ming Dynasty and the red-coated cannons, most of which were cast with bronze.

There was very little pyrite at Eight Treasure Mountain, not enough to support iron smelting. Therefore, Luo Chong would have to stick with bronze in the future.

Fortunately, Eight Treasure Mountain was not far from his tribe, about three days’ walk, a round trip taking six days. If using blue horse antelopes to pull carts, the time should be significantly reduced. Blue horse antelopes are as big as domestic donkeys and should be able to pull carts without any problem. If not, two antelopes pulling one cart would work as long as a bridge was built first upon returning.

Having made plans for the future, Luo Chong had time to appreciate the scenery around him. From afar, Eight Treasure Mountain was beautiful, and up close, it was breathtaking, especially since it was full of copper, which couldn’t help but make one happy.

To the east of Eight Treasure Mountain, the water system was well-developed, an endless wetland marsh stretching as far as the eye could see. The grass near the foot of the mountain was lush, and Wu Da and Xi Men were happily leading the blue horse antelope herd grazing.

Wetlands, lands covered by shallow water all year round, with water depths not exceeding two meters, are paradises for animals and plants, especially water birds.

This place was no exception. Knee-high black rye grass, waist-high alfalfa, also known as clover, which is highly recognizable due to its four heart-shaped leaves growing together. In modern times, it is called lucky grass, and many decorative items often feature the shape of clover, loved by various herbivores and young girls alike because of its heart shape.

Tall and straight reeds grew here, as well as sweet elephant grass as tall as trees, each plant reaching six to seven meters in height. Amidst this wetland meadow at the foot of the mountain, Luo Chong also saw a herd of horses, but he had no interest in capturing them.

These horses were only as tall as his waist, smaller than sheep, unable to pull carts or be ridden, with unattractive fur that didn’t provide warmth. Raising them for meat would not be cost-effective since they grow too slowly. For Luo Chong, they were utterly useless, being nothing but a nuisance.

There were no goats or sheep here, but blue horse antelopes were not rare. There were several groups of more than ten, and Luo Chong hoped that Wu Da and Xi Men could bring back more female antelopes.

In the grass, there were beavers as large as domestic pigs, with glossy brown fur, appearing and disappearing among the water plants.

Hanging on the mangroves were large snake skins. Holy cow, just the shed skin was over ten meters long and as thick as a child’s waist. Luo Chong muttered under his breath, “I really hope I don’t encounter a live one; otherwise, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Luo Chong gladly took possession of the python’s shed skin since he was desperately in need of something like a bag.

He planned to use the bag to collect seeds of black rye grass, sweet elephant grass, wild alfalfa, broadleaf water fern, and water celery. Bringing some back would be great for stir-frying eggs and meat slices, appropriately supplementing vitamins.

Of course, he couldn’t think only of himself. He also needed to develop his rabbit farming business in the future. As for the blue horse antelopes, they would be crucial for pulling carts later. Luo Chong didn’t mind treating them well. The open space in front of the tribal cave would be perfect for planting these forages.

Spending half an afternoon, Luo Chong collected a bag of mixed grass seeds, leaving him sore all over. He tied the bag onto the back of a female blue horse antelope.

The blue horse antelopes ate their fill, and Luo Chong also managed to hunt his dinner – an ancient giant goose. Its plumage was speckled white, overall white with mixed colors on its feathers and head. It stood over two meters tall, larger than a modern red-crowned crane, with a wingspan of over five meters. Luo Chong shot it twice with arrows hidden in the grass before it finally fell.

Luo Chong plucked all the feathers suitable for arrow-making, gutted it, and planned to roast the entire goose to replenish the rabbit jerky that was almost depleted in his backpack.

While Luo Chong was squatting by the water’s edge cleaning the goose, he suddenly burst into tears, unable to hold back despite trying hard. The scalding tears streaming down his face were all filled with his longing for Earth.

Anyone who has butchered chickens knows that chickens have weak digestive systems, and food stays in their stomachs for a long time. In TV dramas, Emperor Kangxi once asked the imperial chef to make him a bowl of bran, but there was none in the palace—it was chicken feed—so they had to kill a chicken and extract the bran from its stomach. This shows how chickens’ digestive systems work.

In fact, other birds are similar. For example, Luo Chong found small fish, shrimp, and undigested rice grains in the stomach of this ancient giant goose.