I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 250 Road Construction

Yue: "Then we'll have to wait. I'm really slow at knitting, and my sweaters don't look good."

Bai Ling: "Who says it's not good-looking? Yue, the things you make are the best."

The two looked at each other and laughed again. Yue's great-uncle was used to their way of getting along. He waved his hand and said, "Ling, you can eat at my house. I'll go get some dried meat and cassava cakes."

Yue smiled and said, "Grandpa, I'll go get it. Ling is having dinner at our house today, so let's cut some cured meat and steam it."

*

The snow on the ground had completely melted, and the orcs in the tribe began to get busy.

Apart from the carpenters and the orcs in the ironworks, all the other orcs were assigned tasks. The orcs in the miscellaneous tasks team were responsible for cooking, taking care of children and cubs, and all logistical matters; the hunting team continued to go out and catch as many live wild animals as possible; and the other orcs began to repair roads.

Yue was naturally in the hunting team. The hunting team did not go too far. They hunted near the tribe, and they did not let any wild animal they saw go. They either killed it on the spot or captured it and kept it.

Moonshot's archery skills were unparalleled in the entire tribe, and he played the most crucial role in this hunt. Nearly half of the wild animals captured were wounded in the leg by Moonshot. Once a wild animal's leg is injured, its speed is greatly reduced, allowing the beastmen to swarm in and capture it alive.

The captured wild animals were immediately returned, and the tribe's doctor examined their wounds. Except for those animals that were too badly injured and were taken away by the errand team to be slaughtered, the other wild animals were carefully cared for.

The number of wild animals in the tribe was increasing. The older orcs who could no longer do heavy work would cut grass to feed these wild animals. At first, the wild animals were cautious and terrified. They wouldn't even eat the grass that the orcs fed them, and would just hide to the side and tremble.

The orcs weren't in a hurry. They fed the wild animals on time every day. In addition to grass, they would add roasted bean powder to the water they fed the animals. This way, even if the animals didn't eat grass, they could survive for quite a while just by drinking water.

In the past, the orcs had a tradition of not hunting young wild animals, nor of hunting female animals in the spring. This year, the orcs of the High Tree Tribe completely changed their tradition. When they see young or female wild animals, they will roar and rush at them. On the contrary, they don't seem to like the old wild animals as much.

The hunting party went out early and returned late every day to hunt, and the other orcs were not idle either. They leveled the streets in the tribe, digging down the high places and filling the low places with soil. They also used chugging beasts to pull rollers back and forth on the streets. In order to make the streets more compact, the orcs also used straw ropes and animal skins to tie stones and compacted the streets twice.

With the streets cleared, the orcs began building roads from the tribe to the fields.

Chen transformed into beast form and carried Bai Ling around the village and fields several times, finally determining how the road should be built. Bai Ling then planted tall tree branches on both sides of the road, with the road to be built between the branches.

The beastmen first cleared away the grass and trees between the branches, picked out the large stones, and filled in any potholes. Then, the beastmen used their huffing beasts to pull the rollers back and forth on the road.

This is the simplest way to build a road. Bai Ling had considered digging up and dumping the topsoil on the road, since the soil underneath is harder and not easy for grass to grow. Alternatively, they could use "cooked soil" that had been burned to pave the road. However, all of these methods were too time-consuming, and the orcs simply did not have that much time.

We'll start cultivating the land soon, so let's build the simplest road first. Once the tribe has more orcs and more tools, we can figure out how to build a better road.

*

Besides the orcs from the Hightree tribe, orcs from other tribes also came to help repair the road.

At first, the third elder of the central tribe did not understand why Bai Ling wanted to build a road. But when he saw the beastmen pushing handcarts and pulling carts with grunting beasts, he immediately understood.

When an orc transforms into its beast form, it doesn't matter what path it takes. But if it uses its human form, the difference between an easy path and a difficult one is enormous.

With no vegetation obstructing their view, no potholes, and no obstructing stones, the beastmen found it much easier to travel, especially when using handcarts and pull carts. An easy road significantly increased their speed.

In addition to the road from the tribe to the fields, Bai Ling also built the road from the tribe to the low mountain and the road from the tribe to the river to fetch water. At first, the beastmen needed Bai Ling's guidance to build the roads, but after a few days, Bai Ling no longer needed to worry about it.

The beastmen even came up with ways to improve the roads. For example, they would remove the large stones and fill the potholes with the smaller stones and soil. They would also connect two rollers together so that pulling the roller once would be equivalent to rolling it twice. They would also throw the large stones they had collected into the huge tree pits left from digging trees, filling them with soil as they threw the stones in, which saved a lot of effort.

Bai Ling no longer needed to worry about road construction. Instead, he led several of the best orcs at building houses to start digging foundations next to the ironworks.

Bai Ling wanted to build a blast furnace. The simplified version of the blast furnace wasn't complicated, but it would greatly improve the quality and speed of iron smelting compared to a traditional earthen furnace. Now that the tribe had bricks, lime, and cement, they could definitely build a blast furnace.

The plan has been decided that this year, the iron smelting method will be taught to other tribes. Of course, this cannot be taught to other tribes for free; they must exchange it for something.

When the orcs of the central tribe heard that they could learn the technique of iron smelting, the Third Elder immediately sent three Sky Orcs back to tell the other elders in the tribe to bring their most precious possessions to exchange for the method of iron smelting with the High Tree Tribe.

The Third Elder had lived for so many years and was an elder of the central tribe. He had experienced a great deal and knew very well what iron meant to the tribe. With iron, the tribe would undergo earth-shattering changes.

When the Third Elder came to the Gaoshu tribe last year, he originally planned to stay until spring, but now he is reluctant to leave.

The Gaoshu tribe has so many wonderful things, and he hasn't learned much about them yet, so how could he bear to leave?

He wanted to stay in the Gaoshu tribe for a while longer, until they had planted all the fields before returning. The plants in the Gaoshu tribe's fields grew much better than those in his own tribe, and the harvest was much greater. Once he learned the Gaoshu tribe's planting methods, his own tribe's plants would also grow better, and the harvest would be much greater.

There are other skills they haven't fully mastered yet, so let's stay in the High Tree Tribe for a while longer and learn the most important skills first.