Next, he piled the clay into a mound, poured some water into the center using a bamboo tube, and then stomped it continuously with his feet. The clay, after being trampled, became much more adhesive and resilient.
Once the clay was evenly trampled, he began constructing the kiln.
The process of building the kiln was simple: first, he built a "U"-shaped mud wall, about half a meter high, then he laid dense wooden sticks on top and sealed it with clay to form the top.
At the end of the "U"-shaped mud wall, he left an opening and constructed a cylindrical vent, with the end of the vent about twice the height of the main body of the earth kiln.
When completed, it essentially looked like this "▄▍".
Finally, because the furnace chamber of the earth kiln was relatively long, placing the ceramic blanks and retrieving finished pottery was inconvenient. It was necessary to cut a semicircular opening on the side of the earth kiln.
This opening would be sealed again with mud after placing the ceramic blanks, and opened again after the pottery was fired.
When the earth kiln was finished, the sun was about to set. Jiang Xuan washed his hands, took another look at the Horizontal Flame Kiln he had built, felt there was no problem, and returned to the bamboo house satisfied.
Chi Shao, Gou Teng, Shi Qiu, and Nan Xing had already returned. Today, they'd caught some fish, trapped a few bamboo chickens, and dug up a good amount of edible taro, polygonatum, and mountain yam.
In the next seven days, Jiang Xuan and Chi Shao and others went hunting, fishing, and digging plant tubers every day, storing food for winter.
During this period, they occasionally caught some larger prey. The meat of these animals could be eaten or hung above the fire pit to dry. Their pelts were skinned, stretched out, and dried, used for making warm Beast Hide Clothing and beast hide mats.
After seven days, the ceramic blanks were air-dried, and the earth kiln was nearly dried from the sun and wind exposure.
Jiang Xuan immediately opened the kiln, ready to fire pottery!
He carried half the ceramic blanks beside the earth kiln, turned them upside down through the side opening, and placed them one by one into the furnace chamber of the earth kiln, then sealed the side opening with mud.
He gathered a large amount of dry bamboo and firewood, piled them beside the earth kiln, took a fire source from the bamboo house's fire pit, and began firing the kiln.
"Crackling..."
Inside the earth kiln, flames quickly ignited, burning fiercely.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
At the cylindrical vent, the flames' tails rose and fell, as if there's a blower beneath.
Next, comes the patient waiting.
Jiang Xuan guarded the fire, while Chi Shao and others occasionally came curiously to take a look.
He watched over it from day to night, until the moon was high in the sky, then he stopped tending the fire and went back to sleep.
The temperature inside the earth kiln remained high and would take a whole night to slowly decrease.
That night, Jiang Xuan had a beautiful dream. He dreamed that he had created a great tribe, with a population of over ten thousand, abundant resources, and a happy life...
The next morning, Jiang Xuan eagerly came to the earth kiln, touched it, the furnace wall was still warm.
"Time to open the kiln!"
Jiang Xuan excitedly rubbed his hands, and Chi Shao and others also ran over, waiting for Jiang Xuan to open the kiln.
Jiang Xuan used a sharp stick to open the side opening of the earth kiln again, revealing pieces of pottery that had been fired into brick-red.
The first thing he took out was the heavy pottery jar, which had no cracks and included a perfectly intact lid. The firing was very successful.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
Jiang Xuan tapped the side of the pottery jar with a stick, and the jar emitted a crisp sound.
"The firing was great, we can use this pottery jar to make soup in the future!"
Jiang Xuan laughed, his biggest purpose for firing pottery was to make soup, and now that purpose was achieved.
"Let me see."
Chi Shao took the pottery jar from Jiang Xuan's hand. It felt very heavy, even though it wasn't very smooth, it was real pottery!
"Xuan, you're amazing! You succeeded in one try!"
Chi Shao carefully placed the pottery jar on the ground, sincerely praising Jiang Xuan.
Gou Teng, Shi Qiu, and Nan Xing all gazed at Jiang Xuan with admiration.
Jiang Xuan then took out a pottery basin and five pottery bowls from the furnace chamber.
The pottery basin was also successfully fired, however, of the five pottery bowls, two were cracked, and only three were intact.
Jiang Xuan handed the three pottery bowls to the three youths, saying, "The pottery jar is for cooking soup, the pottery basin is for holding dishes, and each of you can have one of the pottery bowls."
"Really?"
"Xuan, you're so good!"
"Wonderful, we have pottery now!"
The three youths excitedly held their pottery bowls, overwhelmed with excitement, almost wishing to kiss Jiang Xuan.
Based on this firing experience, Jiang Xuan speculated that the thicker pottery might be easier to successfully fire, as it was less likely to crack.
Conversely, thinner pottery like bowls was more prone to cracking, so out of five bowls, only three were successfully fired.
The success of the first batch of pottery gave Jiang Xuan great confidence. He brought out the other half of the ceramic blanks from the bamboo house, placed them in the earth kiln, sealed it, and fired it again.
This time was smoother; after a day, he got another pottery jar, a pottery basin, four pottery bowls, with only one pottery bowl cracked.
With pottery, Jiang Xuan no longer had to eat grilled food every day.
He used the new pottery jar to cook a pot of fish soup, and when he drank the steaming fish soup, he was almost moved to tears, feeling a sense of happiness.
He had never imagined before that a bowl of hot soup could bring such happiness.
After firing the pottery, Jiang Xuan spent a few more days building two small bamboo houses, one by the stream to the left of the bamboo house for bathing.
The other was built to the right of the bamboo house, a little further away. He dug a pit inside, set up a bamboo grid, and made it a dry toilet.
Bathing and using the toilet are very personal things; Jiang Xuan's soul from the modern world made it impossible for him to be as uninhibited as Gou Teng and the others.
Chi Shao first accepted the bathroom and toilet; she liked this independent space.
The three youths also had no objection; through these days of interaction, they had come to admire Jiang Xuan.
As long as Jiang Xuan built something, they instinctively believed it was good and were willing to try it.
They even started to slowly accept chopsticks, because with pottery bowls, only chopsticks could pick hot dishes into their cherished pottery bowls.
With his efforts, Jiang Xuan continuously improved his life in this world and influenced those around him.
...
Busy days always pass quickly; in the blink of an eye, autumn passed and winter came, and snowflakes began to fall from the sky.
During the autumn, they caught many prey, and some had thicker pelts. After drying and scraping off fat, these could be made into Beast Hide Clothing for warmth.
At Jiang Xuan's suggestion, they added a lot of plant ash to the water, then soaked the dried Beast Hide in it for three days and nights.
After washing and drying the hides again, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the hides soaked with plant ash water were much softer than any Beast Hide Clothing they'd worn before.
This discovery made them very happy, and they even took their old Beast Hide Clothing for another soak, because if Beast Hide Clothing was too stiff, it was prone to letting in the wind and wasn't warm enough.
This winter, they had houses, a fire pit, food, and soft Beast Hide Clothing to wear. They could even drink steaming meat soup.
This was much better than when they were in the Deer Tribe.
The snow fell heavier and heavier, quickly turning the ground into a vast expanse of white. Most animals hid in their burrows to endure the winter.
After the snow, Jiang Xuan and others spent most of their time in the bamboo house because it was too cold outside. Their food and firewood were well-stocked, so there was no need to go out and suffer.