Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 112 - 42: Slash-and-Burn Cultivation

There's an old saying, "What you do on the first day of the year determines how you spend the rest of the year."

On the first day of the New Year, everything is renewed, carrying significant symbolic meaning.

According to the traditions of the elders, you shouldn't kill, sweep, fetch water, or argue on this day. If something breaks, you need to recite "safe and sound every year" a few times for good luck.

Chen Zhou felt that the outlook of his "year" set on this "first day" was already quite clear—nicely put, it could be called diligent labor; bluntly put, it was just work.

He swung the hammer to test the stone wall, finding very different results.

The adhesive ability of the yellow soil on the sunny slope was about zero, and the stone wall relied entirely on the interlocking of stones for support.

When the middle of the wall was hit, thanks to the pressure from the upper stones, no significant deformation occurred.

Hitting the upper part of the stone wall, the stones at the very top even flew out, causing adjacent stones to collapse in a chain reaction.

Such a wall wouldn't withstand an earthquake; even a strong wind might blow it down and crush someone. Chen Zhou immediately decided to eliminate the yellow soil from the sunny slope.

The second material to be tested was the white soil from the sunny slope.

This soil was particularly delicate in texture and its color was quite similar to the industrial kaolin Chen Zhou was familiar with.

The soil usually formed solid chunks, similar to the white soil in that box of edible soil, and was only found at the lower half of the sunny slope, near the gravel slope of the chinchilla's habitat.

If Chen Zhou hadn't spent a morning on the gravel slope, he might have missed this type of soil entirely.

He speculated that this soil contained a certain proportion of montmorillonite powder, but it wasn't as pure as kaolin. It might be mixed with small amounts of fine sand and quartzite, slightly affecting its stickiness.

The thin layer of mud peeling from the surface of the stone wall was clearly influenced by the fine sand. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

If there was a fine mesh, the fine sand could be sieved out of the white soil, likely improving its performance.

Sadly, Chen Zhou didn't have a fine mesh, nor could he make one.

The smallest mesh needed to be two meters long and one meter wide, woven with iron wire.

Fabric couldn't support the soil's weight, would be difficult to clean once the mesh holes got clogged, and wasn't durable.

Before hitting this stone wall, Chen Zhou tentatively pushed on the uppermost stone.

It didn't budge an inch.

Feeling slightly reassured, he struck hard at the center of the stone wall.

The dry thin mud shed some crumbs, but the overall structure of the stone wall remained stable, with no deformation or loosening.

Repeated hits even broke the jagged edges of the stones under the long-handled axe's hammer head, scattering fragments.

The thin mud shed some more fine crumbs, yet the integrity of the entire wall was unaffected.

The structural strength of the middle of the wall far exceeded expectations, many times stronger than the yellow soil stone wall, and Chen Zhou was quite pleased.

It felt like hitting the jackpot on the second draw, having prepared for several 648s, now all saved, giving a false sense of having profited without spending.

However, since the middle of the wall was inherently tightly bonded, such performance was expected. The real test of the white mud's properties would be the top layer.

Chen Zhou hoped for an excellent performance from the top layer of the wall, which would save him a lot of time in finding and testing materials, freeing up energy for other things.

It's already January, and with the rainy season starting in mid-February, if he wants to enjoy the first season's grains sooner, it's time to sow.

As for the compost pit, the earliest it could be ready would be the next season.

Before livestock reached scale, relying solely on his production of "fertilizer" was far from enough, unless he spent all day picking up dead fish and shrimp by the rock beach, but that would delay other work.

Hoo~

Chen Zhou exhaled, wanting to strike with all his might to see the real performance but fearing that too much force might collapse the wall, bringing disappointment.

With this contradictory mindset, he still mustered all his strength and struck heavily on the stone wall.

Clang!

A metallic tang from the collision of metal and stone accompanied the clear striking sound.

The wooden handle of the axe absorbed the rebound force of the hammer head well, avoiding hand shock.

The surface of the top stones developed fine cracks in the white mud, but none of the stones shifted out of place.

Picking at the cracks with his fingers, he pried off some hardened flakes of white mud, squeezing them hard, they were very solid.

Looking again at the interior of the cracked white mud, the cracks hadn't extended deeper, and the wall's structure hadn't suffered serious damage.

"Stable!"

Chen Zhou thought to himself.

As long as the wall wasn't built too high, the strength of the white soil from the sunny slope was entirely sufficient.

The wind rarely blew into the kiln from the shaded side, and the sand and stones at the top of the cave were firm, unlikely to fall easily, limiting the pressure on the wall, maintaining this state could support them for three to five decades without an issue.

So far, there wasn't a single flaw to pick with the performance of the white mud.

Chen Zhou estimated that even if he dug up more types of soil for comparison, they couldn't compete with the white mud, so he decided to use the white soil of the sunny slope to build the wall.

To validate his idea, he swung the hammer to complete tests on the other walls.

As expected, they were not on the same level as the white soil, not comparable.

An initially estimated project of half a month or even two to three months was so easily completed.

Compared to that box of colorful edible soil, Chen Zhou felt like this was a real "New Year's gift."

...

January 1st marked a beautiful beginning.

That morning, Chen Zhou completed the material testing early and started calculating the amount of stone required for construction.