Building a Civilization and Raising Cubs in the Beast World – Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Although they had decided to make beef jerky and pork jerky, hunting and picking could not stop, and everyone’s burden suddenly became heavier.

Except for the children who had just learned to walk, everyone else could help, some cutting meat, some picking up branches, some helping to dry the food… In short, everyone was doing as much work as possible.

The more dried meat you make, the more supplies you can exchange for. Bai An took out the remaining salt in the tribe, which added up to less than six bowls. It was the salt that everyone saved from their teeth and was prepared for emergencies. After all, it is not always possible to exchange supplies successfully. Sometimes the tribe does not have enough food stored and cannot go out, because it takes more than ten days to go back and forth and not be able to hunt.

Salt is a rare commodity after all, so Bai Tu adjusted the proportions of the marinade, reducing the amount of salt and cutting costs as much as possible.

With everyone helping together, the tribe was much more efficient than before. By the fourth night, the tribe had pickled all the two prey they had caught and filled twelve backpacks. The hunting team also pickled and dried a newly captured antelope, intending to make the last batch.

In order to make more jerky, the tribe has hardly roasted whole pieces of meat in recent days. Instead, they have filled their stomachs with the remaining animal offal from making jerky and small pieces of meat that are difficult to handle.

Seeing that the children, who had finally eaten two full meals, were half-hungry again, and the workload was even greater than before, Bai Tu could only get as many wild vegetables as possible and cook them with bone broth for everyone to eat. Although it is not as good as eating meat directly to resist hunger, it can fill the stomach. A bowl of bone soup will make people want to drink more.

But drinking bone soup alone was not enough, so Bai Tu thought of the river he had seen when collecting herbs before, and simply took two large backpacks to the river.

At first he just thought that the river here was located at a high position so the water was not deep. Later, after asking Bai Qi, he found out that it was not that there was not much water in the river, but that it had not rained for several months, so the water level in the river was shallow. After the rainy season, the river would be several times wider than it is now. In other words, what he thought was a gentle river bank was actually a river channel.

It has only been three or four days since I washed the herbs here. The water level has dropped a lot. That day, I could reach the river water by sitting on the stone next to it and bending over. Now the river water is more than one meter away from the stone.

No wonder people say the rainy season is coming soon. The weather recently has been even hotter than the day he woke up. Looking at the water level, I’m afraid it won’t last more than half a month.

The tribe has two channels for water. Water from the river is used to wash animal skins, and spring water flowing down the mountain is used for drinking or cooking food. However, the spring water is very small. The tribe placed wooden barrels and stone pots at the foot of the mountain to supply water continuously, but it is barely enough for the tribe. Because the weather is hot and humid, some impatient orcs will come directly to the river to scoop water. If he hadn’t repeatedly emphasized that drinking raw water can easily cause illness, they would have drunk it directly.

Many orcs have become accustomed to drinking raw water, and symptoms such as abdominal pain have occurred. Most of the time, no one knows what causes it, after all, not everyone who drinks the river water has problems. Bai Tu knew that it was because of the different physical conditions. To be on the safe side, he simply asked everyone to drink boiled water and avoid any raw water. Even though he had collected many herbs, he could not just rely on the medicine and not be afraid of getting sick.

Thanks to Bai Tu and Bai An’s repeated reminders, the situation is now slightly better, and most orcs are slowly accepting the concept of boiled water. Even if I am in a hurry, I will try to drink the spring water behind the mountain instead of river water.

There are fish in this river, but there are not many of them. I saw a few of them during the one hour I stayed here. Now, I don’t know if it’s because the water level has dropped, but the fish fry are more obvious. Probably because no one has ever caught them, the fish here are a bit stupid, swimming around carefree in the water, and it’s obvious that they have never experienced the cruelty of society.

Bai Tu tried using a bamboo basket back and forth. It was easy to catch fish near the water, but he didn’t catch those far from the shore. In about an hour, he caught a big fish nearly two spans long, several small fish about one span, and a dozen small fish fry as long as fingers. He wanted to continue catching for a while, but the fish nearby had been scared away, so he had to wait until they relaxed their vigilance and swam over. Looking up at the sun, Bai Tu gave up waiting and decided to try another approach.

First, I dug some earthworms from the surrounding area and threw them into the backpack. Then I sealed the top of the backpack with reeds and weeds, leaving only a small hole for the fish to get in. The backpack then became a simple fish basket.

Tie a large stone to the equipped fish basket, and fix it with the opening facing the direction of the water flow. This way, the fish basket will not be washed away by the water flow, and small fish swimming downstream can directly get into the fish basket.

There were three fish baskets placed at intervals. Bai Tu cleaned the fish at the riverside, put them in the smallest backpack, and carried it back to the tribe.

“Tu, where have you been?” Bai Dong was teaching everyone how to cut beef. Because they had made it once, the children now became little teachers, instructing everyone how to cut beef and pork.

After Bai Dong finished speaking, many of the tribesmen who were working looked over. In order to encourage everyone to work seriously, Bai Tu gave them some beef jerky to taste. The beastmen who had originally admired him for his ability to heal injuries became even more excited. Now when I hear that he is going out, my first reaction is that he is going to pick new wild vegetables or herbs.

“We caught a few fish.” Bai Tu showed it to the other party.

When they heard that it was about catching fish, everyone silently withdrew their gazes. If it was plants, everyone would be happy, but most orcs were not interested in fish.

Everyone knows that there are fish in the nearby river, but not many people like to eat them. Except for a few children who occasionally go to the river to play and catch some fish to fill their stomachs, no one else goes out of their way to catch them.

It’s not because the taste is bad, but because fish is too troublesome to eat. Not only do you need to cut open the belly and remove the internal organs one by one, but you can also easily eat fish bones when eating.

Fish bones are small and pointed, often getting stuck in the throat, and sometimes, for some unknown reason, the grilled fish tastes particularly bitter. It takes half a day to catch a fish, process it and eat it. After working for such a long time, you may feel even hungrier after eating it. After all, orcs have good digestive abilities and consume more physical energy.

Bai Dong shook his head: “Figure, the fish is not tasty, it really is not tasty.” As if afraid that he would not believe it, he emphasized it twice.

“There are so many fish bones that they will scratch your throat. It will be very painful to eat other things.” Experienced orcs also shared their experiences, “It will take several days to heal, so it’s better not to eat.”

Other orcs guessed that Bai Tu felt that there was not enough food, and comforted him, “There is enough food in the tribe. This year is much better than before. We only had one meal a day before the salt was changed last year.” The period before and after the salt change is one of the most difficult times in the tribe. As much prey as possible should be kept, otherwise there will not be enough salt to exchange for it.

Bai Dong nodded in agreement: “Yes, Tu, I can eat food every day this year!”

“Me too, me too.” Tu You couldn’t wait to show Bai Tu his bulging belly, “I’m full!” He almost starved to death last year!

Listening to everyone persuading him one by one, Bai Tu smiled. The people in the tribe were easily satisfied. For example, if they had a little more food, they would be very happy. He wanted to see this kind of joy every day.

“There are fewer prey this year than in the past, otherwise we could have caught more.” Someone continued to mutter, “Tu, it’s a good thing you made a trap, otherwise we might not have enough food to exchange for salt.”

Since there was little food to exchange for salt, they had to borrow from other tribes, but the amount they could borrow was limited. After all, there were not many tribes with surplus food, and some tribes that hunted a lot also consumed a lot. Even if there was leftover food, they would give priority to the orcs in their own tribe. Without enough salt, the people in the tribe will become weaker and weaker, and will not have the strength to hunt, so everyone would rather eat less now and go hungry for a few days to save enough food to exchange for salt.

There are still a few days before the salt exchange team sets out. They have already saved up one and a half cows and a pig. Although they still cannot exchange for enough salt, it is much better than before. Therefore, everyone felt that there was no need to eat fish. The leftover scraps, bones, and internal organs from making jerky were enough to last until the salt was replaced, and then they could eat as much of the captured prey as they wanted. No one wants Bai Tu to get hurt just because of saving a little food.

Although everyone was persuading him, the fish must still be eaten. Bai Tu did not refute, but followed everyone’s words: “I’ll try to process it. If it doesn’t taste good, I won’t eat it.” Everyone was

relieved. After all, there were more than one or two people who were scratched by fish bones, otherwise they would not have left a river alone to catch fish. Everyone thought that when Bai Tu handles it himself, he will realize how troublesome the fish is.

Bai Tu carried the fish basket to the cave, took out a bucket, and washed the fish with mountain spring water. The scales and internal organs were removed. The largest fish was split in half, and all the fish were cut a few times and marinated with salt, onion and ginger.

After going out to help for a while, when everyone was having lunch, Bai Tu lit a fire, set up a stone pot, put some lard in the pot, and then began to fry the small fish and fish fry.

Such a small fish has many small bones, so it is troublesome to stew it, so it is better to fry it directly.

Although the stone pot is not as convenient as modern advanced home appliances, after using it for a few days, Bai Tu has almost mastered the control of the heat. He can make a fire by himself without burning the pot, and frying fish is not a difficult task for him.

The lard refined a few days ago had been used up, but the wild boar caught behind the tribe was also fat. Bai Tu asked for a piece of fat to refine oil. A full bowl was enough for him to use for several days.

The fish has been marinated, so there is no need to add salt to the pot. Just put it in the pot after the oil is hot.

There was no change at first, but when the surface of the fish slowly turned golden yellow, the fragrance began to spread.

The aroma of frying and stir-frying is always more stimulating than stewing, not to mention that when everyone is hungry, the first ones who can’t help it are the children.

Bai Dong, who had just advised Bai Tu not to eat fish, moved over and said, “Tu, what did you do? It smells so good.” When he saw the fish in the pot clearly, he was stunned for a moment. Is this the kind of fish they usually eat? Looks the same, smells completely different.

Tu Shi and Tu You who came over also saw it. Tu Shi took a closer look and confirmed: “It is really a fish!”

“Tu, you are amazing.” Tu You’s eyes lit up. He could even cook the fish that no one liked so deliciously. He was worthy of being called Bai Tu. It tastes so good that he’s willing to eat it even if there are fish bones in it!

The orcs who also smelled the smell suddenly felt that it didn’t matter if eating fish was a little troublesome, after all, it tasted good.