Chapter 30: Joyful Tribe and Depressed Han Cheng
In contrast to the people's excitement, Han Cheng was not as happy as expected. He looked at the fragments in the grass ash pile on the ground and felt slightly depressed.
He vividly remembered that in the video, the elderly woman of that ethnic minority had fired dozens of pieces in one kiln. Later, when the kiln was opened, only two were damaged, and the rest were intact.
Now, with twenty-two pieces fired, only eight came out intact. Nearly two-thirds had either cracks on the surface or were shattered into fragments.
Even though this was his first attempt at pottery, the difference shouldn't be so significant.
Fortunately, the pot made by Hei Wa survived. It was intact without any cracks on the surface. This made Han Cheng once again marvel at the importance of talent.
Under the halo of the divine, Han Cheng received the crowd's worship.
Compared to his initial awkwardness, he was much calmer now.
He helped Shaman up and then had everyone else stand up. To avoid dampening their spirits, he put on a cheerful smile.
The people in the tribe showed considerable interest in this novel thing called pottery. Excited, they filled all the pottery with water and carried them back to the tribe.
With this water, they no longer had to run far to the river when thirsty.
The Second Senior Brother, red-faced with a thick neck, moved forward while carrying a large tub full of water.
Beside him, Senior Brother shook his head occasionally, indicating that the tub was too big and inconvenient for carrying water. The smaller ones would be more practical.
This scene left Han Cheng dumbfounded. It was the first time he had seen such use of a tub.
If using it like this turns out to be practical, that would be surprising.
This operation is even more excellent than Sima Guang.
After watching in amazement, Han Cheng sighed and quickly explained to them. He spoke and gestured for a while, finally making them understand that the thing called a tub was to be placed empty in the tribe. They should then use smaller jars to pour water into it.
The jars were considered communal property, while the bowls were more personal.
Han Cheng gave the best bowl to the shaman and kept the second best for himself. The remaining three bowls were given to each of the three senior brothers.
This distribution method faced no objections because it was consistent with how they normally allocated food.
Even Lame, who had been working diligently, had no objections. Like the children, he felt a bit envious but didn't see anything wrong with Han Cheng's distribution.
There were too few jars and pots, far from enough. However, there was no need to worry. The successful pottery-making had already proven that the method worked. As long as they spent more time, they could replenish the shortage.
With a bountiful catch from the previous day and the senior brothers deciding not to go hunting today, they joined the children at the riverbank, participating in the communal pottery-making effort at Han Cheng's command.
Han Cheng gave them some brief instructions, and then they all followed Hei Wa to learn.
This made Hei Wa a bit nervous but also proud. He took his responsibility seriously, meticulously demonstrating and imparting his knowledge to everyone.
Han Cheng observed from the side.
Everyone has their strengths, such as pottery making.
After a day's work, three or four people excelled, while the majority reached a moderate level, some a bit higher or lower. A few also performed particularly poorly, like Second Senior Brother.
He failed to produce anything decent after a day covered in mud and sweating.
Due to these individual differences, collaborative work allocation emerged. People were placed in fields where they excelled, doing what they were good at. It was an effective method to enhance productivity.
After a day of work, Han Cheng rearranged the tasks, assigning the four best adult primitive people to focus on making clay molds during their free timetimes when they weren't hunting or fishing. The rest were allocated tasks based on their strengths, such as digging soil, preparing clay, collecting dry grass, and crushing it.
Of course, this was done without affecting the tribe's regular activities. After all, obtaining food remained the tribe's top priority.
The clay molds made a few days ago were ready to be fired, but Han Cheng hasn't engaged in this task yet. He still hadn't figured out why his success rate was so low with the same method.
After a failure, it was essential to extract some experience from it. Otherwise, repeating the process would be meaningless.