🍁 Chapter 12: Preparing for Winter
🌍 Earth Date: October 22, 100 BCE – Late Autumn🍁
View Illustration: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fZhJs5CuVT4gDs20_UxrE_od-ao28XO-/view?usp=drive_link
Too bad Webnovel doesn't let me embed pictures in here like other sites do. 😉
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The valley was calm when they arrived — a bowl of stone and spruce, ringed by ridges that broke the worst of the wind. The highlands were already kissed by frost, but this hidden pocket stayed just warm enough to buy them a little more time. They would need every day of it.
🔎 Scavenging for Materials
Before the wagons were even fully unloaded, Junjie joined his parents and several others in transplanting what they could — fruit saplings wrapped in damp cloth, berry roots bundled in straw. They set them carefully near the stream and covered them with cut grass to insulate the roots. It might not be enough, but it was a gesture toward permanence, toward hope. Chickens remained in their wicker travel cages for now, clustered near the greenest grass along the stream. Goats, sheep, and the rest of the inherited herd — cattle, mules, even the slavers' warhorses — had already been penned in temporary corrals made from branches and stone. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. For now.
Junjie quietly deposited the stone and brick he'd salvaged from the old village at the southern end of the valley, stacking them in such a way that they resembled ancient ruins — remnants of a past no one could remember. He said nothing, letting others discover them naturally, as if the land had always kept these secrets hidden. Soon after, small groups began scavenging. Children carried baskets for kindling while adults pried usable stone from hillsides or dragged fallen branches from the woods. It was during one of these trips that a girl stumbled upon the "ancient ruins," squealing in delight. By midday, half the village had gathered around, digging eagerly and speaking in hushed tones of reverence and excitement.
"It must have been some abandoned settlement. They failed, but we will succeed!" someone declared, and the phrase caught on quickly. That same day, Junjie quietly dropped off sacks of coarse salt from a mountain pass, carrying them over his shoulders like grain sacks.
🧱 Roman-style Concrete
In the middle of this bustle, Nano's voice cut in unexpectedly. "You know... we could use concrete."
Junjie blinked. "What's concrete?"
"It's a mix of lime, volcanic ash, sand, gravel, and water," Nano explained. "When blended, it becomes a thick mortar — stronger than clay. You can shape it, and when it dries, it hardens like stone. You can even use it to hold stones together so they'll last for generations."
Junjie wasn't convinced, but he trusted Nano. While the others sweated in the dirt — dragging logs, packing food, shaping crude shelters — he hunted the cliffs and riverbeds for pale limestone, silt-heavy ash, and other materials that matched Nano's increasingly specific mineral requirements.
The first find was coal. "Surface vein confirmed. Carbon density is high. Purity sufficient for sustained combustion. Fire control will improve significantly. Congratulations on unlocking Bronze Age Fuel Tier," Nano quipped. Junjie only shook his head with a wry smile, amused by how easily the AI guided him to solutions.
Coal was only the beginning. Nano steered him toward chalky limestone outcrops and the dusty black slopes of an old volcanic ridge. "Pozzolanic material located. Silicate and calcium content within optimal range. Hydraulic binding potential: high. Primitive concrete achievable."
The volcanic ash was rich, dry, and powder-fine, clinging to the baskets. The limestone crumbled easily under hammer and chisel. Combined with sand and water, they could form a slurry that would harden faster and stronger than anything the villagers had seen. Junjie returned to camp with two baskets slung from a yoke across his shoulders — one filled with rock dust, the other with gritty ash — and told his father he'd heard of it from Western traders.
A test kiln was quickly assembled from scavenged bricks and river stones, squat and sturdy beside the forge. Coal fueled the fire, and soon limestone was baking into quicklime. From that came mortar, and from mortar, walls. "Combustion resources secured. Binder production underway. Structural advancement unlocked," Nano noted.
🛠️ Infrastructure
The communal lodges came first. Stone foundations bonded with the new mortar were topped with post-and-beam frames pegged together with care. Women and children worked beside the men, weaving wattle panels for the walls before packing them with clay and sealing them with lime plaster. Thatched roofs rose steeply to shed snow.
Windows were small and fitted with shutters, and each lodge's heart was a hearth built from gathered stone, the mortar allowing irregular shapes to fit snugly. Smoke rose cleanly from new chimneys — sturdier than anything the village had built before. "Mortar blend at 78% efficiency," Nano observed. The elders simply muttered about how much they apparently owed those mysterious traders.
A rope bridge was stretched across the narrow northern bend of the river, giving easier access to the far slope, where game was plentiful and new groves might one day grow. A barn followed, wide and low to shelter animals from the snow. Then came a small workshop for weaving, carving, and tool repairs through the cold months.
🏗️ Industrial Quarter
To the south, the beginnings of an industrial quarter took shape. First came the forge chimney — tall, straight, and built from river stones bonded with Roman-style concrete. It vented the blacksmith's hearth more cleanly than any previous design. Beside it, they began the foundation for something larger: a smelter.
The foundation was poured in stages, thick and square, packed with gravel-heavy concrete and braced with timber. Stone pillars were cast in molds and left to cure in the pale sun. "Wood is for warmth," Nano murmured privately. "Concrete is for eternity. But you already knew that."
Once cured, the pillars were bridged with salvaged beams, forming a pergola-style frame. The pitched roof would keep snow and sleet off workers without trapping dangerous heat. A similar shelter covered the kiln, its glowing belly steady once again.
🧱🔥 Forging the Future
Winter was coming quickly, but the valley had been generous — stone, coal, water, wood, and just enough time for Junjie's vision to take root. Challenges loomed, but for the first time, they had a true foundation. The walls of survival were up, but the real work was just beginning.
As twilight deepened, Junjie gazed across the half-finished workshops and shelters, where stone pillars stood like sentinels and kiln smoke curled into the darkening sky. Four hundred souls huddled in the lodges behind him, heat and hope mingling in cramped spaces. The walls would hold, but winter pressed harder each day.
And the real work was just beginning.