Chapter 347: Watching the Butcher Undress the Ox(1/2)
The butchers used short knives with ring heads instead of pointed butcher knives to slaughter cattle. They must have been forced to use ring heads because they were in a hurry and couldn't find enough knives.
The knife is not easy to use. As you can imagine, the cowhide will definitely be damaged.
If you can't get a complete cowhide, the cowhide will be incomplete. In the future, if you have the right conditions to use the tanned cowhide to make leather armor, you will have to throw away the damaged areas, which will waste part of the material.
A sturdy shirtless butcher grabbed the cow's ear and stabbed the cow's neck with the Huanshou knife. Just as Li Mengxi had previously commented on the Huanshou knife, the tip of the Huanshou knife was strong enough, but the blade angle was not sharp enough and the piercing ability was insufficient.
In the 21st century, the Public Security Management Law stipulates that knives with an edge angle less than 30 degrees are not allowed to be carried in public places.
Why is the blade angle 30 degrees? Because when the blade angle of the blade tip is less than 30 degrees, the puncture performance is very strong, and it can pierce a person with just one stab. A knife with a blade angle less than 30 degrees is an extremely powerful weapon.
The Huanshou knife has a blade angle of at least 45 degrees, or even a larger angle. Although such a blade angle is strong and not easy to break, its puncture performance is poor.
The butcher stabbed the cow's neck with a ring-shaped knife, but it didn't penetrate very far. He stabbed the same place hard again before the knife penetrated.
Stabbing a cow in the neck is so difficult. On the battlefield, the tip of the ring-headed knife is not strong enough to pierce the enemy's armor, and it is even more difficult to pierce it.
The knife penetrated the cow's neck, and dark purple blood slowly flowed out from the edge of the knife. The blood that flowed out was in a semi-coagulated state.
Over the course of one night, the cow's blood is almost dry. If a live cow is stabbed into its neck with a knife, the hot blood will flow out like a faucet.
Before slaughtering the cow, Li Mengxi was still confused, wondering why the butchers only brought a big basket and not a basin to collect the cow's blood. Now he understood that the dead cow had been left for a long time and not much blood could be released.
Sure enough, professionals are professionals.
Killing a cow is a bit cruel and not suitable for children to watch. Li Mengxi covered his brother's eyes with his hands.
"Brother, you are blocking the way, so I can't even see you!" The younger brother pushed Li Mengxi's palm away just to watch the slaughter of the cow.
"Then I don't care if you have nightmares." Li Mengxi smiled and touched his brother's head.
It's okay to take a look, it's not a big deal.
Slaughtering a cow is very interesting, and the most interesting part is skinning it. The butchers surround the wooden frame and the hanging cow, pressing the knife to cut away the skin and fat layer bit by bit.
While watching, Li Mengxi discovered a problem.
Because there are so many people and a bunch of butchers, things get messed up.
If a butcher were to skin a cow, he could still skin it relatively completely.
But there are many people, and they all want to work together. If one person doesn't cooperate well, there will be another butcher who may be inexperienced and cut the cowhide.
Just like making a cart, unloading a cow requires the cooperation of many people. When there are too many people, communication and coordination are not good, and mistakes are easy to make.
Maybe some newbies are not good at it and accidentally cut the cowhide.
"Damn it! If you cut the good cowhide, you will die stupidly!" A lean old man who was operating the knife stared at the young butcher and yelled at the young butcher.
The young butcher who cut off the cowhide had a stern look on his face, probably because he had been scolded in front of so many people. The young butcher felt that he had lost face, so he got tough and scratched his neck, "How can you blame me if you can't use the knife?"
The lean old man with a handlebar mustache may have a bad temper. If young people dare to talk back, the old man will flick his knife and point it at his arm.
The baby hasn't been born yet. What's wrong with the knife? I used a sickle to peel off the skin, old man, and it was peeled off completely.
"With your skills as a butcher, you will starve to death!"
The young man's face turned red after being scolded.
Li Mengxi wanted to laugh when he saw it.
The old man's words were a bit harsh.
Based on Li Mengxi's observation, the two butchers, an old man and a young man, who had a quarrel, probably didn't know each other before.
Because according to Li Mengxi's current understanding of the customs of the late Han Dynasty, if it were a family, the younger generation would not dare or cannot talk back to the elders.
This is interesting. He didn't know him, but the old butcher couldn't see it when someone cut the cowhide. He cursed at the person.
Ordinarily, this cow does not belong to you. If it is cut off, it is none of your business. Do you want you to talk more?
Li Mengxi witnessed the whole process from the beginning to the end of the quarrel, and he found it interesting.
A little quarrel, a little conflict, a little quarrel is better than being indifferent.
On the contrary, if the butchers come to slaughter the cow and just peel it off regardless of whether it is rotten or not, and just slaughter the cow and think about it, this will be troublesome.
Generally speaking, some capable people have bad tempers. Li Mengxi believed that the lean old man with a mustache and a bad temper was the one with the most exquisite slaughtering skills among the twenty or thirty butchers today.
In the subsequent follow-up observations, Li Mengxi's idea was verified.
But when I saw the old butcher was sharp with his knife, and when he got excited, he even waved people away, telling those who were in the way to go aside and not block him.
Because he is old, others can only tolerate him.
Li Mengxi felt that another talent had been discovered.
If you think about it seriously, in the military, there are places where butchers with skilled slaughtering skills can be used, and the main place where they are used is naturally when slaughtering animals.
Slaughtering animals requires a certain amount of skill. A skilled butcher can obtain relatively complete hides, tendons, etc. after slaughtering the animals.
Whether it is cowhide or beef tendon, they are both precious strategic resources.
Cow hide can be used to make leather armor, and beef tendon is an important material for making bow and arrow strings.
In addition to the availability of raw materials, what is more important is efficiency.
If someone with no experience in butchering is asked to handle the animals, they may not be able to finish the work in a long time. After all, a cow weighs several hundred kilograms. If you use a knife and ax to chop it for a long time, the cow will still be a cow and will not turn into meat.
In ancient times, there was a saying about Cook Ding cutting cattle. The story goes that there was a man named Cook Ding who was very skilled in slaughtering cattle. He could make sure that every cut he made would cut through the gaps in the bones of the cattle. Therefore, he used a knife to slaughter cattle.
After more than ten years, the cutting edge is still new.
But for those who are not very skilled in slaughtering cattle, a knife will break in less than half a year.
This shows that whether the slaughtering technology is high or low has a great impact on the speed and effectiveness of slaughtering.
A skilled butcher can quickly slaughter a cow and cut it into small pieces that are easy to carry.
If the technology is not good enough, it will take half a day to cut off a cow, and the meat will have to be processed again when it is ready to be eaten, which is a waste of time.
The scale of the war has become larger. In a big battle, there are countless dead horses on the battlefield.
When the battlefield is cleaned after the war, the horse carcass will be taken back to the camp as a trophy. If there is not enough time, the battlefield will have to be moved the next day after cleaning, and the whole horse carcass is inconvenient to transport. What should we do? It must be carried overnight.
Horses are slaughtered into small pieces of meat that are easy to carry. After a horse weighing several hundred kilograms is divided into small pieces of meat, it is scattered into dozens of pieces. It can be carried by some soldiers at random.
Therefore, under certain circumstances, it is very convenient to have a dedicated team of butchers.
If you don't form a team of butchers in advance, you suddenly win a big battle, and you harvest a lot of horse carcasses when cleaning the battlefield, then looking for a butcher at the last minute will be a waste of time, and you may not be able to find him.
After all, professional butchers are not as common as craftsmen who can make baskets, and are still relatively rare.
Around ten o'clock in the morning, the butchers had almost slaughtered the cow.
The rest of the process was a tedious process of shaving and chopping meat. Because there was no place like a table to work, Li Mengxi saw the butchers using knives and axes to chop down the ribs of the hanging beef rack, which seemed like
Extremely difficult.
It would be much more convenient if there was a table. Place the large pieces of half-pulled pork chops on the big table, chop them with an ax, and you can separate the meat in a short time.
Li Mengxi thought for a moment and suddenly remembered that elevated furniture, such as the Eight Immortals table, did not exist in the Han Dynasty.
However, the structure of the table is so simple. With the current manpower of the carpenter camp, making several tables is not a big problem.
I thought for a while, because the large animals to be slaughtered, such as mules, oxen, and dead war horses, are relatively large, so it would be easier to use a larger table.
However, the transportation conditions in the military are limited, and the size of the table should also take into account the load capacity of the cart. A table that is too large will be difficult to fix on the cart.
In order to facilitate transportation, the slaughtering table should be smaller. If it is smaller, it will not be suitable as a table for slaughtering large animals.
So is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Yes, there is.
The problem can be solved by making the table smaller, and then putting two or even more tables together to form a large table.
In fact, you don’t need a table.
Not long ago, the craftsman camp also needed flat ground as a workbench for planing wood.
Later, the craftsmen came up with the following solutions: first, buy door panels and plan the wood for the floor.
Another option is to simply remove the wheels of the pallet truck, turn the frame over and use the bottom of the truck as a table.
Both methods are fine.
Nowadays, when animals are being slaughtered, a table is also needed for dividing the meat. You can follow the same method as the craftsman's camp and turn the cart over to use it as a table.
Placing a pallet truck anywhere can bring many conveniences. Fortunately, the Rebel Army's vehicle manufacturing industry is developing steadily and can produce at least twenty pallet trucks in a month.
Although the number of pallet trucks is gradually increasing, the gap is still huge. The carpenter camp needs trucks to pull wood and vehicles to use as a mobile production base. Many of the wounded soldiers in the wounded camp are still being carried on stretchers.
Well, after all, the stretcher is small and narrow, and you can't stretch your arms and legs when you lie on it. It's not as comfortable as a spacious trolley.
Next time there are newly made carts, one can be separated to form a butcher camp, Li Mengxi thought.
Li Mengxi thought this way. Only one cart is not enough at all, but it can be used as an adaptation tool to allow the butchers in a group to adapt to how to use the cart.
What rules should be followed for putting everyone's bedding and other sundries on the cart, who is responsible for pulling the cart, and how the people pulling the cart should be rotated. No matter how big or small, it takes time to get used to it.
For a group of butchers to come together, it does not need to be strictly militarized, but it must be at least semi-military.
In order for the previously scattered butchers to reach a paramilitary level, it takes time to formulate rules and regulations. It takes time for the butchers to remember the rules and regulations. It also takes time for the butchers to adapt to the rules and regulations and act in accordance with them. It takes time for the rules and regulations to be formulated at the beginning.
, it must be rough, and it will take time to slowly add it based on various daily feedback.
To be continued...