I, strive for the prosperity of the motherland! 【system】

Su Xing and other students started to get busy according to the teachers' instructions.

他们蹲在10号探方的东侧边缘，按要求先在探方壁用红漆标上“0-5cm”、“5-10cm”的刻度线。

When Su Xing picked up the shovel, her palms were slightly sweaty, making the wooden handle a little slippery. She quickly adjusted her grip: her index finger was placed on the base of the shovel head, and the other four fingers held the wooden handle, keeping her arm close to her body to keep it stable.

When the few people first started scraping the soil, their shovels didn't work very well. Either they used too little force and couldn't scrape off the loose soil, or they used too much force and scraped a deep groove in the soil.

Teacher Gao, who was standing nearby, came over to instruct them, "Use your wrist to scoop out porridge, just like using a spoon. Only scrape off a thin layer of soil each time."

Su Xing and others tried to slow down, and sure enough, the feel gradually improved.

The loess forms a thin "soil sheet" under the shovel head, revealing the uniform light brown soil layer underneath.

Su Xing scraped for almost two hours. When she scraped to a depth of 8 centimeters, she found that the color of the soil had become darker and was mixed with fine charcoal particles.

"stop!"

Teacher Gao immediately came over and carefully cleared the surrounding soil with a bamboo knife.

"This is a 'disturbed soil layer', which may be a trace left by ancient human activities."

He taught several people to use a tape measure to measure the location of the charcoal particles, and then wrote in the record sheet "depth 8.2cm, soil layer gray-brown, containing charcoal particles, density about 3 particles/square centimeter."

"Bring your camera and take pictures."

Sun Pengfei quickly took the camera and took three photos: a panoramic view of the exploration area, a close-up of the location of the carbon particles, and a cross-section of the soil layer.

The teachers directed the students to work while conducting on-site teaching.

The morning passed quickly.

noon.

Everyone took the bus back to the living base and started to have lunch.

After Su Xing finished his meal, he went to look at Teacher Ji's record book.

In the cross-section diagram of the exploration area he drew, the boundaries of the soil layers were marked with different colors, and the location of the relics was accurate to the coordinates, for example: E102.5cm, N88cm, depth 10cm.

"Most of the ancient tombs in Maoerling date back to the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. Last year, someone unearthed a pottery tripod in a nearby excavation area."

Teacher Ji wiped the sweat off his face and said, "We might practice 'cloth square' this afternoon. You'd better all put your sleeves down. Even though the weather isn't too hot right now, the ultraviolet rays here are quite strong."

After hearing this, several students nodded.

"I know, teacher."

"What time do we go there this afternoon?"

"We'll have lunch until 1:50 and start work at 2:00."

There is a tradition of taking naps in Shanxi Province. Many units have long lunch breaks, and their base is no exception.

After everyone finished eating, they went back to their dormitories to rest.

Many students at Kyoto University do not have the habit of taking naps. They either gather together to chat or play with their mobile phones.

Some staff members of the research institute looked at the energetic appearance of the students and smiled and shook their heads.

They believe that it won't be long before these students develop the habit of taking naps.

There is no way. The diet here is high in carbs, which makes me sleepy easily. I need to take a nap to better carry out my work in the afternoon.

Su Xing was very energetic. She turned on the computer and used her lunch break to draw for a while.

In the afternoon, everyone prepared to go to the construction site.

Su Xing, Cheng Xiuning and others took out wide-brimmed sun hats and put them on their heads.

When they arrived at the construction site, they began to learn how to lay out the squares, which is to divide the new area into standard exploration squares of 5 meters x 5 meters.

Su Xing and two classmates in the same group carried the total station and set up the instrument at the designated location.

Teacher Ji taught them how to adjust the camera: "Aim at the reference point. The coordinates on the screen must be consistent with the drawing. The error cannot exceed 2 centimeters."

Next, they used white lime powder to draw the boundaries of the exploration area on the ground.

Su Xing was responsible for holding the wooden pole, while Sun Pengfei and Meng Qihang used ropes to pull out the step-shaped exploration wall.

The soil layer of Maoerling is relatively loose, so a one-meter-wide partition beam must be left in the exploration wall to prevent collapse.

During this period, the fingertips of Meng Qihang's gloves were rubbed by the wooden pole, and Teacher Gao handed him a new pair.

He said: "Gloves should be changed in time if they are torn. If they are scratched by gravel, it will be inconvenient to deal with them in the wild."

"Okay okay."

……

The sunset time is around six o'clock now.

At around five o'clock, the construction site began the key step of finishing work, storing tools.

As required, the students cleaned the dirt off the hand shovels and bamboo knives with a hard-bristle brush, then applied a thin layer of motor oil on the shovel head to prevent rust; straightened the bristles of the soft-bristle brush and put it into a special cloth bag; and retracted the tape measure slowly to avoid the buckle from popping open and being damaged.

All tools were classified and placed in a metal box with a label “For exploration square No. 10 only”.

Everyone returned to their living base.

After dinner, I started to organize and summarize the logs.

In the notebook, soil layer records, photo numbers, and tool usage must correspond one to one.

During his inspection, Mr. Gao pointed to the record of the "disturbed soil layer" and said, "We can focus on this area tomorrow. We may find more traces of relics."

Su Xing nodded in response.