From Chief to Ball

The most difficult spelling and multiplication tables are also completed well. These relatives and noble children from various cities who studied on Shanjiao Island all have a more or less Xiacheng accent. After completing this point, they will You can recognize more characters and read more characters, and you don't need to use arithmetic chips to do simple calculations when doing simple multiplication and division.

During the rare holiday, these people did not stay idle, but wandered between various workshops, and Chen Jian did not stop them.

The public bathhouse and dining room made these people have a good relationship with the Xiacheng people. They would answer whatever they asked, but everything they answered could not be copied in their city.

All looked good on the Headlands, and there were many beauties they had never seen before.

Because of the heat release effect of the lake in Onozawa, the winter in Yamanaki Island is not too cold, and the water does not freeze.And a large number of workshops use coal to cause a lot of smoke and dust near the city, and the air is humid. Every morning there is a layer of thick fog, which is very beautiful, which is rare in other cities.

On the eighth day of December, these people learned a new habit in Xiacheng, drinking a bowl of very sweet porridge in the morning.Corn, wheat kernels, peas, red dates, soybeans, chestnuts... The taste of the eight kinds of food blended together is very strange, as if the taste of summer and autumn sun has been infiltrated into this bowl of porridge.

It is said that this is to pray or thank for the good weather of the past year, which is a very legitimate reason.

On the third day after eating the Laba porridge, the children found a wooden slip in their hands, which contained a letter written by a person named Ji Yun to Chen Jian, talking about finding the most labor-saving way to transport ore.

At night, the man named Ji Yun expressed his thoughts in front of everyone with a bit of shyness. It was roughly that he felt uncomfortable eating and sleeping when he thought that Yucheng was under construction. He must find a way to transport more ore and the like. Because he was thrown into the mine, he deliberately slack off.By the way, I did some self-reflection, reviewing the mistakes I made a long time ago.

There is a brass badge hanging on his chest, it is very beautiful, engraved with the appearance of a smoking smelting furnace, it is said that only great meritorious service in Xiacheng can get such a brass badge, and the engraved things are also Different, there are ears of wheat, spears and so on.

However, the smelting furnace on the brass badge on his chest is smoking, but in reality there are still some days before the smoking, and a large amount of ore has been brought back and is being crushed. It is said that a group of people who can crush ore beneficiation must first be trained before starting work. .

On the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the smelting furnace was checked for the last time before it was opened. After confirming that there was no problem, the workshop workers piled up the ore and charcoal in the smelting furnace layer by layer, and the students in the school were also called to watch around.

The sackcloth dyed with ochre was red, wrapped around the smelting furnace, and two large cloth flowers were formed.

Hundreds of bark clay firecrackers were ignited together. After thinking about it, Chen Jian shouted: "Open the furnace!"

People who have already practiced several times tear off the red cloth, and as a benefit, these red cloth will be distributed to a few people selected by lottery.The few people who got the lottery were responsible for lighting the fire and pulling out the wooden wedge on the waterwheel at the same time.

The wooden water wheel started to run, and the rotating connecting rod drove the handle of the bellows, making a loud noise, and a flame began to burn at the ignition port.

Clay fans are lined up, and the first batch of iron is used to make the fans.The workshop workers took pottery crucibles and prepared them at the iron opening. The clay crucibles tied to long hard pottery sticks were used to ladle molten iron into the pan. Everyone contacted them several times with melted wax oil. Once, at least I won't accidentally fall on my own feet.

Each clay crucible is unique. Chen Jian used the drainage method to roughly calculate the volume of the previous wooden mold. The size of the crucible in the hands of each workshop worker in charge of casting is different, which happens to be [-]% larger than the standard volume.

The weather wasn't very cold, especially the heat near the smelting furnace made people uncomfortable. The students in the school watched it with great interest. They all wanted to know if this kind of thing called iron could really be smelted?They also imagined whether their city could do such a thing.

They have heard of these things but have never seen them, especially the nearby waterwheel and the connecting rods on the waterwheel. It is said that after two years of learning, there will be a simple wooden waterwheel model for them to learn, but now far away.

The wait was long, and Chen Jian had been standing near the smelting furnace, constantly passing through the observation hole to ask people to add materials, or to ask people to light a fire for the preheating chamber.This is Yucheng's top priority, and everything must be pushed to the back.

The students in the school gradually walked away because of the cold. They thought it was a grand scene that would be as shocking as thunder, but after watching it for a long time, they found that it was like a boring spring rain, a numb and tedious cycle of reincarnation.

After many hours, Chen Jian's hands began to tremble, and the eyes of those who were still watching from the side widened.

Two workshop workers came to the taphole with long sticks and opened the blockage made of plant ash and grass mud. The red molten iron flowed out with excellent fluidity, red like boiling blood.

The lime added in advance to the ore acts as a co-solvent for the slag, which makes the slag fluidity very good and the temperature is sufficient, so the iron slag can be regarded as a perfect separation.

Obviously this is white pig iron, otherwise wrought iron or steel would not have such good fluidity at the current furnace temperature, because they would only be half-melted at this temperature.Although Chen Jian has already used the preheating blast and the high-power blower of this era, but without coke, this is the only way to go.

The casters who had already prepared scooped out the molten iron and poured it into various strange clay molds. After cooling and forming, they broke the clay molds and put the first batch of ironware into the heated annealing furnace.

Part of the remaining pig iron is transported to the wok-iron furnace, where heating has already begun. With the help of the arched structure of the kiln body to reflect heat, coal is used as a dye, and it should be able to reach the temperature at which the pig iron melts. Some people specifically stir after melting.

If the temperature is sufficient to support the melting of pig iron, it is cast first, and if not, it is condensed into small pieces to be forged in the future.

The air was scorched hot by the molten iron, and the hearts of the people were equally blazing. After Chen Jian picked up a plowshare as a sample and smashed the outer mud shell, a black cast iron plowshare fell to the ground, making a clanging sound. , and there was a burst of cheers from all around with this crisp sound.

Everyone ran over to watch this iron plowshare. There was iron in Xiacheng, but it could not be duplicated, and could only exist in the sacrificial hall as a sacrifice and ritual vessel.And this plowshare made Xiacheng people understand that in the near future, maybe everyone will have a real sickle, a real fish intestine, and a real hairpin... This is the promise Chen Jian gave them a long time ago, and now they finally see hope .

The first furnace of iron was perfect, beyond Chen Jian's imagination, but not beyond reality. It was just white pig iron, but it was perfect white pig iron.

But no matter how perfect white iron is, it is not practical. The cheers of the crowd made Chen Jian feel more pressure. During the annealing period, Chen Jian tried to calm himself down and write the curriculum for tomorrow's school. Can't stay still.

The iron in the annealing furnace can't speak, and can't see any changes, just lie there in black, no one knows whether the graphite is condensing under the gray shell.

Chapter 122 Invitation

On the morning of the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, Chen Jian ran to the annealing furnace early with his red eyes open.

With his permission, the workshop workers took out the first batch of experimental cast iron farm tools and placed them on the ground in rows.

Chen Jian found a hammer from the pile of iron parts, installed the wooden handle that had been prepared, and placed a plowshare on the huge granite.

A group of people watched helplessly as Chen Jian spit on his palms and wiped his hands, suppressing the uneasiness in their hearts, but they knew that they could not be discouraged at this time, so they could only encourage them: "I tell you, the plowshare will be very difficult if I hammer it down. It might be broken. Don’t feel bad if it’s broken, just improve it.”

Several people laughed and said, "Ji Xia is also scared. Look, your arm is still shaking. Do you want to change someone?"

But when it was time to change people, everyone was scared again.

These people may not have cast these iron tools with their own hands, and they are not even members of the smelting department, but they can really feel that this piece of simple farm tools also has their own painstaking efforts.From transportation and mining to logistics support to those winter clothes, without all of these, there would be no such simple smelting furnace, and even those tribesmen far away in Xia City who did not see this scene with their own eyes, also had their sweat.

Starting from the discovery of ore in Yucheng, all the focus is on these irons, and no one wants to fail this time.

After waiting for a long time, the clansmen who could carry two hundred catties of sacks on weekdays seemed unable to lift the twenty catty hammer in front of them. Chen Jian gritted his teeth and swung the sledgehammer by himself.

Knock it down with the greatest force, and everyone's hearts are in their throats.

boom!boom!

After a few loud noises, everyone swallowed, and then let out a burst of cheers.

"Not broken! Not broken!"

It's not really broken, just deformed.This means that the iron, when annealed, completely outperforms bronze for agricultural implements, because once broken, it can be hammered out without having to be remelted.

Bronze farm tools have surpassed stone farm tools without considering the cost. The clansmen are well aware of how powerful iron will be once used for farming.

Chen Jian threw down the sledgehammer, and secretly heaved a sigh of relief, as if all the strength in his body had been drained, he sat down on the ground, and was almost pierced by the point of the plowshare.

The people of the country took out the firecrackers made of leather and clay that had been prepared. Amid the crackling sound, the whole city of Yucheng was boiling. It was iron, but it was something that fell from the sky. Make what falls out by yourself!

Now it seems that the iron smelting business is progressing fairly well. According to the current division of labor, it will take less than three months for the farms here to distribute a batch of farm tools.

The means of production must belong to the public property of Xiacheng, and those farm workers cannot afford to buy a piece of iron farm tools. In addition, the land near Dayozawa is owned by Xiacheng. Although it is unreasonable, it makes sense.

If there are no floods this year, Yucheng should be self-sufficient in food by autumn, and the trade with other cities will change dramatically.

Once the largest amount of food is not needed, either let them make some lower-level handmade products, or let them become the source of raw materials.

This needs to be pondered further. Without a common currency of precious metals, a trade surplus is not of much benefit. On the contrary, it will arouse the resentment of the surrounding cities.

The development of the drive must be distinguished from closeness and distance. The cities along the Caohe River are his basic base, and they are also the most closely related to him in his small alliance. The first batch of benefits must be brought to them.

After arranging the three-month production task of the Smelting Department, Chen Jian found the messengers from Xiacheng.

"When the new year is over, you are going back to Xiacheng. There are a few things to do after you go back. First, let Sihu invite the leaders of Echeng and Weicheng to come to Yucheng for a gathering in March."