Hand over the jade seal first [Infrastructure]

Liu Cainiang deeply felt that her city owner might have had some unrealistic ideas because of the heat. Saltpeter is a stone, how could it turn into ice?

Xiao Zirong didn't explain much to her, mainly because he couldn't explain it. If he really wanted to explain it, he had to use the chemical reaction equation. He could find it out, but Liu Cainiang couldn't understand it, and she might think he was talking nonsense. .

At this time, it is enough to remain mysterious.

Liu Cainiang was puzzled and went out to find someone to dig the cellar. Because it was used as an ice cellar, the location of the cellar was inside the previously planned city, and it was close to the city lord's mansion.

The excavation of the cellar was not very difficult, especially after Xiao Zirong made the gunpowder bamboo tube.

At the beginning, everyone thought that the gunpowder bamboo tube was scary, but after using it a lot, it was found that as long as the fuse was lit and ran a little farther away, it would be fine, and everyone's acceptance of this thing was higher.

But in private, they still feel that their city lord is not an ordinary person, and that they can get this kind of thing, and this method is nothing more than a mountain god.

As for the wheel waterwheel and the keel waterwheel, it didn't make everyone feel anything. Although the waterwheel is not popular, some people have seen it, so they don't think it is a miracle.

But soon, Xiao Zirong came up with something that subverted everyone's imagination—he actually used saltpeter to make ice!

In fact, Xiao Zirong didn't have much confidence at the beginning, because they still don't have any metal containers, either pottery, wood or bamboo, all natural ones.

Ice making with saltpeter mainly relies on the principle that saltpeter dissolves in water to absorb heat, so the heat transfer capacity of the container must be good. At present, the things they have here are definitely not good for pottery. They don’t have professional craftsmen here. It was made...to the point where it was barely usable, and that thickness was definitely not suitable for making ice.

So in the end, I can only try it with bamboo utensils.

First, prepare two bamboo boxes, one large and one small. The bamboo boxes should be polished as thin as possible, and all the gaps should be painted with collected gum.

After Xiao Zirong tested to make sure there was no water leak, he first put saltpeter in the big bamboo box, then put the small bamboo box in, and then poured water into the big bamboo box.

Zhai Xi and the others looked at the two bamboo boxes with wide eyes, not understanding how these things were frozen.

Xiao Zirong said while pouring water: "Next is the time to witness the miracle."

When he said this, the people who were qualified to come and watch suddenly widened their eyes and prepared to see how this miracle happened.

However, after a while, they found that nothing had changed except that saltpeter mixed with water to form saltpeter water.

They couldn't help but looked up at Xiao Zirong, their big eyes were full of doubts.

Liu Cainiang hesitated for a moment. Although their city lords have always been omnipotent, everyone knows that no one can succeed forever. It's okay to fail now, it's an irrelevant matter anyway.

She originally wanted to open her mouth to comfort Xiao Zirong, but found that Xiao Zirong's expression was very flat, as if she was not affected at all.

Xiao Zirong looked down at the water in the big bamboo box carefully, waited for a while and threw in two pieces of saltpeter.

After the two pieces of saltpeter were all dissolved, the water in the small bamboo box gradually began to have fine ice balls, and these ice balls might not be found if one did not observe carefully.

Zhai Wei was relatively short, and was the closest to the small bamboo box. When she saw it with sharp eyes, she widened her eyes and said, "It's freezing, it's freezing!"

Liu Cainiang immediately swallowed what she was about to say, and looked down seriously.

After the first small ice ball appeared, the water in the small bamboo box began to freeze rapidly, but there was no movement until it turned into a mixture of ice and water.

Xiao Zirong reckoned that the saltpetre reaction did not absorb enough heat. After all, it was midsummer and the weather itself was very hot. They used mountain spring water to cool it down a bit.

Xiao Zirong immediately changed another big bamboo box and put in saltpeter and water again. After a while, the ice in the small bamboo box seemed to have completely condensed on the surface. Xiao Zirong tapped it with a wooden spoon and was satisfied that the ice surface was hard enough. , Turning his head and said: "Okay, don't look at it, call someone to come over to make ice, give points, and take out the used water to dry, and the saltpeter inside can be reused."

Liu Cainiang thought that such a small piece of ice needed so much saltpeter, and she was worried that they would not buy enough, but she had already bought a lot at that time, if she continued to buy...it was not worth spending too much money on a little ice. cost-effective.

Didn't they survive without ice for so many years in the past? If it's really hot, they go to soak in the water.

However, when he heard that the saltpeter could be reused, he was very happy: "Okay, I'll call someone."

Liu Cainiang ran out to call for someone, Xiao Zirong turned to the three sisters of the Zhai family and asked, "Do you want to know why it freezes?"

The three sisters nodded vigorously, this is really amazing, Xiao Zirong smiled slightly: "Now I tell you that you don't understand, but I have a few books there, and I will show them to you later, if you don't understand Just come and ask me, and when you understand all the books I wrote, you will understand the truth of it.”

Zhai Wei widened her eyes in shock and asked, "So it's not fairy art?"

Xiao Zirong couldn't help knocking her on the head and said: "There is no fairy art in this world, as long as people can make it, it means there is a certain truth, but people don't understand the principle and they regard it as a fairy art." , you are the children of the Mohist family, you should understand this truth better."

Zhai Xi quickly said: "What the city lord said is that Awei is still young, and I have neglected education. I will definitely tell her more in the future."

Xiao Zirong didn't think there was anything wrong, but said comfortingly: "It doesn't matter, anyway, she is young, it is not too late to start learning now."

In fact, Zhai Xi can't be blamed for this. After all, it's good that they barely survived in the bandit village before. How can they have time to pay attention to the education of the younger sister?

Liu Cainiang quickly called a bunch of people over. Xiao Zirong originally thought it would be good if she could call ten or twenty. After all, although the weather is hot now, it is also the busy season of farming, let alone other crops. The rice they just planted will be harvested around November, and the time is tight.

It turned out that Liu Cainiang unexpectedly brought about fifty people, which was half of the population of their resident.

Because Xiao Zirong and the others were in the cellar when they got the first piece of ice, and the cellar was not dug too big, so most people couldn't get in at all.

Xiao Zirong asked in surprise, "Why did you call so many people?"

Liu Cainiang said with a smile: "When I went out and said that the city lord was making ice, many people were curious and followed."

Xiao Zirong couldn't laugh or cry immediately, so it's fake to help, but it's real to watch the fun, right?

He quickly waved his hand and said, "There are not so many people, there are not so many materials here."

At the beginning, he thought that he would definitely need someone to help. On the one hand, it was because of the problem of saltpeter recycling, and on the other hand, the weather was too hot. I had to make ice quickly to lower the temperature of the entire cellar, so as to ensure that the ice would not melt.

Liu Cainiang said with some regret: "Hey, everyone still wants to come in and take a look."

While making the second piece of ice, Xiao Zirong said, "Okay, wait a minute. We must go out and continue making it. It is impossible to stay in the cellar all the time. Everyone will see it when we go outside."

After hearing this, Liu Cainiang went out and explained to everyone. In the end, most of the people who were selected to join the guards were the ones who had rented out the land in their homes, and what they usually did was to patrol the surrounding area. See if there are any strangers coming, or do some work within your ability.

Now is the time when they have the most time, so they just come to help.

Xiao Zirong asked Liu Caixiang to divide the people into two groups, one group fetched and carried water, and the other group carried used saltpeter water out to dry in the sun outside.

As for the ice making, Xiao Zirong had to come in person, because only he knew the ratio, he could tell others, but because there was no weighing tool, so most of the time he had to rely on his feeling, and most people probably didn't I don't have his touch, so he is the only one here.

However, Zhai Xi was more flexible and said directly: "The city owner doesn't have to do it himself, you just need to say how much water and saltpeter you want to put in, and then let someone else do it. I'm going to get tired."

This is true, they had prepared twenty sets of bamboo boxes, big and small, if Xiao Zirong had to pour water for each of them, his small body probably wouldn't be able to last long.

Xiao Zirong simply adopted Zhai Xi's opinion, but he was still in charge of the operation of the two bamboo boxes, and then guided others when the two bamboo boxes he was in charge of were freezing. The ice in the bamboo box has frozen.

In this way, a relatively virtuous cycle has been entered, and those little ladies are also nimble, and the ice-making team is orderly, and it didn't take too much time to put ice on all three walls of the cellar.

When the ice cubes on the third wall were about to reach the roof, Xiao Zirong calculated the number of ice cubes needed to reach the roof, and then said: "Except for the five that are being made, the rest are Stop for a while and get out."

Liu Cainiang froze for a moment, a little strange: "It's not full yet, why do you want to go out?"

Xiao Zirong looked at her expressionlessly and said, "Don't you think it's cold in here? Hurry up and go out, and bring back the ice after it's been made."

After hearing this, Liu Cainiang smiled and said, "It's not too cold, everyone can still persist."

Xiao Zirong directly blasted people: "Perseverance, what persistence, the little lady can't be frozen! Hurry up, hurry up."

Not only can it not be frozen, but the main reason is that everyone is busy sweating inside, and as a result, the temperature keeps dropping, and it is easy to get sick.

Xiao Zirong had already thought about letting everyone go out when he felt the cold, otherwise he wouldn't have said that he would wait until everyone could see how to make ice.

I have to say that after going out of the cellar, the first thing everyone felt was not the heat but the warmth!

Only at this time did they belatedly realize that the cellar was indeed too cold. You must know that it was midsummer, but those who stayed under the sun for a while would not be able to bear it.

After everyone came out, Xiao Zirong realized that there was another problem that he didn't seem to have considered.