Ren Baqian looked at the iron mountain in front of him. He had some doubts in his heart. Was this really a natural product?
Compared to a mine, Ren Baqian was more willing to believe that this was a huge piece of meteorite.
Unless, billions of years ago, such a huge piece of meteorite fell on the ground. Then, after many years of tectonic movements, the huge basin that should have appeared here became a plain, and this piece of meteorite became Mount Damo.
In Ren Baqian's heart, this was more likely than a natural product.
Otherwise, this iron mountain would be too unusual.
"Can we make a few holes here?" Ren Baqian pointed to the protruding part of the mountain wall above his head and asked Gu Qiong. The hole was the size of a fist and had to be at least one and a half feet deep.
The rock wall began to protrude about three to four meters above Ren Baqian's position.
It should be very difficult to mine at that height.
However, if he were to make a few holes in that area and use explosives, it was very likely that a big piece would be blown off.
After all, he wasn't an expert in explosives. He could only roughly guess where the explosion would be more effective.
"Sir Deputy Prefect, although I don't know what you are planning, but it is indeed impossible to make such a big hole. At most, I can make a hole that is the size of a fist. Any deeper and we have to dig to the side." Gu Qiong said with a troubled look.
Ren Baqian frowned after hearing this. Gu Qiong's words should be true. However, in this case, it would be very difficult for explosives to be of much use.
In this kind of situation, if it was on Earth, there were many ways to think of. For example, using acetylene to cut the rock piece by piece.
However, most of these methods either required electricity or gas tanks. For example, he could only bring one bottle of acetylene at a time. Furthermore, he had to bring it all the way here. Otherwise, based on the road conditions in Dayao, he was afraid that it would blow up halfway.
However, if he brought it here, his secret would be exposed to people other than the empress. This was unacceptable.
"Bring me around Mount Damo to take a look." Ren Baqian pondered for a long time. It was better to take a look at the surrounding situation first. There was still some time before the sky turned dark. At the very least, they could take a look at the situation of the Iron Mountain.
Ren Baqian realized that this mountain was indeed like what he had imagined. It was a gigantic meteorite. The structure of this mountain was completely different from the surrounding land. All the iron ores were gathered on the mountain. Furthermore, there were very few plants growing on the mountain. All the plants were weeds and the like, which were relatively hardy. It was likely that the dust accumulated on the mountain over many years had formed a layer of soil on the surface of the mountain.
On the way back, Tao Jiyuan asked the frowning Ren Baqian, "Sir Ren, do you have any ideas?"
"Hmm? I have an idea, but I still have to try to see if it will work. "Ren Baqian was startled out of his thoughts. He raised his head and glanced at him.
"That's great. Over the years, countless people have tried to find ways to speed up the mining of the iron ore on Mount Damo. They could only use manpower to mine it bit by bit. If Sir Ren has a way, it would definitely be a great contribution," Tao Jiyuan said with a smile on his face.
"In my opinion, rather than mining here, it would be faster to go out and rob," Gu Qiong muttered.
Ren Baqian rolled his eyes. Wasn't this nonsense? Most of the time, robbing was faster than mining and manufacturing. The problem was, was it that easy?
By the time they returned to the camp, the sky was already dark. The convicts and laborers had also returned like a swarm of bees. They surrounded a few big barrels in the middle of the square and waited for the meat soup. However, very few of them spoke. They had been living like this for many years, and there were very few new convicts being sent over.
Ren Baqian could smell the aroma of the meat soup from afar. "The food is good!"
"If they don't eat their fill, they won't have the strength to work. After all, if they don't have enough strength, they won't even be able to chisel a small piece of this Iron Mountain. "
Ren Baqian nodded.
Gu Qiong had already prepared a wooden hut for him. Their dinner was also meat soup, but with some wild vegetables and two rations. Even for Gu Qiong, this was what he usually ate. This place was in the middle of nowhere. Other than the people who delivered the meat, there wasn't anyone else around. It was impossible to get anything else to eat even if he wanted to.
After finishing his meal, Ren Baqian had a good night's rest. When he woke up the next day, he called Gu Qiong and Tao Jiyuan to his room and said, "I have an idea that we should try. Pile a large amount of wood on Mount Damo and then pour water on it. After thermal expansion and contraction, cracks will appear on the metal. This should make it easier to chisel the mountain. "
Although Ren Baqian said this, he wasn't optimistic about this idea. After all, transporting a large amount of wood would require a lot of manpower. Even though it would be easier than now, the efficiency would still be too low if the manpower needed to cut and transport the wood, as well as the time needed to set fire to the mountain and wash it with cold water. It wouldn't be much better than now.
On the other hand, he had another idea. It was to go back and make a large number of mirrors and concave mirrors. He would adjust the angle of the concave mirrors and aim them at the mountain wall. Then, he would use the mirrors to reflect the sunlight onto the concave mirrors.
This way, the metal could be melted into molten iron in a very short period of time through the reflected light from the concave mirrors. After that, it would be much easier to extract and separate the molten iron.
"Thermal expansion and contraction? What does that mean? "Tao Jiyuan didn't know what Ren Baqian was thinking. He was very interested and curious about his idea.
"We can demonstrate it." Ren Baqian pulled everyone out of the house.
"Start a fire first." Ren Baqian gave the order. Gu Qiong immediately called someone to get the wood according to Ren Baqian's instructions.
After a while, a fire was started. Ren Baqian picked up two stones and asked someone to use two iron awls to roast them on the outside of the fire.
The rest of them looked at the instructions and were curious about what he was going to do.
After a while, Ren Baqian estimated that it was about time and asked someone to throw the stones into a bucket of water that was prepared at the side.
First, there were some bubbles. After a few minutes, Ren Baqian reached into the bucket and fished the stones out. There were already a few cracks on them.
Ren Baqian showed the stones to everyone. The rest didn't notice anything wrong, but Tao Jiyuan had a sudden realization and said, "I see."
This was a very normal natural phenomenon. It wasn't that no one had discovered it. It was just that no one had summarized it or investigated the cause. Therefore, there was no concept of thermal expansion and contraction. Furthermore, no one had thought of applying this phenomenon to Mount Damo.
"Why is that?" Tao Jiyuan asked curiously after a sudden realization.
"Because an object will expand after being heated. Even if you can't see it with your eyes, it is still expanding. And when an object is cold, it will contract. If this expansion and contraction situation occurs in a short period of time, such a change will occur. This is not only the case for stones, but also for iron. "
Ren Baqian gave a rough explanation. If he were to talk about molecules, Tao Jiyuan would definitely not understand.
Tao Jiyuan pondered. Gu Qiong widened his eyes and asked, "Sir Ren, are you thinking of burning down Mount Damo?"
"Just burn one place will do." Ren Baqian looked around. Even though there wasn't much vegetation on Mount Damo, there was vegetation on the surrounding mountains.
Ren Baqian asked someone to chop some wood to burn the mountain. Even though the efficiency was still very low, it was worth a try. It would at least speed up the mining process.
When he went back, he would research on how to make a concave mirror. By then, he would be able to completely solve the mining problem of Mount Damo.
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