The next morning, Ren Baqian went out to meet up with Tong Zhenye, Feng Hou, and Zhe Hongbo from the Department of Ordnance. The group of people, along with their guards, went straight to the east of the city.
Ren Baqian rode the fork-horned cow, the most common mount on the plains of Dayao. From time to time, it would twist its buttocks as if there were nails below it. This thing was indeed uncomfortable to ride and was much worse than the mountain-gazing bird.
However, riding the mountain-gazing bird in the crowd required a lot of courage. Not to mention the deja vu of a BMW riding on an Alto, the faint but pungent smell was enough to push most people far away.
This was the first time Ren Baqian walked in the direction of the east gate of Lan City. After leaving the east gate and walking for two incense sticks, he turned north for an hour and saw a small hill. From afar, he could see black smoke rising from it. When he got closer, he saw a wall that was as tall as a person surrounded by rocks. Right in front of it was a cold and cheerless gate. This was Jingtian Furnace.
The iron ore from Mount Liucui would usually be smelted in the small town outside the mountain before being transported here like the iron ore from Mount Damo.
When the guard saw them from afar, he opened the gate. After everyone entered, they saw a large open space with scattered piles of iron ore, copper ore, and a large pile of dried firewood.
The ores that Ren Baqian saw at the Ministry of Works yesterday were also transported here and piled up in piles at the side. Someone was crushing them.
A few fierce-looking burly men first placed the limestone ore on a metal plate. Then, with a slap, it immediately turned into a pile of small fragments. After a while, a pile of gravel appeared on the metal plate. Then, someone transported it to the other metal plate. A huge stone roller was placed on top of the metal plate. It was similar to the roller in front of a road roller. Two people, one on the left and one on the right, pushed the huge stone roller forward, turning the gravel into a pile of even smaller gravel. Then, they pushed it back.
After a few times, there was a piece of stone powder and a small amount of slag on the metal plate. Then, someone took it to the side and used a sieve to sift out the powder.
When everyone turned their heads to look at them, the people from the Ministry of Works hurriedly came out to greet them and lead them inside.
Rather than calling it an earthen kiln, it would be more accurate to say that it was a cylinder made of mud. It had a diameter of two meters and a height of three meters. After placing the iron ore inside, a large amount of firewood was placed inside to melt it. The speed was very slow, and a relatively rare kind of firewood called burning wood was needed to push the temperature to the point where the iron could be melted.
Then the molten iron would flow out through a trough at the bottom.
The iron obtained in this way was very soft and contained a lot of impurities. It also required a blacksmith to beat the impurities out after heating it up for a long time.
It could be said that this method of smelting and forging iron was quite inefficient. Not only was it time-consuming, but it also consumed a lot of firewood.
As Ren Baqian walked, he listened to the official from the Ministry of Works explaining the process here and nodded to show that he understood.
However, as Ren Baqian walked in, he saw a few furnaces with huge boxes that were as tall as a person placed beside them. Someone was constantly pushing the boxes into the furnaces.
It was the bellows that Ren Baqian and Feng Hou had mentioned previously.
"With this bellows, the temperature in the furnace has increased significantly and the speed of smelting iron has also increased. I still have to thank Deputy Prefect Ren, "Feng Hou nodded and said to Ren Baqian.
The official from the Ministry of Works looked at Ren Baqian after hearing this. From Feng Hou's words, he could tell that this blower was suggested by him?
"When will the other bellows be ready?" Feng Hou asked the official from the Ministry of Works.
"They will be ready in two days," the official quickly replied.
"Have the raw materials for the cement been prepared according to the proportion?" Ren Baqian asked Tong Zhenye. Tong Zhenye looked at Feng Hou, Feng Hou looked at Zhe Hongbo, and Zhe Hongbo looked at the official.
"Sir, are these the stones that were delivered yesterday? They have been prepared according to the instructions, "the official quickly replied.
Ren Baqian looked at the few of them and saw them looking at one another. He felt that he might as well have asked this official from the start.
"How should I address you?"
"Sir Deputy Prefect, I am the supervisor of Jingtian Furnaces. You can call me Tie Mu. If you have any questions, you can ask me," Tie Mu cupped his fists and said. The husband chosen by the empress was the only one in the imperial court who wasn't an aboriginal. Anyone could recognize him.
Needless to say, he was an official in Lan City.
"Bring the raw materials for the cement over." Ren Baqian nodded and said, "Let's see what the results are."
Following which, someone brought the raw cement powder over. Ren Baqian took a look and saw that it was filled with the sifted powder.
After that, he found an empty furnace and added firewood to it. Then, he filled a hollow pillar made of clay with small holes with cement and placed it into the empty furnace. After a while, thick smoke rose from the top of the clay furnace and spread in all directions. Everyone retreated to a distance to watch.
In order to make the temperature meet Ren Baqian's requirements, there was another person in the thick smoke who was covering his nose and blowing the bellows. He coughed from time to time and was replaced by someone else.
"How long do we need to burn this?" Tong Zhenye asked.
"It shouldn't take too long. It will be fine as long as the temperature is met." Ren Baqian wasn't too sure either. The information he obtained only mentioned what happened to the cement at a certain temperature, but it didn't say how long it would take.
"Let's try to make bricks," Ren Baqian said as he looked at the surrounding empty clay furnaces.
Originally, he was going to build a brick furnace after the cement was burned. However, looking at this clay furnace now, Ren Baqian felt that he could give it a try. In any case, he had nothing to do.
They had already retrieved the clay for some time. Even though it wasn't dried, it had been weathered for a long time and should be enough to make bricks.
Following which, the craftsmen of Jingtian Furnace followed his instructions and poured the clay powder into the trough. Then, they stirred it into a mud-like state. Following which, they kneaded out pieces of brick embryos and placed them around the walls of the clay furnace. After which, they added wood to the middle and started to calcine it.
"I'm afraid this will take about ten days to burn. Don't cut off the fire in the middle," Ren Baqian said to Tie Mu. Tie Mu promptly noted it down.
Up until now, he still didn't know what these big shots wanted to do with the clay. In any case, they would do as they instructed. Currently, there was nothing much to do in Jingtian Furnace and it would be idle for at least half a month.
The firing of the cement was very fast. Before the sky turned dark, the fire was extinguished and the temperature was lowered rapidly. Then, they took out the clay jar and poured the cement on the ground. Originally, it had already been sintered into lumps. When it fell to the ground, it broke into small pieces.
Everyone looked at Ren Baqian. Was this the cement that was similar to stone that he mentioned?
Ren Baqian squatted beside that pile of clinker and used his hand to grab a handful of it. In his hand, there were some glass-like crystals that were sintered at a high temperature just now.
"Eh? This is a gem? "Feng Hou was astonished at first. Following which, he revealed an expression as if he had discovered a huge secret.
When it was sent in just now, it was clearly clay. How could there be gems in it after it came out? Even though it was very small and fragmented and wasn't worth much, it was still a gem. It was much more valuable than this clay.
Even though it didn't turn into stone like what Ren Baqian said, if it could produce gems from the clay, it would still be a big step forward.
But immediately, everyone's imagination started to run wild.
Where was this clay dug from? Tomorrow, they would send someone to dig the clay.
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