It was time for the first batch of bricks to be fired in the kiln. A large group of craftsmen were walking towards the top of the kiln. There were many large vats filled with water and many wooden barrels. Their task was to pour cold water into the kiln from the top of the kiln. This would cool down the high-temperature bricks and make it easier to move them.
"Ci ci ci …"
When the barrels of cold water were poured into the kiln, a crisp sound was heard. At the same time, a large amount of white smoke was emitted from various parts of the kiln. The entire kiln was shrouded in white smoke.
This white smoke was, of course, water vapor. When the cold water met the high-temperature bricks, it instantly vaporized. At the same time, it also took away a large amount of heat from the bricks. This allowed the bricks to cool down faster.
"How spectacular! I haven't seen such a scene for a long time. "
Ang Lee sighed happily.
The subordinate behind him said, "It will only take 15 minutes for the fog to disperse, and the craftsmen will be able to transport the bricks out."
Ang Lee nodded and stepped down from the arrow tower. He was ready to enter the kiln at any time. Although there was nothing to see in the kiln, he had to experience it personally to better understand the kiln.
15 minutes passed quickly. The violently rising water vapor also became indistinct. However, as long as one was close to the kiln, they could still feel a heat wave. It was just that it was not as strong.
"The bricks have cooled down. Everyone, go in and move the bricks."
The person in charge ordered loudly.
The craftsmen who were responsible for watering and cooling the bricks all came down. They put on coarse cloth gloves and prepared to move the bricks.
"Okay, everyone, go in."
Under the lead of the person in charge, more than 30 craftsmen stepped into the kiln. In order to increase the capacity, they also pushed seven or eight small flatbed carts.
Ang Lee and his entourage followed behind. However, they were not there to help. They were there to experience life.
After entering the brick kiln, they found that it was really hot inside. Although it was still bearable, it was very uncomfortable. The temperature inside still exceeded the comfort level of the human body, making people feel very uncomfortable. Moreover, the deeper they went, the higher the temperature became. There was also a small amount of white mist above their heads. If they listened carefully, they could hear the sizzling sound of the bricks being cooled down.
The craftsmen dispersed to different kilns to move the bricks, and placed them neatly on small flatbed carts. After that, they still needed to place them neatly at the designated location outside.
Because the bricks were not evenly watered with cold water, there was a small amount of water on top of the bricks. When the craftsmen touched the bricks, a small amount of water would flow to the bottom of the bricks. Thus, when the water touched the parts of the bricks that were relatively hot, a loud sizzling sound would be heard.
As the craftsmen continued to move the bricks, loud sizzling sounds continued to be emitted from the kilns, making people feel that the kilns in front of them were boiling hot.
Ang Lee stepped forward and personally took the bricks.
"Assistant Minister Li, be careful. The bricks are very hot."
The person in charge stopped and hurriedly said.
Li An did not mind. He took a piece of brick that had been fired and held it in his hand.
This was a piece of completely baked green brick. The mud was well made, and the brick was very smooth. It was still hot, and it was fine for a short period of time. However, if he held it in his hand for a long time, his fingers would feel very painful, a kind of deep burning pain.
Ang Lee threw the brick on the small flatbed cart, gently dusted his hands, and continued to watch the craftsmen work.
"How many bricks can be fired here at one time?"
Ang Lee glanced at it and already knew most of it. However, in order to determine the final number, he still had to ask.
"Replying to Assistant Minister Li, there are a total of 25 kilns here. Each kiln can put two square blocks of bricks, so there are a total of 50 square blocks. Each square block has 512 bricks, so there are a total of 25,600 bricks."
The person in charge answered seriously.
Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction and said, "Not bad, that's a lot! However, the output is still too little. It's not enough! "
"Assistant Minister Li, we have too little manpower. We can't increase it even if we want to!"
The person in charge complained.
After all, such a big brick kiln only had a little more than a hundred people. Human resources were indeed tight. It was not realistic to increase the output on a large scale.
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said, "I don't mean to blame you. It's not realistic to increase the output with insufficient manpower. However, the demand for bricks in the future will be huge. The output is far from enough. I will find a way to recruit more manpower. At the same time, the scale of the brick factory also needs to be expanded. It needs to be done step by step."
In order to build a large number of brick and wood houses, bricks and wood were the two building materials that were the most used. These two building materials were absolutely indispensable.
After walking out of the brick kiln and breathing in the fresh air outside, Ang Lee felt comfortable all over. The environment inside was really too miserable. Not only was the temperature unbearable, but the air quality was also very bad. Unless it was absolutely necessary, no one would be willing to work in such an environment.
The place where the baked bricks were placed was about three hundred steps away from the entrance of the brick kiln. It was not very far, but it was also not close at all. Therefore, they had to use small handcarts. If they used manpower to transport them, the efficiency would be too low.
Seven or eight small handcarts were used to transport the bricks back and forth. Each cart could carry three to five people. They could transport one square meter of bricks at a time. 50 square meters of bricks was enough for them to transport.
After a full two hours, the 30 craftsmen successfully transported all 50 square meters of bricks to the designated location.
However, they could only rest for a moment. After that, they had to transport the 50 square meters of adobe into the brick kiln to start a new round of firing.
These guys were really exhausted. When they heard that they could rest for a moment, they all sat down on the ground. Some even directly lay down on the handcarts and closed their eyes to enjoy a moment of comfort.
"Get up and start working."
The person in charge shouted loudly.
These craftsmen who had just rested for a moment had to get up and work after hearing the order. It could be seen that these guys did not want to work at all. All of them stretched their necks and stretched. They still wanted to continue to rest for a while. After all, they had worked for such a long time. It was really too tiring.
However, Ang Lee had just stated that the construction of the port required a lot of bricks. Therefore, the brick-making could not be delayed for a moment. They had to achieve the highest utilization rate of the brick kiln.
Therefore, these craftsmen had to get up and work immediately. After putting all 50 square meters of adobe into the brick kiln, they could rest again. This time, they could rest for a little longer. After all, the intensity of the work was too high. A little rest was also indispensable.
In addition to the one-third of the craftsmen who were transporting the bricks, the rest were mixing mud and making the adobe. Mixing mud and making adobe did not require much skill. They could be learned with a little learning. However, it was also quite tiring. Moreover, it was difficult to improve the manufacturing speed quickly.
According to the standard brick-making process, the excavated soil had to be dried for a few months to let the soil mature. Then, the adobe could be made. However, Ang Lee was waiting to use it. He did not have to follow these rules. Anyway, the requirements for the bricks were not high. As long as they were not too good, the quality requirements were not that high. Therefore, he could make the adobe with mud after a day of drying.
There were two ways to make the adobe. One was to make the bricks one by one. The size of the abrasive tool was the size of a brick. You just had to put the soil in it.
The other method was to make a large abrasive tool that could be used to put a large amount of soil into. The bricks produced would also be large, but small tools such as iron wires could be used to precisely cut the huge mud billet. In the end, many mud billets would be cut out in one go.
The second method could greatly increase the speed of making blanks and reduce the labor intensity of the craftsmen. However, this method had a higher requirement on the craftsmen's personal ability. If the cutting was off, the resulting blanks would be different in size and thickness.
In Li An's previous life, he would often see bricks of different thicknesses and sizes. This was because the craftsmen in charge of cutting the bricks were too lousy. They were always unable to cut the bricks accurately, resulting in such a phenomenon. This seriously affected the usage of the bricks, causing the bricklayers who encountered such a situation to constantly curse.
Because they knew that some craftsmen were not skilled, and some craftsmen were experienced, this brick kiln adopted two methods at the same time.
The old craftsmen used the iron wire cutting method, and the new rookies could only honestly make the adobe one by one.
This effect was inevitably that the efficiency of the old craftsmen was far superior to the new craftsmen. Naturally, the income of the old craftsmen would be higher than the new craftsmen.
The new craftsmen couldn't help but be convinced. Who asked their skills to be poor? If they also had the ability, they could also come and do this.
According to the different requirements for the bricks, the firing time of the bricks could also be flexible. For example, Ang Lee required that the green bricks in the kiln be fired for a day and a night. This time was enough to turn the adobe into a hard brick. As for the quality and the hardness of the brick, Ang Lee didn't consider it. It was enough. As long as the brick could meet the requirements, it was a successful brick.
The desire for high wages made the craftsmen with poor skills itch in their hearts. When they were working, from time to time, they would look at how the old craftsmen cut and try their best to practice. Every new craftsmen would take time out every day to practice. In the end, they would completely eliminate the stupid method of making a single adobe.
After looking at the location of the adobe, Ang Lee brought people to the firing place. At this moment, five or six craftsmen were busy moving firewood. They had to get the firewood in place before the craftsmen who were moving the bricks. In this way, when the fifty cubic meters of adobe were all in place, they could immediately start the fire and start firing the bricks.
Ang Lee glanced at it. The fuel for firing the red bricks was very common firewood. These firewood were all small trees or the side branches and twigs of big trees. The cost was very low, and it wasn't even considered a cost. After all, there were many trees near the brick factory. Simply cutting some branches and drying them could be used as fuel.
However, this was temporary. With the continuous firing of bricks and the need to expand the scale in the future, the demand for fuel would be higher and higher. It would be difficult to meet the demand simply by cutting branches from nearby areas. Moreover, this would seriously waste the craftsmen's resources and reduce the output of bricks.
Therefore, in order to avoid the situation of insufficient fuel, a large amount of firewood had to be transported from other places. The villages that Ang Lee had visited before had already set off a fad of cutting trees. A large number of villagers cut down trees day and night and sold the trunks to the Tang dynasty. The remaining branches were not of much value, and the local villagers could not use them up as firewood. The Tang dynasty would send troops to fetch them, and the local people would not have any objections. After all, they had already made a lot of money.
Ang Lee knew how much firewood was needed to fire bricks. If the firewood supply was not enough, the progress of brick firing would be seriously delayed.
Before noon, Ang Lee returned to his residence and had a meal first. Then, he led his people to the village where the felling of trees was popular. In addition to the guards, he also dispatched a transport team of 200 people. Each carriage had three people, so there was a total of 50 carriages. The remaining 50 people were responsible for guarding.
It was already afternoon when the team arrived at the village, but the sky was still very bright.
From a distance, they could see the arrow tower at the entrance of the village and a large number of tree trunks piled up together. Of course, there were also a large number of villagers and Tang dynasty soldiers, as well as a group of naughty children who had nothing to do.
These tree trunks were bought by the Tang dynasty, and the port was in urgent need of these materials. At the same time, the open space at the entrance of the village was almost full, so they must be transported back as soon as possible to support the construction of the port.
"Immediately transport all these wood back."
Ang Lee gave the order.
The 200 soldiers of the transport team, including the guards, were all busy to transport all the wood as soon as possible.
At this time, the soldiers of the Tang dynasty were busy transporting the wood, while the villagers transported the newly felled wood to the entrance of the village and continued to sell it to the Tang dynasty.
The transport capacity of a carriage was much higher than that of a small carriage, but even so, the transport capacity was limited. With so much wood piled up at the entrance of the village, it was impossible to not transport it several times. Fortunately, the distance was not very far, so it was not a big deal to transport it several times.
In addition to the demand for wood, the Tang dynasty also needed enough firewood. These firewood were the side branches left after the felling of trees. Now, most of these side branches were scattered in the nearby mountains and forests. If the Tang dynasty's transport team searched everywhere, it would be too much of a waste of energy and the transport efficiency would be greatly reduced. Therefore, they had to find someone to help transport all these side branches to the entrance of the village.
The villagers were busy cutting trees to make money. If they were asked to transport the side branches, no one would be willing to do it if they were not paid. Moreover, this would delay them from cutting the trees. If the payment was lower than the price of cutting the trees, they would not be willing to do it.
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