Liu Song Hanque

Chapter 73 Failure, but not a failure

Tongchuan is not far from Chang'an, and the men sent by Liu Yizhen found scattered coal the next day.

On the third day, the location of the coal mine was locked.

It is still an open-pit mine, which can reduce mining costs.

After personal testing, Liu Yizhen also confirmed that the quality of the coal here is excellent and can be used for firing kilns.

With the coal and the knowledge in Liu Yizhen's mind, an improved brick kiln was soon freshly baked.

Next comes the test.

A common way to test the temperature is to put a number of cones made of china clay near the observation port in the kiln, with a pointed end and a round bottom, called Huozhao.

When the fire is exposed to high temperature, it will turn red and soften, and bend down.Take out one with iron tongs every once in a while, and see how soft it is, and you can judge the approximate temperature.

After the craftsmen of the brick kiln blow the coal powder up with a blower, the strong burning sensation makes all the craftsmen feel a sense of relief.

And when the craftsman took out the torch, it made all the knowledgeable craftsmen gasp.

This is an unprecedented height!
The temperature in the kiln is at least several hundred degrees higher than when burning with charcoal.

Don't underestimate these hundreds of degrees, every degree in it is a spark that ignites the torch of civilization.

Immediately, some craftsmen found some newly made brick embryos for firing.

The blue bricks fired this time are delicate, round and shiny, even in the period of the Qin Dynasty when the quality requirements were extremely abnormal, they could still be regarded as a high-quality brick.

A craftsman held the blue brick as a rare treasure, and Wang Maide, who had been with Liu Yizhen for the past few days, looked at Liu Yizhen with strange eyes.

Liu Yizhen can not only draw the "Chang'an Map", but also improve the brick kiln in a few strokes. This is no longer a genius, but a monster.

Reminiscent of the rumors about the "natural sage" that the monk said in Chang'an, Wang Maide also began to wonder if Liu Yizhen was really the legendary "natural sage"?
After thinking about it, Wang Maide asked tentatively: "Mr. Chang'an, there is actually one more thing."

"Say."

"Even if the current budget is still a bit too high, is there any way to reduce it?"

Liu Yizhen looked at Wang Maide helplessly.

Still less?

If it is reduced further, it will really not be called Xiucheng.

And that doesn't have the meaning of training the people in Guanzhong.

Rubbing his temples, Liu Yizhen asked, "Where else is more expensive now?"

"It's just wood and glutinous rice pulp."

Timber is the most important raw material for building a house, and Liu Yizhen can't do anything about it.

But glutinous rice milk...

Liu Yizhen thought of something——

cement.

The earliest cement was born in ancient Rome. Its production method is to add quicklime and volcanic ash. The volcanic ash contains silicate. After adding water, it will form slaked lime and silicate. After a long time of reaction, it can be Form high hardness calcium silicate hydrate.

It seems easy, but very fine powdered volcanic ash is not so easy to get.

What's more, the volcanic groups in Huaxia are basically concentrated in the northeast and Yunnan. It is completely difficult to get volcanic ash on a large scale in Liu Yizhen's Guanzhong.

In addition, the drying technology of cement is also a difficult problem.

It is definitely not possible to dry naturally, so a boiling furnace is needed.

This technical difficulty is quite high, and Liu Yizhen is not sure if it can be done.

"Let me try."

Seeing that Liu Yizhen really had a plan, Wang Maide's expression became extremely exciting.

"Mr. Chang'an really has a solution?"

"This is really not guaranteed."

Cement is a low-end industrial product in future generations, but it will kill Liu Yizhen now.

In terms of raw materials, quicklime is not difficult to find. There is not much volcanic ash, but there is still a small amount. After collecting all the things, Liu Yizhen began to conduct experiments.

The first is high-temperature calcination. Only under high temperature conditions can the calcium in the limestone and the silicon in the clay form calcium silicate.

Fortunately, Liu Yizhen improved the kiln, otherwise the old version of the kiln would never be able to meet the temperature requirements.

This step alone is burning again and again, making Liu Yizhen almost want to give up.

Fortunately, it was finally completed under the superb skills of the craftsmen!
But the next step is completely impossible.

Because it is an impossible task in this era to make calcium silicate into ultrafine powder.

Without the help of large-scale machinery, it is impossible to complete the work by hand or the water wheel that Liu Yizhen has just improved.

Helpless, Liu Yizhen had no choice but to give up the choice of cement.

But there is no unparalleled road. Although cement cannot be made, there is still a by-product when the cement is fired just now.

That is slaked lime.

The advantage of cement as a binder is that it makes the building rigid.

And slaked lime can only be used as a simple adhesive, and has no reinforcing effect. Even if it does, it will only react with carbon dioxide in the air to form calcium carbonate, and the hardness is really not very good.

But now it seems that there is no need to build a city to the extent that even artillery can't get in...

Liu Yizhen suddenly understood.

I am too greedy!

What cement!
Do we need to make concrete if we have cement?Is it necessary to make steel bars to make concrete?
It's easy to get caught in a big step, not only in policy, but also in technology.

Why can Helian Bobo and Tuoba Tao bombard Chang'an with artillery in the future?

Use slaked lime and it will do the trick!

The production method of this thing is much simpler, as long as the raw materials are sufficient, it can be produced at no cost.

When Liu Yizhen made the slaked lime and put it in front of Wang Maide, Wang Maide felt that his legs were weak.

What else can Liu Yizhen not do?
Wang Maide felt that his structure was small.

What kind of saint is Liu Yizhen, he is obviously a divine beast that responds to requests!
Wang Maide immediately asked Liu Yizhen:

"Mr. Chang'an, Mr. Chang'an, some wood is too thin, can you make it bigger?"

"Also! Mr. Chang'an, can you get some more money? Or do you have any tricks to turn stones into gold?"

"By the way, does Lord Chang'an have a way to connect people's severed fingers? I saw a commoner accidentally cut off his finger before. It was miserable."

"Mr. Chang'an..."

Liu Yi was really stupid.

Is Wang Maide crazy?

Does he know what he's talking about?

The wood gets bigger.

Midas touch.

Severed finger rebirth.

You fucking kill me!

Liu Yizhen felt that Wang Maide began to have a strange misunderstanding of himself, and immediately escaped from him and went back to Chang'an alone.

"What Wang Xiu said before is correct. I can't hide my excellent nature at all."

Liu Yizhen, who was riding on Mian Mian, was extremely tired at this time.

(End of this chapter)