Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 12 The first kiln successfully produced bricks

On the way, Wang Jiankun only saw a few very old people and a few little kids. He thought that those people were now working in the kiln factory.

When we arrived at the kiln factory, we saw at least 200 people there, including more than 30 children.

The largest number of people are mixing mud and making bricks. Almost all the children are mixing mud.

There were more than 30 people chopping wood and carrying mud, and everything looked very organized.

It seems that my father has good management skills. He can keep so many people busy but not chaotic. I should learn from him.

At this time, my father, grandfather and several team cadres were discussing something at the kiln entrance. When they saw Wang Jiankun coming, they quickly called him over.

It turned out that they were discussing how to put the bricks into the kiln, because the kiln designed by Wang Jiankun was different from the previous small earth kiln and the yurt kiln in Fengshan.

Now the kiln is shaped like a long steamed bun, with entrances at both ends and two very tall chimneys on each side.

This design has two advantages. The first is that it can burn a large amount of firewood at one time. The second is that it burns quickly and the utilization rate of firewood is high.

Because it is a semi-lying long strip, the space utilization rate is large and 1 bricks or 5 tiles can be burned at one time.

Several fire channels and smoke ducts are designed in the middle, so the utilization rate of firewood is high. These have been simulated and calculated by Zhizi, so there will not be too much deviation.

Wang Jiankun came to the kiln entrance, greeted his grandfather, father and team cadres, and said, "I will guide you on how to place the bricks and firewood in the first kiln. Please find a few smart people to learn how to place them. In the future, we will follow today's standards."

So my father called a few young people over to the place where he was making bricks and collecting firewood.

Tell them that today they will learn how to stack bricks and firewood from Wang Jiankun, and if they learn well they will specialize in this job in the future.

Several people were very happy after hearing this, because it meant that their work points were guaranteed and they would not have to work for a while and then take a break.

Wang Jiankun came up to the few people, took out the layout drawings, and explained the functions of each part in the kiln and what should be placed there.

After everyone understood, he began to instruct them to place the bricks one by one. After placing a section of bricks, he switched to putting in firewood.

I stacked them one section at a time like this, and finally finished stacking them around noon.

The next step is to light the fire and start cooking.

Although it is a purely handmade team-run factory, the necessary sense of ceremony is still there.

Grandpa had already arranged the gongs, drums, suona, etc. when the bricks were put into the kiln just now. He also built a small platform with wood on the spot and put flags on the side.

Although it is simple, the atmosphere is livened up when the sounds of gongs, drums and suona sound and the flags flutter in the wind.

All the team cadres came on the stage, and the team leader announced that the Wangjia Kiln Factory was officially established today, and team members could enjoy a 2% discount on the factory price when buying bricks and tiles to build houses.

When the team members heard this policy, they cheered.

The weather was hot, so my grandfather didn't say much. He just reiterated the policy he had drafted earlier and then took the prepared torch and lit it.

The fire spread along the fire path, and seeing that the four chimneys began to smoke, Wang Jiankun directed the people who had just placed the bricks to start closing the kiln door, leaving only the six air inlets around it unsealed.

Several young people were divided into two groups to go back for dinner. It was expected that three of the six air intakes would be sealed after two hours, and all the air intakes would be sealed after four hours.

Wang Jiankun looked at the smoke coming out of the chimney. It was a light white color, indicating that the combustion was very complete and the temperature in the kiln was rising quickly.

He didn't stay long, and went home with his grandfather and father to eat, and then come back to observe before sealing the air intake.

We started eating as soon as we got home. There was a big plate of fried pork with red peppers, and all the buns we bought in the morning were steamed hot, which made people drool.

My sister couldn't wait any longer. When she saw the three of them coming in, she shouted, "It's time to eat."

My sister is well-educated and doesn't pick up food first because she is greedy.

The third uncle was also hungry, so he washed his hands and face, then went to the table, picked up his bowl and started eating.

After seeing Wang Jiankun eat half a bowl of rice, his mother asked him to tell her what he had not finished saying that morning.

So Wang Jiankun didn't keep the secret and told his family how he made more than 4 yuan by selling air guns and bullets to others in the blacksmith shop a few days ago, and that he had orders for at least 10 more guns and was planning to make a clock.

When his family heard that he had earned so much money, they were a little bit unbelievable. When they heard that he could earn at least another 1 yuan, they stopped eating.

The younger sister heard this and asked, "Brother, you make so much money, can you buy me 20 White Rabbit candies?"

"Don't interrupt, just eat. Hurry up and eat your meal," said the mother.

Both his father and grandmother were a little worried and asked Wang Jiankun to stop selling air guns.

Because this matter is difficult to define, in the past few years, individuals were strictly prohibited from doing business and speculation was cracked down on.

It was only in the last three years that the restrictions were relaxed and hawkers began to walk the streets with their goods on their shoulders, selling needles and thread and collecting agricultural products.

Grandpa didn't object and asked Wang Jiankun what he thought.

Wang Jiankun said: "The country has officially proposed reform and opening up. Big cities have begun to allow individual businesses to exist and issue business licenses to them. So it should be no problem for me to sell some of the air guns I made a few days ago. Now there are too many orders, and I am afraid that Master Quan and others will be jealous."

Grandpa asked, "Can you make it yourself at home?"

"No, it's not worth it to do it at home. You need to buy a lot of tools such as a crucible furnace, a calcining furnace, molding sand, a frame, etc. There is no way to buy iron and coal. The orders for air guns are only for this wave of rich families. They won't always be there."

"In this case, it would be better to do it with Master Quan. Do you have any idea?"

"I did think of one thing, which is to use the clock manufacturing method to stabilize Master Quan and his team, and give some of the profits from the air gun to him and Cheng Hongbing who introduced the order."

"Since you have come up with a solution, let's do it according to your idea. Don't make all the air guns at once. Make them separately so that there won't be any holes. I'll ask your father to go to Fengshan every day. You can ask him to bring back the money from the sales first. Don't keep too much money with you."

"Okay, I'll listen to Grandpa. I'll make three air rifles every day. I'll assemble the clock when I get home the day after tomorrow and let Master Quan take it and see if it can be sold. If it can be sold and the feedback is good, I won't have to pay him the profit from the air rifles. Maybe he'll even give me technical guidance fees."

After dinner, the family went to rest. Wang Jiankun took the time to check how his sister did on her exercises, and asked Chieko to analyze the answers to the exercises. He then gave her more than ten sets of questions.

Wang Jiankun did not stop writing immediately, but took a rest first.

After lunch break, Wang Jiankun went to the kiln factory to check on the kiln firing situation, and used his superpowers to observe the interior. He found that it was still consistent with the state simulated by the sophon, so he closed the air intake according to the plan.

During this period, I visited the place where bricks were made and found that the efficiency of one person was still relatively low.

From digging mud and screening to mixing mud and making bricks, on average a strong laborer can only make 100 bricks a day.

Fortunately, it is the off-season now, otherwise the speed of brick making cannot keep up with the speed of kiln firing. It seems that we need to improve this efficiency in the future.

Wang Jiankun did nothing else in the afternoon but thinking about how to design a brick-making machine.

Should we use animal power first or directly use a motor, and should we use a steam locomotive, a diesel engine, or a gasoline engine?

Several plans were simulated using Zhizi, and after taking the current capacity of the production team into consideration, only animal power or pot-camel machines were the most suitable.

Because diesel and gasoline are hard to buy, and maintenance is troublesome if they break down.

However, Wang Jiankun had never seen the real pot-carrying machine. He had only seen the schematic diagram in a borrowed book.

It is possible to manufacture according to the schematic diagram, but you need to make several trials. If you have a physical reference, you can copy it first and then improve it.

After the four air inlets were closed, the smoke from the chimney was slowly decreasing. Wang Jiankun used his ability to explore the interior again and found that the firewood had been completely burned, leaving only charcoal fire, and most of the elements inside the bricks were tightly combined. It seemed that the bricks in the kiln were successfully fired.

Once it cools down to room temperature, you can open the kiln and take out the bricks. It only takes about one night to cool down.

In the evening, Wang Jiankun talked to his grandfather about using animal power instead of human power to make bricks.

My grandfather said it was not worth it because it was difficult to buy cows nowadays and even if you wanted to buy one, it was very expensive.

Moreover, if cows work every day, it is not enough to just eat grass. They also need to be fed with grain. According to Wang Jiankun, one cow can be equivalent to about five laborers, which is not cost-effective.

Wang Jiankun forgot that cows need to be fed concentrated feed in order to work every day, so using animal power is not feasible. He can only find a way to make a pot-carrying machine.

So he asked his grandfather and father where this machine could be found, as he wanted to go and see it.

My father said, "There seems to be a pot-carrying machine among the team that is currently repairing the road in Tuokou. It is the kind of machine you mentioned that can burn coal or wood. There are several machines over there that are used to drive trailers to transport stones."

Wang Jiankun said: "Then I will find some time to see if I can build a similar machine and use it as power to make bricks and tiles."

My family members asked, "Can you do it? Nowadays, it's pretty fast to do it manually. If you're not sure, don't do it. Studying is more important."

Wang Jiankun said he was very confident, he had already taught himself high school courses and some university knowledge, and told him about how he borrowed books from Cheng Hongbing.

His family was very happy to hear that he could learn so much knowledge by himself, so they stopped trying to stop him from making the pot-carrying machine.

My grandfather also said that he would go to Master Quan in a few days to talk to him about their friendship and ask him to support Wang Jiankun.

The next morning, Wang Jiankun went to the kiln factory with his father and grandfather.

Under the watchful eyes of the entire team, he opened the kiln entrance together with several young men in charge of stacking bricks and firing the kiln.

At this time, a heat wave rushed out from the kiln mouth. Several people squinted their eyes. When the heat wave disappeared, several people went in with winnowing baskets and loaded up a load of bricks.

Team leaders came forward one after another to ask: "Did the bricks burn successfully? Can they be used?"

Wang Jiankun asked everyone to take a few bricks and knock on them.

Everyone came forward one by one, picked up the bricks, looked at them, knocked them and listened to the sound. They found that they could not be broken even if they knocked hard, and there was no mud falling off the surface, which meant that the bricks were successfully fired.

The team members surrounding outside cheered. Everyone had been busy in the kiln factory these days. Now that they had successfully produced bricks, they were all very happy. There was hope for building a house.

My father arranged for the young and strong ones to go down and carry out the bricks, while the others still had to try their best to make bricks, chop wood and do other work.

After this batch of bricks comes out of the kiln in the morning, the bricks can be stacked and fired again in the afternoon.

According to the current ideal progress, we should be able to produce two kilns of bricks in three days, but we may have to wait for the brick blanks after a few days.

After finishing the work, Wang Jiankun went home. He had to finish the exercises he had prepared for his sister, which would probably take the whole morning.

As I was writing, I felt that this was not a good way to waste my time. Why shouldn't I use my superpowers? I can mobilize so many elements every day anyway, and I have nowhere else to use them. I might as well use my superpowers to solve the exercises first.

He did it as soon as he thought of it. Under Wang Jiankun's control, the pencil lead turned into powder and fell little by little on the blank exercise book. The falling points gradually formed words and patterns.

It only took a few minutes to finish more than ten sets of questions. My speed is really amazing. Why didn’t I think of it last time?

It seems that I haven’t used superpowers much recently and haven’t thought about this. It seems that I still need to develop more superpowers. There are still many application scenarios.

After giving the exercises to his mother and asking her to urge his sister to do them, Wang Jiankun ran to the back mountain with the air gun.

On the way, he met several groups of people who were cutting firewood for the kiln. When they saw him holding a gun, they greeted him and pointed out which hill nearby might have deer or rabbits.

Following the instructions of the team members, Wang Jiankun came to a place where beans had been planted after being reclaimed.

Following the method of watching animal tracks taught by my grandfather, I found a few paths often walked by rabbits and waited in the distance.

After a long while, when I was about to get up and leave, two rabbits came running over from a distance.

Wang Jiankun waited until the rabbit started eating the bean sprouts and then shot and killed one.

At this time, the other one heard the sound of its companion falling to the ground, and pricked up its ears in alertness. Wang Jiankun carefully pressed the air cylinder again and fired another shot. The rabbit in the distance fell to the ground and trembled.

Wang Jiankun hurried over and twisted the straw into a rope to tie up the two rabbits.

After weighing them, they both weighed about 4 kilograms.

The harvest was good. It seems that this air gun is still very effective in shooting small animals, and the wound is smaller than that of rifles and shotguns. It seems that Cheng Hongbing can get so many orders thanks to the ease of use and practicality of this gun.

Wang Jiankun carried the two rabbits home. When his grandfather saw Wang Jiankun bringing back the two rabbits, he asked him how he did it.

After Wang Jiankun described it, his grandfather also found that the gun was quite useful.

Let Wang Jiankun leave one for his family so that he and his father can go and hunt some small animals to improve their lives.

He took the two rabbits, skinned them, propped them up with bamboo and put them in a cool place to dry, and asked his mother and grandmother to clean up the rabbits.

At noon, the family had a delicious meal of fried rabbit meat with peppers.

In the afternoon, Wang Jiankun continued to guide the placement of bricks and firewood. This time he just watched from the side. He only pointed out when he found something wrong and asked them to correct it, because they would have to rely on themselves afterwards and he had to get out of this.

In the evening, Wang Jiankun told his family about going to Fengshan the next day. Since it was not his first time, his family members were relieved. In two days, his father would also go there and bring back the money from selling the gun.

(End of this chapter)