From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 159 Big Reward
The charcoal kiln was completed on February 1662, 2.

The size of this charcoal kiln cannot be compared with the abandoned charcoal kiln at Chen Zhou’s grandmother’s house, but it can produce several hundred kilograms or even nearly a thousand kilograms of charcoal each time. Not to mention supplying him with forging practice, it is more than enough for firing porcelain.

Of course, firing porcelain requires building a new blast furnace, and it is impossible to produce qualified porcelain using a pottery kiln.

The same goes for the forge needed for forging. Chen Zhou even had to set aside a separate room for the forge to store charcoal, metal and semi-finished metal tools.

In fact, small appliances are easy to deal with. However, many parts of water wheels and windmills are "big blocks" made of wood and metal. If the space in the house is small, there is nowhere to put them.

……

After finishing a day's work, Chen Zhou boiled a large pot of hot water and took a comfortable hot bath.

Saturdays and Sundays were not treated so well. They could only take a shower in the mountain stream, and after taking a shower, they had to wash their own clothes and Chen Zhou's dirty clothes.

Yes, after seeing that the natives were more hardworking and capable than he had imagined, Chen Zhou also gave his clothes to the natives to wash.

He found that most of the time, the clothes washed by the natives were cleaner than those he washed himself.

……

Another mysterious reward will be given on February 2nd.

After taking a shower, Chen Zhou, who had been busy as a civil engineer for a whole month, was finally able to have a clean night's rest, drink a glass of wine, eat a good meal, and look forward to receiving something useful as a reward tomorrow.

……

During this busy month, he not only completed the construction of the charcoal kiln, but also took the time to lead the natives to clean up the remains of the burning of the natives on the northeast beach.

Fortunately, he dragged most of the corpses together and burned them on the day of the massacre of the natives, otherwise, even if the plague did not spread there, the stench would be everywhere.

The three of them worked together and soon threw all the remains of the bones into the sea and filled in the burnt sand pit.

When the rainy season arrives, two months of heavy rainfall will completely erase all traces of the massacre that occurred here.

In addition to cleaning up traces of the massacre, Chen Zhou also worked with two natives to push both canoes into the sea during the high tide.

More than a month of exposure to the sun and gnawing by wood-eating animals caused both canoes to suffer varying degrees of damage, but they were still barely usable.

Chen Zhou moved the two big guys to the foot of the cliff near the foot of the mountain, then chose a hidden corner there, dropped his homemade anchor, and spread a layer of dead branches and leaves on the canoe for camouflage.

The two natives had already mastered quite a few words by then.

They told Chen Zhou that if they wanted to better preserve the canoe, they had to drag it to the shore and bury it with sand.

Or you could tow it to shore and stuff a few logs under the canoe to keep it suspended.

Chen Zhou knew that burying the wood in sand could lock the moisture in the wood and prevent it from drying out and cracking, while leaving it suspended in the air was to prevent water accumulation and mildew at the bottom of the boat.

He also knew that it would be easier to paint the canoe with tung oil or lacquer.

The problem is that the canoe is too big and is not in very good condition.

With the strength of the three of them, if they added a pulley system, they could actually forcibly drag the canoe to the shore.

But he thought it unnecessary to conduct regular inspections after the ship was towed ashore.

If he wanted to go out to sea, he could spend some time building a better and stronger boat with a sail and an anchor instead of using the natives' boat.

What's more, he has no plans to go out to sea in the near future - he still has a lot of things to do.

Chen Zhou is a person who likes to do things according to plan and seldom acts on impulse. Detailed plans can make him feel fulfilled and secure.

……

After spending more than a month together and experiencing three mysterious rewards, we also found a pattern on Saturdays and Sundays.

On February 2, before Chen Zhou got up, the two had already washed up, folded their quilts, and were taking care of the crops while waiting for Chen Zhou to take them to the beach.

The two of them were so sensitive to time not because they were gifted, but because when Chen Zhou was teaching them, he also made a calendar.

Farming is a time-sensitive job.

You need to understand when to raise seedlings, when to plant, when to irrigate, when to fertilize, and when to harvest. You cannot do without a concept of time.

Moreover, the cycle of rainy and dry seasons on the island, the ripening cycle of common fruits, the estrus and pregnancy period of goats, all need to be judged by exact time and cannot rely solely on "feeling".

In order to make the two natives understand the importance of time, Chen Zhou not only repeatedly emphasized the concept of time in the teaching materials he compiled, but also told the natives that "festivals" are also held regularly.

The "feast", "sacrifice" and "gifts" bestowed by God, these things that once left a deep impression on them gave them a clear understanding of time.

After Chen Zhou drew all the days of the 1662 months of 12 on the white clay board and asked the two to circle the day they had passed, they finally understood that when the "calendar" filled with numbers was full of circles, the year had passed.

Chen Zhou used pineapple ink to highlight three of the important festivals.

The two natives checked the dates, counted the uncircled numbers, and looked forward to the nearest holiday, August 8st.

距离8月1日不远，还有9月30日，1月1日——他们刚过完元旦不久，心中已大致了解节日是什么意思。

It’s a pity that every day goes by too slowly and the next festival is too far away.

Counting the days one by one, the two were always looking forward to when they could have another banquet and receive gifts again.

……

After washing up early in the morning, Chen Zhou put on his old mountaineering bag, took two long-handled axes, and led two natives who had been waiting for a long time down the mountain.

Now, not only can the two natives do the work of repairing the wooden and stone walls, they can also share a lot of the workload of physical work such as felling trees.

The natives were far less powerful than him, but their endurance was no less than his.

Thanks to their persistent logging work, after working for a whole morning, they had cut down not much less wood than Chen Zhou.

However, the trees in the coastal woodlands have undergone more than two years and more than forty rounds of logging, and wood that meets the cutting requirements is now difficult to find near the beach.

Cutting trees at a distant place will consume more transportation time.

In fact, after cutting so much wood and looking at the bare coastal forest, Chen Zhou has already come up with the idea of planting trees.

It often takes decades or even hundreds of years for a tree to grow into timber. He certainly could not consume all the virgin forest in the 28 years he was on the island.

But after he left, if there were still tribes on the island, if they just took from nature and didn't know how to maintain the ecological balance, then this beautiful island would probably become a wasteland in no time.

Respect and protection of nature.

This may be the last lesson Chen Zhou will leave for the indigenous people before he leaves.

If this world is really a complete time and space, with everything corresponding to the 17th century, his arrival might turn into the wings of a butterfly, starting from this small island, and set off a storm.

……

As soon as they arrived at the beach, two natives took the initiative to move and sort out the collapsed wooden and stone walls.

Chen Zhou was the only one left to enter the reward center to receive his reward.

The reward this time is different from the previous two times. Just by looking at the packaging, you can tell that it is not a common thing.

Its outer packaging is similar to that of the box of TNT, using a bluish-gray hard plastic. The box is not wrapped in a cardboard box and is placed openly on the sand.

The length of the entire box is about 1.5m and the height is about 50cm.

There are no markings on the surface of the box, so it is impossible to tell what is inside from the outside.

Seeing this box, Chen Zhou could vaguely sense that this reward was probably related to military industry. "It's not a gun, is it?"

He opened the buckle with great anticipation and lifted the lid.

……

The objects in the box were not as high-end as Chen Zhou had imagined, but they were not ordinary stuff either.

Those were rows of steel pipes neatly arranged in slots.

The length of all steel pipes is consistent without any deviation, and the surface of the steel pipes is coated with a layer of black matte paint, which makes them maintain a low-key style even under the scorching sun.

The moment he saw these steel pipes, a line of words suddenly popped up in Chen Zhou's mind.

"Seamless steel pipe with rifling!"

Pick up a steel pipe at random and observe it.

It was just as he expected.

This is a whole box of seamless steel pipes made of high-quality alloy, and the inner walls of the steel pipes have obvious rifling formed by cold forging and hammering.

As far as Chen Zhou knows, this kind of obvious military material was probably made of special steel during the initial manufacturing process, and then the rifling was processed using cold forging technology.

The yield strength of this type of steel is generally not less than 550 MPa, the expansion strength is between 800-1000 MPa, the structure is extremely uniform, and it has excellent fatigue resistance, high temperature resistance and burning resistance.

At the same time, the steel pipe may also be chrome-plated to increase its corrosion resistance and wear resistance.

This military-quality seamless rifled steel pipe, as long as it passes high-pressure testing and fatigue verification and other tests, can withstand a pressure of thousands of kilograms per square centimeter.

It can also maintain a stable shape after multiple shots to prevent the shooting accuracy from decreasing due to rifling wear.

"Damn, this time they really sent a box of gifts!"

He picked up the steel pipes one by one and examined them carefully. It was his first time touching something that any gun fan dreams of, and Chen Zhou's hands were shaking with excitement.

……

With the tools and technology he had on the island, he would not be able to make even half a piece of such a steel pipe in his entire life. Even if he returned to modern times, it would be basically impossible for him to make a "gun barrel" of military quality.

Although this box of steel pipes is only a part of all the components of a gun, it is definitely the most crucial part.

If you want to build an accurate marksman rifle, this box of steel pipes will be more than half the battle.

As for another important component of firearms, "bullets".

Once the furnace is built and the forging skills are mature, Chen Zhou can completely melt lead plates to make low-quality bullets by himself.

If lead bullets were unreliable, he was even willing to replace the "Bronze Statue of Wang Lingguan" with a wooden sculpture, and then melt the entire statue into brass to make bullets.

Being able to own a gun that is truly close to modern firearms is not only Chen Zhou’s lifelong dream, but also the confidence that allows him to lead the battle.

Twenty years later, when he faced the Spanish raiders, if he had a dozen high-precision rifles, he would not have to worry about whether he could seize the huge amount of wealth on the ship.

All you have to think about is how to sell the precious metals after the challenge is successful, and then the only thing left is how to spend the money.

……

"Punishment, real punishment!

I thought that box of TNT was the limit of the Space-Time Administration, but I didn't expect there was another trick!"

Putting the seamless steel pipe or gun barrel in his hand back into the box, Chen Zhou could no longer control the almost crazy smile on his face.

At first, he thought that the various Bingxixi small commodities would accompany him for the long twenty-eight years.

Later, he discovered that Bingxixi could be upgraded to Taobao or JD. Just when he thought that Taobao and JD were the end, a revolver suddenly appeared in the reward.

Subsequent developments became increasingly outrageous, from bladed spears to TNT explosives to metal arrowheads.

Today, he can be issued with rifled seamless steel pipes, and they are the "quasi-gun barrels" that have gone through the entire process.

“Is this the development from small domestic commodities to world solidarity?
Since you can send me this kind of stuff, why not just send me a few AK47s that African black guys like to use, or give me a few rocket launchers.

If these guys really existed...

Why, if two more Spanish raiding ships come, I can teach them what it means to 'fire the cannon and blow the motherfuckers away.'"

……

Imagine a bright future, and Chen Zhou became more and more eager to work on charcoal forging.

Originally, watermills and windmills were built more to benefit the indigenous people.

Now he doesn't have to take care of the farmland, so no matter how tiring the work of grinding is, it is not his turn to worry about it.

Simply liberating the indigenous labor force would allow them to spend more time helping him build the island, digging caves or cultivating more fields, raising more sheep, and producing a stable and sufficient amount of meat and milk.

All these factors combined, coupled with the pressure brought to him by the rainy season, made him so concerned about this matter.

Now that we have entered the Iron Age, charcoal forging has gained another important benefit - the manufacture of firearms.

When it comes to guns, Chen Zhou becomes excited.

He used to forget about food and sleep, and spend dozens of days concentrating on drawing blueprints and studying how to improve the matchlock gun.

At this moment, thinking of the power and performance of modern firearms, and then thinking of the treasures on the Spanish looted ships, he felt infinite motivation in his heart.

He wished he could master all the forging techniques immediately, then make a semi-automatic rifle and go out to sea to kill those bandits who were transporting real gold and silver from the South American continent to his country, and pile all the gold and silver treasures into his own cave.

……

On Saturday and Sunday, just after they had sorted and moved a small half of the wooden and stone walls, Chen Zhou, with a strange smile on his face, slowly stood up from the box in the middle of the sand.

There seemed to be a bright light flashing in his eyes, like a wild beast in heat, looking for a suitable mate, which made people feel cold in their hearts.

Maintaining this strange state of excitement, Chen Zhou moved out the entire box of gun barrels, and then immediately began to organize and build the wooden and stone walls.

He wanted to finish this job as soon as possible, then rush to the charcoal kiln immediately to burn his first batch of charcoal, and then return to the cave without stopping to build the blast furnace.

Chen Zhou has never wanted more help than he does now. His mind is full of guns.

The United States' MK14 Mod0, Germany's G28/HK417, Belgium's FN SCAR-H Mk20 SSR, Russia's SVCh...

Various well-known marksman rifles flashed through his mind, and he was eager to own such a weapon, even if it was just a "beggar's version".

……

In the tense atmosphere, the two natives noticed Chen Zhou's eagerness to finish his work.

They have always been more sensible and perceptive than their modern peers. They couldn't help but consciously follow Chen Zhou's rhythm, moving their slender legs faster and faster.

It was like three industrious ants moving back and forth on the beach.

Immersed in this suffocating working atmosphere, before noon, a new circle of wood and stone walls stood on the beach.

The two natives have not yet asked Chen Zhou what his next plans are.

Then they saw Chen Zhou jogging, putting the strange big box on the cart, pushing the cart away without looking back, leaving them with only his increasingly smaller back.

(End of this chapter)