The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 398 We are also researching
What a scientist!

When Chen Gui saw the soft clay, he didn't immediately dismiss it. Instead, he thought of ceramics and then realized that firing it might harden it.

Although the specific method of operation was wrong, the logic was correct. He was good at thinking, which is the biggest difference between him and ordinary people.

Yue Wenxuan gave a thumbs up: "Lord Chen is truly quick-witted. However, this kind of mud is different from pottery clay. It doesn't need to be fired. As long as it is left to stand still, it will solidify and take shape on its own after a few days, becoming the kind of hard city wall we saw before."

Chen Gui: "I understand. So after leaving it to stand for a few days, it will 'deteriorate' and then harden."

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "The word 'deteriorated' is used very aptly! That's exactly the case. It was indeed the right decision for our Northern Song Dynasty to invite Lord Chen here. With the Ministry of Works in your hands, it will surely flourish."

Chen Gui thought to himself: The Northern Song Dynasty is indeed quite sophisticated. Not only does it have advanced firearms, but it also has strange clay. Maybe I made the right choice to come to the Northern Song Dynasty.

The two continued walking forward...

After walking only a few steps, they saw a huge carriage. Eight tall horses were pulling a huge flatbed cart, on which was placed a huge iron cylinder, much thicker than a person's waist.

Chen Gui was taken aback. The first thing that came to his mind was "firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty." He exclaimed, "Is that your Northern Song Dynasty's cannon? This... this is so big... this is much bigger than my long bamboo musket!"

Yue Wenxuan shook his head and laughed, "That's not a cannon. We can't build cannons that thick right now. If the barrel were filled with gunpowder, it wouldn't be able to withstand the explosion."

Chen Gui: "Huh? What's the purpose of such a big cylinder?"

Yue Wenxuan: "This thing is called a ball mill, and it's used to make cement."

As he spoke, Yue Wenxuan led Chen Gui to the carriage. The person in charge of escorting the carriage was Li Tiezhu, an official in the Ministry of Works. Yue Wenxuan greeted him, "Tiezhu!"

Li Tiezhu turned around and saw a woman he didn't recognize. He was a little confused: "Who are you?"

Yue Wenxuan suddenly began to read in a monotone voice, with no fluctuation in tone or intonation, and the intervals between each word were exactly the same. He said without any inflection, "I've come to see the ball mill."

Li Tiezhu, a veteran employee, had encountered countless "immortals." Just by listening to the way he spoke, he understood that this was an immortal invited down from heaven by the True Lord. He quickly bowed and said, "Please feel free to look around."

Yue Wenxuan then pulled Chen Gui over and made him look into the cylinder.

A quick glance reveals a rotating shaft in the middle of the cylinder, on which are mounted many strange "blades".

Yue Wenxuan chuckled and said, "Lord Chen, please look. When this cylinder starts to rotate, the blades on the central axis will continuously crush the contents of the cylinder."

Chen Gui understood immediately: "Grinding! Put the wheat in it, and it'll be ground into flour in no time. But you can just use an ordinary stone mill to grind wheat, why bother with this coarse and hard steel blade..."

It only took him 0.32 seconds to suddenly realize: "This is used to grind stones into powder."

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "It's really pleasant to talk to Lord Chen. I don't even need to go into details. I can just start something and he immediately figures it out himself."

He pointed to the concrete construction site in the distance and laughed, "That gray stone powder is called cement, and it's ground up using this big cylinder."

Chen Gui suddenly understood completely: "So that's how it is! The Northern Song Dynasty is so interesting." As they chatted, Yue Wenxuan turned to Li Tiezhu: "Tiezhu, how many ball mills have we built now?"

Li Tiezhu respectfully said, "This is the fourth table! Ball Mill No. 1 is in Tiebao City, No. 2 is in Jiaoshui, No. 3 is in Chuzhou, and this is Ball Mill No. 4."

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "The fourth one, huh? If you transport it to Shouchun, I'm sure many small workshops in various places will want to snatch it along the way, right?"

Hearing this, Li Tiezhu laughed: "That's right, even the local ministries of industry are envious of this stuff. Who wouldn't want to mass-produce cement? Especially when we passed through Sizhou, Lord Fu Songqing's eyes turned red. He grabbed my horse's reins, trying to stop me from leaving, wanting to leave this ball mill in Sizhou for him to use. He even made up a whole bunch of reasons, like Sizhou was at war with Suzhou and needed a lot of cement to build border fortresses, and so on. Hahaha! I told him that the city wall of Shouchun had collapsed and needed to be rebuilt, requiring a lot of cement. After much persuasion, he reluctantly let go, sighed, and shook his head, saying that Sizhou could only use the primitive method of grinding stone powder for the time being."

Yue Wenxuan couldn't help but smile.

Chen Gui was startled: "Fu Songqing? He... wasn't he exiled to the Northern Song Dynasty because of his mission there?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Exile to the army was something said to the Southern Song Dynasty. Fu Songqing seems to be having a much better time here."

Chen Gui: "..."

This is a bit embarrassing.

Chen Gui realized that his current situation seemed somewhat similar to Fu Songqing's.

At this moment, Yue Wenxuan was still talking to Li Tiezhu: "Tiezhu, the old gentleman next to me is named Chen Gui. He was the prefect of De'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. He invented the long bamboo pole firearm and is a very respectable old gentleman. Go and get some of our firearms for the old gentleman to play with."

Upon hearing this, Li Tiezhu was filled with respect: "Ah, so you are Lord Chen! I have long admired your name."

Chen Gui was greatly surprised: "Huh? How come people from the Northern Song Dynasty have heard of my name?"

Li Tiezhu chuckled and said, "The story of how you used a long bamboo pole musket to defend against Li Heng has spread throughout the Ministry of Works in our Northern Song Dynasty. We are currently researching the weapon you invented. Your arrival is perfect, perfect, you can discuss it with us and verify it."

Chen Gui was greatly surprised that the Ministry of Works of the Northern Song Dynasty was researching his thing.

I heard that the firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty were far more powerful than my old junk. Why are they still studying my old junk?
I'm intrigued!

Li Tiezhu quickly handed over his work and then ran to get a bunch of random iron objects: "Old sir, look, these are the firearms of our Northern Song Dynasty."

Chen Gui thought to himself: Can I, an official of the Southern Song Dynasty, just play with the firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty? Aren't you afraid that I will learn the technology?

He thought to himself that, but he couldn't resist taking a look, and immediately spotted the smoothbore musket, the weapon that was deployed on the largest scale in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Because of its widespread deployment and use, this thing has become famous in the Jin Dynasty, the puppet state of Qi, the Southern Song Dynasty, and even the Western Xia and Chu Kingdoms. Several neighboring countries want to study this weapon, but unfortunately, the true essence of this thing is not in its body. It is just an iron tube, which can be learned at a glance, but the gunpowder inside cannot be imitated. Therefore, the neighboring countries can only get the form but not the spirit.

Chen Gui had heard of it before, and now that he saw it in person, he was overjoyed. He quickly picked it up and immediately felt its weight: "Wow, it really is made of iron. It's so heavy, much heavier than my long bamboo musket."

(End of this chapter)