In the Three Kingdoms period, the opening scene features the killing of Huang Gai, shocking Zhou Yu!

The Marquis's Residence at Bingjing Pavilion.

The temperature is frighteningly high.

It's not because it's hot, but because someone is in a hurry.

Since starting the strategic east-west cement road project of "Chang'an-Luoyang-Xudu",

Zhao Yu felt like he wasn't alone anymore.

Instead, he was a "contractor" being roasted over a fire.

The Ice Crystal Pavilion was practically emptied of its coffers to build this road.

Skilled kiln workers? They've been transferred to Hangu Pass to make cement.

The strong miners? They were transferred away too, to pave roads with gravel at Hulao Pass.

Even the head chef, who usually toils away in the canteen and is someone everyone dreads to part with, has been sent to Luoyang to cook large pots of rice for tens of thousands of laborers.

The current headquarters of Bingjingting can be described as a center for the elderly, the infirm, the disabled, and pregnant women to stay at home.

Zhao Yu was currently squatting in the supplies allocation room of the Ice Crystal Pavilion.

Looking at the bamboo slips for collecting debts in his hand,

"My lord! Hangu Pass is short of men!"

"My lord! Duan Quezhen from Luoyang has made a move!"

"My lord! Hulao Pass is even short of cooks!"

They all need people.

This is so worrying!

Is it difficult to make cement?

It's not difficult at all.

Limestone and clay are plentiful on the mountains, and the recipes have long been standardized; anyone can do it.

Is road construction difficult?

It's so easy that anyone with hands can do it.

Level the roadbed, lay gravel, pour concrete, scrape it smooth, and then cure it.

There are no technological barriers whatsoever; it is a typical labor-intensive industry.

The real problem is—there's nobody here!

"My lord, if you are really feeling bored, why not go to the training ground and chop down a couple of straw men to relieve your fatigue? It's not good to let yourself get too cooped up."

A crisp sound rang out.

Zhao Yu looked up and saw Sun Shangxiang.

Instead of wearing his usual fine silks and satins, he was dressed in coarse work clothes and carrying a steel shovel.

He leaned the steel shovel against the corner of the wall, grabbed the teapot from Zhao Yu's table, and took a large gulp.

"Shangxiang..."

Zhao Yu smiled wryly.

"I'd like to rest too, but we're short-handed at the front. By the way, why are you dressed like that?"

Sun Shangxiang casually wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, her face showing an expression that said, "I'm very capable."

"Didn't you say that the blast furnace was short of supervisors? I thought those old men were too slow and dawdling, so I went to supervise the work myself."

Zhao Yu's heart skipped a beat.

Are you there to cause trouble? To send Sun Shangxiang to supervise the blast furnace?

The scene is too beautiful for me to bear.

It might not be impossible, but the process will definitely be terrifying.

"You...didn't hit anyone, did you?"

Zhao Yu asked cautiously.

"No!"

"Am I the kind of person who is unreasonable?"

I simply hung my bow on the stove opening and told them that anyone who slacked off would be used as a target for archery practice. It worked perfectly; those old men ran faster than rabbits.

Zhao Yu sighed,

At his age, he still gets scared by Sun Shangxiang like that.

These veteran craftsmen truly dedicated themselves to the industrial development of the Han Dynasty.

So majestic, so majestic.

"but……"

Sun Shangxiang looked away somewhat guiltily.

"There seems to have been a slight mishap just now."

"What trouble?"

"Did it explode?"

"It's not blown up! It's not blown up! Stop talking nonsense."

"I'm here to ask you for someone."

There's also a shortage of people at the blast furnaces, especially the No. 3 furnace used for testing new materials. The previous group of people were transferred to transport ore, and it's a waste to leave the furnace empty now.

Seeing that the fire was burning quite brightly, I took it upon myself to bring a few people to "make use of the waste."

"Use? How did you use me?"

Cement firing is a job that requires absolutely no technical skill; it can be done haphazardly.

But Furnace No. 3 was a high-temperature furnace prepared for Ding Yi.

Sun Shangxiang wiped the dust off her nose and gestured.

"I see a lot of white sand (quartz sand) and white powder (pure alkali) piled up in the warehouse, taking up a lot of space and making it difficult to walk."

"I asked the craftsman, and he said those weren't the main materials for making cement; they were leftovers from before."

"I thought, since the furnace is just sitting idle anyway, why not shovel all these useless scraps in and burn them, making room for cement clinker."

Zhao Yu was stunned for a moment:

"My goodness, you poured silica sand and alkali... into the steel furnace to burn?"

"Yes, I added a lot of crushed limestone to help it burn."

Clearly, Sun Shangxiang was very satisfied with her thrifty and efficient management of the household and her efforts to clear out inventory.

"Moreover, I noticed that the fire wasn't big enough and was melting slowly, so I personally went to operate the bellows."

"I must say, your bellows are really sturdy. I used 80% of my strength, and the flame shot up higher than a person! And a bluish glow!"

"By now, it should all have turned into soup."

Zhao Yu's mouth dropped open.

My jaw almost dropped to the ground.

High temperature furnace.

A strong sense of atmosphere.

Quartz sand + pure alkali + limestone.

In addition, there are extremely high temperatures.

Zhao Yu couldn't sit still any longer.

"Let's go! Let's go take a look!"

"Don't let that pot of water get cold!"

As he spoke, he rushed out of the room.

"What's wrong?"

Sun Shangxiang was startled by Zhao Yu's reaction and chased after him with her shovel.

"Is it burnt? The stuff that came out was grayish and sticky, like snot, it looked awful. I was just about to have it buried."

……

In front of blast furnace No. 3.

Several elderly craftsmen who remained behind were frowning as they surrounded the discharge port.

In the sandpit, a mass of something that had almost solidified lay there.

Because it has not undergone thorough impurity removal, it presents a cloudy bottle green (grayish-green).

In addition, since it hasn't been stirred, it contains all sorts of air bubbles.

It lay there in the sandpit, its surface uneven, with some cracks even at the edges.

"My lord, this..."

The old craftsman looked ashamed when he saw Zhao Yu.

"Madam meant well in wanting to help clear out the inventory, but cleaning this stove will probably take a long time."

"What comes out of this furnace is neither iron nor slag; it's hard yet slippery and very brittle."

Sun Shangxiang scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly:

"Did I make things worse?"

"Should I smash it up and use it to pave the road?"

"Anyway, this thing is useless, and it doesn't look very sturdy."

As he spoke,

She was about to raise the steel shovel in her hand and slap it down on the green "waste".

"What an idiot!" Zhao Yu was utterly astonished.

"Shovel him to save his life!!!"

He practically slid down to his knees and shielded the "ugly thing" in his arms.

"Shangxiang! You can't smash this!"

Zhao Yu touched the smooth surface with heartache.

It's a bit rough, but this is the ancestor of industrial flat glass!

"Husband, are you alright?"

Sun Shangxiang involuntarily took a half step back, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Is this thing... more valuable than the stones used for road construction?"

Zhao Yu gently tapped off a thin slice with a hammer.

It's grayish-green, and contains too much iron.

None of that matters.

Hold this piece of debris into the sky.

Sunlight filtered through the thin sheet, creating a hazy effect, but it did indeed penetrate the light!

Light! It shone through!

Transparency is acceptable!