Chapter 35 Brick Kiln
[Recite the URL three times silently. Do you remember it? If not, I will ask again in the next chapter. It is best to share it on Facebook for me]
"Hurry up and drag him out!" Qin Hao stroked his forehead and called out to his left and right with a look of despair, knowing that this guy is here to cause trouble again.
The person he was roaring at was Li Chun, who was recruited ten days ago. This guy has been causing trouble for him these days. It was a mistake for Zhuge Xuan to arrange him to burn bricks and build houses. He should be thrown into the sea and destroyed humanely.
At the beginning, he said that there were not enough people, so Qin Hao asked Zhuge Xuan to transfer the prisoners of war to him. In order to ensure his safety, except for the 10 Nord guards around Qin Hao, the rest of the cavalry soldiers were assigned to him to keep him safe.
I thought that the bricks should be burned now, and then the houses would be built and repaired, but I didn't expect that this guy had no use for a prisoner of war. He threw him aside and took the soldiers to hunt in the mountains or walk on the beach all day, not doing any serious work.
Li came to report, Qin Hao just smiled casually, let him go, and told him to follow carefully.
But this guy Li Chun came back on time every night at dinner, and complained to Qin Hao when he could make cannons and so on. Qin Hao knew that his mind was not on making bricks, so he took him out and scolded him.
Don't think that you are a talent of Mount and Blade, you can do whatever you want. I don't keep idle people here. If you can do it, do it. If you can't, go back to Nanyang to fish.
Zhuge Xuan saw the indignation in Qin Hao's eyes and advised him that night. Qin Hao barely restrained himself, but never let Li Chun sit on the table again.
You stay aside!
"Your Highness, Your Highness." Li Chun saw that the strong arm was about to hold him up, and hurriedly said the purpose of this visit: "I have baked bricks."
"Why didn't you say it earlier." Qin Hao waved his hand to remove the Nord guards and looked at Li Chun.
As expected, he was found to be much dirtier than a few days ago, with a lot of mud on his body, which must have been stained when he was burning bricks.
"Let's go and take a look." Qin Hao pulled Li Chun out and asked, "Where?"
"Honghui Village!" Li Chun rolled his eyes and was secretly angry. As expected, meat eaters are despicable. This man in his family could not escape such a conclusion. Didn't he see that he was so tired these days that he could hardly jump? He didn't even let me drink tea when he came, and he only cared about his bricks.
If Qin Hao knew what Li Chun was thinking now, he would definitely destroy him directly. This guy is a workhorse. He doesn't work hard unless he is beaten.
The system said that this guy is an excellent student in engineering, but he spent a lot of effort to burn a brick, and he was still trying to make a cannon day by day. If this cannon is made, it may not be a suicide cannon that will open the chest as soon as it is fired.
When Qin Hao led people to the edge of the village, he saw a pillar standing on a hill not far away. When he got closer, he saw that it was a small brick kiln. The chimney was about ten meters high. The brick kiln had just been completed not long ago. The surface of the brick kiln was covered with mud, and there was even transplanted grass on it. People around were stuffing the prepared earth bricks into the blast furnace one after another.
After putting Li Chun down, Qin Hao also dismounted and looked at the towering blast furnace and said, "Introduce it."
"Yes!" At this point, Li Chun lost his previous frivolity. With a solemn face, he began to talk freely and narrated the brick-making events of these days.
In fact, he took people to the mountains and beaches these days not only to relax, but also to actively look for materials for brick-making.
The first point of brick-making is to find good raw stones, otherwise there is a high probability that broken bricks will be produced during the firing, which is useless.
A few days ago, when he went up the mountain, he happened to find such a small hill with limestone as the rock body, but Li Chun was not happy for a while.
The best material is rock with calcium carbonate as the main component, such as limestone, marble, etc. As long as these stones are broken and mixed with clay, the hardness of the bricks can be well guaranteed.
And with limestone, cement can be fired in a traditional way. This substance, called "artificial volcanic ash cement", has better corrosion resistance than ordinary silicate cement. After adding slaked lime, it can harden in air and water. It is particularly suitable for humid or underground environments, which just happens to cater to the subtropical monsoon climate of Taiwan Island.
Qin Hao looked at Li Chun's eloquent appearance and was relieved of his previous abruptness. He knew that this person was a technical geek with quite good business quality, but he was a little worse at dealing with people. As long as there were no mistakes in the future work, he would tolerate it.
Seeing that the prisoners of war had covered the bottom of the brick kiln with layers of earth bricks, and skillfully sealed the brick kiln with mud, and some people brought hay and tree trunks to start a fire.
Qin Hao asked Li Chun: "How long will it take?"
He still has things to deal with, and he can't stay here for nothing and waste time. He plans to go out and travel in a few days. If he stays here all the time, his power is too small and he can't find a way out.
"If you increase the firepower, half an hour is enough!" Li Chun replied, and then looked at Qin Hao and made a request: "Your Highness, can you cut some wood to make charcoal? This will increase the temperature of the brick kiln to 900-1000℃, and the burning speed will be faster."
Because according to Li Chun's calculations, the small brick kiln currently under construction needs tens of thousands of pounds of firewood to burn a brick. This is a terrible number. At present, even if these prisoners of war collect weeds, branches, bark, etc. all the time, the total amount is less than 1,000 pounds, which can't meet the charcoal fire of the brick kiln.
"You can cut down the trees on this mountain at will." Qin Hao's light order solved Li Chun's current dilemma. I don't know what he was thinking. There are so many trees on this mountain. Don't you know to cut them down? Will someone charge you for it?
This brain is not very smart! What Qin Hao didn't know was that it was this order of his that caused a lot of trouble. This is a later story, so let's not talk about it for now.
Since the time is not long, Qin Hao is willing to wait and see what the newly baked bricks look like.
In this half hour, prisoners of war kept adding firewood to increase the temperature, and they did it meticulously. Some of these prisoners of war were bandits captured on the mountain, and some were guards of Gujiazhuang. All the threatening people among them had been sent away, and the rest were not treacherous and evil people. As long as they were reformed well, Qin Hao was willing to forgive them.
Half an hour passed quickly. The prisoners of war, wearing gloves made of white flannel cotton cloth, carefully opened the sealed furnace mouth. After the temperature inside dropped, they began to move the baked bricks out one by one.
Qin Hao looked at the small brick mountain that was gradually piled up, and felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart. He carefully picked up a brick and gestured carefully with his hands. The specifications of the brick were about 240×120×50mm (length×width×height). At this time, he could still clearly feel the warmth of the blue brick in his hands.
After knocking it a little harder, the blue brick made a crisp sound without any cracks. Qin Hao knew the force he applied. There was no problem in this way, which meant that the blue brick was very strong and not tofu dregs. It was completely feasible to use it to build houses.
Qin Hao nodded, put down the blue bricks, looked at Li Chun with satisfaction and asked: "How is the output of this brick kiln?"
Li Chun lowered his head and touched his chin to think for a while, then said: "According to the current technology, such a small earth kiln can burn more than 1,200 bricks at a time. Each furnace needs to cool down for an hour and reinforce it with wet mud. Otherwise, the mud brick kiln will easily crack. In this way, it can burn about 4 to 5 furnaces a day."
Qin Hao also calculated in his mind that the blue bricks required for a house are about 5,000, which is exactly the output of a furnace a day. He obviously couldn't accept this speed, so he looked at Li Chun and said: "Since the output is low, build more earth brick kilns, and make sure that all households have a new house before the autumn harvest."
"Yes!" Li Chun agreed.
This is not a difficult task. As long as we increase the construction efforts, after a while, when the summer planting is over, the people will have plenty of time, and then we can ask them to help.
Anyway, they are building their own house, so there is no reason not to come.
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