The Rise of Primitive Tribes Farming

Chapter 333 Smelting Bronze
A few days later, Chen Bei and others returned to the Mang Tribe, bringing back a lot of copper ore.

Because there was tin before, and now there is copper ore, it is obviously inconvenient to put smelting and firing pottery together.

Chenbei officially decided to set up a casting workshop specializing in smelting metals.

Because other tribes have not yet mastered the metal smelting technology, this workshop must be kept highly secret, with walls outside and soldiers guarding and patrolling day and night.

In the process of making tinware, the best-performing craftsman was named Huoshi, and Chenbei directly promoted him to be the owner of the foundry workshop.

The Mang tribe is like this, no matter who they are, no matter what their previous status is, as long as they are loyal to the tribe and have the ability, they will be reused.

Thanks to the efforts of the engineering team, the casting workshop soon had two more smelting furnaces. These two smelting furnaces are both made of green bricks, which are much better than the temporary furnaces made of clay.

After the smelting furnace was built, houses, walls, and some supporting facilities were built one after another.

Chen Bei couldn't wait that long. After the smelting furnace was built, he immediately asked people to make coke.

The reason for refining coke instead of using coal directly is because Chen Bei attaches great importance to bronze and he does not want any accidents.

The so-called coke is to pile coal into an earthen kiln, and after it burns, seal the kiln and let it simmer at high temperature, similar to charcoal for barbecues.

The process is not complicated, but it takes a little time.

A few days later, the coke refining was completed, and the smelting furnace happened to be dry and ready for use.

The copper ore was piled up next to the smelting furnace, and Chen Bei stood beside him to guide him.

"Smash these ores first."

"it is good!"

These craftsmen don't care whether the stones are beautiful or not, anyway, they will do what the leader says.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The craftsmen wielded stone hammers and smashed the fragile copper ore into small pieces, and red, blue, and green stones were scattered all over the place.

Even natural copper was chopped into small pieces by a stone ax made of fine stone.

Whether it is copper ore or pure copper, the hardness is not high, which is why they cannot directly make tools, because they are too soft.

"Boss, it's all smashed!"

"Okay, put the coke and ore into the furnace."

Chen Bei did it himself, first spread a layer of coke on the bottom of the furnace, put a layer of ore on top, then continued to spread coke, continued to put ore, and piled up several layers in this way.

Below the stove, there is also a clay basin with a long handle, which is used to receive the melted copper liquid.

If there is no such basin, then after the copper ore melts, the copper liquid will flow to the bottom of the furnace and mix with soil, ash and other things.

"ignition!"

After everything was ready, Flint, the new owner of the foundry, went to light the fire himself. He first lit a fire, lit a few pieces of coke, and then clamped the pieces of coke in the center of the furnace with wooden sticks.

"Blow wind!"

Then, a craftsman turned the windmill-shaped blower. With the help of the wind, the burning cokes burned more vigorously, and quickly ignited the cokes beside them.

It didn't take long for the coke in the entire furnace to burn, burning red, and a light blue flame burst out from above.

Chen Bei stared nervously at the side of the smelting furnace. The temperature inside the furnace was very high, and with the existence of a simple blower, it would definitely be able to melt the copper ore.

Time passed bit by bit, and the ore in the smelting furnace finally gradually melted, and the copper liquid slowly flowed down, and finally fell into the clay pot.

After half a day, Chen Bei grabbed the long handle of the pot and pulled it out.

The bright red liquid copper gradually cooled, and finally solidified into a mass of red, metallic copper.

"Success!"

Chen Bei was very happy to be able to successfully smelt for the first time, and his whole body became excited.

Those craftsmen also cheered. They had witnessed the miracle of tinware long ago, so they naturally understood the value of this mass of red metal.

However, there were still a lot of impurities on this lump of copper. Chen Bei washed it, and knocked off the impurities stuck on it with a stone hammer, but the impurities wrapped in copper were not so easy to knock off.

"Smelt it again, use the furnace over there."

On the other side of the furnace, there is a pot with a long mouth in the center. This pot has a mouth that is two fingers wide and extends to the outside of the smelting furnace.

Chen Bei put this piece of copper containing impurities into the pottery pot in the second smelting furnace, then added coke, and ignited the second smelting furnace.

This time, the copper melted faster, and because it was in a clay pot, it could be seen clearly.

After the copper block is melted into liquid copper, use a stone stick to pry up the pot, and the liquid copper will flow out along the long mouth of the pot, and a craftsman outside will catch it with a sand mold.

After the copper liquid has flowed out, the impurities are left in the pottery basin, while the relatively pure copper is in the sand mold outside.

"The next step is smelting."

Although pure copper was successfully extracted, the smelting was not over. What Chen Bei wanted was not soft pure copper, but hard bronze that could be used to make weapons and tools.

Bronze is a very important thing. For example, the carts manufactured by the Mang Tribe, if the bearings are made of bronze, its durability and performance will be greatly improved.

In terms of shipbuilding, if some parts are replaced with bronze, the performance of the ship will be greatly improved.

As for various tools and weapons, casting in bronze will be much better than the original utensils currently used by the Mang tribe.

This is something that could truly change the times.

"Bring the tin."

Chen Bei personally took out the copper block from the sand mold, knocked off the sand, and then chopped it into pieces with a stone ax made of high-quality stone.

Then, Chen Bei also chopped up a tin block that was a little smaller than the copper block, and then mixed the two together evenly.

After the clay basin of the second smelting furnace was cleaned, the broken copper and tin pieces were poured into the clay basin together, and the smelting started again.

This time, Chenbei made a sand mold in the shape of a hammer, and the sand mold was cemented with clay, which was not as rough as before.

As the temperature in the smelting furnace increased, the pieces of tin and copper gradually melted and fused together.

"almost."

After Chen Bei waited for the copper and tin to fully fuse, he lifted the pot with a stone stick, and the liquid after the fusion of copper and tin flowed out along the long spout of the pot, and flowed into the sand mold that had been made.

After the sand mold was filled, Chen Bei shook it lightly a few times, and then waited for the copper-tin alloy in the sand mold to cool down.

"Boss, can we do it successfully?"

Huo Shi squatted beside Chen Bei, staring at the stick-shaped bronze vessel in the sand mold, waiting for it to cool down.

"Definitely!"

Chen Bei nodded affirmatively, then squatted beside the craftsmen and waited patiently.

After a while, the bronze vessel in the sand mold finally cooled down. Chen Bei couldn't wait to smash the sand mold and took out the hammer-shaped bronze vessel.

Because of the sand mold, this hammer is relatively rough, but the upward side is relatively smooth, showing a golden yellow metallic luster, which is very beautiful.

Many people think that bronze ware is blue, but it is not. The reason why it has such a color is that it has been in existence for too long and has rusted.

"Grind it!"

Chen Bei personally found a rough stone, poured another basin of water, and began to polish the hammer until it was polished to a smooth surface, shining like gold!

"Knock and try."

Chen Bei chose a stone with medium hardness, and then smashed it hard with a bronze hammer.

"Snapped!"

The stone cracked and broke into several pieces, but the bronze hammer was intact!

"Success!"

Chen Bei raised the hammer, feeling very excited, and those craftsmen also cheered.

The Mang tribe's first copper-tin alloy utensil, that is, bronze ware, appeared!

　Thank you for the 10000 book coins rewarded by the rudder master of this book "When did the author evolve into a ten-gen beast", thank you big brother.

　　Thanks to the book friend "Drunk Bookworm" for the 500 book coins.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)