Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 30
Zhu Jingjing loved hearing new things from Zhang Yifan the most. When she heard this, she immediately asked with interest: "What kind of kiln is that?"

Others were also curious because Zhang Yifan had never said anything about it.

When he heard Zhu Jingjing's question, he didn't hide anything and replied with a smile: "Cement kiln!"

The raw materials of cement are limestone and clay, which happen to be available here in Liujia Village, and they are available in the place where he chose to use water power.

Zhang Yifan plans to build a cement kiln here, and the calcined cement will be hammered with a large hydraulic hammer, saving the most labor-intensive link.

But building a cement kiln is actually not that simple.

Even though Liujia Village is blessed with cement raw materials right next to the river in a place suitable for water power, building a kiln requires a lot of bricks, and the core part even requires refractory bricks.

There are also fuels. There are trees here. The best way is to burn them into charcoal first, which involves burning charcoal.

Because the temperature of cement calcination has to reach about 1450 degrees, but the burning of ordinary wood can only reach about 850 degrees, but charcoal can reach a high temperature of 2700 degrees.Of course, these are just theoretical temperatures.

The high temperature that charcoal can produce depends on the carbon content in it. The higher the carbon content, the higher the theoretical temperature it can produce.

Coal has a higher temperature than charcoal. This is actually the same principle. If the coke after carbonization has a higher carbon content, the temperature will be higher.

Thinking about these things, Zhang Yifan actually had a headache.But there is no way, these things must be overcome.In other words, the cement must be produced.

The first is that the ground is not cement. Once the rainy season comes, it will be called mud. As people who came from later generations, it will definitely be unbearable.

Of course, in this day and age, the solution to this problem was to pave the floor with stone slabs.However, if the ground is paved with stone slabs, he only has 1000 taels of silver in his hand, which is not enough.

Second, only by calcining cement can not only solve the ground problem, but also because cement has a wide range of uses, it is inseparable from the next construction of water conservancy. It can also make money for the village, which will serve as a continuous source of funds for Liujia Village.

Third, after calcining the cement and gaining experience, you can burn glass that requires higher temperatures.Of course, there are other ways to reduce the glass temperature, but Zhang Yifan does not intend to skip the high-temperature firing process, after all, high-temperature firing technology will be used in other aspects in the future.

The same is true. Zhang Yifan entrusted all other matters to the villagers, but he has been doing it himself from the beginning of the site selection.

At this time, Zhu Jingjing was a little surprised when she heard his answer. It seemed that he was not as tall as she imagined, so she asked doubtfully: "What cement kiln? Water and mud? What's the use of it?"

The name of cement is indeed a bit vulgar and low-grade, but Zhang Yifan has no plans to change the name, but just smiled and explained to Zhu Jingjing: "The cement I made works a bit like Sanhe soil."

Having said this, he paused and asked, "Do you know this Sanhetu?"

"I know, I... know!" Zhu Jingjing listened and replied immediately. Originally, she wanted to say that when her father built the Nanjing city wall, he used Sanhe soil, which was very expensive, but would make the city wall stronger.However, she quickly came to her senses and did not reveal her identity, so she had to add another person to know.

Sanhe soil is made by mixing one part lime, two parts river sand and yellow mud, and then mix evenly with glutinous rice and kiwi juice.Needless to say, this is very expensive.After Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Nanjing, he had to face the threats of Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng, so he used Sanhe soil to build the city wall regardless of the cost.But the cost was so high that even Zhu Jingjing had heard of this Sanhetu.

No, after she answered, she was immediately surprised and asked Zhang Yifan: "You mean, your cement is really the same as Sanhe soil?"

It was a bit hard for her to imagine that cement had such a tacky name.

Zhang Yifan listened and said with a smile: "In terms of viscosity, it should be close, but the use of cement is much higher than that of Sanhe soil. Because the cost is very low, it can be widely used in building houses, repairing water conservancy facilities, and paving roads. Building bridges, etc.”

"Ah..." Zhu Jingjing was a little stunned when he heard this.

After coming back to her senses, she asked in disbelief: "It's really low, but very easy to use. Is it the same as Sanhe Tu?"

If Zhang Yifan hadn't said this, she would have added the word "impossible".

When the others heard this, they were all similar to Zhu Jingjing, completely dumbfounded.Looking at Zhang Yifan, the kind who couldn't even speak.

The Zhang Yifan in front of them really made them unable to connect with the past. Not only did he speak confidently and calmly, but his demeanor became extraordinary. Even the words he spoke could shock their jaws!
At this time, Zhang Yifan did not answer Zhu Jingjing's words immediately, but turned his head and looked around before saying: "The materials of cement are very common things. It can be said that it does not cost money, but it only needs some labor. In addition, it is fuel. It’s a waste of money. If cement is fired on a large scale, the cost will definitely be very low!”

Although Zhu Jingjing couldn't fully understand these words, after all, she didn't know how to bake cement, but Zhang Yifan's seemingly reasonable analysis made her believe it.

Immediately, she was very happy, because not only Zhang Yifan may be a famous doctor of the generation, but he may also be capable in other fields!This means that her teenage dreams are more likely to come true.

The Ming Dynasty had just been founded, and everything was waiting for improvement. If this kind of cement really existed, her father, Emperor Longyan, would definitely be delighted. Then everything would be easy to discuss, right?
Therefore, she felt even more impatient than Zhang Yifan, wanting to see the cement being fired immediately.

As a result, sometimes the more anxious people are, the more anxious God will be.

No, when she was about to urge Zhang Yifan, she saw a group of people walking quickly from the other side of the village. The leader was Li Zheng Liu Wu from Liujia Village.

Zhang Yifan was a little worried when he saw Liu Wu's expression seemed bad, and hurriedly went over to ask.

It turned out that Liu Wu went to talk about tiles and bricks and things were not going well. Not only did tiles have to wait for half a month to buy, but there were no bricks for building kilns.

Zhang Yifan frowned when he heard this: things were far more difficult than he imagined!

If you go to Nanjing City to buy it, it will probably be much more expensive, and you may not be able to buy it either. After all, now is the time when the country is rebuilding, so what should I do?
When Zhu Jingjing saw this, she immediately stood up and said to Zhang Yifan: "I'll go find my sister-in-law. She can help you solve this problem. How about it?"

I had sent Qiu Ju to the East Palace before. I wanted to explain anyway. If it didn’t work, I would just show my cards!

(End of this chapter)