Kai Fu Han

Chapter 99 Research and Development Progress
"Let me show you the current construction status of 'New Liujiabao'." Liu Lisheng invited.

"it is good."

Liu Lisheng took Liu Xinqi around the construction site carefully.

At present, more than [-] houses have been built. With the familiarity of various processes, the full and rational use of manpower, and the increase of various tools that are both convenient and increase work efficiency, the construction progress of New Liujiabao has also greatly increased. Increase.

"It is estimated that if the weather cooperates, all the clan members will be able to move into new houses before the end of the year." Liu Lisheng sighed.

Liu Xinqi knew that all the tribesmen he mentioned did not include the pirate villagers in Yanwei Town, but only the 3000 people who settled in Dengzhou.

"You are optimistic. It is estimated that there will be a typhoon soon. Then nothing can be done for ten days and a half. Therefore, based on the current progress, we should not be able to achieve the goal you said."

"But don't be too stressed, just work hard. Although adobe bricks are used, quality control must be done. The new house cannot collapse before people move in. It must be used for at least ten years. , giving us enough time to replace it with a brick house.”

"And the houses in Penglai City are still there and can be lived in. There is no urgent need for new houses."

After Liu Xinqi was named the elder of Changdao Township by Guo Zhizhou, the two parties temporarily "agreed" to cease the war. Liu Xinqi had arranged for some of his tribesmen to live back in Penglai City.

After visiting the construction site, the two came to the kiln factory again.

More than 50 kilns, large and small, have been built here.

The person in charge of the kiln is named Liu Xinshi, and he is one of Liu Zhimu's two apprentices here. Liu Xinqi had previously attached military commander cards to the two of them, and they were both warriors.

After becoming warriors, their study and research and development progress was greatly accelerated. Among them, Liu Xinshi's performance was the most outstanding and he was promoted to the general manager of the kiln by Liu Lisheng.

"Currently, the kiln factory can normally supply adobe bricks, fire-fired bricks and tiles to construction sites. At present, the biggest restriction on kiln factories and construction sites is population. The kiln factory occupies 200 people, and the rest are placed on the construction site. In this way, the kiln factory The factory's output just meets the needs of the construction site," Liu Xinshi said.

"You only see that population restricts the speed of construction, but you don't see how much resources the clan consumes here at Baishiwan every month. It's good to be able to maintain the status quo." Liu Lisheng scolded Liu Xinshi.

"You are right. Patriarch, come with me and I will show you something good."

Liu Xinshi took the two of them to the back of the kiln factory, where there were several seemingly newly built kilns.

Liu Xinshi got into the tent next to him and came out with a piece of turquoise glass in his hand.

"Is this Liuli?" Liu Lisheng asked.

"No, this is the 'glass' that the patriarch said. It was just made last night. It is made by calcining sand." Liu Xinshi said, with unconcealable pride in his tone.

Ordinary sand contains some impurities, mainly iron, so the glass fired by Liu Xinshi will have a turquoise color.

"not bad!"

Liu Xinqi didn't know how to make glass himself. He only knew that the raw material for making glass was sand. He told Liu Xinshi about it, but he didn't expect him to make it so quickly.

"How about the output? Can you make the desired shape?" Liu Xinqi asked
"The output is very low. To reach the temperature of melting sand, it takes a long time to heat the kiln, and it consumes a lot of carbon." Liu Xinshi said: "I haven't tried to shape it yet, but I think it looks like water after melting, so it should be possible to shape it. .”

"Very good!" Liu Xinqi was very excited. Even the crude, turquoise, and poor light transmittance of the original glass can already be used as a commodity, and the cost will definitely be recovered.

Then Liu Xinqi expressed some of his thoughts to him.

For example, inserting a long iron pipe into the glass solution and blowing air into it can make a hollow glass container; rolling it with an iron rod can make a glass plate; when firing glass, add lime or other materials to try out colorless and red. , blue and other stained glass.

After looking at the glass, another student of Liu Zhimu took Liu Xinqi to see the cement he had initially made, and he was ready to participate in the construction.

"Recently, this 'cement' mixed with river sand has been used as an adhesive for laying foundations and building brick columns. It is much cheaper than using glutinous rice and other materials before, and it is also more efficient and stronger." Liu Lisheng said. Very satisfied with this cement.

"But making this cement is too troublesome. Just grinding the raw materials in the early stage consumes more than half of the manpower of the kiln." said the student responsible for developing cement.

Liu Xinqi stepped forward and picked up a small mortar block made of cement and river sand. He rubbed it vigorously with his hands, and some powder fell from it.

"You are also very good, but don't be complacent. The strength of the cement you are making now is still very low. Later, while meeting the needs of construction sites, we must continue to develop cement with higher strength."

"The same goes for Xinshi. If colorless glass is developed, we in Liujiabao will really have no worries about food and drink." Liu Xinqi cooled the two of them down a little and continued:

"I will send another hundred horses to the construction site later. You two will study how to use these animals to grind raw materials."

A group of horses had been captured at the infantry camp before, but they were of little use in Penglai.

"It's simple, just put them on a stone mill." Liu Xinshi suggested just after Liu Xinqi finished speaking.

Liu Xinqi patted him on the head and said.

"Do you think it's grinding flour? Using stones to crush stones? You can try to use iron to make a machine that can be cyclically squeezed to crush and grind cement raw materials."

"Also, the research and development of kilns cannot be relaxed. After we can easily make glass and cement later, we can start building blast furnaces for ironmaking."

In fact, the current kiln temperature can barely make iron, but it can only be regarded as a "earth blast furnace", which can refine pig iron, but pig iron cannot be cast and needs to be continuously refined.

Liu Xinqi plans to wait for the kiln technology to be upgraded, and directly develop a small blast furnace to refine steel with a carbon content of less than 2%. By then, Liujiabao's weapons and equipment will be rapidly improved, and usable muskets will be within reach.

After learning about the current research and development progress, Liu Xinqi stayed in Baishiwan for another ten days. During this period, on the one hand, he had a deeper understanding of the current "technological" situation of Liujiabao's kilns, and on the other hand, he solved problems for the "scientific researchers" here. Some difficult and complicated problems.

There are also some difficult and miscellaneous problems, and Liu Xinqi doesn't know how to solve them, so he can only provide some solutions to the world's people based on their knowledge and thinking, so that they can figure it out by themselves.

The concept of "science" was initially established in the minds of these people.

Science is a theory that correctly reflects the nature and laws of the world, and is the objective nature and laws.Although Liu Xinqi's system is very idealistic and unscientific.But Liu Xinqi has only seen his own special case in his past life, so he still believes in science.

Liu Xinqi speculated: "Maybe his "system" can be explained scientifically in the distant future."

(End of this chapter)