There was no other choice, so Zhai Jie could only take people to compile a book called "Making Bricks and Tiles", then ask the Printing Bureau to print the book urgently and then rush it to the kiln.

The migrant laborers from Liangzhou were very surprised to see that Zhai Jie, a pale-faced scholar, was actually using a book to instruct them how to load the kiln.

In the past, for any craft, this was a secret that only old masters knew!

In this era, cooking skills that can make a living are equivalent to heirlooms. Many of them are passed down from father to son and grandson to grandson. Not to mention outsiders, even daughters may not pass them on.

But now, Zhai Jie forced them to study. If anyone did not study hard, they could only eat half of their dinner, as if he was afraid that they would not be able to learn.

There were large areas of thatched grass near the brick kiln. At first, Zhai Jie had no idea what they were used for. Later, after asking a veteran craftsman who had worked in the brick kiln, he learned that they were planted specifically as fuel. The earth kiln could only burn well with such "soft firewood". Hard firewood was too strong and it was not easy to control the flames.

While the earthen kiln was firing bricks, Zhai Jie directed the labor team to continuously cut grass and dig soil. The straw bales and soil piled up so high that they looked like a small hill.

When the production machine was adjusted, the flywheel began to rotate with the help of the hydraulic drive device, driving the operation of the brick-making machine.

The illiterate refugees only saw piles of clay being poured into a wide open hole, and then many iron pieces moving up and down in a dazzling manner. Then they saw the flat adobes being neatly cut into whole slabs of bricks as if under a spell!

Even the most skilled brick maker can't do it so fast!

Everyone was dumbfounded. The Mohist disciples were too powerful. Moreover, the speed at which they made things was simply beyond the reach of mortals. Some people were so scared that they knelt down in front of the roaring machines and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Why are you kowtowin'? Hurry up and deliver the materials!"

Zhai Jie yelled at the dazed workers, saying that these workers had just fled from Hangu Pass. The Qiang people had been making trouble recently, and a large number of Han people had fled to Luoyang, and were then sent here to work.

These people are willing to work as long as they are given a meal. It is cheap, but their brains are not very good. When they see something new, they kneel on the ground and kowtow, which makes Zhai Jie very upset.

After all, the Mohists kept their distance from the concept of ghosts and gods.

"We understand, sir, please calm down!"

"Work! Work!"

Zhai Jie waved his stick vigorously, his voice already trained: "Move the soil, hurry up, those who are slow will be thrown into the iron mouth!"

This kind of intimidation was much more effective than his stick. Every refugee developed a superstitious fear of the machine. They all worked very hard, fearing that they would be thrown into the machine's mouth if they worked too slowly.

In their understanding, this kind of steel monster would have required human sacrifice to drive it in ancient times, right? It is said that the tyrant King Zhou liked to sacrifice human beings to ghosts and gods, and refined the bones, blood and even souls of living people into gold, creating a powerful monster called "Heavenly Soldiers".

However, these ancient histories are now only legends, and human sacrifices have long been abolished by the imperial court.

But ordinary people are still afraid. After all, how many of the powerful and wealthy will honestly abide by the law?
So they worked extra hard at this time. Besides the fact that the wages were indeed high, the main reason was that they were afraid of angering Zhai Jie and putting their lives in danger.

At the scene, the finished bricks were pulled to the stockpile yard by wheelbarrows. The original drying sheds were vacated and used to stack these newly made bricks. All bricks were made according to the standards set by Zhai Jie, and the specifications were very uniform.

There is no doubt that the production speed of machines far exceeds that of manual labor.

Before evening, the clay that the brick-making workers had prepared and was said to be enough to last for more than three months was used up in one day, so that the machines had to stop working temporarily.

When Zhai Jie saw this, he was so worried that the production task would be delayed, which would be a disaster.

After successfully building the rotary kiln, Zhai Jie's other task was to build a cement plant and improve the existing cement technology.

The cement formula that Wang Jing had given before required modern production technology in many links. However, cement production in the industrial age has become a highly specialized and mechanized large-scale production, which involves many special large-scale dedicated equipment, such as crushers, rotary kilns, ball mills, etc.

This is the Three Kingdoms period, where can we get these things?

Therefore, they could only use primitive methods, and the cement produced was of poor quality and far from meeting Wang Jing's requirements.

In order to improve the quality of cement, Wang Jing asked Zhai Jie to think of a solution.

After receiving the order, Zhai Jie also led people to study the geographical environment near Luoyang and improved the formula. The raw materials needed for cement, such as clay, lime, gypsum, etc., have been found in the vicinity of Mengjin Port, but the ingredients are slightly different from the requirements in the formula and need to be processed.

The clay in the soil excavation site of the brick kiln that Zhai Jie had previously renovated had little sand content and was reddish in texture.

According to Wang Jing's explanation, Zhai Jiecai learned that this meant that the sand contained high iron content and was very suitable for burning cement.

After much consideration, Zhai Jie decided to make a new type of cement using whatever means available to meet the upcoming large-scale construction needs.

This new type of cement does not require complicated equipment and processes. The process is very simple. It is to crush the fired bricks or pottery into powder, or directly calcine the lime and clay in the kiln. The process is extremely simple, and the calcination temperature is - degrees Celsius, which is much lower than the degree Celsius required for firing silicate cement.

After Zhai Jie studied it several times, he immediately asked someone to get a batch of red bricks fired in the brickyard for experiment.

The workers followed his instructions and used hammers to break the bricks into blocks. The grinding work was originally planned to be done by using a stone mill pulled by manpower or horsepower.

After grinding and sifting, Zhai Jie mixed the powder with lime and then added water. Under the watchful eyes of the construction team, the mixture was used to build a wall.

After drying, it was proved that this burnt clay cement was completely usable. Of course, it could not be compared with real silicate cement, but it could be used as an adhesive for building materials and even to make concrete that did not require much strength.

This discovery made Zhai Jie excited. Even the masons who were breaking the bricks felt proud of it, with excited expressions on their faces as if they were also involved in this major event that changed the course of history.

These craftsmen from Yanzhou have been working as masons for decades, building walls and houses by mixing loess, lime and water for bonding.

The most sophisticated one is just mortar with glutinous rice juice added, but it is actually possible to make mortar by grinding brick powder to stick together bricks!

This kind of thing was really beyond their poor imagination. They felt that they had made the right decision not to leave the road construction team but to follow Marquis Qi to Luoyang.

I didn't expect that they have been playing with mud all their lives, but now under Zhai Jie's guidance, they can really make something out of mud. It's incredible.

Cement is the most basic building material. With cement, the construction speed can be greatly improved.

With cement, refractory bricks are also needed to build a rotary kiln.

Refractory bricks are also one of the cornerstones of modern industry. Without them, there is no hope for rotary kilns, cement kilns, and even blast furnaces in the future.

With refractory bricks and cement, building a rotary kiln was a piece of cake for the construction team. A few days later, the brick-red chimney of the rotary kiln spewed thick black smoke into the air for the first time.

"Fuck, it's so beautiful."

Yang Xiu and Zhai Jie stood in front of the new factory and muttered to themselves, with an intoxicated look in their eyes. The scene that was hated by everyone two thousand years later as a symbol of backwardness and pollution was now regarded by them as the most beautiful thing.

At this time, the brick-red chimney of this rotary kiln stood proudly among the green mountains and waters on the banks of the Wenlan River, beginning the supreme feat of mankind's transformation of nature.

The rotary kiln needs to be warmed up before starting to fire. The construction team then set out to Mengjin Port, where they built a wood drying kiln for the wood processing plant. With this standard drying kiln, the wood group can continuously provide qualified wood products to the construction site in Luoyang.

Instead of the temporary substitute wood that is dried in earthen kilns and has varying humidity levels and may shrink and deform at any time.

Zhai Jie would not participate in this matter. Someone would be responsible for the size and materials of the drying kiln anyway.

Watching the construction team climb onto the farm vehicle and move toward Bo, he suddenly remembered something and immediately asked a few of his men, "Talk to the wood group about building another wood distillation kiln." "Dry distillation kiln?"

"It's a kiln for burning charcoal. You guys study it first and see when it can be put into production."

Since there is no coal, we have to use charcoal as a substitute.

Dry distillation of wood can not only produce charcoal, but also obtain wood tar, which is used as a chemical raw material. This is a complex compound that can be refined into many useful substances.

It was break time at the construction site, and the cook brought meals to the workers working in the brick factory.

Now, Zhai Ping has taught them to line up by using sticks.

Queuing is a basic social order and a manifestation of everyone's generally fair access to resources. The reason why Chinese people don't like queuing seems to have nothing to do with personal qualities.

Perhaps it is largely related to the long-term shortage of social resources. Whoever follows the order will suffer, so over time no one likes to queue up anymore. When there is a chance, they will rush forward and push others to the back. Zhai Ping thinks this makes some sense.

Just like the distribution of food now, although each team has a captain to maintain order, the whole team is still a bit messy, and everyone hopes to be in the front. It is only under the coercion of the traversers that the order of the team is barely maintained.

Zhai Ping was satisfied with the work of his workers. During the entire project, he seemed to be just walking around and observing the team.

Zhai Jie has already transported two batches of pig iron ingots and a small amount of wrought iron from Bingzhou, totaling tons, and tons of urgently needed coal, which can roughly meet the initial large-scale steelmaking needs.

At present, Zhai Jie uses the converter steelmaking method. Ships transport large quantities of coal and iron ore through the Yellow River for use nearby. The current steelmaking workshop is just a large brick column shed, with a table-type converter and a cupola lined up on the hardened floor.

Li Feng, a craftsman in Qiqiao Pavilion, has mastered a lot of steelmaking techniques. Although they cannot be compared with the technology of later converter steelmaking, he has figured out the principles under the guidance of Wang Jing. Now, he can also use a converter side blowing method to make iron based on the test results of pig iron composition. When using the converter side blowing method, a certain proportion of wrought iron must be added.

After discovering the refractory materials produced in Luoyang, the metallurgical team led by Li Feng has built a smelting furnace. This circular smelting furnace is not large, but it is much more complicated than the converter.

Because the converter requires that the molten iron coming out of the cupola must reach degrees Celsius. This temperature is difficult to reach with ordinary fuels. Before the regenerator was built, the highest temperature that could be reached artificially was degrees Celsius.

To reach this temperature, the cold blast must be replaced with hot blast, which is the so-called "heat storage chamber".

The metallurgical group led by Li Feng now uses a cast iron tubular hot air furnace.

The cold blast is passed from the upper branch pipe of the blast pipe main pipe to each heating furnace, and enters the pipe on the other side of the heat exchange chamber through the arched cast iron pipe located above the fire, and then enters the tuyere of the ironmaking furnace.

The entire apparatus is sealed in a thickly arched heating furnace built with bricks and refractory materials to preserve and reflect as much heat as possible. The blast is directly heated to a temperature of degrees Celsius, enough to melt lead.

However, this temperature still did not satisfy the metallurgical group, so another measure was to heat the exhaust gas. The exhaust gas from the iron-smelting furnace was led out from the top of the iron-smelting furnace through a ceramic pipe, entered the heat storage furnace from the top, and was discharged from the exhaust gas port at the bottom.

"Team leader, you're here?"

In Qiqiao Pavilion, the craftsmen of the metallurgical group were looking at Li Feng with admiration. As the first blacksmith to be awarded the title of skilled worker, he was now well-known in the capital, especially in the blacksmith circle. He had become a living legend and his name was known everywhere.

"Well, how's the experiment going?"

Li Feng looked around and nodded to everyone.

Although Li Feng is not the oldest in the metallurgical group, he has the strongest talent. He is very talented in metal smelting, and even his luck is much better than other blacksmiths.

Wang Jing passed on to him some of the smelting experiences that he remembered were developed by the British around the 18th century. There was no complete theory, only some scattered techniques and methods, but he managed to grasp the essence of them. Now he has applied them to other situations and established a new theoretical knowledge system.

All I can say is that there really are geniuses in this world.

Thanks to Li Feng's efforts and achievements, the army under Wang Jing's command now uses better weapons and armor than other vassal forces, and its combat effectiveness has increased sharply.

In order to ensure the supply of materials for the army, Wang Jing spent a huge amount of money to invest in factories and produce steel.

After all, weapons and equipment are consumables. Conventional swords are often severely worn out after a battle, or even broken beyond repair and can only be melted down and recast.

Without a sufficiently strong production system, it would be impossible to withstand such drastic material consumption.

If Li Feng had not invented the "primitive method of steelmaking", Wang Jing would probably be unable to fight soon, unless he could tolerate his soldiers going to the battlefield with inferior iron tools.

In the ironworks, there were clanging sounds everywhere. Those were the sounds made by the hydraulic forging hammers at work. It was very noisy, but to Li Feng's ears, it sounded like nature's music.

Li Feng walked in and found an old blacksmith and asked, "Old Li, how is the production now?"

"Team leader!"

Old Li is a blacksmith from Yanzhou. He is a whole generation older than Li Feng, but he doesn't dare to take advantage of his seniority in the ironworks. Here, those who are more experienced come first, and seniority is not a norm.

Because he likes to brag about his heroic deeds when he was young, everyone likes to call him Lao Li.

Although he likes to brag, Lao Li is still very good at blacksmithing. He is also quick-witted and, more importantly, he can read.

So not long after he arrived, Lao Li was spotted by Li Feng, who asked him to join the metallurgical group.

The Metallurgical Group is responsible for improving the metal smelting process. Specific production matters are not under their jurisdiction. However, part of the research that Li Feng is currently responsible for includes the option of increasing steel production.

The production of machines also requires a large amount of steel, so Jia Xu also assigned Li Feng the task of researching and developing ways to expand production capacity technologically.

Old Li stared at the blast furnace with an excited look in his eyes. He gave Li Feng a thumbs up and said, "Team Leader, the solution you came up with earlier is simply amazing!"

"good results?"

"Of course. We followed your instructions and first refined the charcoal into coke, and then refined the iron. As expected, we got high-quality steel, and the process became simpler than before. In this way, the production capacity can be greatly increased."

Since coming to Luoyang and seeing the endless emergence of new technologies, Lao Li's original three views have been shattered.

Ordinary refugees are illiterate and have no idea what technology is. In their eyes, many incredible things are often regarded as magic that only ghosts and gods can perform.

But Lao Li was different. Although he did not come from a good family, he had received several years of education, could read and write, and had mastered a craft. Therefore, he knew that this was not magic, but technology and science.

Although Lao Li himself did not quite understand what science was and how it was different from Confucianism and Taoism, he knew very well that the technologies before him were extremely powerful, even more powerful than the talisman water of the Taiping Dao that was rumored to be able to cure diseases and save lives!

How can making soldiers out of beans be compared to smelting iron into steel?

Being able to produce steel on a large scale was something that Lao Li had never dared to think about in the past.

Before Li Feng improved the steel smelting technology, no matter how skilled a blacksmith was, he could only smelt ore into pig iron, and then obtain usable wrought iron by repeatedly folding, forging, and quenching it to remove impurities.

Steel is even more difficult to obtain.

For example, the term "hundred times of tempering" is exaggerated, but the repeated process is already imaginable. (End of this chapter)