Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 46 Building a Brick Kiln
It took Zhao Wen more than two hours to assign all the personnel.

First, Zhao Wen gathered all skilled people.

There are about a hundred of these people, of whom more than 50 are masons and more than 30 are carpenters.Surprisingly, nearly 20 of them have been dried in a brick kiln before and burned green bricks.Moreover, the one who fired the blue bricks was the one who fired bricks for the Great Wall when it was repaired in the 44th year of Wanli.

The bricks of this Great Wall are not ordinary, much better than the red bricks of later generations.Green bricks have a high density, are stronger than red bricks, and are not easily deformed.Although the temperature it bears is not necessarily higher than that of red bricks, it is more load-bearing than red bricks.

Green bricks are fired from clay, which is the product of long-term weathering of certain aluminosilicate minerals, so it is named for its strong viscosity.The clay is mixed with water to make adobe, which is calcined in a brick kiln (about 1000°C) to make bricks.Clay contains iron, and when it is completely oxidized during the firing process, it will produce red iron oxide, which is the most commonly used red brick.However, if water is added to cool during the firing process, the iron in the clay is not completely oxidized and low-priced iron (FeO) is formed, which is blue, that is, green bricks.

Zhao Wen divided the masons into five groups, and each group of ten people set up a team leader who was directly responsible to himself.Carpentry is the same, divided into three groups, with three team leaders.

And the one who fired the blue bricks was a large group of nearly twenty people, directly led by Zhao Wen.

The reason why Zhao Wen was the team leader was because he valued the workers who fired the blue bricks.

You must know that those who burn green bricks not only burn green bricks, but also build brick kilns for firing green bricks.

Although many masons can also build brick kilns, how much experience do they have compared with those who stay with brick kilns all year round?
Whether a brick kiln can be built is very important to Zhao Wen.After all, many things in Zhao Wen's future will need a blast furnace similar to a brick kiln to realize.

As for the remaining hundreds of people, they were divided into several groups by Zhao Daniu and others, and Zhao Daniu led them to clean up the ruined Longmen Fort first.

Zhao Wen stood in a huge open space, looked at the skilled workers in front of him, and shouted loudly: "Will you build a furnace for firing bricks?"

"My lord, those of us who burn bricks will certainly build brick furnaces."

An old man over forty years old with a raspy face stood up and said to Zhao Wen respectfully.

In this era, 40 years old is already an old man.After all, the living standards in ancient times were poor and the average life expectancy was low.It is not an empty talk that people over 70 are rare in ancient times. Even the emperors of the Ming Dynasty lived to be [-] years old.

"We can do it too, isn't it just a brick-burning stove? We must be better than them in building it. This is our specialty!" A mason stood up and looked at the 40-year-old man in disbelief.

"What's your name?" Zhao Wen asked, looking at the two contenders in front of him.

"Zhou Lao Liu!" said the mason.

"Wang Liuqi!" said the brick burner.

Hearing the names of these two people, Zhao Wen couldn't help laughing, and said, "Tsk tsk tsk, this name is really interesting."

"You said that you all know how to build a brick furnace? You didn't lie to me, did you? The repair of Longmen Fort requires a lot of bricks and tiles. If you don't know how to build or make a mistake and miss the time to repair the brick kiln, do you know that this is a big problem?" What crime?" Zhao Wen narrowed his eyes and looked at the two people coldly.

Zhou Laoliu was in his early 20s, he was in his prime, and he was at the age of being competitive. He stared at Wang Liuqi and shouted: "If the villain doesn't know how to build a brick kiln, or if he builds a brick kiln wrongly, The villain is at the disposal of the adults. Although the villain is a mason, he has built the brick kiln. The villain still knows exactly how to build the brick kiln."

When Wang Liuqi heard this, his heart was furious.Are you saying that those of us who burn bricks don’t know how to build brick kilns?This is our ability to eat, can't we?

So Wang Liuqi pointed at Zhou Laoliu's nose and yelled at Zhou Laoliu: "You little boy with no hair, you are playing big swords at your grandfather's? When I was burning bricks, your father I'm not married to your mother yet, and you're yelling at me, who do you accuse Sang and Huai of?"

Looking at the two people scolding each other, Zhao Wen couldn't help but rubbed his head, and then shouted: "Stop it all, the most urgent thing now is to build me a brick kiln first. Each of you will build me a brick kiln first. Let’s see the effect first. If one builds well, the other one must listen to the one that built well. Then I will build another twenty brick kilns all at once. Do you hear me?”

Wang Liuqi and Zhou Laoliu looked at each other, and then said in unison: "Follow your lord's order!"

"Okay, you guys hurry up first. For the bricks for the brick kiln, first remove the collapsed walls in the fort. By the way, those of you who know how to carpenter work, go to help them too, and be sure to do it in the shortest possible time." Get the brick kiln out for me within the time."

After Zhao Wen finished speaking, he squatted on the ground alone, picked up a branch and began to write and draw continuously on the ground.

Zhou Laoliu and Wang Liuqi walked away hurriedly with their respective troops.

"What are you writing, my lord?" At this moment, Li Xiaoying walked over slowly wearing a pink double-breasted skirt.

She looked at Zhao Wen holding a branch, drawing on the ground non-stop, blinking her eyes, and asked curiously.

"Oh, so it was you. I was thinking about the specific formula of cement!" Zhao Wen looked up and found that it was Li Xiaoying, so he continued to write and draw on the ground.

Li Xiaoying squatted next to Zhao Wen, seeing Zhao Wen writing many strange characters on the ground, so she asked curiously, "What are these characters? Why haven't I seen them before?"

"These are Arabic numerals."

"Arabic numerals? Why have I never heard of this?"

"Of course you haven't heard of it. I dare say that I am the only one who understands it in the entire Ming Dynasty." Zhao Wen put down the branch in his hand, clapped his hands, and said, "Go, accompany me to the castle."

Zhao Wen put his hands behind his back and walked towards Longmen Fort, Li Xiaoying followed closely behind him.

A gust of wind blew past, rolled up the dust on the ground, and threw Zhao Wen's face.

Zhao Wen rubbed his face and said, "Winter is about to start now, and the Longmen Fort has not been built yet, which is really annoying."

"Why is Brother Zhao so anxious? It's not a matter of a day or two to build a castle. Why is Brother Zhao so anxious?"

Zhao Wen didn't answer, but just stared blankly at the extremely busy migrant workers in the fort.

……

Seven days later, Zhao Wen was sitting in the repaired garrison mansion drinking hot tea when he suddenly heard an extremely noisy sound coming from the door.

Zhao Wen put down his teacup and walked out accompanied by Li Xiaoying.

In the past few days, Zhao Daniu and others have been so busy that they have lost all human appearance, and they almost eat and live on the construction site.

Thanks to the labor of the past few days, Longmen Fort was finally cleaned up.

As long as Longmen Fort is cleaned up, the rest will be easy to handle.

"What's going on? What's the point of the noise in the early morning?" Zhao Wen shouted sharply, looking at the noisy crowd blocking the door.

The crowd who were arguing saw Zhao Wen coming out, shut their mouths hastily, and fell into silence.

Zhao Wen looked at the people in front of him and asked, "What are you doing here? Why don't you go to work?"

"My lord, the brick kiln has been built." Zhou Laoliu hurriedly squeezed out from the crowd. He first gave a big gift to Zhao Wen, and then said, "My lord, our brick kiln has been built."

"My lord, ours is also finished." Wang Liuqi stood up unconvinced, and turned to stare at Zhou Laoliu.

"Finished?" Zhao Wen's eyes lit up, looking at the two of them.

That's right, the brick kiln should have been built in the seven days.

"Where is it? Hurry up and take me there." Zhao Wen asked anxiously, looking at the two of them impatiently.

"Your Excellency follow me."

Zhou Laoliu hurriedly led Zhao Wen towards the outside of Longmen Fort.

"Is this the brick kiln you built?" Zhao Wen asked suspiciously, pointing to the small, boxy house in front of him.

Why is this brick kiln so small?How many bricks can such a small brick kiln burn at one time?

Zhao Wen has seen the brick kilns of later generations. In Zhao Wen's opinion, the brick kiln in front of him may not be as big as the small brick kilns of later generations.

Zhou Laoliu scratched his head and said, "Yes, this is our built brick kiln."

"Hehe, it's so dilapidated that you dare to call it a brick kiln, isn't it a joke?" Wang Liuqi stood aside, looking at the brick kiln, and kept sneering.

"The brick kiln doesn't mean whoever's is bigger, but whoever's is better. It depends on how the bricks are fired." Zhou Laoliu said unconvinced.

"My lord, please go and see the brick kiln we built." Wang Liuqi turned his head, cupped his hands at Zhao Wengong, and said flatteringly.

"Okay, then go have a look."

　Thank you Song Bingshu for your reward, thank you very much.At the same time, I would also like to thank all readers for their great votes of recommendation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)