Dressed as a widow, raising cubs, farming and building infrastructure in Ming Dynasty

The three main raw materials for cement - limestone, clay and iron ore - have been found, and the limestone and clay are ground together into raw meal.It's a laborious job.

Qin Liu's method is to use oxen and horses to pull and rotate stone mills to grind limestone, clay, etc.

Next, the raw material is calcined until it is partially or completely melted, which is called clinker.

Finally, cement is obtained by grinding clinker and iron powder or iron slag together.

Making grinding tools is a laborious process.

Qin Liu had to lament that it was so difficult to start everything from scratch.

Her future idea is to use cast iron platforms for crushing and grinding after the iron is successfully smelted.

Ten days later, the first batch of cement was finally produced.

Qin Liu gave it a try.

Mix cement mixed with water and small stones to build a wall half a person high.

After a few days, the wall turned out to be as strong as the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty!

The herdsmen's jaws dropped when they saw how the wall was built.

When the brick kiln was opened, Old Man Lou came back from Shabaozi Town and brought back several masonry craftsmen.

Qin Liu looked at the masons who were either old or young, and his forehead twitched.

"Can't you find some masons in their prime?"

Old Man Lou still had his hands on his sleeves and his shoulders hunched: "Shopkeeper, all the men in their prime have families. Who is willing to come to this bitter and cold place like ours? These craftsmen are quite good, you can rest assured to use them!"

Qin Liu had no choice but to do this.

However, what surprised her was that the bricks coming out of the brick kiln were actually blue bricks!
This made her overjoyed.

Before the brick kiln is opened, whether it is blue bricks or red bricks is like a gamble.

Only those craftsmen with extremely rich experience can grasp the cooling effect of water injection and have a high probability of obtaining blue bricks.

Red bricks are semi-finished products. Although they can be used, they are not as strong and durable as blue bricks.

With the green bricks, cement, and craftsmen gathered together, the building of a house can officially begin.

As for sewer pipes, porcelain faucets, and other items, Qin Liu was a little worried.

Her original intention was to invite the owner of the porcelain kiln near Shabaozi Town with whom she had good cooperation to come to Duolun to help her make these. Unfortunately, when Old Man Lou went to invite him, he refused to come at all.

Do you want to make a porcelain kiln yourself?

Qin Liu only felt exhausted.

There are no industrial facilities on the grassland, so she has to make everything herself, which is really hard work.

Fortunately, many of these herdsmen are very curious and enthusiastic about learning, especially the teenage boys, who are very interested in the novel things Qin Liu brings, and they are the most motivated followers.

Qin Liu kept no secrets and taught them all the techniques of making bricks and cement, and also let them participate in the production process.

For those young people who were very enthusiastic, she promoted a few and asked them to be responsible for making bricks and cement.

Qin Liu had an idea.

Can she also train professional and technical talents for making porcelain on the spot?
Qin Liu remembered the location of a china clay mine.

She took two young herders with her and told them the principles and recipes for making porcelain kilns, porcelain blanks, and several glaze recipes.

Let them try making porcelain themselves.

She just had her hands full.These two young herders were very smart. They used the grinding equipment used to make cement to grind the porcelain clay into powder, and then made porcelain blanks and glazes according to Qin Liu's formula.

He also learned the structure of a brick kiln and built a small porcelain kiln using blue bricks and cement.

When the first batch of porcelain was fired, Qin Liu was really excited.

This shows that even though she only provides technical guidance, she can also cultivate professional talents!

With the addition of porcelain, the house building project is even more powerful.

After the first brick house with running water was built, all the herders came to visit.

The hot Kang, the automatic water faucet in the kitchen, the shower head, the sewer and the squatting pit are an eye-opener for the herdsmen.

The sheep pen was built with bricks to protect it from wind and wolves, and there was a drinking trough inside that could release water for the sheep. The herdsmen exclaimed: "It would be great if this sheep pen can be taken away!"

Some old herdsmen with a sense of worry came to discuss with Bals.

"This house is good and we can live well in the winter. But what about the livestock? We herdsmen have to live in this place chasing water and grass. When the grass is gone, won't the cattle and sheep starve to death?"

Bars has already thought about this issue.

"If you like, we can sell the fattened mutton sheep to people in Daming in exchange for some grain. We can keep some lambs and pregnant ewes, so that most of the forage can be reduced. Combined with manual weeding and stacking, we can solve part of the problem. question."

For some remote grasslands, dispersed living can only be used.

But if you can rely on the prince and his Han fiancée to live, who would be willing to live in isolation and herd sheep in a miserable way?

Qin Liu had entrusted Old Man Lou to explore Shabaozi Town regarding the exchange of mutton sheep for grain with Ming Dynasty, which was approved by brothers Ma Ang and Ma Yue.

Old Man Lou also reached an agreement with the Guan Ming Army in Dushikou Town. It was a fair price to exchange part of the mutton sheep for part of the grain and other items.

This made the herdsmen who followed Baers overjoyed.

Old Man Lou even brought back some iron tools from the Ming Dynasty - specially made tools for harvesting grass.

This tool was modified from a ribbing car. Between the two large wooden wheels is an iron bearing with a special structure. The rotation of the bearing drives a set of linked knives to rotate and automatically cut horizontally.

When used, herdsmen only need to sit on the reincarnation cart to drive cattle or horses forward. The knife cuts the grass horizontally and cuts a large area quickly without damaging the grass roots.

This is much faster than herders cutting grass manually.

After cutting the grass and drying it for a few days, a rake adapted from a shredder is used to gather the dried grass into a long pile.

Finally, a baler modified from a strangling truck came over to collect and compact the long strips of forage into a haystack, which was piled on the ground, waiting for someone to turn around and carry the haystack back to their residence using a strangling truck.

With the improvement of mechanized production tools, although the power is still the traditional cattle and horses, the production efficiency has been greatly improved.

Winter is coming, and the cattle and sheep live in warmer pens, which are not so cold, and consume less fodder.

Herders have also thought about clearing haystacks before, but the labor cost is too high and it is difficult to achieve.

This method can collect dry pasture before the arrival of the white-haired wind and pile it up into mountains for use by livestock in winter, which is a great improvement.

The herdsmen of Duolun and the hundred families of herdsmen who followed Qin Liu's admiration for Baers and Qin Liu reached a new height.

Brand new and sturdy houses, endless coal that can be dug underground for heating, underground well water, piles of hay, and cattle and sheep that don’t have to run around formed a new grazing model - settled grazing.

……

More than two busy months have passed. The herdsmen have moved into warm and spacious brick houses, the livestock have moved into houses that can protect them from wind and snow, and the first white-haired wind has arrived on the grassland.

Although the number of houses currently built is limited, and each family is only allocated one or two rooms, they are spacious enough compared to yurts.

The transaction with Daming in exchange for meat sheep for grain went very smoothly. (End of chapter)