Since Li Su has read detailed news reports in his previous life, he is certainly aware of how to deal with these two types of expansive soils and how to avoid pits in history, and what pitfalls these minerals have.

Kaolin, also commonly known as "Guanyin Earth", is the most famous record of this kind of soil in history books, which describes the miserable life of the people in the late Ming Dynasty.

It is said that due to years of famine and excessive taxation, farmers in the northwest had finished eating the bark and grass roots, and could only eat Guanyin soil. After eating too much, they could not pull it out, and their stomachs were bloated. This led to the uprising of farmers such as Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng.

The scientific principle that kaolin feels full, but it can cause constipation and death is mainly because it expands when exposed to water.

Therefore, eating a little bit into the stomach can provide a strong sense of fullness and thus plug the stomach and intestines.

In addition, there is another important purpose in the kaolin industry, which is to burn porcelain, which also includes the firing of various refractory ceramics and other refractory materials.

The Han Dynasty originally had no real porcelain, and it was still a transitional stage from ceramic to porcelain. Before Zhuge Liang fired celadon, the original porcelain of the Han Dynasty was all green-yellow glaze, and it was more yellow, just like the yellow water tanks with glazed surfaces in later rural areas.

When Zhuge Liang improved the original green-yellow porcelain into celadon, he mainly increased the temperature of the porcelain firing kiln by about one or two hundred degrees, but the formula for ceramic soil was not improved much. It was only after the temperature rose that the yellow glaze turned green, which was the celadon that should have become popular in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

But as long as the formula is not improved and kaolin is not added, Zhuge Liang will not be able to burn lighter porcelain.

Kaolin is generally added to porcelain clay. This is a process that was only available after the Song Dynasty in history. It was after that step of improvement that the porcelain burned was light white (it may not be pure white, but the color is much lighter than that of porcelain before the Tang Dynasty, and then there can be blue and white porcelain).

It eventually led to a big explosion in the export of porcelain and was exported to the Arab world and Europe on a large scale.

Of course, near the Fangcheng Pass of Tongbai Mountain, the expansive soil in the riverbed, in addition to kaolin and montmorillonite, is also swelling stone.

Montmorillonite is a harder component than kaolin. After all, the former is loose like soil, while the latter is already considered "stone". The combination of these two types of earth and stones together constitutes the stubborn problem of canal construction.

Montmorillonite has no scene where it can be widely used under the current industrial technical conditions. It is also a kind of stone that is not very hard due to the reaction of igneous rocks (volcanic activity-forming rocks) in an alkaline environment.

It can be seen that the crust movement and uplift in Tongbai Mountain has been relatively obvious since ancient times, so the ridge of the pass is so difficult to dig below, including granite and marble (volcanic rocks mainly include basalt and granite).

When we descended to the hillsides on both sides, there was less granite, and the igneous rocks formed by secondary reactions such as montmorillonite have increased.

Li Su's later understanding of montmorillonite basically stayed at the level of the anti-diarrhea drug "montmorillonite powder", which is the "Simida" that is often sold in pharmacies.

The only effective ingredient of Simida is pure filtering and calcining and crushing smectite fine powder particles. This thing is more effective and safer than eating Guanyin soil to absorb water and stop diarrhea, and the amount is easy to control.

However, if you do not follow the doctor's advice, stopping diarrhea will also turn into constipation. If you eat too much, it will cause you to die of a swelling like eating Guanyin soil. In the final analysis, it also takes advantage of the physical characteristics of expansive soil.

Since Li Su knows these problems, he certainly knows how to eliminate superstitions, promote science, and give everyone confidence, and at the same time overcome these difficulties scientifically.

With some other means, we will strive to turn waste into treasure and share some additional canal construction costs.

...

At this moment, facing those civil officials who shouted that "digging through the Tongbai Mountain Pass was against the will of heaven, but was blocked by Xirang by heaven's punishment", Li Su directly took out his arbitrary side.

He first recorded the identities of those opposing Jingzhou officials. Haha, the leader was actually Kuai Qi from the Kuai Liang family. As a local civil servant in Xiangyang and Nanyang, it was natural for them to participate in this project.

It’s true that the Kuai family is just Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue brothers, and they are a little talented and responsible (although they are also a product that protects local small interest groups and has no big vision), but their nephews, the second generation, are really not good, they have no courage and courage, and they cannot be considered foresight.

It is not unreasonable that they surrendered to Cao and their descendants became the same as others in history.

Li Su can only use these people in the first generation, but they must strictly review their descendants' inheritance of their official positions. The imperial examination system deals with these incompetent officials who have family backgrounds.

After taking a good list and roughly examining the different motives they opposed in their hearts, Li Su must crack down on those who have ulterior motives that want to pull the blame. He must save those officials who are just worried about abuse of people's wealth and waste their power.

Don’t ask Li Su how he judged it, he could naturally see the motives of most people to object. After all, he can also learn from the records of the character of these civil officials in history books. It doesn’t matter if there are some small officials with little reputations misjudged it.

Li Su found a group of scolding soldiers who followed the army, all of whom were loud, and then directly called out through them:

"I have repeatedly emphasized that those strange powers and gods are not the words of gentlemen. The ignorant legends of folk villains may be forgiven. After eating Han fortune for a long time, but using ghosts and gods to obstruct the court's major plans, their hearts can be punished!

Don’t panic. There is no such thing as the world. It’s just that the ancients were ignorant and could not explain the principles of all things, so they gave a rough and simple understanding.

In ancient times, perhaps when Gun used a dam to control water, there was indeed a scene where soil expanded and rose by itself, so it was recorded by word of mouth. But the scene at that time was at most similar to ours today.

These are two minerals. This yellow-white soil, called kaolin, is named after it is commonly found on gentle slopes on both sides of granite-like uplifting mountains. It is made by the ancient earth fire erupting, eroding into a rock, and then infiltrating alkaline earth. Its characteristic is that it expands when exposed to water, which is natural, and there is nothing to be afraid of.

This slightly yellow stone, which is almost pure white, is called montmorillonite. According to the "Shennong Bencao Jing", this stone is completely crushed and cleaned, filtered and calcined back into powder, which can cause diarrhea and has rapid therapeutic effect.

Even if it has not been cleaned and calcined, it is simply crushed and filtered directly in powder form, and can be taken in small quantities to stop diarrhea. It is nothing more than more impurities and cannot guarantee whether there are any other harmful substances.

So these two things have existed since ancient times, so don’t spread rumors about Xirang!”

Of course, the "Shennong Bencao Jing" does not write the prescription for Simida to treat diarrhea, so this point was made up by Li Su.

But he read a lot of books and had a high prestige in the academic world. Moreover, there has never been a fixed version of the book "Bencao Jing" and was copied by hand. Master Sikong said that he had read more folk remedies, and no one dared to question it.

The swearing players acted as second matchmakers, reposted Li Su's words for more than ten miles, and tens of thousands of working people heard them.

After repeated several times, the people who were in panic in the past few days were temporarily inspired by the fear of God's punishment and the futility of the people.

"It turns out that there is no soil for the past? These things are called montmorillonite and kaolin. This montmorillonite can also be used as a medicinal material to cure diseases, but it expands a little faster.

Then we just do more work. As long as the court recognizes our workload and does not force the construction period, we always calculate the money or the number of labor days, and give us a full meal, then continue to do it!"

These tens of thousands of new recruits and the recruited civilians are quite simple, and they all think so.

Moreover, Li Su's prestige is indeed high. It is said that he knows everything and plans in the world. Since he is confident in his words, he always has to give him some face.

However, if there are over 10,000 people, there are always people who are suspicious, and there are people who just happen to face a special situation that is relatively difficult.

After so many days of construction, there are not many people in the team who have suffered injuries or even died unexpectedly. Some injured people originally thought they would not have to work and could breathe a sigh of relief, but now they are told that they have not yet been relieved, and they are inevitably resentful.

In addition, although Li Su has always asked Gao Shun and Guoyuan to do such large-scale projects, because the crowds of people are too dense, they must do a good job in hygiene when camping.

But there are tens of thousands of people on each side of Bowangye County, and the project construction period has lasted for more than half a year (it was stopped for a while during spring plowing), so the epidemic of gastrointestinal diseases is definitely inevitable. At this moment, there are nearly a thousand diarrhea patients with varying degrees of severity in the camp, which is also one of the most mainstream diseases for abnormal reduction of staff in the construction team.

So, several officers suffering from severe diarrhea, with some typical patients under their command, plucked up the courage to question Li Su's statement and asked to give it a try:

"Sikong, you are highly respected and we dare not believe your words. But there are already 100 people in our camp who vomit and diarrhea, and it will not take long before they are not cured. General Gao asked us to gather together in one place for easy control.

Since you said that this 'montmorillonite' is effective in stopping diarrhea, it is better to let us test the medicine. As long as it can cure the disease, we will believe what you said. We have no complaints about how much work we will do in the future and how long the river will take to dig!"

"What's the difficulty? Guoyuan immediately sent some people to dig this pure white and slightly yellow stone. The color must not be wrong, and it must be clean. Use a pestle and mortar to crush it into fine powder. The finer the better, sieve the impurities, calcinate and disinfect.

If time is too late, you can wash it and then calcinate it and roast it. If the patient is in a hurry, it doesn’t matter if it’s time to try it right away.”

Li Su also observed the conditions of some patients, because there are many people, and there are definitely some minor or serious cases. There are only a small group of patients with severe symptoms that are so serious that they only have one breath left. If you don’t drink the medicine today, you may die.

In this case, the time to make a pharmaceutical product has to be seized, and some links are too late to take it slowly. Anyway, if you don’t treat it, you will die. If you live, you will be considered a life-saving.

Guoyuan immediately explained to him personally, because the camp was dirty, in order to try to clean the stone samples, they also went to a high place near the pass. They had previously discovered that there was montmorillonite and then dug deeper, and then took the stones to crush the medicine.

Li Su himself continued to inspect the site. He worked for several hours. Finally, he made the stone medicine powder he could drink and took a batch of patients with obvious vomiting and diarrhea.

Of course, Li Su also popularized medical theory in advance. After all, Simida can only be effective for diarrhea such as acute gastroenteritis. For diarrhea caused by other bacterial dysenteritis or other infectious gastrointestinal diseases, it cannot be cured. At most, less diarrhea is temporarily reduced.

Therefore, as long as the state of stopping diarrhea appears, it will be effective. Whether it can be cured in the end can only be left to fate.

Everyone also expressed their understanding of this, especially civil and military officials. Those who are knowledgeable about their studies and knowledge of the same symptoms but different conditions will not be demanding.

Li Su continued to inspect the construction site and listened to other reports. He stayed until the evening of that day when the officials from Guoyuan came to report, saying that he had indeed observed that hundreds of civilians with diarrhea had improved to varying degrees.

I heard that this kind of stone powder can indeed be used to treat diseases and is effective. After the news spread, the confidence of civilians and soldiers boosted a lot.

Li Su also instructed each battalion to arrange officers, and on the premise of doing a good job in hygiene, they could visit the patient's patient's patient's disease and confirm the situation with their own eyes. Do not go to too many people, so as not to make the hygiene work difficult. Each battalion just sends a military Sima to see it.

Because I had been busy for too long, it was already dark. Fortunately, the construction site was not far from Bowang County, and it was only more than twenty miles away. Li Su's team rode back to the city to rest on a torch, and came to inspect the results the next day.

The next morning, Li Su got up diligently and came to the construction site soon after dawn. The situation and atmosphere he saw were completely different from the day before.

Obviously, the whole army had verified the efficacy of montmorillonite powder in one night, making people know that this thing was not Xirang.

More importantly, when I first took the medicine, there were actually many ignorant soldiers and civilians who were still rumoring and misrepresenting:

"Since this kind of stone powder is swelling when it encounters water, after eating it, the medical workers in the camp also told them to drink more clean hot water to replenish the water that had been removed from diarrhea. Wouldn't the expanded stone powder be infinitely swelling and swelling to death?"

After a night of rest, the first batch of patients who had initially cured at least relieved the condition had been excreted normally again. The suspicious people observed from the side and found that this stone powder would not swell without limit and swell to death, which also restored confidence in the project.

This thing can be eaten, but it won’t kill people, which means that the expansion rate is limited! Therefore, the work can be completed.

People are not afraid of the hard work and the heavy workload. They are afraid of not seeing the end and do not know if they can finish it.

As long as the fact that "inflated rate is limited" is discovered, it will naturally remove the most serious factors that shake morale.

Guoyuan lived on the construction site, so he found out the changes in the people's hearts below earlier than Li Su. Seeing that Li Su came to inspect again, he was the first to come forward to report the good news:

"Sikong is really omniscient and has extremely magical calculations. Not only has he cured the patient, but he also has made people calculate the expansion rate. Now, although we still know that the future is difficult, we at least believe that the work can be completed.

However, I wonder if Sikong has any other wonderful method to solve the problem of 'kaolin'. Can that kaolin be used as medicine? "
Chapter completed!