Those who followed Xu Chen were a group of hunters who had just been wandering in the southeast for a month or two. They were already very experienced in surviving in the wild. They were able to find quiet and sheltered caves or venues with little need for guidance from Xu Chen along the way.
Camping, hunting, making fires, setting up tents, patrolling and guarding, etc. Therefore, although the journey was difficult, Xu Chen didn't worry too much and just moved forward as if he were following a sightseeing tour.
Five days later, they arrived at the territory of a small tribe closest to the poor tribe.
There are only about 40 people in this small tribe, which is smaller than the original Ba tribe. The living environment is also very harsh. It is located in a steep valley, and the cave they live in is not big. In the winter, there is only a fire in the cave.
, it felt like there was nothing, men, women and children wearing tattered animal skins were huddled in the haystacks and shivering from the cold.
Xu Chen was a little surprised by such a poor tribe.
In his impression, it seemed that it had been a long time since there had been such a truly poor tribe around him that lived on dirt and could not afford even a piece of animal skin.
But in fact, this kind of appearance is the normal state of human tribes today, and tribes such as the Ba tribe and the Gonghuo tribe broke through this primitive living state of poverty and weakness only because of his stupidity, and began to make rapid progress in the past two years.
The development of the country presents a completely different atmosphere of civilization.
But Xu Chen is not here to help poverty this time.
In his opinion, if there are no mines in such poor mountains and rivers, it will be impossible to support the tribe. It is best for the tribe to move to Gonghuo Basin as a whole to enrich its town construction and contribute to the future construction of the kingdom...
Therefore, he didn't pay much attention to this small tribe called the Lapp tribe. He just asked people to throw to them more than ten large and small animal skins left after hunting and eating meat along the way, and then asked them to follow them as guides.
.
Faced with Xu Chen's generous act, the Lapp men, women and children were extremely grateful. Several hunters volunteered to lead the way, and a large group of people headed straight for the poor people dozens of miles away.
In fact, some poor people have been wondering when they will come again since the last time the Ji Cang Clan came to exchange items.
Because the Ji tribe and Cang tribe are a little stupid and don't like precious animal skins and beautiful feathers. In the end, they exchanged a bunch of useless and broken stones for exquisite and mysterious pottery and rattan baskets. Therefore, the poor tribe has become addicted to taking advantage of them recently.
, while they were waiting for these fools to come again, they were also collecting a large number of ores of various colors, many of which were very pure cassiterite.
When Xu Chen and others, led by the Lapp tribe, raised their trumpets and came, although the poor tribesmen were briefly panicked and nervous for a while, they were all dancing excitedly soon.
Because those fools really came again last time. Not only did they bring more pottery and rattan baskets, but this time they only changed one kind of stone, and it was easy to find in a valley near the poor people.
Stone.
Therefore, the poor people from top to bottom welcomed the trading team brought by Xu Chen. Not only did they not have the same tense hostility as last time, but they cheered enthusiastically all the way to the habitat. The great witch personally led a group of clan leaders.
Received Xu Chen and others.
There was a poor witch who was still very young, in his forties, with slightly gray hair, and very energetic. He was very happy that Xu Chen and others were willing to come to exchange items again.
Under the translation of the Lapp guide, Xu Chen and Da Wu had a simple exchange, and then took out the pottery, rock salt, fishing nets, hemp ropes, etc. they brought and placed them on the ground to represent these exquisite and magical items.
In the future, they can be exchanged with poor people in large quantities.
Magical and practical pottery is definitely the first choice for poor people. They also like rattan baskets and baskets. After Xu Chen introduced the new fishing nets and hemp ropes, all the hunters who were watching exclaimed.
It’s Dongdong’s magical tool that can easily fish from the river. As for the rope, it is even more useful and is needed everywhere in daily life.
And when Xu Chen melted a salt crystal into a clay pot, and then poured a bowl of salt water for each of the great witch and a group of clan leaders to taste, the whole cave was completely boiling.
Not only did the clan leader and a group of leaders go crazy, but the great witch also tightly grasped the small cloth bag containing the salt crystals and drooled, unwilling to let go.
Even if they don't know where these salty magical stones come from, this soul-satisfying taste is the most familiar and most urgently needed.
The body's urgent need for salt stimulates their souls, making them desperate to get more salt to meet the life needs of the entire tribe.
Therefore, the great witch and a group of clan leaders agreed to Xu Chen's next request for smelting cassiterite without hesitation.
With the mysterious cargo of salt opening the way, the transaction got off to a good start. Xu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, and then expressed that he wanted to go to the valley rich in cassiterite to see the situation, and then guide the poor people to learn smelting.
So the great witch personally accompanied him, and almost the entire poor tribe came out in full force. Hundreds of people surrounded Xu Chen and others and headed straight to a valley a few miles away. Xu Chen didn't go very far along the almost dry stream.
I have already discovered a large amount of scattered cassiterite and washed-out tin sand on the river beach and in the sand. I grabbed a handful of them and they were all densely packed. I dug out the mud on the river beach and found that the thick ones below were all there.
In other words, there is a shallow tin mine nearby that should be very easy to mine.
Xu Chen's speculation was soon confirmed.
The further you go along the valley, the more sediment there is mixed with a large amount of cassiterite and tin sand. Finally, you arrive at the location where the Youqiong tribe had previously found the cassiterite stone, and found that it turned out to be a large collapsed fan-shaped hillside, with a large number of
Half of the river has been silted with rubble, and the hillside is covered with grass and thorns. But it can be seen that the collapse here did not take too long, maybe three to five years.
The cassiterite and tin sand in the river were washed away by rainwater.
Accompanied by the great witch and a group of clan chiefs, Xu Chen climbed to the collapsed hillside and took a look. Sure enough, a lot of traces of cassiterite were found among the large amounts of rubble. A large number of broken cassiterite was mixed with sediment.
Together, they form a kind of sandstone with a diamond luster. If you pull it with a wooden stick a few times, you can see more cassiterite below, and you can also see some associated minerals of other colors, aggregated with the cassiterite.
Together, they reflect the colorful colors under the cold winter sunshine.
This is a very rich tin mine, and it seems that the entire mountain is full of it.
Through a simple analysis of the collapsed part, the tin ores here are mainly primary tin ores, and the main component is tin dioxide. However, most metals have associated habits, so there are inevitably some other metal miscellaneous minerals in these tin ores.
, so the purity will not be particularly high.
But this is not a problem. The melting point of tin is extremely low. If it is heated slightly and reduced with carbon, metallic tin can be obtained. As for other impurities, naturally it can only be discarded as slag.
Although it may contain elements such as copper, lead, zinc, tungsten and even some rare earth elements, to Xu Chen, they are all garbage.
Just like various rare minerals such as gold and gemstones, they have no value or significance at the moment. At most, they are just used to show off.
Found the coveted tin mine.
Xu Chen, who had come from afar, was not in a hurry and went back immediately.
He spent a day exploring the surroundings of the valley to confirm that his guess was correct. Tin was almost all present on the several gravel slopes near the valley. This was an open-pit mine that was extremely easy to develop. Compared with
The steep and narrow copper mine in Uzu is much easier to develop.
Next, he began to discuss with the powerful witch from the poor tribe how to mine and smelt.
Da Wu has no interest in mining and smelting at all. Her only attitude is that no matter what you do, the poor people will fully cooperate. Anyway, just give me pottery, rock salt and other urgently needed items.
After receiving the guarantee from the great witch, Xu Chen arranged for a group of hunters to direct men from poor families to dig earth and mud in the open areas of the valley to build a smelting furnace, cut down trees, dig pits, and build wooden sheds and other supporting facilities.
Although the poor people are large, they are actually no different from the Gonghuo tribe and the Wu tribe in the past. They are still completely stuck in the primitive era of eating raw hair and drinking blood. They do not know how to build houses or make complicated tools. They can only make simple stone knives and stone axes.
and hunting and gathering.
So when I saw Xu Chen and others digging pits, building stoves, logging and building houses in full swing in the valley, I was immediately shocked, and everyone around them was screaming in surprise.
Some powerful witches from poor tribes were also completely frightened by the magical and great creativity of Xu Chen and others.
She only thought that the pottery and fishing nets of Xu Chen and others were the most mysterious and magical things. They were valuable and in small quantities. However, she did not expect that a group of people had stronger hands-on skills. In just half a day, several thatched huts were built in the valley.
, and at the same time, a strange mud and stone building was built.
There is a difference between this smelting furnace and the lead smelting furnace of the Five Ghosts.
Lead sulfide only needs dry heating to remove the sulfur through an oxidation reaction, and what is left is molten lead water.
But tin ore is tin dioxide. If you want to remove the oxygen element in it, heating alone will not work. You have to add carbon, so that the oxygen element and carbon inside will react at high temperature and become gaseous carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. After they are released, what is left is
It's tin.
Therefore, this smelting furnace is almost the same as the original copper smelting furnace. It adopts a double-layer structure of an inner furnace and an outer furnace. The outer furnace is mainly used to fill firewood for heating, and the inner furnace is filled with some broken wood branches and tin sand and cassiterite for mixing.
It uses the high temperature of the outer furnace to bake, so that the wood chips in the inner furnace are carbonized and react with the tin ore. The reduced tin is deposited downwards to the bottom of the furnace, and finally can be discharged through the holes and guide grooves.
The structure of this smelting furnace is also suitable for smelting hematite.
Unfortunately, the melting point of iron is too high, making it impossible to melt it with ordinary firewood.
So I can only think about it.
To smelt iron, you need at least good quality charcoal.
Although making charcoal is not difficult, it requires the use of a large number of chestnut trees, oak trees, green bar trees and other tree species. However, these trees are very hard and ordinary stone knives and stone axes cannot deal with them at all. Metal knives, axes or even saws are necessary.
But metal tools need to be smelted at high temperatures.
This creates a circular paradox of which came first, the egg or the chicken.
The problem Xu Chen is facing now is that he has neither eggs nor chickens. He started from scratch, starting with a torn fur skirt, and made the rest by himself.
Fortunately, he finally found Xi.
With the addition of tin, the melting point of copper can be greatly reduced, and it can be melted using an ordinary firewood kiln. It just takes a little longer. After the first batch of bronze knives are made, wood can be cut down and charcoal burned.
Metal cutting tools are processed using a simpler heating furnace.
Everything is difficult at the beginning. As long as the first step is to open up the situation, no matter how difficult it is later, there will be a foundation for development. He will not feel like a eunuch visiting a brothel, with all kinds of ideas and nothing to do.