After more than an hour, Lu Yuan and Hou Yi were as tired as local dogs, lying on the ground, gasping for air.
Hou Yi came to the Anhu Avenue construction site. Although it was hard work, because he was a scholar, he spent more time learning from Lu Yuan and did not do heavy physical work.
Today, the iron mill weighed more than three hundred kilograms. He and Lu Yuan relied on brute force to pull it. Even though there was always a big cake to replenish energy, in the end, they were still unable to move.
Fortunately, I prepared the big cake in advance, Hou Yi thought, but he just didn't have time to drink water and kept hiccupping.
"Hiccup..." Hou Yi burped, looked at his hands with blisters, and then looked at Du He, who was lying on a bamboo recliner in the distance and was about to fall asleep, and suddenly asked, "Mr. Lu, the county official just now
He said, this thing is top secret and no one else is allowed to come into contact with it. Why don't we let the donkey pull the stone mill? The donkey is an animal, so he won't tell anyone about it, right?"
Lu Yuan: "..."
After a long while, Lu Yuan said calmly: "What you can think of, I have already thought of it. The young master is trying to sharpen our character. If our character is not sharpened, it will be difficult to achieve great things!"
Hou Yi nodded excitedly: "Mr. Lu is right. The county magistrate is far-sighted. How could he not know about this? He did it on purpose. I heard that when Dai Jinyun paid homage to the county magistrate, he was required to do twice a day by the county magistrate.
There are ten dishes, and you have to eat them all. If you don’t finish them, you will be beaten violently. Dai Jinyun mentioned it to me, saying that the county magistrate was doing it to train his mind!"
The county official treated me like this!
Come to think of it, you no longer regard me as an outsider!
That's great!
Lu Yuan: "..."
He looked at the ceiling and thought, What a fool!
Hou Yi became excited and suddenly felt full of energy.
He got up in confusion, ran to Du He, and said: "County Lord, all the raw materials have been ground just now, what should we do next?"
Du He stood up and rubbed his eyes.
He just fell asleep.
Unexpectedly, when they woke up, these two guys had already polished the raw materials.
I personally inspected it and found that although it looked shoddy, it was no longer easy with the current level of equipment.
"Next...next, let me think about it!"
Duhe had no experience in cement production and did not have a precise theory.
All of this was just guessed by him.
Snapped.
Patting his thigh, Du He said, "Well, the next step is the crucial step!"
Afterwards, Du He directed Lu Yuan and Hou Yi to put the raw materials that had just been polished into a large iron furnace that was more than two people tall, and began to calcine them.
This is a coal stove that Du He specially ordered to be built before. Its only function is to quickly bake bricks of various shapes for use in special places.
Now, this stove comes in handy.
This calcination is a critical step. The most basic requirement is that the combustion temperature must reach above 1,200 degrees.
In the absence of combustion accelerants, the furnace cannot be modified on site. The only way is to add a cowhide bellows.
A total of six large cowhide bellows blew wildly at the bottom of the stove, and blue flames soon appeared on the top of the stove.
This work was naturally handed over to other workers.
Just when Lu Yuan and Hou Yi thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, Du He suddenly came over and said: "Calcining the raw materials will take at least three or four hours. You go and polish that pile of gypsum. Ask and polish
The raw materials are the same.”
Lu Yuan's already sore wrist couldn't help but tremble.
Du He said understandingly: "You can find some donkeys to grind."
Lu Yuan was completely moved.
He opened his mouth and was about to say that the young master still feels sorry for us.
brush.
But Hou Yi stood up and said loudly: "No, County Lord, I know you are sharpening our minds. This little pain is nothing. Let Mr. Lu and I do it. We will definitely do it."
Better than a donkey."
"Oh?" Du He was a little surprised, "If that's the case, it's best to do your best. I'm optimistic about you."
"Please don't worry, county magistrate!" Hou Yi said happily.
Lu Yuan almost vomited blood.
This is such a scam!
…
As daybreak approached, the raw materials were finally calcined.
After the high-temperature raw materials cooled down, Lu Yuan and Hou Yi also finished polishing the gypsum.
The two supported each other to see Du He's next work.
Du He carefully inspected the calcined raw materials. Although there were still many shortcomings, they could be used.
The next work is easy to say, that is, mixing the calcined clinker and the polished gypsum.
However, Du He had no idea what the mixing ratio should be.
So he conducted three experiments before finally determining the ratio.
After the clinker and gypsum were ground and mixed according to a determined proportion, a bamboo sieve was obtained and the finished cement was passed through seven passes. Finally, the prototype of future cement could be seen.
Du He personally took a handful, mixed it with water, and placed it in the open air. Within half an hour, it became hard.
Done!
This is the first pot of cement in the world in this era.
This is a small step for Duhe, but a giant leap for mankind.
This should be recorded in the annals of history.
But Du He looked back and saw that the scene was not spectacular.
A wooden barrel was filled with cement, and two gray-faced guys squatted next to it, looking at the dark cement dust with as much joy as a ghost.
"It's done, County Lord, I'll build the stone monument right now!"
Hou Yi stood up, carried the cement weighing seventy or eighty kilograms, and ran away.
Du He and Lu Yuan were left messy in the wind!
…
Early the next morning.
An ecstatic voice sounded in the courtyard.
"Master Wang is awake!"
"Master Wang is alive!"
Inside the house, the civil and military ministers came out one after another, and saw the door of the house where Wang Gui lived opened.
Immediately, Wang Gui walked out tremblingly with the support of two servants.
The sun was so bright that he didn't dare to open his eyes wide.
It’s so nice to be able to see the sun!
Wang Gui's pale face bloomed with a smile like a chrysanthemum.
People around him stepped forward one after another.
"Congratulations, Mr. Wang!"
"Master Wang, if he survives the catastrophe, he will be blessed later!"
"Lord Congratulations King!"
Everyone congratulated him one after another.
Wang Gui responded quickly, and then he said: "I have escaped from the gate of hell. Fortunately, you all have helped me. At this moment, I should have had a drink with everyone, but I still have one big thing to do!"
Um?
Everyone was stunned.
Wang Gui has just recovered, what big things can he do?
Wang Gui said: "The big thing I have to do is to thank Du He personally."
Thanks Duhe?
Everyone was dumbfounded.
"Master Wang, have you not fully recovered? Do you know how Du He treated you when you were terminally ill? He was humiliating you."
"That's right, Mr. Wang, why do you still want to thank Du He, a wolf-hearted person like him?"
"Hurry and help Mr. Wang into the house, his brain is burned out!"