Lord of Rot

Chapter 119 Magic Red Brick

Li Qi didn't have the same headache as Crowe at the moment. Getting rid of Crowe really saved him a lot of worry, as he didn't have to listen to Grant to complain.

He rode his horse to the temporarily divided brick kiln factory.

The brick kiln has been built, and the masons are working very efficiently. Li Qi's generous spending is the key.

The money from selling horses in Horse City obtained from the fishman crypt can just meet the urgent need.

The masons are making clay, which is called playing with clay. As for Li Qi... he only understands a concept. Don't expect him to know how to bake bricks. He can only roughly describe the appearance of a brick kiln, the general principles of brick burning, etc., but it definitely does not include Get your hands dirty.

First is the clay.

There is clay beside the river inside the porcupine collar. The soil is fine and there are almost no hard pebbles.

The carpenter apprentices hurriedly made the cart, and the excavated soil was put into the wooden cart on the two-wheeled cart, and then sent to the brick kiln by the packhorse cart. The so-called brick kiln was actually a wasteland, except for the distance from the brick kiln. Outside the area, no one usually comes here.

Carpenters played a very important role in Li Qi's brick-burning plan.

Compared with the high price of iron, wood is cheap and can be found everywhere. Even if it is destructively mined, the dense forest can support the development of the porcupine collar for many years.

The brick embryo is made of a rectangular frame made of wooden boards, which is transparent from top to bottom.

The slaves put the mixed soil into the frame and squeezed it out to form a wet brick embryo.

It's simple to say and not complicated to do, it's all a matter of strength.

First, loosen the soil. The excavated soil is very tight, like rocks that can be crushed with your fingers.

Then soak it in water and knead it into mud. The hands are very tired, so some apprentices who are responsible for the cool work choose to step on it with bare feet.

This is the raw material for making red bricks. The specific trick is to add soil when it is thin and add water when it is dry.

After making the mud, the next step is to apply what Li Qi calls the "mold."

It is the masons who make the bricks themselves. After they have mastered the technology, they will hand over the backbreaking work to their apprentices.

Simply building a stone platform with stones, leveling it, and making brick embryos is very tiring. If you keep bending down, it will kill people and affect work efficiency.

The flat wooden board is the tabletop.

The mason took the mud and beat it.

Then put the mud into the mold, use a knife to cut the mud adhering to the wooden board, and then just lift and push to remove the shaped brick embryo.

However, we encountered a problem in the first step of production. The brick embryo could not be released from the mold. If we pushed it with our fingers, two finger holes would be left in the brick embryo.

Seeing this, Li Qi thought thoughtfully and said, "Go find some firewood ash from the bottom of the stove, sift it, and then spread it into the mold."

"Yes!"

The mason immediately ran to find firewood ash. After several attempts, he was able to remove the mold completely.

"Praise the lord!"

The rainbow fart arrived as expected.

The brick embryos are made very quickly. The formed brick embryos are placed on the open ground to dry. Only the completely dried brick embryos can be fired.

After looking at it for a while to make sure there was no problem, Li Qi went to see the brick kiln again.

The brick kiln is built according to the horseshoe kiln, and the porcupine collar does not require too many bricks, so there is no need to invest too much.

What's more important is that Li Qi knows little about brick kilns, and he doesn't understand the complicated kilns. Everything is about usability, and development and innovation are left to the craftsmen inspired by him. When there is real innovation, Li Qi will give an explanation. Use the money as a reward and then carry out technical updates.

Entering from the kiln door, the kiln head is the place where firewood is thrown into the fire, with a firewood opening and a fire chamber.

The kiln chamber is where the brick embryos that need to be fired are placed. It has entrances and exits to facilitate the unloading of the brick embryos and their transfer after firing.

In order to ensure full firing, the stacking of brick embryos is very particular. They need to be divided and built to retain gaps, rather than being closely attached. Only when the soil embryos are fired into red bricks can they be considered successful.

Red brick, waterproof, cold-resistant and corrosion-resistant.

And it’s not difficult to make, as long as you dare to fail and are willing to try.

The end of the kiln is a chimney.

In addition, there is an ash pit under the fire chamber, and the plant ash from burning firewood will be collected. Whether it is used for fertilizer or mixed to build a house, it is an excellent material.

The weather was very good, and it only took two days to make the brick embryos and dry them.

The first batch of brick embryos was sent into the brick kiln.

There are more than 7000 bricks in total, and a large pit has been dug out next to the river. Li Qi plans to dig deep and release water to make a fish pond, which can be regarded as waste utilization.

Send firewood and light it.

Its terrifying temperature can be felt from a distance.

Li Qi drank ice-cold honey beer and looked at the billowing black smoke rising into the sky.

The entire firing process lasted for half a day, from noon to dusk.

Next comes natural cooling.

After two days, cool completely.

The masons walked into the brick kiln, which was still warm, and used two-wheeled trucks to pull out the bricks. Everyone was sweating profusely.

At this moment, the first batch of fired red bricks was placed in front of Li Qi.

Because the iron element in the soil of the brick embryo is oxidized into iron oxide, it is red.

The mason picked up a red brick.

Cracked.

"Sir, this..." The masons didn't know what to do. The idea of ​​burning bricks was proposed by the lord. They had never thought about burning bricks before. The lord must be right, but since it went wrong, the reason must be On them!

"Try another piece." Li Qi was relatively calm.

"Yes!" The mason obeyed the order and picked up another piece, very complete.

It didn't break even when it was dropped on the ground.

"This!" The mason was shocked.

Long before this, when it comes to bricks used to build houses, aren't they the stone bricks obtained by knocking stone mines?

Then use rice milk as a binder.

Lurea's castles were built in this way.

Common people generally choose to live in wooden houses or mud houses.

Some wealthy civilians would choose to use crushed stones. Only when building castles would they laboriously pound the stones into angular bricks.

So when the earth was burned into stone, the masons thought they had seen a miracle. No, it was magic!

Will they be able to build castles this way in the future? No, this kind of red brick is not stronger than the huge stone bricks of the castle, but it is certainly better than thatched house, mud house or wooden house.

Praise the lord for his wisdom!

"Count all the bricks," Li Qi said to the mason. Seeing the helplessness on his face, he added: "Go to Glenn and ask him to borrow an apprentice to help you record."

"Thank you, sir!" the mason was delighted.

Soon the statistical results were sent to Li Qi. Of the 7000 brick embryos, only 5305 were finally solid and intact. The rest were deformed and broken due to various reasons, and some of the red bricks had black hearts.

The deformation was due to a problem with the temperature. Li Qi could only talk about it on paper, and the specific operation needed to be left to his subordinates for experimentation.

Black hearts are caused by insufficient combustion.

Partial breakage may be caused by the brick embryo not being completely dried.

After briefly describing the possible situation and the approximate solution, Li Qi left the brick kiln factory. The first batch of 5305 red bricks will be sent to the commercial district. Once enough red bricks are collected, the house can be officially built.

In order to speed up the work of the masons, Li Qi asked the group of slaves sent from Lintawan to make brick embryos. Four hundred people started working. The brick embryos were spread all over the brick kiln in one day, and even occupied many open spaces outside.

Population is productivity!

This group of people could only be replaced on the same day because they exceeded their quota in one day.

Tens of thousands of brick embryos are fed into the brick kiln and calcined over high fire.

The success rate is getting higher and higher, and the masons are quickly summing up experience.

When stacks of red bricks were piled up in the business district, the proudest person was not Li Qi, but the masons.

They don’t have to worry about resource problems, and they don’t have to jump up and down in anger because the rice milk used to build a house is always stolen. Li Qi’s invention helped them successfully produce flat magical red bricks. It’s conceivable that in the future, this There will be beautiful red houses rising from the ground in the business district.

The masons took the design drawings and designed huge double-door windows according to Li Qi's requirements. The windows can be pushed open to let in light during the day and closed at night.

While the entire Porcupine Territory was busy, Li Qi received bad news.

His first good craftsman's helper, the dwarf Fula, is dying.