The time has come for the first brick kiln to be fired, and a large group of craftsmen are walking to the top of the brick kiln, where there are many large vats full of water, as well as many wooden barrels, and their task is to pour cold water from the water injection port above the brick kiln into the brick kiln, so as to cool down the hot bricks inside, so that they can be carried in the future.

"......"

When buckets of cold water are poured into the brick kiln from the water inlet, there is a crisp sound, and at the same time, a large amount of white smoke comes out from various parts of the brick kiln, so that the entire brick kiln factory is shrouded in white smoke.

This white smoke, of course, is water vapor, and the poured cold water meets the high-temperature bricks, which vaporizes instantly, and at the same time, it also takes away a large amount of heat in the bricks, so that the bricks can cool down quickly.

"It's spectacular! It's been a long time since I've seen anything like this. ”

Li An sighed happily.

The subordinate who followed behind him spoke: "It only takes a moment for the mist to dissipate, and the craftsmen can transport the fired bricks out." ”

Li An nodded, walked down the arrow tower, ready to enter the brick kiln at any time to see, although there is nothing to see in the brick kiln, but you must feel it yourself in order to better understand the brick kiln.

A moment passed quickly, and the violently rising water vapor became vague, but as long as you were close to the brick kiln, you could still feel a heat wave, but it was not so intense.

"The bricks have cooled, everyone go in and move the bricks."

The person in charge ordered loudly.

The craftsmen who had been in charge of watering and cooling on it all came down, put on coarse cloth gloves, and prepared to go in and move the bricks.

"Alright, everybody go in."

Under the leadership of the person in charge, more than 30 craftsmen stepped into the brick kiln, and in order to increase the transportation capacity, they also pushed seven or eight small flatbed trucks.

Ang Lee and his entourage followed behind and also went in, but naturally they didn't go to help, but to feel life.

Entering the brick kiln, only to find that it is really hot inside, although it can still be tolerated, but it is very uncomfortable, the temperature inside is still more than the comfort of the human body, which makes people feel very uncomfortable, and the temperature is higher the more inside, there is a small amount of white fog above the head, if you listen carefully, you can hear the bricks because of the cooling, and make a not too loud noise.

The craftsmen scattered to different caves to move the bricks, and neatly placed the fired red bricks on the small flatbed, and then they also needed to neatly place them in the designated places outside.

Because the bricks are not evenly watered with cold water, a small amount of water accumulates on top of the bricks, and when a craftsman touches the bricks, a small amount of water will flow to the bottom of the bricks, thus touching the relatively hot part of the bricks, and then making a loud clattering sound.

As the craftsmen continue to carry the bricks, the caves continue to make loud noises, making people feel that the caves in front of them are hot.

Ang Lee stepped forward and went to get the bricks himself.

"Li Shilang be careful, the bricks are very hot."

The person in charge stopped commanding and hurriedly said.

Ang Lee didn't care, and took a fired brick in his hand.

This is a very completely fired green brick, the mud is good, the brick is very smooth, the temperature is still there, and it is relatively hot, it is OK for a short time, if you keep holding it in your hand, your fingers will have a very painful feeling, a deep burning pain.

Ang Lee put the bricks still on the small flatbed, dusted his hands gently, and continued to watch the craftsmen work.

"How many bricks can be fired at one time here?"

Li An glanced at it, and already knew almost everything, but in order to determine the final number, he still had to ask.

"Back to Li Shilang, there are a total of twenty-five caves here, and each cave can be filled with bricks on two sides, a total of fifty squares, and each square brick is five hundred and twelve bricks, a total of twenty-five thousand six hundred bricks."

The person in charge replied seriously.

Li An nodded with satisfaction: "Yes, it's really a lot!" However, these production is still too small to be enough! ”

"Li Shilang, we have too few people, we can't be fast if we want to!"

The person in charge complained.

After all, there are only more than 100 people in such a large brick kiln, and human resources are indeed relatively tight, and it is not realistic to increase production on a large scale.

Li An said: "The official didn't mean to accuse you, there are not enough people, and it is indeed very unrealistic to want to increase the output, but the demand for bricks in the future is indeed very large, and these outputs are far from enough, the official will find a way to recruit manpower, and at the same time, the scale of the brick factory also needs to be expanded, and it needs to be done step by step." ”

In order to build a large number of brick and timber houses, brick and wood, which are the most widely used, are absolutely indispensable.

After walking out of the brick kiln, breathing the fresh air outside, Li An felt comfortable all over his body, the environment inside was too bad, not only the temperature was unbearable, the air quality was also very bad, as long as it was not a last resort, he would not be willing to work in this environment.

The position used to place the fired green bricks is 300 steps away from the entrance of the brick kiln, which is not very far, but it is not close at all, so it is necessary to use a small board car, if it is carried by manpower, the efficiency is too poor.

Seven or eight small flatbed trucks are transported back and forth, and each car is enough for three or five people, which can transport one brick or fifty bricks at a time, which is enough for them to transport.

A whole hour passed, and the thirty craftsmen successfully transported all the fifty square bricks to the designated location.

However, they could only rest for a while, and then they had to transport fifty square meters of adobe into the brick kiln to start a new round of firing.

These guys are really tired, and when they hear that they can rest for a while, they all sit on the ground with their butts in their heads, or even lie directly on the flatbed, and enjoy a moment of comfort with their eyes closed.

"They're all up and getting to work."

The person in charge shouted.

These craftsmen, who had just rested for a while, had to get up and work after hearing the order, and it could be seen that these guys didn't want to work at all, and they all twisted their necks to relax, and they wanted to continue to rest for a while, after all, it was really tiring to work continuously for so long just now.

But Li An has just stated that the demand for bricks in the construction of the port is huge, so there can be no delay in making bricks, and the highest utilization rate of brick kilns must be achieved.

Therefore, these craftsmen must get up and work immediately, and after putting all the fifty square clay into the brick kiln, they can rest again, and the rest again can be a little longer, after all, the work intensity is too great, and a little rest is indispensable.

Except for these one-third of the craftsmen in the transportation of bricks, the rest are mud and billet making, and mud and billet making is not much technical content, a little learning will be, however, it is also more tiring, and it is difficult to increase the manufacturing speed quickly.

According to the standard brick-making process, the excavated soil should be dried for a few months to make the soil mature before the billet can be made, however, Li An is waiting to be used, so there is no need to follow these rules, anyway, the requirements for bricks are not high, as long as it is about the same, it does not need to be made too well, and the quality requirements are not so high, so it is easy to dry it for a day and make a blank with mud.

There are two ways to make billets, one is the manufacture of bricks by brick, that is, the size of the abrasive tool is the size of a brick, and the soil can be put in.

Another way is to make a large grinding tool, which can put a lot of clay and make a large number of bricks, but you can use a small tool such as iron wire to accurately cut this huge clay blank, and finally cut many clay blocks in one go.

The second method can greatly improve the speed of billet making, reduce the labor intensity of the craftsman, however, this requires the personal ability of the craftsman to be relatively high, if the cutting is biased, in that case, the mud produced will be of different sizes, uneven thickness.

In later generations, Li Ang often saw bricks with different thicknesses and sizes, which was because the craftsmen in charge of cutting were too skilled and could not always cut them correctly in place, which caused this phenomenon and seriously affected the use effect, so that the bricklayers who encountered this situation kept scolding.

Because it was known that some craftsmen were not skilled, and some craftsmen were veterans, this brick kiln adopted two methods at the same time.

The old craftsmen used the wire cutting method, while the new rookies could only make the mud piece by piece.

Such an effect must be that the work efficiency of the old craftsmen far exceeds that of the new craftsmen, and the income will naturally exceed that of the new craftsmen.

New craftsmen can't be unconvinced, who makes their skills inadequate? If they had the ability to do this, they could have come over and do this.

According to the different requirements for bricks, the time for firing bricks can also be flexible, for example, Li An requires the green bricks of the brick kiln to be fired for one day and one night, this time is enough to make the mud become hard bricks, as for how high the quality is, how hard the bricks are, Li An does not think about it, it is almost enough, as long as it can meet the use of successful bricks.

The desire for high wages makes the hearts of craftsmen with poor skills itch, and when they work, they will from time to time to see how the old craftsmen cut, and try every way to practice, and every new craftsman will take time out of practice every day, in order to finally completely eliminate the stupid method of making a single billet.

At this moment, five or six craftsmen were busy carrying firewood, and they wanted to prepare the firewood in place earlier than the craftsmen who moved the bricks, so that after all the fifty square clay were in place, they could immediately light the fire and start firing the bricks.

Li An took a look, the fuel for burning red bricks is very ordinary firewood, these firewood are small trees, or the side branches and twigs of large trees, the cost is very low, and it is not even a cost, after all, there are many trees near the brick factory, and you can use them as fuel by cutting some branches to dry.

However, this is temporary, as the burning of bricks continues and the scale needs to be expanded in the future, the demand for fuel will become higher and higher, and it will be difficult to meet the demand simply by cutting branches from nearby trees, and it will seriously waste the resources of craftsmen and reduce the production of fired bricks.

Therefore, in order to avoid the situation of insufficient fuel, it is necessary to transport a large amount of firewood from other places, before, the villages that Li An has been to have set off a wave of cutting down trees, a large number of villagers cut down trees day and night, and sell the trunks to Datang, the remaining branches are not of much value, and the local villagers can't run out of firewood, Datang sends soldiers and horses to pull, it is estimated that the local people will not have any opinions, after all, they have earned a large part.

Li Anxin has a number of firewood needed to burn bricks, and if the firewood supply is not available, the progress of firing bricks will be seriously delayed.

Before noon, Li An returned to his residence, had a meal, and then led his men and horses to the village where cutting trees was popular, in addition to the guards and horses, in addition, he also dispatched a transport team of 200 people, one car for every three people, a total of fifty carriages, and the remaining fifty people were responsible for guarding.

By the time the team arrived at the village, it was already afternoon, but the sky was still very bright.

From a long distance, you can see the arrow tower at the entrance of the village, as well as a large number of tree trunks piled together, and of course, a large number of villagers and Tang Dynasty soldiers, as well as a group of bear children who have nothing to do.

These trunks were bought by Datang, and the port urgently needed these materials, and at the same time, the open space at the entrance of the village was about to be occupied, so it must be transported back as soon as possible to support the construction of the port.

"You get all this timber back at once."

Ang Lee opened his mouth to give the order.

The two hundred soldiers of the convoy, including the guards, were all busy together to get all the timber out as quickly as possible.

At this time, the Tang soldiers were busy transporting timber, while the villagers transported the freshly cut timber into the village and continued to sell it to Datang.

The transportation capacity of the horse-drawn carriage is much higher than that of the small flat car, however, even so, the transportation volume is limited, and there is so much timber piled up at the entrance of the village that it is not possible to transport it a few more times, but fortunately the distance is not very far, and there is nothing to transport a few more trips.

In addition to the demand for wood, Datang also needs enough firewood, which is the side branches left after cutting trees, and now, most of these side branches are scattered in the nearby mountains and forests.

The villagers are busy cutting down trees to earn money, and let them transport the side branches, and if they don't pay for it, no one will want to do it, and it will delay them from cutting down trees, and if the money is lower than the price of cutting trees, they will not want to.

However, the side branches are not very heavy, and there is no need for the villagers to spend energy on transportation, so it is enough to let the children who have nothing to do to transport, so many bear children, one person can do a little is a large number.