"What a strange thing, you tell me carefully." Liang Wensheng couldn't help but ask after hearing this.

"According to local rumors, in Zhuchendian Hejia Village, there is a student surnamed He at the beginning of this year because of the grain collection was knocked out by the officials and fell into a coma for four hours, after waking up, he said that he had a long dream during the coma, in the dream he met an old man with extraordinary appearance and gave him a strange book, saying that he was a loyal minister and good general of my Ming Dynasty, so that he would assist the Ming Dynasty in the future, live for the benefit of the people, and expand the territory for the court."

"Nonsense, do you believe this?" Liang Wensheng couldn't help laughing.

"Of course I don't believe it. Soon after he woke up, he made a laundry product called soap, and opened a workshop in his own house to make soap. It is said that this soap has a good effect on washing clothes, and it is very popular in Qingzhou Prefecture, and the supply exceeds demand, so his family also has a huge income. To verify this, I bought a few bars of soap and brought them back. ”

As he spoke, Liang Wenhui took out two pieces of dark yellow soap from his baggage and handed them to Lord Liang. Liang Wensheng took it, put it in his hand and worried about it, then sniffed it again, and ordered the servant to take it for trial.

Liang Wenhui then said: "When I came back this time, I made a special detour to that village. The village is more than ten miles north of Zhu Chendian, not far from the official road. I saw a new big workshop on the side of the official road, called Juzhou Soap Factory. There are a lot of workers inside, and there are several people guarding the gate, and the situation in the workshop is not just. Not far from this workshop, there is also a site under construction. I inquired about the people around me and said that it was a school hall under construction in their village, which was funded by the head of their village, that is, the father of the student surnamed He, and was going to enroll two or three hundred schoolchildren for free. ”

"Oh? I didn't expect that there are such people in Juzhou who are willing to give and help students, which is a little interesting. When Liang Wensheng heard this, he immediately became interested in this person. So he asked Liang Wenhui: "If we go to Juzhou City this time and pass by that village, how far do we need to detour?" ”

"The detour is not very far, but the road is quite bumpy, it is not as smooth as going up the Shu River, I am worried that Mrs. Sister-in-law and Miss Childe will be tired from the journey."

"It's okay, you can let your family take the waterway, and I will take a detour with you and four guards."

"My lord, it's not safe to walk like this, there are still one hundred and fifty or sixty miles to go this way, and it will take two or three days to walk."

"It's okay, it's decided, take a day off today, and set off early tomorrow morning." Liang Wensheng said.

The day after He Zhiyuan and his father returned home from the city, eight craftsmen arrived in the village. Hearing that his family had come to report, He Zhiyuan personally welcomed the eight craftsmen to his home.

Although the status of "workers" in the Ming Dynasty was above that of merchants and below that of peasants, in fact the status of craftsmen was only slightly higher than that of lowly people. This is so, firstly, because most of the craftsmen are illiterate and poor; The second is because craftsmen have no land, so they can only rely on their crafts to eat. In the Ming Dynasty, there was no money and no land, except for the lowly ones, that is, the craftsmen, and they didn't have to think about it to know how miserable they were.

But He Zhiyuan doesn't see it that way, these people are his future dependence, craftsmen are the talent base for the continuous development and progress of various technologies, without them, how can technological progress begin? So He Zhiyuan received them very warmly and politely.

He Zhiyuan invited the eight of them to the hall and asked Yueji to serve them tea. These craftsmen had never been treated so politely, and one by one they were so flattered that they dared to sit on their chairs with only half their butts.

Seeing this, He Zhiyuan said: "Don't be nervous, masters, you are the guests I invited, and the courtesy is due." ”

A craftsman who was about 50 years old said: "Thank you for the courtesy of He Lichang, we were sent by Master Han of the Gongfang to build a brick kiln here, I didn't expect He Lichang to be so young." ”

"Master, you are mistaken, the chief is my father, and my name is He Zhiyuan."

"Hey! Blame the old man for being clumsy. Are you the talented man who got a strange book in his dreams? ”

"It's me."

After hearing this, the old craftsman hurriedly beckoned the other craftsmen to kneel down and kowtow to He Zhiyuan. He Zhiyuan hurriedly stopped and said: "Masters, don't be so polite, I'm still a minor, I'm your junior, so I should give you a courtesy." ”

"Don't dare, don't dare, you are a Wenqu star, we will give you a gift."

Everyone was polite, and He Zhiyuan asked the old man just now: "May I ask you are the master who burns bricks, right?" What's your last name? ”

"Exactly, the villain is exempt from the surname Ma, and his name is Liqi. You can just call me old horse. Then he pointed to a young man next to him, this is my son, named Ma Deyu. ”

The young man hurriedly got up and saluted He Zhiyuan.

The other two young people also quickly got up and said, "The villain's name is Wu Tao, and he is a craftsman in the brick kiln."

"The villain's name is Yao Shun, and he is also a craftsman in the brick kiln."

The four people on the other side also got up to introduce themselves, the four of them were, Ye Chunli, Ye Guanglan, Sun Jide, and Ji Li, all four of them are craftsmen in the lime kiln.

After the introduction, He Zhiyuan asked Ma Liqi: "Master Ma is a master who burns green bricks?" ”

"Exactly."

"How long does it take to burn a kiln of green bricks?"

"It depends on the size of the kiln, if it is a small kiln that burns 20,000 bricks at a time, it will generally take about ten days, and if it burns 100,000 bricks, it will take about 20 days."

"How much can a green brick sell for?"

"The price now is three to four cents per brick."

"Has Master Ma ever burned red bricks?"

"Red bricks? I've heard from my grandfather's generation, but even my grandfather's generation never burned it, so I don't know how to burn it. ”

"Master Ma, I can tell you how to fire red bricks. In fact, the process of this red brick is simpler than that of green bricks, and the firing time is shorter. The soil and bricks used are made exactly the same as those for stacking. However, there is no need to pour water when burning bricks, so the firing time is shorter. It takes about seven days to burn 100,000 red bricks in a kiln. In the process of cooling, there is no need to drench water, just cool down naturally, and then go out of the kiln after cooling. ”

"It's as easy as this to burn red bricks?"

"Exactly." He Zhiyuan replied: "Please Master Ma, the four of you to come, that is, to lead the hired workers here to build a few brick kilns first, and then teach everyone to burn red bricks." ”

He Zhiyuan said: "If we want to build a large brick factory in our village, we need to hire more than 1,000 workers, and we will burn red bricks all year round in the future." Your wages will be settled at five taels of silver per month, and there will be red envelopes to receive at the end of the year. ”

These four people couldn't help but be overjoyed for a day, they were these craftsmen. It's just the artisan households of the government, when the government has a job, they give a salary of one or two pieces of silver a month, and they don't give it when they don't live, they can only burn bricks and sell them to the common people. After a month's exhaustion, there is only an income of two or three taels of silver, and He Zhiyuan suddenly gave a salary of five taels of silver, of course they were happy.

Then He Zhiyuan said: "The first batch of bricks burned will first build a batch of small courtyards in the west of the village, and after they are completed, you can bring your family to live." ”

The four of them were even happier when they heard this, and they all said that they would do their best to lead everyone to burn the bricks.

Then, the four of them were led out by their families and settled down.

When readers see this, they will probably say that I am nonsense, red brick is a modern building material, how could ancient people have heard of red bricks? Actually, I'm really not talking nonsense, this red brick really appeared in ancient times, but it was not widely used. In modern archaeological discoveries, a small number of red bricks have been unearthed in tombs of the Han Dynasty. In the Quanzhou area of southern Fujian, houses have been built with red bricks as early as the tenth century AD, which are recorded in some historical materials.

Next, He Zhiyuan said to Ye Chunli, Ye Guanglan and the four of them: "You are all masters of burning lime, but today I invite you masters to come and not burn lime. ”

Ye Chunli heard that He Zhiyuan gave such a high treatment to the four people, so he saluted even more respectfully and said, "Please command, the villain will definitely do his best." ”

"The thing I'm going to make is called cement, and it's the kind of thing I saw in that book. This cement is a good material for building houses and roads, it is as fine as flour, after mixing with water, it is soft as mud, but it can be solidified after a day or two, and after it is completely solidified, it is as hard as a stone, more than ten times stronger than lime. ”

"It needs several raw materials to make it, the main raw material is limestone, followed by clay, then pulverized coal, and then iron ore. Among them, limestone needs to be calcined and crushed into foam with a kiln, and the finer the better. If the iron ore is difficult to crush, it can also be replaced with laterite from the laterite ridge to the west of the village. There is a rough ratio of these four ingredients, and I will tell you this ratio, and you have to keep experimenting to find the most suitable ratio. ”

"This ratio is about six or seven percent of limestone, one to one and a half percent of clay, half to one and a half percent of iron ore, and about one percent of coal ash."

"Your treatment is the same as that of Master Ma and them, with a salary of five taels of silver per month, and after the house is built, you can naturally bring your family to live. The four of you should try it as soon as possible, and if you succeed in it, you will each be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver, and you will be the master of this cement factory. ”

When the four of them heard this, they were so happy that tears flowed from their eyes. One hundred taels of silver, they had never seen so much silver in their lives, and they were eager to start the experiment immediately.

The four of them had heard that cement had such a miraculous effect, and of course they understood the business opportunities. Originally, glutinous rice pulp was used as the cementitious material for high-end buildings in ancient times, and the cost was extremely high, and only large households or official eunuchs could afford to use it. Ordinary people build houses, with a little money, with lime and sand, and clay for the worse. If cement can be invented, the cost will definitely be much lower than glutinous rice milk, ordinary people can afford to use it, and the amount will definitely be very huge. It is certain that they will make a fortune with the owner, and maybe they will go down in history, how can they miss such a good opportunity?

After Ye Chunli and the other craftsmen left, He Shaoyun hurriedly walked in. Angrily asked loudly: "I heard that you recruited craftsmen to make red bricks, why didn't you consult me in advance and make your own decisions?" ”

"The cost of this red brick is much lower than that of green bricks, but the quality is not much different from that of green bricks, why can't red bricks be made?" He Zhiyuan looked at his father's angry appearance and was very puzzled.

"Red bricks must not be made, this is trespassing, it is a violation, if you let the court know, you will be killed!"