Zhou Fuliu's face turned pale, tears fell uncontrollably, and she cried quietly: "My poor child! We are all young, how can he still cross over to a man in his forties, a full twenty years older. Isn't this a lost twenty years of yang life in vain? ”

He Zhiyuan was also sad in his heart. However, he was not as excited as Zhou Fuliu, he carefully recalled all kinds of performances since he met Liang Wensheng, from the suspicion of cement to the praise of the steam cannon, it didn't look like it was pretended. If he was crossed by Sun Hongyuan, even if he was a scholar, it would be impossible for him to be so suspicious of cement.

He Zhiyuan thought about it again after saying nothing he said during the meal. Then he said to Zhou Fuliu: "Don't cry first." I thought about it carefully just now, and today Lord Liang never said that this was his poem, but only that he got it by accident. ”

After hearing this, Zhou Fuliu stopped crying, took out a handkerchief to wipe away his tears, looked up and said, "Are you saying that this is not Lord Liang's poem?" Who else is the author? ”

"I think so."

"That must be someone from Lord Liang's side." After Zhou Fuliu regained his composure, his thoughts gradually became clearer.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and Vanilla said outside, "Miss, it's getting dark." Madame asked me and the butler to pick you up. ”

After Vanilla came in, she found that He Zhiyuan was also here, and said to He Zhiyuan with a slightly red face, and said a little shyly: "He Gongzi is also here, I didn't know He Gongzi was here, I took the liberty of it!" ”

Zhou Fuliu looked at Vanilla's shy appearance towards He Zhiyuan, and said angrily: "Don't be angry with me?" ”

"How dare Vanilla be angry with Miss." Vanilla said cautiously.

Zhou Fuliu ignored her anymore, and several people left the workshop and returned home together.

After breakfast the next morning, his father told him, "Master Song, who just came, came to look for you twice yesterday, and it seems that he is looking for you in an urgent matter." ”

Master Song was a craftsman sent by the Ministry of Works, and he was originally a master craftsman who made sulfur glazed tiles. He Zhiyuan had only met him once, arranged a site for him, and roughly told him how to use quartz stone and soda ash to fire glass. He was assigned dozens of workers and told him to build a blast furnace first.

"Didn't he say what it was?" He Zhiyuan asked his father.

"I said it, but I didn't understand it, it seems to be a refractory brick."

When He Zhiyuan heard his father say this, he remembered. The refractory bricks of the Ming Dynasty could withstand much lower temperatures than the refractory bricks of later generations, and if the refractory bricks were used to build a melting furnace to fire quartz stone, there must be a problem.

He Zhiyuan thought that after that, he hurriedly went to the glass test workshop in the west of the village.

At this time, Master Song and several workers were gathered in front of a blast furnace, discussing something. Seeing that He Zhiyuan was here, Master Song hurriedly saluted as if he had seen a savior.

After that, He Zhiyuan asked: "I heard that you went to me twice yesterday, what is the problem?" ”

"Childe, please look at this blast furnace, the refractory bricks of the furnace have been burned, and the quartz stone has not melted." Master Song pointed out to He Zhiyuan as he spoke.

Sure enough, as Zhiyuan expected, there was a problem with the refractory bricks. He Zhiyuan asked Master Song: "Master Song, is this the refractory brick you used to use before?" ”

"Yes, this kind of refractory brick has been used before, and there has never been such a problem. It seems that the melting temperature of quartz stone is much higher, and it may not work to use refractory bricks to build a blast furnace. Master Song said worriedly.

It is worthy of an experienced craftsman who suddenly found the problem. The refractory bricks of the Ming Dynasty are mainly made of bauxite, kaolin, clay and other materials, due to the backward technology, high impurity content and other reasons, the refractory temperature is not high, and there is no problem with burning bricks and tiles. For example, the firing temperature of sulfur glazed tiles is generally about 900 degrees, and if you want to burn fused quartz stone, you must reach a high temperature of at least 1,400 degrees, and such refractory bricks naturally cannot reach such a high temperature.

"Master Song is right, it is true that this kind of refractory brick is not competent, and his high temperature resistance cannot meet the requirements, so he must find another way." He Zhiyuan said.

Since it is not possible to use refractory bricks, the only other way is to use crucibles. However, the output of glass fired with crucibles is bound to be small, after all, this thing is not like refractory bricks, which can build a blast furnace of several thousand catties. But in any case, this is also a way, as long as you can make glass, you will definitely be able to sell at a high price, you must know that in contemporary times, a small glass ball can be sold at the price of the night pearl. So there is no need to worry about high cost and low output at all.

Among the crucibles, graphite is the best firing material, in fact, crucibles have appeared in this era, but the material used is not graphite, but a material similar to refractory bricks, and it cannot withstand high temperatures. Therefore, you can't buy existing crucibles from the market, you have to make your own crucibles with graphite and clay.

But graphite was not valued and utilized at this time, and the ancients believed that it was something similar to coal, which did not attract the attention of craftsmen at all. He remembered that Pingdu and Laixi were one of the three major graphite producing areas in China, and the graphite in these two places was crystalline graphite with good purity and high quality.

Seeing that He Zhiyuan was contemplating and thinking, everyone stopped talking and stood next to him and waited quietly.

After a while, He Zhiyuan said to Master Song: "Master Song has heard of graphite? ”

"What Gongzi He said is coal black?" Master Song asked.

It turns out that in this era, graphite and coal are indistinguishable. In the eyes of most people in the Ming Dynasty, the use of graphite was even inferior to coal, and many people did not know the name of graphite.

He Zhiyuan said: "The two things are different, graphite is a crystalline fine black stone, soft and smooth to the touch, which is an important difference from coal. I know that there is a graphite vein in Pingdu, which is not far from Laizhou, and there should be people in the local area who can mine it. Don't burn it anymore, dismantle this blast furnace, and wait until you buy graphite to make a crucible, and then use the crucible to burn it. ”

Subsequently, He Zhiyuan went to Pingdu to inform Zhou Ji's shop to inquire about the purchase of graphite locally.

Of course, Master Song couldn't let them be idle in the past two days, and he gave a detailed introduction to the process of making glass. As well as some auxiliary materials, such as limestone, feldspar, soda ash and sand ratio and the role of auxiliary materials, etc. And let them crush the material with a stone mill according to the row, and the more broken the better.

After that, He Zhiyuan asked Master Song again: "How do you blow the wind when you burn the cellar?" ”

"It's the bellows that are often used, which are larger than the bellows of ordinary people's homes." Master Song replied. As he spoke, he led He Zhiyuan to the big bellows and pointed it out to He Zhiyuan.

He Zhiyuan often read some historical travel novels in his previous life. He vividly remembers that this blast technique could only raise the furnace temperature to about 1,200 degrees at most, and that other methods had to be used to increase the furnace temperature. At that time, the novel said that in order to increase the temperature of the furnace, the air was heated and then the hot air was blown into the furnace with a leather bag or bellows, and the heating effect was very good, so that the furnace temperature could reach the temperature of molten steel.

Later, I also searched for this kind of information on the Internet, and learned that modern steelmaking also uses hot air to increase the furnace temperature, and it seems that this method of increasing the furnace temperature is feasible.

So he said to Master Song: "Master Song, if you want to increase the temperature of the furnace, you can't use this simple way of blowing air. In order to find a way to make the furnace fire more vigorous and hotter, it is necessary to improve the air blasting method. For example, find a way to increase the air volume, increase the temperature of the wind, etc. The second is to do a good job of keeping the heat in the cellar so that the heat does not escape. These days, if you think about it, as long as the temperature of the furnace rises, the quartz sand can melt. In the future, it will still be the old rule to make glass, and each master will be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver. ”

When the four craftsmen heard that there was also a silver reward, they were immediately overjoyed. They have heard of this kind of treatment for a long time, but they have never heard from the owner, so they have always been uneasy. Now that I heard He Zhiyuan say it himself, and this kind of rumor is implemented, they are naturally more energetic.

They have said that they must find a way to increase the temperature of the furnace these days. As soon as possible, the glass required by Ho Zhiyuan was manufactured.

After telling these things, it was about three o'clock in the morning, that is, about ten o'clock in the Hereafter. At this time, the sun rises and the temperature is getting higher and higher. He remembered the ice kiln he had in the house in the city yesterday. He basically didn't get out of the room during the dog days, he stayed at home all the time to write textbooks, and it was Yueji shaking a fan next to him, and he didn't feel the heat all the time. I came out several times in the past few days to know that the summer of the Xiaoice River period five hundred years ago was also very hot.

At this time, he thought of a way to make ice, and it would be nice if he could use this method to make ice.