After a few days of selection, we mined thousands of catties of red copper stone from the front mountain.

Every day, in addition to eating and sleeping, he wields a mallet and smashes these boulders one by one into the shape of buckwheat noodles.

It was a boring and heavy labor to decompose the ore, and the men were sweating under the red sun, and the sound of falling hammers and shouts reminded me of the days of slavery on the Flying Fish Reef in Eastern Rome.

But now it's good, you can eat meat and drink wine in large bowls at every meal.

Whenever he was slightly drunk, he even regarded himself as the great god of Pangu, who opened the world.

On this continent of the Southern Wilderness, knock on the chaos to awaken the wilderness and create a beautiful new world.

Ore cannot be smelted without grinding, and it is also a conclusion obtained from previous experiments.

At that time, we poured the crushed copper ore into the flaming coal.

It was roasted for three days and nights, and when I opened it, the stones were intact, except for a few more bronze stars on the surface.

That's not all there is to the size of broad beans, not to mention the large chunks of copper.

Therefore, if metallurgy can be effective, there is only one way to go, which is to smash these gold and stones into ore powder and then smelt.

If this trick doesn't work, our strategy of taking copper shipbuilding will really come to an end.

Either continue to travel north around the sea to find a way back to the west, or as Lin Qing and the others hoped, they will live on this continent for the rest of their lives.

Fortunately, our efforts have finally paid off.

Brother Lin put a few catties of deerskin-wrapped mineral powder into the charcoal fire.

All the men waited in shifts, adding charcoal to fan the fire around the fire day and night.

On the morning of the fifth day, Tian Bo carefully turned over the layers of charcoal ashes, and all of us onlookers were terrified.

I am afraid that all the efforts will become a waste of work for the people and money.

The wrapped deerskin had long since turned to floating ash, and the mineral powder inside was glued together, much like a beehive that had not yet been built.

The black copper and gray-black slag were distinctly distinguished, and with a single blow of the mallet they could be easily separated, and our metallurgy was complete.

Moreover, this gold, stone and copper mine must have other associated minerals such as gold and silver in it.

The spilled black copper had long since cooled and was as hard as iron.

As everyone knows, the red copper itself is as soft as the face, and after adding the alloy of lead, tin, gold and silver, it can cast the bronze sword that sharpens the iron like clay, and the bell and tripod artifact of those emperors.

In this way, the process of alloying can be omitted, God help me!

Therefore, there is such a hot work scene in front of you.

Breaking down large pieces of stone into piles of gravel, and then smashing the gravel hammer into fine ore powder, the hardship is comparable to that of official servitude.

The results of each day are very small, the first day a total of 20 catties of mineral powder was harvested, the second day was more than 30, and the third day was reduced to 20 catties.

According to the ratio of ten catties of mineral powder to one catty of red copper, we are tired like mules every day, but we can only harvest more than two catties of brass.

The nails, rivets, ropes, and armor needed to build a sea ship add up to at least 1,000 catties of bronze or dark iron.

In this way, it will take us more than two years to smelt the red copper alone.

Coupled with the forging and shipbuilding in the later period, there is not at least three years that cannot be made.

Then across the sea to the homeland, I don't know how many years it will take.

Life is too short! By the time we return to our homeland after all the hardships, we may be dying!

Decades of good time were all spent on the way home.

Every time I think about this, I suddenly feel frightened, and even wonder if such efforts are still meaningful.

Sure enough, after just two or three days of grinding mineral powder, Lin Qing and Brother Chun began to slack off.

These two Guava deliberately used brute force to drop the hammer on the edges and corners of the ore that was as hard as a knife.

But at the sound of a click, the whole mallet scattered like a piece of chopping wood.

"Lin Qing and Brother Chun are incompetent! Please also ask the lord to punish the crime! ”

Obviously deliberately making trouble, and pretending to beg for Brother Lin's punishment, Lin Qing is really a ghost.

"Let's rest for now, and then go back and do a handful of each!"

Brother Lin sweated profusely and held on to the wooden handle, panting.

This work of smashing stones with a sledgehammer can be called the coolie of coolies, and it is difficult for those who have not experienced it to imagine the suffering.

Qin Chong and I have been working on Flying Fish Reef for more than a year as a slave worker and quarrying career, and we have already practiced it.

But for the first time in their lives, Brother Lin and the guys on his boat were able to hold on for two or three days with their youth and vigor, which was not easy.

"Thank you, sir!"

Brother Chun and Lin Qing got the edict, escaped from the ascension to heaven and staggered away from the dusty and misty stone smashing site, and took the little Inca and went to the stream below to take a bath and enjoy the coolness.

As soon as such a precedent was set, others also became red-eyed and hot-eyed.

Damaging the mallet, slacking off work, and finding all kinds of excuses to call it off early.

After half an hour's effort, only the three of our master and servant, Brother Lin and the indigenous man Lin Tie were left on the gravel field, and they were still struggling to support them.

"Big brother, you can't go on like this! We'll have to think differently! ”

I simply beckoned the remaining five to quit and sit in the shade to discuss what to do.

"Let the virtuous brother laugh, these guys who are brothers are used to wandering around the sea, they can't stand such work, and they can't even hold on to their brothers! Hahaha! On this day, the sledgehammer wheel came down, and the whole body seemed to fall apart! ”

Brother Lin gulped down sake, then tore off a piece of venison and stuffed it into his mouth.

If it weren't for the venison and sake to boost his spirit, I guess this benevolent brother would have been unable to survive a long time ago.

Unless a maritime merchant encounters a hurricane and waves, he is very idle on weekdays, how can he have such hard work.

"Young master! Now that it's hot and there's no liquor shop around, we're a bunch of exiled prisoners! Hahaha! We have to let these boys have some fun, otherwise we won't be able to do this drudgery! ”

Qin Chong said with a relaxed expression, while handing the clay bowl for drinking to the pot helmet beside him.

"For example, going to an indigenous village and finding a few young women to come back to wash and cook for me can also alleviate everyone's homesickness."

The pot helmet is really a person in temperament, and he is an indigenous beauty when he opens his mouth.

But this method will definitely work, and we are all reckless and tired of working together.

If you have a young woman to accompany you, even if you don't do anything, just a few glances a day, it will be great to boost the morale of the whole team.

"Young master, Master Lin, it will definitely not be possible to polish the mineral powder like this! We're as tired as donkeys, but we don't have the slightest hope, and I'll be out of it in a few days! ”

"Brother Xian, what Qin Chong said is to the point, we really have to think of another strategy, we can't go on like this, brothers

I can't afford to burn it! ”

Brother Lin raised his head and drank a bowl of grain wine, he was already borrowing wine to kill his sorrows.

Qin Chong said that the donkey was coming down because he remembered one thing! Young master, the yellow rice noodles and wheat noodles that we northern residents make helmet cakes on weekdays are all made by donkeys pulling stones and grinding them. Why don't we also put the crushed stone of the copper mine on the stone and crush it like grinding the dough, which must save the effort than beating it with a wooden mallet! ”

The pot helmet said thoughtfully, his bare upper body muscles and muscles abrupt, like a coiled dragon.

"Liu Zhen'er! You can think of such a clever plan! It's really Zhuge Kongming alive! Hahaha! Eldest brother! We are saved! ”

The casual remark of the pot helmet made me pause, hugged the old fellow happily, and laughed heartily at Brother Lin.

"The young master praised the pot helmet and was ashamed! Milling wheat flour and grinding stone powder is the same thing, but it is difficult to determine how effective it will be! ”

In the business journey, because of the coveting of women, the pot helmet was ridiculed far more than the praise of everyone, and my sincere praise made him a little embarrassed.

"It's going to work wonders! At least 70% of manpower can be saved! "I said with confidence.

"Brother Xian, Brother Pot Helmet's method is very good! But can any of us do this? ”

Brother Lin let out a sullen breath and asked me a little worriedly.

"Master Lin! Don't forget, our young master is the descendant of Chang'an Fang, the state of Khotan! It's not a problem to polish a stone! Qin Chonglang laughed.

"Then there is Brother Lao Xian! Ah! I'm tired these days! Hahaha! ”

Brother Lin slapped his shoulders with both hands and smiled bitterly at us.

"Big brother, don't worry! The matter of building the stone stone is wrapped in the foolish brother's body, and it will be seen within ten days! ”

I got up and put on my coat, and beckoned Qin Chong and Guo Helmet to go to the cliffside at the upper end to find suitable stones.

Three days later, a huge piece of dark stone wool was moved out of the cliff by everyone.

Then after several days and nights of chiseling and grinding, a stone stone about three feet long and three feet high finally took shape.

With a gentle push along the mountain, it rolled down the hill and stopped steadily on the platform next to the smelter.

At Tian Bo's suggestion, we dug out two square deep holes on both sides of the stone, inserted two logs, and nailed in more than a dozen wooden wedges for reinforcement.

In this way, only four people can easily push the stone stone and move back and forth on the terrace.

The men scattered egg-sized pieces of copper ore gravel on the rocky ground, and the stone stone crushed over it.

But with a crunching sound, the gravel turned into coarse-grained mineral powder in the shape of wheat flour.

Finally able to be freed from the drudgery of Chu prisoners, all the brothers were happy children, competing to try the taste of pushing stones and grinding powder.

Seeing the scene, I couldn't help but think of what my grandfather used to say before his death, that a trader must be able to endure all kinds of suffering in the world, but never ask for hardship.

It is the right way to turn the drudgery that everyone is tired of into a pleasure that everyone is willing to do.

Such a small innovation has increased the efficiency of our grinding of copper ore powder by a hundred times, saving ninety percent of manpower.

It also brightened up the gloomy prospects of our metallurgical shipbuilding.

It is in response to what "Zhou Yi" said: adults and tigers change, villains change, and gentlemen and leopards change.

The leopard changer, the way of business!

(End of chapter)

Shang and Buddha