"Master Hou, what should I do next?" Several craftsmen with muddy hands looked at Chen Xu, who was in a daze, and asked cautiously.

"Oh, here's the tiles, remember, these tiles are fired from clay, which is very absorbent, and cement mortar also needs to absorb a lot of water during the solidification process, so these tiles must be soaked in water for at least half an hour...... After soaking, plastering the back of the tiles with cement mortar, and then sticking them one by one on the bottom of the pool and on the walls, you can paste a few ......pieces according to my instructions," Chen Xu said, pointing to an old craftsman.

"Yes, Master Hou!" The old craftsman was a little frightened, tremblingly holding a tile, under the guidance of Chen Xu, first used a trowel to plaster the mortar on the back of the tile about half an inch thick, roughly smoothed, and then pasted it on the bottom of the pool from a corner, and used the wooden handle of the trowel to gently knock a few times from the center of the tile to the surrounding sides, so that the tile and the cement mortar were completely fit together.

"That's right, you first stick a few pieces next to each other on the edge of the bottom of the pool, neatly align them with each other, leave a gap between each brick, and then stick them vertically on the wall and stick them ......"

Under Chen Xu's guidance, the old craftsman soon pasted more than a dozen tiles, wiped off the mud on the surface with corn mats, and a corner of the swimming pool became a smooth and flat tile wall.

When the old craftsman was laying tiles, Zhang Cang, Hu Kuan and a group of craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences were watching from the side, and the officials, supervisors, craftsmen and helpers of the Ministry of Industry and the Inner History Mansion were also in a big circle.

"See, it's easy to paste tiles, but there are three points to pay attention to, one is that the tiles should be soaked for enough time, the second is that the mortar should not be too thin, and the third is that the tiles should be aligned and leave gaps!"

"Master Hou, why do you want to leave a gap, wouldn't it look more beautiful if you don't leave a gap?" An official from the Inner History Office asked suspiciously.

"Well, the Academy of Sciences should know that this is because of the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction, if there is no gap, if the weather is hotter and the temperature is higher, the volume of these bricks and cement will expand, and then squeeze each other down to squeeze the tiles out, it is the middle of summer, the weather is hot, so the gap between the tiles can be as small as possible, but if it is winter, then the gap between the tiles should be appropriately increased!"

"I see!" A group of craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences couldn't help but nod, while several officials in the Inner History Mansion were obviously still confused.

"Okay, I'll hand over the tiles of this pool to a few of you, paste it quickly, it is estimated that it will be finished tomorrow, and it will be ready to use in a day or two after drying!" Chen Xu dropped the corn grass in his hand and climbed out of the swimming pool to wash his hands.

A few plasterers instructed a group of convicts to move the tiles to the nearby ditch and soak them in water, and then asked them to prepare river sand and cement.

Seeing a group of people getting busy, Chen Xu turned his head to look at Zhang Cang and said with a smile: "Dean Zhang, how is the tap water installed?" ”

Zhang Cang tugged at his beard and nodded: "Fortunately, with the guidance of Hou Ye, it has basically been installed in place, and now we only need to wait for the bathtub, toilet, urinal, basin and faucet that Hou Ye said are installed to pass the water test!" ”

"By the way, what about Lu Erwa?" When it comes to faucets, Chen Xu suddenly thinks of the old craftsman who invented faucets.

"Lu Erwa hasn't come back from the factory for the past few days!" Said a craftsman next to him.

"Well, arrange for a person to go to the factory to see if his faucet is ready?"

"You two hurry up and ride to the factory to find Lu Erwa!" Hu Kuan turned around and ordered the two helpers.

"Let's go, go to the toilet and bathroom!"

Chen Xu took a group of people to the toilet and bathroom, kitchen and other places that need to install bathroom equipment, and asked the craftsman to put the prepared bathtub basin and so on in the planned position, and then asked several responsible craftsmen to paint the installation position with lime, and leave the reserved water inlet drainage holes, which allowed people to start installing the drainage pipes, and after the installation, the ground was smoothed with cement mortar.

After all the inspections and guidance in the front yard and backyard were completed, the two helpers who went to the factory also came back, and they also brought back Lu Erwa and a few faucets.

Looking at the faucet in his hand, which really had a dragon's head, Chen Xu's mouth opened and didn't close it for a long time.

It is very exquisite, the whole faucet is cast with pig iron, a vivid faucet, like a real dragon with its head squirting water, the mouth is open, the middle is the water outlet, there are two dragon horns connected together on the faucet, there is a handle on it, fixed on the neck of the faucet with a movable bolt, gently lifted and put down, it is the switch of the faucet, and the combination of the switch is a sluice made of wood and cowhide, so as to ensure that there will be no leakage to the greatest extent.

"Master Hou, do you think this faucet is suitable?" Looking at Chen Xu's stunned expression, Lu Erwa was very nervous.

"Yes, you just don't have to be so fancy!" Chen Xu looked at it a few times, opened and closed the faucet and tried it a few times, it felt a little tight, but it should be no problem to use.

However, using iron as a material is probably a big problem to prevent rust, in this era without stainless steel and electroplating process, steel oxidation and rust can not be avoided, so the water released will also have rust, long-term drinking will definitely harm the body.

But if you don't use steel, you can only use copper, but whether it is bronze or pure copper, it will rust after a long time of contact with water, and bronze contains lead, which is more toxic.

Chen Xu started to have a toothache when he took the faucet.

If he is a pure ancient person, he will probably be excited at this time if he doesn't know this, but since he knows that it is poisonous and needs to use it, it is a bit of a second force, because this water is used by himself and his family.

But if you don't use copper and iron, the probability of success in firing faucets with pottery is too low, and it is often broken to estimate the damage very quickly.

Unless it is applied with a layer of anti-rust paint on the outside.

But at the moment, there can be no anti-rust paint, and the commonly used ordinary raw lacquer is a tree paint transported from the south, which is not waterproof at all.

After racking his brains, Chen Xu's eyes slowly fell on the ceramic bathtub.

Ceramic bathtubs are not all ceramic, but they are made by coating a layer of porcelain paste on the outside of the tub made of clay and then firing it at a high temperature.

Chen Xu instantly remembered the enamel basin and water cup he used when he was a child.

Enamel is to fire a layer of porcelain glaze outside the metal, which perfectly solves the problem of metal rust.

Although he didn't know the production process of enamel, there was no problem with the most basic principle, so Chen Xu raised his hand and called Gao He over.

"Master Hou, what's the matter with me?" Gao He cautiously squeezed up and asked.

Gao He was originally an ordinary pottery craftsman in Qinghe Town, since Chen Xu became the Lidian of Qinghe Town, his pottery workshop has developed into the largest and most famous pottery workshop in Pheasant County and even Daqin in one or two years, at present, six or seven porcelain kilns are smoking all day long, and the fired porcelain carts are pulled to Qinghe stores all over the country, and then the coins of the carts are pulled back to Qinghe Town, and the pottery workshop has expanded more than ten times, and the number of pottery craftsmen and apprentices recruited adds up to hundreds of people, and it has completely become a huge township enterprise.

In Qinghe Town, Gao He's current status is close to Lidian Niu Dashi and Yougui Liu Po, and other oil mills and breweries and paper mills cannot be compared with ceramic workshops, so Gao He walks in Qinghe Town with his eyes on the sky.

However, when he came to Xianyang, Gao He was very frightened, because most of the people in front of him, whether it was the Ministry of Industry, the Internal History Mansion or the Academy of Sciences, were wearing official uniforms, so they only dared to hide from the back to watch.

Chen Xu handed the faucet in his hand to Gao He: "If you want to fire a layer of porcelain enamel inside and outside this cast iron faucet, do you think it will be successful?" ”

Gao He took the faucet and looked at it a few times, nodded and said: "Although I haven't tried it, it shouldn't be a big problem, but this handle and the wood veneer in the middle must be taken off first, and only low-temperature glaze can be used, if the fire temperature of the coal kiln is too high, I'm afraid even this faucet will melt......"

"Okay, I'll leave this matter to you to test!" Chen Xu didn't bother to study the details of enamel with Gao He, mainly because he didn't know, and Gao He, as a craftsman who had fired porcelain for two years, should be said to be the most powerful porcelain master in Daqin at present.

"Lu Erwa, you take Master Gao back to the Academy of Sciences to find Tang Ting in the glass laboratory, and tell him to fully cooperate with Master Master Gao to burn a layer of porcelain glaze on this faucet as soon as possible, the sooner the better!"

"Yes, Master Hou!" Lu Erwa left with a box of faucets and Gao He and three apprentices.

"Master Hou, why do you want to burn a layer of porcelain enamel on the outside of steel, is it for beauty?" For Chen Xu's extra moves, Zhang Cang couldn't help it.

"To prevent rust!"

"I see, it's still Hou Ye's long-term thinking!" Many of the artisans nodded along with each other.

Everyone knows that whether it is bronze or ironware, except for gold, almost all metal products will rust, especially after encountering water, the rust will be faster, this faucet has been in contact with water for many years, and naturally needs to be treated with rust.

"Okay, now let's organize people to install the bathtub clay basin and pool, and strive to complete the installation within two days, and then whether the ceramic faucet can be successfully researched or not, you can test the tap water ...... first."

In the next two days, Chen Xu was like a different person, getting up early and staying at night in the Qinghe Courtyard to guide the craftsmen to check the water pipes, install bathtubs and toilets and other bathroom equipment, because the bathroom equipment and customized pottery pipes were designed by Chen Xu himself, and the interfaces were all unified standards, so it was easy to install.

Two days later, the dishwashing sink in the kitchen, the bathtub in the bathroom, the shower heads, the washbasin, the squat pit and flush toilet in the bathroom, the sink in the public toilet in the outer courtyard, the drinking fountain in the stable and the panda garden, and the running water pipes in all directions in the inner and outer courtyards were all in place.

All the craftsmen gathered excitedly at the location of the water tower.

Two helpers shake a hand-cranked wheel, a thick rope lifts buckets of clean and clear water from the ditch to the 10-meter-high water tower with a large wooden bucket hanging on a pulley on the top of the water tower, and a helper climbs up the ladder outside the water tower to stand on the top of the water tower and dumps the water pulled up into the water tower.

With the sound of a sparse commotion, after pouring more than 20 barrels, the helper on the top turned around and shouted below: "Master Hou, it's already halfway there!" ”

"Alright, get ready for testing, and all the overseers and craftsmen will go and inspect the locations they are responsible for monitoring and installing to see if there are any leaks in the pipes!"

As soon as Chen Xu gave an order, the hundreds of people gathered together dispersed with a hula, and soon the sound of personnel in place everywhere in the inner courtyard and outer courtyard came.

"Open the floodgates and release the water!" Chen Xu gave the order again, and the two helpers who had been waiting in the control room under the water tower lifted a wooden gate, only to hear the sound of running water in the water pipe, and soon there were shouts from everywhere.

"Report, water is coming out of the kitchen!"

"Report, water is coming from the bathroom, too!"

"Report, toilet leak!"

"Report, the outer courtyard is leaking!"

"Report, the water flow in the panda park is very small!"

With the reports coming from all over the place, Zhang Cang and Hu Kuan, the main stewards, were busy in the whole courtyard, and a group of officials and craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry and the Inner History Mansion also ran around excitedly.

Water leakage is normal, but when these people saw that the water pipes installed everywhere really sprayed clean water, they all cheered and roared excitedly, and the entire Qinghe Courtyard was immersed in a jubilant atmosphere.

"Master Hou, such an unbelievable tap water is an eye-opener!"

At this time, Chen Xu came to the leaky toilet to observe the leakage, Zhang Cang followed beside him, looking at the water that was still gushing out of the water pipe, and he was trembling excitedly.

"Master Hou, I can't wait!"

Hu Kuan and the others followed a group of accompanying officials and craftsmen, and they also slapped loudly.

"Okay, don't say it so numbly, hurry up and inspect the surroundings to see if there is any water leakage, step up rectification, and have to pass the water test again after the change, everyone has worked hard in the past two days, and I will invite everyone to eat at the Qinghe Hotel after I finish it!"

"Wow, Qinghe Hotel for dinner, Hou Ye rest assured, we will ensure that all places will be repaired as soon as possible!"

A group of officials and craftsmen dispersed violently, and soon the sound of scolding the convicts, workers, and slaves for carrying cement, river sand and pipes rang out throughout the entire Qinghe Courtyard.