October 21 was another sunny day.

In the past few days, Captain Coot's first mate, with a crew and a total of 46 soldiers on board, has been carrying cargo in the cabin and disassembling the guns to reduce the weight of the ship. A large hole was pierced by Spanish artillery near the portside waterline of the Orange River, and although the crew kept trying to plug the break, it was still leaking. When we first sailed off the Big Fish River, the ship was already quite dangerous and could sink at any time. Captain Kuayt made a quick decision and ran aground at the mouth of the Big Fish River.

The lightened weight of the Orange River's sideboard was already above the waterline, and the hull was floating. This is followed by some tinkering, which will be done by themselves.

The Orange River's bilge was a mess, and it took the crew a full day to clear the bilge, which had been turned into a pond. Many materials such as grain and gunpowder could not be used because they had been soaked in water for a long time, and after the gunpowder had been dried, they could continue to be used, so they had to buy food from the crossers.

A large amount of money was additionally stored in the bilge. After being cleaned up, a total of: more than 5,000 Spanish cross silver coins minted in various Americas, equivalent to about 30,000 riyals; More than 40 Venetian gold ducats, more than 1,000 silver escarpins, about 1,800 riyals; In addition, some scattered and jumbled gold and silver coins amounted to about 2,600 riyals; The total amount is about 34,000 riyals, which is about 2,150 ducats.

"Did they sack the Spanish ships?" Tang Yuan, the new finance commissioner weighing more than 200 pounds, stared at the intoxicating coins in front of him with red eyes.

"That's right." Gaumo nodded, "At least those Potosi silver crosses can't be wrong." ”

"Why is this silver coin so ugly? Each shape is different, strangely shaped. "Tang Yuan looked at the shape of those Spanish cross silver coins, and felt a little painful.

This is because the Spaniards cut a piece directly from a silver rod and then typed it to form a silver coin in order to achieve production. However, these silver coins are moderately weighted and can be used. Look at this," Gaumo picked up a silver cross, "with the coat of arms of the Habsburg royal family on the obverse, and the initials of the foundry and the chemist on the side, well, this one is from Potossi. On the back is a cross motif, and within four diagonal squares are lions and castles. In the case of a silver coin made in Mexico, the reverse cross will also have an iris motif around it. ”

"Gao, my money is all here, what about the goods I want?" Kuaite looked at the six cardboard boxes escorted by the guard squad behind Gao Mo and Tang Yuan, and was a little impatient.

"Of course it's here, you can check it at any time." Gao Mo turned around and opened the cardboard box.

Kuaite stepped forward, took out a pair of white gloves from his bosom and put them on, and looked at them one by one.

"Very good, 4 sets of Martin Luther lecture utensils, 2 sets of Christ Jordan River baptism utensils." Satisfied with the cardboard box, Kuaite pointed to the wooden boxes and pockets containing the coins, "Now these are yours, worth a total of 2,100 ducats." ”

Tang Yuan immediately smiled, this is his first income since the financial commissar took office, and it is worth writing about.

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Shao Shude walked over with a dark face: "The humidity of the kiln smoke is a bit large. ”

Ma Jia suddenly became nervous: "Does it matter?" What are the consequences? ”

"At present, the problem is not big, when the original stacking is put under the dry billet, it should not cause the phenomenon of billet stack collapse. However, it is still necessary to be careful and increase the exhaust temperature appropriately. Also, pay attention to the fire. Shao Shude was newly elected as a member of the material committee, and the brick kiln was no longer in his charge, but he really couldn't rest assured of his hard work. Today was the first time to burn bricks, and he rushed over immediately after dealing with the limited matters at hand.

"What if the tide falls?" Vest asked.

"Then find a way to switch to long-flame fuel, pull the fire through the collapsed billet stacks, and lead the front row of billet stacks."

"How's the cement kiln going?" Shao Shude asked.

"I'm thinking about it while I'm building." Ma Jia sighed, "I've never done this before, I'm just looking at the information in the computer and learning and groping." ”

"The cement kiln and lime kiln are erected, and the last bit of reinforced cement is also consumed. Shao Shude joked, "The executive committee is waiting for us to produce a steady stream of building materials." ”

"Ball! Can this be done in a hurry? Ma Jia scolded indignantly, "Lao Tzu's iron factory has not yet been built, and he is busy burning bricks and cement to build houses for these grandsons all day long." ”

"Huh." Shao Shude patted the vest on the shoulder, and then rushed to the lumber yard and mine to check the situation. Lumber yards are now increasingly scarce, mainly because of the damage to tools. As soon as Shao Shude came, the lumberjack team complained to him, but he had no choice, there was no blacksmith who could make iron in the crowd, and he could only count on the Dutch for this. The front of the limestone mine is full of collected rough stones, and the sheds on both sides are tinkling with the sound of pounding limestone all day long, which is making limestone powder. The milled limestone powder is sent to a cement kiln, where it is calcined at high temperature with clay to make cement.

Shao Shude turned around casually again, and finally returned to the brick kiln to live.

"There's some condensation on the bricks." Early the next morning, Shao Shude got up and ran to the brick kiln to look inside, "The fire is not enough, reduce the amount of ventilation, and raise the fire first!" ”

The vest was topped with two dark circles and bloodshot eyes. He didn't sleep soundly last night, but got up several times to check the situation of the kiln, and now he was so sleepy that he yawned. Hearing Shao Shude's words, he suddenly became agitated, and led a group of people to reduce ventilation and add firewood, and worked hard for a long time before finally turning the fire around.

For the next day and night, the two committee members took a group of kiln workers with black faces, trembling, and carefully waited for the brick kiln, for fear that there would be another problem. At nine o'clock in the morning of the third day, Shao Shude finally decided to stop the kiln after repeated observation and confirmation.

Everyone opened the door of the kiln, and after the kiln temperature cooled, the bricks began to be produced.

"Put on your gloves." The vest gave one of them a pair of cotton gloves. At this time, there was still a high temperature in the kiln, and a group of people who passed through the sweat towels on their heads began to stack bricks into the rattan frames that had been made, and stacked a basket to go out.

"Nima, it's really not human." Minghui said while stacking bricks and urns, "It's too hot, the dust is still heavy, I knew that Lao Tzu might as well go with Jin Kela to dig out the dung." ”

"Why are you talking so much now?" Xie Hansan squinted at Minghui, "Wait for those Dutch to catch some slaves for us, so we don't have to do these menial jobs, and we will all be leaders in the future." Got it? Leadership! ”

"Better get some more Yanmars, hahaha!" The two let out a lewd laugh.

At this time, it was the lunch break, and there were many people outside the kiln who rushed to hear the news. The red bricks from the brick kiln are the first industrial products that have passed through the self-made industry, which is of great significance.

When Ma Jia and Shao Shude appeared at the door of the kiln with the first basket of bricks together, all the traversers present broke out into enthusiastic cheers, Ma Jia smiled, and a mouthful of white teeth appeared on his black face.

By the evening of October 24, the first kiln bricks had been completed. After counting, there were more than 10,000 red bricks intact, and the remaining broken bricks, bread bricks and other substandard vests were ready to be taken out to repair the road.

For the brick kiln that has made significant contributions, the executive committee held a temporary meeting and decided to reward all employees of the brick kiln with 4 bottles of Wuliangye, 20 bottles of jam and a box of canned meat.

Encouraged by this, in the next few days, lime kilns and cement kilns were also erected. At present, the materials are being prepared, and the official production will be officially ignited in almost a few days.

The first batch of bricks produced was decided by the Executive Committee to build a pulp pool to produce white paper. There is a craftsman who knows how to make paper, and he can make white paper from grass, bark and lime using traditional techniques. After all, the current demand for paper is quite large, not to mention writing, you can't use leaves to wipe your buttocks, right? In this way, in the immediate vicinity of the lime mine, a paper workshop was built.