Chapter 101 Making Soda Ash

After several days of hard work, Li Yunhe finally got the gas tank and compressor ready. DURING THE EXPERIMENT, THE PRESSURE WAS INCREASED TO 1.5 MPA. The steel cans are fine. Zhang Zhimu told Li Yunhe not to be careless, and it must be less than one MPA when using it, so that it is safe.

Li Yunhe personally went to the ash kiln to find Wushan, stretched a pipe connected to the air inlet of the compressor into the gas outlet of the ash kiln, and used two people to push and shake the handle of the compressor until the air pressure pointer pointed to an MPA. A total of two bottles of carbon dioxide were filled and transported back to the kiln.

Zhang Zhimu also asked Li Yunhe to fill two jars of air for later use.

In a vat melted a vat of saturated salt water. While turning salt water, Zhang Zhimu told Li Yunhe and others what saturated salt water is. That is, when salt is added to the water, the salt can no longer be melted, and the salt water at this time is called saturated brine.

After the saturated brine is made, the ammonia tank is opened, and then covered with a wooden cover with a rubber tube, and the other end of the rubber tube is inserted into the bottom of the saturated brine to heat the ammonia water tank, and then the ammonia water continues to emerge from the pipe. Stir the brine constantly, and stop adding ammonia when the ammonia is no longer dissolved in the water, that is, when the ammonia water is bubbling out of the brine. At this time, carbon dioxide gas is passed through the rubber tube into the ammonium brine. After stirring, the carbon dioxide is stopped when it is not dissolved in water.

After a while of precipitation, white granular crystals precipitated out of the bottom of the tank. At this time, the liquid on it is poured out and put in another tank. Then take out the white crystals, add water to the basin and wash it several times, and finally filter out the water, and the remaining white crystals are water alkali.

At this time, the liquid that is poured out cannot be wasted. Zhang Zhimu first blew into the liquid with compressed air. This is because the compressed air release is endothermic, which cools the liquid. When the temperature drops, sprinkle some fine salt powder in the liquid, and start to fill the liquid with ammonia water. After a while, white crystals begin to appear in the liquid, and then these crystals are filtered out and washed and dried. Zhang Zhimu told everyone that these white powders are called ammonium chloride.

This water alkali is calcined to become soda ash.

Zhang Zhimu said to everyone: "The two things I get now are treasures. Now, this is just an experimental practice. The experiment was done. Now it's time to organize production. ”

Li Yunhe's people were dazzled by Zhang Zhimu's series of practices, and felt that all this was simply amazing.

But the people who were even more shocked by all this were not Li Yunhe and them, but Qingfengzi's master and apprentice.

These two people, after a long period of alchemy cultivation, think that they have a clear understanding of all the changes in this world.

Now the two of them have become more and more struggling when listening to Zhang Zhimu's lectures, but fortunately, they can still keep up. He thinks he is a master, and it is so hard to be a student here, which makes Qingfengzi feel very uncomfortable. Back then, I felt terrible to hear the masters reveal a little thing to themselves, but there are things that I can't finish learning here. He couldn't understand what was going on.

This Qingfengzi thought again, and when I finish listening to Zhang Zhimu's class, I will tell him about alchemy. Even if it's flattened, then the heart can be considered a little balanced. But when they watched Zhang Zhimu conjure up all kinds of new things like magic, Qing Fengzi knew that he might not have a chance to regain his psychological balance for himself. The master and apprentice were shocked, and they had already confirmed that the stranger they were looking for was really Zhang Zhimu.

At this time, Lu Bingyi, who was watching the excitement, didn't think it was a lively, he asked Zhang Zhimu, what can these two things be done now?

Zhang Zhimu told him that ammonium chloride is the best fertilizer, which is much more effective than manure.

Does this base work. You can try it right away. Zhang Zhimu took the room to the kitchen, picked up a bowl, and smeared it with lard. I washed it with water, but I couldn't wash it because the lard stuck to the bowl. The women next to them said that they had to use boiling water to wash it. Zhang Zhimu said: "No, just wash it with this alkaline water to wash it." Zhang Zhimu sprinkled a little powder on the bowl, then applied it to the bowl, and then washed it with water, and the bowl was polished, and it was washed all at once. When the women in the kitchen saw it, they also took some alkali to wash the dishes and chopsticks, and they were really clean. Zhang Zhimu said: "Put a little alkali in a large pot to wash a lot of oil-stained things. In addition, you can also use this thing to steam steamed buns. Today, you send a little noodles, the noodles are ready, I will steam the steamed buns. When the time comes, you will see what it looks like to steam out of this thing. ”

Zhang Zhimu discussed with Lu Bingyi and Li Yunhe and prepared to set up a special team to produce this chemical product. Zhang Zhimu told them: "When this chemical factory is built, it is a gold-making factory. I have time to teach you a course on the principle of chemical change. ”

Li Yunhe temporarily arranged for ten people to form a group, first according to Zhang Zhimu's method, and first experimentally and slowly produce this alkali and ammonium chloride. After exploring some experience, I engaged in production in the idea. Li Yunhe also poured out a factory for them to specialize in chemical industry.

Zhang Zhimu told them that chemical products should never be littered. When the ammonia gas does not come out of the ammonia jar, the water in the jar should not be messed up, and the water should be poured into the water flow of the ground, because the remaining ammonia water in the jar is a good nitrogen fertilizer into the ground.

Qingfengzi asked Zhang Zhimu: "Master Zhang, when can you talk about these chemical things?" ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that Qingfengzi was fascinated by this chemical thing, so he said: "Wait until I talk about this mathematical thing." Even now that I'm talking about this, you still have to learn mathematics, and you can't take care of it, right? ”

Qingfengzi nodded and said, "Yes, I'll learn math first." But I'm going to have to bother for a few more days. ”

"Master Qingfengzi, no one in our kiln gang treats you two as outsiders. And you will not see the outside. Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "When I finish speaking, I will ask you about the knowledge of Waidan." ”

When steaming steamed buns at night, Zhang Zhimu came to the kitchen, and the women and masters in the kitchen came to see how Zhang Zhimu steamed steamed buns.

Zhang Zhimu asked the people in the kitchen to boil the water in the cauldron and put the curtains and drawer cloths on them.

The women had already brought out their noodles, and they smelled sour. Zhang Zhimu melted a little alkali with water, and then kneaded it in the dough little by little, smelling it while kneading until there was no sour taste in the dough. Seeing that the water in the pot was already boiling, Zhang Zhimu kneaded the noodles into strips on the cutting board, cut the dough one by one with a knife, and then put them on the lid of the pot one by one. Cover the pot when it is full. Zhang Zhimu told you a few key points. That is, the alkali should not be put too much, and it must be kneaded evenly. If the alkali is put too much, the noodles will turn yellow when steamed, and if they are kneaded unevenly, they will affect the steamed buns, and there will be jaunds. And you must wait for the water to boil before you can put the steamed buns, otherwise there will be a piece of hard noodles under the steamed steamed buns that cannot be steamed.

As soon as the lid of the steamed bun pot was opened, everyone gathered around to watch. I saw that the steamed buns in the pot were steamed one by one, and some of them were steamed and flowered. Zhang Zhimu said that when it blooms, it is too much alkali. When the steam dissipated a little, these people couldn't help but reach out and grab the steamed bun and send it to their mouths. Since the flour is now ground with a stone mill, although the color is not as white as in the previous life, and it is comprehensive, it does not have any additives, and after a long fermentation, the sugar content is high, and it tastes exceptionally sweet. In addition, the alkali is extraordinarily soft, and everyone is full of praise for eating.

Since then, the people of Yaogang have begun to eat this alkaline steamed bun. Whenever a guest comes to Yaogang, he will definitely name him to eat Yaogang's big steamed buns.

In the past few days, Zhang Zhimu's mathematics course has taught about one-dimensional one-dimensional equations to one-dimensional quadratic equations. When Lu Bingyi and his disciples came to this point, it was still easier for them to listen, because this part was already in the "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic> but Zhang Zhimu used twenty-six English letters as variables to write expressions, which made people look clearer and clearer. Then Zhang Zhimu talked about plane geometry, solid geometry, and trigonometric functions. Zhang Zhimu talks about these three things every night. Fortunately, it was a class every other day, and Zhang Zhimu wanted to finish the lecture as soon as possible, and then let everyone digest it slowly.

By the time trigonometric functions are finished, the Pythagorean theorem couldn't be simpler.

Finally, Zhang Zhimu told everyone about linear coordinates, plane coordinates, and three-dimensional coordinates.

When talking about the coordinate system again, in order to attract everyone's attention, Zhang Zhimu played a small trick.

He took out a long note and asked, "Let's take a look at how many sides this note has?" ”

The people below all said, "There are two sides, the upper and lower sides." ”

Zhang Zhimu put the two ends of the note together to form a circle, and then asked everyone: "How many noodles are there now?" ”

Everyone said, "There are two sides, inside and outside." ”

Zhang Zhimu twisted the note 180 degrees and put the two ends of the note together, and asked everyone, "How many noodles are there now?" ”

At this time, some people were silent. Most people say, "It's still two sides." ”

At this time, Zhang Zhimu asked a person to take a pencil and draw a line along one side, and this line continued to coincide again. This is why everyone is starting to wonder, how it looks like two sides, but with a stroke of the pen, it is one side. For a while, everyone talked about it.

Zhang Zhimu said. We usually use simple planes and straight lines, but in fact, there are many curves and surfaces. That's why we want to learn the coordinate system.

Until Zhang Zhimu finished talking about linear algebra and matrices, it is estimated that most people can't keep up. Most people just know that there's more. Zhang Zhimu also knows that it would be good if these people could digest these in a few years. Now Lu Bingyi's students can only take all the notes on these contents, and the following is to have time to study them in detail.

However, after these courses were finished, Zhang Zhimu gave Lu Bingyi an important job. It's about making a trigonometric table. They should have been able to figure out the table slowly after explaining the expansion of trigonometric functions. But then I thought about it, and when they could master the expansion of trigonometric functions, they didn't know what year or month. So let him use the soil method and interpolation method to make a six-digit function table first. To this end, Lu Bingyi made a huge disc and measured and calculated it himself.

This three-function table provides great convenience for engineering applications.

These things are too useful for engineering and machining, and Zhang Zhimu gave some practical examples in the course of his lectures. Zhang Zhimu was very moved by the serious study of these people. They're really hungry for learning. In the process of learning, there are really talented people who perform well. Due to the different foundations of these students, the learning effect also varies greatly. For those who are particularly good at learning, Zhang Zhimu keeps them in mind. Prepare to use them as teachers in the upcoming school in the future.

Now Qingfengzi's master and apprentice are also full of paste, and they pestered Lu Bingyi's apprentices who studied well to ask this and that.

In the past few days, Lu Chengxiang's affairs have progressed rapidly, and the landlord of Qingxu has finalized the land matter, and he is waiting for Zhang Zhimu to go and get the transfer documents.

Due to the successive poor harvests in the fields, many landlords cannot afford to pay the tax per acre and can no longer afford to keep their land. So now land is very cheap, and it's almost hard to find land to buy. Even those who used to think that land was cheap and started to buy land, but they couldn't see any hope, so they began to sell their land. But Zhang Zhimu knew that the situation would improve in a few years. Especially guarding the Xiaoling River, he is not afraid of drought. Because although the Xiaoling River has not had a lot of water in recent years, it has never stopped. It's just that the bottom of the river is too deep, it takes too much work to fetch water and irrigate, and the little food grown is not enough for sweat money. But that's because they don't have an effective means of lifting water.

Therefore, Zhang Zhimu gave Lu Chengxiang several tasks, the first of which was to buy as much land as possible around the kiln.

The second task is to ask Lu Chengxiang to buy more blue alum, also called bile alum, which is actually copper sulfate pentahydrate. In the previous life, someone was poisoned by drinking medicine, and in order to induce vomiting, he used the dilution of this thing to pour into his stomach. Because this thing can induce vomiting.

The third task is to prepare to build a branch in Kill Hukou and ask him to choose the right person.

This first task was quickly completed by Lu Chengxiang, he bought almost all the land of the landlord's house next to Qingxu, and the land that could not be seen along the Xiaoling River to the north was all kiln gang, and they were all connected into pieces, adding up to more than 530 dumps of land. Now Zhang Zhimu is a big landowner.

The second task, Lu Chengxiang said, is simpler. There are a lot of copper mines in Shanxi, and there are copper mines that have this thing. It's not worth a lot of money. It doesn't take a few silver to pull a cart back. Zhang Zhimu asked him to buy a few carriages and put them in a place where the rain could not be wet. Zhang Bingchen said that this thing can be used in medicine, but it can't be used so much. Zhang Zhimu told him that it was used for sulfuric acid. It's not about medicine.

The third task, Lu Chengxiang said that he had already prepared. There is a distant relative of Lu Chengxiang, who is the shopkeeper of a firm, and because of his bad temper, he quarreled with the owner and stopped working. Just returned to Shanxi, Zhang Zhimu talked to him, and he knew it in his heart. This person is guilty of the same mistake as Lu Chengxiang, and it doesn't matter if you use him.

Zhang Zhimu said to Lu Chengxiang: "This person made the same mistake as you. We have no problem with it. ”

Lu Chengxiang said: "The two children of my cousin's family have been learning well recently, and they are sent out to be the second shopkeeper and the account room." I know that Li Zhi will definitely send someone, so that this store will be fine. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Don't talk nonsense about Li Zhi. He is directly responsible for me. ”

"I know this, don't worry. So when will you go to Qingxu and sign this land purchase paperwork? Lu Chengxiang asked.

"Without further ado, let's go tomorrow. It just so happened that Li Jing and the others came back today, so let him accompany the two of us on a trip. Zhang Zhimu said.

The next day, Zhang Zhimu and his family drove a four-wheeled carriage and went straight to Qingxu, and handled the paperwork of buying land with the landlord, but refused the landlord's enthusiasm to stay, because Zhang Zhimu still had an important matter to do. Go to the eunuch Li Lianxi and Father-in-law Li.

Of course, seeing that this father-in-law Zhang Zhimu didn't come empty-handed, he brought him a gift that he took out.

After some greetings, Zhang Zhimu and Li Gonggong entered the inner hall alone. After the two sat down, Li Lianxi said: "Zhang Yishi is a busy man, and he won't come to me to give me a gift." Say, see what I can do for you? ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Father-in-law Li, I'll tell you the truth." I'm here for the safety of the imperial court. ”

"Oh?" Gonggong Li's eyes lit up.

"I saw you in a hurry at the last banquet. Gonggong Li said, there are people in your palace. I have an important matter that I want to report directly to the emperor. I wonder if Gonggong Li can do it? Zhang Zhimu asked.

"It depends on what you're reporting for."

"I found some unscrupulous businessmen secretly delivering food and intelligence to the Manchus. Now that the Manchus are short of food, these traitors must be eliminated as soon as possible, otherwise the Manchus will attack again when they are relieved. It's a big deal about safety! These businessmen are rich and rival the country, and the court has a deep foundation, and this matter must be reported directly to the emperor, otherwise if you go from below, the information will not reach the emperor, and I will also be implicated. Zhang Zhimu said.

Gonggong Li smiled slightly: "Zhang Yishi, do you know why I didn't retire in the capital, but came here?" ”

Zhang Zhimu shook his head and said, "I don't know." ”

Gonggong Li said: "Zhang Yishi, I think you are really for the court." I'll tell you. I can report anything directly to the emperor here. ”

"Are you Dongchang? Or...," Zhang Zhimu asked.

"You don't know the best. Just tell me the list of people who do these things. Someone in the imperial court will soon investigate. Li Lianxi said.

Zhang Zhimu took out a written list and handed it to Gonggong Li. In his previous life, Zhang Zhimu only remembered a surname Fan. This is the list to be determined after re-understanding.

Gonggong Li said: "In fact, the imperial court also knew that there were people who collaborated with the enemy, but I didn't expect it to be these big businessmen who are rich enough to rival the country. Zhang Yishi did the right thing. These people are not easy to deal with. But if this matter goes to the emperor, no one can protect them. Dongchang will immediately send someone to investigate this matter. But it's going to take a while. It's better for Zhang Yishi to see that there is an opportunity to start directly. If something happens, the emperor knows that you are loyal and will keep you okay. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "My current strength can't deal with them, I will secretly keep an eye on their whereabouts and report to you if I have something." But Gonggong Li, do you have a sense of crisis in Shanxi? ”

"How?"

"I met King Jin a few days ago. I don't have a sense of crisis in the whole of Shanxi. Li Zicheng is now going all out to deal with the King of Qin in Shaanxi, and the next one is our Shanxi. If we don't prepare early, we'll be done then. Zhang Zhimu said.

"I came to Shanxi to understand the situation in Shanxi, and I have already reported the situation in Shanxi to the imperial court. As for what to do with the imperial court? We can't do anything about it. However, Shanxi people have been practicing martial arts since ancient times, and the people are fierce. When the time comes, they should be able to fight against the thieves. Zhang Yishi can also train more people to cope with the changes. Li Lianxi said.

Zhang Zhimu said: "I am a businessman, and it is a big taboo to raise too many soldiers. When someone takes the opportunity to hurt me, I can't tell. ”

"You can do it without worry. I will also report your affairs to the court. Li Lianxi said.