Bai Hui nodded: "Cross the river, there should be a high mountain in the future, stand on the top of the mountain and go northeast, count ......" Bai Hui said, took a disc and gestured it: "Probably so much." ”

As soon as the guards clenched their fists, they immediately arranged for people to go to the logging, and then made rafts to prepare for crossing the river.

A day later, Iwami Ginzan.

On the day that Bai Hui stepped into the Iwami Silver Mountain mining area, a boulder attracted the attention of the exploration team, and the blackened boulder was more than one person high.

"Dahe-kun, it is auspicious to meet the dog's head gold. It is also good luck to encounter a piece of silver. ”

The old miner of the exploration team handed Bai Hui a pig shovel.

Bai Hui came to the stone and looked back at the old miner.

The old miner said: "Dahejun, according to legend, a hundred years ago, someone in Baiyang Mountain in the west of Yiyang found a silver nugget weighing 600 catties, which also triggered the alliance of Wei, Han and Chu to attack our Daqin. ”

"Six hundred pounds?" Bai Hui was taken aback, he didn't expect that there were still pure silver bars in nature.

In fact, silver exists in nature in the form of natural silver, sulfurization, sulfurization, etc., and natural silver is certainly not 100% pure silver, but a relatively pure silver bar.

The largest piece was found, weighing almost fifteen tons.

The old miner continued: "Later, in the first battle of Hexi, our Great Qin was defeated, and the piece of silver was also melted away. ”

"What about this one?" Bai Hui asked, pointing to the black stone.

"Heaven-sent silver."

Heaven-given silver is a natural pure block, and this thing is the name of the Qin people.

Bai Hui slammed the shovel twice, and then grinded the gap that had been smashed again.

Sure enough, a grayish silver appeared in front of him.

"Dig, dig out." Bai Hui really didn't expect that there would be such a huge silver nugget.

Many people got started together, first smashing the stones next to the silver nuggets and then digging them out.

This piece, after all the digging is dug out, is almost the height of Bai Hui's waist.

The old miner said: "Dahejun, this piece weighs 20,000 catties. ”

The 10,000 catties of the Qin State are almost equivalent to 2.5 tons in later generations, that is to say, Bai Hui picked up a five-ton piece of silver as soon as he arrived at Iwami Silver.

If it is replaced by an ordinary family, this will directly become rich.

For a family in the Qin State, it is estimated that three taels of silver is enough for a year's living expenses, and this piece becomes a silver coin, which is enough for the living expenses of a small county for a year.

"This ......, or we will melt it!"

It weighs five tons, and it relies on dozens of people with wooden sticks to pry, so it can barely get from the soil to the ground, but it is even more difficult to move again.

And it's still a mountainous area, there is no road, and it's impossible to carry it by other means.

Even if there is a carriage, the maximum load of Qin's carriage is only more than half a ton, and in Bai Hui's eyes, even a treasure can't pull it out.

But it can be melted.

"No!" At that moment, several miners pounced, and even Bai Hui's guards had several people go over to block them.

The old miner was anxious: "Dahejun, you can't melt, this is a treasure, this is the treasure of our Qin country." ”

Bai Hui's guards also shouted: "Master, transfer three hundred elites, and one thousand slaves, let's fight for a hundred lives, and this thing will definitely be transported to the river." ”

"Let's set up camp!"

What else could Bai Hui say, it was obvious that no one wanted to melt this piece of natural silver.

They camped beside the five-ton silver nugget, and the miners found a place a mile from here where there were many rocks and water to dig for the rocks.

Obviously, these miners were going to make a simple melting furnace, but certainly not for the natural silver, they were going to test the quality of the ore here.

In just five days, at least 100 giant trees were cut down here.

A wooden house made of three-inch planks or half-round logs was built, and the rest were still under construction.

In addition to this five-ton piece of natural silver, several small pieces of natural silver were found, and the largest of the small pieces of natural silver weighed almost 200 catties.

Next, blocks of silver ore, copper ore and lead ore began to pile up next to the camp.

It is less than 10 kilometers from the camp to the seaside in the north.

Bai Hui listened to his guards go out to explore the road every day, and then calculated the reliable way to transport the five-ton silver nugget to the beach.

Then they started arguing as they talked, and they started fighting as they argued.

When you're tired, you'll be quiet.

Then the next day, several teams continued to go out to explore the way, while escorting the exploration team to explore the surrounding area.

On the tenth day of the discovery of natural silver, Bai Hui saw for the first time how the craftsmen of the Qin State purified silver from silver ore.

Beside a river almost a foot wide, craftsmen set up a waterwheel.

The stone mill was carved out by a stonemason.

The first process: grinding the ore with a stone mill, and then the second process is to wash it in the river water, leaving behind according to the old miner, called fine powder.

Next, the fine powder is mixed with the wood dust powder and started to be burned in the stove.

No coal mines have been found here, so wood is being burned.

The old miner said to Bai Hui: "Dahejun, there should be coal here, it is a bit of a waste to burn wood, the wood in this mountain forest is very good, you should call the boatsmith to come over and see if you can build a ship or something." ”

"In theory, there should be coal mines, but it is really not possible to transport them from Fugang to here, or the fine powder here to Fugang."

When Bai Hui spoke, the old miner didn't answer, and his hands were still busy.

Then in the fourth step, the slag silver is burned together with the lead ore powder, and then it is the craftsmanship of the Warring States period.

This step is called soot blowing, which is to smelt the lead-silver alloy on the plant ash, and then blow continuously to blow the lead off, leaving high-purity silver.

This trick was not invented by silversmiths, nor was it the function of goldsmiths or coppersmiths.

This is a soot blowing method invented by a warlock in the Warring States period by chance when he was alchemy.

Danshi not only invented the soot blowing method to purify gold and silver, but also made copper and zinc by water.

It is important to know that the reduction temperature of zinc oxide is 904 degrees, while the boiling point of zinc is 907 degrees, which is only the middle value of 3 degrees.

For the Warring States craftsmen who did not even have a thermometer, they were able to control the temperature between these three degrees and collect zinc, which was extremely difficult to make. It can be said that by the end of the eighteenth century, this metallurgical process was unique to the earth.

The first furnace of silver is out.

The two silversmiths Ding Ding dangdang smashed a silver medal for Bai Hui, with a pattern of mountains and seas on it, and words on the back.

The words are written that Qin Expedition to Wadao and the first furnace of silver.

Bai Hui held this silver medal that was almost two or two, shiny, and a little warm.

"Well, the king will like it."