October 11th, light rain.

In Wang Xuan's little memory of geography, cassiterite has the highest tin content, which is roughly described as follows: cassiterite is a sulfide vein-type tin deposit, produced in the siliceous aluminous rock in the outer contact zone of granite-like rocks, and the main component is tin oxide, which is generally reddish-brown.

No more. Wang Xuan remembered that he brought back a lot of unknown ores during the last survey, several of which were red or brown, maybe there was tin ore among them, and he needed to verify it.

The verification method is simple, using coal to heat the ore.

The principle is that the carbon element reduces tin oxide under high temperature conditions to obtain metal tin and carbon monoxide gas, and the tin melting point is low, and it will exist in a liquid state at that time. Most of the other ores have a much higher melting point than tin, so they do not melt when the temperature is insufficient, and it is difficult to react with carbon.

Wang Xuan called the guards, took all the ore that was stained with reddish brown, and after making a record, the group rushed to the steel mill.

The mills are busier than ever, with horse-drawn wagons full of goods parked inside and outside the mills, and workers in a hurry.

Wang Xuan didn't have time to look for Liang Dahai, so he went directly to the experimental furnace to find the steward on duty and asked, "Has the No. 1 experimental furnace ever been occupied?"

"Back to the Lord, there are more mass production of steel, and no new process experiments have been carried out yet. The steward replied.

"Then give me a few workers, and I'm going to try to distinguish some ores, preferably journeymen. Wang Xuandao.

After a while, the steward came with four or five workers in their thirties. Wang Xuan told a few people about his idea, and after a few people said that the operation process was not difficult, they began the experiment.

There are five kinds of ore brought, and the workers use refractory bricks to form five circles in the kiln, and a small amount of coal is placed in it, and the ore is on top of the coal. After igniting the coal, the furnace was closed, and Wang Xuan also waited with peace of mind.

In this test, Wang Xuan did not require blast heating, in his opinion, the temperature generated by the combustion of the coal itself is sufficient, if the temperature is too high, it is likely to melt some impurities in the ore, but it is not beautiful.

After a while, Liang Dahai rushed over, Wang Xuan asked about the current production capacity of the steel mill, Liang Dahai said that he could only meet the urgent orders and large orders in batches, and some small customized orders had to be delayed.

When Wang Xuan heard this, this is not good, and if the raw materials are not in supply at a critical time, it will cost people's lives, so he asked which link was the problem.

Liang Dahai admits that the supply of iron ore is insufficient, and the steelmaking plant cannot produce at full capacity. Other blast furnaces, fuel, manpower, etc. can be solved by themselves, but this iron ore cannot be solved.

This is also something that Wang Xuan has been worried about, and now he can't increase the exchange amount of Red Flame Iron Ore, otherwise fools will know that Jixiang's plan is not small, and Wang Xuan will not do it if he gives people a handle.

After drinking a cup of tea, Wang Xuan told Liang Dahai that he would solve the iron ore matter, and the factory was still in a hurry to supply the order.

After about two pillars of incense, the workers came to report that the kiln could be opened.

When the temperature was a little lower, workers went in and took out the five piles of burned residue. The cinders were cleaned up first, and then the remaining granular matter was separated, and by this step Wang Xuan had already identified the cassiterite mine.

In addition to cinders, there is only a thin puddle of residue numbered three, what is it if it is not tin?

In order to confirm again, Wang Xuan put the condensation into an iron vessel and heated it. Sure enough, within a cup of tea, the substance in the vessel began to melt, and after continuing to heat to remove the foreign matter on the surface, what remained was the familiar form of liquid tin. After it cooled down, Wang Xuan conducted a physical test.

The surface of the "suspected" tin block is a little gray, presumably the result of oxidation, the texture is soft enough to be broken by hand, and the scratches are silvery-white...... It's OK, that's it.

Wang Xuan was excited, and thanked several workers very much, each of whom was rewarded with ten gold coins, and the others were xian'mu'bu'y.

When it was done, Wang Xuan instructed the guards to immediately notify Lu Fang and You Lixing of the number of the cassiterite mine, so that they could confirm the origin of the ore, and the next step was to look for soda ash.

Soda ash does not exist in nature, if you want to get soda ash, you must first find baking soda, which appears in the salt lake sedimentary zone and arid land in the form of salt frost, and its component is baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). If you can find baking soda, then you can get soda ash after heating.

After leaving the steel mill, Wang Xuan hurriedly returned to Jixiang City, and You Lixing and Lu Fang, who got the news, also hurried over to listen to the inquiry.

Wang Xuan briefly described the role of cassiterite to them, and asked them to explore the origin of the ore, prove the reserves and make a mining plan.

Hey, baking soda, baking soda, don't you have to go to Hu Yue or even the Western Zhou to find it? The amount is too small, and the production of one ton of glass will consume one-fifth of a ton of soda ash, which is a full 4,000 catties.

Spend money on advertising, and also have a golden city horse bone, brush up on the sense of existence!

October 12, fine.

The auspicious lord issued a third lord's order, which was a reward order for the collection of materials, and the description was simple:

Auspicious Lord Order:

Look for a rare substance, which is fibrous or columnar mass, grayish or yellowish-white or colorless, shiny, which occurs in the sedimentary zone of salt lakes and in arid lands in the form of salt frost, and in some places forms large areas of alkaline desert.

Expected to occur: central and northern parts of the continent.

Anyone who finds and brings a sample will be rewarded with a thousand gold medals!

Time frame: December 31, 55 year of the Xia Yuan calendar

In addition, if you turn in this item after the time limit, you can still get a part of the reward.

Wang Xuan's issuance of this reward order had little effect on the auspicious people, because auspicious did not have the conditions for baking soda to be generated.

It's just that I want to continue to publish because I want to have more ways to spread the news, and the other is to give the people a psychological hint that many items can make money and stimulate everyone's curiosity about unknown things. The other is to show the outside world an auspicious image of credibility and commitment.

In addition to publishing information in the territory, Wang Xuan also asked the Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to disseminate this information through foreign agencies and businessmen, so that more people could search for materials for Wang Xuan. So Wang Xuan is not worried about not finding it, it's just the length of time.

The problem of materials was over for the time being, and all that could be done was to wait, so Wang Xuan turned his attention to the design of the brewery.

The first step was to design the various buildings and utensils according to the koji production process.

To put it simply, koji production involves crushing the raw materials and grinding them into powder. Secondly, step on the koji, add water to the powder and mix well, step on the koji blank in the koji mold, and step on it smoothly and full.

Then arrange and place, spread a layer of rice husk on the ground, put a layer of curved blanks, and then put a layer of reed stalks. After these are done, it is necessary to control the indoor temperature and cultivate mold.

When the temperature reaches the requirements, the humidity should be discharged to cool down, but the convection air should not be generated indoors.

Turn the bend over and open the spacing to control mildew, this process is called mold drying, for two to three days, turn the bend once a day.

After drying the mold, close the doors and windows into the damp fire, control the temperature and turn the curve, so that the curved layer will continue to rise. Turning over twice a day, opening and closing doors and windows once a day and night, after about five days the temperature of the billet rises to the fire period.

At this time, the mycelium grows from the surface inward, and the water and heat are diverted outward, and the temperature needs to be properly adjusted for seven to eight days, during which it still needs to be turned once a day.

At the end of this period, more than half of the blanks were ripe.

Then the koji billet gradually dries, the temperature drops, and it enters the post-fire period for three to five days.

After the post-fire period, control the temperature for koji. After the gradual evaporation of the water is completed, the koji block can be released from the room.

According to this process, it is necessary to build a stone mill to crush raw materials, to build a curved mold to step on the curve, to prepare auxiliary materials such as rice husks and reeds, to build a room with controlled internal heat dissipation to cultivate koji, to build a warehouse to store raw materials such as wheat, and to make a water tank to stir the water supply.

These are not difficult, just draw the drawings and let the corresponding factory produce them.

How to prevent convection? Just set up a barrier to prevent the outside wind from blowing directly into the house.

Next up is the brewing equipment.

Steaming requires a stove and an iron pot, so prepare a large pot first.

Twenty stoves were built in advance, and some were used for cooking raw materials and another part for distilling liquor.

The pot was made by a steel mill and a hardware factory, and was one or three feet in diameter.

Fermentation requires containers, so prepare wooden or bamboo barrels, ranging from one foot to two feet in diameter and two feet to one foot in height. The southern foot of the mountain is full of wood and bamboo, and it is of excellent quality.

Finally, the finished container, using a porcelain vase, Wang Xuan believes that auspiciousness should create an image for the outside world, that is, "auspicious products, must be high-quality". The bottle is designed to be one foot high, three inches in diameter, cylindrical, and the bottle mouth is sealed with a cork.

Wang Xuan simulated it in his mind a few more times, and after reducing a few unnecessary buildings, the layout of the winery was preliminarily completed.

Then Wang Xuan called the new chief of the guard, this person is named Yang Tao, who is Ge Changjun's successor, and has only recently been recognized by Wang Xuan. Wang Xuan instructed him to send orders for all kinds of equipment from the distillery to the factories in the name of the lord's mansion, demanding that they be delivered at the end of the year, and that they should be delivered with a deposit from Qing'er according to their quotations.