After combing through the list of things to do, Wang Xuan had more than ten days of free time.

In the past few days, he and Qing'er have studied and explored the reasons for the failure of leather shoemaking. The tanning process mainly includes three stages: preparation, tanning and finishing, which are subdivided into hair removal, skin kneading, skin drying, skin stepping, pattern drawing, cutting, sewing, etc.

The preparation stage is to remove the useless materials of tanning in the hide, such as hair, epidermis, fat, fibrous interstitium, subcutaneous tissue, etc., in preparation for tanning.

The tanning stage is a qualitative process that turns hides into leather, and a series of tanning effects can be obtained after tanning.

The finishing stage is the action and processing of a series of chemicals to give the leather a variety of use values.

According to Qing'er's description, the problem should lie in the liming stage, where caustic soda needs to be added to swell the skin to a certain thickness, which is conducive to splitting. Generally, the first layer is used for high-end clothing, shoes, etc., and the second layer is used for low-end leather goods.

However, caustic soda did not appear at that time, and baking soda was only recently obtained, and the substitute used for it failed to achieve the desired effect, and the acid-base neutralization was not complete, so it failed.

The most important stage of tanning is the extraction of tannin gum with plant tanning agents, and its composition is very complex, and the raw materials are tall trees such as larch and vitex bark. Now that caustic soda can be made, Wang Xuan encouraged Qing'er to carry out experiments, and also encouraged her to recruit female workers with relevant experience to participate in it.

If it can really succeed, auspicious will be the leader in the field of tanning, completely bid farewell to shoddy manufacturing, to high-end, exquisite, practical development, this is wealth.

Perhaps it was Wucheng shares that strengthened Qing'er's determination, and immediately went to the employment department of the Propaganda Department to find women with relevant experience, and at the same time released recruitment information, which will be the first factory composed of women in Jixiang, creating a precedent for Jixiang.

Next, Wang Xuan selected 30 people from the first grade of Phoenix Primary School, and every Thursday afternoon, he went to the designated school to give the children a lesson of "Nature" and a section of "Physical Education". The first-grade nature class is to observe plants and small animals, and describe them in concise language, and observe different changes at different times and seasons, while physical education should first learn recess exercises, modified dynamic gymnastics, followed by some simple running, long jump, sit-ups and other items.

And himself, in addition to going to the school to teach the children classes, in his spare time will be with Liang Luo, Wang Yi and them to study and compile teacher training textbooks, except for a small number of new recruits to teach languages, the rest will be assigned to engage in the teaching of physics, chemistry, morality, mathematics and other teaching work, without preliminary training, it is impossible to teach, auspicious education career has just begun, there is a long way to go.

In addition, at the request of Wang Xuan, the Ministry of Justice was established, which was directly under his own jurisdiction, and among the four people Sun Yufei, Tao Kuo, Jin Chong, and Jiang Yan, Sun Yufei was the first Minister of Justice, and the other three were all backbones, and the legal talents recruited before were unified under the management of the Ministry of Justice.

The main responsibility of the Ministry of Justice is to compile and review laws and to try those who violate the law, and the Ministry of Public Security will carry out punishments according to the results of the trials, up to the death penalty. However, at present, the primary responsibility is to write the auspicious constitution, and Wang Xuan hopes that the laws of auspicious collars can eliminate the aristocratic privileges and slavery in the laws of Bactria and form a relatively fair system on its own.

In addition, within the scope of the Constitution, all laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, special regulations, etc., except for military law, all laws and regulations formulated by any department must be reviewed by the Ministry of Justice. For a time, the legal department was like a city, and the status of everyone skyrocketed.

On April 3rd, there was a breeze and the scorching sun was in the sky. Wang Xuan came to the cement factory, the small river that powered the water wheel had been dug up, and the location of the water wheel was relatively narrow, in order to provide enough speed of water flow, and the water inlet of the small river would be opened after the water wheel was installed. The parts of the waterwheel have been delivered to the site, the plate factory has provided 24 wooden blades, the hardware factory has provided a metal spindle nearly five meters long, and cast simple bearings, if the effect is good, Wang Xuan plans to open another bearing factory.

Transmission belts can be installed at both ends of the spindle, and the central spindle of the grinding disc can be connected at the other end, as long as the waterwheel is strong enough and the water flow is large enough, it is not difficult to drive the grinding disc to rotate. The bearings are carried by cement concrete columns on both sides of the river, and there are clamping grooves in the middle to prevent the bearings from detaching after being stressed.

The assembly lasted for a day, and the waterwheel with a diameter of nearly 10 meters was put into the load-bearing truck slot on the afternoon of the fourth, and after digging the upstream water inlet, the waterwheel blades drove the spindle to rotate slowly under the impact of the water flow. Everyone cheered, Wang Xuan thought that since it had been rotated, the follow-up work was to continue to test, to test the best match between the upper limit of power and the strength of the waterwheel itself, and everyone could operate it proficiently after a period of time.

After some explanation, Wang Xuan left the cement factory and had to pick up the flowers from school today.

In the evening, time came to visit in a hurry, saying that the matter of the iron mine had eyebrows, Wang Xuan was immediately overjoyed, and hurriedly invited him into the study to talk.

"Speaking of iron ore is really a coincidence, in late March, Xishan Ling found iron ore veins at the foot of Xishan Mountain, rich reserves, excellent quality, so the prince specially asked the Ministry of Industry to buy iron ore from Xishanling. As he spoke, Shi Shi took a sip of tea, took a breath and continued, "This Xishan Territory is the territory of the Sun family, at the foot of the West Xingyao Mountain on the north shore of Xingyao Lake, the head of the Sun family is friendly with my Shi family, and as soon as this matter was mentioned, the Sun family readily agreed, but there was one condition." ”

Speaking of this, time stopped talking, and his eyes flickered at Wang Xuan.

"It's a condition, but it doesn't hurt to say it. Wang Xuan was impatient to sell Guanzi and let him speak bluntly.

"The Sun wanted to barter, and what they valued was the auspicious ability to build bridges. Adults don't know that the river network in Sun's territory is more developed than auspicious, because the territory is located at the foot of the mountain, and the water source comes from Xixingyao Mountain, so the water flow is turbulent, and the number of people who drown and die every year is unknown. And once the river was more than ten meters wide, they could not build a bridge for horse-drawn carriages. ”

Time carefully explained the cause and effect of the incident, and according to the chronological analysis, it was impossible for the Xishan Lingsun clan to know that Jixiang had a new bridge construction technology at the end of March, and at that time the bridge across the river was only completed with piers, and the bridge deck was not erected.

From a technical point of view, the fact that the bridge piers can be built at the Xingyao River is enough to show that it is only a matter of time before the bridge is completed; from a logical point of view, there must be people who know some bridge erection techniques and have leaked out the information. Most likely, apart from the gang of foreign merchants, it was him himself, because he had enough motives.

He was very worried that Wang Xuan would suspect that he was in collusion with the Sun family and sold the technical information of Jixiang Bridge Building in exchange for his own interests, so he tried to dissociate himself from this matter.

"Oh, then do they want to build the bridge with materials or technology, or contract us to build it?" Wang Xuan didn't care how Xishan Ling learned about Jixiang's ability to build bridges, but was very interested in Xishan Ling's transaction requirements, what did the other party want?

At this time, Shi Shi immediately cheered up and said slowly: "At first, the Sun clan wanted to exchange iron ore for the material recipe and technology for bridge construction, but they themselves probably realized that this plan was not feasible, so they retreated to the next best thing and asked Jixiang to help them build six bridges on the main river. ”

Seeing that Wang Xuan was not angry, Shi also raised his voice a little, and continued: "The six bridges are converted into gold coins and exchanged for the equivalent value of iron ore, but the Sun family does not provide transportation, and this point needs to be solved by Ji Xiang himself." ”

Wang Xuanyi pondered that this thing was feasible, not only to train the engineering team and expand the auspicious reputation, but also to exchange for the much-needed iron ore. He was not worried at all that the other party would take this opportunity to peep or even steal the bridge construction technology, as long as the cement formula was not leaked, they would never be able to master this technology. In addition, the construction office can also build a simple wooden shed to block the peeping sight, and at the same time strengthen the surrounding vigilance.

"What is the price of iron ore?" is the key.

"One gold coin per thousand gold," Shi's tone trembled slightly, and he said affirmatively, "The quality is definitely one grade higher than that of Red Flame." ”

The price is not cheap, if the quality is really super Red Flame one level, it will be very cost-effective.

Thinking of this, Wang Xuan said to time: "This matter is auspicious, and recently sent relevant personnel to Xishan Ling for a field investigation, and the contract will be negotiated and signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the inspection, what does Mr. Shi think?"

"Great goodness. Another expensive commission is about to arrive, even if time tries its best to hide it, the slightly upturned eyebrows still betray him, "The little one won't disturb the adults to rest, so I will send someone back to Xishan to report the matter, so I can be prepared and sign the contract as soon as possible." ”

"This is the first time, and I hope it will be the last time, that I will not treat my sincere friends badly, but I will not tolerate villains who eat inside and out. ”

As soon as he was about to step out of the study, Wang Xuan's cold warning voice was heard in his ears, and his steps were suddenly chaotic, and his right foot fell on the heel of his left foot. At this time, he didn't feel the pain, so he immediately got up and made a strong gesture towards the study, "The small one is not intentional, it just shows that Jixiang has this ability to satisfy his vanity, and he didn't reveal the slightest detail, please be aware of it, and ...... it."

Time is no longer as complacent as before, his face is uneasy, and his voice is terrified.

He had reasons for being uneasy and fearful, first, Wang Xuan could have detained him or even directly executed him on the grounds of endangering the security of the territory; second, as long as Ji Xiangling objectively reported the matter to Shi Qian, his fate might be even worse. He knew very well that between the gold coin and him, Shi Qian would always choose the gold coin, and he was worthless.

"Go ahead. ”

These two words fell in the ears of time, like a heavenly sound, "Lord Xie, Lord Xie, there will be no next time, never!"

Time seemed to have walked away from the underworld, and the sweat that gradually turned cold woke him up from the chaos, and only then did he realize the pain in the left side of his face and the palm of his hand.