Chu Tianbi originally thought that Li Shan was going to write an abridgement in a Qincha tone, so he asked his subordinates to take the pen and paper down for the time being.

"Brother Li, I don't know what you plan to say about today's events?"

Li Shan was writing so hard that he didn't even raise his head.

"The Chu people and the Rong people are world enemies, and they have been pressed and beaten by the Rong people for many years! Now because Xiao Feng helped us defeat the natural disaster, this can annihilate so many of them in one fell swoop! What else can I say, naturally I want to repair the book well and express my gratitude to Xiao Feng. ”

Chu Tianbi was stunned for a moment.

"Gone?"

Li Shan suddenly realized.

"Naturally not, I still have to write to His Majesty to ask him to personally reward Xiao Feng, this is still what you reminded me!"

Chu Tianbi saw that Li Shan really didn't have the heart to help him write a good report, so he had to call back the entourage that he had just driven away with a bitter face, and asked him to rearrange the paper and pen.

When Li Shan's letter was delivered to Xiao Feng, it had already been three and a half days.

At this time, Xiao Feng was busy repairing the old house in the village that had been poured down by heavy rain, and it was only because of the military uniform worn by the messenger that he came down on the roof.

"May I ask who is Xiao Feng, here is a letter for you."

"I am."

Xiao Feng took the letter and opened it, only to find that there were only a few words on it.

"Xiao Feng and others, help me in an emergency, push the army to win a great victory, and join forces, how can I forget! I have returned to Beijing, and I hope that Bo will not give up. ”

Xiao Feng knew that the thin gift in Li Shankou was definitely not a thin gift in the superficial sense, but seeing that the person who sent the letter was empty-handed, he only thought that it might be that Li Shan had forgotten about the gift in his busy schedule.

But fortunately, he made a lot of money in the hands of several corrupt officials before, and it didn't matter to him whether he was rewarded or not for the time being, so he didn't pay attention to it, and continued to repair the houses in the village with a few villagers.

I don't know if Xiao Feng's hand is too strong, or the gray brick is brittle after being blistered, every time Xiao Feng uses a gray brick to build on the wall, the gray brick immediately disconnects as if it has been evil, and he is so angry that he kicks down the wall.

"Big cow, big cow!"

Leaving the dilapidated house, Xiao Feng came all the way to the brick-burning workshop outside the east end of the village.

"Big brother, why are you here? Didn't you clean up the old house with the fierce sons! ”

At the mention of the old house, Xiao Feng was even more angry.

"Don't mention that dilapidated old house, get a brick to break, if your bricks can't be burned, I won't be involved in repairing the house in the future!"

Niu De nodded again and again, invited Xiao Feng to sit down in the small pavilion he built, and poured him a cup of tea.

"Big brother, the first batch of bricks will be ready to leave the kiln with about a cup of tea, you take a sip of tea and wait a while."

Xiao Feng looked at the big red pit dug out on the opposite hillside and nodded with satisfaction. If he was not mistaken, the dirt from the eastern hills was the perfect material for red bricks.

After digging, you don't even need to process too much, and you can put it in the kiln to burn.

"Big brother, the bricks are out of the kiln!"

Just finished drinking the tea in the cup, Niu De's voice reached the small pavilion.

Xiao Feng threw down the teacup in his hand and went straight to the brick kiln, and saw Niu Dehao pushing a small cart of red bricks down the slope.

"Big brother, this brick looks very brittle, can it be strong?"

The reason why Niu Deyu asked this question was because when he took out the brick, he accidentally broke a red brick in two. If you change the gray bricks used by the older generation in the village, let alone fall, even if you hit it with your fist, you may not be able to see a crack.

After the bricks cooled, Xiao Feng took out a few of them and stood up straight. Seeing that the bricks were not moving, Xiao Feng couldn't be happier.

"Da Niu, this is what you don't understand, although the hardness of this red brick is not so great, but the load-bearing capacity is not much stronger than that gray brick. Moreover, this red brick is lightweight, even if the whole house is made of red bricks, there is no need to worry about whether the bottom red brick is at risk of being crushed. ”

Niu Dehao heard it in a fog, but as long as Xiao Feng said it was good, he thought it was good.

"Big brother, can this red brick be mixed with soil and used directly as before?"

Xiao Feng shook his head lightly.

If he doesn't let the people in Surabaya Village live in cement houses, wouldn't he be unqualified as a modern person?

"Da Niu, did I ask Mengzi to buy me all the limestone and gypsum I bought a few days ago?"

Niu De frowned and thought for a while.

"I bought it back, I remember that Mengzi seems to have said that he put everything in the abandoned stables in the north of the village."

Xiao Feng nodded.

Limestone is bought, and clay can be found everywhere in Surabaya Village, so firing Portland cement is simply a breeze.

"Then, did I say two days ago that the blast furnace you built has been built?"

As soon as he heard about the blast furnace, Niu De was cold for a while, and it wasn't until Xiao Feng compared the outline of the blast furnace to him that he remembered the big guy that half of the village had worked together to build some time ago.

"It's done, it's right behind there!"

As he spoke, Niu Dehao took Xiao Feng around a big stone and saw the blast furnace in a flat clearing.

Xiao Feng thought that letting them build a furnace about one zhang high would be enough to calcine limestone to make cement, but he never expected that Da Niu would build the blast furnace into a behemoth of more than three zhang.

If you can see this place at the entrance of the village, this blast furnace will definitely become the symbol of Surabaya Village in the future!

The temperature required for cement calcination is about 1450 degrees, while the combustion temperature of ordinary coal is only about 500 degrees. But now, this worry is completely unnecessary.

"Da Niu, leave the brick-burning work to others, you call a few powerful villagers to come to me with limestone, and let Mengzi dig some more clay by the way."

Niu Dehao reluctantly remembered Xiao Feng's instructions, and found the stonemasons and blacksmiths in the village to be responsible for carrying the limestone to the blast furnace, while he took Niu Meng to the riverbed and dug a whole cart of clay.

When the coal burns, the temperature in the furnace rises quickly, and limestone and clay are added to it.

The calcination process was very smooth, Xiao Feng asked a group of people to move the calcined product to the grinding disc and grind it first, and then put it in a specially made large stone mortar for grinding.

The stonemason is tired of changing the blacksmith, and the blacksmith is tired of changing the cow.

Five people worked in shifts, and after four hours, they finally grinded out a bag of about 30 catties of cement powder.

Xiao Feng pinched up a small pinch of cement and crushed it a few times.

"Big Niu, take a few bricks, if I succeed this time, our house in Surabaya Village will no longer have to be afraid of storms in the future!"

"Okay!"

The big cow ran quickly to the brick kiln.

And while the bricks were still not returned, Xiao Feng asked Niu Meng to mix the cement and river sand together and pile them into a small mountain.

Then he took a wooden shovel and dug a hole in the middle, poured a full bucket of water into it, and stirred it vigorously.

Watching the cement and river sand mix little by little, Xiao Feng couldn't help but increase the strength in his hand.

Unexpectedly, just as Xiao Feng was about to announce the completion of the cement research, an accident happened!