Hu Wei inadvertently found alcohol in Dali. Thinking of the disinfectant effect of alcohol to trauma, Hu Wei wanted to transport the water essence back to the imperial capital. But he ran into trouble, because alcohol is volatile, and with the current manufacturing process of the Tianfeng Continent, it is impossible to make that kind of fully sealed container, and the preservation of alcohol can only be fully volatilized for a maximum of ten days. When Hu was worried about his headache, he accidentally found a Zhang stonemason with excellent craftsmanship, maybe this Zhang stonemason will have a way.

Zhang Shimason took the jade bottle given to him by Hu Wei, very excited, and chased Hu Wei to ask about the origin of the jade bottle. Seriously, I really don't know about this aspect. He is the commander of one or three armies, where can he have so much energy to pay attention to such trivial things. I wanted to say that I didn't know, but seeing Zhang Shimason's excited appearance, I thought about it, if I directly said that I didn't know, I was afraid that it would not be so good, so I made up a friend of his friend for him. Anyway, this place is so far away from the imperial capital, and Zhang Stonemason can't verify it. Lie to him for the time being.

Zhang Mason didn't doubt Hu Wei's words when he heard them, and asked Hu Wei to take him to meet that person. Hu Wei knocked on the side for a long time, and then he figured out that the carving skills of this jade bottle were the same as Zhang Stonemason, and the person who made the jade bottle was probably Zhang Stonemason's uncle or uncle. Stonemason Zhang inherited the master's last wish, so that Stonemason Zhang must find them.

Hu Wei pondered for a while and agreed to Zhang Mason's request. It's not a big deal for him. This jade bottle is obviously something that has only been made for a few years, although he doesn't know who the jade bottle is, but with his power, it is not too difficult to find out this.

Zhang Stonemason had to agree with Hu Wei, and naturally he was too happy. The mouth kept turning up and down, explaining to Hu Wei the origin and inheritance of their school of carvers. Hu Wei is not interested in these things, he is not a person in the industry, he knows that these things have no meaning to him, but he has only vaguely heard about it, and knows that their craft of carving stones with stone tools has been handed down from a long, long time ago.

Hu Wei only heard Wu Liang talk about the stone-on-stone process, but he hadn't seen it himself, and he didn't know that the world's most famous sphinx was carved with this kind of process, but he didn't know it, and Hu Wei didn't plan to be old, he was more concerned about the transportation of alcohol now.

"Can you carve the stone into a jar according to this carving method?" Hu Wei asked Zhang Stonemason for a long time, and finally asked his concerned question.

Zhang Stonemason's face showed a hint of pride, and said, "Of course it's no problem, let alone a can, even if it's a bottle or a wine jug, I can make it." ”

"Are those spirals okay?" Hu Wei was most concerned about this. Because only the kind of spiral pattern that can be screwed up like a bottle cap can be screwed together like a stone cap and a stone bottle without being breathable. ”

"Absolutely, it's our specialty. Zhang Mason boasted a few words, hesitated for a moment, and asked Hu Wei: "I just don't know what you are going to load them with, Gongzi?"

Hu Wei glanced at Zhang Stonemason, and Gu Zuo said casually: "You know the kind of wine that can be lit, I like it a lot, and I want to put some back." ”

"That......" Zhang stonemason lowered his head with a difficult face, as if he was thinking about something.

"Is there anything wrong with that?" asked Hu Wei. secretly thought that if it was too difficult, then the only way to get Sun Qiang back to the imperial capital was to go. When the time comes, I will slowly think about the problem of preservation. Although jade is more expensive, it is not a one-time consumable and can be reused. Besides, is there anything more important than the health of the soldiers.

Zhang Stonemason shook his head and said, "I know the kind of wine that you said that can be lit, and I have tried to find a way to preserve it. I tried a lot of ways and finally found a very good ......"...,

"That's fine. Hu Wei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It turns out that this stonemason has already experimented, and it has succeeded. This saved him a lot of trouble.

Zhang Stonemason said: "Son, you listen to me first." Success is success, but this kind of stone is not good, we must use a unique stone in our country, in order to be well preserved and not let it volatilize. ”

"Isn't this kind of stone hard to find?" Hu Wei also heard the problem.

"Childe, do you know why our Dali Kingdom got its name?" Zhang Shimason suddenly changed the subject.

Hu Wei was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and said, "Is it because of the stone?"

"Yes, because of the stones. There is a unique stone called marble in our country, and our country name is also derived from this. ”

When Zhang Stonemason talked about his motherland, his face showed a faint national pride. Although his country is not large, it has given its citizens a stable life. The common people are actually very simple, as long as they are well fed and clothed, they are very satisfied. At this time, in the Tianfeng Continent, at least half of the people could not guarantee this, and countless people starved to death and froze to death every day. In comparison with this article, Dali is really a fairyland on earth.

"That means there shouldn't be very little marble, how can I listen to you, it doesn't seem to be easy to get, does it mean that you can't use marble as stone here without permission?"

Hu Wei was a little confused by Zhang Stonemason, and he had never heard of that country treating stones as treasures.

Zhang Stonemason smiled: "It's not like that, it's not like that. We have a lot of marble in Dali, which can also be used casually. It's just that most of this marble is too huge to be cut and transported. Since Childe wants to fill wine, there must be more than a few, which will take a lot of time. ”

"I see. Only then did Hu Wei understand the difficulty of Zhang Mason.

Marble is a very beautiful texture, plasticity and very strong stone, which can only be known from the name of Dali to the name of the country. But everything is not perfect, this marble is good, but it is too difficult to cut. The craftsmen have tried all kinds of methods, but they can't cut through the marble very effectively, and the speed is so slow that you want to vomit blood.

Zhang Shimason said so, it seems that it is really difficult. However, Hu Wei is not the kind of person who gives up lightly. He decided to go to the quarry, maybe he had thousands of years of knowledge of civilization to solve this problem.

Because the quarry was too far away, and now it was too dark to arrive, and nothing could be seen, so the two of them, after discussion, decided to go early tomorrow morning.

Leaving Zhang Stonemason's shop, it was already noon. Hu Wei bought some cooked food and went back to the tavern to find Sun Qiang. Sun Qiang is a little bit righteous, he is so poor that he is about to sell underwear, and he doesn't charge money for Hu Wei's food and housing. Hu Wei really doesn't know whether to call him stupid or praise his good character.

There was nothing to say all night, and the next morning Hu Wei went to find Zhang Mason, Zhang Mason's side had already gotten up early, and when he saw Hu Wei coming from a distance, he greeted him, and went directly on the road with Hu Wei.

Of course, this is not the first time that Zhang Stonemason has walked such a road, and he is not familiar with it. From time to time, he introduced the origin of the flowers and trees on the roadside to Hu Wei. What Hu Wei didn't expect was that there are many stories of flowers and trees and even houses in Dali. I don't know if it's true or made up, but it sounds interesting.

It took seven or eight hours to walk, with only one break. At first, Zhang Mason was afraid that Hu Wei would not be able to walk such a mountain road, so he thought of taking care of Hu Wei. Later, he found out that the white-faced boy in his eyes was stronger than him, a man who had been walking the mountain road for many years, in every aspect. While secretly amazed, a trace of admiration also rose in my heart. People always admire those who have the ability.

"Childe, look, there's a quarry ahead. ”...,

After turning a big corner, a grand quarry appeared in front of Hu Wei's eyes. More than 100 shirtless workers, each with their own division of labor, sweating like rain, were busy.

"What a big rock. Hu Wei looked at those huge marbles from a distance, the smallest one was two people tall, if the weight was calculated, it would be dozens or hundreds of tons.

The workers in the quarry, although they have different divisions of labor, are actually doing the same thing, which is to cut the boulders into suitable sizes.

As Zhang stonemason went down to the quarry, Hu Wei also saw it more clearly. These workers work very hard, but they don't make any effort. Hu Wei stood by a boulder for twenty minutes, and the two big men who were sawing marble with copper saws had already replaced two copper saws, and the stone was different in that only one concave was exposed, and it was still far away from cutting.

"To split it in two, it would take at least three pairs of people to work on it for ten days. Zhang Stonemason explained to Hu Wei on the side.

It takes ten days to cut only one side, so if you want to cut such a big guy into stone, can't you plant it in a year and a half?

Hu Wei secretly calculated in his heart for a while, and his whole head became bigger. This is what these workers who eat this bowl of rice can't do this kind of thing even if they change their worries. Work that doesn't work can drive people crazy.

Master Wu Liang once told a story to Hu Wei. said that there was a university professor who was rectified for some political reasons. Those people didn't beat or scold him, and the only thing he was asked to do was go through the wall. Thoroughness during the day, tearing down at night, then thoroughness during the day, and tearing down again at night, if you repeat a completely hopeless work, it will only be two or three years, and the professor will go crazy. Now these quarrymen are doing things, although they are not like that, but they are not too much, and Hu Wei thinks that he will never be able to do this kind of work.

"Yo, Lao Zhang is here too. Didn't you just take a piece of material last month, why did you run out? ”

Hu Wei and Zhang Stonemason were watching, and a middle-aged man in his forties came up to greet Zhang Stonemason. Just now, when he was still far away, Zhang Stonemason told Hu Worry, because this marble mining is too difficult, but any stonemason who needs stone will come here in advance and wait, in case the stone he is optimistic about is preempted.

Hu Wei secretly thought that the stonemason would take the initiative to talk to Zhang Stonemason, he should be swearing his ownership of the stone.

For the sake of the intrigue of stones, Hu Wei didn't have the heart to care, and his attention was more focused on those quarrymen. Quarrying is not difficult to say, easy to say. Their main job was to cut the stone with a copper saw. However, because the hardness of the copper saw is not much different from that of marble, it takes less than ten minutes to cut it, and the copper saw is flat, and the saw must be replaced and then replaced. For this reason, there are also several professional sharpeners on the side. They are specifically responsible for grinding copper saws.

That person said, how can you use a copper saw so stupidly, you just go to the hammer.

Oh, this is a stone, the characteristic of the stone is brittle, the sledgehammer goes up, it doesn't smash all the stones.

The two stonemasons were still arguing with each other over there, and Hu Wei simply walked in a mess by himself. It's a small place, but it's quite empty, and there is no possibility of getting lost.

As he was walking, a burst of children's laughter attracted Hu Wei's attention. In one corner of the quarry, there were three or four children of five or six years old. I think it should be a quarryman's child. There are no kindergartens these days, and children have nowhere to go, so they usually grow up with their parents. Wherever the adults in the family work, they are basically there.

Imitation is the nature of children, a few children will be holding a copper saw that has not been repaired, almost flattened to learn to cut stones like adults to play, bursts of laughter from time to time legend, it seems to be very happy. ...,

Such an old child doesn't know the hardships of life yet. For them, this kind of boring work is a good game.

Hu Wei glanced at it, and when he turned around to leave, something went wrong with the whole person. His brain had already instructed his body to leave, but his mind was not synchronized, and his eyes were fixed on the stone that was being cut and played with by the children.

This strange action almost didn't make Hu Wei twist his neck, but Hu Wei ignored it, his eyes still staring at the stone. Hu Wei knew that he would definitely find something there.

The stone was also marble, but it was a waste material that could not be used for the interlayer, about the same height as a child of three or four years old, and had no value. And what attracts Hu Wei is not its value, but the groove that was cut out by children.

I have to say that these little children have some talents, although they are playing, the craft is not much different from their parents. The only thing that is different is the copper saw they use. Copper saws are the ones that adults eat, and the good ones will definitely not be taken by children to play. At this time, the copper saws that the children used to play with were the ones that no longer had sawtooth. But they actually used such a copper saw to cut grooves in the marble.

In terms of strength, tools, and even craftsmanship, these children are obviously much inferior to adults, and the most important point is that children cannot have the patience to play this stone-cutting game all the time, which means that they can play like this for a few days at most, or even less. But they've cut a quarter of a piece of marble, which is incredible. This is what surprised Hu Wei.

Hu Wei just stood still, and the children didn't notice that there was an extra adult on the side, and they were still playing happily.

After watching it for about ten minutes, Hu Wei was once again sure that the efficiency of these children's 'work' was obviously much faster than that of the professional quarryman. With a simple conversion, Hu Wei is sure that at the speed of these children, they will be able to cut a piece of marble in less than a day.

"That's too fast. ”

Even Hu Wei himself was taken aback by this conclusion. Although the size of this stone is much smaller than the one cut by adults. But the children's strength is small, and if the adults do it, the speed will be even faster. Anyway, no matter how you calculate it, these children are faster than adults.

But the question is why this is happening. Could it be that the quarrymen deliberately slowed down the speed in order to sell the stone for a high price?

I believe that this possibility will definitely not be large, and the amount of marble is in short supply. If more stone can be mined, the craftsmen must be very happy, and it is impossible to save the possibility of deliberately grinding foreign workers.

It's not grinding, so why is it that children cut stones much faster than adults? Could it be that a copper saw without serrations is more conducive to cutting stones?

This thought only flashed in Hu You's mind, and he was strangled to death by Hu You. There are more sawtooth teeth, so whoever is full of food will use the one with sawtooth. Working people are very smart, don't take them for fools.

There must be some reason.

Hu Wei kept telling himself that he should calm down and analyze slowly, the methods of these children are generally the same as those of adults, but there must be differences.

Fierce, Hu Wei knows.

It's sand!

Hu Wei's gaze turned to a child who was not 'working'. Instead of helping to see the stones, he was there to 'trick or treat'. He kept scratching the sand on the ground and spilling it on the copper saw.

The kids weren't really doing anything, they were just playing, and no one paid attention to him. He is always happy to do it, and he has been doing the work of catching sand.

Yes, it's sand.

Not many modern people know that sand contains quartz, which, according to scientists, is no less hard than diamond. The children were pulling back and forth with a copper saw that did not have a serrated tooth, not sawing the stone, but grinding it with sand.

Without a copper saw with serrations, this will be just the right thing to drive the sand to polish the stone. And the hardness of sand is much higher than that of marble......

Hu Wei figured this out, so he stopped looking here and immediately went to find Zhang Mason. Of course, he didn't say that he had seen it as a child, but that he had suddenly thought of a way that might only work. This is not that Hu Wei wants to ask for credit, but directly said that it was made by a child, and I am afraid that no one will pay attention to him.

"Is it possible to use a copper saw without serrations?" Zhang Shimason was skeptical.

"Okay, let's try it. You should have quarrymen you know, talk to them, and try our methods. ”

"Well, well, let me try. "I don't know how many times a year Mason Zhang comes here, so naturally there are familiar workers. It's easy to get the job to agree to try. As for Hu Wei, he sprinkled sand on the other side, and then, everyone was surprised......