Although Etalik is old, his steps are brisk and powerful, and he moves as fast as the wind. His steps are precise, his hands and feet are coordinated, and his legs are loose in the span. While walking, the old warrior held his legs with his hips, his center of gravity only rising and falling slightly, and the leisurely charm came naturally.
Seeing this, Bertard's eyes narrowed, his feet exerted force, and he ran like a tiger. He takes alternating strides, with an imminent sense of leaping, and a tiger-leopard rhythm in his coordination.
Shulot has a strong figure. Although he cannot compare with the two experienced warriors who have been tempered for thousands of years, he has completely mastered the running skills of the warriors. When the boy walks, his muscles are integrated into one body, and the four standards of flexibility, speed, balance, and explosiveness come into play, and he is always ready for a fight.
In this era of weak long-range weapons and insufficient lethality of stone tools, personal force has been demonstrated to the greatest extent. The training of warriors lasts for ten years, and they can firmly suppress the militia several times over. Naturally, they have gone a long way in the exploration of physical strengthening. The unparalleled warriors controlled the pace and were able to kill seven in and seven out of the scattered formation, but the stone spears of the militiamen were no threat.
However, the charcoal in front of Xiulote combined with sulfur and earth salt, ending the era of fierce generals ahead of schedule!
The use of charcoal in Mesoamerica can be traced back to the Teotihuacan civilization. In the banquet in the mural, the ancestors grilled venison over charcoal. For teenagers, charcoal burning technology is an important cornerstone of civilization. Charcoal can be used to make pens and inks for painting, absorb moisture to forecast the weather, and purify air dust...
And most importantly, charcoal can be used as high-temperature fuel, participating in the preparation of gunpowder and the forging of metals!
Although charcoal was invented very early, in fact, the quality and productivity of charcoal vary greatly under different production methods.
The essence of charcoal is carbonized porous wood produced by incomplete combustion or pyrolysis. It is flammable, smokeless, has high calorific value and very low water content. The quality of charcoal is reflected in the unit calorific value, which depends on the temperature conditions during carbonization. The higher the carbonization temperature, the greater the specific calorific value of charcoal and the better the quality. The productivity of charcoal is the efficiency of converting a fixed weight of wood into charcoal.
In Xuelot's memory, the power of black powder lies in the heat of oxidation and gas release during the reaction. The sharply rising temperature heats a large amount of released gas, and the volume of the gas increases exponentially, resulting in a violently expanding explosion. Therefore, the better the quality of the charcoal, the higher the burning temperature, and the greater the power of the black powder.
In metal forging, the biggest limitation of classical technology is insufficient temperature. When the gray cast iron water is below 1500 degrees, the properties of the cast iron will improve as the temperature increases. Due to the addition of carbon, the initial forging temperature of forged steel is 200-300 degrees lower than the optimal temperature of cast iron, roughly around 1200 degrees, and then the final forging temperature gradually decreases until about 800 degrees.
To achieve such a high temperature of more than a thousand degrees, in addition to designing a blast furnace, excellent charcoal or coal coke with high calorific value is essential.
In other words, charcoal, a high-heat fuel, also acts on bronze, iron, gunpowder and even the industrial age, and is an indispensable source of power for the development of civilization!
Shulot stood in front of the mound of charcoal with smoke curling up, facing the kneeling charcoal-burning craftsman, thinking silently.
Seeing the calm His Highness, the leader of the charcoal workers at the front took two steps on his knees and bowed his head to the ground.
"Your Highness, God of Fire bless you! We have just finished burning two piles of charcoal, please check it out."
After hearing this, Shulot looked up and saw a black mud pile in front of him, shaped like a "grave mound", less than one meter high and about two meters in diameter at the bottom.
There are several cracks on the surface of the mud pile, but the charcoal workers have plastered them with new mud, making the color lighter. There were several ventilation holes at the bottom of the mud pile. They were probably passages for oxygen, but they were all blocked at this time. On the top of the mud pile, there was a fire mouth two palms in size, which was not completely blocked at this time. The green smoke rising from the "grave mound" looked like a good omen in the legend of the Celestial Dynasty to the young man.
Shulot looked to the side again, and saw that another pile of charcoal had been burned and cooled.
The leader of the charcoal workers, whose face was full of dust, whispered, and the charcoal workers stepped forward together, opened up the mud pile, and took out large handfuls of black charcoal from inside. Then the leader of the charcoal workers picked out a few pieces of good charcoal with a glossy, hard and dark surface from the middle and upper layers. He held it in his arms and handed it to His Highness like a gift.
"Your Highness, you see, this is the best quality charcoal! It is hard, black and shiny, and it burns hot and fierce. You can touch two pieces to make sure they are crisp and delicious!"
Charcoal was related to military and national affairs, so Shulot directly reached for two pieces, put them to his ears and listened. His palms were quickly blackened, and the familiar smell of charcoal burned into his nose, and there was indeed a crisp popping sound in his ears. Long-lasting memories came to the young man's mind, and he nodded slightly.
Immediately, Xiulote took two steps forward. Under the surprised eyes of the charcoal workers, he squatted directly in front of the charcoal pile and looked through it to check the shape of the mud pile. Then, he took out two more pieces of charcoal from underneath. The tentacles were slightly soft and there was no black light on the outside. The expression of the leader of the charcoal workers changed instantly. The boy then put the charcoal to his ears and struck it. The sound was muffled, indicating that the heat was insufficient and the quality was poor.
Shulot took a step back and stood in front of the charcoal pile, silent. The leader of the charcoal workers stood beside him and carefully explained the specific process of burning charcoal.
Obviously, the charcoal-burning process used by the charcoal workers is the most primitive pile-burning method, which is about the same technical level as the tribes in the black African continent. First insert a wooden stake in the middle of the open space as a pillar, then pile upright firewood on both sides, then wrap leaves on the firewood pile, cover it with wet mud, and leave vents and fire openings.
When the top fire port is ignited, oxygen flows in from the bottom vent, and the flame extends downward from the top and burns against the oxygen flow. The charcoal workers use the amount of ventilation to control the size of the flame. They seal the vents where they are burned. After the vents are blocked, they then block the fire vents. When green smoke comes out, they can cool down and wait for the "furnace" to be turned on.
After listening, Shulot simulated the specific burning process in his mind. Generally speaking, the charcoal near the fire outlet should be over-burned, the quality in the middle should be the best, and the charcoal at the vent should be under-burned.
After a while, he looked at the worried leader of the charcoal workers and asked calmly.
"What is the yield of this pile of charcoal? Can high-quality charcoal produce half of it?"
The leader of the charcoal workers was slightly startled. Immediately, he quickly ordered the craftsmen to weigh the weight on a simple large scale. He glanced left and right, and while His Highness was not paying attention, he kicked a few stones into the charcoal on the big scale. After a while, the leader of the charcoal workers responded respectfully.
"Your Highness, eighty parts of wood can produce fifteen parts of charcoal."
Shulot calculated a few seconds in his head, dividing 15 by 80, which is about 19%, which is a deceptive decimal system. This efficiency was much lower than he remembered.
"Is it dry wood?" the boy asked.
The leader of the charcoal workers nodded, of course it was dry wood, only a little bit of raw wood was burned.
"How much high-quality charcoal did you pick out just now?"
In Xuelote's view, only high-quality charcoal is suitable for making charcoal powder for gunpowder. It is difficult to prepare soil saltpeter, the output is limited, and the purity cannot be guaranteed. If the quality of the charcoal powder is not good enough, the power of gunpowder can be imagined.
"Five... no, seven." The leader of the charcoal workers gritted his teeth and said.
Well, five servings. Shulot nodded clearly, the first number was believable. Then he shook his head again, 6-7% of qualified charcoal output. The charcoal burning efficiency is too low and technical improvements must be made.
The boy once again recalled familiar memories. His thoughts flew back to ancient times and the future of the Celestial Empire. Building a kiln to burn charcoal and building a kiln to burn bricks, these two kinds of traditional architecture are lost memories in the countryside, only glimpsed in his childhood dreams.
Shulot fell into long and difficult thinking. Bertard was prepared and sent charcoal pencils and wide wooden boards that were sourced locally. Etalik looked delighted and sat cross-legged on the hot mud pile, paying attention to His Highness's "divine revelation".
Shulot was not distracted. He first drew an enlarged version of the earthen kiln, doubling the size and changing the shape to a square. Finally, it is four meters long, two meters wide and two meters high. The boy roughly calculated that 16 cubic meters could hold 2-3 tons of dry wood. Thinking of the difficulty of logging in this era, he shook his head again and changed the size to 2 meters long, 1 meter wide and 1 meter high to test the specific design effect.
Next, with reference to vents and fire vents, Shurot recalled two key words: flue and fireway.
The young man first drew a fire path on each of the length and width of the kiln bottom, and then painted away another one, leaving only a two-meter-long fire path along the center of the long surface. The fire channel connects the two ends and has a similar function to the fire mouth. It is used to insert dry wood to start a fire and burn the wood into charcoal.
He was not sure about the width and height of the fire path, but he just estimated and marked the width and height of two palms. Then, he thought about it again. The flame should be from the ignition point, from bottom to top. The ignition point of the fire channel should be lower than the end. How much lower? Well, it’s also two palms.
Next is the flue. According to the young man's analysis, the flue should be opened in the surrounding soil of the outer wall. The upper end of the flame has the highest temperature. The wood in the kiln is carbonized from top to bottom, so the flue is reversed, from bottom to top, with the opening at the bottom, and the width is still two palms. Then, the smoke goes up from the bottom along the flue in the outer wall, and spreads out from the uppermost smoke eye, which is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, making it easier to seal the eye at the top. Well, the smoke eye is only as big as the palm of your hand.
At this point, Shulot's talent and knowledge have been exhausted. He thought for a moment with a serious look on his face and realized that there was no problem with the logic.
Continuing to think about it, he marked several more pictures of smoke: for thick smoke, add firewood and fire; for a lot of blue smoke, seal the lid and seal the fire; for full green smoke, turn off the heat and cool down. In fact, these are the secrets of watching smoke that the leader of the charcoal workers just told him. Finally, the boy drew a vertical firewood shape, and let the charcoal workers figure out how to place it.
The warriors and craftsmen waited quietly around, silent. After a long while, His Highness completed the divine revelation.
Shulot waved to the leader of the charcoal workers, who came forward respectfully with a smile.
"your name?"
"Your Highness, I am Koskachi from the capital in the lake."
Koscach's face was covered with dust, and his age could not be seen, only a bright smile could be seen. His voice was low and hoarse, probably caused by being smoked for a long time.
Xiu Luote nodded. He was a charcoal worker who was ignored by the alliance. He came from an ordinary civilian background, was flexible in doing things, and was proficient in numbers.
"Koskachi, I give you a military mission!"
Koskachi trembled when he heard that it was a military mission. He lowered his head to cover it up, his face bitter.
"Look up and look here! This board is the new charcoal kiln I designed. You have to build it according to the shape above, paying special attention to the fire channel and flue! As for the specific size and details, I will leave them to you to explore... "
Hearing this, Koscach's eyelids twitched. His Highness had only been here for an hour, and he already gave out a new design! I have been working for twenty years, but I don’t dare to change it at will!
Shulot looked at the expression of the leader of the charcoal workers and felt that the other party did not believe in the drawings he had worked so hard to design. In this case... the young man spoke majestically again.
"Koskaci, the alliance requires you to build five new charcoal kilns within a week, and then ignite them one after another. The general shape remains unchanged, and you can adjust the technical details. No matter what method you use, within a month, your charcoal yield will be It must reach 40% of dry wood! Excellent charcoal must account for half!
If you meet the standard, I will promote you to a senior craftsman of the Divine Enlightenment Institute. If you exceed the standard, you will be a master craftsman! And if you are short of one piece of wood, you will be whipped once. If it is only 30%, you can kill yourself! "
In Shulot's opinion, this standard is not strict. The charcoal production rate of charcoal kiln-dried wood in later generations can reach 50% and 75%. At this time, the charcoal industry of the Ming Dynasty could also stabilize at around 50%. With his own design guidance that spans the ages, all the leader of the charcoal industry needs to achieve is detailed operations.
Upon hearing His Highness's strict order, Koscak's eyelids trembled violently at first, and then his whole body began to tremble. However, His Highness ruthlessly thrust the wooden board with the mission target into his hands, then coldly turned around and left, heading to the adjacent brick kiln workshop.
The old warrior Etalik gave Koskachi a fierce and deep smile. Then, he stretched out his strong hand, patted the leader of the charcoal workers on the shoulder, then gently brushed the other person's fragile neck, and continued to leave with a smile.
Smoke was still rising from the top of the mud pile, but Koskachi was covered in ice. The skin on his neck was scratched by the calluses of his fingers, and goosebumps suddenly appeared all over his body.
The leader of the charcoal workers trembled slightly and stood still, like a crow frightened by a kestrel. It wasn't until His Highness and the warriors were gone that he suddenly turned around and jumped up, yelling at the charcoal workers around him at the top of his lungs.
"You lazy blackbirds! From today on, you will all sleep on the kiln! If you cannot achieve His Highness's goal within a month, I will pluck your bird feathers first!"
In the sky, a clever crow was attracted by the smoke column on the ground. It came happily and circled over the heads of the lively charcoal workers, chirping like a singer.
