Hearing the cry of "croak", Shulot raised his head and saw a black silhouette hovering in the sky.
The young man stared at it for a while, without stopping.
Beside the lake are many Chinampa floating fields, where staple fruits and vegetables are grown all year round. These crows are attracted by food and are extremely smart. They will peck at the emerging corn seedlings and eat the seeds below. When the corn is mature, they will tear open the protective outer shell and feast on the corn cob. The straw man statue inserted in the field can scare away other birds, but not the crows, and farmers can do nothing about it.
"We still need to popularize bows and arrows and let the militiamen practice archery... The scientific and technological development being nurtured by the Institute of Inspiration must not be interrupted by the crows of the empire..."
Thinking of this, Shulot laughed to himself. In the past two months, he had been preoccupied with religious reform, power struggles, and scientific and technological farming... It had been a long time since he had purely appreciated anything, and it was difficult for him to be as clear-minded as before.
"A saint can comprehend the beauty of heaven and earth and realize the principles of all things... When will I reach the realm of a saint? When I look at the world, my heart is clear and my spirit is perfect, it is like the crystal of glass..."
While walking, Shulot came to the brick-making workshop. A small brick kiln had been built here. Some were burning bricks, some had just turned off, and some had cooled down.
He looked closer and saw that these brick kilns were about three meters high, like a barrel, with a bottom diameter of about two meters. The top of the brick kiln is a slightly smaller arc, and the four walls are thick soil, forming a hollow circular platform. There are two opposite small doors on the earth wall of the brick kiln, which are used to load the bricks and produce bricks, and underneath is the fire tunnel for filling with wood and burning fire.
The young man silently calculated in his mind that the height and base diameter... Well, the volume of the cylinder is slightly more than ten cubic meters, and the brick density is 2.5-3.0 tons cubic. This kiln is about three tons of bricks. Bricks are indeed the cheapest and most productive building material!
In fact, as early as the first millennium BC, the ancestors of the Olmec civilization had burned large quantities of bricks to build houses. By the time of the Teotihuacan civilization, the scale and skill of brick-making reached its peak.
The place where Shulot came to this world? The magnificent ancient holy city? The wonder of the Sun Pyramid is 63 meters high, with a platform of tens of meters at the top? At the bottom is a foundation more than 200 meters long and wide, with a volume estimated at more than 1 million cubic meter. It is estimated that there are a total of 3 million tons of building materials. A small part of it is stone, and most of it is fired bricks! The spaces between the bricks are filled with gravel and adhesive, making them fit tightly.
The boy had climbed the 248 stone steps of the pyramid countless times. This 2nd century AD wonder did not use any metal, animals or wheeled tools, and all bricks were fired locally. When he looked closely at the colors of the bricks, he was surprised to find that many of them were hard and long-lasting blue bricks. After more than 1,300 years, the Pyramid of the Sun is still as stable as a majestic sacred mountain, and so is the Pyramid of the Moon.
The wonders of the sun and the moon, the two blue brick pyramids, have remained standing until later generations, shocking every visitor. They also silently entrust the imaginary national community, allowing the ancient Mesoamerican civilization to still survive in people's hearts, instead of being completely erased from history like the North American Indians.
"Gathering people's hearts? This is the meaning of spectacle, right?"
Shulot missed his hometown in the Holy City, which he had not returned to for two years, and also recalled the distant future in his dreams. In this era, the construction of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty has been generally completed, and the periphery of important checkpoints are reinforced with blue bricks. Dayan Khan, who revitalized Mongolia, had just ascended the throne. Then he was blocked outside the Great Wall. He sighed when looking at the wall, so he had to focus his strategy on Mongolia, a desert.
Like the advanced pottery art, the Mexican brick-burning technology is extremely mature. The alliance's brick-burning is handled by potters, and the manager here is Tanari, a female leader of the potters.
Upon seeing His Highness, Tanari strode over. She is about forty years old, with a strong figure, a face with vicissitudes of life, and a faint trace of lost beauty in her eyebrows. The leader of the potters wears a special bright cloth robe.
Shulot looked carefully and saw that there were eight abstract babies painted on the cloth robe. Under the babies were five warriors holding war clubs. The young man took a deep breath and bowed his head to Tanari. The surrounding warriors also bowed and saluted to express their respect for the hero's mother. With such feats, the potter chief's reputation even surpassed that of the local community priest, and was indeed enough to serve as a manager of the potters.
Tanali saluted His Highness vigorously, and then spoke loudly and loudly.
"Your Highness, the God of War is blessing us! This workshop is newly built. Although the scale is not as big as the big kiln in the capital, but with me managing it, the red bricks we make are not bad at all!"
Shulot quickly took two steps forward and lifted the leader of the potters up. Then, the boy visited the workshop and listened to Tanari's introduction to the brick-making process.
"Your Highness, the soil for making bricks needs to be dug deep from the surface of the earth, so that it becomes soft and sticky, fine and easy to use! Then the clay should be piled up for several months. It will slowly loosen and break due to wind and rain. The thinner it gets, the better.”
Tanari strode forward, grabbed a handful of fine soil from the clay pile, and placed it in His Highness' hand. Shulot squeezed the soil into fine pieces and nodded.
"Then, water needs to be added to the soil, and it needs to be kneaded repeatedly, at least five times. This step is crucial! Whether the fired bricks are strong or not depends on how well this step is done!"
At this point, Tanali had already walked among hundreds of people in Heni and waved vigorously.
"Work hard! Your Highness, can you see it? Knead the soil for me seven times today!"
The peasants were speechless, bowed their heads obediently and continued their work. Shulot also nodded slightly. Under Tanali's management, the peasants were in good order.
"Next, sprinkle a layer of fine sand on the ground, then fill the soil into the wooden mold and compact it to make bricks. The removed bricks should be dried in the shade in a sunny place so that they will not crack."
As she spoke, Tanali patted the wooden shed next to her hard, and the thatch on the wooden shed fell down and scattered among the bricks piled on the ground.
"After more than a month, the bricks are dry and ready to be fired in the kiln. First, it will be burned for five or six days, and then burned slowly. It will take a total of more than ten days. When the bricks are all red, the fire can be slowly turned off. , when it comes out, it will be a beautiful and solid red brick!”
At this time, the leader of the potters walked to a brick kiln that had cooled down and pointed forward. The young man looked carefully and saw busy villagers taking bricks from them. They were all bright red bricks.
Shulot was a little confused and looked at Tanari beside him.
"Tanali, you did a good job. But I have seen the blue bricks of the pyramid in the Holy City, and they seem to be more durable."
Tanari pondered for a moment, then answered after a moment.
"Your Highness, the ancient temples were all built with blue bricks, but the specific craftsmanship has been lost. I have tried it a few times. When the fire was turned off, I sealed it across the kiln. What came out was blue-red bricks, which are neither good-looking nor good-looking. Much better than red brick.”
Shulot thought for a while and realized that the red color in the bricks is high-priced iron oxide, while the cyan color is low-priced iron oxide. The green brick itself is an oxygen-free reduction of fired red bricks. To restore, oxygen must be cut off. Sealing the brick kiln cuts off part of the oxygen, so it is blue-red. If it is completely sealed...it seems to be watering outside...watering, steaming the green? correct! The water turns into steam when heated, creating high pressure inside and naturally pushing oxygen out.
Tanali looked at His Highness, well, he is such a handsome young man, and his thinking look is like a beautiful hummingbird.
After a while, Shulot's eyes lit up and he showed a confident smile.
"Tanali, when the bricks are cooled after firing, you first seal the ventilation holes on the top of the kiln with soil, then make a pool of soil on top, add water to it, and let the water vapor slowly seep into the kiln. Steam like this for a few days. Take it out and take a look!"
Hearing this, Tanali looked at His Highness with some doubts.
"Your Highness, why do you add water when baking bricks?"
Shulot was speechless for a moment. He thought for a while before answering.
"Burning bricks borrows the power of the God of Fire to turn soil into stone. Adding water borrows the power of the God of Rain to make the bricks weatherproof."
Tanali was moved when she heard this, this must be the inheritance of the priest! She bowed deeply and respectfully, and was ready to try.
Shulot continued to think for a while. Enlarging the brick kiln is an improvement direction, but it requires an increase in charcoal production and bottom combustion heat production to keep up. In my memory, it seems that in later generations, internal combustion bricks were burned in the countryside. Coal slurry was added to the bricks, and then the bricks were burned from the inside. Since history has left behind this technical solution, it must have passed various practical tests. The young man continued to speak.
"Tanali, go to the charcoal burning place and get some charcoal to make powder, try to add it evenly into the bricks, and then bake it to see the effect."
Tanali thought for a moment, then looked over seriously.
"Your Highness, by adding charcoal, is this borrowing the power of the God of Plants and Trees?"
Looking at the serious faces of the potter leader and the surrounding warriors, Shulot was speechless and could only nod solemnly.
Then, the young man looked at the wooden molds engraved with various patterns. These wooden molds are used to press patterns on bricks, the most common ones being feathered snakes and suns. The bricks specially prepared for nobles are magnificent and engraved with various family patterns, implying the blessing of gods.
After the inspection, Shulot said goodbye to Tanari who saluted respectfully. The young man raised his head and saw that the sun was setting slightly in the west, and there was still a lot of time. He went to the glass workshop of Lozano, the chief stonemason, which was the nearest noble mansion.
It was said to be a glass workshop, but at this time it was just a few large earthen kilns, several sets of obsidian processing tools, a master mason, and a dozen apprentice masons.
Lozano sat on the ground with his legs crossed and a frown on his face, looking at the large pile of milky white quartz sand in front of him, unable to do anything. He was tall and muscular. Sitting in this posture, he looked like a hibernating giant bear.
The master stonemason frowned and thought hard. Ever since he was forcibly recruited to the High Priest's Mansion by His Highness, he had to give up making lucrative obsidian tools and study what, colorless "glass" instead? I don’t know where this awkward title came from. Anyway, Master Lozano, who is well-informed, has never heard of it.
According to His Highness's instructions, he found this kind of milky white hard sand from near the lake area, and there were large pieces of hard stone that could not be scratched next to it. There are a lot of them in the mountains to the east, and there are even more of them near the volcanoes. He asked a dozen apprentices to each dig a bag, take it back to the workshop, and then bake it according to His Highness's instructions. The problem arose.
"This thing basically won't burn! Your Highness, is he dreaming?!" Lozano complained loudly, holding his head, while the disciples stood in the corner, shivering, not daring to say anything.
Behind Lozano, Xuellot's face was expressionless. He looked at the master mason and waved to stop Bertard and Etalik who were about to step forward.
After a long while, the master stonemason raised his head and looked at the apprentices standing opposite.
"What are you doing standing here stupidly? Why don't you go and fire up the earthen kiln, mix this thing with soil and burn it again!"
The apprentices just stood stupidly in front. One apprentice quietly extended his index finger and pointed behind the master.
"You still dare to point your finger at me? I've rebelled against you..."
Looking at this scene in the workshop, Lozano suddenly realized something. He suddenly jumped up and turned around suddenly, and saw the expressionless face of His Highness. He didn't know when it came. It couldn't be...
Lozano fell to the ground with another fierce move, moving as quickly as a bear.
"Ah, Your Highness the Priest!...I, I, Lozano, am trying hard to think about how to make glass. I seemed to be talking in my sleep just now..."
Shulot shook his head. He looked at the quartz sand on the ground and asked seriously.
"Lozano, can't you burn this hard white sand? Have you tried raising the temperature and adding any combustion aids?"
The master mason's face turned pale. His Highness also heard what he said. Isn't that right? ...He opened his mouth and spoke after a while.
"Your Highness, I, Lozano, have changed the kiln twice, added more firewood, introduced more wind, and poured some oil, but the sand is still difficult to melt... It seems that plant ash has some effect, and others Still trying.”
Shulot thought about it carefully. He knew very little about glass firing. He only knew that quartz sand was pure silica and could produce transparent glass. Quartz sand and quartz stone are products of volcanic activity and are produced in large quantities in the Alliance's territories.
The difficulty now is that the melting point of pure silica is too high, so we must find a way to increase the temperature or lower the melting point.
The boy recalled it repeatedly and remembered three key words: quartz sand, flux and stabilizer. Flux? Saltpeter and lead should do the trick. stabilizer? I don’t know what this is. After a while, he said seriously.
"I will give you a batch of high-quality charcoal to increase the burning temperature. I will also give you a small amount of soil saltpeter powder. You can mix it with the hard white sand and try burning it. Finally, I will give you a batch of lead and add it to the white sand. ..
Lozano, colorless glass is very important to the future of the alliance. You have to settle down and be prepared for two to three years or even ten years, try more different formulas, and try to make progress as early as possible! From now on, this is your main business! "
Shulot stepped forward and patted the master stonemason's broad arm seriously. Then, the young man looked at Lozano's solemn and frozen expression and nodded with satisfaction. He continued to look around, but there was indeed no result, so he nodded and turned around.
Behind him, Lozano remained as solemn and solid as a sculpture, but his mouth gradually grew larger. After a moment, the sculpture fell to the ground with a crash, and its burly body hit the ground with a loud bang. The apprentices rushed forward and rubbed the master's heart and back.
Shulot didn't hear the sound behind him, he was already far away.
Lake Texcoco reflects the rays of the setting sun, illuminating the boy's strong silhouette. There was some dust on his face, but he still looked calm and determined.
Under the calcining of time and worldly events, the young man has been reshaped. His passion is deep, like black charcoal made from burning firewood, restrained and burning fiercely. His will is as hard as a brick made of calcined clay, calm and unafraid of vicissitudes of life. And when will his soul be completely transparent, as pure and bright as glass?
"I have sown the seeds of technology, and I still need time to wait."
Shulot thought secretly and looked into the distance. In the distance, sparkling waves appear on the golden lake, telling the story of thousands of years of flow.
Time will eventually shape everything, including civilization and himself.
