The night is deep, and the mountains in the distance are like beasts lying on the ground, hidden under the dark sky. The moonlight was dim, and the nearby mines were like a journey with no return, leading to the dark depths of the ground. The era of mythology remains in people's hearts, making all natural scenes full of unknown divinity.
Under the moonlight, the mountainous area of Qingambat is full of darkness, except for a bonfire swaying in the main mine. Loyal warriors patrolled all night, holding their weapons solemnly, guarding the safety of the king. In the center, closely guarded by the warriors, is the only simple stone house in the mine. Looking from a distance, one can vaguely see the light of fire flickering in the house.
The bonfire is blazing, the old charcoal is burning with smoke, but the new coke is tasteless. The warrior commander held his breath and fell asleep, guarding the king's side. There was silence in the stone house, except for the rustling of the pen tip on the paper.
Shulot was sitting on his knees in the room, writing on the paper with a slender quill pen. After a while, he stopped writing, looked at the burning fire, and smiled comfortably.
"This charcoal is of good quality, with few impurities and strong firepower. It would be a pity to use it as firewood."
Bertard opened his eyes and saw His Highness's heartfelt smile, so he also smiled and asked.
"Your Highness, the "Industrial Science and Technology Plan" you are talking about has been written?"
"Well! The general framework is here."
Shulot smiled and nodded. During these days in the mining area, he had been thinking about subsequent plans. Many long-standing memories are getting blurry day by day, requiring careful writing to recall and calculate. He also took this opportunity to put down on paper the ideas for the development of industrial technology as a long-term blueprint for future kingdom construction.
"Bertard, come and watch together!"
The king waved, and the warrior captain came closer and knelt down, listening.
"The eagle's gaze reaches thousands of miles, and the roots of the sacred tree have grown for thousands of years. All important events must be planned from the very beginning in order to fly to the height of the eagle and support the stability of the sacred tree!"
"Bertard, you are my most trusted confidant and have followed me for many years. Only you can roughly understand this plan, and it will also be helpful for your future responsibilities. I told you before that I intend to let you Stand alone..."
"You have to go to the distant Eastern Great Lake for me, take control of the Long Snake Island in the lake, and establish a state there... That island will be rich in mineral deposits, and it is easy to mine in the open air. That is where the Lord God gave us Mexico. The gift of Jia Ren is also the key to guarding the edge of the world... What you need to do will be many and difficult, and your life will always be in danger!"
"Your Highness, even if the situation is dangerous and we are thousands of miles away, I am willing to die for you! I will definitely stop...capture...kill for you!..."
Bertard looked solemn and nodded solemnly. Although His Highness's prophecy was only a few sentences, it remained in his heart.
"Okay! Bertard, don't worry. The first few batches of aliens were only a few hundred people. They traveled thousands of miles by boat and had no base, so it's not a big deal..."
Shulot smiled happily, patted the warrior commander on the shoulder, and warned him carefully.
"...Your most important tasks in the future are, first, to integrate the various departments on the island, second, to prevent terrible diseases, third, to build an artillery fortress, and fourth, to make iron and steel!"
Bertard memorized every word and then asked in confusion.
"Making iron and steel? I remember that Mayan merchants brought you iron stones. As for steel, what is it?"
"Iron can be smelted from iron ore, and after proper treatment, iron will become steel! Steel is extremely hard and can make the best weapons and the strongest armor. More importantly, steel is The door to industrialization! And blast furnace coke iron smelting is the most important step under the door!..."
As Shulot said, he stretched out his hand and pointed at the wide scroll of paper spread out on the table.
There are words circled in boxes on the scroll, separated by bars, representing different fields of technology. Under the vocabulary are notes mixed with numbers, letters, equations and words. And among the words technology, there are arrows that are connected in one direction, indicating that technology is in front.
Bertard looked at the first column, and what caught his eye was "Fuel." After "fuel", there is first a strange "C", then "wood", "coal", and "petroleum", three names that are vaguely understandable. Under these names, there are small arrows, descriptions of the shapes of different fuels, possible discovery locations, and some heavenly symbols.
He looked past the difficult words and looked directly at the location. After the coal, it is marked Qinganbat, a small amount; two thousand miles north, a huge amount. After the oil is injected, it is north to east, two thousand to three thousand miles away.
Seeing this oracular description, awe appeared in the warrior commander's eyes again.
"Your Highness, what is this?"
"These are all burning materials! Fuel is the cornerstone of technology and the food and blood of industry."
Shulot smiled. He didn't ask Bertard if he understood. He just explained it in detail while sorting out the context in his mind.
"With the kiln, we can burn wood into charcoal and coal into coke. Coke has removed sulfur impurities and has a higher calorific value, making it more suitable for smelting metals. In the process of coking coal, a large number of by-products can be produced Products, this is the most primitive coal chemical industry... And in the processing of petroleum, more high-value products can be obtained, this is petrochemical industry, but unfortunately we may never see it again in this life..."
Shulot moved his finger and stayed on "coking", recalling the smell he smelled during the day.
"Ammonia gas is produced during the coking process. Ammonia can be made into an important fertilizer, but it requires acid to absorb it."
The samurai commander looked at the "acid" column in the corner and saw "hydrochloric acid", "sulfuric acid" and "nitric acid" written underneath. He knew every word on it, but when combined, he was completely confused.
"The easiest acid to get is sulfuric acid. If you find sulfates, such as green vitriol and gall vitriol, just use a clay pot to retort. If you can't find it, you can also use the lead chamber method. We already have sulfur and saltpeter. Or it is burned to produce a mixed gas, which passes through the corrosion-resistant lead chamber and is oxidized to obtain sulfuric acid... Well, this is generally the principle. There are also lead-zinc mines here, and it is very easy to smelt lead. If you don't pay attention to purity and efficiency, you can use local methods Let’s try it out..."
Shulot thought for a moment and then pointed to the word "fertilizer" again.
Bertard looked carefully and saw "N, P, K" behind the fertilizer, a group of mysterious symbols. Then there is a note about "struvite" at the end, "at the end of the Leman River flowing into the great western lake, two thousand miles along the north coast, on the dry seabird islands."
"By passing ammonia gas into sulfuric acid, you can get ammonium sulfate fertilizer, which can effectively increase the output of acres of land. This is the easiest nitrogen-containing fertilizer to make artificially. Ammonium nitrate is both a fertilizer and an extremely powerful explosive... Of course, given the difficulty of producing nitric acid, within our lifetime..."
Shulot shook his head and looked at the "Explosives" column next to him. The top one is naturally "black powder", followed by "nitrate explosive", and then "TNT". The last two names have question marks, and the production process is unknown, but there is a small note: "God has said that the more nitro, the higher the difficulty and the greater the power!"
The king smiled lightly and continued to talk.
"Bertard, look here."
The warrior commander heard the words and looked around, and saw a column of "Metallurgy" in the most eye-catching position in the middle, followed by "Bronze Refining", "Iron Refining", "Steel Refining", mixed with "Cu, Sn, Mysterious symbols like Fe, C”.
"The metallurgy of the feudal country started with bronze, because the alliance has two kinds of minerals, copper and tin. However, bronze is inherently defective in toughness, and the cost of mining and smelting is also high."
Shulot paused and rested his finger on "iron smelting". The samurai commander continued and saw three locations marked: "Colima, southwest mountainous area", "Cuba, in the eastern lake, the eastern end of the serpentine island", and "North America, thousands of miles to the north", and suddenly felt something. Enlightenment.
"The scale of the copper mining field will expand exponentially, and coke will also be used for bronze smelting in the royal capital. The kingdom's bronze output will soon increase significantly. After bronze smelting develops, the next step is to smelt iron."
"What can really be popularized on a large scale and completely change the world is ironware! With coke, build a blast furnace, and blow in air, you can have enough high temperature to melt the iron. The technology for large-scale ironmaking is mature. But in this world During the period, iron ore was hard to find. I have been trying my best to find the source of iron ore."
Shulot sighed quietly. The iron deposits in Colima are deep, and those in North America are far away. Cuban iron ore requires navigation. Among the three, the Cuban iron ore is a rich open-pit mine, and its location can be clearly determined, which has the advantage of mining... Thinking of this, the king patted the warrior commander on the shoulder before continuing.
"The smelted iron is divided into two types: raw and cooked, corresponding to the high and low carbon content... The carbon content is... well, the vitality contained in iron is somewhat similar to the tin content in bronze. A high content will make it brittle, and a low content will make it soft. . But the special thing is that if the carbon content is just right, it will be both hard and tough, and it is called steel!"
Xiulote's finger slid down "steelmaking". Below it were four groups: "forging steel", "steel filling", "fried steel", and "pig iron steelmaking", and then marked with different words such as carburization and decarburization. .
"Blast furnace coke smelts iron ore to produce pig iron. If pig iron is smelted again and the heat and oxygen are controlled, steel can be obtained directly. It is called pig iron steelmaking... Of course, this method seems to be the simplest, but in fact it is difficult. If it is too big, there will be no hope for decades.”
Shulot smiled helplessly, and his thoughts flew back from the distant industrialized future, back to the beginning where everything was zero at this moment.
"Forging steel is carburizing wrought iron. The process is complex, time-consuming and labor-intensive. It is also called forging into steel. Filling steel means putting pig iron and wrought iron together. The pig iron is melted first and then soaked in the wrought iron. , and then hammered into one while smelting. Fried steel is when pig iron is smelted in a blast furnace, molten iron flows out, is exposed to the air, stirred continuously, heated and decarburized at the same time, and finally directly formed into steel. "
"Actually, it is still too difficult to fry steel directly. Well, it is better to fry pig iron into mature iron, and then use forging or steel-filling methods to get steel in a time-consuming but stable way!"
Thinking of this, Shulot looked fascinated. Although these processes only have general ideas, as long as you continue to invest manpower and material resources in trying them, you will steadily move towards success step by step.
"The biggest advantage of a time traveler is not the specific level of craftsmanship, but pointing out the right direction in the vast darkness!"
The king murmured softly, immense confidence surging in his chest.
Bertard lowered his head in admiration and looked below "Metallurgy". The word "metal processing" is written there, followed by a row of incomprehensible words: "turning, milling, planing, grinding, boring, drilling, and threading." There is no explanation after these words, only a "hydraulic forging hammer" is added.
"Your Highness, what do these mean?"
Shulot's face froze. He only roughly remembered this formula. As for the specific metal processing machinery, it was naturally impossible to remember it. The king just pointed to the end and explained.
"Build a water wheel by the river, and then connect it to a forging hammer, which can be used to make metal armor pieces or rough armor embryos. In addition, you can also use water mills to process grain. Oh, by the way, there is also a windmill mill..."
Hulot added "windmill" under "Simple Machinery" next to it. This column has already written a lot of jumping words, including "loom", "spinning machine", "cotton gin", " "Arm signal tower"... Of course, in the king's mind, these machines are just nouns, and they only know their general functions. With one exception... "steam engines"!
Shulot's eyes stayed on the "steam engine" for a long time. There are two arrows drawn from "Metallurgy" and "Metal Processing", silently describing the difficulty of this technology. However, the word steam engine seemed to have a unique magic power that always attracted his thoughts.
"The dawn of the industrial revolution, the steam engine..."
Shulot whispered to himself, trying hard to recall the almost forgotten textbook. The illustrations that were once so clear are now just abstract and blurry shapes.
"Cylinder, piston, steam valve opening and closing, cold water condensation, power transmission of tie rod..."
Fuzzy shapes and clear principles were combined in the king's mind at the same time. Unfortunately, the "complex" Watt steam engine was not assembled. After a long time, Shulot sighed softly. He picked up a pen and drew a simple "miner's friend", Savery's steam water pump.
"Although bronze can be used to make the cylinder and vulcanized rubber can be used for sealing... But until metallurgical technology and metal processing technology are sufficiently advanced, a practical and cheap steam engine is just a fantasy. This is still an expectation in our lifetime!"
Soon, Shulot recognized the reality and laughed at himself. It is worth mentioning that when the time traveler sealed the steam engine, the most rare vulcanized rubber was readily available to him in America.
Rubber is native to the Americas and has been widely used throughout the world. The original vulcanized rubber had been invented in the ancient Olmec period, and the Olmecs were called the Rubber People. They combined the boiled sap of the rubber tree with the sap of the American grape vine to perform the most primitive vulcanization of the rubber and make it into waterproof rainwear. This kind of raincoat has a unique religious significance. It is often worn for ritual ball games and is also accompanied by sacrifices for losers.
Shurot shook his head slightly, raised his hand and wrote the word "vulcanized rubber" in the "Unclassified" column at the bottom. Vulcanized rubber can also be fumigated with sulfur. It is temperature-resistant and impermeable, not easy to become sticky and deformed, and is resistant to oxygen and wear. It can be used to make many practical appliances, such as important car tires, convenient rubber shoes and raincoats.
In this column, there is also "fired glass". Lozano, the chief mason, continued his glass research for two years, but made almost no progress. Now with coke and blast furnaces, the difficulty of melting glass can be greatly reduced.
"Glass beads are the cheapest monopoly trade product..."
Shulot smiled faintly. The wide roll of paper is almost at its end. Bertard looked at the bottom again, where there was the last column "Future". There are some difficult words written in it, including "electricity", "telegraph", "internal combustion engine"...
"Your Highness, what are these?"
The king paused slightly and said seriously.
"These are the final guidance of the Lord God and the future after my death."
Hearing this, Bertard was silent for a moment. There was a sparkle in his eyes, and he spoke in a low voice after a long time.
"Your Highness, this scroll is so important, it should be given a more appropriate name."
"oh?"
Shulot was very interesting and had a smile in his eyes.
"what name?"
"Book of Divine Enlightenment!"
