Recalling the terrible environment in the Central Plains in his previous life, Zhao Si felt somewhat sad.
Times have changed and changes have occurred. The difference between ancient times and modern times is not only in customs and systems, but also in the environment.
It was getting late. With the current temperature, it would take several days to dry out the brine and produce salt even in the middle of summer. Zhao Si had no intention of waiting and walked towards Wang Li's barracks in a familiar way.
After having a hot pot meal with Wang Li before, Zhao Si and Wang Li became familiar with each other.
Zhao Si suffered from the lack of ingredients and condiments.
Wang Li had no seasonings, no cooking methods, and only empty ingredients.
The two of them are both gourmets, so they hit it off immediately and became partners. Zhao Si was responsible for cooking the ingredients, and Wang Li was responsible for providing the ingredients.
If not to say that Wang Li is a big dog owner, he keeps saying that he can't kill farm cattle, and he can get beef to eat basically every day.
When they arrived at the place, Wang Li's people hadn't come yet, so they didn't know what they were doing. However, the servants were there, and according to Wang Li's instructions, they served snacks and buttermilk without Zhao Si having to ask.
It is worth mentioning that the Qin Dynasty army could bring slaves into the army.
To be precise, for those who had slaves at home, the Qin State conscripted the slaves together with the slaves at home.
The situation of slave soldiers is more complicated. Some can follow their masters before and after, while others are recruited as auxiliary soldiers.
If a slave kills the enemy and performs meritorious service, the Qin law will reward him. There is no distinction between official slaves and private slaves. As long as the merit is sufficient, he can be released from slavery.
During the Qin Dynasty, it was already a slave society, and the number of slaves was not a small number. Official and private slaves were an extremely large group, no less than homesteaders.
While drinking buttermilk and eating snacks, Zhao Si missed the technology and hard work of modern society.
Wang Li really has no shortage of food. He can even get bear paws and all kinds of wild game and delicacies. As long as he asks, there will be no problem.
But the problem is that Zhao Si doesn't have enough seasonings, and his cooking skills are not superb, let alone a wok in this era.
The wok seems to have little technical content, but the industrial level required to make it is really quite high.
First of all, it should not be too thick, as too thick will affect the thermal conductivity.
Secondly, it should not be too crispy. If it is too crispy, it will break into pieces when fried.
Then it shouldn't be too soft or it will deform easily.
The popularization of iron pots into thousands of households firstly required a large-scale increase in steel production, and secondly, it meant that steel smelting technology had reached the peak of the feudal era.
The current Qin Dynasty still mainly uses bronze wares, while iron wares are generally brittle, making them difficult to make daily tools, let alone iron pots.
"So, how do you get steel smelting?" Zhao Si frowned.
This thing really involves his blind spot of knowledge. Who has nothing to learn? What Zhao Si knew was that the carbon content affected the quality of steel. He didn't know much else. He didn't even remember the melting point of iron.
It is necessary to replace bronze with steel. There is no way. The difficulty of mining iron ore is much lower than that of copper ore. Secondly, the reserves of iron are much higher than the reserves of copper.
Finally, the quality of the pinnacle steel armor weapons of the feudal era was far superior to that of pinnacle bronze weapons.
The problem lies here. The Qin Dynasty was already at the peak of bronze wares.
And steel smelting is not even an introduction...
The technology tree here is already full, and the technology tree there has just sprouted. Without large-scale government investment in steel smelting, technological progress will be appallingly slow.
Iron wares gradually replaced bronze wares in the Han Dynasty. A large part of the reason was that copper mines were becoming less and less and mining was becoming more and more difficult. In addition, a large number of bronze wares and gold and silver were buried with them. Copper also had to bear the currency attribute, which was completely insufficient. There was no way to save it. Go to the technology tree where you clicked on iron.
Of course, there is the most critical issue.
Technical fault!
The level of bronze smelting in the Qin Dynasty was almost at the peak of the Bronze Age. In the chaotic times at the end of the Qin Dynasty, smelting technology regressed and key technologies and systems were lost. This was also an important reason why the Han Dynasty had to build an iron technology tree.
Although the Qin Dynasty also faced these problems, they were not as severe as the Han Dynasty. After all, this era was still relatively primitive and commerce was not developed.
Bronze, although expensive and scarce, is barely enough at the national level.
As for steel, with the current difficulty of smelting and the tearful practical level, it was better for the First Emperor to continue his studies in bronze smelting in the hope of finding larger copper mines and more advanced smelting technology.
But Zhao Si knew that the bronze smelting technology of the Qin Dynasty had come to an end, and it would be like that if it went any further.
Unfortunately, it would take a lot of courage to open a steel branch line in this era when the quality of bronzes is at its peak and the quantity is barely sufficient.
Steel smelting is not like papermaking. Just find a few craftsmen and you can slowly figure it out.
The investment for this thing is ridiculously large, and it must be a large-scale investment by official agencies, starting from source industries such as iron ore.
And it is very likely that we will face negative returns for a long time. It places a huge burden on the finances.
There is no doubt that early iron wares were inferior to bronze wares.
"I don't know if the First Emperor has the courage to carry out industrial transformation. This thing is really beneficial to the future!" Zhao Si thought about it, one day he would persuade the First Emperor and say this casually.
Steel smelting technology has not developed, and there is nothing that can be done about many things. The performance of steel is much higher than that of bronze. This is a fact.
While he was thinking about how to persuade the First Emperor to invest a large sum of money, he saw Wang Li swaying over with a happy face holding a bronze pot.
"I sent someone to bring out the pot you mentioned!" Wang Li beamed and patted the bottom of the pot and said with a smile.
Thanks to Zhao Si's obsession with cooking, Wang Li complained about the lack of pots in Da Qin. Wang Li took it to heart. As a gourmet, Wang Li naturally wanted to taste what Zhao Si said about cooking, so he sent the craftsmen at home to follow Zhao Si's instructions. Si's description made a copper pot.
Zhao Si took it and it was ridiculously heavy.
However, the thickness is moderate, not particularly thick, but it cannot be made particularly thin either.
Bronze is brittle and cannot be made too thin. It is inherently thicker than an iron pot.
The copper pot Wang Li got turned out to be very good. Although it may affect the thermal conductivity, it is not a big problem. If the fire is fully turned on, can the pot still be cold?
However, it is obvious that this copper pot is of great value and exquisite craftsmanship, and it is impossible to produce it on a large scale in this era.
Ordinary families may not be able to afford this pot with the money they earn from a year of hard work.
This is real copper, the kind that can be melted directly into money.
But for Zhao Si, it’s not a big deal!
After all, Wang Li is a third-generation rich man, so there is no need to consider cost issues at all. Zhao Si's face showed joy as he gently touched the exquisitely crafted copper pot.
At this moment, several dishes appeared in his mind.
