Chapter 94
“Chief, Great Chief!”
Holding the heavy iron ore in his palm, Hua Shi’an was ecstatic, his fair cheeks flushed with excitement. His legs were a blur as he ran and shouted, and before the gathering and hunting teams could get too far, he reached the two chiefs, panting.
He had run too fast and was a little out of breath. Hua Shi’an didn’t say much and directly stuffed the iron ore into Chief Mu’s hands, squeezing out a few words from the gaps in his breath, “Look… look.”
He had thought it was something good, but when he looked down, it was a stone.
Chief Mu’s brow furrowed, and he looked at Hua Shi’an in confusion. “What’s there to see? It’s just a stone.”
“Let me see.”
The Great Chief took the stone, rubbed its surface with the pad of his finger, and then held it in his hand and tossed it up and down, giving his evaluation, “The stone doesn’t look big, but it’s quite heavy to hold. The surface is smoother and finer than other stones.”
Hua Shi’an had recovered. He gave the Great Chief a thumbs-up. “The Great Chief knows his stuff. It is indeed a stone, but this is no ordinary stone. It contains a large amount of metal and is also called a metal ore.”
He had only praised the Great Chief. Chief Mu was not happy. He reached out and took the iron ore back, pretending to appraise it. “Mm, it does feel very silky to the touch, not quite the same as an ordinary stone. What did you say it’s called, a metal ore? Then what’s it used for?”
“To refine metal.”
Four words were enough for an answer, but to make Chief Mu and the Great Chief, who had never come into contact with metal before, understand, it would take a lot of words. Hua Shi’an organized his thoughts and said concisely:
“There are also many kinds of metal ores. This one is an iron ore. When it’s calcined at a high temperature in a kiln, the iron in the ore can be refined and then forged into various tools, such as the knives, axes, weapons, and pots and pans we usually use…”
Chief Mu’s lips moved slightly, and just as he was about to speak, Hua Shi’an anticipated his question and explained with a smile, “Chief, are you thinking that we already have these tools, so why do we need to forge them with iron? Because their strength and hardness are not enough.”
“The tools we use now are basically stone tools. They are easy to break and not sharp enough. It’s not a big problem to cut meat and vegetables, but what if we want to cut down trees, and make more exquisite utensils? It’s very difficult.”
“Iron is different. It has strong toughness and plasticity, and can be forged into various complex-shaped utensils according to needs. Its hardness is also greater than that of stone, it is not easy to damage, and it can be used for a long time. It is very efficient for cutting down trees and reclaiming wasteland.”
Chief Mu was stunned. Although he couldn’t imagine what iron was like, it was harder than stone and could be made into complex-shaped utensils. It sounded like a good thing.
The inconspicuous little stone had suddenly become a treasure. Chief Mu loved it and looked at it over and over, his eyes filled with disbelief. “Is it really that magical? Can this little stone really be used to make the good things you mentioned?”
As if he were afraid it would be shattered if it fell on the ground, Chief Mu grabbed Hua Shi’an’s hand and carefully handed the iron ore back to him, then urged him anxiously, “What are you waiting for, Shi’an? You, you should hurry up and make it!”
“It shouldn’t be that easy to get something out of a stone, right?” He didn’t quite understand, but the Great Chief vaguely guessed that this was not a simple matter, and even quite troublesome.
Hua Shi’an nodded honestly. “The Great Chief is right. Smelting iron is not an easy task. First of all, there’s the iron ore. The amount of pig iron that can be refined from one piece of ore is very limited. We need a large amount of this kind of ore. Hong Yunlang said just now that they found the iron ore near the rocky mountains, so I want to discuss with the two chiefs. How about we take some people to look for it today?”
The tribe’s life could get better and better, and it was all thanks to Hua Shi’an’s occasional novel ideas. He had a new idea, and Chief Mu raised both his hands and feet in agreement, nodding without a second thought. “No problem. Let’s have the beastmen go. How many—”
“Wait.”
The Great Chief raised his hand and interrupted Chief Mu’s words.
He didn’t mean to sing a different tune from this priest, but there was a lot to do in the tribe.
The Great Chief looked troubled and discussed with Hua Shi’an in a friendly manner, “We’ve just returned from outside. We haven’t chiseled our tree hollows yet, and the seeds that the Tree Shrew Tribe gave us haven’t been planted yet. The Tree Shrew Tribe also hasn’t been settled yet. Why don’t we put the matter of the iron ore aside for a while?”
Hua Shi’an: “There are many things to do, but we also have many people now. We’re not in a hurry to hunt after just coming back. Let the gathering team go out to work. As long as we don’t go hungry, it’s fine. As for the beastmen, we now have more than thirty beastmen. Some will go and chisel tree hollows, some will go and reclaim wasteland, and some will go and look for iron ore. And leave a few people to help me.”
“This…” A trace of hesitation flashed in the Great Chief’s eyes.
A beastman’s duty was to hunt and bring back prey from the forest for the tribe to eat. To have the beastmen stay in the tribe and have the sub-beasts go out to gather and support the beastmen, this… what would it look like!
As if he had guessed his thoughts, Chief Mu elbowed the Great Chief and urged him on the side, “Listen to Shi’an. The tribe still has some surplus food. We won’t go hungry even if we don’t hunt. It’s not like we’re short of that one bite of meat. You guys are also working in the tribe, not just playing around. Don’t think so much. You can show off again after this busy period is over.”
The Great Chief let out a soft sigh and reluctantly compromised. “Alright, we’ll listen to the Lord Priest.”
The iron ore had come back to Hua Shi’an’s hands. Hua Shi’an handed it to the Great Chief again and said with a smile, “Then I’ll have to trouble the Great Chief to make the arrangements. Give this ore to the beastmen who are going to the rocky mountains. Let them take a look at it, in case they bring back a pile of useless stones from so far away.”
“Don’t you still need a few people to help?”
Chief Mu gave Hua Shi’an a meaningful look.
Hua Shi’an: “Oh right, Great Chief. I need six people here. Let Yan Qiuyu, Ju Ming, Mo Huaishan—”
“Hey, hey, hey. We can’t divide them like that.”
The Great Chief raised an eyebrow and smiled, a meaningful look in his eyes. “We’ve just returned from outside. Some of the tribe members are not very familiar with you. We can’t just work with people we’re familiar with. We also have to get along with them so that we can better integrate them into the collective. Besides, the rocky mountain you mentioned, we don’t even know which direction it’s in. We also need a beastman who is familiar with the terrain to lead the way.”
The timing of his words was very clever, not too early, not too late, but just when he was talking about Mo Huaishan. Hua Shi’an suspected that the Great Chief was intentionally separating him and Mo Huaishan, but his words were very reasonable, and he couldn’t find any fault with them.
Forget it. Smelting iron is more important. We’ll talk about other things later.
He asked Chief Mu for Yan Zhile again, and then Hua Shi’an took the people to work.
To smelt iron, you first have to burn charcoal. The six beastmen were assigned the hard work of cutting down trees.
Burning charcoal required hardwood. Hua Shi’an led them on a tour around the tribe and finally chose the Qinggang tree, the sawtooth oak, and the birch, three types of trees with high hardness and density.
A stone axe, a hard and sturdy large tree. Hua Shi’an did not taste any of the hardships. Only the beastmen themselves knew.
After teaching them to recognize the trees, Hua Shi’an slipped away. He took out the tanned water buffalo hide from the warehouse, returned to the camp, picked a few dried old bamboos, and directed the coolie Yan Zhile to split bamboo sheets, sharpen bamboo nails…
The temperature required for smelting iron ore was very high. No matter what kind of earthen kiln, it could not reach it. To increase the temperature and successfully smelt iron, they needed a forced-air combustion aid to improve the smelting efficiency—a bellows.
Of course, Hua Shi’an couldn’t make a bellows, but it was no problem to make an old-fashioned bellows with animal skin. It was just that it was a bit of a hassle to make and use.
The scorching sun hung high in the sky. The bamboo shavings fell like snowflakes. The thumb-thick bamboo sheets gradually became flat in Yan Zhile’s hands, turning into palm-wide, flat, and smooth bamboo boards.
To increase the toughness and strength of the bamboo, Hua Shi’an specially took the bamboo boards to the fire pit and roasted them one by one.
The materials needed for the box were ready. He started to make the inner chamber. He chose the thickest bamboo board, measured the length, polished it smooth, and nailed it together with two golden bamboos to make a piston similar to a luggage handle.
At this point, the bellows was more than half successful.
Hua Shi’an gave the orders, and Yan Zhile did the work. They started to assemble with a “ding ding clang clang,” nailing the bamboo boards of the same size together, one after another, and finally, they pieced together a rectangular box.
You know, with the piston inserted into the box, it really looked like a large suitcase at first glance.
A bellows mainly relies on pushing and pulling the piston to blow air. The size of the piston and the inner chamber must match. To ensure that the piston can slide freely and smoothly in the box, Hua Shi’an also picked up some of the turkey feathers that the tribe members had thrown away and fixed them around the piston with resin.
The contact surface between the bellows and the piston inevitably had gaps. The soft and elastic chicken feathers could serve as a seal. And when the piston was pulled, the chicken feathers would naturally open and close with the change in air pressure, and could also serve as an auxiliary guide.
The wisdom of the ancients is truly profound! Hua Shi’an sighed sincerely.
The box and the piston were successively completed. Next was the most important and also the most troublesome step. An air inlet was opened at one end of the box, and an air outlet was opened at the other. Two simple valves were made with thin bamboo sheets, a baffle was installed on the side of the box, and at the same time, an air outlet was opened.
It would have been much easier if the openings had been made when the bamboo sheets were being polished. But without a blueprint and relying entirely on memory, Hua Shi’an was not sure where to open them, so he could only do it after they were pieced together.
This led to—Yan Zhile, with sweat and tears, crying and making a fuss as he chiseled the openings, and even saying that he would never work with the Lord Priest again.
After a lot of effort, from early morning to sunset, a large, 24-inch “suitcase” was finally completed.
A handle was also attached to the pull rod. Hua Shi’an grabbed a handful of withered leaves and placed them at the air outlet. He pulled the bellows to test it. It was very silky, and the wind was also very strong.
A proper old-fashioned bellows would have been finished at this point. But they had too few tools and had used bamboo to make the box for convenience. Worried about air leaks, Hua Shi’an and Yan Zhile cut the water buffalo hide to a suitable size and nailed it tightly to the surface of the box.
By the time they were done, it was already dark. Hua Shi’an quickly ran to the kiln to inspect the results.
It was very good. The six beastmen had cut nearly twenty trees in one day, and each one was a hardwood suitable for burning charcoal. Not only did they cut the trees, but they also split the trees into firewood blocks of a suitable size and length according to Hua Shi’an’s request and stacked them neatly in the kiln.
Both dry and wet wood could be used to burn charcoal, it was just that wet wood took longer to burn. He didn’t have the patience to wait for the wood to dry. Hua Shi’an had the just-returned gathering team help him move the yellow clay and dry firewood, and then—sealed the kiln and lit the fire!
The dry firewood crackled and burned, and wisps of smoke drifted into the night. Hua Shi’an looked at the completely sealed kiln mouth, and his high-speed brain was able to empty.
“Lord Priest.”
Yan Zhile had come to his side at some point. He stared at the kiln mouth, which was completely different from before, and stroked his chin, asking, “Why is it different from before? Why did we change the method? What will those woods turn into when they’re burned?”
One question after another. He had been so busy making the bellows today that Hua Shi’an patiently explained, “Burning charcoal is different from firing pottery. Pottery requires a higher temperature and can be properly ventilated. Charcoal doesn’t require such a high temperature, but it must be carbonized in an oxygen-deprived, or in other words, an air-isolated environment. Otherwise, it will just burn to ash.”
“As for what it will look like when it’s burned, it’s hard to describe. You’ll know then.”
“Alright.” Yan Zhile was not satisfied with this answer. He pouted and asked again, “Then how long does it have to burn? It feels like we’ve prepared more dry wood than before. Can we open the kiln tomorrow?”
Hua Shi’an chuckled. “Tomorrow? You’re thinking too much. The earliest will be—”
“Ten days.”
