Chapter 95
“Thump, thump, thump thump thump…”
On a bright and sunny morning, a group of young people were sitting on the green grass by the riverbank. They were holding stones and stone hammers, forcefully smashing the ore. The stones rubbed against each other, and the rapid tapping sound was as rousing as a drumbeat.
Ten days had passed in a flash. The people had not changed, but the open meadow around the kiln had changed dramatically. Iron ores of various colors and shapes were piled up into four tall mountains of ore, like the crushed stones that could be seen everywhere on the roadside, as many as you wanted, looking worthless.
Besides the ore, there were also many large stones on the grass. From a distance, they looked like smooth and flat washboards. But upon closer inspection, it was not so. The strangely shaped stones were buried in the mud, buried very deep, with only the smooth surface exposed, turning into fixed workstations.
After ten days of searching in the wild, Hua Shi’an had also found the limestone he had been longing for. Although there wasn’t much, only two back baskets in total, it was completely enough to be used as a solvent.
The wooden shovel for scooping ore, the bamboo tongs for clamping iron blocks, the wooden stick for digging out slag, the stone hammer for forging iron… with the joint efforts of a group of people, the tools and materials needed for forging iron were all ready, except for the charcoal and the blast furnace.
After being fired and then simmered, the kiln, which had been in operation for ten days, had completely cooled down.
It was almost time to open the kiln. Hua Shi’an was very confident in this batch of charcoal. He was sitting on the ground kneading yellow clay and hadn’t even moved. He looked up at the female beastman who was smashing ore not far away and said, “Chang Qing, you take a few people to open the kiln. Get the charcoal out as soon as possible. We’ll need it soon.”
Before he could finish speaking, the young woman with a high ponytail stood up from the crowd.
One of the few female beastmen in the tribe, her name was Qing. She had later added a surname based on her beast form, and was now called Chang Qing. She was about twenty years old, and her appearance was quite outstanding, the kind that would be handed a business card by a scout in modern society, a true beauty with strong features.
After getting along for more than ten days, Hua Shi’an could also see that this beastman had a very high status in the tribe, second only to the chief and Hong Yong. But completely different from her aggressive appearance, her temper was very good. She never got angry and was as gentle as a spring breeze in her dealings with people.
As if she had sensed Hua Shi’an’s probing gaze, Chang Qing, who was just about to leave, turned her head, stared at Hua Shi’an’s eyes, and smiled warmly. “Lord Priest, we’ve never opened a kiln before. Is there anything we should pay attention to?”
He felt that her gaze was a bit strange, but Hua Shi’an had no time to investigate. He shook his head and said, “Just open the kiln mouth that was sealed that day and gently take out the charcoal. The charcoal is fine. As long as you’re not too rough with it, it will be fine. If it were a pottery kiln, you’d have to be careful not to let the mud dregs fall down.”
“Alright.” Chang Qing nodded and led a few beastmen to the kiln.
They had already gone far, but Yan Zhile was still craning his neck and looking. Hua Shi’an lifted his hand and put a dab of mud on the tip of his nose, teasing with a smile, “What are you looking at? Oh~ so you’re looking at Chang Qing. What, you like that pretty sister?”
“Oh my!”
Yan Zhile quickly wiped his nose with his arm, a suspicious blush on his fair little face. But his mouth was harder than iron. He stuck out his neck and retorted righteously, “Lord Priest, don’t talk nonsense. I, I was looking at the kiln. I’m curious about what the charcoal that has been burning for ten days looks like. Is that not allowed?”
His little thoughts were all written on his face, and he was still pretending.
Hua Shi’an saw through him but didn’t expose him. He grabbed a handful of dried reed fragments and sprinkled them in the yellow clay, chuckling softly. “Alright, alright. Hurry up and knead the clay. You’ll see it when the charcoal is taken out in a bit.”
He wasn’t actually that curious about the charcoal. Yan Zhile secretly glanced at Hua Shi’an and tentatively asked, “Lord Priest, you said that charcoal is an essential and very important thing for smelting iron, right? For such an important thing, you should go and see it yourself. What if it didn’t burn well…”
“Slap!”
His hand, which was covered in yellow clay, was slapped. Yan Zhile’s mouth pouted, and he immediately fell silent.
Hua Shi’an glared at him. “Burning charcoal is simpler than firing pottery. How could it fail? Now is the critical moment to open the kiln. Don’t be a jinx.”
Yan Zhile: “Then you should go and see it yourself even more!”
Hua Shi’an: “Is it that I don’t want to? The blast furnace hasn’t been made yet. Hurry up and knead the clay.”
If charcoal was the key material for smelting iron, then the blast furnace was the essential equipment.
It was not as complex as other kilns. The structure of an ancient blast furnace was very simple. It was the kind that anyone who knew how to play with mud could make. It was just a matter of having hands.
The materials were also very simple, just clay and straw. The tribe had ready-made yellow clay for making pottery, and for the straw, Hua Shi’an chose to use dried reeds. He had asked someone to cut the reeds and dry them in advance, and now they could be used directly after being chopped up.
He chopped up the dried reeds and mixed them into the yellow clay to enhance the plasticity and stability of the yellow clay. He added a small amount of water and stirred it repeatedly. When the yellow clay and the reed fragments were fully integrated and the whole thing was in a semi-dry state, he could start to build the blast furnace with his bare hands.
He first used a hoe to dig a circular pit in the grass. The size of the pit determined the size of the blast furnace. It didn’t have to be too deep, just enough to remove the turf and grass roots to ensure the blast furnace was stable. Then, just like pinching unbaked pottery, he brought over the prepared yellow clay and started to build along the edge of the circular pit.
He built a thick circle, patted it to ensure the clay was rammed, which was really simple, but not at all easy. To put it bluntly, the final form of a blast furnace was actually a large, oval-shaped chimney, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. But this thing couldn’t be built to the top in one go. Because it was going to be used right away, they had to put dry firewood inside to dry it as they built.
The sun was scorching overhead, and the smoke and fire from the furnace were burning. The blast furnace had only been built to knee height, but Yan Zhile couldn’t take it anymore. He lifted his arm to wipe his sweat and complained endlessly, “Oh my heavens, it’s so hot, so hot. It’s like summer has come early. This is too much of a torture, Lord Priest. Why didn’t we build it in advance? Why do we have to build and bake it at the same time?”
A good question. Actually, Hua Shi’an had forgotten. Was that something he could say?
Of course not. Hua Shi’an let out a hot breath and said with a straight face, “There are not so many whys. A blast furnace for smelting iron has to be dried to be strong.”
“Really?” Yan Zhile was half-believing, half-doubting. He looked down at the somewhat simple semi-finished blast furnace and couldn’t help but ask again, “After the charcoal is burned, the large kiln will also be empty. Can’t we use the large kiln to smelt iron? The large kiln has a large belly and can burn a lot at once. It’s not as troublesome as this.”
The starting point was good, but don’t start yet. Hua Shi’an looked at Yan Zhile, who had no idea what smelting iron was, and suddenly chuckled. “Let’s not talk about whether the temperature can be reached. Even if it can, the refined pig iron has to be taken out and forged at a high temperature. If we use a large kiln to smelt it, do you want to dismantle the kiln, or do you want to go down and get it yourself?”
He wasn’t afraid at all. Yan Zhile only heard the two words “dismantle it.”
He sensed a hint of something bad from these two words. He looked down at the kiln and suddenly looked up, his face filled with disbelief as he looked at Hua Shi’an. “You mean, this blast furnace we’re building, we have to dismantle it later?”
“Yes,” Hua Shi’an nodded. “This blast furnace is a one-time use tool. We dismantle it after one smelting. Otherwise, do you think such a simple furnace can be reused?”
The sky is falling. If it’s dismantled after use, how many do we have to build?
Yan Zhile sat down on the ground, his spirits completely gone.
Hua Shi’an: “Alright, alright. It’s not just the two of us working. The sub-beasts in the fields will come and help after the cotton is planted. Don’t just stand there. Go and get the bellows and the golden bamboo. We have to install them while the mud is still wet.”
“Oh, okay.” Yan Zhile quickly ran to get the bellows.
The blast furnace was half dry, just right for opening a hole. Hua Shi’an wiped the yellow clay from his hands on the grass, picked up the stone knife he had brought with him, and opened two holes, one large and one small, along the bottom of the blast furnace, and then smoothed the edges.
Natural minerals have a certain amount of impurities. The large hole was for ash, to let out the charcoal ash and slag, to prevent too much from accumulating at the bottom of the blast furnace and the temperature from not rising. The small hole was a tuyere, to connect to the bellows, to help increase the temperature of the blast furnace.
One end of the pre-hollowed golden bamboo was connected to the bellows, and the other end was fixed to the bottom of the blast furnace. A simple blowing device was thus installed. Then, Hua Shi’an and Yan Zhile continued to build up with the mud until the blast furnace was level with Hua Shi’an’s chest.
It was finally done. After adding some dry firewood to the blast furnace, the two of them ran to the river to wash their hands and then hurried to the large kiln to inspect the charcoal, which had been burning for ten days.
The beastmen were going up and down, in and out of the kiln chamber. The blackened charcoal was moved up one after another and piled up on the green grass, which was particularly conspicuous.
It was a lie to say he wasn’t nervous. Whether they could smelt iron today all depended on this kiln of charcoal. As Hua Shi’an walked, his face was calm, but in reality, his heart had already jumped into his throat.
The shape of the charcoal had not changed much. It was the same as when it was put in, maintaining the general shape of the original wood. From a distance, the color was also fine, a pure black, with a slight reflection under the sun.
With a sense of trepidation, Hua Shi’an walked to the pile of charcoal. He didn’t even hear the beastmen’s greetings. Without a word, he grabbed a complete piece of charcoal and held it horizontally in front of him with both hands.
He lifted his knee and pushed hard. With a crisp “crack,” the charcoal broke in two, and charcoal dregs fell down. Hua Shi’an lifted the cross-section and took a closer look. The charcoal was completely burned, the texture was clear, and it was black and shiny. When he tapped it with his hand, there was even a sound like metal colliding.
He broke three or four pieces in a row, and each one was the same. Hua Shi’an’s shoulders sank, and his expression visibly relaxed. The corners of his mouth, which had been pressed into a straight line, lifted in a joyful curve.
Yan Zhile, who had been holding his breath, also breathed a sigh of relief. He snatched half of the charcoal from Hua Shi’an’s hand and, mimicking his action, flicked it twice with his index finger, his eyes wide in surprise. “It’s crispy, so magical! How did it burn like this? It doesn’t look like wood at all. Is it done?”
“Of course, it’s done.” Hua Shi’an put down the other half of the charcoal, patted the charcoal dust from his palm, a hint of pride in his smiling eyes. “I said it before. Burning charcoal is simpler than firing pottery. How could it fail?”
“Let’s go. Get a back basket and pack the charcoal. Let’s go and smelt some iron!”
After Hua Shi’an finished speaking, he walked away with his tail held high, as if the person whose palms had been sweating from nervousness just now was not him.
