On the day when the furnace was opened to smelt bronze, Chi Shao also came, together with Uncaria, Stone Loach, Nan Xing, and two assisting warriors, to witness the birth of the Teng Tribe's bronze wares.
"Crash..."
Jiang Xuan poured half a bag of charcoal broken into pieces into the smelting furnace, and then spread a layer of malachite and azurite that were broken into powder.
In this way, a layer of copper ore and a layer of charcoal are slowly stacked until the entire smelting furnace is filled.
Then, he followed the same method and filled another smelting furnace with charcoal and tin ore.
After doing all this, Jiang Xuan rubbed his hands excitedly and said: "Okay, let's light the fire!"
Jiang Xuan placed some dry firewood at the air inlet of the smelting furnace, and then lit it with a torch.
After the dry firewood is burned, it is easy to ignite the charcoal at the bottom of the smelting furnace, and it burns more and more vigorously.
Each of the two soldiers took a fan made of palm leaves and was responsible for fanning the air inlet.
"Huhuhu..."
The continuous wind quickly ignited the charcoal in the entire smelting furnace, and jumping flames appeared above the smelting furnace.
Nan Xing curiously looked at the hot smelting furnace and asked Jiang Xuan: "Chief, what kind of metal can these broken stones really be burned into?"
Everyone else also looked at Jiang Xuan, obviously thinking this was too incredible.
Because in their limited knowledge, they have never heard that broken stones can be glued together to make large tools.
This is contrary to their common sense.
For example, when polishing stone tools, if you are not careful, you will break the good stone, and you will only get a defective product in the end.
Jiang Xuan smiled and said, "You'll know when it's finished burning, won't you?"
Everyone had no choice but to wait patiently. From time to time they went over to take a look at the smelting furnace, but they could only see the whitish fire.
Because of the long time, Chi Shao, Uncaria and others all went to work separately.
Time passes quickly.
Under the hard work of the two warriors, the charcoal in the two smelting furnaces burned less and less, and all the ores inside melted.
After half a day, the charcoal burned into a pile of white ash, and the ore in the smelting furnace also condensed into a large ball, red and still emitting high temperature.
It was not until evening that Chi Shao and others received the notice and came to the wooden house again.
Jiang Xuan dug out the fire inlets at the bottom of the two smelting furnaces, and then pulled out a large ball of copper and a large ball of tin.
"Chief, this is... metal?"
Nan Xing's face was full of astonishment. He really couldn't connect the two large lumps of irregular and dirty things on the ground with the metal that Jiang Xuan said could be used to make sharp weapons and tools.
Uncaria and Stone Loach, as well as the two warriors who fanned themselves for a long time, also felt that this thing did not look like a treasure.
Only Chi Shao's face remained calm, and she still knew that Jiang Xuan would give them a reasonable explanation.
Jiang Xuan fiddled with the lump of slag-like copper and said, "These two lumps are indeed metal, but they are now stuck together with carbon ash and soil, so they look ugly."
"When I clean them and then re-smelt them in the furnace to remove excess impurities, you will be able to see strong, beautiful metal."
Jiang Xuan asked the two soldiers to fetch several jars of water from large clay pots, then knock off some of the ash and mud on the surface of the copper and tin, and then clean them with water.
Then, he took out a stone ax made of fine stone.
The texture of tin is relatively soft, and a stone ax made of high-quality stone can easily chop it into pieces.
Jiang Xuan chopped the tin into seven or eight pieces and put them into a large amphorae.
Then, he took the amphorae filled with tin blocks to another house.
There is also a smelting furnace in this house, but this smelting furnace has a wider diameter than the previous smelting furnace, and the amphora can be easily placed inside.
Jiang Xuan also poured a large amount of charcoal into the smelting furnace, then placed the amphorae on top of the charcoal, and lit a fire.
The two soldiers squatted next to the inlet air of the smelting furnace and began to fan themselves with fans.
Chi Shao and others watched Jiang Xuan's actions intently. They wanted to know whether these "metals" that looked ugly before could surprise them.
Soon, all the charcoal in the smelting furnace was ignited, the temperature rose sharply, and even the bottom of the clay pot gradually turned red.
The tin in the clay pot began to slowly melt into tin water.
When all the tin in the pottery pot melted, Jiang Xuan took out a pottery model with many rectangular grooves.
Then, he used two hooked wooden sticks to hook the ears of the pottery pot, quickly lifted it up, placed it on the ground, and then tipped the pottery pot over, allowing the tin water inside to flow into the groove of the pottery model.
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After he filled the three rectangular grooves, there was only a small amount of tin water and some impurities left in the pot.
"Just wait patiently for a while and wait for it to cool down."
After waiting for a long time, everyone was hungry. A soldier brought food, so everyone started to eat aside.
After they had eaten and drank enough, the tin in the pottery fan had solidified from tin water into tin blocks.
Jiang Xuan turned Tao Fan upside down and poured the rectangular tin block on the ground.
Jiang Xuan put down the Tao Fan, picked up the still warm tin block, held it in his hand and knocked it.
"Ding ding ding..."
The collision of tin ore makes a crisp metal collision sound.
"Come on, everyone, let's take a look. This is a kind of metal, tin."
Jiang Xuan handed a piece of tin to Chi Shao, another piece to Uncaria, and another piece to Nan Xing.
The tin block is silvery white in color. After being re-smelted and impurities removed, it becomes very beautiful and sparkles in the light of the fire.
"This...this is metal!"
Nanxing turned the tin piece over and over, feeling the unique charm of metal, and all the doubts in his heart disappeared.
Others were also shocked, because before, this thing was originally a broken stone, and then turned into a big mess, but now it has a smooth surface, with a silver-white metallic luster, and is very beautiful.
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The two warriors in charge of fanning were even more excited because they participated in the metal smelting process and witnessed the transformation of metal with their own eyes.
This is an honor for them.
Chi Shao showed great interest in this magical change, and she wanted to find out what was going on.
As a witch, my thirst for knowledge is very strong.
However, Jiang Xuan couldn't explain it clearly to her, because he himself only knew what was happening and didn't know why.
Uncaria held a piece of tin and asked: "Chief, you said before that metal can be used for sharp weapons and work. Can this... tin be made into a spearhead?"
Jiang Xuan shook his head and said: "No, because tin is too soft. Look..."
Jiang Xuan picked up a piece of tin, and when he exerted force with both hands, the rectangular piece of tin suddenly became curved.
Uncaria was a little disappointed, then pointed to the lump of copper on the ground and said, "Can this be used as a spearhead?"
"No, copper is a little harder than tin, but it's still too soft to be used as a weapon. It's not as good as ordinary stone."
Several people were immediately disappointed. Since copper can't be used as weapons, and tin can't be used as weapons, what's the use of spending so much effort to smelt them?
Jiang Xuan saw everyone's disappointed expressions and decided not to sell out.
"Pure copper and pure tin are relatively soft and are really not suitable for weapons."
"However, if you fuse them together, they can become very hard bronze. Bronze can be made into weapons and various tools. It is much sharper and stronger than the stone tools we use now."
After listening to Jiang Xuan's words, everyone's eyes lit up, and they were looking forward to the appearance of bronze.
"Meat must be eaten bite by bite, and things must be done one by one. Let's stop here today. Tomorrow, we will try to smelt a bronze hammer first."
At this time, the sky was completely dark and the moon had risen.
Jiang Xuan and others left the wooden house, crossed the river by boat with torches, and then returned to their houses to sleep.
Due to the lack of entertainment activities and the fact that they can only rely on firelight for lighting at night, tribal people are accustomed to going to bed early.
In the early morning of the next day, Jiang Xuan simply washed up, had breakfast, and then took a boat across the river to the other side, came to the wooden house outside the cave, and began to resmelt the lump of copper.
To be continued...