Zuo Menggeng's teaching was certainly not for the purpose of cultivating scholars who would gain fame.
"Whether you are literate or illiterate, what I am teaching you now is how to teach others how to read."
Now that the pinyin has been taken out, Zuo Mengeng has no reason not to use it.
He even considered promoting simplified Chinese characters, but gave up after thinking about it carefully.
The promotion of pinyin already takes up a lot of his time. If he continues to work on simplified characters, the huge project will seriously slow down his pace.
The novel text interpretation method makes everyone feel fresh and new, but the learning speed is not slow.
Especially for those readers who are already literate, this backward learning method is not difficult at all for them.
On the contrary, it is quite difficult to learn the glory, wealth and honor that will last forever for generations and Zhang Yanjiu.
But these people have excellent qualities, that is, they are obedient and can endure hardships.
Since you are slow to understand, practice it over and over again.
A good memory is worse than a bad writing. This sentence is actually a wise saying.
In addition, there are smart scholars around them, so it is easy for them to ask for advice and they can keep up with the progress of their studies.
First he learned pinyin, then literacy. Until a year ago, that was all Zuo Mengeng did.
At first, he taught all the courses in person. Later, seeing differences in everyone's progress, Zuo Menggen gave part of the teaching work to Huang Zongxi, Zhou You and others.
He opened a new course, mathematics.
The application of mathematics in the military is very important, especially in reconnaissance and surveying. It is impossible without a mathematical foundation.
At this time, the advantage of him letting Liu Yiyuan serve as the commander of the reconnaissance brigade was revealed.
People with this kind of family background can learn mathematics very quickly even if they are based on Arabic numerals.
It's cold in winter, and even if fire fumigation is used, the man-made brick kilns like Yang Gui's and others are not easy to dry.
It took about twenty days of smoking and roasting before it could be put into use.
Zuo Mengeng kept watching and followed the progress of the brick kiln.
He summoned another group of people from the laborers to do something very important near the smelter.
"Please pay attention. All the coal must be crushed, and then passed through these troughs and washed repeatedly with water. It is not completed until the coal is washed to this color."
The process is not difficult, and the workers got started after seeing it.
Zuo Mengeng appointed a man named Zheng Erbai to be in charge of this area, which made Zheng Erbai grateful and devoted himself to management.
For refugees like them, having someone to feed them is already a great kindness.
Now I not only have food to eat and a house to live in, but I can also work and earn wages, which is really unimaginable.
Therefore, the workers worked extra hard, even though coal washing was dirty and tiring, and the ground was wet with water in the winter, not to mention the smell.
But they didn't care at all, they worked happily and produced the coal Zuo Menggeng needed.
What Zuo Menggen wants to do is naturally to remove sulfur from coal.
Coal originating in China has too many impurities, so the sulfur and phosphorus content in the smelted steel is very high, making the steel brittle.
Guns and artillery made of this kind of steel can easily burst and become unusable.
This is also the reason why the artillery made by the Ming Dynasty court was very heavy.
If the quality of steel is too brittle, you have to use more iron to make up for it.
If it doesn't work, just cover it with copper.
It can be said that China's firearms technology did not develop much during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition to the lack of attention by the rulers, material limitations were also an important reason.
Of course, this method can only remove inorganic sulfur from coal.
Nor can it be used as fuel for space rockets.
For organic sulfur, with existing technology, lime must be used.
However, organic desulfurization requires the construction of an absorption tower, and time waits for no one. And winter is really not a good time to start construction, so Zuo Mengeng can only put it down temporarily.
If conditions permit after spring, he will engage in inorganic desulfurization.
At that time, an oxidation tower can also be built to obtain gypsum through desulfurization.
After coal is desulfurized, the next step is coking. Otherwise, although the furnace can withstand high temperatures, there will be no fuel that can burn high temperatures.
Coking technology was already very mature in the Ming Dynasty, so there was no need for Zuo Menggeng to do it himself.
Originally, the best smelting fuel in this era should be wooden coke.
However, due to excessive logging over the years, there are no longer enough trees to make charcoal.
This is why Zuo Menggeng must desulfurize coal and then make coking.
"Master, this charcoal is... amazing!"
Yang Gui's eyes were shining as he held the coke produced from desulfurized coal in his hand.
The craftsmen gathered together and inspected the coke piece by piece. They were amazed at one piece for a long time, but they still felt unsatisfied after looking at the next piece.
"With such coke, there will be no problem in smelting, right?"
Yang Gui laughed loudly.
"It's not just a problem! With such charcoal, as long as the refractory bricks can withstand it, we can make high-quality steel."
"Let's go then, let's get refractory bricks."
Zuo Mengeng has already brought graphite powder.
When he arrived at the brick kiln, Zuo Mengeng ordered all irrelevant people to be dismissed, and he personally guarded the brick kiln and enjoyed the glory and wealth for generations to come.
Anyone who dares to break in will be killed without mercy!
"Look, if you want to make refractory bricks that can withstand high temperatures, you must use this thing."
Zuo Mengeng showed the graphite to the craftsmen, but it turned out that several of them didn't know it.
Chen Erzhu picked up a little bit, put his nose down and sniffed, and said suspiciously: "Isn't this something that women use to draw their eyebrows?"
Zuo Mengeng's voice was cold and he warned: "This is the top secret here. Even your apprentices are not allowed to tell it. If anyone dares to leak it, they will all be executed."
The craftsmen were all frightened. They did not expect that the punishment would be so severe.
But they are all old blacksmiths for many years, so they naturally know what refractory bricks that can directly make steel mean.
Yang Gui didn't dare to be a good guy, his eyes were full of murderous intent, and he looked around at all his subordinates.
"From now on, you have to watch your mouth. Even if you sleep, you have to keep your mouth blocked. If anyone dares to expose his mouth, I will kill his whole family first before the young master kills me."
It was obvious that the craftsmen were in awe of him. Of course, Zuo Mengeng's threats were also very effective.
Graphite is added to the reconciled mud. After thorough mixing, except for the slightly different color, it is impossible to tell what the ingredients are.
Unless someone here tells it, who would have guessed that a woman's thrush could be of such great use.
How to make refractory bricks? Yang Gui and others are all experienced people, and they don't even need to do it themselves.
After mixing the graphite, the brick makers were replaced by their apprentices.
The prepared refractory bricks are sent to the brick kiln, sealed and ignited to dry, and then they can be used to build a smelting furnace.
On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the military camp was initially completed, and the first batch of soldiers entered the camp from the dock, about 700 people.
Zuo Menggeng organized most of them into the First Infantry Brigade, and the rest into the General Logistics Brigade.
Zuo Rong became the first brigade commander to have soldiers under his command.
In view of this, Zuo Menggeng asked all other officers to serve in the two brigades to familiarize themselves with military affairs first.
After giving the soldiers two days to reunite with their families, the training officially began.
In any era, the training of new recruits begins with the queue.
The queue may seem simple, but it plays a huge role in the application of military tactics and cannot be ignored.
Zuo Menggeng knew this very well, so he formulated detailed regulations.
Most of them are based on the essence of our military, supplemented by the merits of the military codes of various countries in history.
Fortunately, there is only one infantry group of more than 300 people, so training is not very difficult.
In addition, Liu Yiyuan, Zhou You, Huang Zongxi, Zuo Rong and others had come into contact with Caodian earlier. While studying, they also assisted Zuo Mengeng very well.
Seeing the large group of soldiers in tattered clothes walking awkwardly in line on the school field, being scolded and scolded by the instructors from time to time, Zuo Menggeng was really high-spirited.
Despite the unsightly performance of these soldiers, they were as messy as beggars and seemed vulnerable.
But they are all young adults. After these days of labor and recuperation, their bodies have recovered very well, and the high-spirited aura on their faces is even more vigorous.
Such soldiers, as long as they are well trained, will definitely become a strong army.
In this chaotic world, there is chaos and chaos everywhere.
Who would have thought that in this small place, a force that would change the world is growing vigorously?
Zuo Mengeng was full of confidence, as if he had already seen the scene of his invincible army sweeping across Liuhe in all directions.
"I think when my team first opened, there were only a dozen people and seven or eight guns..."
He was in such a good mood that he couldn't help but hum a little tune.
The strange tune made Zuo Yong next to him confused. I really wanted to ask the young master, what kind of army is this "imperial army"?
However, the situation in a corner of the school grounds attracted his attention.
"Qianza, there seems to be a commotion over there."
Zuo Mengeng woke up from his intoxication and took a closer look, only to find that the training of a group in the distance had stopped and was forming a noisy group, making it impossible to concentrate on other parts.
Knowing that monsters would appear in recruit training, Zuo Mengeng was mentally prepared and walked over.