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.
.
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.
.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
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.
He also broke the lump of copper into smaller pieces, put it into another clay pot, and then put it into the smelting furnace for resmelting.
The melting point of copper is much higher than that of tin, so the smelting time is also longer.
Today, Chi Shao and others did not come over again because they each had a lot of things to do and just needed to wait for the final product.
The two soldiers had been guarding here early in the morning. Jiang Xuan planned to let them learn this set of operating procedures and be responsible for smelting metal in the future.
After all, as the leader, he has too many things to do, and it is impossible for him to work here every day.
After a few hours, the entire pot was burned red, and all the copper pieces inside turned into copper water.
Jiang Xuan used a wooden stick with a hook to lift the pottery pot as before.
However, because the temperature was too high, the hook of the wooden stick caught fire as soon as it was put into the ear of the clay pot.
"No, no, no, if it burns out when you lift it, all the copper water will be spilled."
Jiang Xuan could only chop down two fresh, strong, forked branches, and then lift the pottery pot out of the smelting furnace.
"Chi chi chi..."
Fresh branches emit white smoke, and the water evaporates quickly.
Jiang Xuan knew that fresh branches could not hold up for long, so he had to move quickly, otherwise, when the fresh branches were burned by the high temperature, the copper water would still spill out.
He quickly placed the pottery pot on the ground, and then poured the copper water into the grooved pottery mold.
When pouring the copper water, Jiang Xuan discovered that the copper water would solidify quickly after leaving the smelting furnace. When pouring, it felt like pouring jelly instead of pouring water.
Fortunately, the copper water was poured into the pottery model smoothly.
When the copper water cooled, Jiang Xuan obtained three thick, rectangular purple-red copper bars.
"The next step is the most important step."
Extracting copper and tin from the ore is only the first step; fusing them together can turn them into bronze.
However, there is a fatal problem here, that is, Jiang Xuan does not know the ratio of copper to tin in bronze.
This kind of thing can only be understood by those who have specialized in related industries or have studied this knowledge.
"In copper-tin alloy, copper is in the front, so the proportion of copper must be larger and the proportion of tin should be smaller."
Jiang Xuan thought about it for a while, and finally found a new double-eared pottery pot, put two copper blocks and a tin block into it, intending to try to make a utensil first to see the effect.
The flames in the smelting furnace rose again. With the efforts of the two warriors to fan the air, the tin blocks in the clay pot melted first. After a long time, the copper blocks also gradually melted.
Jiang Xuan learned from the previous experience that the temperature in the smelting furnace was too high, making it difficult to lift the pottery pot out, and that the copper liquid solidified quickly after being lifted out.
He directly cut open a part of the smelting furnace, and then placed the ceramic mold for making bronze hammers next to the smelting furnace, so that he only had to lift one side of the pot and the bronze liquid could flow out smoothly.
In order to allow the pottery model to accurately catch the bronze liquid, he padded the pottery model, slightly lower than the angle after the pot was tipped over.
Then, he used a relatively thick fresh branch with a hook to lift one ear of the pot, tilt the pot, and align it with the injection port of the bronze hammer pottery mold.
"The patter..."
Jiang Xuan controlled the pottery pot very carefully, and the bronze liquid slowly flowed into the pottery model until the pottery model was filled.
When the Tao Fan was filled, the fresh branches couldn't hold it anymore and were directly burned. Jiang Xuan took it out and put it into the water.
"The next step is to wait patiently for it to cool down."
With excitement, Jiang Xuan guarded the bronze hammer pottery model, watching the bronze liquid inside quickly solidify and slowly cool down.
In the evening, Chi Shao and others gathered in the wooden house again.
Jiang Xuan looked nervously at Tao Fan, who had basically cooled down, picked up a stone, and threw it directly.
"Pa bang bang..."
When the Tao Fan was smashed bit by bit, a golden bronze hammer gradually emerged, which was very dazzling.
That's right, bronze vessels are actually dazzling gold when they are first cast. Only after a long period of time, bronze vessels will turn into blue-grey, which is actually rust.
"The first bronze of the Vine Tribe was finally born!"
Jiang Xuan picked up the bronze hammer, looked at it repeatedly, and raised it above his head excitedly.
Everyone in the room also stared at the golden bronze hammer. When they saw the vine tribal totem pattern on the side of the bronze hammer, they cheered.
"Chief, can you show me!" Chi Shao couldn't help but said.
"Of course."
Jiang Xuan handed the bronze hammer to Chi Shao.
The bronze hammer was heavy when I got it, because it hadn’t been polished yet, so the surface was rough in some places.
However, Chi Shao is still very pleasantly surprised, because the hammer and handle of this bronze hammer are integrated, and the wooden handle does not often fall off like a stone hammer.
The totem pattern on the bronze hammer also surprised Chi Shao, it is so beautiful.
"Witch, I want to see it too."
Nan Xing also approached, and Chi Shao handed him the bronze hammer.
Nan Xing tried to swing it twice, and then eagerly wanted to see the effect of this golden hammer.
He asked Jiang Xuan: "Chief, since it is a hammer, can you find something to hit it with?"
"Okay, but a hammer that can't hit things is not a good hammer."
Jiang Xuan searched the room with his eyes, and then picked up a flaky stone.
"Just smash this one."
"Okay!"
Nan Xing was not polite. He raised the hammer and tried to hit the stone twice. He looked at the place where the bronze hammer came into contact with the stone and found that it was intact. He felt relieved immediately.
"Pa!"
When Nan Xing hammered down, the stone fell apart, but the bronze hammer remained intact.
"Good stuff, really good stuff!"
Nan Xing couldn't help but feel happy. This bronze hammer was countless times better than the best stone hammer he had ever used.
Others also tried it one by one and were all very satisfied with the hardness and beautiful color of the bronze hammer.
After everyone tried it, Jiang Xuan said with a serious face: "Everyone, remember, bronze is the biggest secret of our Vine tribe. It must not be leaked, even to the people around you. Do you understand?" p>
"Got it."
Everyone nodded. They were not stupid. If something as good as bronze were leaked, it would probably attract many tribes to rob it, and then the trouble would be big.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－－
Thanks to the book friend "Don't Want to Doubt" for the reward.