When he heard Su Bai’s question, the barrage in the live broadcast room fell into silence.
[If we know how to boil cement, we will go to survive by ourselves and watch your live broadcast at home???]
[Don’t keep it in a silence! Tell me quickly! What is the first step in firing cement?]
Su Bai raised three fingers and said:
"The simple version of cement in the wilderness requires three materials."
“Charcoal, limestone, clay.”
“We’re all ready.”
During the last time I was fishing, Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing dug a lot of clay from the shallows of the river and came back.
These clays have now been dried to half dry.
You can still feel the toughness by pinching it with your hands, just like plasticine, you can easily pinch it flat and roll it in a round shape.
These clays can also be used to make pottery with charcoal.
However, the two now have enough bamboo tubes as small containers, and the demand for large pottery is much higher in both the production process and the materials. Su Bai is not willing to spend too much energy on this for the time being.
Su Bai continued to explain:
“In addition to these three basic materials, we also need a huge earth kiln.”
"With the insulation of the earth kiln and the high temperature of charcoal and the temperature in the earth kiln, the limestone and clay can fully react, and the cement formed ultimately meets our requirements for building a house."
"In fact, digging a pit and calcining it with firewood can barely burn cement."
"But the finished product will be much worse in the condition and there is a significant risk of collapse."
"So, our first thing is to dig a soil kiln."
Barrage:
【Emmmmmm…Digging a kiln?】
【It sounds like a very physically consuming job…】
[What does the earth kiln look like... I have only heard of it in my life and have never seen an entity...]
【Come on my own, I haven’t seen it before, but I’m about to see it.】
Su Bai nodded and said:
"Digging a kiln is indeed not an easy task."
"But the earth kiln can also be used to burn bricks and pottery, or even iron smelting. In the future, charcoal can also be used to refine it in the earth kiln. It is still very cost-effective to dig one."
"Find a terrain with a small drop, which will allow us to dig a soil kiln to achieve twice the result with half the effort."
When Zhao Xinqing heard that Su Bai was looking for a small gap, she lit up her beautiful eyes and said:
"Isn't there a slope behind us..."
Su Bai smiled and nodded:
"Yes, just dig the earth kiln there!"
The two of them leaned against a four-meter rock wall, and on both sides of the rock wall were two diagonally extending upwards.
Although the soil on the soil slope is very solid and it is difficult to dig, it is precisely because of this that the earth kiln excavated here is difficult to collapse.
Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing held bamboo spears and stone axes and quickly found the right terrain.
This earth slope has a vertical section with a drop of more than one meter and is only 300 meters away from the two camps. It is a very suitable earth kiln location!
Su Bai looked around, nodded with satisfaction, gestured at the slope, and explained his plan to Zhao Xinqing.
"The so-called earth kiln actually has the same principle as the soil blockade we had burned charcoal before, it is just a large oven."
"Some kilns that are more advanced in technology and can burn porcelain will have relatively complex air and heat structures."
"But we are in the wilderness and only need the simplest structure, which is enough for us to use."
“No matter how complicated it is, it is not necessary and cannot be created.”
Su Bai said to Zhao Xinqing:
"We dig an l-shaped passage in this soil slope."
“The caves are opened on both the upper and the sides.”
"This time we refine cement, we only need to open the above passages, block half of the passages on the side, and leave half of the ventilation, and that's enough."
After the two of them had a plan, they immediately started digging the earth kiln.
Zhao Xinqing is above and Su Bai is below.
Wave the stone axe.
Slap sex.
Digging happily.
The two of them almost broke out the white mud.
It was dug until 3:30 in the afternoon that the two passages dug on the soil slope intersected with each other and formed an L-shaped earth kiln passage.
After checking the strength and structure of the earth kiln, Su Bai nodded with satisfaction and said:
"That's all."
"The next step is to break the limestone."
“The thinner the better.”
The limestone itself is very crisp. Although the two of them did not have any handy tools, they didn't use much effort to smash it into pieces the size of their fingers.
Try to make the clay into small pieces and mix it evenly with limestone fragments. The preparations for refining cement are all done.
Su Bai repeatedly burned a lot of charcoal during this period. At this time, he took out nearly 70% of it and spread it evenly to the bottom of the earth kiln.
Then the mixture of limestone and clay was sprinkled on top of the charcoal, and a layer was also laid.
After doing this, Su Bai directly pumped a burning firewood from the campfire and threw it into the earth kiln.
The side channel has been half-sealed by Su Bai with the digging soil. While storing heat, it also ensures that there is enough air circulation in the earth kiln.
As the firewood ignited the charcoal below, waves of heat rose from the earthen kiln and rushed towards the sky along the hole above.
Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing stood half a meter above the top of the earthen kiln, and could feel the huge heat emitted from the top of the kiln.
Su Bai nodded with satisfaction and said:
"Very good. When the charcoal in the earth kiln is burned out tomorrow, you should get the first batch of cement."
"If you do the same operation a few more times, you will naturally get enough cement."
“At that time, we can start to actually build stone houses.”
It was already four o'clock, and the two left the earth kiln and turned to the camp.
As soon as I stewed the fish soup, I clearly felt that as the sun sets westward, the temperature dropped again.
"This late spring cold may not be so easy to pass..."
Su Bai frowned and said.
Zhao Xinqing quickly got up, pulled Su Bai to the sweet potato field on the south side, and worked together to spread the alfalfa cut in the morning into the sweet potato field.
Alfalfa is spread at night and you have to harvest it during the day, otherwise the sweet potato seedlings will be blocked from the sun and will not survive either.
But it is better to be busy for a while than to let the sweet potato seedlings freeze to death in the fields.
After basically laying alfalfa, the snow leopard appeared in the camp of the two again, sitting obediently in the catnip bush, with a pair of dark green leopard eyes quietly looking at Su Bai and Zhao Xinqing.
Obviously waiting for the meal!
Barrage:
【Good guy! Very active in eating!】
[It really turned into a long-term meal ticket for the Snow Leopard family!]
[It's a good thing that Su Bai has enough fishing ability, otherwise he wouldn't be able to afford a big breastfeeding king snow leopard...]
Yesterday, Su Bai didn't catch too many fish and fed the snow leopard and the cat. Today, the two of them had another meal and had eaten them all.
"Go and fish for another wave."
"We're going to stock up on more fish this time."
Su Bai whispered while packing the fishing rod:
"This late spring cold has just begun. If the temperature drops too fast in the next few days, it may be difficult to catch fish in the river..."
"The grain has not yet been harvested. We are currently relying on fish. If the fishing catch is affected by the cold current, we may become hungry..."