Watching the errand seal the place where the coal was loaded, Su Song said: "Coal is a thing, the use is to burn fire for heating, it seems to be sealed in the stone room, and then the coal is burned below, like a steaming drawer, what is the reason?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Everything in the world is as pure as gold and silver, and there are very few. How do you separate this mixed thing? One way is to use water, put the matter into the water, some dissolve into the water, insoluble naturally left, filtered. This method is used for refining table salt. There is another way to do this, close it and distill it on a fire below. It was burned hot, and some of the gas escaped, and some remained inside, and naturally separated. This method is often used by alchemists in ancient times, such as fire method copper smelting, etc., and many of them are derived from this law. ”

Su Song nodded, feeling that Du Zhongxiao had some truth in what he said, and felt that something was wrong.

The easiest way to understand the nature of matter in nature is indeed these two ways. One is water-soluble, of course, you can also use other solvents to slowly accumulate experience and summarize. Another is dry distillation, which allows substances to decompose at high temperatures, and then combines them with segmented collection, which can analyze the composition of a large number of natural substances. Many kinds of chemicals are discovered in this way.

How to coke? In fact, Du Zhongxiao didn't know, how could he remember this knowledge clearly, not to mention whether he had seen it in his previous life or not, he couldn't remember. He just remembered that the coke was distilled in a closed airtight manner. As for what furnace to use and how to make the best quality, it can only be slowly summarized in the practice of dry distillation. Everything is difficult at the beginning, as long as it begins, there are always skilled craftsmen who slowly summarize.

When he arrived here, iron ore was poked out from Fangcheng Mountain, and recently Du Zhongxiao suddenly became interested in chemistry. It's a pity that I don't remember much chemistry knowledge, and it's messy, and there is no discipline, so I can only take it slowly step by step. Summing up the chemical knowledge he has learned these days, Du Zhongxiao realized that these two methods, one is dissolution and filtration, and the other is distillation and decomposition, which is really the supreme method for studying chemistry.

As long as you master these two basic methods, you can solve a lot of basic chemical knowledge. A few days ago, the test of wet copper smelting is a small test of dissolution and filtration. Now to make coke, it is time to try the dry distillation method.

This method is really wonderful, looking at the fire under the furnace, Du Zhongxiao has already thought that in fact, many chemical raw materials can be made by this method. For example, how to make nitric acid? It's simple, put the nitrate in a closed furnace and dry distillation. If you can't distill it, it's because the temperature is not enough, and finding a way to use better fuel, strengthen the blast, and dissolve the distilled gas into the water is nitric acid. How to make sulfuric acid? It's also simple, and it's also bile-centric in a confined space, and dry distillation is it. If you can't make it, use better fuel, and great strength will always work miracles. Of course, there is an annoying thing about sulfuric acid, the gas produced may or may not be sulfur dioxide.

One high-temperature dry distillation decomposition, one solvent dissolution, can solve many problems. It's a pity that Du Zhongxiao's energy and time are limited, otherwise he can make a lot of chemical raw materials. It's just that this simple and crude method makes it difficult to say how useful the chemical raw materials are.

Su Song's wide range of miscellaneous studies is a leader in this era, in addition to academic articles, what astronomical calendar, alchemy and medicine, almost everything. Chemistry is actually somewhat similar to alchemy, remember not to eat what is burned as an elixir at every turn, but to analyze it carefully, which is also a science.

What mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, sometimes it's as simple as that. What should I do if I can't remember a lot of knowledge? A miracle is done in a big way, and it is simple and rude. Maybe the quality is not high, maybe you don't get what you want, but you can always start and have an idea. Who knows what unimaginable things will happen when you meet the talented people of this era.

Du Zhongxiao made his fortune by distilling liquor, and he has a lot of experience in this method. Now that there is iron ore under his rule, he has to rely on chemical knowledge, and he wants to distill everything. Now that I am burning charcoal, I will wait for a few days to make a set of tools for dry distillation, and find a few people to dry and distill everything I can find one by one, and see what interesting things will be found.

Looking at the raging fire under the furnace, Su Song said: "It seems to be roasted with fire like this, how long does it take?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "First burn seventy-seven forty-nine hours and see what it looks like." If it's a good thing, then slowly reduce the hours. ”

Su Song frowned and said, "Wait for you, how do you know that if coal is distilled like this, it can be used to make iron?" I always feel that this is not reliable. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Do you think, how does charcoal make iron?" Burn the firewood into charcoal. Now Hedong Road uses coal to make iron, although coal is called charcoal, but it has not been distilled like charcoal, it is hard and brittle with iron, and it is useless. If you distill coal like charcoal, isn't it the best of both worlds? Isn't it true that the iron smelted in this way has the purity of the iron made from charcoal, and the advantage of having more iron at a lower price? ”

Su Song smiled bitterly and shook his head, although he didn't know how to refute it, he felt in his heart that he was afraid that this was not the truth.

In fact, from a scientific point of view, it can't be said like this, but charcoal and coke still have some things in common. All of them are dry distilled to remove some useless components and leave useful components behind, so that the hardness of the fuel increases and the combustion temperature increases. Since charcoal was used to make iron, it should be thought of using coke to make iron. The current charcoal burning stove is actually a charcoal-burning kiln borrowed from it.

Watching the messenger sort all kinds of coal into different categories and put them into a sealed hearth, he ordered everyone, Du Zhongxiao and Su Song returned to the yamen.

When they went to the back office, they sat down in the sunshine, served tea, and the two gossiped.

Du Zhongxiao said: "This time I went to Yingtian on Jingxi Road, everything was created, the time was too tight, and many things were not done as expected. It is like opening a field, when it comes to spring, everything can come, so you can only plant in a hurry. These days, I went to the nearby village to see that it was very rudimentary, and it was not good to say how much grain could be harvested in the autumn. It's like when I was in the Volcano Army, I spent months digging the fields, digging the fields, repairing the roads and ditches, and planting the wheat seeds in the fall, and the next year it was a good harvest. ”

Su Song smiled: "In fact, farming in many places is like this. There are not many places in the world where it is really intensively cultivated. Not to mention the distance, take Jingxi Road as an example, Fangzhou and Jinzhou in the west, there is still slash-and-burn farming, and the population is the same. ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "I always feel that farming like this is a tyrannical thing. When I have some free time, I want to recruit some more literate people and some old farmers, and set aside a special area for them to farm together. The old farmer farmed according to his experience, and the reader wrote it down, and said how to do it well and how not to do it, and divided them into categories one by one, and slowly organized them into a book. The people who come to Jingxi Road to open fields are all slender men, and they have not farmed for decades, so someone has to teach them. ”

Su Song said: "This law makes it." During the time of Taizong, there were agricultural divisions in the world, but they were later abandoned. If you want to teach people to farm, you can learn to set up farmers at that time, and the government will subsidize some money and grain, which should be beneficial. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Farming is also knowledge, in fact, the world is not knowledge?" Prospecting for mining and smelting iron, repairing agricultural tools, everything is learned. If you are knowledgeable, you can set up a school, invite a teacher, and pass on the teachings. In the field affairs, this kind of school can be widely established to pass on knowledge. ”

Su Song smiled and shook his head: "To do this, it will cost countless silver dollars. ”

"Yes, it's just a lack of money, and everything needs money. We are engaged in field work, and what we lack most now is money. Therefore, I want to set up factories and recruit people to do business and barter and earn money. In the past few days, I will open a sugar shop first. ”

The method of making starch sugar to make halva has matured, and the taste is good, judging from the fact that his son is always clamoring to eat, at least it can attract children all over the world. Du Zhongxiao wanted to set up such a workshop first, sell the halva to the world, and earn the first money for field work.