The next morning, while the snow stopped, Xia Hongsheng and Qi Yong hurriedly went to the barracks for a turn, and then returned to Zhuangzi on their horses. When he arrived at Zhuangzi, Xia Hongsheng did not return home, and went directly to the blacksmith.

"Busy?" Xia Hongsheng heard a clanging sound from the blacksmith's workshop from afar, and asked when he walked in.

The blacksmith was working, and he didn't notice Xia Hongsheng's arrival, and when he heard Xia Hongsheng's words, he quickly turned around and greeted Xia Hongsheng: "Little one to meet Son!" Taking advantage of the fact that I can't get off the ground in winter, the neighbors send the guy over and let me fix it, and I will be called in the spring of next year! Childe, what do you have to tell me to type? ”

Xia Hongsheng nodded, turned around and took a few pieces of paper handed over by Qi Yong, and said to the blacksmith: "This kind of thing, you help me make a stove, just hit it according to the way I drew for you, the bottom is a cylindrical shape, the inside is hollow, and after the beating is completed, I will ask someone to paste a layer of yellow mud and sand into it." There is a flat one on the upper hoop, and you can find a way to fix it to this cylinder so that it can be used as a tabletop. The middle is opened to a round opening with the column underground, and the round lid in the middle should be able to be taken out and re-closed when it is put down. There is also this kind of pipe, it depends on your ability, you have to try to be as thin as possible. There's also an elbow, which you can see in the picture, which is a little bit thicker than the two tubes, so that the two tubes can be inserted but not too loose. ”

"Don't worry, Childe, this thing is not difficult!" The blacksmith carefully looked at the very detailed drawings drawn by Xia Hongsheng, studied the drawings for a while, and then patted his chest and said to Xia Hongsheng: "Give me two days, and you can type this thing." Childe, what is this thing, and what can it do? ”

Xia Hongsheng smiled and said, "This thing, this is used to burn charcoal." ”

"Coal?" The blacksmith scratched his head: "Childe, when we strike iron, we burn charcoal, and it is not round." Can I put it in? ”

"Haha, naturally you need to dispose of the charcoal, you just have to beat it for me." Xia Hongsheng smiled and waved his hand and said.

Carboniferous. Actually, it's coal. Coal has been mined and used for a long time in China's history, as early as the pre-Qin era, and coal was used as fuel to burn coal in the Han Dynasty. Nowadays, the amount of coal used is much larger, but. But most of them are used in the workshop, but they have not entered the family. For example, in this blacksmith workshop in his Zhuangzi, the blacksmith uses coal to burn the stove, which can reach a temperature that cannot be reached by burning wood and maintain a high temperature for a long time. Coal is also used in kilns, and it has been widely used, but it has not yet entered for domestic use.

Coal stoves are a good thing, and even in later generations they will still be widely used in many parts of the north in winter. The coal stove can maintain the temperature 24 hours a day, and a kettle sits on it, and hot water is available throughout the day. Moreover, the coal-burning gas is brought out of the outdoor through the aluminum pipe, which can maintain the safety of indoor air to a large extent. It will not make people poisoned by coal. When there was no heating, coal stoves became the most widely used heating method in the north. The family gathered around the coal stove and climbed on the warm table connected to the coal stove, and the warmth made people want to climb up and never get up again.

With a coal stove, the house is warmer, there is no need to smell the sour gas of charcoal, and the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is much lower.

There was not only one person in the blacksmith workshop, the blacksmith handed over the work of repairing those farm tools to his apprentice, and then he immediately began to operate it according to the drawings drawn by Xia Hongsheng.

While waiting for the blacksmith to make the coal stove, Xia Hongsheng did not plan to be idle. After all. Even if the coal stove is completed, there is no honeycomb coal for the coal stove. Therefore, Xia Hongsheng is ready to use the time of the blacksmith to make a coal stove to try honeycomb coal first, and see if he can make something similar to honeycomb coal with the help of the existing conditions. Put it in the coal stove.

Remember that the honeycomb coal is not pure coal, it seems to have something like yellow mud, otherwise there will be no cinders left after the honeycomb coal is burned. When Xia Hongsheng used to teach in the village, he saw coal being beaten in the small coal yard in the village, which seemed to be mixed with yellow mud and charcoal powder. Because it is easier to ignite after adding charcoal powder. After mixing the three, mix them with water to make a coal embryo, and then shape them with a coal hammer, and then wait until they are completely dried in the sun. But there is no coal hammer, Xia Hongsheng frowned.

The function of the coal blaster is to shape the coal embryo into the shape of honeycomb coal, that is, to press the coal embryo with that thing, cut a cylinder from the coal embryo, penetrate the hole in the middle, and then use the handle at the front end to push down, push out the honeycomb coal formed in the coal hammer and put it on a separate side. Now that you know such a function, although you can't make a shearer, you can use other methods to temporarily replace it, and you can achieve the same purpose.

The coal hammer is equivalent to a mold of honeycomb coal, so Xia Hongsheng drew a mold according to the shape of honeycomb coal, and handed over a blacksmith to let him beat this mold first.

There is a lot of charcoal, and I just bought more than 1,000 catties, so there is no shortage of charcoal powder. He asked the blacksmith where he had bought the coal, and he sent the housekeeper to bring someone to buy briquettes, and there was no shortage of coal. As for the yellow mud, it is everywhere, so there is no need to worry.

In two days, Xia Hongsheng and the gang of soldiers experimented on making honeycomb coal on Zhuangzi, and finally made honeycomb coal, but compared with the honeycomb coal used by Xia Hongsheng in the later life, the texture was much softer, and I don't know what was missing in it. In other aspects, it is almost the same, except for the soft texture, the cinder after a little is easy to break, and it is not easy to clean, and the other aspects are basically not much different from the later generations.

What is missing, I can't figure it out for a while, this kind of coal is also good to use, although it is easy to break cinder, but it is already very good.

Xia Hongsheng and those pro-soldiers rushed out a hundred and ten pieces of honeycomb coal, and handed over the method of making honeycomb coal to the people on the kiln.

Two days passed quickly, the blacksmith really made the coal stove within two days, Xia Hongsheng asked the people on the kiln to make an inner stove into the coal stove, if there is no layer of yellow mud inner stove, then the coal stove will not dare to sit next to the people. Put a fire in the coal stove to burn the yellow mud dry, and the coal stove is finished. Although this is very extensive compared to the regular coal stove in later generations, it is much stronger than the charcoal basin.

The sky is beautiful, the sun is fine in the next few days, Xia Hongsheng is still too slow, and a fire rises around the honeycomb coal, baking while drying, and after a few days, the honeycomb coal is finally dried.

"Qi Yong, follow me to install!" Xia Hongsheng shouted, and immediately a personal soldier came over, someone carried the two gas pipes, and several others carried the coal stove to the house.

When they arrived in the house, Xia Hongsheng asked them to put the coal stove in the back hall, the back hall was smaller, the main hall was too big, and it didn't work to put a coal stove at all.

After looking around to find a location, Xia Hongsheng asked them to put the coal stove over, and then under Xia Hongsheng's command, several people worked together to connect the two pipes through the elbow, one end was connected to the coal stove, and the other end was stretched outside.

Put a piece of honeycomb coal in the coal stove, spread a piece of red charcoal on it, and then go down to the top with a piece of honeycomb coal, and then go down to the top and a piece of honeycomb coal, the ventilation fire door below opens, and a few maids take the summer fan along the fire door to fan in, and soon, the coal on the top is faintly red. It didn't take long for flames to erupt.

Seeing that the flame on the honeycomb coal was gradually rising, Xia Hongsheng put another piece on it, then covered the round lid on it, and put the kettle on top of the round lid.

When I went out to see, puffs of green smoke were coming out along the tin pipe, and when I went into the house, I sniffed hard, and I couldn't smell any gas.

"Hahaha, success!" Xia Hongsheng stroked his palms and smiled: "Qi Yong, go and let the blacksmith beat it for another ten sets!" In addition, there is a large one, which can sit around the size of seven or eight people! And on the kiln, let them go to collect coal again, and prepare to write more honeycomb coal! ”

"Hey!" Qi Yong responded with a peace sound, turned around and ran outside.

In the cold and long winter night, Xia Hongsheng and her sister-in-law sat around the coal stove, and the housekeeper and a maid who waited for her sister-in-law stood next to the coal stove.

The woman happily put her hand on the table connected to the coal stove and said with a smile: "Hongsheng, how did you come up with this object?" Now my sister-in-law is not cold at all, and the room is warm, this thing really works! You can still boil hot water all the time! The fire is so big, the charcoal pot is much better, this is hot, the whole body is warm, where the charcoal pot is baked, where the heat hurts, and where it can't be baked, it is still cold. This thing is so hot, and it doesn't have the sour smell of charcoal in a charcoal basin! ”

"If my sister-in-law likes it, I will get a few more, put more in the house, and it will be warm wherever I go." Xia Hongsheng said to the woman: "Sister-in-law's bedroom, you can also put one outside, but when you sleep at night, you must open a crack in the window outside, although the smell of this coal stove is small, it is better to be careful, it may sometimes make people charcoal poisoning." ”

"Sister-in-law saves!" The woman smiled like a flower, and the family roasted and ate around the coal stove, chatting at the same time, which made Xia Hongsheng's heart warm and warm. (To be continued.) )