Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 5: Fengshan Journey and the Foundation of the Brick and Tile Kiln
Wang Jiankun walked quickly all the way to the blacksmith shop.

I saw my grandfather and father were still chatting with the master of the blacksmith shop. When they saw Wang Jiankun come in, my grandfather said a few words to the master of the blacksmith shop, saying that this was my grandson Wang Jiankun, and his grades were so excellent, etc.

Then the grandfather said to Wang Jiankun: "Kun, this is the master of the blacksmith shop, Cha Tiequan. You should call him Grandpa Quan."

It turned out that this blacksmith was a good friend of my grandfather, and they had had several drinks together.

Wang Jiankun shouted, "Hello, Grandpa Quan, my name is Wang Jiankun."

Grandpa Quan replied, "Hello, there are stools inside, go get one and sit for a while. It's still early, so it won't be too hot to walk back later."

Wang Jiankun moved a stool over and sat closer to his father to listen to their conversation.

We talked about the weather and said that there wasn't much rain this year. There wasn't much rain during the rainy season, so there might be a drought this year.

We also talked about the recent policy changes, which are much better than before. Recently, more and more people have come to the blacksmith shop to buy farm tools.

Wang Jiankun listened for a while, but felt bored and didn't know how to interrupt, so he asked Grandpa Quan if he could go and see how to make iron farm tools.

Grandpa Quan told him to be careful and let him go and see for himself. There were three apprentices beating farmers inside, and it would be fine as long as it didn't affect their work.

So Wang Jiankun walked towards the production site.

Next to an open heating stove, he saw a child about his age pulling the bellows, and the charcoal was burning with the sound of the wind, emitting blue flames.

A young man in his 20s used a pair of tongs to hold a long piece of iron and put it into the charcoal fire.

A middle-aged man who was about the same age as my father was smoking. When he saw Wang Jiankun coming in, he asked, "Who are you from? What are you doing here? Be careful not to get hurt."

Wang Jiankun replied: "My name is Wang Jiankun. My grandfather was chatting with Grandpa Quan. I felt bored and wanted to see how farm tools were made."

"Then you can do it. Be careful not to touch the sharp parts. When you start hitting here, stay away. The iron stars that pop out are very hot."

"I'll be careful, and I'll pay attention when you start fighting."

The middle-aged man saw that he was also a steady child, so he didn't say anything more and turned to observe the burning iron.

When the iron block was red hot, he told the young man to clamp the iron block on the anvil, hold the iron block with pliers in one hand, and hit the iron block a few times with a small hammer in the other hand.

Next, he hit it a few times with the small hammer, while the young man hit it hard with the big hammer.

Before long, the general shape of the front end of a hoe took shape.

Then put the semi-finished product into the charcoal fire and burn it. When the back half is red, continue beating it, and gradually make the part of the hoe used to hold the wooden handle.

It can be seen that they are very skilled at making hoes. After shaping the shape, they did not continue to make it, but took a break and then picked up a similar piece of iron to make the next one.

It seems that they also know how to allocate the work processes reasonably, and try to complete the same processes together before moving on to the next one, so as not to waste charcoal and maintain their proficiency.

In addition to watching them forging iron, Wang Jiankun also discovered that there was casting going on here, as he saw several wooden molds, some of which were parts that were difficult to make by hammering, such as the plowshare that his grandfather wanted.

It seems that since the plow is cast, it must be difficult to repair it.

Sure enough, when Grandpa and the blacksmith came in, Grandpa Quan said, "I don't have a ready-made plowshare. If you want one, I'll arrange for one to be cast, but it'll take some time."

Grandpa said, "You can do it later. There's no need to plow the land now. It doesn't matter if it's later."

Grandpa said to Wang Jiankun, "Kunli, you will come back with this plowshare in a while. Now you can go back first."

So the three of them said goodbye to the blacksmith and headed towards the Wangjia Production Team.

On the way, Wang Jiankun proposed an idea to his grandfather and father, which was to become an apprentice in a blacksmith shop during the summer vacation.

My grandfather and father were puzzled. They said that blacksmithing was hard work and dangerous, and I wouldn’t learn much during the summer vacation, so it would be better for me to rest at home and do some odd jobs in the production team.

And tell him not to worry about tuition and living expenses, as the family is not short of money now.

Wang Jiankun knew that his grandfather and father were worried about him, but the blacksmith shop was the only place where he could verify what he had learned and make some products that changed productivity without being questioned about the source.

So Wang Jiankun said, "Grandpa, Dad, I am not an apprentice to learn how to make these simple farm tools. I want to verify what I have learned and see if I can make some extraordinary products."

It was difficult for his grandfather and father to object to what he said, because they both believed that if Wang Jiankun really did it, he might be able to produce something.

So the grandfather said: "You can be an apprentice, but first of all, you must pay attention to safety, and then you must help build the brick kiln at home before you can leave."

Wang Jiankun quickly assured: "I will pay attention to safety, and I have already thought of a better shape for the brick kiln. When the brick kiln is built, it will definitely be more efficient than the one in Fengshan, and the cost of producing bricks will be cheaper."

Grandpa said, "That's good. We'll start selecting a site and building it tomorrow. You should think about it carefully when you go back. Don't let it become unusable after it's built. That would be a disgrace to our family, and I wouldn't be able to continue my job as production team leader."

Wang Jiankun was very confident, because after communicating with Zhizi, he found that the Zhizi in his mind was indeed very intelligent. It could actually model the product he described and then simulate a series of changes based on the conditions.

When Wang Jiankun thought of making a graphic of a brick kiln, he asked Zhizi to help analyze it, and Zhizi gave a simulation animation.

After giving some basic conditions, Zhizi also gave the brick kiln model with the highest brick-firing efficiency through simulation, and various sizes were also given simultaneously.

Just wait for Wang Jiankun to go home and draw it.

The sun was about to set, so the three of them quickened their pace and returned home.

My younger sister had been waiting at the door for a long time. Today, she didn't go to the kitchen to wait, which was a rare occasion because my brother promised to buy her something delicious.

When she saw her brother come back, she called him "brother" sweetly and ignored her father and grandfather.

But he thought that he couldn't ask his brother for it right away, so he called his grandfather and father, ran to Wang Jiankun, took his hand, and pulled him aside.

Wang Jiankun found it a bit funny. What a greedy sister she is. She couldn't wait at all.

So I joked with him, "Why are you pulling me? I need to go home to put the kettle on and then eat."

Seeing that he still didn't understand what she meant, the younger sister had to speak up: "Brother, didn't you promise to buy me something delicious? You didn't forget it, did you?"

Seeing that she was anxious, Wang Jiankun stopped teasing her and took out five fruit candies and two fruit leathers from his pocket and gave them to her.

Seeing that she was about to tear open the wrapping paper and eat, Wang Jiankun hurriedly said, "It's time to eat soon. Eat secretly later. If someone finds out now, you'll get scolded, and if you get scolded, I'll get scolded too."

So my sister suppressed her craving and hid the snacks in her room.

There was only a little light left when they got home, so the family quickly had dinner under the flickering light of the kerosene lamp.

After his mother and grandmother finished their work in the kitchen, Wang Jiankun began to draw the blueprint of the brick kiln optimized by Zhizi under the kerosene lamp.

After finishing the painting, he extinguished the kerosene lamp, fetched water to wash his face and feet in the starlight, and then went to bed to rest.

Lying on the bed, Wang Jiankun was flipping through the high school textbooks that he had projected and saved from Cheng Hongbing in his mind.

The first thing Wang Jiankun read was a physics book, which he started reading in his freshman year of high school. Perhaps it was a strange encounter that transformed his brain, but as long as he flipped through the book and tried to remember it, he could immediately remember and understand the knowledge points he saw, as if he no longer needed neurons to remember it over and over again. So Wang Jiankun read faster and faster.

For example, Wang Jiankun remembered all the knowledge points such as speed and acceleration, Newton's three laws, kinetic energy, mechanical energy, momentum, conservation of energy, composition and decomposition of forces, capacitance, voltage, resistance, etc. He also used Zhizi as an experimental assistant and asked him to simulate experiments.

After reading physics, he moved on to chemistry, also at a very fast pace, and asked Chieko to do many experiments on chemical reactions.

Through studying physics and chemistry, Wang Jiankun came up with the idea of ​​making many products that can improve people's lives and productivity, but he was troubled by the problems of resources and rationality.

He had made up his mind to go to the blacksmith shop, use the environment there, and combine his own abilities to create something that would change the face of his hometown.

For example, you can first imitate a few air guns and sell them to Cheng Hongbing and others, then ask the blacksmith shop to help cast some parts, and use your own ability to solve the precision problem.

For example, calcium carbide lamps, table clocks, etc.

Calcium carbide can be made by yourself. High school textbooks explain how to make calcium carbide and also draw a model of a lamp. If you know the principle, there will be no problem making it.

Later we will see if we can build a steam engine and use mechanical energy in the processes of mixing mud and making bricks and tiles, so as to reduce the cost of bricks and tiles and accumulate more capital for upgrading and transformation for the production team.

After reading physics and chemistry, Wang Jiankun felt a little exhausted. It should be because he took in too much knowledge at once and needed a rest to let his brain digest it.

So Wang Jiankun began to rest, and the encapsulation force field in the space was still slowly acting on Wang Jiankun's consciousness space.

When he woke up the next day, Wang Jiankun took out the drawn drawings and explained them in detail to his father and grandfather. He said that if the kiln was built in this way, the production efficiency would be 30% higher than that of the Fengshan kiln, and the cost could be reduced by half. If mechanical bricks and tiles could be made in the future, the cost and efficiency would continue to change.

So his grandfather and father asked him to take the drawings to the production team's meeting room to explain them to other leading members of the team and gain their support.

After arriving at the conference room, Wang Jiankun drew the picture on the blackboard and explained to everyone in detail the name and function of each part.

Here Wang Jiankun did not say that the efficiency and cost were better than Fengshan Brick Kiln. His grandfather told him not to say it on the way, so that people would not disbelieve and question him. He should wait until the kiln was built and the bricks were produced before saying anything. Anyway, other people did not know how to build a kiln.

After listening to the explanation, all members felt that they understood it and approved the design drawing.

Then they all praised the captain for having a good grandson who learned very quickly. He learned how to build a brick kiln just by watching.

Grandpa smiled and said a few humble words, and decided to decide on the kiln site today, as well as the place to take the soil to make bricks and dry them in the shade.

So everyone mentioned several locations. After listening, Wang Jiankun felt that one of them, which was close to the road and next to a river, was the most suitable.

Water is needed to make bricks and to fire the kiln, so it must be built near a river. Being close to the road means that when mechanical power is used, the output will be large enough for easy transportation and can be sold to production teams within 30 miles along the road.

Why? Because within 30 miles, the factory price plus transportation cost has cost advantages. It is hard to say if it is beyond 30 miles. If the road is widened and the team can afford tractors for transportation, then at least 100 miles along the road will be the market for this brick kiln.

Nowadays, people can cultivate private plots freely, the proportion of public grain to be paid is relatively normal, and most production teams have solved the problem of having enough food. The urgent problem to be solved now is housing.

Because most of the houses built in the past were made of mud bricks, and some were even half mud bricks and half wooden boards, and they were also relatively small.

In the past few years, we responded to the call and gave birth to many more children. As they grew up, we needed more rooms to accommodate them.

Therefore, the production team's decision to build a brick kiln at this time was definitely a good project. Without special circumstances, it would be prosperous for at least 5 years.

After listening to Wang Jiankun's analysis, everyone decided to go to the location to take a look. If there were no problems, they would decide on that location and start arranging people to start construction in the afternoon.

When they arrived at the junction of the river and the road, Wang Jiankun drew a picture in his mind of the scene in front of him and asked Chieko to help analyze it.

Chieko first listed the parts that needed to be constructed and marked the order in which they would be constructed. After the kiln was built, demonstration screens were provided for the production scenes.

Seeing this, Wang Jiankun had an idea in his mind.

So I said to my grandfather, "This location is great, why don't we book it here?"

Grandpa asked other team members, and they also agreed to build a brick kiln here.

So the address was chosen, and my father was appointed on the spot as the person in charge of the kiln factory construction, Wang Jiankun as a consultant, and other team members were assigned temporary positions. They were told that their performance would be judged, and they would be formally appointed after the construction was completed.

Everyone expressed that they would give their full support and would not hinder or hinder the work.

Grandpa didn't comment or say much. The group returned to the production team, discussed what they were going to do, and left to work.

Wang Jiankun told his father that the first thing to do was to build a shortcut connecting the kiln factory to the road and the water and mud points, and at the same time level the foundation.

So my father went to find people to work. He found 20 people to build the road and 15 people to level the foundation.

Wang Jiankun also went to the site to direct the work. He explained clearly to the team the direction of the road and how wide it should be, and also marked out a boundary for the location of the kiln.

This kiln was not built directly from flat ground, but was dug two meters underground, then the bottom was tamped and walls were built on the sides, reaching 1 meters above the ground. Finally, they were closed together to form a curved top.

The wall also needs to be covered with a thick layer of yellow mud, which can provide good thermal insulation.

After deciding how to dig the foundation, Wang Jiankun did not stay there all the time. He gave the drawing to his father and asked him to look at it carefully and go home to find him if he was unsure.

Then Wang Jiankun ran home quickly because the sun was already very high and his skin was burning.

After returning home, Wang Jiankun decided to try out his ability to control elements.

So he ran to his summer resort - the spring.

When he arrived at the large bluestone, Wang Jiankun pressed his hand on it and a projection that was slightly larger than yesterday appeared in his mind. He estimated that the side length was about 1 meters.

It seems that this ability can be continuously improved, so the ability to control the elements should also become stronger, and more elements can be controlled.

Bluestone is mainly composed of oxides of calcium and silicon, mixed with aluminum, iron, carbon and some very trace elements.

At present, Wang Jiankun cannot clearly distinguish what types they are.

Based on the chemistry knowledge he had learned and the iron and carbon he had controlled yesterday, he identified the iron and carbon in the bluestone and concentrated on moving the two elements to the surface of the bluestone in the proportion of carbon and steel.

So in reality, a square sequin with a side length of 1 cm appeared at a certain point on the surface of the bluestone. This sequin continued to grow and finally stopped at a length of two centimeters.

It turned out that Wang Jiankun had used up all his control ability today.

Seeing that the length is close to two centimeters, the volume is two cubic centimeters, which means that the control ability is twice as good today as yesterday.

Thinking of this, Wang Jiankun was very happy that many of his ideas could be supported by this ability.

But next, Wang Jiankun thought it would be better to extract some samples of the liquid and solid parts of the periodic table first, otherwise it would be difficult to extract and control if they could not be recognized.

As the sun reached the middle of the sky, Wang Jiankun did not linger any longer. He knocked the piece of carbon steel growing on the large bluestone off and took it home.

This piece of carbon steel can be used as a sample. In the future, try to make the extracted elements into cube or rectangular shapes for easy placement. For liquids, use a cube glass container.

(End of this chapter)