My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 92 Zhuge Family's "Alchemy Technique"

Zhuge Jin treated Pang Tong as his own, so he did not hide his plan. He did not "inspect" Pang Tong before entrusting him with important tasks just because he had only been there for three days.

This made Pang Tong fully feel the trust and the principle of "trust people when employing them, and don't employ people if you don't trust them", and he suddenly felt like he had been recognized and appreciated.

"Brother Zhuge is a man who can accomplish great things. Just because Aliang and I were classmates for a short time and became friends through our knowledge and insights, he is able to trust someone like that. This is really rare in these troubled times. We must also work hard to prove that we are worthy of such respect."

Pang Tong made up his mind secretly and began to feel competitive.

However, although Zhuge Jin's plan seemed perfect, there was still a huge obstacle to its implementation - you wanted to use the "newly discovered huge copper mine" to lure the greed of the Shanyue tribe, but you had to be able to really discover the copper mine!
As long as a copper mine is discovered, even if it cannot be mined in large quantities for the time being, it will trigger competition among others.

But if there is no trace of the copper mine, it is ridiculous to expect to completely falsify the information and lure people in. The Shanyue chiefs are not stupid. They will also send people to perform corvée labor as miners and go undercover to investigate whether the copper is really mined.

If you expect to deceive people by simply taking out a large pile of smelted copper, without letting them see the entire production process of mining ore and smelting copper from ore, no one will be fooled.

Pang Tong was also a man of high intelligence. He quickly figured out this truth and pointed out these problems to Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin just smiled when he heard this: "Shi Yuan, you don't think I want to pretend to find a copper mine to seduce people, right? I said I want to mine copper, so of course I really mined it. You just need to be responsible for conscripting Poyang County men to perform labor service during the slack season and prepare the road into the mountain first.

Or if it is difficult to conscript the people for the time being, I can give you some money, and you can try to contact and hire the hidden households or Shanyue tribes in the surrounding areas, and ask them to send people to build roads along the Poyang River to the upper reaches of the mountainous area, and then dredge the dangerous shoals and reefs in the Poyang River to make it easier for mining ships to sail directly upstream in the future.

You don't have to worry about other things related to prospecting. You just need to organize the manpower, money and food, provide food for the laborers and miners, and provide tools to ensure that there is no shortage."

When Pang Tong heard that he was only needed to provide human organization and logistical support, he breathed a sigh of relief. He thought to himself that it would be too embarrassing if he couldn't do this job well, so he must work hard.

……

For more than ten days after that, Pang Tong did not receive any new instructions, so he organized two thousand corvee laborers.

In addition, he used the budget given by Zhuge Jin to purchase some supplies that were in short supply among the mountain people. Then, with the escort of hundreds of county soldiers, he went to two or three Shanyue tribes in Poyang County and the upper reaches of the Poyang River. He traded directly with these tribes, exchanging supplies for labor, and asked the Shanyue people to serve as guides for them and to manage the dangerous shoals and reefs in the mountain rivers.

As for the production tools needed, they will definitely be provided by the Han people. After the task is completed, some iron tools can also be given to these Shanyue tribes as rewards.

The Shanyue people were the most loyal to the Han Dynasty and liked to be hired by the Han people for money. The Danyang soldiers were a typical example of the Shanyue people being hired as mercenaries for high salaries.

Zhuge Jin had just killed Zuo Rong, so he had no shortage of money. As mentioned earlier, after he conquered Chaisang City, the bronze statues he seized were worth more than 10 million coins if melted down. And Chaisang was the smallest of the three main strongholds of Zuo Rong in terms of Buddhist activities.

In Nanchang County, Zuo Rong's old nest, the scale and quantity of Buddha statues seized in the city are several times more than those in Chaisang. Finally, Zhuge Jin counted that the total amount of bronze Buddha statues in the three counties could exceed 100 million yuan! With such a large amount of wealth, he could certainly be more generous in hiring Shanyue people.

(Note: In history, Zuo Rong looted three counties to make Buddha statues, so he was indeed very rich. There are records that he held a Buddhist festival in Guangling, where he gave out porridge to hundreds of thousands of people for dinner. As long as you expressed your belief in Buddhism, you could eat and drink for free for a while, which cost "hundreds of millions". Even if it is an exaggeration, it is definitely true that Zuo Rong spent hundreds of millions of dollars on casting bronze statues.)
Pang Tong had enough budget in hand, and relying on his fairly good eloquence, he immediately fooled several chiefs of the Shanyue tribes into being at a loss and willing to do the job for money.

In just over ten days, the main stream of the Poshui River and the waterway all the way to the fork of the Poshui River and the Le'an River were renovated, and the roads on both sides of the river were also simply leveled.

This section of the river is about seventy to eighty miles long. There are already villages and towns on both sides of the river, with good infrastructure. It is not too deep in the mountains, so it is easy to dredge.

After passing the fork of Poshui River and Le'an River, the situation became more complicated. Pang Tong didn't know which river to focus on for remediation next.

He felt that the Po River main stream basin obviously had greater economic value and the river valley plain was relatively fertile. After improving transportation, it would be easier for the government to control more remote villages and towns in the future and would also benefit the mountain people.

The water volume of Le'an River is much smaller than that of the main stream of Po River, the route is more rugged, and the farming area is much smaller. However, mining generally seems to be found in deep mountains, and it seems that there is a good chance of copper mines here.

Pang Tong did not dare to act on his own, so he asked the hired people to go upstream along the two rivers and carry out remediation. At the same time, he returned to the county to report on the work of the first phase and consulted Zhuge Jin to see how he specifically looked for mines.

……

"They have already gone upstream and rectified the river and roads along the river for nearly a hundred miles so quickly? Yes, Shiyuan is really convenient in doing things."

Zhuge Jin, who was in Poyang City, received the report and praised him first, then ordered, "Let's go. In the next few days, be prepared to camp and investigate in the mountains. I will also go there to look for minerals."

Pang Tong asked anxiously, "Between the Poshui River and the Le'an River, which river should we focus on to improve the access to the mountain? Brother Zhuge is so confident, I'm sure you can guess which mountain has a greater chance of having a copper mine?"

Zhuge Jin didn't want to be a charlatan, so he insisted on not giving the answer: "I'm not relying on guessing, I have to see it in person to know."

Pang Tong was stunned: "How do you see this?"

Zhuge Jin: "You'll know when you get there."

As they talked, the group packed up and set off. After two days, they arrived at the middle reaches of the Poshui River and Le'an River.

Pang Tong was a single guy, and no one cared about him even though he had to sleep in the open air in the mountains.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin had a sensible Bu Lianshi at home. She helped him pack his luggage carefully and provided him with various daily supplies. Bu Lianshi originally insisted that she wanted to accompany Zhuge Jin and take care of his daily life, but Zhuge Jin refused on the grounds that the mountain was rugged and Bu Lianshi was too young.

The location where the Poshui River and the Le'an River fork is approximately near the Leping County of Jingdezhen in later times. If you continue to go upstream along the main stream of the Poshui River, you will reach the main urban area of Jingdezhen in later times, while if you go upstream along the Le'an River, you will reach Dexing County, the famous copper capital.

Zhuge Jin certainly knew that Dexing had the largest copper mine, and there was nothing in the main urban area of Jingdezhen.

But he couldn't give the answer directly, so when he arrived at the place, he took Pang Tong with him and pretended to walk upstream of the two rivers for a day to investigate. Then he took out a transparent crystal cup he had prepared in advance, scooped up the clear river water and examined it carefully.

Crystal was already very popular in the Han Dynasty, but it was a little more expensive. When making small utensils, it could completely replace the transparent glass of later generations. In later times, the Hangzhou Museum has an exhibit of a "Warring States crystal cup" that looks very similar to modern glass cups.

This crystal cup was seized by Zhuge Jin when Guan Yu counted the property of the rebels in Nanchang City after defeating Zuo Rong. He just used it. Buddhists like to decorate their houses with various seven-treasure colored glassware, so it is normal for Zuo Rong to collect such luxurious things.

Pang Tong was slightly surprised when he saw Zhuge Jin actually took out a crystal cup to scoop river water, but in his heart he felt that Zhuge Jin was more reliable - such a big scene, it shouldn't be a trick, right?
Zhuge Jin looked at it for a long time before making a decision: "Let's go. In the next few days, follow the upper reaches of the Le'an River and look for tributaries along the way. Every time you reach a fork, scoop a cup of river water like I did, make sure it is completely clear, skim off the green algae and foam, then observe the color of the river water and decide which river to follow to look for minerals."

Pang Tong was stunned again: What is the principle behind this? Besides, looking at the color of the river water, there is no difference.

He couldn't help but raise his question, and Zhuge Jin just evaded the question casually: "Can't you see that this cup of water scooped from the Le'an River is slightly bluer than the water from the main stream of the Po River?"

Pang Tong looked left and right: "I can't tell!"

Zhuge Jin: "That's because your eyesight is poor! Believe me, the further upstream you go, the easier it will be to see. When the river splits, you will be able to find out which small stream this slightly blue water flows from and merges into the main stream!"

Zhuge Jin actually didn't notice that the water scooped out of the Le'an River was more blue, but he knew the answer, so he insisted that he could see a subtle difference, but the other person's eyes didn't have enough contrast. When you really get to the upper reaches, the water flow becomes smaller and smaller, and there are more and more branches, and the difference will be more obvious.

Pang Tong was suspicious, but he strictly followed Zhuge Jin's instructions and explored upstream.

In the next ten days, they tried their best to run through all the tributaries of the Le'an River upstream. The water became less and less as they went upstream, and in the end, most of the water was small mountain streams.

The method Zhuge Jin instructed was also very direct: once you see the fork where two small rivers converge, look at which side's water is bluer, and focus on tracing the source of the bluer one.

In order to avoid errors, his experimental techniques became more and more rigorous.

For example, in order to prevent the reflection of the green mountains on both sides from making the river water look green, he specially made a pure white wooden box painted with white lime. Every time he drew water from the river, he would put the crystal cup in the box and observe it, isolating the reflection of the environment. In addition, there are not only algae visible to the naked eye in the river water, but also some suspended microorganisms that are more difficult to remove. Zhuge Jin used alum powder as a coagulant to preliminarily purify the solid particles in the water before observation.

Obviously, the people of the Han Dynasty did not have these means, and they had no way of eliminating these errors.

Relying on these methods, a few days later, Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong finally traced the source of a small stream in the upper reaches of Le'an River.

The further upstream the stream branches, the bluer the water becomes, until it eventually becomes almost as blue as the "blue pool mine cave" that travel bloggers post photos of on TikTok in later generations.

Zhuge Jin knew that he had finally succeeded.

In the eyes of liberal arts students, this kind of blue wild pond may inspire them to write poetry to praise this natural wonder.

But in the eyes of a science student like Zhuge Jin, he would only comment: WTF! This is just a pool of copper sulfate solution! It's poisonous!
Any student who has passed junior high school chemistry, if he sees "blue transparent solution" on the test paper, will almost reflexively think of copper sulfate. If he also sees "blue flocculent precipitate", he will be even more determined to think of "copper hydroxide precipitate".

It can be said that copper sulfate and copper hydroxide are the key to solving many junior high school chemistry problems of "analyzing a bunch of substances of unknown composition".

It’s just that many people read books but don’t apply them to reality. When they enter real life, when they see the blue water pools in abandoned mines in nature, they don’t think in this direction - so if you want to travel back to ancient times to find copper mines, it’s actually not difficult. One or two of the most common common sense of junior high school chemistry are enough, but many people don’t think of it.

……

"Shi Yuan, bring the iron rod."

Zhuge Jin finally saw a pool of clear water in the source of an unknown stream upstream of the Le'an River. After completing the first two steps of pretreatment, he gave instructions to Pang Tong.

Pang Tong carefully pulled out a thin iron rod from a pile of pre-prepared ones and handed it to Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin inserted the iron rod into the blue water, left it suspended in the air for a few minutes, and then took it out. He saw a layer of red and yellow metal attached to the surface of the iron rod.

The metal replacement reaction we learned in junior high school: copper sulfate plus iron turns into ferrous sulfate, replacing elemental copper.

When Pang Tong saw this miraculous scene, he was immediately shocked: "What...what is this? Is it copper?"

Zhuge Jin smiled slightly: "Shi Yuan, have you ever read the works of ancient alchemists on alchemy? Do you know that alum can be refined into copper?"

Pang Tong's pupils trembled. He looked at Zhuge Jin, then at the pool of blue water, and pointed in disbelief and said:
"Brother Zhuge, are you saying that this pool is all blue? That's why it's so blue? I have indeed read the Shennong Herbal Classic, and it says: Blue coated iron can produce red copper... and occasionally gold copper."

Copper sulfate is what the ancients called copper sulfate crystals.

Zengqing is what the ancients called copper sulfate solution.

"Coating iron with blue makes red copper" is probably the most famous sentence in the entire Shennong's Herbal Classic.

Because this sentence appeared in the junior high school chemistry textbook published by People's Education Press in later generations, everyone who has received compulsory education has to memorize it.

Zhuge Jin was so simple and straightforward. He solved the problem with just a piece of T0-level common sense of a junior high school student, without any frills at all.

He pointed calmly at the pool of blue water and said, "The cave here can make the mountain water so blue, which shows that there must be a lot of copper in the surrounding rocks. Let the coppersmiths and miners dig carefully and deeply to explore the rocks around this pool, and they will definitely find something!"

Zhuge Jin still doesn't know how to do the final step of digging copper mines and sorting the ore. He just knows some common sense from a high-level perspective.

But his knowledge allowed the craftsmen to narrow the search range by at least hundreds of times, which was also a great merit. At least the craftsmen didn't have to try and error on hundreds of hills one by one, but could directly locate the hill for you, which was a huge improvement in efficiency.

Zhuge Jin also personally set up camp nearby, preparing to supervise the work for ten days or so, hoping to see results as soon as possible.

With Zhuge Jin personally in charge, the corvée laborers, miners, and Shanyue hired laborers, who had long worshipped him as a god, no longer dared to be lazy. They maximized their work efficiency and worked extremely hard to find copper.

Zhuge Jin did not interfere too much with the daily exploration. He just gave an additional instruction:
While camping, you are not allowed to drink the water from this blue stream. Daily water must be drawn from the nearest non-blue stream, then boiled and cooled before drinking.

Many corvée laborers who did not know much about copper mining did not understand this requirement at first. Later, when they heard that "Zengqing water is poisonous", they quickly put aside their carelessness and strictly followed it.

……

Ten days later, although the copper mine had not yet been mined on a large scale, the first mine pit was finally put into operation.

The coppersmiths built an experimental copper smelting furnace in this valley, smelted the first batch of copper materials, and obtained hundreds of kilograms of relatively pure copper ingots.

At the same time, some people tried the "replacement reaction" production method of replacing iron with copper and other precious metals. This was obviously taught to his craftsmen by Zhuge Jin based on the common sense in the junior high school chemistry textbook.

The disadvantage of this method is that it wastes some iron, but the advantage is that the reaction is very rapid. It works very well for copper in the copper sulfate state, but it is useless for copper sulfide in chalcopyrite, and its scope of application is relatively limited.

However, as people tried this new method more and more precisely and the operation became more and more proficient, the craftsmen soon discovered a new surprise.

"If you put the iron rod in for a few breaths and then take it out, you can actually scrape off a very thin layer of gold from the surface! It's really gold! Then put it in again and take it out quickly, and it can still attach silver! Finally, if it reacts slowly, you get copper!"

This discovery made almost everyone's blood rush to their heads and they became extremely enthusiastic.

They originally came here to open a copper mine, but it turns out there is associated gold and silver!

Among all the people, only Zhuge Jin was not surprised at all.

Dexing Copper Mine originally had 15% of the country's copper reserves, 8% of the country's silver and 12% of the country's gold reserves. As a high-grade copper sulfide chalcopyrite mine, it is normal for gold and silver to be associated.

Moreover, if traditional smelting methods are used, the associated gold and silver are difficult to separate. If the replacement method is used, because gold is the most inert and silver is also more inert than copper, it is easy to replace them over time.

(Note: You can actually insert the silver rod into the solution first, which will only displace gold, which is more inert than silver. Then insert the copper rod into the solution, which will only displace silver. Finally, insert the iron rod, which will displace copper.)
Zhuge Jin is not counting on the output of the replacement method at the moment, but the visual impact of the replacement method is the strongest.

The iron rod changed color almost instantly, and its surface shone with golden light, which was seen by the hired laborers of the Shanyue tribe.

A few days later, Zhuge Jin said that there was no need to hire guides anymore as the copper mine had been found. He paid the Shanyue guides full wages and then sent them back to their respective tribes.

Only a small number of laborers were left behind to continue to be responsible for dealing with the dangerous shoals and reefs along the creek upstream of the Le'an River, and then leveling the rugged roads in the valleys on both sides, so as to facilitate direct water transportation to the foot of the mine in the future and transport away huge amounts of copper ore.

After all, the cost of water transportation is dozens of times cheaper than land transportation, not to mention that the materials to be transported are huge and bulky materials such as copper ore.

The news that the government had built so much infrastructure to improve the road traffic conditions into the mountains and that they had actually used iron rods to replace gold, silver and copper from the lake water spread like a whirlwind to the Shanyue tribes in the surrounding counties almost instantly.

Moreover, because the Shanyue people had a low level of education and were unable to understand, the rumors became more and more bizarre and outlandish as they spread.

"What? The Zhuge family has some golden magic? They found the azure divine water that can directly turn iron rods into gold, silver and copper? Where is it? Tell us quickly! Where is it? Take us to see it immediately!"

(End of this chapter)