"I asked some residents of Wangping Village, and they told me there's plenty of coal near Xishan Mountain. It doesn't take much effort to mine. Just find a spot and dig up some coal with a few shovels."

"This is really good news. With coal, we have a foundation for our future plans."

Coal is the food of the Industrial Revolution. Without coal, there would be no steel, let alone the invention and use of the steam engine.

"Your Majesty mentioned coal briquettes when I returned. I specially packed some coal with me, half high-quality and half low-quality. You can try making some first and see the effect."

"Let's go to the Imperial Garden. There's soil and water there."

Subconsciously, Zhao Huan was still thinking about trying his luck in the Imperial Garden, just in case he could meet an intellectual older sister.

For Zhao Huan, making honeycomb coal does not involve any technical difficulty; it is just a physical job. At this time, it is Xiao A Si's turn to perform.

"Crush the coal as finely as possible. Is there any problem? The coal is still quite hard."

Little Ah Si picked up a piece of coal in each hand and knocked them together hard. With a snap, the coal broke into smaller pieces.

"Fuck, great strength can make miracles happen!"

Zhao Huan tried it, but the coal didn't budge at all. Instead, the vibrations caused his hand to ache. The same thing can have different results in different hands. This is probably what they call "personality is different."

"I'll go get my weapons!" Little Ah Si said and ran out of the imperial garden quickly.

After a while, little Ah Si came over with a big hammer that was the same weapon as Li Yuanba's in the Heroes of Sui and Tang Dynasties.

"Is this the Leigu Weng Golden Hammer? Let me see it!"

Little Ah Si responded in a muffled voice, gently placed the two hammers on the ground, and said, "These hammers weigh four hundred pounds, Your Majesty, be careful."

"To be able to wield the 400-jin Leiguweng Jinchui, doesn't that mean he's a super expert like Li Yuanba? The hammer head is as big as a watermelon. If it strikes, it'll injure you if it grazes you, and kill you if it touches you."

Zhao Huan gripped the hammer handle and pushed hard, but the hammer head didn't move at all. Zhao Huan knew that the hammer was really heavy.

Several people gave Xiao A Si enough space to avoid being accidentally injured.

Little Ah Si swung the Leiguwengjin hammer with one hand and gently dropped it on the coal on the ground. The coal was smashed to pieces with a bang.

His hands never stopped, and the Leiguwengjinchui in Xiao A Si's hand was like a pile driver, bang bang bang hitting the coal blocks on the ground.

Zhao Huan was stunned. This was simply a human crusher, who could defeat millions of soldiers by himself.

In less than an incense stick's time, Xiao A Si smashed hundreds of coal blocks into coal powder. Yes, coal powder, the kind that was directly sieved.

To describe it in the style of Fights Break Sphere, it is so terrifying.

"Thank you for your hard work. Go talk to the chef and ask him to give Xiao Ah Si two more roast chickens for lunch."

"Hehe!" Little Ah Si put the hammer aside, scratched his head and smiled foolishly, his face not red and he was not out of breath.

Zhao Huan ordered the other guards to gather the coal powder together, then crushed the loess dug out from the imperial garden with a shovel and mixed it together in a ratio of three parts coal to one part soil.

Flatten the top of the coal powder pile mixed with loess, then dig a hole in the middle that goes straight to the bottom, add water in a ratio of ten to one, and stir it evenly into a fluid. Then you can make honeycomb coal.

Since this was his first attempt, he didn't have a special mold. Zhao Huan found a small metal bucket and used a shovel to scoop the fluid mixture into it. When it was about 80% full, he stopped and compacted it with his hands.

After a minute, the coal powder was pressed into a cylindrical shape. Zhao Huan turned the iron bucket over and carefully poured out the coal balls.

Zhao Huan found a branch as thick as a finger, poked nine holes in the coal ball, and carefully placed it in the sun.

In this way, the first nine-hole honeycomb coal in the Song Dynasty was born in the Imperial Garden.

Zhao Huan made a few more in the same way and placed them together with the previous ones. He satisfied his DIY addiction and then stopped.

After teaching the task of making honeycomb coal to other guards and asking them to clean the imperial garden after they were done, Zhao Huan took Lu Bing and Xiao A Si away.

Newly formed coal balls contain a lot of water and need to be exposed to the sun for three days.

Zhao Huan planned to use these three days to have the craftsmen make the matching tools, including honeycomb coal molds, coal ball clamps, kettles and flues.

Everything went well, and Zhao Huan returned to the warm pavilion to prepare to draw blueprints and summon craftsmen.

When winter comes, this will be a livelihood project that will benefit hundreds of millions of people, and make money at the same time.

After annotating memorials for several days, Zhao Huan had become much more proficient in using the brush and could now easily draw lines of different thicknesses.

The simplest structure is the coal briquette clamp, which uses a simple lever principle and is shaped like an elongated pair of scissors. It has been demonstrated so clearly that craftsmen should be able to understand it.

This is probably a game of you draw and I guess. If you guess right, it means your Majesty draws well, and if you guess wrong, it means the craftsman is stupid.

Taking advantage of this, Zhao Huan also drew a handmade honeycomb coal machine, a round iron plate with nine large thick spikes going in and out of a cylindrical iron barrel.

An enlarged teapot standing straight up and down represents a kettle.

Zhao Huan handed the blueprint to Huang Banban, who was standing beside him. Huang Banban looked confused. "Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?"

Zhao Huan had to give up the idea of having someone bring the drawings to the craftsmen and decided to play the game of "You Draw, I Guess" with the craftsmen himself.

"Go to the Ministry of Works and send over some experienced blacksmiths."

The memorials from the Ministry of Public Administration were simply endless. As soon as a pile of memorials with comments were sent out, another pile waiting for comments was immediately sent in, one after another, and the flow was endless.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!