Chapter 1128 Inefficient Excavation Method
The team members quickly allocated the shift time, two people in a group, a total of three groups, starting from dinner and continuing until dawn the next day.
When it was almost dawn the next day, Yang Xin had already gotten up early.
When he came to the stone wall, he asked before he got close, "How is the fire in there?"
The two team members on duty immediately reported, "Chief Engineer Yang, it's burning hot in there, red, like a kiln. Do we need to continue adding firewood?"
Upon hearing this, Yang Xin glanced at the sky and found that the east had already revealed a hint of fish belly white, so he immediately said.
"From now on, don't add any more firewood in there. Find a fan or something and fan more from the bottom. I'll have someone burn the boiler now and light up the steam engine first. When the air pressure is enough, we will use the water pump to pump water and start pouring stones."
"Okay, Chief Engineer Yang, don't worry." One person immediately agreed.
"Oh, right, one of you will watch the fire, and the other will go find some hoes, steel chisels, pickaxes and other tools to tear down this earth wall." Yang Xin had just taken two steps when he suddenly remembered something and turned around to give instructions.
"Okay, I'll get it right away."
Seeing that the two of them were doing their job, Yang Xin did not delay any longer and quickly found a stoker in the camp to start igniting the boiler of the steam engine that drove the water pump.
In this way, more than an hour passed, and when the sky was bright and breakfast was ready in the camp, the boiler of the steam engine finally heated up.
The air pressure increased, and the steam engine began to work, driving the water pump to draw a large amount of water from the pond. On the stone wall side, a rubber tube connected to the water outlet was still lying on the ground, constantly pouring out a large amount of cold water.
"Stop, stop, stop, turn off the water pump first. We haven't opened the wall yet. Wait a few more minutes!" The two team members who were responsible for watching the kiln shouted immediately.
At this time, the water pump had not stopped yet, but Yang Xin and You Fu came over. Seeing this, You Fu immediately asked.
"Is the fire still burning?"
"Mr. You, Chief Engineer Yang stopped us from adding more firewood just now. Now there is only residual charcoal inside, but it still looks red inside. It should be fine. It's hot inside!" One person answered immediately.
You Fu also walked over and took a look at the observation port above. It was indeed red, so
he immediately said. "Then why tear down the wall? Aren't there two holes on it? While the temperature inside is high now, just use a water pipe to pour water in." After saying that, he was worried about something going wrong, so he turned around and looked at Yang Xin again, "Yang Xin, is this okay?"
Yang Xin was speechless for a while, but after thinking about it, he nodded and said, "This is fine. It's just right for keeping warm."
So You Fu waved his hand, "Okay, let's do it this way. All irrelevant people, please get out of the way. I will pour water in myself."
Upon hearing this, everyone quickly picked up the tools beside them and evacuated, retreating to a place a few meters away and standing there to watch.
You Fu didn't hesitate and immediately picked up the rubber tube that was oozing water from the ground. He pinched the tube mouth with his fingers, and the originally slow water flow suddenly turned into a thin flat water column, spraying into the cave at a very fast speed.
The entrance of the cave was blocked, and the firewood inside had been burning all night. The temperature was extremely hot, about 1,000 degrees Celsius, while the water here was ice water in December.
Although the geographical location here is in the middle and lower reaches of the Liuyang River, it occasionally snows here; although the river water here generally does not freeze, the mountain spring water in winter is also icy cold.
The inside and outside of the small cave have become a world of ice and fire.
The next moment, a stream of water like a white chain rushed into the cave, and the cold water poured on the burning red rocks, immediately making a tooth-grinding cracking sound, which was the sound of the rocks exploding due to thermal expansion and contraction.
Squeak———
Crack———
A large amount of ice water continued to pour into the cave, extinguishing the flames inside and cracking the stone walls of the cave. Steaming white smoke continued to pour out from the observation port on the earth wall, and You Fu took advantage of the fact that the stone was not cold yet, shaking it up and down and left and right, pouring ice water all over the cave.
Originally, there were only two holes on the earth wall, the upper one was the observation port, and the lower one was used to add firewood and let in air, but as more and more water was poured in, black water continued to flow out of the lower air inlet.
In this way, the stone wall was constantly washed, until more than ten minutes later, no more white smoke came out, and the sound of rock breaking completely disappeared. Then You Fu had the water pump turned off, and called a few team members to take steel chisels, pickaxes and other tools to directly demolish this earth wall.
After another busy work, when the scene was completely cleaned up, You Fu and Yang Xin personally came to the entrance of the cave and took a look, and immediately couldn't help but feel disappointed.
Several stone walls of the cave were all cracked, and they were the kind of cracks that cracked. Some broken stones also fell, but the stones were not very big.
The expected "direct collapse and explosion" did not happen. After such a troublesome process, the rock only cracked a few gaps. It was inevitable that people would be disappointed.
You Fu was a little unwilling and shouted to the people around him, "Bring me a steel chisel."
Someone immediately handed him a steel chisel that was more than one meter long. This thing was very thick, like a small rolling pin. One end was in the shape of a claw hammer, a raised flat piece with a notch in the middle, which could be used to pry up railway spikes. The other end was a raised cone, which was purely used to pry things, otherwise how could it be called a crowbar.
You Fu took the steel chisel and inserted the flat end into the crack of the stone. He pried it hard. Hey, don't say it, the stone immediately showed signs of loosening. With more force, a basketball-sized stone was pried down along the crack and fell to the ground with a thud.
Yang Xin immediately stepped forward to observe, and could not help but exclaimed in surprise, "Not bad, not bad, it seems that the cracks in the stone are not only distributed along the radial pattern, but also have many intricate cracks. It seems that
the entire layer inside the cave has been broken. As long as it is knocked a little, it will probably be knocked down. "Mr. You, I think you don't need to use this crowbar, just let the rock drill knock a few times, and it is estimated that this layer will collapse completely.
"Don't let others do this job, otherwise it will be bad if someone gets hurt."
You Fu also nodded in agreement, handed the crowbar in his hand to someone else, and then said, "Then let's ask the rock drill to come faster. Our construction period is tight, and the task is in progress. The faster the better."
In fact, the rock drill was ready long ago. The driver got up at dawn, and someone went to warm up the car in advance, that is, to burn the boiler on the car. The driver also took this time to finish his breakfast.
So when You Fu had just finished speaking, the driver drove the rock drill over.
The huge mechanical arm held a pneumatic pick as thick as a leg, and it reached into the cave and started to work.
This time the operation was very easy, because the entire stone wall was covered with cracks, and the internal structure of the rock was severely damaged. You Fu could pry the stone off with manpower, not to mention the powerful pneumatic pick. In just a short while, the cave, which was originally only the size of a doorway, was expanded a whole circle and became as big as a house.
When it expanded to this size, the cracks caused by the fire and water had disappeared. If you want to continue doing this, you have to follow this step again.
Seeing this scene, You Fu and Yang Xin frowned again.
This method of fire and water can only destroy the layer that contacts the rock, which is at most one meter thick. If you continue to use this method, it will not only waste time, but also fuel.
How many people will the engineering team have to send to chop wood to keep burning like this? !
The two couldn't help but look at each other. It seems that explosives are still needed.
(End of this chapter)
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