Chapter 31 Glass
The Riverside Tribe has burned charcoal several times.
Charcoal burning does not require high technical skills. All you need to do is control the temperature and not burn it too low or too high. Therefore, people who have participated in charcoal burning have basically mastered the charcoal burning technology.
With everyone working together, the tribe quickly began to burn a new round of charcoal.
This morning, Jian Mo went out early to collect the fish cages.
By the river, the charcoal fire in the kiln had long gone out, but a faint smell of smoke was still floating in the air.
He smelled the smell and felt like he smelled the smell of a good harvest, and his mood became upbeat.
The tribe burned charcoal, and in a few days they will burn pottery. They should soon have enough pottery.
If everything goes well, he should be able to make a pottery pot or jar and pickle some side dishes.
The vegetables he pickled now were all salted vegetables. If he had a suitable container, he could pickle sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut cakes, sauerkraut pots, sauerkraut stewed meat, etc. are all good dishes, just right to improve the taste.
Jian Mo walked slowly along the river. The new frost that fell in the morning was evenly spread on the ground, and it creaked when he stepped on it.
Looking around, the fields were white, and occasionally the brown tips of dead trees could be seen from under the snow on the mountain.
The snow on the top of the mountain was thicker, and the morning glow shone on it, reflecting a golden color.
The surrounding scenery was so beautiful that Jian Mo stared into the distance and took a deep breath of the cool air.
If you really think about it, life here doesn't seem to be much worse than on Earth.
The earth is rich in resources and has a developed industry, but the pressure is too great, and people may not live as happily as the orcs and sub-beasts.
Jian Mo comforted himself, picked up a big wooden stick, and walked briskly to where the fish cage was.
The fish cage was still there, but it was frozen under the water.
Fortunately, he had knocked on the ice yesterday, and only a thin layer of ice was frozen. He tapped it lightly with the wooden stick, and the ice cracked, revealing the fish cage underneath.
He pulled out the fish cage underneath and swiftly poured the harvest inside onto the river bank.
"One, two, three, four..."
Today, a total of four fish, three shrimps and two small shellfish were harvested.
Jian Mo grabbed a fish: "It's quite fat."
He pulled out a shell knife from his waist, killed the fish by the river, took out the dirt and gills, put them back into the fish cage, and then threw the fish cage back into the river.
The bloody smell from the internal organs will attract aquatic creatures. If he is lucky, he will also get some food tomorrow.
It was a bit cold by the river. Jian Mo couldn't stand it after staying for a while. He quickly washed the fish and shrimps that he had cut and walked home quickly.
When he got home, Wu Jiong also came back. Looking at the fish and shrimps in his hand, Wu Jiong took them and said, "Why didn't you wait for me to do it?"
Jian Mo: "I just boiled the water, and you didn't come back so soon. I had nothing to do, so I put away the fish cage."
The two of them went into the house, and Jian Mo went to the fire first to warm himself.
When it was warm, he used a fire stick to dig out the cooked stems from the ashes and put them aside to avoid simmering them for too long and carbonizing them.
After he finished eating, he looked up: "Shall we have fried bacon and baked fish with tut-tut milk this morning?"
Wu Jiong nodded: "I'm fine with either."
Jian Mo: "There's not much grass left at home. After dinner, we have to go cut some grass to feed Jiujiu."
Wu Jiong didn't have any objections: "Go cut it near the Green Swamp Source. It's not frozen there, so it's more convenient to cut grass."
The flying beast has a huge appetite and needs a lot of food every day.
Fortunately, now that they are raising it in the wild, it will go out to find food for itself during the day. They only need to prepare some delicious food for it as a supplement, and the workload is not too heavy.
Otherwise, it would be hard enough for them to endure this winter just to raise the flying beast.
When they were having breakfast in the house, there was a knock on the door.
Jian Mo looked up with the bowl in his hand and saw Qing Kuang walking in from outside.
Jian Mo hurriedly called out: "Qingkuan, have you had breakfast?"
Qingkuan waved his hand: "Yes, I won't eat for free today. I came here to say that the charcoal for today has been taken out, and another batch will be fired in the evening. Do you want to see the kiln? Also, Jian Mo, don't you want to try the glaze? Can you try it now?"
Jian Mo sat back down: "I'll go and have a look later. It should be ok to try the glaze. If it is fired in the evening, I will mix the glaze later."
Qingkuan: "How many kinds of glaze are there in total?"
Jian Mo: "Sixteen or seventeen? You'll know when I mix them later."
Jian Mo was thinking about the pottery kiln. He quickly finished his breakfast and went to the pottery kiln with Wu Jiong.
They fired several batches of charcoal, and they would repair the pottery kiln every time they fired.
This is the sixth time, and the kiln has been repaired very well and looks quite decent.
Jian Mo watched with his own eyes as this kiln was built from scratch and gradually became familiar with its appearance, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment.
He stood at the kiln entrance and observed for a moment, then bent down and walked in.
There was residual smoke from the burning inside the kiln, and the surroundings were very dry, which was completely unlike the environment of a cave.
He reached out and touched the kiln wall. Later, they coated the kiln wall with clay, and now the clay has been sintered and become hard and solid.
The pillars used for reinforcement in the center of the kiln are also very strong. The clay firmly sticks the stones together. If there are no accidents, it should be no problem to use it for ten or eight years.
Jian Mo looked up at the top.
In order to facilitate ventilation, the hole at the top of the kiln was opened, and the sunlight and cold wind poured in, and soon the turbid air in the cave was almost swept away.
The kiln cave was repaired to this point, and even Jian Mo could not make any suggestions for the time being.
Qing Kuan asked: "How is it?"
Jian Mo turned his head and saw that he was a little proud, and smiled: "Very good, everyone's hands-on ability is too strong."
Qing Kuan: "Then let's go and mix the glaze now?"
Jian Mo nodded: "Okay."
Jian Mo collected more than a dozen materials during this period, and planned to try them all as glaze recipes.
Ye Luo and others used stones to help him grind these materials into fine powder, and now they are waiting for him to use them.
He wanted to mix the glaze, and the core beastmen in the tribe, such as Qingkuan and Yeluo, came to watch.
Jian Mo took the powders of various materials, combined them separately, and added water to make a glaze slurry.
In order to facilitate memory, he specially cut many small wooden chips as a memo board.
Now he is mixing the glaze, and he uses charcoal blocks to write down the proportions of each glaze for easy reference later.
As a mature writing system, Chinese characters are simply incomprehensible to people in this world, and they cannot guess the meaning of them.
Yeluo enviously said, "This character is really beautiful."
Jian Mo raised his head and smiled, "The results passed down by our ancestors."
Yeluo nodded and said nothing more.
Yeluo and his friends knew that he came from a large tribe outside and knew many different things, so they had no other thoughts about the words he wrote.
Not only did they have no objections, they also spread favorable opinions in the tribe to help cover up for him.
With their protection, Jian Mo's integration into the tribe was unusually smooth.
Jian Mo used a thin piece of wood to evenly apply the prepared glaze on the previously cracked pottery pieces, and applied a certain thickness.
The weather is cold and windy now, so after leaving it outside for a few hours, it can be fired in the kiln in the evening.
After firing, these pottery pieces will become color cards, which will facilitate him to compare the conditions of various glazes.
If the firing fails, he will remove the corresponding glaze formula to avoid wasting pottery.
Making pottery is too difficult. In such a cold day, there are so many steps, and each step consumes a lot of effort from everyone. It would be a pity to waste it.
Let's do an experiment with broken pottery pieces.
He handed the painted pottery pieces to Qingkuang: "Thank you for your hard work. If I don't come back in the evening, just put it in the kiln and burn it."
Qingkuo: "What's so hard about that? Are you going to the Green Swamp to cut grass today?"
Jian Mo nodded: "Wu Jiong said there is more grass there. If we are lucky, we can find green grass to improve the taste of Jiujiu."
Ye Luo laughed beside him: "If you are not in a hurry, you can use a hoe to dig up the grass roots. There may not be green grass under the soil, but there must be white and tender rhizomes."
Jian Mo had never thought of this before. His eyes lit up when he heard it: "Thank you for the reminder!"
Ye Luo waved his hand: "You're welcome."
Jian Mo ran home, saw Wu Jiong, and repeated Ye Luo's words.
Wu Jiong said, "I'll find the hoe. It's a little bald. I'll make two new ones in two days."
People used to use stone hoes to dig out grass stems, but both orcs and sub-orcs have claws, so the frequency of using stone hoes is not very high.
After Jian Mo came, he became the only one who needed to rely on tools completely. The tools in Wu Jiong's house were worn out very frequently, and new ones had to be replenished from time to time.
The two went to the Green Swamp Source alone. Wu Jiong did not change into a beast, but rode directly on a flying beast.
The flying beast can fly in a straight line, which is much more convenient than running for them.
When they arrived at the place, they pushed aside the snow and dug up the soil on the surface. Sure enough, they saw the white and tender grass stems underneath.
The grass stems tasted sweet with a little bitterness, were non-toxic, and could be eaten by humans.
Jian Mo looked at the grass stems in his hand, planning to dig some to cook and eat, just in time to take in some fiber.
As a pure human, it is not healthy to take in too little fiber.
Every time at this time, Jian Mo envied the orcs and sub-orcs here. They were much tougher than him, and it seemed that they had no problem eating anything .
The flying beast saw them digging grass stems, and slowly realized that they were digging food for it.
It chirped happily twice, and directly used its claws to dig through the snow and soil, eating as it dug.
Jian Mo watched it eat, but didn't care. If it ate more, it would be better to feed it less at night.
Maybe because there are mountains all around here in Green Swamp Source, it is relatively warmer. They didn't feel cold after working here for most of the day.
It was not easy to go out, so Jian Mo simply took Wu Jiong with him and worked until nightfall before going back.
When they returned to the tribe, a new batch of wet wood had been sent into the kiln, and the glaze flakes he made were also sent in.
Qing Kuang looked up and said to him in the midst of his busy work: "The kiln has been sealed. If you want to see it, you can only wait until tomorrow morning to see it."
Jian Mo: "No hurry, I just came to take a look."
Qing Kuang waved his hand: "If there is nothing, you can go back first. You are tired all day, go back and rest quickly."
Jian Mo turned around, listened to the advice and went home.
Life in the tribe was very peaceful. After dinner, Jian Mo washed up and went upstairs. He fell asleep quickly next to the giant wolf that Wu Jiong had transformed into.
He slept very soundly at night and did not even have a dream, so when he was woken up the next morning, he was completely confused.
"...What?" Jian Mo looked at the situation in front of him, unable to react, "Have the glaze pieces been fired?"
Qing Kuo: "Yes! Some have been fired, some have not. I brought them all here, take a look!"
Jian Mo nodded slowly.
Qing Kuo held three pieces of pottery in his dark hands, all of which had mottled colored glazes. Because the base color of the pottery was off-white, Jian Mo could roughly tell that the glazes were red and blue.
After seeing it clearly, he was startled and woke up completely: "It was actually fired."
Qingkuan: "Only these three pieces were fired out of the sixteen glaze pieces. The remaining glaze pieces will be the same as when they are put into the kiln and taken out."
Jian Mo lifted the quilt: "Let me see."
"Here, for you." Qingkuan took out the other gray glaze pieces from the basket, and couldn't help saying to him, "Hurry up and put on your clothes before you take a look, don't get sick."
Jian Mo glanced at the brazier burning in the corner of the room: "It's okay, it's warm here."
Qingkuan: "Other people are okay, but you may not be. Put it on quickly."
Hearing this, Jian Mo had to put on the animal skin robe first, and then took the glaze piece to examine it carefully.
These glaze pieces were painted at the same time, put into the kiln at the same time, and taken out at the same time. Logically, there should be little difference. I don't know why some of them were fired and some were not.
Jian Mo took Qing Kuan downstairs and hurriedly flipped through the records he wrote yesterday.
He numbered the glaze pieces, and only pieces 9, 10, and 11 were fired.
He took out the wood chips and looked at the formula of the glaze, and soon found that only these three pieces of glaze had alkali added.
Jian Mo stared at the formula and suddenly realized that the glaze layer was actually a glass layer, and the alkali seemed to lower the melting point of the glaze.
The glaze was actually mud, which should contain quartz.
Alkali can actually lower the melting point of quartz!
It was not easy.
Jian Mo wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking of this thing was really a brain-wracking task.
Jian Mo stared at the glaze and sighed, "I said that I always felt that glaze was very familiar, but I couldn't remember what it was for a while. It turns out to be like glass, no wonder it is waterproof."
Qingkuan was confused: "What is glass?"
Wu Jiong heard the noise and walked in. He looked at Jian Mo who was excited and tired, and then looked at Qingkuan who was puzzled: "Take your time to talk."
Jian Mo: "Hey."
After calming down his excitement, Jian Mo felt embarrassed: "Let me organize my words first."
Qingkuan poured him some water and sighed: "You said so much just now, but I didn't understand a word you said."
Jian Mo held up the glaze: "First, Speaking of glass - glass is a transparent and hard material, and it should be possible to burn it with sand.
" Qingkuang: "Sand? The sand on the beach?"
Jian Mo nodded: "That kind of sand, if we want to burn glass, we have to screen it and find the finest sand possible."
Qingkuang understood a little, but he had a new doubt: "What do we burn glass for? Don't we burn pottery?"
Jian Mo: "Glass is glass, pottery is pottery, if the melting point of glass is low enough, we can burn both together."
Qingkuang hesitated: "Then what do we burn it for, just like pottery, burn it out to hold things?"
"No, no, no, it has a greater use." Jian Mo pointed to the window sealed with bark, and said with sparkling eyes, "We can install it on the window."
Qing Kuang and Wu Jiong followed his line of sight and looked at the window.
Qing Kuang still couldn't quite react.
Wu Jiong asked: "Transparent material - glass is colorless like water, and as hard as pottery? Putting it on the window can block the wind and not affect the lighting?"
Jian Mo nodded and looked at Wu Jiong with admiration: "Yes, can you imagine it?"
Wu Jiong: "I can."
Qing Kuang rubbed his forehead: "You guys chat, I can't think of anything at all."
Jian Mo said happily: "It doesn't matter, wait until we make it, you will see it and you will understand it."
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