The ceremony of paying homage to the deceased is more like the foundation laying ceremony of the Kewen people's settlement.
The Iron Squirrel tribe has officially settled down, and large-scale settlement construction began immediately.
A road leading from the town to the mine began to open, and a large number of people holding axes walked into the forest. They headed towards the mine, just to cut a passage in the dense forest of the cold zone!
A large number of felled pine trees were pulled to the construction site. The trees with relatively slender trunks were cut out to build tapered ends, and then buried directly in well-excavated pits, and then buried. Mud and pebbles from the river to secure it.
The Covin people are building a new circular wall, which is the barrier of the new mountain fort. What is completely different from the past is that the Ross soldiers are participating in the construction of the mountain fort.
It took only five days for the settlement, named Fort Ailon Orava, to take shape for its town wall. It was a large number of frame structures, and a large number of towering tree stumps surrounded the settlement, forming a large circle with a semi-diameter of nearly four hundred meters.
In fact, this area is only equivalent to the area of a small residential area more than a thousand years later, but for this era, it is already considered a quite large "city" in Europe. Oh, if the locals actually wanted to call it a city.
In Rurik's view, the permanent settlement he requested to build is still a village. Even if it has walls, it is still a small village.
For a long time, Kewen people have used building materials according to local conditions when building their own mountain forts.
They know how to make pottery but are not yet luxurious enough to bake clay bricks to build houses. They built with large trees that were readily available, pieced them together to form a wall, piled up soil and pounded it until it was strong.
In a brand new world, they still use their inherent routines to build.
Rurik has his own ideas about this.
"Building with wood is fast, but the biggest problem is that it is not long enough."
Rurik thought for a while, and he gave Mechasta a new task: "You People should not be busy cutting wood and piling wood, and don't think that just making a wooden fence will complete my request. I want the wall to be stronger! You must use stone to strengthen it."
In this regard, Mechasta was shocked: "Ah? We use our hands? Do we really have to do this? As for that?"
"Are you questioning me? This is my order, do as I say."
Rurik didn’t want to give any explanation. Seeing the resolute attitude of their master, Mechasta and his men had nothing to say.
It is the turn to build houses with stones, and the Russians have some skills in this regard.
Piling up walls with stones is more time-consuming than simply using wood. Nowadays, it is quite easy to obtain stones. You only need to obtain large stones. The only source of excellent stones is the mine not far away.
Build wood-cut ridges made of pure wood, and fences made of mixed wood and stone.Wall, the heavy manual labor was performed by Rus warriors and Kovin tribesmen. Like the group of children under Rurik, they were all assigned tasks within their capabilities, such as acting as "donkeys" to carry ore.
Instead of supervising their construction, after settling down, Rurik's energy was almost entirely transferred to the smelting of ore.
After all, he Rurik insisted on running to the north to exploit this big mine in the future.
Everything was a strong coincidence. It was Kawei who discovered that the ore in the mine had a unique color, which aroused Rurik's mental sensitivity.
If you were just smelting iron, you would be able to meet your needs very well by using the ore from the hills near Roseburg.
Rurik had taken a good look at the local ore. It was completely black. When he took a closer look, he saw that there were densely packed shiny things on the surface of the ore, and this was the ore itself.
His soul was telling his mind that there must be something else in this ore.
In fact, until now, Rurik is still not sure what the additional metals present in the ore are. Or manganese, or chromium, or even zirconium. He actually hopes that the additional material is manganese, so that theoretically he can make more elastic steel, thereby making a more powerful steel-arm crossbow, making himself more martially virtuous.
However, the relatively primitive smelting method of the Ross tribe made him worried about the future of smelting.
However, the experienced and confident blacksmith completely ignored Rurik's concerns.
Kawei is going to build his brand new blacksmith shop by the river, and in the small furnace he has built, he will smelt the ore into iron, and then repeat the forging routine of steelmaking.
Compared to Rurik, Kawei just believed that there were other mysterious substances in the ore. But so what? As long as the ore is burned into sponge iron, you can create iron ingots with good plasticity by forging them yourself. It doesn't matter if you think about a few more miscellaneous substances. Because he had seen his father Clavarson's strange smelting, which was to burn copper ore, iron ore, and tin ingots together to see what results would come from it.
As a result, the iron ore was actually melted in the clay crucible, but the quality of the final tool was not outstanding. A small amount of iron ore was added to make the new tin bronze harder, but still not as hard as wrought iron. Klavasen did not continue his research. It would be useless if he added more iron ore. Only a small amount of iron will be melted into the molten tin bronze metal at the smelting temperature that the existing Russians can achieve.
In the final analysis, the biggest obstacle restricting metal smelting in any era is that the temperature does not meet the standard.
Had it not been for insufficient temperature, the ancients would not have adopted the method of burning and forging sponge iron to make iron tools.
Although the blast furnace technology was invented in the East, its extreme high temperature can only reach 1400℃ and cannot be sustained for a long time. It can generally be stabilized at a level close to 1300℃, thus enabling mass production.There is molten pig iron, but there is no way to melt wrought iron ingots.
For this reason, before the birth of gas furnace technology, blast furnaces could not directly smelt molten ferrochromium alloy water, and it was even less possible to smelt ferromanganese alloy liquid.
However, if these special metals exist in iron ores on a small scale, their presence does not affect the blacksmith's burning of sponge iron and subsequent forging.
Fortunately, the chromium content in the iron mine occupied by the Russians is not extremely abundant.
Rurik dispatched thirty boys and ordered them to carry their own small sacks to carry the ore mined from the top of the mountain, which Kawei recognized as concentrate. Coupled with the ten blacksmith apprentices under Kawei and experienced young blacksmiths like Kamnier, they all became porters.
A child can carry one or two kilograms and walk five or six kilometers continuously at noon. It is really a feat for a child.
Behind their feats are the excellent physical quality brought by their long-term physical training, and the strong stamina provided by a large amount of high-quality food. They still have the heart to show their masters and "big brothers" A fiery heart that shows loyalty.
Other children also have their own jobs, just like the ten little maids in Rurik who were given names from the White Tree Manor in Novgorod. Their current jobs are really Just playing in the mud.
It’s all about playing in the mud. This mud is really not fun.
They searched for clay in the forest, where they had to plow through thick layers of pine needles and dig deep into the earth instead of using the meaningless sand-rich soil of riverbanks.
Clay is of course widely distributed, and finding excellent products requires a bit of luck.
They did not find very high-quality soil, they could only find some deep black soil, but it was still sticky and plastic.
The girls' job is to build a smelting furnace that Kawei needs.
They used their black hands to use the water from the river to knead the mud balls in their hands and pile them up like building blocks, so that they piled up higher and higher into the shape of a stove. Of course, this alone was not enough. Kawi asked that the top of the tandoor be made wider and the height of the stove also be increased.
A brand new clay oven was made higher and higher, and in the end, these shorter girls had to raise their arms to stack the mud balls upward.
On the sixth day after arriving at the mine for the second time, the girls' "great work" finally had a satisfactory result to Kawei.
They still don’t know what this stove can bring. After all, they are just girls, and they have completed the important tasks assigned by the master. Everyone is very happy.
It was a quiet evening, with smoke curling up from the large-scale settlement.
Part of the large-scale wooden fence has begun to be piled with cobblestones from the river, or simply lifted up with shovels to reinforce it. Another busy day, only at this time will the men stop and eat steaming wheat porridge and a large amount of fresh grilled fish.
The material supply situation in the settlement has undergone tremendous changes. The fishing boats that returned to Fort Ross quickly brought supplies and technical support from their hometown.
A group of outstanding carpenters, with the mentality of striving for more wealth, and even political wealth for themselves and their descendants around Rurik, went to a desolate, miserable and even colder place.
A large amount of oats and an even larger amount of fish were transported to Fort Elon Orava on a large scale. Not only do the people at work have no worries, some Kewen people are also actively utilizing the animal resources in the area to obtain more meat through hunting.
In just a few days, while they were cutting down trees, they did not forget to use the bows and better arrows at hand to shoot all the squirrels they found.
They have killed more than a hundred squirrels. After the hunter ate the barbecue, the leather was naturally handed over to Rurik. The so-called tribute from the servant to the master meant that the Covin people exchanged squirrel skins for the squirrels. Rick's Oats.
The young men are talking about the busy and fulfilling days these days, and commenting on the women of the Iron Squirrel tribe.
Rurik, he didn’t want to get involved in the vulgar chatter and laughter of a large group of rough men, such as talking to them about which tribal woman carrying firewood was more beautiful.
He and Kawei, as well as a group of loyal partners, guarded the still damp mud stove that had just been piled up, with high-quality charcoal blocks brought from their hometown piled next to the stove, and the children's They spent a lot of effort to transport the selected ore.
A group of children, both men and women, gathered around the four bonfires, eating salty wheat porridge from wooden bowls, and then nibbling on the grilled fish they cooked themselves. Compared with those vulgar strong men, the topics children communicate with are much simpler. As for the ten maids, they were chatting in Slavic language that others could not understand.
No matter what these children were talking about, Rurik heard it clearly. In the final analysis, everyone still wants to see the results of the hard work that has made their hands dirty and even calloused for many days.
Kawei sat casually on a tree trunk lying flat as a stool.
Seeing Rurik finish the wheat porridge, he said what he was holding in his stomach: "Now, I feel that I am ready."
"It's finally time to start. "Ryurik's calm attitude surprised Kawei, "Why, you're not looking forward to it? Yes, I can start now." Let’s get started! I hope... we can succeed using traditional methods.”
This made Kawei a little confused. The traditional method? Why, is there anything different than the "traditional method"?
Actually, Rurik's silence this time was just because he was thinking about some problems in his mind. He always supervises his maidHe even gave some instructions when it came to building the soil, such as teaching them how to stack it without collapsing.
This clay oven is unusual. According to a rough measurement with a rope ruler, its height has exceeded that of a stika. In fact, its height has reached 130cm. Compared to the furnaces of Clavarson and other blacksmiths, this furnace is undoubtedly the tallest.
After that, the inner chamber of the furnace was also finished. Iron ore was used as refractory bricks, and a layer of heat-resistant inner chamber was laid. Kawei's calculation is very clear. When smelting starts, the slag will be removed from the designed holes, and the iron ore in the inner chamber will also stick to each other. Due to the ash and slag, the sponge iron is basically unable to stick to the furnace, thus achieving a heat-resistant, stable and strong crucible environment.
The dirt road looked a bit like a blast furnace, and Rurik estimated that Kawei had figured out the correct way to increase the temperature of the furnace.
Want to build a real blast furnace?
Rurik recalled the knowledge in his mind. Although he knew the principles of blast furnace smelting, it was really difficult to reproduce it completely relying on his own theoretical basis in this era. Of course, there must be a blast furnace. He does not expect to be able to replicate the "ancient blast furnace" technology in a short time and let his tribe's blacksmiths master it well.
Based on the current situation, the Russian people's demand for iron is not large enough to require the development of blast furnace technology to mass-produce cast iron.
Rurik decided that early tomorrow morning, everyone would no longer have to go straight to the mine to dig, but would try to smelt on the river beach.
Before that, Kawei stood up. He had to complete a very necessary task.
"Rurik, I am full of energy now. I don't have to wait until tomorrow. As long as this furnace completely meets my requirements, I can smelt immediately. The raw materials and tools I need are all available. The only thing missing is a dry furnace."
Ryurik understood immediately, "You want to burn the furnace and let it solidify?"
"Yes!" Wei said, "That will take some time. In order to make my new stove last longer, I have to do it now."
So, Kawei started to act.
He wants to burn the entire furnace until it becomes clay, and the ores in the furnace can bond with each other.
As long as his efforts are successful, he can proudly tell his father Klavason: "I have a better stove than you. Grandpa and other ancestors will all be proud of us." ."