Chapter 94: Carbon Formation

Chapter 94: Carbon Formation

The cold weather could not dampen everyone's enthusiasm. With white steam coming out of their noses and mouths, they were rubbing their hands and stamping their feet, all of them were learning how to make charcoal seriously.

Someone simply lit a fire nearby, and everyone learned while warming themselves by the fire.

"We also need to light a fire on the roof of the kiln shed." Lin Youcai said as he picked up the firewood and went over.

Lin Youxing was full of questions: "Why? Burning fire on the roof?"

"Fourth brother, don't do anything. Just watch us do it." Lin Youxiang went over to light the fire and asked Lin Youcai to stand beside him to give orders.

Lin Youcai: "The earthen kiln shed has just been built and is wet. The purpose of burning the fire is to dry the shed. Ours is a new earthen kiln, which means it is a cold kiln. We have no dry firewood. When burning a cold kiln, it is best to put dozens of kilograms of dry firewood at the fire entrance. It will be the same as burning a hot kiln. It is easy to catch fire and burn better inside."

Tian Daniu sighed, "There's nothing we can do about this weather. We can't get any dry firewood. If we were in Nanlin Village, there would be plenty of dry firewood. Every household would have some."

Lin Youcai: "There is another key point. The kiln shed must be sealed tightly. If it is not sealed tightly, all you will get is kiln ash."

"Ah? Did we seal it tightly just now?" Tian Daniu, who was burning at the crater, stood up in surprise and tiptoed to look at the kiln shed.

Everyone leaned over to take a look.

Lin Youcai: "I checked it, it should be sealed tightly. If there is a fire inside, we will know it by the smoke."

Tian Daniu: "How long will this burn? Keep watching it burn?"

Lin Youcai: "You don't need to burn it for too long, but you still need to add firewood from time to time. You can turn off the fire and seal the kiln tomorrow morning."

Lin Youxing: "Doesn't that mean we have to come here in the middle of the night? Or do we have to stay here?"

"This place is not safe. There's no need to guard it. Let's take turns to add firewood at night! At least 30 people should come together!" Lin Youcai thought for a moment, "Let's just burn it in the village. It's too dangerous here. There's mud everywhere. I don't believe we can't find a safe place to burn it."

Lin Yougui: "Let's look for it nearby when we get back!"

Lin Youcai said to Tian Daniu, "The fire mouth does not need to be burned for a long time. Once it is confirmed that the inside is burning, it does not need to be burned anymore. Block the fire mouth a little to prevent the inside from overburning."

Tian Daniu: "Okay."

In the evening, everyone took turns to add firewood. Nothing happened and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Early the next morning, Lin Youcai got up and asked everyone to seal the kiln.

Lin Youcai used wet mud to seal the chimney first, then the fire mouth, and said as he did it: "It must be sealed tightly, otherwise the fire inside will not go out, and it will burn to ashes!" The earthen kiln is sealed tightly, and there is no oxygen inside, so it naturally cannot burn! After sealing, the inside begins to carbonize, which is the muffled kiln carbon.

Lin Youcai: "We have to wait two days and two nights before we can open the kiln to get charcoal. If we open the kiln too early, the wood will catch fire again, and our efforts will be in vain."

During this time, everyone cut down a lot of acorn tree trunks and prepared to dig a kiln near the yard to make charcoal.

The acorns hidden under the snow and dead leaves were also dug up by the group. The women sat by the fire, slowly picking out the good ones and throwing away the bad, rotten acorns, dead leaves, grass and the like.

There weren't many bad acorns, but we got four baskets of edible acorns.

Old Man Shi took two long wooden boards, punched holes in them, and then blocked the outlets of the two pools. He placed large stones under the boards to prevent them from shifting. The water flowed out from the small holes in the boards without affecting the water flow.

The women poured all the acorns into two pools to soak.

The water from the well flows into the first pool, which flows into the next pool. The water from the second pool flows into the ditch, which flows into the fields.

The water in the well and the two pools was flowing, which was perfect for soaking acorns. They didn't even have to change the water. Soaking acorns in flowing water would not pollute the well or the pool.

When you go to fetch water, you should also check whether the acorns have blocked the holes in the wooden board. Don't rush to eat them, soak them for 4 or 5 days before peeling and grinding them into pulp.

"They found chestnut trees, peach trees and plum trees on the mountain." Lin Xianwen came over with a mysterious look on his face and said to his sister and mother.

Lin Zisu turned around and asked, "Is there any fruit to eat in this season?"

"That's not the case." Lin Xianwen took out a chestnut shell, "It proves that there are a lot of products here!"

The emerald green chestnut shells had turned gray-brown, and Lin Xianwen threw them into the fire pit to burn.

Lin Xianwen: "They also found poop on the mountain."

Lin Zisu looked at him with disgust.

"Animal feces, it looks like deer feces. They saw a lot of it on the snow, and there were also footprints. There must be a group of them." Lin Xianwen looked like a little kid, you'll be so greedy that you'll die.

Shen Xianglan put down the needle and thread in her hand, picked up the gloves she was sewing and looked at them in the light, "Really?"

Lin Zisu: "There are abundant plants and animals here, so we won't starve. So the question is, this village has plenty of food and water, so why are they all leaving?"

Lin Xianwen: "If they couldn't survive, who would be willing to abandon their fields, houses and yards and become refugees outside?"

Lin Cuihe: "Like us, it doesn't look like there's a disaster here."

"It's either a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, or a combination of both." Shen Xianglan tried on the gloves. They were too big for her, so they should fit Lin Youcai. "I made them for your father, who goes to the mountains every day. Look at him. He doesn't look like a scholar at all. He looks like a typical farmer."

Lin Zisu gave her a look, and Old Lady Wang walked in. Lin Zisu took the gloves, put them on and tried them out, "Do you still need to manage your image when you are fleeing? Not bad, not bad, where did you get the leather?"

Shen Xianglan: "Your grandma gave it to her son-in-law. See how busy he is every day."

Old Lady Wang's face wrinkled with laughter, "Mother-in-law is so polite! The fourth child has to wear gloves. It's freezing and snowy. He's busy outside every day, and his hands are frozen red."

Everyone waited and looked forward to it for two days, and today we can finally open the kiln and get charcoal.

Lin Youcai used a shovel to make a hole in the kiln shed, and wearing gloves, he took out the charcoal pieces one by one.

"It's done, it's done!"

"Wow! It's really burned into charcoal. I can use it to burn charcoal in the fire pit tonight. The house will definitely be warm and smoke-free."

"It really worked! This is charcoal! Oh, the charcoal we made ourselves! We won't be afraid of the cold anymore, because we have charcoal to use."

. . . . . .

Compared to everyone's happiness and excitement, Lin Youcai touched the white ash on the surface of the charcoal and frowned, "It's done. Look at the outside of the charcoal, there is a layer of white ash."

"What's wrong? It's dusty and can't be used?" Tian Daniu asked worriedly.

Everyone was stunned when they heard what the two said.

Lin Youcai reached out to take out the charcoal from the kiln. "That's not the case. It's fine for my own use. But it's not okay to sell. The quality and appearance are not good. There is a layer of white ash. The fire burned a little too much and the kiln was sealed too late."

Lin Yougui: "Looks like we still have to keep guarding."

"You have to watch over it. Charcoal burners live in huts on the mountain and watch over it. We don't need to take the risk in a strange place and strange mountain. We can build a few earthen kilns near the yard, but it's hard to carry wood down from the mountain."

Tian Daniu: "There is no such thing as a farmer without hard work. Hard work is better than death."

Everyone smiled and nodded, that's right.