King of German Mercenaries

The digging of trenches in East Frisian counties is proceeding in an orderly manner, with the participation of more than 10,000 coolies, and Marin has no shortage of food, so things are going very smoothly.

When the engineering team dug a ditch and connected it to the main river, Marin would immediately invite craftsmen to set up a Dutch windmill and start pumping the water from the swamp lake on the side of the ditch into the ditch, draining it to the main river, where it merged into sea.

However, recently, the gunsmith Old John and the gunsmiths jointly raised their opinions. They asked Marin to build a high-level reservoir so that they could use the hydraulic hammer.

Because the country of East Friesland is a small country by the sea, all the rivers are downstream here, and the water level difference is too low to drive the hydraulic forging hammer at all, and the conditions on Bitsel Island are not good.

To this end, there is only one way, and that is to build high-level reservoirs artificially. First, the water in the river is pumped into the high-level reservoir, and then through the gate, the water is put down to drive the hydraulic forging hammer.

Because the number of blacksmiths is large and the scale is large. Therefore, the reservoir to be built cannot be too small. Otherwise, the hydraulic hammer craftsmen are not enough.

In desperation, Marin had to arrange the construction of the reservoir. But these days, building reservoirs is very troublesome. Generally speaking, if the reservoir is built according to the valley, it will be relatively simple, as long as the mouth of the valley is blocked, a reservoir can be formed. But building high-level reservoirs on the plains is very difficult. Because the four sides of the reservoir are all artificially created. And in order to be strong, you need to use a lot of stones...

Therefore, the construction of a large reservoir on flat ground is no less than the construction of a small city wall. But Marin had to fix it. After all, he really wanted to develop industry. In the foundry industry, there is a great demand for hydraulic forging hammers. Therefore, Marin not only has to build a reservoir, but also a large reservoir.

As for pumping water from a low level to a high level, it is very simple. Just make a few more Dutch windmills and keep pumping water. The most important thing is that a lot of stones are needed around the reservoir.

Obviously, East Frisian is stone-free. If you want stone, you have to go to the nearby commercial centers such as Hamburg and Bremen to buy it. These places are commodity distribution centers, and there are plenty of stones. That is, the price is more expensive. On average, a piece of well-processed stone is 0.2 pfennig. 10 stones are worth a day's wages for a commoner.

In fact, the stone itself is not valuable, but the craftsman's wages are. When a stone is mined from the deep mountains, the quarry workers are paid first, and then the porters who transport the stones also need to be paid. Then, the craftsmen who work the stone also need money. Finally, the merchant who shipped the stone to sell also made a profit. Then, a worthless stone, through the hands of many people, becomes 0.2 pfennig. At the same time, the price of a brick is less than 0.1 pfennig, which is also very expensive. However, the stone was transported from the mountains, plus the freight, and the stone was stronger than the brick. Therefore, stone is twice as expensive as brick.

In the end, Marin thought about it and decided to build a high-level reservoir with a size of one square kilometer. In order to save costs, it is better to use bricks for the rest except for the surrounding foundations and "walls" which are made of stone. Because bricks are cheap. You know, this is a 1 square kilometer reservoir, and the bricks and stones needed are also amazing. Not only the surrounding area needs to be fenced, but also bricks should be laid at the bottom of the reservoir to avoid serious water seepage in the reservoir.

However, whether it is a pile of stones or bricks, water leakage is inevitable. Unless, the gap between stone or brick is closed with cement...

"Yeah, why did I forget the cement?" Marin patted his head and immediately made another decision...

The cement formula Marin is very familiar with, the simplest cement is Portland cement, which is 3:1 limestone and clay. However, the cement of this formula is of very average quality. Therefore, the later cement and limestone remained unchanged, but the clay was replaced with iron ore, bauxite, various slag and other materials containing other metal components.

to improve cement quality.

Moreover, Marin, who has played in the cement factory in the town before, knows that a very important part of firing cement is adding fluorite. The addition of fluorite greatly reduces the temperature required for cement firing. Its effect is similar to adding sodium carbonate when firing glass, in that it reduces the firing temperature.

If the secret of adding fluorite is not known, it will be difficult to burn cement. Because the temperature at which cement is fired is often more than a thousand degrees. If fluorite is not added, it can only be done by using coal with high calorific value and high-temperature equipment such as steel-making furnaces.

If you want to use ordinary shaft kiln to burn cement, unless you use coal as fuel, it is difficult to achieve the required high temperature if you use firewood as fuel without fluorite.

Marin scoffed at those novels that casually used earth kilns, using a 3:1 formula of limestone and clay, to easily burn cement. The earth kiln uses firewood as fuel, which cannot reach the high temperature of one thousand and several hundred degrees. If you don't use fluorite, you don't even want to burn it successfully. Unless you use coal directly as fuel, like the Brits who invented cement in the 19th century. Even in the first half of the 20th century, cement plants commonly added fluorite as a catalyst. Only in the late 20th century, because of the promotion of environmental protection and advanced equipment, fluorite was gradually eliminated. 20th century equipment all need fluorite, you can use firewood to burn qualified cement in an ancient earth kiln, and Marin is also drunk...

In later cement factories, because fluorite contains fluorine, it is easy to cause pollution. Therefore, fluorite was gradually abandoned. However, that is also because the firing equipment of later generations can easily obtain enough high temperature, so fluorite can be abandoned.

Moreover, firing cement does not require high fluorite, and does not require high-purity fluorite. Any fluorite of any purity can be used, and the amount of fluorite is not large. Fluorite is now easily available in Hamburg and Bremen.

So, Marin intends to start firing ordinary cement. Moreover, knowing the secret of adding fluorite, it is difficult for other people to burn qualified cement even if they know the main formula of cement. Unless, they use high-quality coal with high calorific value as fuel.

There is no need to talk about the benefits of cement. Reservoirs in later generations are all made of cement. However, ordinary cement is not water resistant. Building a reservoir, of course, cannot be used.

But it just so happened that Marin knew that fly ash cement was a kind of cement suitable for building reservoirs. In fact, slag cement is usually used to build reservoirs and dams. However, what slag to use, Marin did not know and did not know how to calculate. What's more, Marin has no large steel mills and metallurgical plants, and lacks slag.

However, the fly ash thing, Marin is very much. Fly ash is the residual ash left after the coal is burned. This thing, the Marin cooking salt center should not be too much, I don't know what to do with it.

Coincidentally, now he wants to build a reservoir, and fly ash cement is the best choice for building reservoirs and wharfs. Mainly, Marin doesn't know the formula of those slag cement anymore. He does know about fly ash cement, because the cement factory in their town produces this kind of cement. As far as he knows, fly ash cement is made of limestone, fly ash, plus a small amount of gypsum and fluorite, then ground and fired in a shaft kiln. He did not know the specific formula, but he knew that the amount of fly ash should not exceed 40% and not less than 20%. Gypsum and fluorite are small amounts, auxiliary. For the rest, you can try a few times to find the best ratio.

After thinking about it, Marin selected a group of serfs who could burn bricks among his own serfs. In a remote place, he built a brick-burning shaft kiln and began to try to burn fly ash cement.

In fact, because Marin knew the secret of adding fluorite, he was not worried about the failure of cement firing at all. What he wants to try now is the best ratio of cement. After all, he only knew that the content of fly ash accounted for 20% to 40% of the total, and he did not know the specific ratio. Gypsum and fluorite are also in small amounts, and I don't know how much. After all, who knew that he was going to transcend in the future? If he had known earlier, he would have already inquired about the specific ratio when he went to the town's cement factory to play in junior high school...

And because he was going to burn fly ash cement, Marin decided not to buy stone, but only bricks. After all, you can buy bricks for half the price. Then, buy some raw materials such as limestone, fluorite, gypsum, etc. However, the procurement of these raw materials is carried out by different people, and each person is only responsible for purchasing one item. In particular, fluorite needs to be purchased separately to prevent the purchaser from getting all the formula materials. It's not that Marin didn't trust his subordinates, but that after Marin made cement, others would definitely ask him where he purchased raw materials. If one of Marin's subordinates had all the recipes purchased by one person, the person who inquired about it would easily be able to get the corresponding recipe. However, if you buy them separately, different people are responsible for the procurement of different materials. It is very difficult to inquire about them. Moreover, fluorite and gypsum are inconspicuous due to the small amount, and Marin intends to let his subordinates buy them quietly, so it is difficult for others to know...

The bricks are matched with cement, and the firmness is no less than that of ordinary stones. Moreover, the cement fills the gap, which can fully avoid water seepage and leakage. This is very important for the reservoir...

However, even buying bricks and building a high-level reservoir with a size of one square kilometer is a huge investment, which is a bit scary. After a calculation, it would take millions of gold coins to build a one-square-kilometer reservoir...

Marin was so frightened that he almost fell to the ground. After that, he immediately lowered the standard, reducing the area of ​​one square kilometer to 0.2 square kilometers, a reduction of 5 times. Even so, it cost nearly 200,000 gold coins, which made Marin extremely painful... Fortunately, he planned to use cement and bricks. If stone materials were used, even a small reservoir of 0.2 square kilometers would cost 400,000 gold coins. kinda scary...

It's no wonder that even if the reservoir is built in later generations, it is also a dam that holds water, and only needs to be repaired in one or two directions. In other directions, a small amount of material will suffice. Malinxiu's high-level reservoir in the plain needs to be repaired on all sides, and the foundation needs to be laid. It's no wonder that the investment is not large...

If it weren't for his firm support for the development of industry, Marin was almost scared back by the huge investment. But for the development of the industry, Marin still gritted his teeth and built this high-cost plain high reservoir, so that the craftsmen could use the hydraulic hammer on a large scale...