I Became The Chief of A Primitive Village

Chapter 231: Stumped at the First Step

Su Bai sat at the wooden table, twirling the pencil in his hand, pondering over the production of cement.

He pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, looking troubled. After all, cement was not something that could be easily produced.

Cement was one of the most common building materials, essential for construction.

[Generally, cement is divided into three types: ordinary silicate cement, silicate cement with mixed materials, and special cement…] Su Bai thought with a frown.

He picked up the cup on the table, about to take a drink when he realised it was empty. Also, they were not done boiling the water.

He now missed the fox eared girl a bit, after all, back in the Tribe, he could easily get a full cup of water at any time.

Su Bai sighed at this thought, realising he’d have to wait a few days until the fox eared girl arrived.

He asked a nearby slave to check if the water had boiled yet, while he continued to contemplate the components of cement.

[The main components of ordinary silicate cement are limestone, clay, and iron ore powder…] Su Bai wrote on the Wolf Tail Grass Paper.

Ordinary silicate cement was made by finely grinding and mixing limestone, clay, and iron ore powder in a specific proportion. The mixture at this stage would be called raw material. Once the raw material was calcined, usually at a temperature of about 1450 degrees, the product after calcination was called clinker.

Clinker would be finely ground with gypsum, mixed in proportion. Only after this step could the final product be called cement.

[For silicate cement with mixed materials, I would need limestone, clay, iron ore powder, and the mixed materials…] Su Bai continued. This knowledge was definitely something he had learnt of a long time ago. If it were not for his extraordinary memory, allowing him to recall the general content of books he had read, combined with his improving Physique since coming to this era, he might have really forgotten all of such information. [The last type is special cement, its main components are limestone and other ingredients] Su Bai tapped his index finger lightly on the table and continued, [But, this type of cement greatly differs in terms of materials and manufacturing process.]

What he was talking about was high alumina cement, which was made by calcining bauxite and limestone to obtain clinker, then grinding it finely to become aluminium salt cement.

[The most difficult part is the clinker in this type of cement] Su Bai frowned, [Their main components are all chemical components and mineral components.]

The main chemical components of clinker were calcium oxide, silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide, iron oxide, etc. And its main mineral components were tricalcium silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate, and tetracalcium aluminoferrite, and etc.

Su Bai shook his head repeatedly, crumpling up the Wolf Tail Grass Paper on the table as he sighed, “This is too unrealistic! Cement is impossible to achieve at things currently stand.”

After all, all three types of cements have very strict requirements, and if even one component was off, the resulting cement might not be sturdy. Moreover, these components could not be found right now.

It was completely unrealistic to start manufacturing, since he certainly did not have the time to find these materials.

As for the people of the Tribe, it goes without saying, they did not even know what these materials look like, so how could they be of help?

[Argh. forget about cements with chemical components and mineral components. They are simply impossible to achieve. At least, not under the current conditions.]

Su Bai was once again troubled, realising that surviving in a Primitive Tribe was not an easy task.

No, survival should be said to not be difficult. What was difficult was to live a better life. After all, to survive, one just needs to eat some meat, but to live better, one needs to find ways to improve their quality of life.

[Eh, wait, there’s another way,] Su Bai’s black eyes suddenly brightened.

He recalled a short video he had watched back on Earth about cement.

Su Bai was excited, picked up pencil and paper and started recording, muttering to himself, “We can use wood ash to make cement, this is much better than those troublesome chemical and mineral components.”

The corners of his mouth involuntarily began to turn up, his hand holding the pencil began to rapidly record his thoughts.

“First, we need to collect some dry grass. Any type of dry grass will do, as long as it’s a plant…” Su Bai muttered.

He thought of using the ancient method of making cement with wood ash, which was not only simple but also easy to operate. More importantly, the materials were everywhere, so there was no need for him to worry about finding chemical components or mineral components.

“Next, we need to build a kiln to burn the wood ash…” Su Bai continued to mutter.

He picked up another sheet of Wolf Tail Grass Paper and began to draw the blueprint of the kiln on it.

“The burned wood ash must be fine. There can’t be charcoal or lumps in it.” Su Bai said.

Half an hour later, a cylindrical kiln appeared on the Wolf Tail Grass Paper. It looked like an ordinary cylinder, but it was hollow inside, and there was an outlet at the bottom that would be hard to spot.

The bottom of the kiln was not completely sealed, leaving many small holes. These holes were for the wood ash to fall through when the dry grass was burning.

At the bottom of the cylinder, a huge pit was drawn, which was for storing the burned wood ash.

Su Bai held the paper and looked at it carefully, saying with satisfaction, “I’m really a ‘soul painter’ – someone who pours their soul into their artwork.”

The pattern on the Wolf Tail Grass Paper was drawn very meticulously, every step was drawn in detail, to ensure that the slaves would be able to understand when building.

He turned and asked the slave beside him to call Yan Jiao, as these things were not for him to do himself.

A few minutes later, Yan Jiao entered the wooden house and asked, “Shaman, what are your orders?”

Su Bai handed over the Wolf Tail Grass Paper and arranged, “Have two groups of people do this, one group to build the kiln, and one group to collect dry grass.”

Yan Jiao glanced at the paper in his hand, and although he did not know what it was for, he nodded and went out.

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