NABC Chapter 15: Bricks
Chapter 15: Bricks
After Bud left, Ron walked down the stockade wall.
Old Hall followed behind him, watching the dust settle as the horse caravan disappeared into the distance.
"Young master, after the people from Degea return, they should send an official envoy soon."
"No rush," Ron said. "They need bricks more than we do. There are no quarries in the wasteland, and building mages are scarce. Our bricks are the best building material they can get."
He paused.
"Once they arrive, the terms will be different from what we discussed today."
Old Hall understood and said no more.
Ron returned to the courtyard of the pit house.
The midday sun shines directly in through the skylight at the top, refracted by the prism into scattered spots of light that spread across the rammed earth surface.
The temperature inside the cave was nearly ten degrees lower than outside. Several elderly people, women, and children were sitting at the entrance of their cave, mending clothes. When they saw him come in, they all stood up and bowed.
The elderly, women, and children who lived in the cave were mostly family members of his followers, including Old Hall's wife and children.
Ron waved his hand, walked into his cave dwelling, and brought up the system panel.
Ron Ashwood
Occupations: Apprentice Architect, Apprentice Knight
Physical condition: 15
Power: 12
Spirit: 9
Mana: 43
Completed template building: 9
He stared at the "9" for a while; it was one short of ten.
The system never made any prompts; he figured out all the functions himself.
Will the number of template buildings trigger anything new?
He didn't know, but he decided to give it a try.
Unfortunately, the adobe city wall was only a semi-finished product and was not considered part of the completed project.
To complete the city wall, he must produce red bricks and blue bricks. The former can become the territory's main industry, while the latter can reduce the magic consumption for building the city wall.
Making bricks was a very simple task for Ron, but as a lord, he naturally wouldn't do it himself.
Ron looked at the woman drying wheat in the middle of the courtyard and called out, "Mrs. Moriel, could you please gather a few capable and strong women? I have a new task for you. The person in charge of this task will receive a 30% increase in food and water every day."
Mrs. Moriel was Old Hall's wife, about ten years younger than him. She was also an elder of the Ashwood family and had served as head maid. Later, as she grew older, she fell in love with Old Hall and married him. She bore him a son and a daughter, the son being fifteen years old and the daughter ten years old.
Old Hall, who had children late in life, doted on them. However, Mrs. Moriel was very strict with them, as evidenced by her helping her mother dry wheat in the sweltering heat.
"Yes, young master!" Mrs. Moriel did not hesitate at all, handed over the remaining work to the two children, and went to find someone.
The two children didn't take the opportunity to slack off; they obediently spread out the wheat to make it easier to dry.
The two men bowed respectfully when they saw Ron approaching.
"Good day, my lord!"
Ron nodded and greeted the two with a smile, "Kassadin, Mary, are you settling in well here?"
Kassadin inherited Old Hall's style of doing things early on, and is a calm and cautious person.
"My lord, the pit-house is very comfortable to live in. It's cool during the day and warm at night."
Mary immediately nodded vigorously.
Ron smiled and patted Mary on the shoulder: "That's good. Kassadin, work hard. I hope you can become a qualified knight when you grow up."
Mrs. Moriel returned with ten women, all of whom had one thing in common: they were all burly and strong, clearly capable of working.
Ron led them to the other side of the dugout area and had the people from the four dugouts move into the mud houses he had just built. The people there understood that their lord was going to build another dugout.
Moriel looked at Ron with a puzzled expression. Even if they were cleaning the pit courtyard, they didn't need so many people. However, she didn't ask and instead stood quietly to the side.
Ron quickly dug through the four dugouts and then dug downwards, soon producing a large amount of soil. He also made many tools that they had never seen before.
For example, there are sieves with a diameter of more than one meter, and small grids made of wooden boards.
"First, sift this soil to separate the powder from the sand. Once all this soil is processed, I'll give you instructions for the next step," Ron said, pointing to the tools on the ground.
Mrs. Moriel immediately started leading the work. Without saying much, the women, who were a little clumsy at first, quickly adapted and began to sift the powder and separate the sand.
When Ron finished building a new pit house, Mrs. Moriel also led people to separate two large piles of soil and gravel.
Ron touched the dust on the ground; it was still a little short of the standard for clay, which could be easily fixed with a solidification spell. The same applied to the gravel, which was too large.
As Ron predicted, the simple sieving and solidification of the materials greatly reduced the magic power consumption. Two large piles of materials, each at least a dozen cubic meters, only consumed 2 points of magic power.
Ron explained earnestly, “7 parts clay, 3 parts fine sand, plus a small amount of chopped hay, soak it in water to soften it, then tread on it repeatedly with bare feet and knead it until it becomes a firm, non-sticky mud ball. Then use these wooden molds, first spread a layer of sand powder inside to prevent sticking, then start filling them with mud, pressing it down firmly, patting it tight, and smoothing the top surface, then you can pour out the bricks inside.”
Mrs. Moriel immediately understood what Ron was going to do. In fact, it was similar to building an adobe house, except that these bricks were much smaller than those used for adobe houses.
Within the territory, there are already some adobe houses built using non-building spells. The adobe bricks of these houses are made in this way, only much larger in size.
"The finished brick blanks are neatly arranged in a cool, ventilated, and rain-sheltered place. They are left to dry for 3 to 5 days to set their shape, then turned over and dried again. This is your task: to produce these bricks continuously. Whether we can exchange them for enough food from the Dehea territory next month depends on these bricks."
Ron didn't lift a finger the whole time; he just told her once, and Mrs. Moriel made four brick blanks, just enough for the wooden mold to make four.
"That's right, that's exactly it."
Mrs. Moriel immediately relaxed; they could definitely handle the job.
"Don't worry, young master, we will make the brick blanks for you as quickly as possible."
Ron nodded and walked towards the open space to the north of the territory, which he had already planned when he first enclosed the territory.
The east side is farmland, the south side is residential, the north side is industrial, and the west side is the lord's and administrative area.
Relying on ordinary earthen kilns to fire bricks is absolutely not feasible. Timber is a scarce commodity in the wasteland. Nowadays, almost all the shrubs within a radius of several miles in the territory have been cut down. It is impossible to rely on kilns for firing bricks. The only option is to combine the solar furnace with the earthen kiln.
Soon, Ron had an idea. He first built a small earthen kiln, and outside the kiln, he also set up a pieced-together arc-shaped solar furnace.
Under the blazing sun, the mirror surface gathers the sunlight, condensing into a stream of scorching air. This air slowly flows into the kiln through a small heat-conducting opening in the kiln wall. The kiln is divided into two layers to prevent direct sunlight from shining directly on the brick blanks, which could cause localized overheating, cracking, and ruin.
It's like the solar furnace is lit at the bottom, and the second layer is where the brick blanks are placed.
To ensure that the temperature of the earthen kiln can be locked in—since the kiln cannot be fired at night and can only rely on its own internal temperature for insulation—the kiln wall thickness is three times that of a normal kiln.