Chapter 603 Splitting and Exploding Angry
The Fire Phoenix readily agreed and packed up to leave.
Seeing that the fire well was getting deeper and deeper, Zhao Yulin did not dare to be careless and followed Chen Liu to wait at the wellhead himself.
The young man saw his father basking in the sun with him and insisted that he go back to the yard to rest. How could the little brat convince him? He had to find a recliner and put it under the osmanthus tree next to him, forcing him to lie down and enjoy the coolness.
Zhao Yulin was delighted and rocked comfortably in his chair.
Ten days passed and the well had reached a depth of sixty feet, but there was still no harvest. It was just getting hotter and hotter, and the craftsmen could not hold out for long in the well before having to come up to catch their breath.
At night, Zhao Yulin asked the craftsmen to install the newly made elevator overnight to help the masters go up and down the well.
This device is made of fine iron. After the bearings are installed, it is easy to operate, saves time and effort, and can be raised and lowered quickly and continuously. At present, the well is already quite deep. Zhao Yulin is worried about accidents below, so he must consider everything carefully.
When he saw that the master operating the blower had blisters on his hands, he asked the craftsmen to install a long sleeve on the blower's handle and arranged for two craftsmen to operate the blower together, and they had to wear gloves.
In this way, the speed of the blower can be increased and the air supply volume can be increased.
Half a month later , the well was dug to a depth of seventy feet, but there was still no gas. The great craftsmen from the Ministry of Works hesitated, wondering whether they should continue digging.
If I continue digging, I'm worried that I won't get any more air and it will be all in vain.
If I don't dig, I'm afraid I'll get angry if I dig another foot deeper. It would be a pity to waste all my efforts.
Zhao Yulin asked Chen Liu to invite Gou Erdan, Tie Niu and other masters who had gone down the well to have a drink and listen to their opinions before making a decision.
These masters had never sat down and talked with a great official like Zhao Yulin. They sat in their chairs trembling with fear, unable to even hold their chopsticks steadily. They all stood up with their glasses in hand and invited this great official to drink.
Zhao Yulin smiled and told the masters that the New Song Dynasty values equality for all and that there is no need to be formal. When he was a child, he was just like everyone else, living on the docks and doing all kinds of work.
After three glasses of wine, the craftsman finally started talking.
Gou Erdan told him: all the wells dug in the past were wet wells, but this well was a little strange, it was always dry the further you dug it was. All the wells dug in the past were very cool, but this well was getting hotter and hotter, so hot that it was uncomfortable.
Here, if they don’t see water within thirty feet, they will abandon the excavation.
Tie Niu went on: He became an apprentice at the age of twelve and has been digging wells for forty years, but this is the first time he has encountered a dry well like this. It's like working at the bottom of a pot that has been burned .
He was very unconvinced and wanted to dig again to see what was going on. Tie Niu then shouted, "Dog Erdan, dare you to go down the well? Let's continue digging."
Gou Erdan glared at him, raised his glass and said: "Just dig, what's there to be afraid of? Damn, this well is really weird, it's dry and the more I dig, the hotter it gets. Maybe it will get angry if I hit it with a hammer again."
Zhao Yulin shouted: Okay, Dashan, let’s continue digging.
It asked Master Ergou with a smile, why did his parents name him Gou Erdan, it's not very elegant. Several masters explained with a smile that he was picked up and had no name, Gou Erdan was called by the villagers.
Zhao Yulin was even more puzzled, and Erdan started to shy away.
Tie Niu explained with a laugh: Sir, you don’t know, the thing down there of his son is too long, as long as two dogs, so everyone in our village calls him Gou Erdan.
Zhao Yulin laughed out loud upon hearing this, and the craftsmen at the table followed suit. The maids and female relatives around them ran away with red faces, and even the old man of the Wang family looked embarrassed.
Zhao Yulin looked at Chen Liu who was still in a daze and said, "Then continue working. You must be extremely careful. Starting tomorrow, only one person is allowed to work and one person is on standby, ready to go up the well at any time."
After digging for ten days, there was still no movement.
Chen Liu looked at the well with great regret. It was more than ninety feet deep and there was no other well in the entire Qiongzhou.
Tie Niu told him: It felt like digging a well on a huge slab of rock, and the hammer made a loud bang below.
Zhao Yulin reluctantly ordered the excavation to stop, and the craftsmen began to dismantle the derrick shed. He said with some regret that this time, it was a waste of effort for everyone, and Chen Liu also spent a lot of money.
Chen Liu felt equally disappointed, having been busy for two months. When the young man saw Zhao Yulin, he first blamed himself, but instead comforted him by saying: This is our father's experiment, there will be successes and failures, it doesn't matter.
Tie Niu was very unconvinced, so he picked up a stone and threw it into the well. After a long time, a thud was heard, and Gou Erdan also threw a big stone into the well.
When Zhao Yulin saw this, he was suddenly inspired. He told everyone to stop moving, as he had one more trick to try. He then ordered his guards to go to Huojing County to fetch some thunder bombs.
Guard Captain Jing Gang asked him what he was doing?
Want to use thunder bombs to blast your anger?
Zhao Yulin said with a smile, "That's right. Anyway, this well is useless, but we have dug so deep, let's try to bombard it with a thunder bomb. I can't do it because there is no air below."
Everyone was amused and wanted to see how he would blast out natural gas.
In the evening, Hulan came, and the little woman said with a smile: My husband has suffered a lot these days, and she wants to comfort him. There are no thunder bombs in Huojing County, and she has already instructed to go to Qiongzhou to allocate them.
Zhao Yulin looked at the craftsmen who were busy cleaning up and said to her: The masters have done their best, everyone has done their best.
Old man Wang said approvingly that he had never seen a team digging a well so quickly in his life. The well was dozens of feet deep, and it was all safe and sound.
There is no doubt about this. If nothing goes wrong in their hands, they are lucky.
At night, Hulan pulled him to bed early. The woman felt that he was tossing and turning and couldn't sleep. She snuggled into his arms and asked: What are you thinking about? Are you unwilling to give up?
He said that it was not possible, but the workers had worked so hard for so long, and it would be a pity for them to have no harvest. However, my husband is very lucky, and when the thunder bomb arrives tomorrow, it will definitely produce natural gas.
The woman stuck her butt out and said to him: I know my husband can go to sleep.
The next afternoon, a team of guards escorted a carriage and delivered five ten-jin thunder bombs. The guards told him that Qiongzhou only had ten-jin thunder bombs. There were only these five, and they were all brought over.
Zhao Yulin ordered the guards to use a net bag to catch the four splitting bombs and put them at the bottom of the well, and let Jing Gang hold the last splitting bomb, aim at the position of the splitting bomb at the bottom of the well and throw it down.
The guards around shouted and told the craftsmen to stay away.
Jing Gang aimed at the bottom of the well and let go, and the splitter bomb fell freely towards the pile of splitter bombs below.
Zhao Yulin soon heard a loud bang and felt the ground beneath his feet shaking.
Oh my god, it's no less than a small earthquake.
Immediately, a thick smoke with flames gushed out from the well mouth, and everyone was shocked. The flames at the well mouth quickly went out, and the gray smoke became increasingly faint, but it still rose straight into the sky.
Where does such a huge force come from? Could it be the explosion of natural gas?
Zhao Yulin saw the continuous column of smoke rushing upwards, and suddenly woke up, sensitively realizing that the air was coming.
He quickly asked everyone to disperse, the farther the better, and told Jing Gang to light a torch and throw it over to try.
Gou Erdan immediately ran back to find a torch, lit it, and threw it far away.
There was a loud bang and everyone around felt a strong push. Erdan, who was closest to the wellhead, fell on his back in an exaggerated way.
Even Zhao Yulin, who was well prepared, had to retreat three steps before he could steady himself.
There was already a blazing fire above the wellhead. Several masters from the Ministry of Works were so happy that they stood up and shouted, "It's done, it's done, it's a success!" The people around them all cheered together.
Zhao Yulin yelled at Chen Liu: What are you doing? Seal the well quickly. Seal the well.
Little Chen Liu came to his senses at this moment, and ran over excitedly to ask the craftsmen to start working, filling the well with stones in the order of big stones first and small stones later.
Zhao Yulin had already designed the gas hood, gas pipe, tee and valve for collecting natural gas, which were installed like the lid of a pressure cooker. After filling the stones, the craftsmen immediately moved these parts to install them, erected the gas pipe, and quickly pushed sand, gravel and soil into the well layer by layer to compact it.
The sky gradually darkened, but the masters were still busy. Some craftsmen had already used bamboo poles to ignite the natural gas at the pipe mouth. The raging fire rose to a height of two meters, like a huge torch that illuminated the village entrance as bright as day.
Hu Lan leaned on him in surprise, held Zhao Yulin's arm tightly and exclaimed sincerely: How beautiful, how spectacular.
He put his arm around the woman's waist and said proudly: The first natural gas well with modern significance in the New Song Kingdom has been built.
Hu Lan shouted: Yes, yes, I will reward you handsomely.
He laughed and praised Gou Erdan and Tie Niu for their good ideas, and asked Chen Liu to reward the two masters with 100 strings of cash each.
Hu Lan laughed and shouted: Reward, reward.
The two craftsmen were so happy that they couldn't close their mouths.
The masters are still methodically tamping the top part. Once it is done, they will cover the surface with concrete.
Zhao Yulin saw that the matter was settled, there was no need to worry. He fetched some water to flood the ground, and backfilled the ground while watering. Only then did the foundation become dense after being rammed with water.
At this time, there was only a conduit and several three-way valves at the wellhead. He told Chen Liu that after the concrete floor was completed, a house would be built, and the door would be closed and locked, and the rest would be easy.
Chen Liu was already grinning from ear to ear, and said with a smile that he understood and would listen to the masters. He would ask the masters to clean the salt wells and build a workshop to make salt.
The old man of the Wang family toasted him with tea instead of wine, and nodded his head repeatedly, praising Commander Zhao as a god who had saved an abandoned salt well. From now on, the Wang family compound will be bustling, and it will soon be built into a town, all thanks to your blessing.
Zhao Yulin was in great joy and held Hu Lan's arm to admire the magnificent flame of natural gas.
In Jinguan City of Chengdu, Shunzhidi is still busy.
After Mr. Qiu brought Zhao Yulin's letter, Zhidi immediately summoned his ministers to discuss the matter.
At this time, Yangjin had already set out with the advance team to Tubo, and the only ones who could discuss with her were Chen Chen and Huo Fenghuang.
