Chapter 23

Kabulu sacrifice has a high prestige in the gaoshu tribe, even the tribal leaders can not compare with it.

Therefore, Hongyun easily took three iron pots from the tribe.

Iron pot is the most common pig iron pot, which makes Shi Xiong a little disappointed. However, if you want to turn pig iron into steel, you still need to do some preparatory work.

In this era, there are several best ways to change a small amount of pig iron into steel. The best way is to stir fry steel or crucible steelmaking.

The former had been mastered by Chinese blacksmiths as early as 2000 years in the late Western Han Dynasty, and it was not until the middle of the 18th century that Europeans mastered this steelmaking method. As for the latter, it was invented by the British not long ago, and it is estimated that it has not yet been popularized.

Either way, however, a high-temperature crucible is needed to melt the pig iron. In fact, southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia are the largest kaolin producing areas in the United States.

With kaolin, you can make a simple high temperature resistant clay crucible to melt pig iron.

But if you want to melt pig iron with a melting point of more than 1500, you need the necessary fuel. Obviously, it is not feasible to use wood as fuel. The temperature generated by wood combustion can not even soften pig iron. Therefore, in order to melt these iron pots, the stone bear must find coal.

However, stone bear once stayed in Knoxville for a few days before soul wear. He knows that there are many small coal mines near Knoxville. Although the reserves are small, they are all excellent anthracite.

One of the coal mines is at the foot of a hill about 15 kilometers away from the gaoshu tribe. At that time, when Shi Xiong visited Dawu Mountain, he once saw the closed open-pit coal mine. However, although the coal mine has been closed down, the pit can still be seen.

So the stone bear found a horse from the tribe, then took the bow and arrow and bone spear, and then pulled the horse toward the open-pit coal mine in his memory.

The Appalachian Mountains, which run through the east of North America, are extremely rich in mineral resources. There are a lot of coal and iron ore in this seemingly fragmented mountain range. The reason why the United States became the first country in the world in terms of output value at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century is the rich mineral resources contained in this huge mountain range.

Although most of the coal and iron resources in the Appalachian Mountains are located in those areas in the north of Tennessee, there are also many mineral resources at the foot of Dawu Mountain, but these resources are not as abundant as those in the north, and large-scale mining is of little value.

However, for the stone bear and the small gaoshu tribe, these resources are extremely abundant. Even if we look at the whole Cherokee community, these scattered resources are enough.

Walking eastward along the flat land in the valley, after about 15 kilometers, the stone bear saw the familiar hill.

At the foot of the hill, which is no more than 300 meters above sea level, there is a high-quality anthracite open-pit mine. At that time, the accompanying personnel of the Appalachian frontier museum said that this smokeless coal mine had been mined for decades. Before the 1950s, this coal mine was the largest open-pit coal mine near Knoxville, and most of the winter heating in Knoxville came from this open-pit coal mine.

Although Kuaima didn't understand why silly head took himself away at this time of year, he was still very happy. It's a great thing for people of their age to be able to come out alone. Even though Kuaima has already got married, he is only 16 years old this year. In later generations, this is the age of just entering high school.

"Silly head, why are we here?" Although they respect the silly head who has changed a lot, Kuaima still can't change the name of the stone bear. After all, the two of them are really the kind of children who grew up naked together, and their relationship is not generally close.

The stone bear didn't get angry with his friend's name.

"I've come to find a kind of fuel that can not only heat but also melt iron." Then the stone bear got off his horse and walked around for a few times before he bent down and picked up a black and shiny stone.

"See, what I need to look for is this kind of black stone." The stone bear raised the coal in his hand.

The horse quickly came up to look at the coal in the stone bear's hand and said in surprise: "I've seen this kind of black stone several times. It can burn, but it can produce poisonous gas, which can poison people. My mother told me that this kind of stone is the excrement of the devil and contains powerful evil. "

Stone bear rolled a white eye, this is the first time he heard that coal is actually the devil's excrement, this brain hole is too big, right?

However, it is inevitable that, let alone the Indians, even the ancestors of China did not use coal as a real fuel until they discovered it for thousands of years. Although Chinese ancestors used coal to smelt iron as early as the Western Han Dynasty, heating was not used until a long time later.

The carbon monoxide produced by coal combustion is indeed a poisonous gas for the ancients who had no way to exhaust the smoke.

It is inevitable that Indians regard coal as devil's excrement.

The ancients always put some unsolvable things or things in the name of gods or demons

"Don't worry, quick horse, it's a good thing. With this, we will be able to smelt iron by ourselves, and when it comes to the long night month (December) and the wolf month (January), it's the best thing to use this for heating

In order to completely dispel the doubts and worries of Kuaima, the stone bear added: "this is what the supreme Sun God told me."

This sentence is really more effective than any explanation. The worry on Kuaima's face disappeared immediately.

This area will become an open-pit coal mine in 150 years, so the coal seams here are very shallow, and some coal blocks are simply exposed to the surface.

Stone bear and fast horse picked up for a long time, and then picked up hundreds of Jin of coal. After the bag was packed with hide and tied to the horse's back, the two men led the horse on the way back.

Horse is the most valuable property among the Indian tribes in North America. At this time, no Indian was willing to put more than 100 Jin on his horse and then ride it with dignity.

It's also a tragedy. There were a lot of horses in North America tens of thousands of years ago, but I don't know what happened. These horses disappeared in a short time. As a result, the Mongols didn't see any horses when they came to America through the Bering Strait land bridge.

However, when the European colonists transported a large number of horses to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the horses became the most precious wealth and loyal partners of the Indians.

There are only more than 20 horses in the gaoshu tribe, which are all bought from the white people with all kinds of fur. At present, the Cherokee people have not completely mastered their ability to cultivate horses, so horses are very precious and precious wealth.

If the stone bear had not been the guardian of the kabulu sacrifice, he would not have come to the horse.