Outside Shuangyue City, in the factory district.
"Chu Chen, look at how dirty I am with this sticky stuff you made me create! It's all over my face, hands, and arms! If this dirty stuff isn't as magical as you say, you're finished! I absolutely won't let you off!"
Princess Xinyue, with her upper body covered in sticky residue, glared indignantly at Chu Chen, who stood beside her with a gentle smile.
Chu Chen said helplessly, "Uh~ Don't put it that way, it's just playing with mud."
He then pointed to a spot not far away, where over a dozen masters were leading hundreds of apprentices, busily playing with mud and doing the same thing Chu Chen and Princess Xinyue were doing.
"Besides, with the Cloud Robe of Neon I gave you, how could your clothes get dirty? At most, your skin will get a little stained, and a rinse with water will clean it off."
"Hmph~"
Princess Xinyue turned her head and snorted, not truly angry, just a little frustrated that something as seemingly simple as playing with mud was so difficult. If it were about making pottery with mud, that would require considerable skill, but simply mixing various mineral powders with water, forming them into blocks, and sending them for firing was proving to be so challenging!
"How exactly did you do it?"
After a moment, Princess Xinyue couldn't help but turn back and point to the finished product next to Chu Chen.
"Didn't I tell you when I was teaching you?"
Chu Chen sighed and said, "Clay powder, shale powder, gangue powder, mix them together in a one-to-one ratio with water, knead them into mud, then press them into a mold, and after it's dried in fine sand, send it for firing."
"The process is that simple, anyone with hands can do it. Why can't you learn it?"
"How dare you! What do you mean 'anyone with hands can do it'? Are my delicate hands not hands anymore!?"
Princess Xinyue was a little annoyed. Her eyes twinkled, and with a bright smile, she quickly reached out and smeared Chu Chen's face, leaving a very obvious muddy mark.
"Hehe, I'm going to go inspect if we have enough!"
After her mischief, Princess Xinyue scampered away.
Chu Chen stirred his hands in the basin of water beside him a few times, removing the mud paste from his hands, and then wiped away the muddy streak Princess Xinyue had left on his face.
"It really is that simple!"
As he spoke, Chu Chen brought over the bags of clay powder, shale powder, and gangue powder, poured them together, mixed them with his hands, and then dug a hole in the center before pouring water into it.
Once a certain amount of water was added, he used his hands to push the powder from the sides into the water, mixing them together, and then quickly grasped, kneaded, and shaped it. The entire process was fluid and natural.
The various mineral powders, mixed with water, had already turned into a dough-like mud ball. He then scooped out a portion of the mud ball, placed it into a mold, pressed it down lightly with both hands, and then repeated the process of adding and pressing.
Finally, after filling the mold, he carefully inverted it onto a cart covered with cloth and fine sand at the bottom, leaving behind a damp mud brick.
"Princess Xinyue, this girl, can't even mix the mud properly. She probably can't even knead dough for cooking, but as a princess, she wouldn't be doing that anyway."
"If she were to cook, it would be a kitchen disaster every day!"
Chu Chen shook his head and continued making mud bricks.
By the time Princess Xinyue returned, Chu Chen had not only filled his own cart with twenty mud bricks but had also filled Princess Xinyue's cart with twenty mud bricks.
"Wow, you're so fast, you've finished already!"
Princess Xinyue exclaimed with a surprised laugh.
Chu Chen glanced at her, grasped the handles of the cart, and asked, "Pushing the cart carefully into the workshop, that should be no problem, right?"
"Don't worry, if I can't make mud bricks, I can still push a cart! It's easy peasy~"
Princess Xinyue waved her hand and easily grabbed the handles, pushing the cart behind Chu Chen.
Chu Chen looked back a few times to make sure everything was fine before continuing forward.
They arrived at a spacious workshop. Chu Chen parked his cart directly below the cart in front, while Princess Xinyue parked hers beside Chu Chen's.
The workshop had walls on all four sides, with windows only at a higher level, barred with iron.
The lower sections had no windows to prevent strong winds from carrying in debris that could mix with the mud bricks. The higher windows allowed for continuous airflow day and night, to dry the mud bricks on the carts.
"Is this it then?" Princess Xinyue clapped her hands and laughed.
"Yes, this is the production process. Next, I'll take you to another workshop where the mud bricks have already been dried."
"Okay."
Soon, the two arrived at the adjacent workshop and pushed the cart with the dried mud bricks to the firing area.
The craftsman guarding the kiln entrance hurried to bow, "Prime Minister Chu! Fifth Highness!"
"Please put them in for firing."
Chu Chen waved his hand gently and replied.
The craftsman nodded and, with the help of several apprentices, placed these two carts of mud bricks into the kiln. Seeing that it wasn't full, they retrieved enough dried mud bricks from the workshop to reach a total of one hundred.
Then, coal was added, and the kiln was sealed and ignited.
This was the initial version of the kiln, with a small capacity of only one hundred bricks. It was built by Chu Chen when he first intended to fire bricks, for experimentation and teaching.
The larger-scale brick-firing site was located about a mile outside this factory district. There, they had excavated kilns capable of holding three thousand five hundred bricks. Ten such kilns had been built, and more were still under construction.
However, construction would stop when winter snow arrived, as the ground would become difficult to excavate.
This factory district, with its sealed buildings, was mainly used for drying the bricks here, as outdoor drying depended on the weather.
However, the drying process wouldn't last long. Once the specialized underground drying cellars were excavated, the drying and production sites would be moved there, leaving only the initial experimental area for visitors.
Feeling a slight warmth emanating from the kiln, Princess Xinyue asked, "After placing them in like this, they'll be ready in one to three days?"
"That's right. Bricks fired in this time are generally sufficient for most uses."
Chu Chen nodded and pointed to another area, saying, "Come, I'll take you to see the finished products that were fired earlier."
Princess Xinyue followed Chu Chen into the warehouse, where tens of thousands of bricks, all fired in the past month, were stored.
Looking at the tens of thousands of grayish-blue bricks in the warehouse, Princess Xinyue was astonished. She couldn't help but step forward, pick up a brick, and touch it.
"Are these the bricks you mentioned that can be used to build walls and houses for the common people, to build city walls, and even to pave roads?"
Chu Chen smiled and said, "These are blue bricks, with wide-ranging applications. For this, I asked His Majesty for a million taels of silver."