"Yes, Master. Please rest assured."
Yuan Wu waited until the group had gone far before leaping onto his horse and returning to the other residence.
Su Qiao dug up every bamboo shoot in the bamboo grove as quickly as possible, then carried the already peeled bamboo shoots back home at a fast pace.
There was still plenty to do: rush the production of bags, shoes, and socks; make the molds for Movable Type Printing; teach her second uncle how to make Coarse Paper and Xuan Paper; and prepare for building the house.
To build a house, they first needed bricks, cement, and tiles. She planned to have her unskilled second and third maternal uncles, along with several cousins from her second and third uncles' families, make them.
If all went smoothly, they could eventually build a small Cement Factory, brick-and-tile factory, and Lime Factory, then put together a construction team dedicated to building houses for others.
Before that, however, she had to conduct some experiments herself.
Calcining lime was simple. For bricks and tiles, they only needed to find somewhat sticky soil, make molds, then build a kiln and fire them. As for cement, the encyclopedia in that book she had found last time also contained a substitute recipe.
Lime, clay, slag ash, and a small amount of sand and gypsum.
Limestone was calcined at high temperatures to become quicklime. Adding water turned it into slaked lime. Clay could be found with a little searching, sand could be scooped from the river, and gypsum only required finding gypsum ore, heating it, and refining it.
The slag ash here referred to the slag ash left after coal burned. It could be replaced with volcanic ash. Ordinary commoners had none, but with Yuan Wu around, finding unwanted slag ash transported out from