The team members quickly arranged their shifts. Two people would work as a pair, with three pairs in all. They began burning the wood after dinner and kept it going until dawn the next day.
By the time the sky was about to brighten the following day, Yang Xin had already gotten up early.
When he reached the rock wall, he asked before even drawing near, "How's the fire inside?"
The two team members on watch immediately reported, "Chief Engineer Yang, it's burning hot in there—red as a furnace. Do we keep adding firewood?"
Yang Xin glanced at the sky. A sliver of fish-belly white had appeared in the east, so he immediately said,
"Stop adding firewood from now on. Find a fan or something and fan more air in through that opening below. I'll have someone fire up the boiler now. Once the steam engine is running and the pressure is high enough, we'll use the water pump to draw water and start pouring it over the rock."
"All right, Chief Engineer Yang. Don't worry," one of them immediately agreed.
"Oh, right. One of you keep watch over the fire, while the other goes to find a few hoes, Steel Chisels, pickaxes, and similar tools. We'll need them to tear down this earthen wall in a while." Yang Xin had taken only two steps when he suddenly remembered something, turned around, and added an instruction.
"All right, I'll get them right away."
Seeing the two men each attending to their own duties, Yang Xin wasted no more time. He quickly found a Stoker in the camp and brought him over to light the boiler of the Steam Engine that powered the water pump.
More than an hour passed. The sky grew bright, and by the time breakfast in the