Chapter 59: Firing Bricks and Building Kilns

Li Shen finally received permission to leave the palace and began preparing for his departure. The primary task was the swift construction of his princely residence, as he could only move out of the palace once it was completed.

Therefore, that very afternoon, he headed to the Lesser Imperial Estate. Near the estate, there was a mountain entirely composed of clay, an essential ingredient for firing bricks and tiles. Cement was similarly straightforward, requiring limestone, clay, gypsum, coal, and iron ore.

Crushing these materials, calcining them at high temperatures, grinding them into a fine powder, and mixing them yielded cement—knowledge covered in junior high school chemistry, though many people tended to forget it. Moreover, simple cement only required limestone and clay; after a few trials, success would follow.

Li Shen instructed Wang Hongfu to build two earthen kilns according to the blueprints he drew—one for firing bricks and one for producing cement. Once the bricks were fired, they would rebuild the kilns properly. Besides, it was already winter, and foundations could not be laid properly. For now, they would have to make do by building a pair of earthen cave-kilns on the surface. In any case, the villagers had little to do during the winter, and as long as they were paid, they were willing to do anything. The work would be finished by the Lantern Festival.

This Lantern Festival would be Li Shen’s last one inside the palace, yet throughout the entire imperial household, Consort Wei was the only person he felt any attachment to. It featured the same peaceful atmosphere and festive mood as always.

The only difference was that the dinner table had a few fewer people. Several of his older brothers had been dispatched to the provinces, and several of his older sisters had married. What saddened Emperor Taizhou—Emperor Taizong—this year was the critical illness of Qin Qiong.

Li Shen had watched television dramas and listened to storytelling performances, knowing historically that Qin Qiong died in the twelfth year of Zhenguan, but that year had not yet arrived. Li Shen surmised that history might have been recorded incorrectly and it should actually be the thirteenth year. Li Shen had been to visit him; suffering from a resurgence of old injuries, Li Shen had administered penicillin several times, which brought down his fever and cleared the inflammation, though his prognosis remained guarded.

The production volume of Li Shen’s penicillin over the past two years had remained more or less the same, though the production process had become somewhat faster. For now, he only manufactured enough for immediate use and could not yet achieve mass production. Qin Qiong’s primary ailment stemmed from having suffered too many wounds in the past.

Having lost excessive amounts of blood, he had felt nothing when he was young and full of vigor, but now that he was aging, his body could no longer hold up. Compounded by the flare-up of his old injuries, a few days of blood transfusions in modern times would have cleared the problem right up.

In this era, however, medical science had yet to find a solution. With his constitution depleted, his body could no longer withstand any nourishment or medicine. Consequently, Emperor Taizong had been wearing a furrowed brow and feeling deeply sorrowful these days. The imperial physicians had already stated that he had at most half a year left, though they were still exhausting all possible measures.

Li Shen had also been constantly racking his brain, searching his memory for methods to identify blood types and perform transfusions. Now, the methods were clear.

To perform a blood transfusion, the first problem to solve was environmental contamination, namely bacterial infection. Li Shen could have someone prepare a silkworm room sprayed thoroughly with high-concentration alcohol. For instruments, they would use bamboo tubes and chicken intestines, and he would have the artisans forge a few needles, which could then be high-temperature sterilized and soaked in alcohol—this was all basic common sense.

However, the only unresolved issue was the matter of blood types. Television dramas always depicted close relatives donating blood, but a doctor friend from his past life had once told him:

Hospitals generally avoided blood transfusions between direct relatives due to potential complications. Later, Li Shen had even specifically searched the internet.

Indeed, the probability of complications was as high as twenty percent, but since Li Shen had no way to identify blood types, he would ultimately have no choice but to use his son. If the worst happened and the patient died, the responsibility would be immense. In any case, there were still six months left; he would decide when the time came.

Once the Lantern Festival concluded, Li Shen arranged for people to quarry limestone and clay. Although the freezing weather made extraction arduous, Li Shen did not demand a huge output; his goal was merely to generate some extra income for the villagers. Aside from those working in the workshop, every household could send one person, offering three meals a day and a wage of ten copper cash per day. The villagers understood that Li Shen was trying to help them earn a little extra money during their idle time, so they threw themselves into the work with great enthusiasm. The two earthen kilns had long since been completed, and just as the Lantern Festival passed, Li Shen arranged for them to start firing bricks. They had built small kilns, each capable of producing about twenty-five thousand bricks at a time. However, due to the limited conditions of the era, a single firing cycle took about ten days, plus an additional day for cooling. For the time being, the cement production could only rely on limestone, a small amount of clay, and coal cinders. Calcining them for seven days yielded materials that, when ground into powder and mixed together, became cement.

Li Shen spent a day at the imperial estate instructing them on how to sift the soil, make brick blanks, dry them, arrange them inside the kilns, manage the firing, and time the addition of coal. Li Shen currently had plenty of coal, having accumulated over a year’s worth of mining without selling any. After settling the brick-making arrangements, Li Shen went to organize the cement production: crushing, calcining, fine-grinding, and mixing. It was close to dusk and the city gates were about to close by the time he returned to the imperial palace. Li Shen decided that he ought to build another estate outside the city walls. South of Chang'an flowed the Hao River, and a large tract of land Li Shen had purchased was located right there. Building an estate nestled against the mountains and beside the water would be quite pleasant, serving essentially as a resort village.

Half a month later, the first batch of finished products was ready to be taken out of the kilns. Early in the morning, Li Shen left the palace for the imperial estate. The laborers loaded up their carts and opened the kilns, pulling out the red bricks one by one. Li Shen picked up two bricks and forcefully clapped them against each other; they did not break, which meant the attempt was a success. The cement had also been produced earlier and was currently being mixed. To crush and grind the powder, Li Shen had commissioned several large iron rollers that required three or four people to push. Although they were heavy, the results were excellent. After experimental testing, the finished cement basically met Li Shen’s requirements.

While having the workers continue firing bricks and cement, Li Shen initiated the construction of new kilns. This time, Li Shen built large kilns, each capable of firing fifty thousand bricks at a time, along with a large cement kiln. Li Shen estimated these would be sufficient to supply the materials needed for his princely residence. Once the mansion was completed, he would consider selling the surplus.

Li Shen also had the road from the imperial estate to Chang'an rebuilt and widened, laying a foundation of crushed stone, a middle layer of spent coal cinders, and a top surface of cement, making it wide enough for three carriages to travel abreast. Lacking sufficient manpower for road construction, Li Shen sent Wang Hongfu to recruit laborers from neighboring villages to finish the repairs as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the distance was short; otherwise, there was no telling how long the repairs would have taken.

Having arranged everything, Li Shen returned to the city and went straight to the Ministry of Works to find Minister Yan Libud—Yan Liben. He intended to have Yan Liben draft the layout for his residence.

Presently, the garden, artificial rockeries, and pleasure lakes within the grounds were basically complete; what remained was the construction of the buildings. He needed Yan Liben to draw up blueprints for grey-brick, tiled houses, complete with the positioning of heated brick beds—kang—and their chimneys.

Initially, Li Shen had also wanted to install boiler rooms and radiant floor heating—wasn't that how it was always written in novels? In reality, however, conditions did not permit it.

First of all, one had to solve the piping problem. Copper pipes possessed the best thermal conductivity and were rust-resistant. Yet, in this era, copper was money; even if Li Shen were wealthy, he could never afford to line every courtyard of his residence with copper pipes.

Furthermore, there was the issue of the circulation system. Where would one find a circulation pump in this era? Relying solely on passive thermal conduction would mean waiting forever for the rooms to warm up. Even the simplest cast-iron radiators from the countryside could not be manufactured at present. Consequently, Li Shen could only utilize such systems in a few select areas.

Li Shen and Yan Liben discussed the plans for over two hours, finalizing Li Shen’s requirements before proceeding with the formal layout.

When Li Shen claimed that cement could bond bricks together and become as hard as stone upon drying, Yan Liben expressed disbelief. However, Li Shen told him to visit the imperial estate the next day to witness an experiment firsthand. Additionally, the use of reinforced concrete for pillars meant Yan Liben would need to return and verify its structural integrity before he could draw up the blueprints for Li Shen.

Another reason Li Shen sought out Yan Liben was that Yan Liben knew precisely what scale a prince’s residence ought to be, and how the buildings should be constructed and decorated without violating ritual propriety, lest someone later impeach him for exceeding his station once the mansion was finished.

Having to tear down and rebuild the houses would be a grievous waste. Furthermore, Li Shen’s residence included a subterranean section: cellars for storing vegetables and grain, and an icehouse for preserving ice, all located underground.

There was also the massive treasury requested by Li Shen. Because reinforced concrete and grey bricks provided robust structural integrity, Li Shen had no fear of collapse, allowing him to construct a vault akin to an underground fallout shelter. His greatest headache was that copper cash was too heavy and took up immense amounts of space, leaving him no choice but to build a colossal treasury.