The county magistrate's daughter only wants to farm

"Well, what happened?"

"Look, County Lady, a big rock suddenly appeared here blocking the way, and we can't think of any good way to move it. County Lady has always been smart, so I specially asked you to come and take a look." The county magistrate said as he took Gu Yin to the side of the big rock.

I saw a huge stone about one meter deep in the sewer. Why is it huge? Because they have dug out an area three or four meters wide on both sides, but they still haven't dug to the edge of the stone.

The workers probably couldn't estimate how big the stone was, so they stopped digging.

When Gu Yin saw the big rock, his first thought was to blow it up. It would be so easy to just use explosives to blow it up.

However, he soon realized that this was the Daji Dynasty, and explosives had not yet been invented.

She knew the ingredients of gunpowder: potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal. This has almost become common knowledge in modern times. Mixing 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal can make gunpowder. It sounds simple.

However, it is not so easy to do.

First of all, potassium nitrate and the raw materials of Iwo Jima are difficult to find. Some people may say that potassium nitrate is easy to find. Can't it be collected from toilets, pig pens, and cattle pens?

This is indeed possible, but after collecting it, it still needs to be filtered, extracted, etc. Besides, not much can be collected from these places, and it is probably impossible to collect enough to make gunpowder.

Even if all the raw materials were available, the proportion suitable for blasting rocks was not what the public knew. She vaguely remembered that in order to make gunpowder that could blast open this big rock, the proportion of sulfur should be relatively high, but she didn't remember the exact amount.

Therefore, by the time she develops the gunpowder, it will be too late.

Gu Yin came to the final conclusion that since the gunpowder approach was not feasible, he had to think of other ways.

"Who among you has the means to chisel this stone open?"

Three heads are better than one. Gu Yin decided to seek the opinions of the public.

However, after hearing Gu Yin's question, everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to speak.

"What can they do?" The county magistrate said on the side, the workers have always just waited for orders and did whatever they were told to do.

"You can't say that. As the old saying goes: many hands make light work. It's better to have so many heads thinking together than to have one person think about it alone." Gu Yin retorted, and then threw out the bait loudly, "Everyone, please feel free to give us your suggestions. As long as the method you provide can dredge this sewer, you will be rewarded with five taels of silver!"

"Five taels!"

"really?"

"so much!"

When the workers present heard that there was a reward of five taels of silver, they couldn't believe it and confirmed with the people next to them whether they had heard it correctly. After receiving a positive answer, one by one they began to discuss solutions.

Five taels of silver was undoubtedly a huge sum of money for those of them who came from farming families. If they could win this reward, their lives would be much better.

There is always a brave man under a huge reward. A few people who had kept silent just now came out and said they wanted to try it.

Gu Yin pointed at a sturdy man and said, "Then you go first. What do you have in mind?"

"My Lord, I am naturally strong. Let me try to see if I can chisel it open with an axe."

"allow."

The man thanked happily, picked up a big axe, jumped onto the big rock, found the right angle, and smashed it down hard.

"Ding……"

The axe hit the big rock, splashing a few sparks and making a sharp sound, but the rock did not move at all.

The man was still unwilling to give up, and he struck again with the axe.

"Crack!" With a sound, the axe handle broke.

Seeing this scene, people around burst into laughter, saying that this method didn't work and that they should stop making a fool of themselves.

The man sighed and gave up.

The next person to come out was a thin man. He did not take action directly, but instead put forward his own ideas:

"We have to dig this section of the sewer to a depth of nearly ten feet, so we can ignore the upper part and just dig a hole at the bottom."

"That's easy to say. Why don't you try to chisel it?" As soon as the man finished speaking, someone in the crowd immediately made a joke.

"It's a good idea, but it's not realistic to drill a big hole in the stone because of its width." Although the method proposed by the man was not feasible, at least he stood up. It is better to have someone supporting him than to be a coward. Fortunately, these people are pretty good.

Then many people came up with many solutions, but in the end they were found to be unworkable.

However, just as everyone was dejected and silent, a childish male voice came from the back of the crowd:

"Sister, I have an idea. Maybe you can try it."

When the boy came closer, Gu Yin realized that he was someone she knew. No wonder she felt the voice was familiar.

It could be none other than Yunze, who had previously taken her money. He saw that he had grown a lot taller, and his skin had become much whiter and tenderer.

Gu Yin used to go to the orphanage to see the children when she had time, but she has been busy recently and has not been there for a while.

"Yun Ze, tell me what idea you have." Gu Yin said to Yun Ze with a smile.

"Burn a big fire on a big rock and turn it red. Then pour cold water on it and the rock will crack." Yunze explained the method in no time.

Gu Yin listened and was thoughtful. After Yunze's reminder, she remembered that there seemed to be such a method in ancient times when people cut mountains and rocks, which utilized the effects of cold and heat. She just didn't know why the people here didn't know it.

"How did you come up with this idea?" Gu Yin was curious. Even the adults didn't know, so how could a child like him know this idea?

Yunze scratched his head: "When I was burning a fire before, a stone accidentally fell into the fire. When I was carrying water, I accidentally spilled water on it. As a result, the stone exploded with a bang and almost jumped on me."

"So I think this big rock is the same." Yunze added his guess.

"Then give it a try." Gu Yin thought it was worth a try. Anyway, she couldn't think of any other way at the moment.

Everyone present also wanted to know whether this method was feasible, so they all helped to move firewood.

A raging fire ignited on the big rock, and the hot flames gradually burned the big rock hot. The people around were also sweating because of the fire, but they just stepped back and did not move too far away.

More than a dozen big men on both sides had already brought buckets of well water, waiting for the opportunity to pour the water.

As the firewood gradually burned out, a layer of heat could be vaguely seen on the upper layer of the big stone, and the surface of the stone was also burned red. Gu Yin ordered:

"splash!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."

More than a dozen buckets of water were poured onto the big rock at the same time.

"Bang, bang, bang..." Several sounds of stones breaking were heard and heard by everyone.

"It's broken, it's broken!"

"It's really broken!"

Everyone exclaimed with joy.

The method is feasible. The stone is cracked and pried open along the cracks. The subsequent excavation work will be much easier.