Soon, the broken pot lid was repaired by the blacksmiths. The color of the newly repaired pot lid was obviously different from the other corners.

The truth about the fryer became clear. It was a corner of the pot lid that flew off. According to the craftsmen themselves, the reason why the lid flew off was because when they opened it, they smashed it hard enough to crack the lid. Then when they heated it, the lid flew off.

The air inside caused the weak piece of iron to fly apart.

The description alone is surprising enough. The lid of the pot is about a finger thick. Even if it is cracked, it is still very strong. The steam can burst the lid, which is enough to show that the air pressure in the pot has reached a certain level, reaching an extremely high level.

of air pressure.

It's not a good thing if the pot explodes, but there are positive things to see behind it.

Li Mengxi considered that Guan Yu had been cooking the pressure cooker all morning, which should have been long enough. Looking at the pot, there was a mess of soup. Li Mengxi was not familiar with the papermaking process and did not know whether the pulp was cooked, so Li Mengxi issued the order.

The soldiers went to summon the papermakers.

When the papermakers arrived, Li Mengxi showed the pulp that had been boiled all morning to the craftsmen. Li Mengxi pointed to the pulp water in the pressure cooker and asked, "How is it? Is this considered pulp? Can it be made into paper?"

The craftsmen came forward, and one of them was the first to bend down and look at the slurry in the pot. When the craftsman got closer, he smelled a sour smell, and the craftsman felt a little confused.

It was because of the vinegar that Li Mengxi couldn't find other acidic substances, so he reluctantly used vinegar instead, hoping to find a substance that could decompose the gum.

The craftsman looked at the slurry in the iron pot, took a handful of the broken flax in his hand, and twisted it with his fingers.

The craftsman stood up straight, looked at Li Mengxi, hesitated to speak, and turned back to follow the other craftsmen.

Apparently, the craftsman couldn't make up his mind.

After that, several craftsmen came to see the pulp. After the craftsmen took stock again, they selected one person and came to Li Mengxi. The man raised his hand to Li Mengxi and said cautiously, "I'm afraid this pulp won't work, sir."

"

As he said that, the craftsman representative bent down and reached out and took out a handful of broken hemp from the pot, and held it in front of Li Mengxi's eyes and showed it to Li Mengxi, "Look at the military advisor, this hemp is hemp, and the water is water. The hemp is still good, and it has not been cooked into pulp.

"

Li Mengxi was mentally prepared. It was normal that the experiment failed. He nodded, "It seems that acid will not work." He said.

The craftsman couldn't answer. The craftsman didn't quite understand what the acid was referring to.

In the first experiment, I used acidic water, cooked it in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment for a long enough time (one morning), but the gum in the sesame was not broken down, and the pulp could not be cooked.

After the acid test, it’s time to test the alkali.

Common alkalis that are relatively easy to find are lime water and plant ash solution. According to junior high school chemistry knowledge, plant ash solution, which is potassium hydroxide solution, is more alkaline than lime water.

There is quicklime in the army, and plant ashes are easier to find.

So, there are two kinds of alkali solutions. Should we try the strong alkali first or the weak alkali first? Li Mengxi hesitated for less than two seconds before making a decision. He decided to use the more alkaline plant ash solution. Judging by intuition, Li Mengxi felt that

, the stronger the chemical properties, the easier it is for the reaction to proceed, that is, the plant ash solution is easier to test than the lime water.

In order to conduct the second wave of tests, Li Mengxi asked Guan Yu to clean the pressure cooker. This was to remove the acetic acid from the previous wave to prevent acetic acid from interfering with the tests.

On a cold day, Li Mengxi asked Guan Yu to wash the vat, and Guan Yu went without any complaints.

Here, Li Mengxi carried a big basket to the women's and children's camp. The basket was huge. Most of the military supplies in the army were made of rough leather. Each basket was bigger than the other, and there were no small baskets.

Li Mengxi was small and short in stature. He carried an oversized basket to the women's and children's camp. When others saw him, they laughed. Some kind-hearted women who were knitting linen and weaving hurriedly left the basket to help.

"Young! The military advisor is here. If you have any work to do, tell us and we will do it."

Before Li Mengxi could refuse, the woman took the basket over.

Li Mengxi said he wanted plant ashes, so the woman went to fill half a basket of ashes for Li Mengxi and helped Li Mengxi move it to the place.

People, especially those in the Women's and Children's Camp, were extremely friendly to Li Mengxi.

Li Mengxi waited for a while at the craftsman camp, and Guan Yu came back with the pressure cooker in his arms.

It seemed that the water was very cold, and Guan Yu's hands were red from the cold.

Before starting the preparation work, Li Mengxi first sprinkled a lot of clean plant ash into the pressure cooker. At this time, there was a problem. It seems that the higher the concentration of the alkaline solution, the stronger the alkalinity. At the same time, the solubility of potassium hydroxide is different from that of the alkaline solution.

It is directly proportional to the temperature, that is, the higher the temperature, the more plant ash can be dissolved in the water.

After Li Mengxi thought about this for a moment, he took a handful of plant ash and sprinkled it into the pot. After thinking for a moment, Li Mengxi decided to heat it directly and add plant ash during the heating process.

Since high temperature can dissolve more plant ash, the pulp is cooked in a high-temperature environment, and after the pressure cooker is sealed, the air pressure in the pot is very high, which also causes the boiling point of the water in the pot to be high. The higher the boiling point of the water, the higher the water temperature.

That is, more potassium hydroxide can be dissolved.

The entire reaction process is positive. High temperature is conducive to increasing the concentration of potassium hydroxide. Increasing the concentration of potassium hydroxide makes the solution more alkaline. If it can react, the reaction will be faster and more obvious.

He set up a pot and started adding firewood to boil water.

Li Mengxi threw a lot of plant ash into the pot. Since he didn't know the solubility of the plant ash solution, he could only put in as much as possible to achieve saturation and the strongest alkalinity.

After a while, the water boiled. Li Mengxi stirred the water with a stick and sprinkled plant ash into the pot from time to time.

This process lasted for a while. When Li Mengxi saw that the pot was already dark, he was afraid that if he continued to sprinkle it, it would become thicker, so he stopped adding the plant ash.

On the side, Guan Yu led the people and chopped the raw sesame into pieces.

The raw hemp was put into the hot plant ash solution, and then the pot was covered with a lid. The blacksmiths on standby brought over the molten iron that had already been smelted, then sealed the iron and hammered it.

After the iron sealing is completed and the air tightness is checked, another long round of heating begins.

Li Mengxi learned from the experience of papermakers. The papermakers said that it takes several days to boil paper pulp to become pulp. The craftsmen did not use a pressure cooker, which naturally took a long time. Using a pressure cooker can greatly shorten the time, but it may also take a long time.

a long time.

Li Mengxi was afraid that there would not be enough cooking time, so he kept waiting.

I cooked it all afternoon. In order to avoid frying the pot again, I would stop it for a while and then continue to cook it. It was almost late.

Feeling that it was almost done, Li Mengxi ordered a ceasefire.

When Li Mengxi was about to give the order to start the pot, "Stop! Wait and start again!" Li Mengxi suddenly gave an urgent order to stop the craftsmen's actions.

A group of craftsmen looked back in confusion.

Li Mengxi suddenly remembered that the pressure cooker cannot be opened immediately. It must be cooled down. If the pressure cooker is opened rashly, the steam will burst out and people will be burned.

Resisting the urge to open the pot, he waited for a long time. When the pot cooled down to the touch from the outside, Li Mengxi stepped back without leaving a trace, and then ordered the pot to be opened.

The blacksmiths came over with hammers and small chisels, and then began to chisel with clanging hammers.

Soon, there was a sharp "hiss" sound, and as soon as a small opening was cut in the iron seal, high-pressure steam immediately rushed out. The craftsmen were startled and hurried to dodge.

"Stop, wait until you are done breathing, then do it again." Li Mengxi directed from a distance.

Then, as a crowd of people watched, they heard steam coming out of the pressure cooker, and the white steam was evaporating. After a long time, the sound of steam subsided. You can imagine how high the pressure in the pot can be.

It is much safer for the blacksmiths to smash the iron seal after exhausting the gas.

After the iron seal was broken open, Li Mengxi couldn't wait to go over and take a look. He went over and saw that the pot was still dark, very black, as black as ink. For a moment, Li Mengxi almost thought that something happened again this time.

The pot was boiled dry again.

After taking a closer look, Li Mengxi found that it was not that it had been boiled dry again, but because too much plant ash was added, and the water boiled with plant ash was dark.

This is the second round of testing. The alkaline potassium hydroxide solution was boiled at high temperature for an afternoon.

Li Mengxi immediately summoned the papermaker and asked if the pulp boiled this time was pulp and whether it could be used to make paper.

Several papermakers came forward, endured the burning of their hands, reached out and fished out something from the pot.

Then, the craftsmen gathered together and discussed the things they had caught.

After not long, a craftsman said to Li Mengxi with certainty, "It's done. Once the hemp is boiled and pulped, it can be used to make paper."

ha?

Li Mengxi's eyes widened. He was surprised. He was prepared to fail again. He didn't expect that papermaking would succeed so quickly.

Surprisingly, after boiling only plant ash for an afternoon, pulp was produced and paper could be made.

Li Mengxi had a vague idea. Could it be that the chemical substance used to deglue was an alkali?

Since the craftsmen had said that they could make paper, Li Mengxi immediately asked the craftsmen to make paper from pulp. He wanted to see that this method did not use the sinking method or microorganisms. It directly used lye and boiled the pulp in a high-temperature and high-pressure pressure cooker, causing

Which one is better, the paper made by Cai Lun's papermaking method or the paper made by Cai Lun's papermaking method?

Li Mengxi issued the order, but the craftsman still stood still.

"What?" Li Mengxi asked with a frown.

"I didn't... didn't copy the net." The papermaker said awkwardly.

This is really true, when the matter came to a head, there was not even a copy of the net.

Li Mengxi was anxious to verify the results, so he approved some fine-textured silk for the craftsmen, and then ordered the craftsmen to make the silk into nets as quickly as possible.

Li Mengxi's order was to work as quickly as possible. The craftsmen left in a hurry and came back at an incredible speed.

When he saw the craftsmen's net, Li Mengxi was stunned for a moment. The net the craftsmen made in a hurry was really crude. It was just two sticks with a piece of thick cloth tied in the middle. There was no wooden frame, so it was just made of two sticks.

It’s done.

The work was really sloppy, but I have to say, it was fast enough.

The important moment has finally come. After days of hard work, it’s finally time to see the results.

Li Mengxi's eyes were wide open. Guan Yu's eyes were usually half-open and squinted. At this moment, Guan Yu's eyes were even wider than Li Mengxi's. The two of them stared at the craftsmen with spoons and took the wood pulp out of the pot.
To be continued...