After the Rain, the Bronze Mountain
The Bronze Mountain, freshly cleared after the rain, presented a unique scene. Numerous specks of copper patina, as small as snowflakes, had become more visible, covering the rocky surface with a stunning, brilliant appearance.
Nearly thirty members of the Green Sparrow Tribe were scattered across the Bronze Mountain and its surrounding areas. Armed with wooden sticks or eight-sided hammers made of crude copper, they were busy parting the grass or striking rocks occasionally.
The people of the Green Sparrow Tribe had been here for six days. With hammers made of crude copper this time, the speed of extracting copper ore had significantly increased—faster than in the latter stages of their first mining trip.
Indeed, "using soup to cook food" was sometimes quite necessary—like burning bean stalks to cook beans.
After months of smelting, most of the copper ore they had previously brought back was nearly exhausted. Despite the crude techniques, they had managed to produce a considerable amount of crude copper.
Han Cheng's main purpose in traveling to Bronze Mountain was to find tin ore, but acquiring copper ore was equally essential.
Upon arriving, they focused on extracting enough copper ore for transport. Only after this did Han Cheng instruct everyone to fully concentrate on searching for tin ore in the surrounding area.
Chang Tui (Long Legs) was holding a wooden stick, constantly poking through the underbrush, lifting dead branches and leaves to inspect for any unusual stones on the ground. After searching for a while, he looked up at the others doing the same task, his already good mood becoming even brighter.
This feeling wasn’t just because of this one moment. Many events along the journey had given him the same impression.
For instance, according to tribal regulations, slaves were only allowed to eat twice a day. However, this time was different. At lunchtime, even the revered Divine Child would instruct others to share some food with him. Though it wasn’t much, and the quality was inferior to the others, Chang Tui still felt deeply touched.
He still slept farthest from the fire at night, but not as far as before. He could now sleep close to the others from the tribe.
Chang Tui once again took out the lucky charm hidden beneath his clothes, holding it in his hand with utmost reverence. He had crafted this lucky charm from a more beautiful malachite after the Green Sparrow Tribe discovered a large amount of the stone.
Chang Tui had become even more devout in his belief in the lucky charm, convinced that it was the reason he was luckier than the other slaves.
After a while, he carefully tucked the charm back under his clothes, close to his skin, and continued searching with his stick.
The stick rustled through the not-so-dense underbrush, revealing tiny, dazzling glimmers in front of Chang Tui.
Startled by this sudden change, he quickly stepped back a few paces, gripping his stick tightly with a face full of caution and fear as he stared at the spot.
After seeing no unusual movements, he cautiously stepped forward again, extending his stick to part the grass.
The grass was pushed aside, but the dazzling glimmers he had seen earlier were gone.
Chang Tui blinked in confusion, unable to understand what was happening. He stood there momentarily, then took a couple more steps forward. Once again, the tiny white sparks of light appeared.
Chang Tui had no idea what this thing was or if it was the kind of stone the Divine Child was looking for. However, anything that could emit light seemed extraordinary.
The people scattered around were startled by his shout and quickly gathered together.
Walking halfway up Bronze Mountain, Han Cheng also heard the call. Excited, he hurried down toward Chang Tui's location.
By the time Han Cheng arrived, a crowd had already formed, pointing and murmuring curiously at the patch of grass the stick had parted.
Han Cheng noticed the tiny glimmers of light revealed under the sunlight and couldn't help but smile.
He stepped closer, finding that the source of the glimmers was a small patch of rock. The rock had a yellowish tint; within it were scattered silver specks of varying sizes. The rock was about the size of a bowl, surrounded by soil and growing weeds.
"Is this silver ore?"
That was the first thought that popped into Han Cheng's mind.
He crouched down and inspected it for a while, then grabbed the weeds growing around the rock and pulled them away with force. The dense roots brought up a clump of soil, exposing more of the muddy rock beneath.
Han Cheng hoped it wasn't silver ore. At this point, silver was less practical for the Green Sparrow Tribe than tin. However, silver and tin had somewhat similar appearances. With his limited experience, Han Cheng couldn’t easily distinguish whether these rocks contained silver or tin.
The surrounding tribespeople watched him nervously as he pondered over the metallic-looking rock.
More than half a year had passed since they first learned about metallic ores from the Divine Child. Under his guidance, the tribe had made some progress during this time, but they still lacked key materials needed to produce metals as useful as iron.
Seeing the people's hopeful expressions, Han Cheng pointed to the exposed rock and said, "Chisel off a piece of it so we can see if this is tin ore."
He stepped aside, and immediately, an eager person came forward with a crude copper hammer, striking the rock with loud clangs.
As they say, "The protruding rafter is the first to get hit." The rock that had foolishly revealed its glimmer soon shattered beyond recognition.
The person who broke off the rock pieces carefully placed them in a leather-lined basket and eagerly carried them to another part of Bronze Mountain.
There stood a modestly sized vertical furnace, which Han Cheng had built upon his arrival. It wasn't meant for smelting copper ore but for identifying potential tin ore.
In the metal hierarchy, tin has a relatively low melting point, much lower than silver. Since Han Cheng wasn't skilled at distinguishing different ores, he had to use this method to differentiate between silver and tin.
The previous day's rain had left the furnace damp, making it less suitable for metal melting. Han Cheng instructed the people to light a fire to dry it out.
Meanwhile, he used a hammer to crush the collected ore into finer pieces, sorting out the visibly metallic parts and discarding the prominent waste rocks.
Doing this manually was slow and imprecise. If these rocks were confirmed to be tin ore, they would need to develop better methods in the future to speed up the selection process.
Once the furnace was dry, the small batch of ore had already been roughly separated.
Taking advantage of the still-glowing charcoal inside the furnace, Han Cheng added another layer of charcoal.
He layered a thin amount of suspected tin ore on top of the charcoal, followed by another layer of charcoal and then more ore, repeating the process until it resembled a sandwich-like structure.
After stacking three layers of crushed ore, Han Cheng stopped.
The bellows started to blow, sending a continuous stream of oxygen into the simple furnace, intensifying the charcoal's burn and raising the temperature inside.
Han Cheng and the tribe members watched nervously, anxiously awaiting the results.
This was their closest attempt yet at finding tin ore since they began their search.
If they could get tin and then figure out the correct proportions, they could produce quality bronze.