Early the next morning.
With a low thud, Lynn’s Cross Pickaxe struck down, and the mound of the charcoal kiln instantly collapsed.
After a night, the charcoal within the kiln had cooled.
After a moment, the flying dust gradually settled.
Kuisi immediately leaned over to take a look.
Neatly arranged were sections of pitch-black charcoal with a white coating on the surface.
Kuisi picked up a piece of charcoal, light and dry to the touch.
With a slight exertion of her hands, the charcoal split in a crisp sound.
The continuous firing lasted three hours, just right.
Kuisi sighed, "Is this the charcoal that the Manor Lord uses?"
Lynn glanced at Kuisi, saying nothing.
Only those with status could afford charcoal during the winter.
For ordinary villagers, buying charcoal would add an economic burden!
Unable to even afford food, having a pile of firewood was fortunate enough.
Lynn came back to his senses and said, "It’s time to load the kiln."
Kuisi and Red began to work without hesitation.
A medium clay pot, a large clay pot, five or six clay bowls, eight or nine clay plates, a soaking trough, and some small items like spoons and forks.
Everything, large and small, was put in, almost filling the entire mud kiln.
To prevent these clay items from sticking together, Lynn used ashes to separate the joints.
After loading the kiln, Lynn instructed Red and Kuisi to seal the top of the mud kiln and start the fire to raise the temperature.
They built a combustion layer below the kiln and ignited kindling, gradually adding freshly fired charcoal.
Ceramics could also be fired with firewood.
But wood usually contains moisture, affecting the temperature inside the kiln, and achieving the required temperature needs bigger and thicker wood, impacting ventilation.
The heat from burning charcoal is stable, making temperature control easier and heating faster without occupying air space!
Since they used charcoal, there wasn’t the rolling smoke like during charcoal production.
But a chimney was still needed, not only to vent smoke but also to release moisture from the clay items.
Clearly, leaving them to air dry overnight was not enough to evaporate all moisture.
The next period involved constantly adding charcoal and waiting.
Even with Lynn’s knowledge of firing ceramics, without a thermometer, he could only make simple judgments based on experience.
A benefit of charcoal is that it doesn’t require constant supervision.
Only at regular intervals, adding charcoal ensures even temperature within the kiln.
Looking at the pile of charcoal on the side, Lynn felt a bit regretful.
Now that charcoal was produced, it was a pity he hadn’t found iron ore resources.
If an easily exploitable open-pit iron mine was found, charcoal could be used for smelting.
They could start taking off straight away!
Leaving Kuisi to keep an eye on the kiln, Lynn walked towards the Brewing workshop.
Inside the Brewing workshop.
Lex was using a woven flat basket Lynn had made earlier to sift barley seeds.
Having only one hand was certainly challenging for him.
But Lex was not discouraged and joyfully said to Lynn when he appeared, "Master Lynn, once you fire that soaking trough, I can begin soaking the barley, washing it clean and bright, awaiting the sun’s blessing!"
Indeed, only when engaged in work they love, does one emit boundless passion.
Just like Lex in front of him, even starting to be a bit slick with words.
As he was about to leave, a low cow’s moo reached Lynn’s ears.
In the adjacent wooden house where Lex was, a strong bull was kept in a storage house.
To call it a storage house was really just a simple wooden hut.
While a few people could barely reside, for an adult draught ox, there was hardly room to turn around.
This draught ox was the main force for summer plowing!
Lynn found Red and looked directly at the burly man who was now being used as heavy labor.
Lynn spoke, "I need help building a cowshed for the ox, one twice the size of the current wooden house, and it must be resistant to Wild Wolf attacks!"
Of course, he was hesitant about how to use mortise and tenon joints to construct such a large cowshed.
Lynn said, "If you have any questions, you can always ask me!"
Red eased up, "Alright, Master Lynn, I’ll build it as soon as possible."
After speaking, Red shouldered an Iron Axe and walked toward a pile of logs behind the wooden house.
The logs were all leftovers from past logging trips to the forest’s edge.
Lex was selecting barley, Red was starting the construction of the cowshed, and Kuisi was watching over the ceramic firing in the kiln.
Despite the limited workforce, everyone was performing their roles.
Having planned everything, Lynn still decided to personally oversee the kiln.
The charcoal fire for the kiln never stopped.
From the initial ignition to burning charcoal, to slowly raising the temperature, and progressing to high-temperature firing.
Only by reaching over a thousand degrees Celsius and maintaining it for a while, allowing the ceramics to become fully sintered, could qualified ceramics be produced.
By nightfall, over half of the more than one hundred kilograms of charcoal had burned away.
Only then did Lynn seal the smoke outlet and fire opening of the kiln.
Now, it was time to quietly wait for the kiln to naturally cool down.
Inside the wooden house where Kuisi, Red, and Lex lived.
Lynn was a bit surprised to see a charred golden loaf of bread placed atop a wooden bowl!
Lex hurriedly explained.
"Master Lynn, I already sorted the barley. In my spare time, I tested the newly made stone mill and made a little bread with the ground barley flour."
Taking a bite of the bread, it was coarse yet chewy.
Having grown accustomed to meats and porridge, he found it unexpectedly delicious.
After praising Lex, he finished dinner, and Lynn returned to his wooden house.
Night steadily deepened.
In the fire pit, the charcoal slowly burned, radiating a comforting warmth that enveloped the entire wooden house.
Kuisi commented, "As a Lord, of course, Lord Lynn uses smokeless charcoal for heating."
Gazing through the cross window, Lynn stared at the few stars in the night sky.
Everything was stabilizing.
The presence of river fish temporarily solved the food problem.
Furthermore, they purchased iron goods and an ox!
If this batch of ceramics fired successfully, it would certainly improve living conditions to some extent. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on Nov3lFɪre.ɴet
If it were a peaceful world, slow development would be possible!
But, this is an Empire in turmoil!
The Six Great Empires stand in a tense standoff.
Particularly the Elfini Empire across the Acadia River, with its ever-watchful gaze.
With the Emperor’s Church and noble Lords.
More crucially, Lynn is the illegitimate son of Marquis Duca!
He should have died at the hands of Marquis Duca’s eldest son Mark Ducas’s followers, yet he’s still alive!
If known by his good brother, he would surely bring the Ducas Clan’s cavalry to raze Lynn’s territory.
Lynn knew he must go all out to arm himself quickly!