Chapter 306 New Fire Dragon Brick Factory

"For example, if Mbappe makes a mistake, should I just bring him straight to Flower Town? As long as it's not a heinous crime like murder, rebellion, or sexual assault, I should be able to protect him."

Liszt thought to himself.

However, he was still puzzled. There was only one well-known architect on Coral Island, who had been continuously constructing large buildings for the Tulip family. What kind of mistake could Mbappe possibly make to get himself expelled?

He even indulged in some malicious thoughts about unfortunate events, but considering Mbappe's age, he probably couldn't do anything too terrible.

"So, I'll have Harpagon use the Flower Trade Team's informants to keep an eye on Mbappe and see what happens."

One hand managing the brick factory, the other waiting for a mistake.

Liszt quickly made the arrangements.

He also reigned in his recent decadent lifestyle and began to devote himself to his grand endeavor.

Currently, he had several research projects accumulated: compiling the chronological history book *Dragons Battling in the Wild*, studying the scientific use of magic potions, analyzing the properties of rubber, and researching the technology of firing bricks with the help of a Fire Dragon.

As for the analysis of rubber properties.

It took him dozens of thick sheets of parchment to write down everything.

Judging from various aspects, the new type of rubber produced by rubber trees was, apart from lacking the softness and elasticity of rubber from Earth, almost a perfect adhesive in every other way—light, sturdy, non-toxic, odorless, waterproof, insect-proof, fire-resistant, cold-resistant, and quick-setting, not prone to deformation, and impervious to water and air.

Buckets reinforced with this rubber performed exceptionally well, eliminating concerns about leaky craftsmanship.

Liszt also tested rubber-sealed objects with magic power and discovered a surprising fact: the rubber showed little reaction to magic power.

Against magical and combat skill-based attacks, it only sustained physical damage.

The intense combat skill "Great Flame Wave" evenly distributed the damage across a damaged shield sealed with rubber.

After making this discovery, Liszt designated rubber as a strategic material on par with the Black Blood Horse.

Recently, he had begun experimenting with rubber additives—mixing rubber with various substances to test their physical effects.

First, water. Liquid rubber could be dissolved in water, turning it into a cloudy white liquid after stirring.

The rubber water did not coagulate but gradually settled and formed a layer of solid rubber at the bottom of the basin after half an hour. He then tried adding sand to the rubber water or mixing sand with the rubber water.

A large clump of sand had solidified.

It hardened like rock. Even hitting it with a hammer couldn't break it. Its hardness was comparable to the granite used in the construction of castles, far superior to cemented concrete blocks.

"So, have I just discovered the coveted... new type of lightweight, powerful, quick-setting cement?"

The follow-up experiments had not yet begun.

But he could already imagine what would happen when he mixed rubber water with metal, sand, sawdust, or soil. Perhaps the era of brick construction might arrive after the era of reinforced concrete. The only drawback was that rubber production was too low to be used as freely as cement.

Expanding the cultivation of rubber trees became imperative.

For now, he put aside the rubber water experiments and began preparing for the Fire Dragon brick-firing experiment.

...

He ordered the serfs to collect soil from various locations in Flower Town, namely the yellow clay from the seaside, the red sandy soil from the riverbank, the brown soil from the wasteland, and the black slag soil from the Thorns Ridge area. After mixing them with water, they started to mold the bricks and then handed them over to the magical Fire Dragon for firing.

Unlike ordinary furnace fires, the trajectory of the magical Fire Dragon allowed for direct internal firing.

Therefore, the speed of firing the bricks was significantly improved.

After half an hour, the bricks had formed. Liszt first attempted to cool them down by pouring water over them. However, the black slag soil bricks from Thorns Ridge cracked with a few sharp sounds, and the red sandy soil bricks from the riverbank showed several cracks.

Facing this situation, Liszt did not immediately declare the black slag soil and red sandy soil a failure. He continued to fire a second batch.

This time, he opted for natural cooling.

After cooling, the four types of bricks showed different results. The yellow clay bricks from the seaside had some distortion in shape; the black slag soil bricks from Thorns Ridge did not break again but were covered with cracks, and a light tap broke them once more.

He tested the hardness of the other three types of bricks and found that the red sandy soil bricks were also not good enough, breaking easily with a tap.

The most outstanding performance came from the brown soil from the wasteland, which mostly maintained the brick's shape and had a hardness close to that of ordinary stone.

"So, the brown soil should be the main raw material for brick firing, but I still need to experiment with how mixed soils perform in firing."

After two days of experimentation, he finally determined that using four-fifths brown soil and mixing it with one-fifth yellow clay yielded a mixture with excellent adhesion, suitable for the clay used in brick firing. The bricks fired were grayish-brown and had a hardness slightly less than that of ordinary stone.

They were also lighter in weight.

Because the bricks were fired from within by the magical Fire Dragon, they could be molded into various shapes. They could be used not only for making bricks but also for making tiles, and even stone slabs and culverts.

With the raw material problem resolved, the next step was to build the brick kiln.

He couldn't remember what the red brick kiln looked like or its working principle, but it was essentially firing with heat. On Earth, kilns used coal, but he would fire with the magical Fire Dragon, so the structure and design of the kiln should be redesigned.

"Once the magical Fire Dragon is released, it will be very difficult to retrieve it... After the bricks are fired, taking them out of the kiln will not be an easy task. Perhaps I will need stonemasons to create a pushable stone wheel cart."

He already had a rough idea of the new kiln design in his mind.

A single kiln could be designed to be the size of a house, with several rows of kilns arranged side by side. A stone wheel cart that could be pushed back and forth would be designed at the bottom of the area where the magical Fire Dragon operated. After loading the brick blanks, the serfs would push the stone wheel cart with effort into the kiln.

Once the bricks were fired, they would pull the stone wheel cart out, cool the bricks by pouring water over them, unload the bricks, and reload the kiln with brick blanks.

This repetitive operation would be simple and efficient.

The stone wheel cart needed to be very large.

"Fortunately, I have rubber water; otherwise, it would be impossible to create a proper stone wheel cart. Without iron, industrial development is severely limited indeed."

With enough iron, fabricating an iron pushcart would be more convenient and efficient.

But without it, stone needed to be used instead.

The plan was all clear.

The design drawings were also being drafted.

Liszt finally had time to look up at the clouds in the sky. "The brick factory should be built on Black Horse Island... Without fuel for firing bricks, and given the large scale, it would be easy to expose the secret of the Fire Dragon's magic power. Flower Town doesn't need many bricks, but the construction on Black Horse Island does."