On the eastern suburbs of Yecheng, on the edge of a village, dozens of soldiers were surrounding a dilapidated yard, blocking the onlookers outside. In the thatched hut in the yard, Yuwen Wen was talking to Taoist priest Liu Yang.

Just now in the city, Yuwen Wen showed the prototype of the "university monk". With the continuous chemical term, he knocked the alchemist Liu Yang to doubt his life. The other party was extremely envious of the art of "chemistry", so he wanted to use secret techniques to seek "opportunities".

Yu Wenwen felt that the secret recipe and secret technique of alchemists these days was the mysterious color of the general chemical reaction equation. It was just that there was no systematic chemical knowledge in ancient times, so it seemed quite mysterious.

With the mentality of picking up bargains, Yuwen Wen decided to take a look at Liu Yang's secret technique first. He was thinking that if it was not passed down to the chemical technology of later generations, it would be a profit.

Liu Yang's real settlement is in this yard. This village is not far from Yecheng, so it is very convenient to go to the city to purchase. He mainly refines elixirs here, and the yard in the city is just a temporary place to refine elixirs.

At this time, the bull-nosed Taoist priest was flipping through things in the house. Yu Wenwen looked around and saw that the thatched hut was very simple. Apart from two beds, simple daily furniture and cooking utensils, there were a bunch of jars and jars.

‘No land and no business, can it be that it is up to selling unreliable elixirs? What is the source of income for the master and apprentice?’ He thought so, the source of income for Liu Yang and his younger apprentice is a mystery.

If there is a Taoist temple, there will be worshipped by believers, such as incense and money. With a Taoist temple, you can have some land, plant some vegetables, fruits, trees, etc. to "subsidize household income", or provide professional services, such as fortune telling, disaster elimination, and practice rituals.

However, Liu Yang, a Taoist priest who has no roots and no foundation, is also the so-called "elixir cultivator". He wants to tell fortunes and do things in a good way. When Yuwen Wen thought of this, he couldn't help but feel full of malicious intentions: Could it be that he had made some blue pills and sold them?

Just as he was thinking about it, Liu Yang took out a small cloth bag from somewhere, and nervously held it in his hand. After opening the cloth bag, a few golden things appeared.

Yuwen Wen's first reaction was that this thing was called "Jin Ke Tra". However, he realized that he was thinking too much. He looked at Liu Yang, tentatively poked out his hand, took a pill and spread it in his palm to observe it, and then asked in a low voice: "Is it gold?"

Liu Yang smiled mysteriously and ignored it. Yuwen Wen pinched it with his fingers and found that the thing was very hard and should be metal. Considering the golden color, it became more and more gold.

Combined with the other party's mysterious smile, Yuwen Wen had an answer: This is not gold.

"Master Liu's secret technique is the technique of placing gold?" He asked in a low voice. Liu Yang was quite surprised when he heard this, and then nodded.

‘You are so frightening, you can also make gold art.” Yu Wen Wen complained in his heart that it is impossible to make gold art in the world. Even in later generations, it is possible to make gold in the laboratory under extremely harsh conditions.

"My husband is right, this secret technique is the technique of placing gold." Liu Yang narrowed his eyes with joy. He was planning to use this precious technique of placing gold to exchange for "opportunity" to learn the fascinating 'chemistry'.

"Spotting the golden technique..." Yuwen Wen pondered. He was guessing what this golden thing was, of course it must be not gold.

Whether it is an alchemist or an alchemist, he is very obsessed with gold. The original purpose of the Western alchemist was to make a fortune in order to "turn stones into gold", while the Eastern alchemist was to refine immortal pills.

As the saying goes, "Gold enters the fierce fire, and the color does not rob the essence of the light. Since its inception, the sun and the moon have not lost their brightness, and the gold has not lost its weight... The nature of gold is immortal, so it is treasures of all things. If the sorcerer takes it, it will have a long lifespan."

Ancient alchemists first sought immortals from the sea to seek immortal medicine. After continuous failures, they decided to refine such strange things themselves. However, the world is huge and there are many things. The first thing they thought of was gold that is immortal for thousands of years and cannot be refined for a hundred years.

This view is deeply rooted. Ge Hong, a Taoist priest from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, said: "Gold enters the fire and cannot be refined for a hundred times, and it will be buried in the sky and immortal." Therefore, eating it can "refining people's body, making people immortal."

In the eyes of the alchemists in the Central Plains, if a person can enter the realm of immortality, he is an immortal, so how to use gold to "refin a human body" becomes the key.

Based on the phenomenon of being taken for granted, there is no possibility of swallowing gold directly except to die. So the warlocks invented a new theory, believing that gold has been generated by gathering the essence of the sun for tens of millions of years, so it is very hot in nature and is naturally toxic.

Since it is poisonous, it is definitely inappropriate for people to take it. The concentrated "Sun Essence" will inevitably burn people's bone marrow and cause them to shrink and die. So they advocated trying to use mineral medicine as raw materials to cultivate the essence of gold in the alchemy cauldron and create artificial gold, called medicinal gold.

As for natural cinnabar minerals, they believe that the dregs that cannot ascend are harmful to people and are not beneficial to people, so it is best to make them manually and then practice after several reversals to become divine pills.

This triggered a refining activity, and the alchemy room became the original chemical laboratory, and endless golden magic was discovered. Of course, some sorcerers also thought of other uses, which was to make money.

Put the stones in the ground with a mysterious recipe and put them in the alchemy furnace and burn them over fire for several days. What you get is golden gold, which is hard to resist.

But this is impossible, Yuwen Wen would never believe it. The reason why he was pondering was entirely because of memories. After a moment, he finally remembered what this thing was.

"Master Liu, isn't this gold?"

"Uh, of course not, but it's similar to gold..." Liu Yang replied, with a slightly awkward expression, but he still didn't hide it. Yuwen Wen was very satisfied with his performance. Looking at this thing like broken gold, he finally figured out something.

The main source of income for Liu Yang and his apprentice is probably this fake gold.

"Let me guess, is this thing obtained by pointing copper?"

"How did the Langjun know?"

"This thing is called Huang... I guess it should be called Shishi?"

"So your husband also knows the essence of it?"

Liu Yang was quite surprised, but Yuwen Wen did not answer his question. Looking at this golden thing, Yuwen Wen remembered the popular science in that lifetime. This thing was often used by criminals as gold.

Brass is a copper-zinc alloy. Its appearance is golden and similar to gold. Therefore, people often use brass jewelry to pretend to be gold jewelry and use the excuse of "urgent money and selling it at low prices" to go to residential areas to deceive the old men and mothers.

In this era, even before the Ming Dynasty, brass was not called brass, but was called crock or crock copper. The original smelting method was to mix red copper with zinc-containing ore and charcoal, and after refining, brass was obtained.

This smelting method appeared earlier in Rome, Persia, and Tianzhu in the Western Regions. However, the records of the appearance of crocodile stones in the Central Plains were not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that women used needles made of gold, silver and crocodile stones to make needle-threading games during the Qiqiao Festival.

In this era, crocodile (brass) was often mistaken for gold, but due to the level limit of smelting, the yield of crocodile is not high.

Thanks to the popular science of that lifetime, Yuwen Wen had a deep memory of the fact that brass could pretend to be gold, but he was not able to explore ores containing zinc, so the idea of ​​"spotting copper into gold" has never been realized.

But now Master Liu seemed to have a solution, so when he saw these few pieces of brass, his mind became active: smelting in large quantities, and then... hehehe.

"Mr.?" Liu Yang asked from the side. He saw Yuwen Wen, who seemed to be giggling foolishly, was worried that the other party would break his promise. If there was no "opportunity" there would be no chance.

Yuwen Wen coughed dryly, and then thought of a very serious question: "Master Liu, how was this croaker made? Could it be that it was refined with ore, copper and charcoal?"

"Mr. Lang really has heard of how to refine croaker stones." Liu Yang nodded, "It's just that I have been exploring for many years and using another method."

'Just just pull it off, zinc smelting will not mature until the Ming Dynasty... Soul is light, may you have already figured it out! It's so incredible!' Yuwen Wen was quite surprised. He hesitated for a moment and asked, "Can Master Liu extract something and refine it with copper?"

"That's exactly what I call a secret technique, which is how to extract this thing."

Yuwen Wen looked at the Taoist priest and saw that he was quite confident, his mind became active.

There is another method for smelting brass in large quantities, which is to smel metal zinc, and then smelting copper-zinc alloys with metal copper. This process only appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and it was then called "brass".

The technique of using zinc ore to smelt red copper into brass has been mastered for a long time in many parts of the world, but the technique of smelting metal zinc appeared quite late because zinc is one of the most difficult metals to smel.

According to the popular science of the chemistry teacher back then, through the remaining memories, Yuwen Wen learned that zinc was also called "White Lead" in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, it was not because only Japan could smel, but that there was a Japanese pirate on the southeast coast at that time, and the metal zinc was "like lead but fierce in nature". "This thing was conquered without copper, and it flew away as soon as it entered the fire", so it was given this strange name.

Yu Wen Wen didn't know what happened to zinc smelting in ancient times, but only remembered that the teacher said that in ancient times, the invention of zinc smelting was a brilliant achievement in metallurgy and chemistry.

Then I will give you this old master who discovered the method of refining? Then I will take over the power of the prehistoric world and become...

Yuwen Wen felt his heart pounding. He felt that if the other party's method was really effective, then he would become the number one cheater in the Central Plains... The richest man was no problem. It would be so cool to use the brass like a mountain as gold to deceive people!

It's just a thought. It's still a lot of trouble to impersonate gold for brass. First of all, the weight is the weight. Brass looks similar to gold, but the density varies greatly. The weight difference is obvious under the same volume. For example, the weight of gold bars and brass bars is very obvious.

Another point is that "real gold is not afraid of burning fire". Gold jewelry is still bright after being too hot, and brass jewelry will change color and reveal its original shape after being too hot.

So in front of experts, brass cannot pretend to be gold, but Yuwen Wen also thought of it. He only made brass into small particles, which is similar to the few particles in Liu Yang's hand. The size is small and the weight difference is difficult to detect, and not everyone knows the quality of burning with fire.

Or make small-scale gold jewelry to deceive the landlords in the mountains!

Yuwen Wen was fighting against heaven and man in his heart, and was fighting for the unethical behavior of brass and gold. Liu Yang, who was standing beside him, couldn't help but feel anxious when he saw that the other party began to get distracted again. He pulled Yuwen Wen's robe, and after he came to his senses, he whispered: "Mr. Lang, I have another secret technique."
Chapter completed!