Chapter 245 Distillation and Retorting
A Leman Russ tank drove on the ruined highway, its tracks crunching on the gravel.
The armor on the front of the car was slightly deformed, and all the guns had varying degrees of damage. There were either marks or dents on the body and turret, and the logging gun on the turret hatch was also drooping.
This is a battered tank.
"Chi——"
The brakes sounded and the tank stopped.
The armored vehicle being dragged behind him pushed forward with its inertia, and the coupler pushed and made a crashing sound.
The side hatch opened, and the Space Marines and three minions in protective suits walked out one after another.
Fu Qinghai lowered his head and glanced at Chen Xinlu.
Through the transparent mask of the protective suit, Chen Xinlu's face did not look good. The salt particles formed by dried sweat stained her face. A few strands of messy black hair clung to her temples, and her lips were somewhat cracked.
"Dehydrated?"
Fu Qinghai asked.
Chen Xinlu nodded:
"Maybe a little."
If he could choose to end this reincarnation mission called "survival" at this moment, Fu Qinghai would agree without hesitation, because they have earned enough assimilation points, which is at least worth the price of assimilating tanks and armored vehicles.
Except for only one shell of the main gun, the heavy explosive shells and ordinary explosive shells were all used up, and there was not much promethium left in the reserve.
As a result, the zombie monsters attracted by the vibration and noise of the tank all turned into nutrients in the swamp.
Fu Qinghai squatted next to a puddle of water on the side of the road, reached out and scooped up a handful of water. The water flowed down the cracks in his gauntlets, reflecting a shining luster in the sunlight.
Facts have proved that the water purification tablets distributed by the Imperial Guard CPR have no effect on polluted water bodies. Not only can they not adjust the pH value, but there is also a question of whether they can purify the various viruses remaining in it.
The My Little Pony crew is now faced with another problem: no water.
Fu Qinghai turned to Jiang Yixia and said:
"Bring over the empty wine bottles and cans."
Since the water purification tablets were useless, Fu Qinghai had no choice but to use another ancient method.
Jiang Yixia brought a bunch of bottles and cans, Fu Qinghai stretched out his sensitive robotic arm from behind, and after a little cutting and splicing, a complete set of simple sunlight distillation devices made of transparent plastic and transparent glass was formed.
The condenser tube for fractionation is made of discarded cartridge cases. The condensed distilled water may smell like iron slag and propellant, but it is better than drinking virus water directly.
Fu Qinghai filled the bottle with standing water, stood up and said to the three women:
"Go back to the shade in the carriage and stay there."
After saying that, Fu Qinghai walked towards the mangroves in the swamp, looking for some tidal flat plants with relatively thick branches. These plants, which have adapted to acid rain swamps, have glossy leaves and twisted and thick trunks.
Even if mutation is not taken into account, there are many viruses known to be able to infect plants, such as the ancestor virus, T-Veronica virus and Ouroboros virus. Fu Qinghai certainly did not want to chew the leaves. He pulled out the Blue Teeth Chain Sawing the sword, he quickly cut down a large pile of wood and moved it back to the tank.
Fu Qinghai turned a discarded oil drum filled with promethium upside down on the ground, filled it with fresh wood cores, sealed the oil drum with a welding gun, leaving only the opening of the condenser pipe, and buried a condenser pipe underground. Li Xingxian used the remaining casting materials to cast a wall of fire spell. As the flames continued to simmer in the oil barrel, tar (heavy oil) and resin (light oil) gradually dripped out of the condensation tube.
And a huge pile of leftover charcoal.
There is no dry firewood in the swamp, so the fire wall technique is needed as the first round of burning fire source. After that, charcoal can be used as fuel. Repeat this operation, and soon Fu Qinghai has a large bucket full of clear and turbid mixed wood. Oil.
A simple awning was erected with waterproof felt in front of the tank. The three women hid under the shed, sipping distilled water. They were all a little surprised when they saw Fu Qinghai getting a large barrel of fuel after a quick work.
If "distillation" is still within their understanding, "retort distillation" is somewhat far away from most people's lives.
"A simple carbonization process, junior high school chemistry."
Fu Qinghai poured a large bucket full of wooden oil into the tank tank and said.
Multi-fuel engines are said to be able to burn anything, but there is also a problem of calorific value, that is, the quality of the fuel. Zombie corpses can of course be burned.
However, the caloric value of protein is not high. The caloric value of one gram of protein is only 20 joules, while the caloric value of one gram of alcohol is 30,000 joules. In normal animals, only fat is worth burning, but it is impossible to really go there. When a corpse is stuffed into an engine, the heat generated by burning the corpse cannot keep up with the power consumed to carry the corpse. Those non-flammable residues, such as ashes, will also block the operation of the engine.
Note that water has no calorific value.
Leman Rustyk is not yet at the point where he can even urinate and run away.
The one that can really run away after peeing is the UNSC Warthog troop carrier in the Halo universe.
The Warthog series of vehicles does not directly boil water. The core technology - Graf/Hauptmann solar/salt water engine. The principle is to use solar energy and catalysts to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then the engine burns the hydrogen. The fundamental The energy source is the sun, which means that on a planet without stars, the Warthog troop carrier cannot run without peeing.
"While I don't know what the magic solution is, I know what the scientific solution is."
Fu Qinghai clapped his hands:
"boarding."
Li Xingxian twitched his lips:
"Ha, seeing how he pretends, he didn't rely on my Fire Wall Technique in the first place, don't you think so, A-Xia?"
After Li Xingxian finished speaking, he expected the echo from his teammates, but when he looked back, Jiang Yixia's eyes were bright, and he seemed to agree with Fu Qinghai's words.
Li Xingxian thought: Okay, just pretend I didn't say anything.
…
Finally, the tank, dragging the armored car, came crunching to the entrance of the valley.
"Why don't you just come to this Vault 79 to get supplies?"
Jiang Yixia turned around and asked.
"Because I have some bad premonitions about this place."
Fu Qinghai looked at the rusty iron plate on the roadside with serious eyes and said in a deep voice.
The feeling of early warning from the force always worked sometimes and sometimes not, and it was hard for Fu Qinghai to explain.
"You stay in the car and I'll go find out."
After Fu Qinghai finished speaking, he walked out of the car door, checked his equipment, and walked towards the valley.
Behind him, the jetpack flew high into the sky with a "whoosh" trailing its tail flames, turned on the automatic circling cruise mode, and quietly hid above the clouds.
Around the valley, there is lush vegetation and a pleasant climate.
Fu Qinghai walked in and felt that this place was completely different from the cruel and harsh biochemical swamps and urban ruins outside.
It's like a paradise in a biochemical apocalypse.
"Something's wrong."
Fu Qinghai muttered to himself.
He has only seen one shelter so far, namely Vault 109, which is a nuclear bunker buried deep underground, but it makes sense when you think about it. Only such a shelter can meet the functional requirements of the doomsday wasteland.
Even if the Vault 79 in front of us is built on the surface, why are there no defensive facilities such as walls, trenches, and bunkers around it?
This place is not far from the swamp. With so many zombies and monsters, if they all attack here, how can the shelter stop them?
Fu Qinghai was thinking.
"Boom, boom, boom."
The vibration of stepping on the ground was heard.
A huge bipedal walking mecha nearly five meters tall came from the other side of the valley. The man in a baseball cap sitting in the semi-open driving seat turned his head and saw Fu Qinghai with a stunned expression:
"Hey, new here?"
Fu Qinghai was also stunned:
"Hey, SCV?"
The man nodded and laughed:
"That's right, the classic T-280."
He held the joystick and raised the utility clip in his hand, which contained a strip of I-beam. He waved it twice as a greeting and said:
"Interesting, no new reincarnators have come here for a long time. Come with me, newcomer. I know you have many questions in your mind."
After saying that, he turned around and walked inside.
SCV, full name "Space Construction Vehicle", is the basic construction unit of the human camp in StarCraft. It is an engineering vehicle with much more powerful melee combat capabilities than Marines.
Fu Qinghai thought for a moment and chose to follow the SCV into the depths of the valley.
Along the way, he saw many humans building and working, fences for livestock and leveled land, everything was in order.
People were not wrapped in airtight power armor like Fu Qinghai. They were not even wearing protective clothing, just ordinary clothes and fabrics. When they saw Fu Qinghai walking in with the SCV, they all came to him. Curious eyes.
Fu Qinghai looked around.
He felt that it seemed a bit... too peaceful here.
Unlike Shelter 109, where the reincarnations are wary of each other and become tense if they disagree, there seems to be a strange order here. All people, regardless of gender, old or young, obey this order. Down.
This may be a state that makes people with obsessive-compulsive disorder very comfortable, just like controlling player units in a real-time strategy game.
But Fu Qinghai always felt that something was wrong.
He felt... being watched.
But he couldn't find the source of his gaze.
This is not easy for a man who is both a Space Marine and a Jedi Knight.
Fu Qinghai closed his eyes and mobilized his sense of force, but that feeling suddenly disappeared again.
It was as if the plants and trees around him were all watching Fu Qinghai, looking at him intently.
It seemed like it was just his illusion.
Fu Qinghai followed the SCV to a huge egg-shaped semi-buried building. The driver in the baseball cap pointed at the open door and said:
"Well, the answer you want is inside."
A tall figure walked out of it. Fu Qinghai was very familiar with the power armor, the MK4 Mjolnir power armor, the iconic golden mask, and the same dark green paint as the Master Chief.
Another reincarnation.
The Spartan warrior took off his helmet, revealing a face full of beards, and opened his arms toward Fu Qinghai, appearing very friendly:
"Aha, welcome, welcome to the Eden of the Black God, the utopia of the wasteland, the legendary... Space Marine."
Black god?
Fu Qinghai caught an unfamiliar word.
He nodded: "Hello."
The Spartan warrior made a welcoming gesture:
"Please come inside, Madam has been waiting for you for a long time."
Have you been waiting for me?
Fu Qinghai raised his eyes slightly and glanced at the sky.
There are only white clouds and azure sky.
"Jet pack, stable signal transmission."
Qing Ming projects a line of characters onto the retina screen.
Fu Qinghai strode into the building and said:
"grateful."
…
The simple and bright hall, well-proportioned potted plants, and modern-style decoration are clean, spacious, and comfortable. It is hard to imagine that someone could recreate these things in a doomsday wasteland.
The egg-shaped space composed of steel frame and glass curtain wall is illuminated entirely by the sun above the head. There is a long metal table in the middle. Behind the table sits a woman wearing a light mint-colored suit. Her chin is clenched and she is looking at Fu Qinghai with interest. .
Fu Qinghai came to her, and the woman stretched out her hand to signal:
"Please take a seat. Rest assured, this stool can bear the weight of the Astartes."
Fu Qinghai was not polite. He pulled out a stool and sat down, and also looked at the woman in front of him.
This is a very elegant middle-aged white woman.
To be honest, this is the first time that Fu Qinghai has seen such a beautiful middle-aged woman face to face instead of in a movie. She is tall and slender, with light blond hair simply tied up, and a pair of glasses on the bridge of her straight and narrow nose. Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, time has left some small wrinkles on her face, but she has not lost too much collagen, making her perfectly thin.
She had a strong sense of bookishness and intellectuality, and the smile on her face was gentle and calm. Fu Qinghai felt inexplicably that maybe this was what Chen Xinlu would look like when she got older.
Cate Blanchett? Charlize Theron?
Quite similar.
"You know me?"
The other party naturally showed an aura of being in a high position, which made Fu Qinghai unconsciously use honorifics when he spoke.
"certainly."
The woman smiled.
"I have read your information, but I didn't expect to meet here. What should I call you, Mr. Quentin? Mr. Jack?"
"Or...Qingshan Nayanhan?"
Oh, this is...
Fu Qinghai raised his eyebrows and leaned forward slowly:
"Any title will do, ma'am."
"You are on guard, you feel slightly uneasy, you are a typical thinking personality."
The woman stared at Fu Qinghai's visor and said with a smile, as if she wanted to see Fu Qinghai's face through the cold breathing valve and goggles.
"laugh……"
Fu Qinghai sneered:
"I'm a motherfucker type personality. Enneagram, MBTI, DISC, blah blah blah, no one really believes this, right?"
"Psychology and sociology are directly related, and it makes sense."
The woman was not worried at all and continued:
"I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Moira Robinson. 'Mrs.' is what they call me. I once served as a chair professor of microbiology at Empire State University. You can call me Professor Robinson, or Robinson." Ma’am, everything is fine.”
"Okay, Professor Robinson, I think..."
Before Fu Qinghai finished speaking, from the corner of his eye he noticed a woman walking into the hall carrying a tray.
It was the thin dark woman whom I first met outside the valley. She now put on clean and simple clothes. She walked over and put a bowl and a cup on the tray in front of Fu Qinghai and said softly:
"Please enjoy."
After saying that, he retreated.
Moira Robinson made a "please" gesture:
"You must be very tired after working hard through the corpse swamp. There is neither food nor water there. Maybe you are hungry now? This bowl of mashed potatoes is a natural product of the sanctuary land, and this cup Clear water, from a mountain stream, you’re welcome.”
Fu Qinghai looked down at the mashed potatoes in the bowl and the water in the cup, and said:
"I won't eat this stuff, Professor."
You didn't even give me a spoon and asked me to grab it with my hands?
"Expected."
Moira Robinson nodded as expected:
"I know you won't taste the food in the shelter. What I want to discuss with you is actually another issue, about the bowl of potatoes in front of you."
"Do you know why potatoes haven't become a staple food for humans, Qingshan?"
Although he didn't want to follow the rhythm of other people's conversations, Fu Qinghai still maintained a certain degree of patience:
"I heard that it seems to be caused by potato virus?"
"That's right." Moira nodded:
"Potatoes cannot be planted and replanted like rice and wheat. In the long run, they are very susceptible to various potato diseases, resulting in a large reduction in potato production. This is almost an inevitable process. Hundreds of people in Ireland once starved to death due to potato famine. Thousands of people, modern potato cultivation also requires the continuous cultivation of virus-free seeds to avoid variety degradation."
Moira changed the subject:
"And here, in this doomsday wasteland recognized by the reincarnations, we have solved this problem. We have improved the genes of potatoes through a fungus, so that it will no longer be infected with various viruses and bacteria. The yield of potatoes has been greatly increased, making it possible for potatoes to become a staple food for mankind."
Moira continued:
"Compared with your country's most advanced hybrid rice, potatoes have higher yields, are more weather-resistant, and have better storage stability. You should know what this means - a small change can save hundreds of millions of people from hunger. "
Moira's eyes moved, meaning:
"Potatoes are just a trivial example. Qingshan, we may not be as evil as you think, and viruses and fungi are not as scary as you think."
Hearing this, Fu Qinghai asked tentatively:
"Could the fungus you are talking about be..."
"Yes, you are very perceptive and very smart."
Moira nodded generously and admitted. She extended her palm to Fu Qinghai and said seriously:
"Introduce yourself again."
"Moira Robinson, head of the Perfect Human Fungus and Parasite Division, the fungus master's representative in the mortal world. Nice to meet you, Mr. Qingshan."
…………
Thanks for listening with compassion, Lin Bao, book friend 20190624024333883, Arctic Monster, Catnip Tsundere Mouse, for the reward.