The speech standard of the Ming and Qing empires was called Mandarin language by European missionaries, translating the Chinese name Guanhua (the language of the officials) for this speech standard, which was current already in the Ming Dynasty.
Producer gas is made by blowing air through an incandescent fuel bed (commonly coke or coal) in a gas producer. The reaction of fuel with insufficient air for total combustion produces carbon monoxide (CO); this reaction is exothermic and self-sustaining.
Fire is hot because conversion of the weak double bond in molecular oxygen, O2, to the stronger bonds in the combustion products carbon dioxide and water releases energy (418 kJ per 32 g of O2); the bond energies of the fuel play only a minor role here.