Chapter 41 The Anxious Aristocrats
Liu Zheng met Zheng Yueru at the county mansion.
The eldest daughter of the Zheng family said something that left Liu Zheng confused as soon as she entered the room.
"Brother Liu, should I congratulate you or sympathize with you?"
Zheng Yueru looked exhausted and took a sip of tea as soon as she sat down.
Liu Zheng was stunned: "What do you mean, Miss Zheng?"
Zheng Yueru took out a bunch of silver bills from her pocket and said with a laugh, "Congratulations, Brother Liu, your advertising method has opened up the market for several kinds of fine wines in Liangzhou. My Zheng family's reserves were sold out within three days! This is the ten thousand taels this time, please keep it, Brother Liu!"
Liu Zheng was so excited after hearing this that he wanted to hug Zheng Yueru and give her a big kiss.
When you feel sleepy, here comes the pillow.
I haven't seen Zheng Yueru these days. It turns out she went to Liangzhou for "promotions".
Ten thousand taels was enough for him to squander for a while.
"What do you mean by sympathy?"
Liu Zheng put away the banknote and looked at Zheng Yueru in confusion.
Zheng Yueru sighed deeply, stood up and clasped her fists, saying: "Brother Liu's love for the people and his righteousness are obvious to all the people of Yinzhou, and have even spread to the cities surrounding Yinzhou. But this time, Brother Liu's production team was really inconsiderate!"
Liu Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking that this was the reason why he came. He smiled leisurely and said, "I thought that my county lord's mansion and the Zheng family were already brothers. I didn't expect that Miss Zheng was also here to be a lobbyist?"
In the past few days, when the county magistrate's office was drafting the "production team" decree, many prominent families and landlords came to beg for mercy.
After all, this matter concerns the means of production controlled by these prominent families. How could they not be anxious?
In fact, every territory must have at least two opposing factions. In this era, these two factions are the noble families and the common people.
If you want to rule this territory, you must either support the prominent families and oppress the common people.
Either support the common people to fight against the prominent families.
Liu Zheng naturally chose the common people because the base number was large, and this was also influenced by his three views.
Zheng Yueru smiled bitterly: "How dare Yueru? Yueru is just worried that Brother Liu's move will not only fail to achieve the expected results, but will also affect the spring ploughing at the beginning of the year!"
Liu Zheng looked unconvinced: "Why do you say that?"
Zheng Yueru patiently explained: "Yueru just rushed back to Yinzhou today. After reading the decree carefully, Brother Liu clearly stated in the decree that the production team leader should give priority to the selection of farmer representatives. Is that right or not?"
Liu Zheng laughed: "So Miss Zheng is worried about this?"
"That's right, Liu Zheng believes that farming should belong to the people and should be coordinated by the people! Miss Zheng, I have made up my mind on this matter, no need to mention it again!"
He picked up the teacup, intending to see the guest off.
Zheng Yueru looked helpless, knowing that once the young master of the Liu family made a decision, nothing could change it. So she sighed deeply, looked at Liu Zheng provocatively, and smiled faintly: "Brother Liu, how about we have another bet?"
Liu Zheng was stunned and asked, "How do we bet?"
Zheng Yueru took a deep breath and said, "Yueru bets that the production team's decree will be difficult to implement, and it may even affect the spring ploughing next year! If Yueru wins by chance, Brother Liu will let my Zheng family get 10% of the ancient thorn water that has not yet entered the market!"
Liu Zheng found this quite interesting and laughed: "What if I win?"
Zheng Yueru said: "If Brother Liu wins, Gu Cishui, the Zheng family will not take 10% of the profit! In addition, the Zheng family will give 10,000 slaves to the county mansion for free!"
Liu Zheng was overjoyed when he heard this and made the decision immediately.
He just couldn't believe that such an advanced production model of the living team would not work? Even if it would affect the spring ploughing next year?
The two of them immediately signed this "bet" contract.
Before leaving, Zheng Yueru looked at Liu Zheng deeply and reminded him, "Brother Liu, Lu Zhengyi of Yangzhou is aggressively pursuing his own military power. It seems that he is going to make some moves. Brother Liu should be careful!"
“Lu Zhengyi?”
Liu Zheng sneered when he heard this.
This guy occupied Yangzhou, which was much richer than Yinzhou, but he couldn't even stop the bandits. Liu Zheng never took him seriously. If he didn't provoke him, it would be fine. If he dared to provoke him first, Liu Zheng wouldn't mind teaching him a lesson.
After discussing with Zheng Yueru, Liu Zheng came to his own workshop again.
Sure enough, under the responsibility system, the Shen Gongfang became well-organized and no longer in chaos. The person in charge of each department did not need to work, but only needed to manage.
Today, he is developing another magical object!
Glass!
The reason why he asked Zheng Yueru not to put the perfume on the market for the the ceramic jars and bottles in Yinzhou were not worthy of the real "luxury" such as perfume!
Good things need good bottles!
In fact, glass is not a modern thing. As early as 3700 BC, the ancient Egyptians had already made glass decorations and simple glassware. But at that time, there was only colored glass. About 1000 BC, China made colorless glass. In the early 12th century AD, commercial glass appeared and began to become an industrial material. In the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century, optical glass was manufactured to meet the needs of developing binoculars.
However, the glass in ancient my country has always been a relatively simple low-temperature lead-barium glass. Due to its chemical composition and firing temperature, it will explode when it encounters hot water, so it cannot be used as a daily utensil. This also led to the fact that this ancient glass can only be used as a decoration and cannot be used in other fields.
What Liu Zheng is going to develop today is soda-lime glass!
This is truly practical glass, strong and durable, and will not burst when exposed to heat.
"Is the young master doing scientific research again?"
"What are you going to do this time?"
“Who knows…”
Perhaps it has become a habit. As long as Liu Zheng stays in this workshop for a few days and doesn't go back, he must be tinkering with different things!
As for the word "scientific research", it was Liu Zheng who taught them.
The craftsmen understood the hint and were looking forward to it.
And this news will spread throughout Yinzhou as soon as possible.
at this time.
Wang family.
When Wang Zengming heard the news, all the depression he had felt because of the production team disappeared instantly .
"What? Master Liu is doing scientific research again?"
"Hurry, hurry, prepare the horse for me!"
"No matter what, we must get there before the Zheng and Cao families!"
Wang Zengming was cheered up and ran out of the house with his arms and legs bared.
The Cao and Zheng families made a lot of money from Zuiyinzhou and Snow Cream, which made people jealous. This made Wang Zengming very depressed, but it was their Wang family who got nothing!
This time, he must come out on top!
Then, when he arrived at the entrance of the Divine Workshop, he saw the carriages of the other two families. His face immediately darkened: "These two beasts, do they still want to give our Wang family a chance to live?"
The Divine Workshop is kept absolutely confidential and ordinary people cannot enter.
So, the carriage stopped at a safe distance outside the gate of the Divine Workshop. Despite the freezing cold, no one was willing to leave.
"Hahahaha, Mr. Wang is here too?"
"Mr. Wang is late this time! We have been guarding here for two days!"
Wang Zengming was so angry that he was shaking all over. He took a quick look and saw that the two masters of the prominent families had already placed a stove in the carriage with "Zuiyinzhou" roasted on it. It seemed that they were here to fight a protracted war.
"Haha, you two have worked so hard!"
Wang Zengming snorted, got into the carriage that was heated by the fire, and sat down without any hesitation.
"Mr. Wang is really not shy!"
"Don't go too far, you two!"
"Enough of the small talk. What did Young Master Liu develop this time?"
The old man of the Zheng family, Zheng Sheng, rolled his eyes, stroked his beard and smiled faintly: "It probably has nothing to do with your two families."
"Don't be so arrogant, old man from the Zheng family!"
“You never know!”
The three old men started quarreling on the spot, staring at each other like children fighting for toys. This made some passers-by quite amused and admired them in their hearts. Before the county marquis and his son came, all these noble family masters were arrogant and looked down on others. Who would have thought that in just over a month, they were so arrogant in front of the young master of the Liu family and dared not even fart.
"Bring some wine!"
"Come, come, come, I'll ask the butler to bring a few pounds of meat!"
"Whoever gets drunk will voluntarily withdraw from this competition!"
"good!"
…
At this time, Liu Zheng in the Divine Workshop had already burned three furnaces of glass.
This was within his expectations. If this thing was really that easy to make, with the wisdom of the Chinese people, they would have made it long ago.
The raw materials for making glass are quartz sand, limestone, feldspar, and soda ash.
As for quartz sand and feldspar, they have existed since ancient times. Because these two are important raw materials for ceramics and my country's ceramics are famous overseas, quartz sand is still easy to get.
Liu Zheng had calcined limestone when he was in Yangzhou, so it’s not difficult.
And soda ash...
This is even easier for Liu Zheng. Because natural soda ash mainly exists in salt lakes! If Liu Zheng was in other cities, this thing would be very difficult to get. But... this is Yinzhou!
Why did Liu Zheng choose Yinzhou as his fiefdom? Because there are salt lakes and mine salt here!
Therefore, probably in the entire Longyan Dynasty, only Yinzhou can produce the kind of glass that Liu Zheng wants!
Now that the materials are ready, the next step is the craftsmanship.
The first step is to mix the ingredients, which is the most time-consuming process because Liu Zheng needs to constantly explore the proportions. Mixing these materials evenly, each different proportion will directly affect the quality of the glass.
Then the next step is calcination. The prepared raw materials are heated at high temperature to form a uniform glass liquid without bubbles, generally between 1,200 and 1,600 degrees. This temperature can be achieved by the blast furnace of Liu Zheng's workshop. It takes four hours, or more than eight hours, to calcine the glass liquid.
The third process is molding. What Liu Zheng wants to make now is a bottle for perfume, so he has already made a mold with ceramics. He only needs to pour the glass liquid into it, and then after a cooling process, the glass first changes from a viscous liquid to a plastic state, and then to a brittle solid state.
The last step is annealing.
Glass undergoes drastic temperature and shape changes during the forming process, which leave thermal stress in the glass. This thermal stress will reduce the strength and thermal stability of glass products. If it is cooled directly, it is likely to break during the cooling process or during subsequent storage, transportation and use. In layman's terms, it means to maintain a certain temperature, keep it warm or cool it down slowly.
During the production process, Liu Zheng added a certain amount of lead, which can increase the refractive index of the glass bottle, making the bottle produce dazzling refraction.
In other words, what he is making now is the crystal glass of later generations!
Then there is tinted glass in various colors.
This time was different from the previous times, this was a real chemical reaction, so Liu Zheng had driven everyone out when he tried it, because if you weren't careful, a chemical accident would happen.
He spent five days in the Divine Workshop.
"boom!"
That night, a loud noise sounded in the Divine Workshop.
"ah!"
"What's wrong?"
"Young Master!"
The entire Divine Workshop was in shock.
