PS: It's the end of the month, and there are still monthly passes, please give a few more, thank you.

In any case, the matter of opening the kiln to sacrifice is being prepared in an orderly manner. Knowing this situation, there is no one to laugh at, such a situation is like worshipping ancestors during the New Year, will anyone laugh?

The busy time always flies quickly, and after two days, it is time to officially open the kiln and burn porcelain.

On this day, the sun is shining and the autumn is crisp, which is a good time to fire the kiln. There is a porcelain proverb: seven dead, eight alive and nine turn over. It means that after July and August, it is the peak season of the porcelain industry, during this time period, the temperature is very stable, and the success rate of firing porcelain is very high.

At this time, in front of a certain kiln in Yaoli, Gao Dequan personally went out and was presiding over a sacrificial event. In ancient words, it is the god of the warm kiln, worshipping the wind and fire immortal. However, China is very large, and there are many places where porcelain can be fired, so the kiln gods are different from place to place. Anyway, the kiln god of the porcelain capital is a person named Tong Bin.

Legend has it that during the Wanli period, there was a big dragon jar made by the overseer. Since the dragon jar had not been burned for a long time, the eunuchs whipped the porcelain workers and even killed them. The kiln worker Tong Bin was indignant, and in order to save the porcelain worker, he finally resolutely jumped into the kiln fire in protest.

Tong Bin's death aroused the righteous indignation of the porcelain workers. In order to calm down the turmoil of the people and alleviate the people's hearts, the imperial court built the Youtao Ling Temple on the east side of the imperial kiln factory, which was the temple for Tong Bin, and was enshrined as the wind and fire fairy. Since then, the porcelain capital has been dedicated to Tong Bin as the kiln god. For hundreds of years, it has been sacrificed from generation to generation, even if it was interrupted for a period of time after the founding of the country, but now it has been restored.

Of course, the ritual of worship is not so simple, but it is not as cumbersome as imagined. In fact, Wang Guan felt that this ceremony may not be simply for worshipping the gods, but more like a meeting to reward the potters.

For example, when the god of the warm kiln was warm, in the morning, he borrowed the winged flying tiger flag from the Wind and Fire Immortal Temple and inserted it on both sides of the gate. Then use yellow paper to write the four characters of the Wind and Fire Immortal. Sticking on the lintel of the kiln mouth, there is also a pair of wind to help the fire, and the fire borrows the wind to help the couplet. After that, the kiln god was also invited to the kiln door, and then a group of people were invited to beat gongs and drums, which was lively.

All morning, I was basically busy with these things. After noon, the employees who participated in the kiln were invited to come and drink, and everyone drank happily and the atmosphere was warm, and the banquet was not finished until the afternoon.

Think about it. In ancient times, this banquet should be the happiest time for the potters, and it can be regarded as a disguised reward for the potters by the owner. After all, the potters have worked hard to make porcelain, and the owner must express it. In the final firing process, the potters did not work hard, resulting in the porcelain being damaged and burned, and then there would be no tears.

Of course, this kind of thing will definitely not happen to Gao De's body, because he is an experienced porcelain master himself. And in the process of firing, even if he doesn't have to do it himself, he knows every step in his heart. If you want to work in front of him, you just don't want to do it.

At this time. At the end of the banquet, after Gao Dequan led everyone to bow to the kiln god with incense, the next step was the most critical ignition ceremony. The kiln fire was lit. This means that there can be no interruption until the firing is finished. Otherwise, most of the hard work of half a year will be wasted.

So at the time of ignition. Gao Dequan's hands also trembled slightly, but he finally lit the firewood.

Soon after, you can see the raging fire through the hole of the kiln, and the golden flames rise, and there is a boiling heat wave, which makes it easy to avoid approaching. This is due to the fact that the fire is made of the finest pine wood, which is naturally more intense. However, the cost must be very high, and the cost of firewood alone is tens of thousands.

This money is certainly not a problem, the problem is that now the kiln mouth is rarely used to fire porcelain. With the development of the times, the kiln mouth of porcelain is also divided into several categories, namely firewood kiln, coal kiln, gas kiln, and electric kiln.

Needless to say, the firewood kiln must be firewood, and the coal kiln naturally uses coal as fuel. As for the gas kiln, it is not air, but liquefied gas, and the electric kiln is baked with electric energy.

Although comparatively speaking, the firing of firewood kilns is the most difficult. After all, whether it is a gas kiln or an electric kiln, the artificial temperature can be controlled. But the firewood kiln is different, especially the master who looks at the heat of the pile, and he can't do it without decades of firing experience.

However, among several means, Gao De chose to burn firewood, which naturally has his reasons.

"The fuel of pine wood is of great benefit to ceramics." Gao Dequan explained: "Pine wood is rich in pine resin, and the pine resin volatilized during the combustion process has a moisturizing effect on ceramics. ”

"And no matter how fierce the pine fire is, it is certainly not as strong as liquefied gas and electricity. In pine firewood, firewood is slowly added to make the temperature rise slowly. It is this slow process that also makes the porcelain in the kiln change little by little, and the water vapor in the furnace is fully combined with the porcelain glaze, and the glaze is naturally more moisturized. ”

At this time, Gao Dequan made the simplest analogy: "Just like brewing a cup of coffee, the coal kiln, the gas kiln, and the electric kiln have already prepared instant coffee, and the boiling water is completed as soon as it arrives." However, the firewood kiln grinds the coffee beans and then carefully brews the coffee, the aroma is definitely stronger, and the taste is naturally perfect. ”

"Uncle De, you don't have to tell us this." Yu Feibai said bluntly: "Anyway, we don't understand." ”

"Then you have to listen carefully." Gao Dequan said with a smile: "After all, some fake porcelain is made directly from an electric kiln, so the glaze is relatively dry, and you can distinguish it if you pay close attention." ”

"That's right."

Yu Feibai nodded and memorized it carefully. After all, there must be no gas kiln or electric kiln at the mouth of the kiln in ancient times, and it is completely made of pine firewood, which is definitely different from modern porcelain.

In some appraisal programs, experts always emphasize that the glaze of fake porcelain is dry, so it is not genuine, and many people always do not understand what this means. In fact, what people say is the difference between a firewood kiln and an electric kiln.

After Gao Dequan mentioned some taboo matters for burning porcelain, it was more boring next, after all, adding firewood and fire was originally a very boring thing, so Gao Dequan did not force the two to stay and accompany him.

"You guys go back first."

At the right time, Gao Dequan smiled and said: "When the fire is finished and the kiln mouth is opened to take the porcelain, I will call you over." ”

"Okay."

Yu Feibai was not hypocritical, and nodded directly: "We will come to see you tomorrow." ”

Generally speaking, the entire kiln firing time takes twenty-four hours, and with the cooling time, it is estimated to take two days. Anyway, in this firing process, Gao Dequan must not leave the kiln mouth an inch, and inspect the kiln fire through the fire hole. So before the porcelain came out of the kiln, he was definitely restless.

In this regard, Wang Guan and Yu Feibai had no choice but to ask the staff to help take care of them and go back.

The next morning, the two came over with nourishing chicken soup, and sure enough, they saw Gao Dequan still walking beside the kiln entrance, and seeing his red eyes, I don't know if he was smoked by the smoke or stayed awake all night.

"Uncle De, come over and have something to eat." Wang Guan greeted, not only brought chicken soup to Gao Dequan, but also bought two large boxes of breakfast. There are steamed buns and fritters, as well as meat porridge and soup powder, which is enough for a group of potters to eat and drink.

Seeing this, the potters must have been very happy, and after thanking them, they picked up the dishes and chopsticks and devoured them.

In addition, Gao Dequan did not reach the point of forgetting to sleep and eat, he felt that the fire at the kiln mouth was very normal, and he also called a few pile masters with a smile, and everyone enjoyed the breakfast beautifully, which can be regarded as replenishing a little vitality.

Anyway, everyone really didn't sleep all night last night, and if it was ordinary porcelain, they wouldn't have paid so much attention to it. The problem is that firing things is not simple, and no one dares to take it lightly. Not only Gao Dequan, but also several other pile masters, that is, experts specially hired by the Su Group, everyone did not dare to sleep, and they were staring at the kiln fire all the time.

Fortunately, it was only twenty-four hours, and everyone was able to get through it by gritting their teeth.

"Don't worry, it's okay." Gao Dequan said with a smile: "It's just to stay up all night, you can put off the fire in the afternoon, and sleep again at night. ”

Gao Dequan had already calculated, and Wang Guan and Yu Feibai had nothing to say. Then he also looked at the fire hole for a while, but unfortunately he couldn't see anything, and he suddenly felt bored.

"If you're bored, go to a nearby village." Gao Dequan said with a smile: "There are a lot of porcelain in Yaoli, you go and walk around to see if you can find some good things and come back." ”

"No problem." Yu Feibai rubbed his hands and said, "Just wait to see me show my skills." ”

Gao Dequan is very optimistic about Yu Feibai's self-confidence, after all, to do something, you must first have self-confidence, which is a positive attitude. If you don't even have confidence and think about failure at the beginning, then there is a limit to how successful things can be.

Of course, having confidence is a good thing, but whether things can succeed depends on luck in addition to real skills. Yu Feibai is confident and does not lack ability, but he doesn't know how lucky he is.

"My luck is good, it's just that you restrained it, and it became bad."

At this time, Yu Feibai complained and put forward his own opinions: "So in order to avoid such a thing from happening, it is best for everyone to act separately." You go to the left, I go to the right, and finally we buy something and then meet. ”

Wang Guan didn't care, just smiled and said, "You want to compete again?" ”

"It's not comparable, the more it compares, the more it hits." Yu Feibai decisively refused, and then left quickly, intending to buy a few pieces of fine porcelain in order to save a little face.

Seeing this, Wang Guan shook his head and smiled, and then slowly walked away from another direction. After walking for a while, he was surprised to find that in the middle of the clearing, there were many people wielding hoes and digging.

Some people may think that Wang Guan is making a fuss, isn't it normal to work in the countryside, what is surprising. However, what Wang Guan saw was not a scene of farmers plowing the fields, but a group of people digging pits to pick up ceramic fragments.

"What's going on?"

Wang Guan was naturally a little stunned: "Is it robbing tombs in broad daylight?" (To be continued......)