Not only Huang De is quite puzzled, but many craftsmen in Mincheng are now quite puzzled. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Kuo had a bunch of strange lenses grinding over there, and until now Li Kuo didn't know what these lenses were for, especially those triangular glass columns.

A master was entrusted by Chen Jian with a lot of money to make a leaky pot timing device, which required it to be accurate to the difference between time in the blink of an eye. It is necessary to ensure the stability of the upper water surface, and to ensure that there is enough water leakage, so that it can be used to accurately measure some subtle time.

The largest sail workshop in Mincheng also received a commission to make a cloth ball with a diameter of about 40 steps out of the finest cloth. Forty steps, the area is terrifying when unfolded, and it has to be hand-sewn and then coated with a layer of impermeable soft lacquer. It's a hard job, but it's good enough to give you enough money, otherwise no one would want to do it.

The best silversmith coppersmith in Mincheng received a sum of money and a drawing. It is required to make a copper frame that can be divided and closed as drawn in the drawings. It looks like a protractor, but it is a little more complex and detailed than a protractor, requiring extremely fine scales.

The coopers of Mincheng were asked to make a huge wooden barrel, and this was not a big problem. The supporting iron-smelting workshop was asked to make a very long iron pipe, a large iron pipe with a length of ten steps.

If this tin pipe looked strange, it was even stranger to receive another thing in the iron-smelting workshop: a twin-way iron trough, but with a very small opening on one side and a very large opening on the other, and a penetrating part at the bottom.

In addition, there are huge magnets, extremely long copper wires coated with purple tree lacquer, circles around the city, charcoal essence and clay or graphite strips, two close together with eucommia glue and connected in parallel......

If this is something outlandish, then one of the objects to be made in your own glass workshop is even more magical. Several of the best glassmakers were asked to make a large glass tube that was one and a half steps long. No one knew what it was for, and it was expensive. Even more puzzling is that this glass tube, which could not be sold at all, was asked to make five, citing the fear of bumping and shattering on the ship.

It's weird to be too big, but it's weird to be too small. In addition to the thick, long, and thick glass tube, the craftsmen here also have to make a bunch of small glass tubes.

The smaller the glass tube, the finer the better, and that's fine. The problem is that the glass tube needs to be hollow inside, and the hollow part should be exactly the same as possible. Fortunately, the soft glass can be elongated by the ignited gas, and it has been tried little by little by relying on years of craftsmanship.

It's easy to get a few sticks, and after cooling, you have to blow a small bubble out of the bottom, pour in mercury while it's hot, and then seal the top. When the temperature drops, the mercury cools and slowly falls below.

However, what these craftsmen thought was quite perfect, was thrown into boiling water by Chen Jian, boiled for a while, looked at the mercury in the sun, put it in the ice water made of saltpeter, and then sandwiched it in the armpit and studied it, and then threw it away, telling these craftsmen that it was not good. It has to be fine, it has to be even, and it has to be smooth......

A group of disabled people are hired in the workshop, and they are not paid a low salary, and they have only one thing to do every day: squat by the river in clay pots, filled with some strange liquid, and thrown into the cold water as soon as they notice smoke or heat up. Three died in a month, and the death was unbearable, there were really no corpses, and the sound was like thunder and earth-shattering, and even the stones by the river were blown to pieces. However, the pension is extremely high, and some people who have lost their ability to live but still have families, and who have advanced bayberry sores are not only not afraid, but rush to them and wait in line for death. Of course, it's best not to die, and the salary is not low......

All kinds of strange things happened in autumn and winter, and there were many craftsmen involved, not just these few people.

The craftsman just has to do it, and he doesn't know what these things are for.

Besides, these odd things are also very well paid, except for some extremely delicate ones that are very troublesome to do, most of them can be made by hand, which is nothing more than a waste of time.

All these weird things don't buy money, on the contrary, a lot of money is wasted.

But Chen Jian, who spends money on craftsmen to make all this, is not stingy, not only willing to spend money on these things, but also uses his own money to drive the development of Nan'an County as much as possible.

In fact, this year was so tossed, and by the end of the year, I basically didn't make much money. But he got everything except money.

His fame in Nan'an County is getting bigger and bigger, and the characters on the official face are moving around more and more with him, and he really has a little bit of the meaning of colluding with each other to move forward.

At the end of the year, it is the end of the year appraisal of officials.

This year is a small test, and next year is a triennial big test. The officials in charge of the evaluation in the county came to Nan'an at the end of the year, and after the praise, all the officials in Nan'an got a superior evaluation, which was the highest evaluation in the entire Fujian County.

There are many more buildings in the county, and the locals in Nan'an, who lead the official assessment, also take them to look at the sunlit corners in a planned way.

A standard Enlightenment School of cement, masonry, glass windows, and dark wood panels occupies a huge area and can accommodate hundreds of students.

The shape of the house is simple, but the windows are bright and clean. Old and new desks were neatly piled up in the classroom, and the children who were being enlightened were learning to write and arithmetic, and looking through the glass window at the situation, the officials could not help but admire.

At the end of class, the bell is shaking, and the children flock out, dressed in good and bad clothes, but intimate and smiling at each other; During the class, the crowd was crowded, and Mr. Enlightenment on the podium was full of spirits and frustration.

The sunlight shines directly through the glass windows, and there are still grass and trees in the courtyard, which looks a little desolate, but the officials who evaluate it feel that the flaws are not hidden.

The officials who evaluated the evaluation can be regarded as having seen the market, of course, they know that glass is expensive, but the windows of this school are all glass instead of window paper, and they can't help but be a little surprised.

"You Nan'an are rich. Such a school, even in Mincheng, does not exist. ”

The school official of Nan'an County, who accompanied him, hurriedly said: "Last year, there was a heavy rain, and a school fell into disrepair and collapsed. At that time, the county didn't have much money to spare, so I thought about repairing it. I didn't want local merchants to donate enthusiastically, saying that no matter how poor you are, you can't be poor in education, so such a school was built in a few months. The county spent part of it, and many of the local merchants were members of the Mo Party, so glass, wooden tables, etc., were purchased directly from the workshop at the reserve price. Coupled with the cement in the workshop and the mud blending, it is extremely fast, and in just a few months, this Enlightenment School can be classed. ”

The evaluation official was surprised: "Even so, it will cost a lot to build this school." ”

"yes. Because of the use of glass lighting and the large size of the house, each classroom can accommodate sixty or seventy people, and the children are small, as long as they can sit down. This school can accommodate more than 700 children in total, and the cost is less than before. ”

"I think there are many children here who are poor and helpless?"

"Yes. But all those who are far away from home and who do not have enough village schools will gather here to enlighten. The charity trading company and the county each contributed a part of the money to ensure that the children could eat on weekdays, and although there was no meat, at least they could eat enough. ”

"And where do you live?"

"The merchant also arranged accommodation. During the break or after school, I sometimes do chores such as sweeping the chimney, sticking pulverized coal, peeling and chopping fish. You can also get a few copper plates. ”

There are some things that the official didn't say, for example, a few days ago, a child got stuck in the chimney when he was sweeping the chimney, and he didn't know the outside, and he was roasted alive. But even if they say it, it is nothing, and the officials who want to come to the evaluation will sigh and eat and drink, and since a large amount of coal is used as fuel, there are hundreds of children who die on it every year.

For many places, it's not an exaggeration to say that this school is heaven.

After a circle in the school, everyone left the school again, and went to the workhouse and the nursing home in Nan'an, with a couplet written on the door, and the following payment was the county order to go far away.

"The old and the old, and the old of men; The young of me, and the young of man. ”

The evaluation officer couldn't help but read it out and savored the winning streak. Although the people inside didn't say that the yellow hair was hanging down and they were happy, they seemed to be doing well, at least they could survive without starvation.

As for the arrival on the streets, the merchants who transported the goods, the horse-drawn carriages that transported the glass, and the laborers who carried the coal and stone were all busy.

In the final assessment, all officials in Nan'an basically got a superior assessment. Whether it is taxation, moral education, education, shops, etc., it is much stronger than in the past.

With the glass industry and soy sauce industry in the entire Fujian city taking root in Nan'an, a large number of upstream and downstream workshops have been driven.

The glassworks pay their taxes here, and the transporters stop here. In addition, Chen Jian organized some idle laborers and set up a special construction team, which not only built a school, but also tried to build the brick buildings of a trading company in Mincheng, and may have to build roads in the future.

Nan'an has absorbed a lot of wealth, and it has been forwarded through Chen Jian's hand, and then it has driven local shops, shops, food and other industries, and it seems that it is indeed a little prosperous.

This boom was built on the premise that a large number of workers were employed, and it would continue as the glass mills gradually monopolized the sale of glass along the coast.

Therefore, today's Nan'an County is somewhat inseparable from Chen Jian. A few workshops, together with a complete set of carpentry, construction, transportation, and ore use, are the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of hired laborers.

It can be said that once Chen Jian's workshop closes down or moves out, some officials will not get some of the annual bribes, and there will be a terrifying scene of hundreds of people having nothing to do.

So, not long after the evaluation officials left Nan'an County, the county council nominated Chen Jian to become a member of the county council.

This time it can be said that everyone is looking forward to it, and most of the people who have the right to vote agree, in fact, it is equivalent to Chen Jian spending some money to buy this seat.

As for the objections, such as the parents of the child who was roasted to death by the chimney, they did not even have the right to vote, and naturally drowned in the oblivion of the crowd.

Some people even blamed the parents: If it weren't for Chen Shanren, where would it be so easy for our children to enter the Enlightenment School? Just make your efforts to have another one.