The first meeting between Zhou Zhong and Tayama Naoyoshi and others was also very pleasant, mainly because the other party had a request for Zhou Chong, so he deliberately wanted to get close to the distance between the two sides, and Zhou Zhong also wanted to deal well with Ashikaga Yoshisai and Tayama Naoshun through the other party, so as to better influence the political situation of the Japanese country in the future, so he also had a good conversation with Tayama Naoyoshi and Ashikaga Kazuki.

However, for the other deputy envoy Hatano Xiuxiang, because of the background of the other party's small surname, this made Zhou Chong unable to overcome his psychological obstacles no matter what, fortunately, Hatano Xiuxiang is also a very taciturn person, as long as others don't ask, he will never take the initiative to speak, so Zhou Chong is also a lot easier.

After the banquet, Ashikaga Kazuki and the others finally asked when Zhou Zhong planned to go to the capital? After all, it's mid-August. Although Zhou Chong's side was almost ready, the corn and sweet potatoes had not yet been harvested from the field, so he thought about it for a while and told the other party that waiting until the first day of the next lunar month would be the day of departure, and they could take a break and prepare at the same time for half a month.

After sending away Ashikaga Kazuki and others, Zhou Chong, who had rested for a night, went to Nanyang Town again, and now Nanyang Town is not only a residential area where the people of Beigang gather, but most of the workshops of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce are also there, but some workshops are too disturbing or not very safe, and there are also reasons for secrecy, such as artillery workshops and gunpowder workshops, etc., so these workshops were moved to a valley south of Nanyang Town, and sent people to guard it closely, and this valley was also named "Workshop Valley".

Zhou Zhong went to the workshop valley this time, this valley is actually next to the valley where Priest Nader tested the cannon before, but the area of this valley is very large. The terrain is also relatively high. Even during the summer rainstorms. There is no need to worry about flooding, and now the entire valley has been carefully planned as an industrial area, where not only artillery and gunpowder workshops are located, but also iron-making, weapons, glass and other workshops are here.

After coming to the Valley of the Workshop, Zhou Zhong first went to the artillery workshop to check the casting progress of the artillery, and with the help of several artillery craftsmen brought by Father John, he not only solved the various problems of the original artillery. And the casting speed has also been accelerated a lot, and now on several newly launched Daifuku ships, each has been equipped with two guns for testing, and most of the remaining gun emplacements are still empty, which is also a helpless thing, after all, the casting of artillery is not something that can be completed in a day or two.

After coming out of the artillery workshop, Zhou Zhong went to the gunpowder workshop located in the innermost part of the valley, because the gunpowder workshop was extremely dangerous, so it was far away from other workshops, and the craftsmen in the workshop were relatively high. Speaking of which, the ratio of gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty is almost the same as the best ratio of black powder. Zhou Zhong didn't have any good ways to improve it, so he could only make gunpowder into granular gunpowder. In this way, there is no need to worry about the gunpowder being left for too long, which will lead to the delamination of gunpowder, and the combustion of granular gunpowder is also relatively sufficient, which is more powerful than powdered gunpowder.

However, Zhou Zhong didn't dare to stay in the gunpowder workshop for too long, after all, watching the craftsmen knead the gunpowder like dough, and it was indeed very brave to study people's courage, Zhou Zhong felt that he was still a more life-sparing person, and it was really not appropriate to stay in this dangerous environment, but after he left, he immediately asked people to raise the wages of the craftsmen in the gunpowder workshop again, and promised that if the craftsmen had an accident, the Chamber of Commerce would always take care of their families, after all, these craftsmen are working here at great risk. In the event of an accident, it is estimated that they will not be able to leave even a whole corpse.

After leaving the gunpowder workshop, Zhou Zhong went to the glass workshop again, and now the glass products produced by the glass workshop have begun to be sold to the outside world, but the glass is not a rare object in Daming, and there have long been merchants who have shipped it from overseas to Daming to sell, so the price is not very high, but considering the low cost of glass, the profit of glass products is still very rich, and whether it is sold to China or the country, North Korea and other places, glass products are in demand, so Zhou Zhong has been thinking about expanding the glass workshop. When the last one left, Zhou Zhong also brought a few precious gifts to Jinxuan and them.

At this time, it was already afternoon, in the living room of Zhou Chong's residence, Sira was handing over her writing to Jinxuan and the three of them to check, after this period of study, Siela seemed to have mastered the trick of learning Chinese characters, and now she knows a lot of commonly used words, but there are still problems in writing, and she often writes some mistakes.

When Zhou Chong entered the living room, Jinxuan and the others had just finished checking the words written by Sila, and it was not early at this time, and Sila had to rush home at dawn, so when she saw Zhou Chong coming in, she stood up and prepared to say goodbye.

But at this time, Zhou Zhong stopped Siela with a smile and said, "Sila, don't leave in a hurry, I went to the glass workshop today, and I happened to make a thing over there, so I brought a few back to make a gift for you." ”

Zhou Zhong said and put a box in his hand on the table, and then looked at Jinxuan and them with a mysterious expression. For Zhou Chong's smug expression, Jinxuan and the others also felt very strange, after the glass was made, they got a lot of gifts of glass products, and even Duo'er and Qingqing regarded the telescope as a toy, so the glass was not unusual for them, but seeing the expression on Zhou Chong's face, it seemed that today's gift was unusual.

"Hehe, seeing Zhou Gongzi's current appearance, I'm very curious about what kind of gift it is?" When Siela heard Zhou Chong's words, she dispelled the idea of leaving, and asked Zhou Chong with a smile, and Jinxuan, Bang'er, and Bai Mengwan also showed curious glances at Zhou Chong.

Speaking of which, although Zhou Chong had agreed to take Bai Mengwan as a concubine, and Wang Jinxuan also found an opportunity to tell Bai Mengwan afterwards, as a result, this girl couldn't sleep for a few days when she was happy, and she was usually embarrassed to see Zhou Chong again, and avoided him for several days, but she still couldn't withstand the persuasion of Bang'er, and she wanted to meet Zhou Chong often, so she still came to Jinxuan as usual often, but every time she saw Zhou Chong, she would bow her head shyly, and she didn't dare to meet Zhou Chong's gaze.

Zhou Zhong proudly glanced at Jinxuan and the others, especially when he saw Bai Mengwan, he deliberately stopped for a while, which made Bai Mengwan bow her head shyly again.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, he saw Zhou Chong open the box on the table with a smile, and then took out a silver glass product from it and said proudly: "Sila, you should know this thing!" ”

"Oh! O Lord Almighty! Mirror! It turned out to be a mirror! Sure enough, when Siela saw the things in Zhou Chong's hand, she immediately jumped up from the chair in shock, shouted incoherently, and rushed to Zhou Chong's face, seemingly reaching out to touch it, but she was worried about breaking the mirror, and stood there hesitantly for a while, with a very funny expression.

"Ha Lu haha~, touch it if you want, I'm not as stingy as the Venetians, this mirror is for you, and Jinxuan and Bang'er, Mengwan You also have a share, if it is broken in the future, just ask me for another copy!" Zhou Zhong looked at Sila's cautious appearance, and immediately stuffed the mirror into her hand, and at the same time reached out and took out several other mirrors from the box and gave them to Jinxuan and them.

Seeing Zhou Zhong stuff such a valuable mirror into his hand without caring about it, and said that he wanted to give it to himself, which made Ciela excited for a while, she knew the value of the glass mirror in Europe, don't look at the mirror in her hand is only the size of a book, but with a civilian woman like her, it is impossible to have it in her life.

Compared with Sila's excitement, Jinxuan and the other three girls were full of doubts at first, and when Zhou Zhong handed the mirror to them, he immediately saw his own clear image from the mirror, which was several times clearer and more real than the bronze mirror he usually used, which made the three of them look at the mirror in surprise, growing so big, it was the first time for them to see their faces so clearly.

However, although Jinxuan and the others were surprised, they were not as excited as Sila, firstly, because of the education they received since childhood, so that they had to maintain their manners at all times, and secondly, they did not know the amazing value of the glass mirror in Lu Dao's hand in Europe, so although Jinxuan felt that the glass mirror in their hands was very wonderful, they only felt that it was just a novelty made by Zhou Zhong and European craftsmen, and it was not much different from the previous glass products.

After a while, Ciara came to her senses from the shock, but still asked in disbelief, "Is this ...... Is this really for me? ”

"Of course, I know that mirrors are very valuable in Europe, but that's mainly because the production methods are monopolized in the hands of the Venetians, so they raised the mirrors to sky-high prices, but in fact, I can tell you frankly that the cost of glass mirrors is not high, these are only the first batch of manufacturing, the mirror area is not much, and when the technology matures, I will give you a larger dressing mirror each!" Zhou Chong's pride is full of emotion.

After he explained the principle of making mirrors to the two glass craftsmen from Europe, they have been working hard to carry out experiments, and today they finally got the first batch of products, and Zhou Zhong was worried that the mercury behind the mirror was poisonous, so people painted the back of the mirror with a thick layer of paint, and inlaid the mirror on the precious sandalwood board, making the mirror safe and strong.

Hearing that Zhou Chong was able to make a larger mirror in the future, Ciela was stunned again, she didn't expect that the mirror manufacturing technology that had been kept secret by the Venetians in Europe for hundreds of years was casually cracked by Zhou Chong, you must know that Daming did not produce glass here before, but now it is only a few months, not only the glass is there, but even the mirror is bigger and more beautiful than Europe, it seems that the description in Marco Polo's book is correct, and the Central Plains is indeed the center of the world's civilization. (To be continued......)