In the living room full of all kinds of porcelain in Jingzhai Porcelain Shop, His Royal Highness the King of Chu listened to Cheng Qian's explanation while sipping cloud tea.

"Half of this hall is made of ancient porcelain from the previous dynasty, His Royal Highness has seen a lot, and the villain will not be ugly." Cheng Qian knew what he was here for, so he tried his best to introduce the other two kinds of porcelain.

"The other half is the two major types of porcelain produced in Jingdezhen, blue and white porcelain and glaze red." Cheng Qian continued: "These two porcelain firing methods are similar, both are underglaze colored porcelain. The blue and white porcelain on a white background is the blue and white porcelain, which has the largest output and is also the symbol of our Jingdezhen. ”

"This kind of red flower on a white background is red in the glaze." He presented a jade pot spring vase painted with entwined red peonies to His Royal Highness for viewing.

Zhu Zhen played with it, and saw that the enamel of the spring bottle was bright red, which made the peony lifelike and had an excellent texture. exclaimed: "This is so beautiful, I think it's better than blue and white." ”

"Your Highness knows the goods." Cheng Qian hurriedly praised: "How else can people say, 'blue and white porcelain can enter the porcelain bone, and the red in the glaze is more into the glazed bone'?" ”

"Then why is this glaze red, but not as famous as blue and white?" Zhu Zhen asked humbly.

"It's mainly hard to get out." Cheng Qian smiled bitterly: "Glaze red like this pure red is quite rare, and it is often gray-white when burned, or the glaze is purple-red or purple-brown, and the color is not good and can only be destroyed." ”

"So hard to burn?" Zhu Zhen asked curiously, "Where is the difficulty?" ”

"The atmosphere is too difficult to grasp." Cheng Qian replied in a language he could understand:

"To put it simply, the glaze is so red that the kiln door is smoldering, and the door cannot be opened in the middle. The furnace temperature can neither be high nor low. If the furnace temperature is a little lower, the color will turn black, which is very unsightly; A little higher, the color will 'burn away', and even experienced pile masters are very difficult to grasp. ”

"That's really hard." Zhu Zhen sighed.

"That's why there will be a saying that 'a thousand kilns are rare and a treasure, and ten kilns are nine failures'." Cheng Qian sighed and said with a smile: "So it's still simple to burn blue and white, as long as there is a qualified pile master staring, the strict 'one yard, two burning, three extinguishing', basically will not burn out the waste." ”

"Understood." Zhu Zhen nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that this porcelain is the same as a person, so it's better to be spicy." ”

"Your Highness said yes, but this pungency is only relative to the red in the glaze." Cheng Qian was quite proud and said: "Compared with the so-called porcelain outside Jingdezhen, our blue and white porcelain is the finest. ”

"Haha, that's right." Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "Jingdezhen dominates the world, doesn't it rely on blue and white porcelain?" ”

"Exactly." Cheng Qian nodded.

"So the sales must be good, right?" Zhu Zhen played with the porcelain bottle in his hand and asked casually.

Shen Rong and the other accompanying personnel were shocked when they heard the words, and they knew that the drama was coming.

"Thanks to His Royal Highness, it is reasonable." Cheng Qian was also immersed in the pride of the industry and did not notice anything wrong.

"Anyway, for decades, the disdain has been receiving orders and materials, never retailing, and orders from various provinces are scheduled for at least three years."

"Wow. Waiting that long? Zhu Zhen was surprised and asked, "Is it your family like this?" Or is it the same in other people's homes? ”

"The name is more famous, and the waiting time is longer, but other companies have to wait at least a year to get the goods." Cheng Qian replied.

"It's amazing, so how many pieces of porcelain can be produced in one kiln?" Zhu Zhen asked.

"There are many types of porcelain, with different sizes and styles, and it is impossible to generalize." Cheng Qian thought for a while and said, "The average kiln is about 2,000 pieces." ”

"How long will it take to burn a kiln?" Zhu Zhen broke the casserole and asked to the end.

"Three hours to fill the kiln, six hours to start a fire to burn the kiln, and three hours to extinguish the fire." Cheng Qian replied: "So it takes a whole day from entering the kiln to leaving the kiln. ”

"Is it like that every day?"

"That's not possible, one is that you have to wait for the kiln to be completely cooled before you can put the material inside." Cheng Qiandao: "The second is that each blank has to go through hundreds of processes, and dozens of craftsmen can be formed into the kiln. It's good to be able to burn a kiln in three days. ”

"Okay, let's do the math." Zhu Zhen performed a verbal arithmetic on the spot:

"There are 512 kilns in the town, let's be conservative, and burn them for 300 days a year, a total of 100 kilns. With 2,000 pieces in a kiln, how many pieces can be burned in a year? ”

"......" He held back for a while before he said loudly: "It can burn more than 100 million pieces a year, it's really amazing!" ”

"It's not that much," Cheng Qian realized that there was some danger, and hurriedly began to output in reverse: "There is always a lot of burnt waste." ”

"Didn't you say that you can't burn the scrap at all?" Zhu Zhen teased.

"That, that's our family, and many people's pile masters can't wait for it, and there will still be some scraps." Wipe your sweat before the journey.

"Okay, then it's a piece of scrap, can't it be more?" Zhu Zhen asked.

"Yes." Cheng Qian nodded, as the head of the industry, he couldn't smash Jingdezhen's signboard.

"That's more than 90 million pieces." Zhu Zhen smiled and said: "The Ming Dynasty can spread one per capita." ”

As he spoke, he asked Shen Rongdao, "Old Shen, is that so?" ”

"His Royal Highness said with a smile, the blue and white porcelain in Jingdezhen is a valuable commodity, even the little rich families in Suzhou are reluctant to buy it, and they use locally produced white porcelain on weekdays." Shen Rong sighed and said:

"Not to mention the people in other places, if there are dozens of families in a county who can afford it, it will be able to survive."

"That's not right, who did the more than 90 million pieces be sold to this year?" Zhu Zhen pretended to be surprised and asked: "Just now Cheng Huishou said that the orders will be placed in three years." It's not going to be sold overseas, is it? ”

"No, no, no." Shen Rong shook his head and said: "Now only Taicang City can export in the country, and we have never sold a single piece of blue and white porcelain. ”

"......" was a fool before the next trip, and he also heard that these people were not good. He was sweating like a pulp, and he hurriedly looked at Ji Zhixian and Eunuch Zhou for help, but the two lowered their chin to their collarbones, for fear of setting themselves on fire.

secretly scolded the two for not being righteous, so he had to deal with it alone: "Back to Your Highness, a large part of the porcelain is tableware, which is sold in sets, not on pieces." ”

"Pure quibble!" Zhu Zhen pulled his face and said, "Even my family doesn't use blue and white porcelain as tableware, although my father is indeed too frugal." But the living conditions of the Ming Dynasty are better than my family, and there will not be more than 10,000 households, right? ”

"This ......" Cheng Qian secretly complained in his heart, because the family used a yellow glazed palace bowl for dinner, which is thousands of times more valuable than blue and white porcelain! But how dare he say nothing?

"This king will give you another chance to organize your language." Zhu Zhen looked at him coldly.

(End of chapter)