Knowing His Royal Highness's intention to say this, Cheng Qian tentatively said: "Quanzhou and Guangzhou have been doing maritime trade for hundreds of years, and almost all the people in the local area have made this their business. If I heard that there was an opportunity to reopen the market, I would definitely miss His Highness Longen very much. ”

"Tell them what the king has said." Zhu Zhen nodded, that's exactly what he meant. At present, he has not set foot in Fujian and Guangdong, so smuggling is very rampant there, even after the fall of Chen Shanghai and Fang Datong, there is no change.

Han Yike and Liao Dingguo have consulted him several times, wanting to crack down on smuggling and not allow ships that are not part of the city to release to the sea.

However, Zhu Zhen never agreed, because there was no local city shipping department, and there was no local government to cooperate with the anti-smuggling department. It will also involve the energy of the fleet and delay normal business.

However, smuggling along the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong must definitely be banned.

In this era, there were many pirates on the ocean, and overseas countries were even more ferocious and cunning.

Maritime trade must be escorted by a strong navy, otherwise even if it is not robbed by pirates at sea, it will be robbed by local regimes and local tyrants when it comes to foreign ports.

Those overseas barbarians don't understand what 'win-win cooperation and sustainable development' are, why do they have to spend money to buy what they can grab, and they sell it so expensive.

And raising a strong navy is too expensive. This requires the guarantee of high trade profits.

In order to guarantee high trade profits, it is necessary to monopolize trade as much as possible and drive out any competitors, let alone the worst of competitors, smugglers.

Therefore, it is imperative to set up a city ship division in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, although Zhu Zhen temporarily withdraws from the skills, but first do a good job of paving the way, so that those Fujian and Guangdong maritime merchants know that they are coming, it is always right.

Let's see if there are any clever ghosts who have come to take the initiative to trade their names.

~~

On the same day, His Royal Highness the King of Chu 'stopped at the point'.

When I first met for the first time, it was not good to talk to people too specifically, which seemed too utilitarian. Our Highness is a decent person, and he wants face.

The next day, His Royal Highness the King of Chu and his entourage went to visit the Zhushan Imperial Kiln Factory located in the north of the town.

Zhushan is actually a small hill facing the town, surrounded by the walls of the Imperial Kiln Factory, and the mountain cannot be seen from the outside.

His Royal Highness the King of Chu drove and stopped outside the mountain gate of the Imperial Kiln Factory, in front of the tall banner of 'Xianfeng Imperial Kiln Factory Head Gate'.

As soon as he got out of the car, the sixth child was shocked by the scale of the Imperial Kiln Factory: "Is it so big?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, the factory area of our Imperial Kiln Factory is surrounded by a wall for ten miles." Zhou Ji, the eunuch who supervised the construction, replied: "It's bigger than Fuliang County." ”

"Need such a big place?" The sixth man was stammered.

"Your Highness will know when you come in." Zhou Ji smiled and said, "It's really useful." ”

Saying that, he bowed down and wanted to ask: "Your Highness, please come in, while visiting, while listening to the slave maid's explanation." ”

"Okay, you lead the way." Zhu Zhen nodded.

Zhou Ji led His Royal Highness and his entourage into the open gate with the plaque of the Imperial Kiln Factory.

I saw a long road in the door leading straight to the instrument gate, and the east and west sides of the instrument gate were divided into two archways of the east and west gates.

Because His Royal Highness mainly came to visit the kiln, Zhou Ji first introduced the two factories behind the east and west gates.

"There are 21 kilns in the east factory area, mainly kilns such as Qing kiln, dragon cylinder kiln, wind and fire kiln, color kiln, etc., mainly where the kiln is fired; The west factory area is 23 pottery works, there are large utensils, small utensils, antique works, carving works, printing works, paintings, etc., it is a place to make blanks, sharp blanks, glaze and painting blanks. ”

Zhou Ji was like a treasure there, but Zhu Zhen was confused. Although he nodded his head frequently, his gaze was a little sloppy.

How else to say that eunuchs are the best at serving? Zhou Ji observed the words and immediately asked His Royal Highness to visit the production process according to the process.

His Royal Highness really came to the spirit, he likes to watch the handicraft production the most, and he decompresses. It's a pity that I can't make noodles and watch them while eating.

A group of people gathered around His Highness to the front of the shed, and the workers who were busy quickly knelt and kowtowed.

"Tell them what they need to do without kowtowing. Treat it as if the king did not exist. Zhu Zhen commanded.

"Yes." Zhou Ji told the workers to hurry up and work as usual.

Then he introduced: "This is the porcelain clay needed to make porcelain, which needs to be refined and pure. ”

"Where did the porcelain clay come from?" Zhu Zhen asked with interest.

"The porcelain stone used in the imperial kiln factory is produced in Qimen, Pingli and Gukou, two hundred miles away." Zhou Ji hurriedly replied: "The workers use a water wheel to scoop the porcelain stone into mud, and then transport it here, and then further practice before it can be used." ”

Zhu Zhen nodded and stepped forward, and saw a worker put the porcelain clay into the water tank to soak it, stir it, and make the impurities sink.

Another worker then filters the precipitated slurry through a horsetail sieve.

The third worker injected the filtered mud into the mud sagger to precipitate it, so that the mud was thick and formed.

The fourth worker puts the molded fine porcelain stone into the box, and the bricks are pressed and drained.

Finally, the fifth worker smoothed the soil and put it under the shed for later use.

This is just the first step of the process, and it has been divided among five workers, each of whom has only one job. It can be seen how fine the division of labor in Jingdezhen has been.

~~

Then the practiced porcelain clay is sent to the second shed, and the ash is mixed into slurry water. Zhou Ji told the sixth child that the ash used in the imperial kiln factory came from Leping County, which was 140 miles away. It is made of blue and white stone and anchovy grass stacked on top of each other.

This is also His Royal Highness the King of Chu to visit, and it is also his own kiln factory, otherwise this kind of secret recipe will never be revealed.

Next, it's the sagger to make a bowl.

"The porcelain blank needs to be cleaned when it enters the kiln, and it cannot be stained with any sand ash, so it needs to be put into a sagger for firing." Zhou Ji introduced: "The soil used to make the sagger is also exquisite, and it is taken from Lichun Township and Baobao Mountain, which are located in the northeast of the town. Nothing else is suitable. ”

It's not selfish at all.

Then there is the workshop for round drawing and cutter. Round utensils can be pulled out directly with a wheeled cart, which is very fast.

And square bottles, statues and the like, angular tools can only be made by hand. This is also the reason why such appliances are expensive.

After the clay is made, there is also mold repair and shade drying, and then it can be sent to paint blue and white.

The division of labor in this step is more detailed, outlining, rendering, playing hoops, flowers, birds, birds, fish, characters, and writing all have their own full-time, and they are operated according to the class cluster.

Then after chiseling, painting, dipping glaze, blowing glaze, spinning blank, digging foot, before and after more than a dozen processes, hundreds of division of labor, in order to enter the kiln to burn.

It has to go through the division of labor and cooperation of more than 100 workers. With other handicrafts, the craftsman's beard and eyebrows are grasped, and a person does it from beginning to end, which is completely two extremes.

Perhaps this is the secret of Jingdezhen's ability to stand out and dominate the country.

(End of chapter)