In the early morning of the next day, His Royal Highness the King of Chu, accompanied by Suzhou officials and gentry, took a boat through Yuanhetang to the Pingjiang Guanyao, fourteen miles north of Suzhou City.

"Pingjiang official kiln has long existed, but this kiln is not to burn porcelain, but to burn gold bricks for the palace." On the way, Fei Mi introduced to His Royal Highness:

"I heard from the local old potters that they burned official porcelain for the Southern Song Dynasty back then, and I don't know if it's true or not."

"So you set the kiln factory in Suzhou?" The sixth child sat in the car, and there were people with fans next to him, still sweating profusely, which is why he didn't like summer.

"No, mainly in Yangshan in the northwest of Wu County, there is chalk, the locals use it to paint the wall, white as powder, the Tang Dynasty also paid tribute every year, so Yangshan is also called Baiyuan Mountain." Fei Mi shook his head and smiled:

When Cheng Huishou and them came to Jiangnan to investigate, they found that this is kaolin that can be fired in a kiln, and the color is white, the particles are fine, the quality is better than that of Jingdezhen, and it is unique in the whole Jiangnan. Therefore, in the end, it was decided to fire porcelain next door to the Pingjiang Imperial Kiln Factory. ”

"Hehehe......" The sixth smiled and didn't speak. Suzhou people love to elevate themselves and belittle others, and those who are officials will inevitably get the same habits.

As he spoke, the column of smoke in front of him soared into the sky, and at a glance, he arrived at the place where the kiln was fired.

"Your Highness, the Imperial Kiln Factory has arrived." Fei Mi and the others said respectfully.

"Hmm." Zhu Zhen nodded, he had already seen Cheng Huishou of the Daming Porcelain Industry Association, as well as Li Zhifu and others waiting at the dock.

After getting off the boat to salute, Zhu Zhen laughed and helped Cheng Qian up and said, "Haha Lao Cheng, I haven't seen you for two years, your hair has turned a lot gray." It's been a great job, it's been a hard job. ”

"With His Royal Highness's words, the villain's hardships in the past two years have not been in vain." Cheng Qian smiled bitterly and took off his hat to let Zhu Zhen look at the top of his sparse head.

This is to move the entire industrial chain from Jiangxi, involving countless aspects, and he has to coordinate them one by one. It is absolutely painstaking to mobilize those who are reluctant to move their nests and negotiate terms with those who want more.

Bringing people over is only the first step, so many raw materials, such a complex firing process, to reproduce in Suzhou as it is, itself is a difficult job.

What's more, the water quality and climate on both sides are not the same, even if the raw materials are transported from Jiangxi, the porcelain fired is not satisfactory. What's more, it was later decided to use local kaolin to reduce transportation costs. In order to burn high-quality porcelain as soon as possible, Cheng Qian racked his brains and lost his hair one by one.

It is already a miracle that it can be officially put into production in two years.

"Fortunately, everything has passed, and today is the day when the ugly daughter-in-law meets her in-laws." Cheng Qian took a deep breath and respectfully invited His Highness to go to the kiln factory.

"It's definitely not an ugly daughter-in-law, it's definitely beautiful." The sixth child smiled and followed the guide and came to the Pingjiang official kiln factory...... The Pingjiang Sea Kiln Factory next door.

Looking at the four big characters 'Pingjiang Haiyao' pasted on paper at the door of the factory, Zhu Zhen asked with a smile: "This is your name?" ”

"It's drafted, of course, it has to be decided by His Highness in the end." Cheng Qian hurriedly smiled: "First, this porcelain is specially fired for overseas trade, and secondly, it is also brave to touch the light of His Highness, which is the abbreviation of Haiwang Kiln." ”

"Hahaha, that's a good name." Zhu Zhen readily agreed.

"Your Highness, please."

Under the guidance of Cheng Qian, Zhu Zhen visited the kiln factory. From the layout to the process, it is naturally carved out of a mold with the big kiln factory in Jingdezhen, and there is no need to repeat it.

While speaking, everyone came to the kiln area at the core of the kiln factory, and there are currently eight gourd kilns in Pingjiang Hai Kiln Factory.

Each kiln is divided into two kiln chambers before and after, the front is high and the back is short, the front is wide and the back is narrow, and the front is short and the back is long, and the shape is like half of the gourd lying on the ground, so it is named.

Isn't Lao Liuxin just a scoop? But it's a scoop and a kiln, which is really not good, so I didn't say anything, so as not to embarrass everyone.

At this time, only one kiln was burned, and the kiln temperature had dropped to the point where the kiln could be opened. In this era, there was no leader to speak, and there was no ribbon-cutting ceremony or anything like that, so Cheng Qian directly gave His Royal Highness the King of Chu a big wooden hammer and asked him to open the kiln.

This was difficult for Zhu Zhen, and with a sledgehammer, he knocked out a hole in the billet brick that sealed the kiln door. Seeing that it was not enough, he picked it up again and knocked the bricks down, and said in his mouth: "Eighty, eighty ......."

Cheng Qian was frightened when he saw it, he thought that His Royal Highness would be done with a casual knock on the meaning, but he didn't expect him to work so hard.

It was full of precious porcelain, and if his master dared to open the kiln like this, he would have opened it many times.

It's not that he feels sorry for this kiln porcelain, but he is mainly afraid that it will be broken by His Highness, and it will be ugly when he takes it out.

"Okay, right?" knocked the door of the kiln clean, and Zhu Zhen put down the hammer and wiped a handful of sweat. These few blows were not tiring, but the bursts of hot air from the kiln made his face sweaty.

"But, that's fine." Cheng Qian stammered. Then he hurriedly asked His Highness to retreat to the pergola for tea, and he directed the potter out of the kiln.

At this time, the kiln was still in high temperatures, and only after the potter wrapped his head and body with a damp cloth, wrapped his hands around gloves made of more than ten layers of thick cloth, and then soaked them in cold water, he dared to enter the kiln and take out the fired porcelain.

Usually this work is done by apprentices, but today the situation is special, and the masters have personally gone into battle, and they have tasted the sin that they have not suffered for many years.

In a short time, the potter came out of the kiln with a sagger, still purple-red, and placed it respectfully in front of the pergola.

Then Cheng Qian personally held a small hammer, carefully knocked the sagger open, and the blue and white porcelain made after more than 50 processes finally revealed its true face.

When Zhu Zhen took the blue and white lotus pattern plate from Cheng Qian's hand, he found that it was still hot.

Today's His Royal Highness the King of Chu is also half an expert, he looked at this blue and white porcelain plate made in Suzhou, and compared it with a Jingdezhen porcelain plate with the same pattern, he can still see something.

I saw that the hair color of the former was more emerald blue, and the latter was more elegant. I don't know if it's because of the stronger color contrast, or because of psychological reasons, he always feels that the former glaze has a higher degree of vitrification, and the latter glaze looks a little cloudy and not so pure and translucent.

In order to prove that it was not his own psychological effect, he asked Cheng Qian to take a few porcelain plates burned in each place and put them in front of him in a disordered order.

The result is still easy to separate from the origin, and the feeling remains the same. He flipped through the inscription at the bottom of the plate and found that he had read none of them wrong.

"Good fellow, how does this king feel that he is still better than blue?" Zhu Zhen couldn't help laughing: "I think the blue and white porcelain burned in Suzhou is better." ”

"Hehe, the lower officials think so too." Li Heng also echoed: "The Pingjiang Haiyao is brighter, and the lower officials like it tight." ”

Only then did the rest of the people dare to comment, and most of them actually held the same opinion.

It's a little embarrassing......

(End of chapter)