It's the end of February.

At this time, the spring ploughing in various parts of Lingshanwei had begun, and Zhang Lei, the official of Guantun, led a group of subordinates to inspect all day long in all the hundreds of households, fire road piers and tunbao, urging them to start sowing seeds everywhere.

Liu Yan also informed Yue Ming, the money and grain official, and ordered him to prepare a part of the money and grain, and support Zhang Lei's spring plowing at any time, so as not to miss the agricultural work.

Seeing that this year's seedlings have been planted one after another, Liu Yan is happy, these seedlings are the hope of the entire Lingshanwei, as long as the wind and rain are smooth this year, the people everywhere will have grain in their hands, and Liu Yan can also do more things.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Yan believes that the industry that can not only make money but also accumulate for future development is not the module of the glass industry. So Liu Yan inspected everywhere a while ago and confirmed that all aspects of Lingshanwei were operating normally, and Liu Yan began to make preliminary preparations for the glass.

In his previous life, although Liu Yan was only a college student who was familiar with history, he still knew a lot about the production process of glass, which was called glaze in this era, and the specific production process was very popular on the Internet in later generations. 33

Now that Lingshanwei is under Liu Yan's control, Liu Yan is ready to get the glass out and further expand Lingshanwei's income. As for the location of the glass workshop, Liu Yan is still ready to set it in Dapanbao.

Later, Liu Yan found Yue Ming, the money and grain official, and Song Gongming, the commercial officer, and ordered Yue Ming to immediately mobilize money and grain, recruit craftsmen, and choose a place outside Dapanbao to build a glass workshop, and first build the walls and houses of the workshop. Then he ordered Song Gongming to find a glass craftsman at a high price.

The first thing to consider when building a glass workshop is to build a crucible furnace, which is a top priority. Firing glass requires heating the raw materials mixed together with soda ash, limestone, quartz and so on to 1,500 to 1,600 degrees, and ordinary furnaces are certainly not good, this temperature is not much different from the temperature of steelmaking, and special talents are needed to build special furnaces. In addition, the crucible that holds the raw materials also needs to be made by professionals.

In this era, the most commonly used high-temperature firing products were porcelain craftsmen, and Liu Yan was ready to ask Song Gongming to find a few porcelain craftsmen to make glass for himself. At this time, most of the craftsmen who specialized in firing glass were controlled in the imperial court, and Liu Yan could not find it easily, and even if he did, if he forcibly searched for it, it would attract the attention of the imperial court.

After receiving Liu Yan's order, Song Gongming led people to inquire everywhere, and came to Jiaozhou City a few days later.

After a few days of inquiry, Song Gongming learned that there were porcelain craftsmen here, so he personally brought a few dun soldiers to come on horseback, and his nephew Song Guan came together.

"What are you doing here?"

Song Guan smiled and said: "Uncle, Lord Ethics is going to burn glass, this is a big business, I intend to recommend myself to help Lord Ethics support the glass business." ”

"You?"

Song Gongming frowned slightly, and said: "I have always wanted to promote you to serve as the general banner and hundred households, but you just don't want to say that your future is not in the army." You don't want to think about it, why Lord Ethics has today's achievements, isn't it just because of the strong new army in his hands? You are following behind the Master of Conduct, are you still afraid that there will be no military merits to be gained? ”

Song Guan said: "I don't think I have the courage to go to the battlefield, and I don't have the talent to lead the troops, but I am just a little clever, which is just used in business. ”

Seeing this, Song Gongming had no choice but to sigh and compromise with Song Guan: "Okay, let's do the right thing first, and I'll talk to Master Ethics after I go back and see if I can recommend you." ”

"Haha, then thank you uncle."

It is said that Song Gongming and Song Guan inquired for a while in Jiaozhou City, and knew that there was a Beiling village in the north of this county, and it was said that a village was full of porcelain, among which the blue and white porcelain of the historian was the best.

So Song Gongming directly spent money to invite a wanderer in the city to lead the way and found the historian of Beiling Village.

The house of the Shi family is very large, occupying a large piece of land in the middle of Beiling Village, and it is a large courtyard with a single family. Song Gongming and Song Guan stood outside the courtyard and looked at it, only to see that there were several clay stoves erected inside, which were probably the stoves where the Shi family fired porcelain.

Song Gongming handed over the name card at the door, and a member of the Shi family ran out and respectfully brought Song Gongming and Song Guan to the main hall.

In the main hall, the patriarch of the Shi family saw that Song Gongming was dressed in a thousand-household official uniform, and hurriedly saluted and said: "The official is here, and he is not welcome!" ”

Song Gongming smiled and said, "No courtesy." ”

The patriarch of the Shi family invited Song Gongming to take a seat, let Song Gongming sit on the main seat and accompany him, and asked the servant to bring tea. Song Guan stood to the side, looking at the situation in the house, and saw that the furnishings in the main hall were very exquisite, although it was not luxurious, but it was also a middle-class house.

The two sides exchanged pleasantries, and Song Gongming knew that the head of the Shi family was named Shi Sisheng, who looked like he was about forty years old, and he seemed to be very shrewd in his words and demeanor.

Song Gongming obviously noticed this, took a sip of tea and went straight to the point and said, "I don't know how much profit Shi Gong has in a year when he runs this porcelain workshop?" ”

Shi Sisheng couldn't help but be a little embarrassed when he saw this official come up and asked about his income, thought about it and said: "My Shi family of six people burns porcelain, and in addition to food and clothing, there is also a profit of more than 100 taels a year. ”

Unexpectedly, the Shi family's annual profit is quite high, counting the use of six people, the Shi family has at least one hundred and fifty taels of silver a year. If someone else's income is high, you need more money to dig the foot of the wall.

At this time, Song Gongming felt a little pain in his heart, but he said quietly on his face: "In this way, how about I go out for two hundred and fifty two years and hire six of you to go to Lingshanwei to do things for me?" ”

That Shi Sisheng was stunned and asked, "Lingshan Wei?" What does the official want to burn? ”

Song Gongming said: "What I want to burn is glass, and I need some manpower!" ”

Shi Sisheng shook his head and said: "Official, forgive Xiaomin for not knowing how to lift, but our Shi family has been burning porcelain for several generations, and it is an industry that has been around for hundreds of years, and I don't want to leave Beiling Village and lose this industry!" ”

Song Gongming sneered in his heart, saying that he would not lose the industry far away, but he just wanted to raise some more chips, so he took a breath and said: "I am willing to give three hundred taels of silver, and each of the six members of the Shi family will give fifty taels of silver every year, how about it?" Shi Gong considered considering? ”

That Shi Sisheng changed color slightly, pretended to think for a long time, and then said: "Since the official is so sincere, if the old man doesn't agree, it will be unkind." Anyway, the official allowed the old man to take care of the family affairs for a few days, and within two days, the old man must leave for Lingshanwei with his family. ”

Song Gongming agreed with a smile, and then remembered Liu Yan's instructions, so he asked, "By the way, will the Shi Guild build a kiln?" ”

Shi Sisheng looked at Liu Yan and said with a smile: "Of course I will!" From the construction of kilns to the selection of crucibles, to the plastic embryos and firing kilns, I am the whole city. ”

After thinking about it, Shi Sisheng said again: "But to build a porcelain kiln, you need to buy all kinds of materials, and the cost is hundreds of taels of silver, which is a lot of expenses." ”

"Haha, the silver thing is not a difficult matter."

Song Gongming said: "I'll go back first, Shi Gong will come as soon as possible, and when I arrive at Lingshanwei, I will report directly to the command envoy yamen." ”

"Hehe, okay."

Returning to Lingshanwei, Song Gongming reported the trip to Liu Yan and recommended his nephew Song Guan to Liu Yan.

Liu Yan was very impressed by this young man, and immediately agreed to come down and appointed Song Guan as the head of the glass workshop. At the same time, Song Gongming promised to pay Shi Sisheng's family's wages, and Liu Yan also recognized it.

A few days later, Shi Sisheng took his family of five to the Lingshan Acropolis, and everyone braved the cold wind to trek all the way, and by the time they arrived at the command of the Yamen, they were already shivering with cold.

Liu Yan personally met with everyone, and after Song Gongming's introduction, Shi Sisheng's family was very excited and bowed one after another.

Liu Yan smiled and let everyone get up, chatted for a while, and then emphasized the confidentiality regulations: "If you can't guarantee it, you can go back today, and the official will pay you the travel expenses." If you are willing to stay, you must abide by the rules, otherwise the official will punish you severely! ”

Shi Sisheng naturally would not give up this opportunity, and immediately agreed, patting his chest to ensure that he would never mess with the rules.

So Liu Yan showed the drawings of the glass kiln he designed to Shi Sisheng. In addition to the main furnace and heat storage chamber of the kiln on the drawing, Liu Yan also designed an annealing channel.

The so-called annealing is to control the temperature change so that the high-temperature material can be gradually cooled down at an appropriate rate, and the residual stress inside the material is eliminated. If the residual stress is not removed, the glass will crack on its own.

Liu Yan and Shi Sisheng explained: The purpose of this kiln is to heat the glass raw materials in the crucible to a temperature a few points higher than that of porcelain, so that the material is completely melted into glass liquid, add saltpeter to decolorize, and then enter the annealing channel for annealing, and finally use salt to clarify and defoam, and pour it into the molder for molding. According to this line of thinking, Liu Yan asked Shi Sisheng to design a glass kiln.

Shi Sisheng is really an old porcelain worker, and he knows all the later techniques that Liu Yan said, and he patted his chest and said that he could make this kiln.

Liu Yan immediately gave Shi Sisheng 1,000 taels of silver to use and asked him to purchase various materials. Liu Yan also set aside a piece of land in the southeast of the Lingshan Acropolis for Shi Sisheng to make a factory, where Yue Ming had hired hundreds of craftsmen to build workshop houses day and night.

At the same time, Song Gongming stood up and said that he had hired 200 handymen to Shi Sisheng as helpers and apprentices, and asked them to follow Shi Sisheng to build a glass-burning kiln.

"This Song Guan is the little flag officer under this official, he will be the head of the glass workshop in the future, and Shi Lao is the director of the workshop, I hope the two of you can work together to make the glass workshop officially put into production as soon as possible."

Song Guan smiled and hugged Shi Sisheng to salute, and the two exchanged a few words, which was very polite.

After sending a few people away and letting them hurry up and get busy, Liu Yan wrote a letter and sent someone to the Tiepushan Mining Base.

There is a ready-made lime mine there, and Liu Yan asked Gao Yunshan to transport a certain amount of lime to the glass workshop every month from this month, and also look for quartz, feldspar, borax and other minerals in the mountain, if they can find it, then mine it on the side of Tiepu Mountain as soon as possible, as the raw material source of the glass workshop.

Of course, Liu Yan knew that even if there were these mineral deposits on the side of Tiepu Mountain, if they were to be mined and continuously supplied to the glass workshop, it would not happen overnight, and it would take time and money to invest.

Therefore, Liu Yan plans to solve the problem of glass raw materials by purchasing first, and then wait until his own glass raw material mining is completed, and then gradually reduce external procurement, and finally achieve self-sufficiency in raw materials for all workshops, forming a complete set of industrial chains.

Some people died, but not completely......