By mid-March, after hundreds of craftsmen working day and night, Liu Yan's glass workshop was finally built.

At the same time, under the command of Shi Sisheng and his two sons, the craftsmen built twenty crucibles in the glass workshop - all of which Shi Sisheng found a special crucible craftsman to burn with the best porcelain clay. After the glass kiln was ignited, the crucible burned in the kiln for two days, and it burned white-hot, and Shi Sisheng was sure that the raw materials could be put into the crucible for firing.

When Liu Yan heard the news, he happily came to the glass workshop outside the Lingshan Acropolis, preparing to guide the firing of the first furnace of glass here. It was also for the preliminary test that Liu Yan asked Shi Sisheng to lead the craftsmen to place slightly different raw materials in different crucibles: some crucibles only have soda ash, limestone and quartz, and some crucibles have different proportions of these three main raw materials, some add a little borax to the crucible, and some add a little feldspar.

In Liu Yan's memory, fired glass is nothing more than these raw materials, but which one has the best firing effect, Liu Yan did not judge in his heart, and he must go through field tests to see which formula produces the best glass in the end.

Thanks to the guidance of Shi Sisheng's family, Liu Yan knew where to buy ingredients such as borax and feldspar, and sent his subordinates to buy them separately, and soon bought all the raw materials he needed.

The next step was the on-site firing, Liu Yan took Song Guan, Shi Sisheng and other craftsmen around the glass kiln, and some craftsmen and apprentices practiced in front. However, although the manpower and raw materials are now complete, it is still quite troublesome to fire glass:

First of all, the very pure texture of the gravel as the most basic raw material, after heating and melting, after several processes to make a glass solution, and then in the hot glass solution, saltpeter should be added to remove color, because the glass contains a trace amount of iron so it is green, especially the divalent iron is green, and the trivalent iron is not significantly green.

After Liu Yan commanded everyone to add saltpeter, the saltpeter oxidized the divalent iron to the trivalent iron, and the glass appeared colorless and transparent.

Not only that, but the glass needs to be clarified after firing, that is, a clarifying agent, such as table salt, is added to the glass hydrothermal solution.

The volatilization of the clarifying agent when exposed to heat will form large bubbles, and these large bubbles will bring out small bubbles as they rise, which can reduce the bubbles in the glass and thus clarify.

Liu Yan's furnace was designed very successfully, and Shi Sisheng and a group of craftsmen were very effective, so all the raw materials of the six pots were burned into glass hydrothermal liquid in one day.

After these molten glasses entered the annealing channel for annealing, Liu Yan personally checked the fineness of the glass test and found that the transparency of the glass with borax in the third crucible was the best, which was the best glass formula.

Liu Yan fine-tuned the optimal formula found in the first furnace until he found a more perfect formula, and then gave up and began to make the finished product. During this period, it took a full day, the cold wind was raging outside, but the workshop was in full swing, Liu Yan faintly felt dizzy from heat stroke, and had to take everyone out halfway to "blow the wind" to breathe.

When firing the third furnace of glass, Liu Yan moved out the molder that had been made in advance.

This so-called molded device is actually used to fire porcelain large flat plates when firing porcelain, Liu Yan directly took it and modified it slightly, reducing the pressure and turning it into an instrument for making glass products.

Moreover, Liu Yan made the molder from wrought iron, and the molder was smeared with a layer of charcoal powder mixed with tung oil to prevent the mold from sticking to the glass. After a crucible of molten glass is poured into the annealing channel and cooled, some of the molten glass is poured into the casting mold, and the craftsmen press down the casting press, forcing the liquid glass to form in the molder. Once the glass in the moulder has cooled, a round glass is made.

The transparent glass is made and placed on the table beautifully, exuding a luster that should not belong to this era.

Song Guan, Shi Sisheng and others shouted magically, and excitedly followed Liu Yan to look left and right, many craftsmen were so excited that tears flowed, glass technology in this era is comparable to real money, they can participate in it, it is equivalent to a rich life in the second half of their lives.

"My lord, it's done! We've done it! ”

At this time, including Song Guan and Shi Sisheng, everyone around them was full of surprise, and their eyes looking at Liu Yan were full of admiration.

In this era, glass is an absolute luxury, and such a large transparent glass has never been seen by craftsmen, and if you put it outside to sell, it will definitely sell it for a good price.

However, Liu Yan was not as excited as everyone else, after all, he was used to seeing all kinds of exquisite glass products in later generations, and he would not be made to laugh by a glass.

At this time, Liu Yan picked up the glass and looked at it carefully, but found a shortcoming: there are some bubbles in the wall of the glass, which not only hinder the appearance, but also make the glass fragile and easy to break when used.

So Liu Yan thought about it and felt that the clarification work should not be done thoroughly.

Liu Yan was determined to get rid of these bubbles and make a truly perfect glass product, so Liu Yan gathered everyone to continue to get busy.

At this time, the sky outside had become dark, Liu Yan instructed Song Guan to prepare dinner, and everyone was here, while continuing to make glass, while eating to fill their stomachs.

Soon, a few craftsmen brought meat buns and some side dishes, and Liu Yan divided them with everyone, and stood next to the crucible and ate them.

While eating the meat buns, Liu Yan ordered someone to increase the amount of salt in the new pot of glass hot liquid. However, after putting too much salt, the bubbles decreased, but the whole glass liquid was emulsified, and the glass made became no longer transparent, and became like frosted glass in later generations, which made Liu Yan disappointed.

Liu Yan frowned and thought for a long time, and decided to maintain the original amount of salt, but increase the mixing process!

So Liu Yan ordered people to immediately go to the city to find blacksmiths, and urgently built dozens of iron rods, so that the craftsmen should constantly stir the glass hot liquid in the crucible before the glass liquid cools, stir the foam in the glass hot liquid as much as possible, and then add salt as a clarifier.

After adding the stirring procedure, Liu Yan instructed the craftsmen to pour out the pot of glass and mold it. When a brand new glass was ready, Liu Yan was pleasantly surprised to find that the bubbles in the glass were basically gone, and he got a crystal clear round-bottomed glass.

Looking at this completely transparent and basically colorless glass, Liu Yan felt that a large amount of silver was waving at him.

Song Guan, Shi Sisheng and others were even more shocked and cheered.

However, Liu Yan unexpectedly picked up the glass, and then in front of everyone, he directly threw the quilt on the ground, with a crisp sound of glass breaking, Liu Yan looked at the stunned people, and said coldly: "You have to remember that this glass is nothing in the official's place, and you can make a lot of it at will." But if you want to go outside, you can exchange it for real money, and at the same time, you can exchange your lives with it! ”

"Since you all know the confidentiality regulations, no one is allowed to divulge the process of making glass, the raw materials of glass, the temperature and process of firing glass, and so on. From today on, the glass workshop implements a joint sitting system, one person leaks secrets, the entire group of craftsmen is fired, and arrested and imprisoned, regardless of life or death! ”

Everyone looked at Liu Yan, who was exuding a murderous aura, and suddenly nodded in fright, and even Song Guan didn't dare to say a word.

Then Liu Yan arranged for Song Guan and Shi Sisheng to fire some glass products first, then fire glass wine glasses, and then match them with exquisite wooden boxes, and make 20 sets in advance. Liu Yan is going to give these twenty sets of glass wine glasses as gifts, and first open up sales for his glass workshop.

First of all, Yan Jizu, the governor of Shandong, Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Shandong, and Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, Liu Yan would definitely not slack off, and gave each of them a set of glass wine utensils.

Later, Liu Yan sent someone to Lu Xiangsheng's personal general Lu Huaiying, as well as the guerrilla generals Li Jiwen and Hu Zongming of the Jimo battalion each sent a set of glass wine utensils, and Liu Yan also prepared a few more sets of wine utensils for the three of them, and entrusted the three of them to help send them out to help them publicize and publicize.

As for the remaining sets of glass wine sets, Liu Yan handed them all over to Song Gongming and asked him to find a way to send them out to solicit business.

After Liu Yan's operation, he not only won the praise and joy of several officials, but also did open up sales, and the news of Lingshanwei's production of exquisite glass products spread far and wide.

Within a few days, someone made a special trip to the Lingshan Acropolis to buy Liu Yan's glassware, most of which came to buy wine utensils. First one or two people came to buy them every day, then three or four people came every day, and finally the glass workshop was able to sell seven or eight sets of glass wine glasses a day.

In the back, Lingshanwei and the wealthy merchants in the surrounding prefectures and counties also began to buy Liu Yan's glass wine glasses.

In just a few days, Liu Yan's glass workshop sold 296 sets of glass wine sets, 35 sets of glass tea sets, and more than 400 pieces of other glass products.

Liu Yan's price for glass wine sets is 80 taels of silver, the price of glass tea sets is 75 taels of silver, and the prices of the rest of the glass products vary from five grades, ranging from 15 taels of silver to 68 taels of silver.

After calculating such sales, after removing the cost of burning glass, the glass workshop earned more than 28,000 taels of silver in less than a month.

With such a huge income, once the glass workshop is put into operation, the income will be close to the salt drying field, and in the foreseeable future, the glass workshop will become another major financial source for Lingshanwei.

In order to prevent the leakage of the formula of the glass industry, Liu Yan began to design layer by layer in the production process to minimize the possibility of leakage.

At the beginning, Liu Ya subdivided the kiln and feeding process of burning glass into six steps, and handed over each step to a different person to operate. And Liu Yan didn't tell the workers who operated the feeding what materials he was operating, only let him know that when the materials arrived, they would be put into the crucible according to their weight. And the raw material purchaser only knows what materials he buys, and he doesn't know how to use these raw materials.

In this way, several production lines are formed, which do not interfere with each other, which naturally greatly reduces the possibility of leakage.

In the glass workshop, in addition to Liu Yan, the only people who know all the secrets of firing glass are Shi Sisheng, Song Guan and a few artisan leaders, Liu Yan took all their families to the Lingshan Acropolis, arranged a house to live in, and gave a monthly settlement fee, so that a few people were grateful, Liu Yan expected that they would not leak secrets, otherwise what would be the consequences, they should think of it.

In this way, if anyone wants to get Liu Yan's glass formula, they have to buy off all the glass workshop workers and all the raw material procurement personnel, which is extremely difficult. If the trend of technology from secrecy to diffusion is irreversible, Liu Yan hopes that this day of diffusion will come as late as possible in order to maximize Liu Yan's interests.

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