On the first day of rest after returning to Chang'an City again, Haixiya took his wife and a pair of grandchildren into the gate of the Zhou family's three-room ancestral house and came to visit the "sick" aunt Zhou Ma.

After all, the Hai family is Zhou Ma's maiden in-law, and he is here to visit the sick, no matter how reluctant Zhou Shigong, the head of the Zhou family's third room, is reluctant to receive foreign guests, he must politely welcome the Hai family into the door and greet them with a cordial and friendly face.

Fortunately for him, although his sister-in-law Ma Shi did not look very happy, she did not speak disrespectfully to his brother-in-law in person, and obviously did not intend to mention the matter of him and his stepmother forcibly seizing his wife's property.

If this matter can really pass here, then it is not that he can't smile more sincerely at the visiting Hai family. Compared with the people who kept coming to the door to accuse him, the Hai family, who knew the inside story, had a much kinder attitude towards him, which made him feel a lot more relaxed, and he no longer had to be careful to guard against the condemnation of the guests.

After the greetings, Ma took a pair of grandchildren to the backyard to visit the "sick" eldest sister Zhou Ma, under the guidance of the housekeeper's wife. Since Mrs. Ma is also "sick", they don't need to go to the courtyard where she lives, just go directly to the main courtyard.

However, on the way, Begonia and the reef sensed that someone was peeking at them almost at the same time.

Begonia immediately looked in the direction of the man, but only saw a flash of blue-gray clothes.

She whispered to Haijiao, "Brother, can you see the figure over there?" ”

Hai Jiao also stared in the same direction, and replied in a low voice: "See, it is a man in gray and blue clothes, but he does not know men and women." ”

The brother and sister looked at the doorway where the figure had flashed again, and recognized that it was the second entrance to the courtyard on the east road of the ancestral house of the Zhou family.

Generally speaking, the east road of the big mansion is for the heirs to live in, right? If the first courtyard on East Road may be a guest yard, a horse shed or something, then the second courtyard is probably Zhou Jinpu's residence? Is it him or is his family peeking at the Hai family who came to visit the patient? Are they trying to find out about their stepmother?

Haijiao pondered for a moment, and whispered to his sister: "Ignore him for now, just talk to your aunt and grandmother in a while." Begonia nodded.

In fact, even if Zhou Jinpu wanted to peek into the whereabouts of their Hai family, there was nothing to be afraid of. They don't live in the third room of the Zhou family, and they are not identities that Zhou Jinpu can handle casually. If he dares to provoke their family, Begonia and Reef don't mind giving him a little color.

Just when Haitang and his party arrived at the three-room main courtyard of the Zhou family, Haixi Cliff also moved to the study with his brother-in-law Zhou Shigong and began to have a relatively relaxed conversation.

But after the conversation began, Zhou Shigong found that the content of their conversation was actually not easy.

As if he was just chatting, Haixiya briefly mentioned his experience after leaving Chang'an, and soon talked about the things after returning to Suzhou and re-entering the office, especially the difficulties and tests encountered during the preparation of the glass workshop.

He didn't say the recipe for making glass, but in addition, he said everything about the establishment and operation of the entire glass workshop.

He talked about the origin of the Da Glasssmith and the language and customs problems encountered by the apprentices of Da Chu; talked about the hardships of finding glass materials, the differences between similar materials in Gansu and the Western Regions, and how difficult it was in the process of trial and error. talked about the problems encountered in the construction of the workshop itself, as well as the special materials needed for the kiln, and the safety issues that must be paid attention to during the glass burning; He also mentioned how many times failed in the trial production of glass, how much cost was spent, and after firing, it was necessary to consider whether the product met the preferences of the wealthy people in Dachu, whether it could be sold smoothly, and how to ensure that the product would not be damaged too much during long-distance transportation......

What difficulties will a glass workshop encounter in the process of establishment and operation, Haixi Cliff has basically said.

After Zhou Shigong listened, he realized how naïve his thoughts were.

He thought that as long as there were skilled craftsmen, a recipe for firing glass, and a few credible apprentices to help him, he would be able to make glass by building a kiln on Zhuangzi. There are merchants from all over the country in Chang'an City, and it doesn't take much trouble to transport glassware back to the city from the village workshop. No matter what is burned, as long as it is glass, it can always be easily sold for a large sum of money......

However, according to Haixiya, he couldn't even pass the material level.

The glassmakers stayed in the Suzhou workshop and the Ganzhou workshop for several months, teaching their skills before coming to Chang'an. At this time, the glass workshop in Chang'an had been built according to the old practice of Gansu and Suzhou, and the big food craftsmen could start work directly as soon as they arrived. During the construction of the workshop, Chang'an obviously made more preparations, such as finding suitable sources of glass materials, refractory materials and fuel supplies around Chang'an, and then assigning them all to the names of the border army guards, so as not to be contested by others.

If the workshop is established with the permission of the border army, whether it is materials or fuel, it can be purchased from the border army, and it can also add a sum of income to the border army; But if an irrelevant outsider privately tries to build a glass workshop and compete with the border army for profit, unless he has a way to find a source of materials and fuel supply channels that are not under the control of the border army, he will not want to burn a large number of glassware on the border of Chang'an. In order to master this financial route, the border army dug holes for future competitors.

The third room of the Zhou family was almost about to jump into this pit.

Zhou Shigong couldn't help but think that if he really successfully got the other village where his wife was married, and according to the requirements of the craftsman who poached the corner, he spent a lot of money to build a qualified glass workshop in the other village, but because he couldn't find suitable materials, he couldn't burn the glassware, and the news leaked out, so that the border army and the Zhou family would know...... Didn't he get any benefits, lost a lot of money in vain, and had to face the accusations of thousands of people?!

It doesn't seem to be a bad thing for the old military division to know about this and rush to stop Sanfang's plan...... At least now he hasn't lost a lot of money, but he has just been charged with the crime and received a few more scoldings. But Sanfang's poor financial situation has not gotten worse, which is enough to make him happy.

Thinking of this, Zhou Shigong also understood why his brother-in-law said these words to himself, and said in a low voice: "Thank you brother-in-law for telling me these inside information." If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have known that building a glass workshop would have been such a trivial and difficult task. At first, I thought it was so simple that I almost suffered a big loss. ”

Hai Xiya smiled: "It's not a big loss. Even if the news was not leaked, my brother-in-law's family successfully built a glass workshop, only to find that they couldn't buy materials to fire glass without the border army, so you also got the formula. As long as there is a recipe and there are skilled craftsmen, it is the same to rebuild the workshop in a different place. The material of glass is cheap and easy to obtain, and it is not only available in the northwest. In another place, some of you have the formula and the capital, and you can still earn this money, but it's just a little troublesome. ”

Zhou Shigong smiled bitterly: "My family lives in Chang'an, and my family and friends are all in the local area, where else can I go to build a workshop?" Brother-in-law, don't laugh at me...... "Even if you go to the border city where your younger brother or second son is stationed, it is still the territory of the border army." Is it possible to go to the sister who married the capital far away......

Zhou Shigong's face changed slightly.

My sister has money and a place in her hands, and there is no shortage of people...... Originally, they planned to build a glass workshop, and the apprentices they found were all the shopkeepers and the children and grandchildren of the old lady Ma, who had been used by the stepmother in the past. According to the stepmother, they are more able to keep secrets than the children of veterans.

But if the workshop plan fails, and the stepmother sends someone to the sister in the capital to build another workshop, then ...... He spent so much effort digging the corners of the border army, who will benefit in the end?

Sister and brother-in-law, or the Marquis of Yingchuan?

But it was Zhou Shigong who had to bear the consequences!

(End of chapter)