It’s the end of February.
At this time, spring plowing has begun in various places in Lingshan Guard. Zhang Lei, the officer in charge of the villages, led a group of subordinates to patrol various Baihu Stations, Huolu Dun and Tunbao all day long, urging everyone to start sowing.
Liu Yan also informed Yue Ming, the money and grain officer, and ordered him to prepare some money and grain to support Zhang Lei's spring plowing expenses at any time, and not to miss the farming work.
Seeing that this year's rice seedlings have been planted one after another, Liu Yan felt happy. These rice seedlings are the hope of the entire Lingshan Guard. As long as the weather is good this year, people everywhere will have food in their hands, and Liu Yan can do more things.
After thinking about it for a while, Liu Yan decided that an industry that could both make money now and accumulate resources for future development was not a model of the glass industry. So Liu Yan inspected various places a while ago and after confirming that all aspects of Lingshan Guard were operating normally, Liu Yan began to make preliminary preparations for the glass.
In his previous life, although Liu Yan was just a college student who was familiar with history, he still had a very good understanding of the production process of glass, which was called colored glaze in this era. The specific production process has become very popular on the Internet in later generations. 33
Now that Lingshan Guard is under Liu Yan's control, Liu Yan is ready to get the glass out and further expand Lingshan Guard's income. As for the location of the glass workshop, Liu Yan is still planning to locate it in Dapanbao.
Later, Liu Yan found Yue Ming, the money and grain officer, and Song Gongming, the commercial officer, and ordered Yue Ming to immediately mobilize money and grain, recruit craftsmen, and build a glass workshop outside Dapanbao. First, build the walls, houses and other facilities 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 the top priority. To make glass, raw materials such as soda ash, limestone, and quartz mixed together need to be heated to 1,500 to 1,600 degrees. Ordinary furnaces will definitely not work. This temperature is not much different from the temperature of steelmaking. Specialized furnaces are required. Talents build specialized furnaces. Moreover, the crucible containing the raw materials also requires professionals to make it.
In this era, the most common people who used high-temperature fired products were porcelain craftsmen. Liu Yan was going to ask Song Gongming to find some porcelain craftsmen to make glass for him. At this time, most of the craftsmen who specialized in firing glass were controlled by the imperial court, and Liu Yan could not find them easily. Even if he found them, if he searched for them forcefully, he would attract the attention of the imperial court.
After receiving Liu Yan's order, Song Gongming led people to inquire everywhere, and arrived in Jiaozhou City a few days later.
After several days of inquiring, Song Gongming learned that there was a porcelain maker here, so he personally came with several Dunjun soldiers on horseback, and his nephew Song Guan also came with him.
"What are you doing here?"
Song Guan smiled and said, "Uncle, Lord Cheng wants to make glass. This is a big business. I intend to volunteer myself to help Lord Cheng support the glass business."
"you?"
Song Gongming frowned slightly and said: "I have always wanted to promote you to serve as the general banner or a hundred households somewhere, but you are just not willing, saying that your future is not in the military. You don't want to think about it, why does Mr. Conduct do this? Isn't it because of the strong new army in hand that we have achieved today? Are you still afraid that you won't get any military merit when you follow Master Cheng?"
Song Guan said: "I don't think I have the courage to go to the battlefield, nor the ability to lead troops. I just have some cleverness, which can be used in business. The glass workshop that Master Cheng is planning to build this time is just an opportunity!"
Seeing this, Song Gongming had no choice but to sigh and compromised with Song Guan: "Okay, let's do business first. When we get back, I'll talk to Lord Conduct and see if I can recommend you."
"Haha, thank you uncle."
It is said that Song Gongming and Song Guan made inquiries in Jiaozhou City for a while and found out that there is a Beiling Village in the north of this county. It is said that this village is full of porcelain, and among them, the historian's blue and white porcelain is the best.
So Song Gongming directly paid a layman in the city to lead the way and found the historian of Beiling Village.
The Shi family's house was very large, occupying a large area of land in the middle of Beiling Village. It was a large courtyard with a single family. Song Gongming and Song Guan stood outside the yard and looked around. They saw several erected clay stoves inside, which were probably the stoves used by the historians to make porcelain.
Song Gongming handed over his name card at the door, and a historian ran out and brought Song Gongming and Song Guan to the main hall respectfully.
In the main hall, the patriarch of the Shi family saw Song Gongming dressed in the official uniform of a thousand households, and hurriedly saluted and said: "The official is here, I am sorry to welcome him from afar!"
Song Gongming smiled and said, "No courtesy."
The head of the Shi family invited Song Gongming to take a seat. He asked Song Gongming to sit on the main seat and accompanied him. He also asked the servant to bring tea. Song Guan stood aside and looked at the situation inside the house. He saw that the furnishings in the main hall were very exquisite. Although it could not be called luxurious, it was still a middle-class home.
The two parties exchanged pleasantries, and Song Gongming found out that the name of the head of the Shi family was Shi Sixheng. He seemed to be in his forties, and he seemed to be very shrewd in his words and deeds.
Song Gongming obviously noticed this. He took a sip of tea and went straight to the topic: "I wonder how much profit Shi Gong makes in a year from running this porcelain workshop?"
When Shi Sixheng saw this official coming up and asking about his income, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. He thought for a while and said, "The six members of my Shi family make porcelain. In addition to the food and clothing expenses, we also make more than a hundred taels of profit a year."
Unexpectedly, the Shi family's annual profit is quite high. Counting the expenses of six people, the Shi family has an income of at least 150 taels of silver a year. If others have high incomes, you will need more money to poach them.
At this time, Song Gongming felt a little sad in his heart, but said calmly: "How about this, I will hire six of you to work for me in Lingshan Guard for two hundred and fifty-two years?"
Shi Sixheng was stunned and asked: "Lingshan Guards? What do you want to burn?"
Song Gongming said: "What I want to burn is glass, and I need some manpower!"
Shi Sixheng shook his head and said: "My lord, I forgive the common people for not being respectful, but our historian family has been making porcelain for generations. It is an industry that has been around for hundreds of years. We are not willing to leave Beiling Village and lose this industry!"
Song Gongming sneered in his heart, saying that he had lost his property not long ago, he just wanted to raise some chips, so he took a breath and said: "I am willing to pay three hundred taels of silver, and each of the six members of the Shi family will give fifty taels per year." How about two pieces of silver? Shi Gong, think about it."
Shi Sisheng changed his face slightly, pretended to think for a long time, and then said: "Since the official is so sincere, if I don't agree anymore, it will be unkind. Forget it, the official allows me to take care of the housework for a few days, and two days Within a few days, I will definitely take my family to Lingshan Guard."
Song Gongming smiled and agreed. Then he remembered Liu Yan's instructions and asked, "By the way, will Shi Gui build a kiln?"
Shi Sixheng looked at Liu Yan and said with a smile: "Of course I can! From building the kiln to choosing the crucible, to molding the embryo and firing the kiln, I can do it all."
After thinking about it, Shi Sixheng added: "But to build a porcelain kiln, you need to buy various materials, and the cost is several hundred taels of silver, and the expenses are quite a lot."
"Haha, the silver thing is not that difficult."
Song Gongming said: "I will go back first. Shi Gong will come as soon as possible. When we arrive at Lingshan Guard, we will report directly to the commanding officer's office."
"hehe, ok."
Returning to Lingshan Guard, Song Gongming reported the situation of his trip to Liu Yan and recommended his nephew Song Guan to Liu Yan.
Liu Yan was deeply impressed by this young man and immediately agreed to appoint Song Guan as the director of the glass workshop. At the same time, Song Gongming promised to pay Shi Sixheng's family wages, and Liu Yan also accepted it.
A few days later, Shi Sixheng and his five family members arrived at Lingshan Acropolis. They braved the cold wind and trudged all the way. When they arrived at the commanding officer's office, they were already shivering with cold.
Liu Yan personally received everyone. After Song Gongming's introduction, Shi Sixheng's family was very excited and kowtowed and saluted one after another.
Liu Yan laughed and asked everyone to get up. After chatting for a while, he emphasized the confidentiality rules: "If you can't guarantee it, you can go back today, and I will pay you travel expenses. If you are willing to stay, you must Follow the rules, otherwise I will severely punish you!"
Naturally, Shi Sixheng would not give up this opportunity and immediately agreed, patting his chest and promising that he would never break the rules.
So Liu Yan showed Shi Sixheng the drawings of the glass kiln he designed. In addition to the main furnace and heat storage room in the kiln on the drawing, Liu Yan also designed an annealing channel.
The so-called annealing is to control temperature changes to gradually cool down high-temperature materials at an appropriate speed to eliminate residual stress inside the material. If the residual stress is not eliminated, the glass will crack on its own.
Liu Yan and Shi Sixheng explained: The purpose of this kiln is to heat the glass raw material in the crucible to a temperature slightly higher than that of porcelain, so that the material can be completely melted into a glass liquid, saltpeter is added to remove the color, and then it enters the annealing channel Annealed, finally clarified with salt to remove bubbles, poured into a molding machine and molded. Following this idea, Liu Yan asked Shi Sixheng to design the glass kiln.
As expected, Shi Sixheng was an old porcelain worker. He was familiar with all the techniques of later generations mentioned by Liu Yan, and he was confident that he could make this kiln work.
Liu Yan immediately gave Shi Sisheng a thousand taels of silver as expenses and asked him to purchase various materials. Liu Yan also allocated a piece of land in the southeast of Lingshan Acropolis for Shi Sixheng to build a factory. Over there, Yue Ming had hired hundreds of craftsmen to build workshops and houses day and night.
At the same time, Song Gongming stood up and said that he had hired two hundred handymen to work as helpers and apprentices for Shi Sixheng, and asked them to follow Shi Sixheng to build a glass-burning kiln. When the glass workshop was put into operation, these people All are glass craftsmen.
"This Song Guan is my subordinate flag officer. From now on, he will be the head of the glass workshop, and Mr. Shi will be the director of the workshop. I hope you two can work together to put the glass workshop into production as soon as possible."
Song Guan smiled and clasped fists with Shi Sixheng in greeting. The two exchanged a few words and were very polite.
After seeing off a few people and asking them to hurry up and go about their business, Liu Yan wrote a letter and sent someone to the Tieshan Mountain Mining Base.
There are ready-made lime mines there. Liu Yan asked Gao Yunshan to transport a certain amount of lime to the glass workshop every month starting from this month. In addition, he also had to search for quartz, feldspar, borax and other minerals in the mountains. If they could be found, they would be transported to the glass workshop as soon as possible. Mining is carried out on the Tiegu Mountain side as a source of raw materials for glass workshops.
Of course, Liu Yan knew that even if there were these mineral deposits on Tiegu Mountain, mining them and continuously supplying the glass workshop would not happen overnight and would require investment of time and money.
Therefore, Liu Yan plans to first solve the problem of glass raw materials through purchasing, and then wait until his own glass raw material mines are mined, and then gradually reduce external purchases, and eventually make all workshops self-sufficient in raw materials, forming a complete industrial chain. .
Some people died, but not completely...
