Xinzheng is the fundamental place of the Gao family. This "fundamental" was not necessarily the economic basis. It could be counted in the past, but now that Gao is pragmatic, it can no longer be counted.
Gao pragmatically has two "industrial clusters" in Henan, Weihui and Huaiqing to the north of the river, which are dominated by cement and supplemented by coal mines and iron plants.
The annual output of cement here is more than 800,000 kilograms, which sounds very powerful. In fact, it is only equivalent to one or two days of the production capacity of a large cement factory in later generations. In addition, it also produces agricultural tools and coal. Needless to say agricultural tools, Henan has always It is a major agricultural province, and all kinds of farm tools can be sold. Moreover, Gao Pragmatic has no intention of militarizing his industry in Henan. After all, there is little local demand, and it is not cost-effective to transport it far away.
However, there is far more coal than iron in this area, so the large amount of remaining coal mines for ironmaking are directly transported by the Yellow River, flowing into Luoyang to the west and Kaifeng to the east. According to a highly pragmatic arrangement, Zhang set up briquette factories in Luoyang and Kaifeng. After the coal mines arrived, the briquettes were made into briquettes and sold in these two places. Although the sales volume was slightly lower than that in the capital, the two places added up to one year. Being able to earn two to thirty thousand taels of silver is actually not a small amount, but it is relatively inconspicuous because it is under the name of Gao pragmatism.
The Xinzheng and Yuzhou areas are different. The coal mines in Xinzheng and the iron mines in Yuzhou were built by Gao Pragmatic in order to benefit the hometown and build their reputation. At the beginning, they mainly produced farm tools, and later added other daily iron tools. , such as iron pots, iron kettles, etc., and later expanded to the production of iron sheets, which were used by the military to make armors, etc., and a small amount of arrows.
The excess coal is still used to make briquettes, but profit is basically not considered and is sold to nearby areas at low prices. It is only used to build reputation among the neighbors.
Later, the Zhang family was somewhat dissatisfied with the industry here and kept writing to Gao Pangshi, saying that Yuzhou was the origin of the famous Jun kiln porcelain in the Song Dynasty. The Gao family was now a leading family in Xinzheng and Yuzhou and should enter the porcelain industry. Industry, strive to restore the status of Jun Kiln. However, it can no longer be called Jun Kiln because it wants to avoid taboos, so it has to be renamed Yu Kiln.
Gao Pragmatic has always felt that China's porcelain industry does not need his intervention to promote it, so he is not very enthusiastic about this matter, but Zhang is very enthusiastic about this matter. The value of Jun kiln is not a joke. There are five famous porcelains in China, Jun, Ru, Guan, Ge, Ding, with Jun porcelain as the king, are called the kings of porcelain. "Gold is valuable, but Jun is priceless", "Even if you have a huge fortune, it is not as good as a piece of Jun porcelain", these are all sayings that have been widely circulated since the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, Mrs. Zhang has been looking for opportunities to persuade her son. At the same time, she does not just wait for Gao Wu to tell the truth, but starts preparing first.
Taking advantage of the fact that Gao Gong was in power and her son was wealthy, she had been recruiting porcelain masters in Yuzhou, Ruzhou and other places in Henan, waiting to persuade her son to approve the investment.
In order to convince Gao Jingshi, she also deliberately replaced all the most conspicuous furnishings in the east room of Long Wenya Garden for Gao Jingshi with Jun porcelain.
But it's a pity that Gao Pragmatic doesn't understand porcelain at all. He wandered around for a few times and didn't pay attention to the porcelain. Later, Mrs. Zhang became angry. In order to collect these Jun porcelains in front of you, I even wrote to the third brother and asked him to send some of the most valuable treasures of the Zhang family in Yangzhou, and even In order to escort this batch of national treasure-level Jun porcelain, a total of 500 guards were dispatched from Xinzheng and Yuzhou to escort them all the way. You brat, you were blind and didn't see it.
When Mrs. Zhang explained the situation with anger, Gao Pragmatic was a little confused. After taking a closer look at Mr. Zhang's heartbreaking introduction, he finally discovered the magic in it, such as "earthworms walking on mud patterns" and "like jade". "It is not like jade, it is like jade", "Green is like spring water at the beginning of the day, red is like the morning glow. The sky is full of stars, the sunset is purple and green suddenly turns into mist" and so on.
Then he said with a sudden look on his face, "I have seen these Junci many times in the palace."
Mrs. Zhang was furious, "There are naturally many in the palace, because in the former Song Dynasty and the former Yuan Dynasty, they were only in the palace. How can the common people see a few pieces? This is the precious thing." She said with an angry look on her face, "We've arrived." During the Ming Dynasty, Jun kilns in Yuzhou declined, but part of the manufacturing methods of Jun kilns were scattered in Yixing, Shiwan and other places, and some branches of Jun porcelain appeared. This is the famous porcelain of Zhongzhou. We should revive it. "
"Oh, that's right." Gao pragmatic thought for a while, secretly thinking that the decline of Yuzhou Jun Kiln was probably related to the loss of the Central Plains in the Northern Song Dynasty. Later, after the Ming Dynasty expelled the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, most of the porcelain masters lived in the south, and the Ming Dynasty did not count Henan. They attach great importance to it, so Jun Kiln has never been revived. If this is the case, it is not impossible for me to invest one or two.
But then he thought about investing, but he couldn't just take the upper-level route like Junyao did before, or simply take the cutting-edge route. In the past, there was a saying in Jun kiln that "nine out of ten kilns fail". I can't stand this. I have to greatly increase the finished product rate and yield rate.
Also, since you want to invest in the porcelain industry, it’s not enough to just consider the domestic market. I can’t control how porcelain is viewed by others, but in my eyes, the biggest function is to earn foreign exchange through exports. What about Chinese porcelain? But for a high-tech product that is a global monopoly, it would be unreasonable for me not to use it to shear sheep.
After thinking about this, Gao Pragmatic has no resistance to entering the porcelain industry, and he plans to use the bone china craft as an alternative to the new Jun kiln or Yu kiln after the restoration work of Jun kiln has achieved some success. A craft.
Anyway, the idea is ready. Traditional Jun kiln can continue to focus on high-end, while bone china focuses on mid-range, and not low-end.
Of course, the name of bone china must be changed, otherwise it will be too easy for people to discover the secret. For example, it would be better to call it Yu Kiln Light Porcelain. The real advantages of bone china are that it is lightweight, strong and has few defects. As for transparency, delicacy, and extra whiteness, China's inherent porcelain can actually achieve it. The reason why it is often not made too transparent is actually because of China's cultural tradition of loving jade.
Gao Pragmatic has read research before. Judging from the glazing technology demonstrated by Chinese porcelain, China can definitely produce glass, but why has China not developed crystal clear glass for so many years? Because jade is not transparent. , and all Chinese techniques like to imitate the nature of jade, so there is no consideration at all to create the pure and transparent state of glass.
However, the lightness and strength of bone china is indeed an advantage, especially for export. The strength can ensure that losses during transportation are minimized, and the lightness can reduce the difficulty of transportation, which is wonderful.
As soon as Mrs. Zhang heard that Gao Pangshi had agreed, she immediately turned from anger to joy and said, "In this case, I will call a few master craftsmen over to see you right away."
