Father can be an enemy to the country

Understanding His Highness's intention in saying this, Cheng Qian probed: Quanzhou and Guangzhou have been engaged in sea trade for hundreds of years. Almost everyone in the area has been doing this. The imperial court suddenly closed the shipping department and prohibited sea trade. , their life is quite difficult. If I hear that there is an opportunity to reopen the shipping company, I will be extremely grateful to His Highness for your kindness.

You can tell them what I said. Zhu Zhen nodded, that's exactly what he meant. At present, he has not set foot in Fujian and Guangdong, so smuggling is very rampant there. Even after Chen Shanghai and Fang Datong were destroyed, nothing changed.

Han Yike and Liao Dingguo had asked him for instructions several times. They wanted to crack down on smuggling and not allow ships other than those from the shipping company to go overseas.

But Zhu Zhen never agreed, because there was no local municipal shipping department and no local government cooperated with the anti-smuggling operation. Just relying on the municipal shipping fleet to casually attack Fujian and Guangdong when passing through was of little use. It will also involve the fleet's energy and delay normal business.

However, smuggling along the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong must be prohibited.

In this era, there are countless pirates on the ocean, and overseas countries are even more cruel and cunning.

Maritime trade must be escorted by a strong navy, otherwise even if it is not robbed by pirates at sea, it will be robbed by local regimes and local tyrants in foreign ports.

Those overseas barbarians don’t understand what ‘win-win cooperation and sustainable development’ means. Why should they spend money to buy something they can rob, and sell it so expensively?

And raising a powerful navy is too expensive. This requires ensuring high trade profits.

To ensure high trade profits, it is necessary to monopolize trade as much as possible and drive any competitors out of the sea, let alone the worst competitors - smugglers.

Therefore, it is imperative to establish municipal shipping departments in Fuzhou and Guangzhou. Although Zhu Zhen has no means to spare for the time being, it is always right to lay the groundwork first and let those Fujian and Guangdong maritime merchants know that he is coming.

Let’s see if there are any smart little guys who come to offer their names.

~~

On the same day, His Royal Highness the King of Chu stopped at once.

It's just your first meeting. It's not good to be too specific with someone, as that would seem too utilitarian. Our Highness is a decent man and wants face.

The next day, His Royal Highness the King of Chu and his entourage visited the Zhushan Imperial Kiln Factory in the north of the town.

Zhushan is actually a small hill facing the town, surrounded by the walls of the imperial kiln factory, and the top of the mountain cannot be seen from the outside.

His Royal Highness the King of Chu's car stopped in front of the tall Xianfeng Imperial Kiln Factory Head Gate banner outside the mountain gate of the Royal Kiln Factory.

As soon as he got out of the car, Lao Liu was shocked by the scale of the imperial kiln factory: Is it this big?

Your Highness, our imperial kiln factory is surrounded by ten miles of walls. Zhou Ji, the supervising eunuch, replied, It's bigger than Fuliang County.

Does it need such a big place? Lao Liu said in confusion.

Your Highness will know when you come in. Zhou Ji said with a smile, It's really useful.

As he spoke, he bowed and wanted to say: Your Highness, please come in and take a tour while listening to the slave's explanation.

Okay, you lead the way. Zhu Zhen nodded.

Zhou Ji then led His Highness and his entourage into the large gate with a plaque inscribed on the royal kiln factory.

There is a long corridor inside the gate leading directly to Yimen. There are two archways on the east and west sides of Yimen, namely Dongyuan Gate and Xiyuan Gate.

Since His Highness mainly came to visit the kilns, Zhou Ji first introduced the two factory areas behind the East and West Gates.

There are twenty-one pottery workshops in the east factory area, mainly kiln houses such as Qing kiln, Longgang kiln, Fenghuo kiln, and color kiln, which are mainly places for firing kilns; there are twenty-three pottery workshops in the west factory area, including large-scale pottery workshops. , is the place where small utensils, antiques, carvings, prints, paintings, etc. are made, sharpened, glazed, and painted.

Zhou Ji was there talking about his treasures, but Zhu Zhen was confused. Although he nodded frequently, his eyes were a little distracted.

How else can we say that eunuchs are the best at serving people? Zhou Ji observed the words and immediately asked His Highness to visit the production process according to the procedures.

As expected, His Highness became energetic. He likes to watch handicraft production the most, especially to relieve stress. It's a pity that I can't make noodles and watch them while eating.

A group of people surrounded His Highness and came to the work shed. The busy workers quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

Tell them, no need to kowtow, just do whatever you have to do. Just pretend that I don't exist. Zhu Zhen ordered.

Yes. Zhou Ji asked the workers to get up and work as usual.

Then he introduced: This is Taolian making. The porcelain clay needed to make porcelain needs to be taolian to make it pure.

Where does the porcelain clay come from? Zhu Zhen asked with interest.

The porcelain stones used in the imperial kiln are produced in Qimen, two hundred miles away, in the mountains of Pingli and Gukou. Zhou Ji replied hurriedly: The workers pounded the porcelain stones into mud with water trucks, and then transported them here for further polishing. , can be used.”

Zhu Zhen nodded and stepped forward, and saw a worker soaking the porcelain clay in a water tank and stirring it to make the impurities sink.

Another worker then filters the settled mud through a fine horsetail sieve.

The third worker pours the filtered mud into the mud sagger to settle, making the mud thick and formed.

The fourth worker puts the formed fine porcelain stones into the box and presses the bricks to drain.

Finally, the fifth worker plowed the washed soil evenly and placed it under the work shed for later use.

This is only the first step of the process, and the work has been divided among five workers, each of whom only does one task. This shows how refined the division of labor in Jingdezhen has become.

~~

Then the prepared porcelain clay is sent to the second work shed, where it is mixed with ash to make a slurry. Zhou Ji told Lao Liu that the ash used in the imperial kiln factory came from Leping County, one hundred and forty miles away. It is made of blue and white stone and phoenix grass.

This is why His Royal Highness the King of Chu came to visit, and it was his own kiln. Otherwise, this secret recipe would never be revealed to others.

Next, it’s sagger-making.

The porcelain blank needs to be clean when entering the kiln, and cannot be stained with any sand or dust, so it needs to be put into a sagger for firing. Zhou Ji introduced: The soil used to make the sagger is also very particular. It is taken from Lichun Township and Hebei Province in the northeast of the town. Both places in Gemstone Mountain. Nothing else is suitable.”

It's not secretive at all.

Then there is the workshop for drawing and cutting round ware. Round utensils can be pulled directly out of the blank using a wheel cart, which is very fast.

As for square bottles, statues, and other angular vessels, they can only be made by hand. This is why such appliances are expensive.

After the clay is made, it needs to be molded and dried in the shade before it can be sent to be painted with blue and white flowers.

The division of labor in this step is even more detailed. Drawing lines, rendering, making green hoops, flowers, birds, fish, characters, and writing all have their own specialties, and they are all operated in different rooms.

Then it goes through chiseling, painting, glaze dipping, glaze blowing, spinning, and digging. After more than a dozen processes and hundreds of divisions of labor, the blank can be put into the kiln and fired.

It requires the division of labor and cooperation of more than a hundred workers. Compared with other handicraft industries, the craftsman has a beard and eyebrows, and one person works from beginning to end, which are completely two extremes.

Maybe this is the secret why Jingdezhen can stand out and dominate the country.