blueteamnovel Chapter 144: Liuli Has Existed Since The Western Zhou Dynasty [Please Subscribe, Please Subscribe]
Chapter 144: Liuli Has Existed Since The Western Zhou Dynasty [Please Subscribe, Please Subscribe]
After planting the second crop of potatoes, Yan Changqing immediately prepared to start his own Liuli money-making plan.
During the second crop of potatoes, the construction team hired by Yan Changqing had already built a simple glass-burning workshop and corresponding workshops in another area of the Agricultural College designated by Yan Changqing. accommodation area.
In order to build a glaze firing workshop that meets Yan Changqing's needs, Yan Changqing also spent a lot of money.
With the help of national master craftsmen transferred from Zhu Yuanzhang, the construction was barely successful.
Coupled with the previous expenses before and after planting the second crop of potatoes, the initial investment of 100,000 taels by Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Fang, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes has been reduced by 30% to 40%.
If you include the large amount of raw materials purchased by Yan Changqing later, then Yan Changqing has spent almost half of the 100,000 taels of silver.
"But luckily everything is within plan."
Standing in front of the simple glaze workshop, Yan Changqing looked at the kiln in front of him where glaze was fired, and nodded slightly.
The first thing to explain is that in ancient China, colored glaze and the technology for firing colored glaze have always existed!
If we trace back the history of glass manufacturing, it can actually be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Because in terms of refining requirements, the temperature of the blast furnace at that time could reach 1200 degrees [the firing temperature of ancient colored glaze was about 1050 degrees.
Therefore, the simple refining requirements can be met.
The original materials for making colored glaze were actually obtained from the by-products produced during the casting of bronze vessels, and were then refined and processed into colored glaze.
In the unearthed cultural relics of the Warring States Period (403-221 BC), glass products were discovered one after another.
Later, during the Han Dynasty, the production technology of Liuli 117 was actually quite mature.
This was mainly due to the technology of manufacturing artificial colored glaze introduced to China by Yuezhi merchants from about the third century BC to the first century AD.
According to "Book of Wei·Biography of Xirong":
"During the time of the founder of the Dayue clan, merchants from the country were selling stones to the capital. Since Yunneng cast the stone into five-color glaze, he mined it in the mountains and cast it in the capital.
Finished, the luster is more beautiful than those from the West.
The imperial edict was built as a palace, with room for more than a hundred people. The light and color were so clear that everyone who saw it was horrified and thought it was the work of a god.
From then on, Chinese colored glaze became cheap and people no longer valued it..."
Of course, what "Book of Wei: Biography of Xirong" says "from then on, Chinese colored glaze became cheap and people no longer valued it" is only relative.
It's just downgraded from the original priceless treasure to a valuable treasure.
Liuli at this time can still be sold at a very good price.
It's just that the smelting technology related to colored glaze has always been in the hands of the royal family and nobility, and is kept secret.
It then developed until the Tang Dynasty, due to the influence of glaze manufacturing technology in the cultural exchanges brought about by the Silk Road in the Western Regions.
At that time, the glaze firing technology of the Tang Dynasty had been further developed, and the technique of blowing glaze had appeared.
In 1985, two small green glass bottles were discovered at the ruins of Kunquan Temple near Ceylon during the Tang Dynasty.
After a long period of development, to the Yuan Dynasty, and now to the early Ming Dynasty, some wealthy merchants now have mature glass refining technology in their hands.
And the royal family represented by Zhu Yuanzhang has a very mature glass refining (bhci) technology!
For example, among the craftsmen sent by Zhu Yuanzhang this time, there were craftsmen who had been making colored glaze for generations.
As for the price of Liuli at this time, it is no longer even considered a luxury product.
If you really plan to buy it, in this era, you can actually buy a five-color glazed tile about the size of a palm for about a dozen taels of silver.
However, one thing that needs to be clearly distinguished is that although modern glass is a completed work after the continuous development of ancient colored glaze.
But in fact, ancient colored glaze and modern glass are not the same thing.
First, in appearance, ancient colored glaze is opaque and colorful (in fact, it is more variegated). It can only be called a colored glaze product, but it cannot be called modern glass.
The second is to refine the raw materials, or in terms of cost, the ancient colored glaze was a little lower grade, so it was made from yellow pill, Luo stone and copper powder.
The more advanced ones are fired directly using crystal masterbatch as the raw material.
But whether it is a low-level refining method or an advanced refining method, it can be said that the cost is high.
After all, ancient copper can be used directly as money, even if it is powdered copper, it is still money.
The crystal masterbatch is also a very valuable raw material, at least more expensive than copper.
In addition, there are factors such as damage during refining and defective products.
Therefore, even though the refining technology of colored glaze has become quite mature, colored glaze products can still be sold for dozens or hundreds of taels.
Because its refining cost is expensive.
In terms of appearance, modern glass can truly achieve transparency in every detail.
And you can further control the color so that there is no other noise [that is no problem at all.
For example, the glass treasure that Yan Changqing used as silver at the wealthy merchants' fair was worth three hundred thousand taels of silver.
One very, very important factor is transparency!!!
Holding it in the palm of your hand, you can see the ultimate transparency of the palm prints through the glass!!!
This is the glaze refining in this era, among the tens or millions of pieces of glaze fired, there is just a slight possibility, relying on luck, to refine the Top Grade glaze.
It is normal for Top Grade colored glaze to be sold for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, so the premium is tens or hundreds of times that of ordinary colored glaze.
Coupled with the extraordinary Auspicious Beast shapes, the combination of the two makes Yan Changqing's glass products as valuable as Top Grade colored glaze.
This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di, Zhu Fan, Zhu Di and other princes think that Yan Changqing's colored glaze can make money, because they think Yan Changqing has mastered a more advanced colored glaze refining technology.
And in fact, it is indeed the case.
Secondly, the main raw materials for refining modern glass are nothing more than quartz (that is, river sand) and soda ash.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the cost of this investment is like turning stone into gold compared to the final value.
This is why the technology of glass refining can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, but time travelers can still make money by relying on this glass product that has existed for more than 3,000 years.
Because the cost reduction brought by quartz and soda ash is really a dimensionality reduction blow to the cost of refining ancient colored glaze.
Watching the temperature rise higher and higher, it even reached a state where the space was faintly blurred when the line of sight was scanned.
After Yan Changqing estimated the required temperature for firing, he looked at the glaze craftsmen on the left and right and ordered:
“Put the raw materials in.”
The glaze craftsmen on the left and right sides are about to mix raw materials such as crushed river sand, limestone containing soda ash, dolomite, Glauber's salt, coal powder, calcite, feldspar, fluorite, and impurity cullet from the first furnace. , all poured in.
The glass refining methods and refining raw materials range from simple to slightly more complicated.
The simplest way is actually to insert a long iron rod into the wide sandy field during a thunderstorm until it is struck by a wave of lightning!
After thunder and lightning, the original sand will naturally turn into the most beautiful glass under high temperature in an instant.
This is a one-step method.
If the conditions are not so good, there is a simpler three-step method.
The first step is to crush the sand and soda ash and dry the wet ingredients.
The second step is melting, where the glass batch materials are heated to high temperatures in a pool kiln or crucible kiln to form liquid glass.
The third step is to blow the liquid glass into shape, and then it can be sold.
The refining of modern glass is that simple.
But this is an unconditional approach, as Yan Changqing is now backed by the biggest tree, Zhu Yuanzhang.
Not to mention that you can get whatever you want, but at least as long as it is not too expensive, Yan Changqing can buy it with money.
Therefore, Yan Changqing chose to be perfect and refining glass directly according to the way modern glass factories refining glass.
For example, in the firing raw materials that Yan Changqing just ordered to pour in, water and limestone (containing soda ash) can play a role in lowering the melting point.
Glauber's salt can act as a clarifier, while other raw materials can help to further refine glass products with different appearance and functions.
The quantity of these added auxiliary materials is not large, and the price itself is not expensive.
Therefore, for Yan Changqing, the cost value of fired glass has not increased much.
For traditional ancient colored glaze, in terms of cost, it is still at the level of dimensionality reduction.
Considering that adding these auxiliary materials will help to produce better quality glass products, it can be sold at a higher price.
So after thinking about it, Yan Changqing decided to abandon the simple and crude three-step method of glass firing, and instead made glass using the slightly more troublesome modern glazier firing method.
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