Chapter 216: Large flat glass, return to Wuzhai Fort

On September 15, 24th year of Wanli, the capital was outside the outskirts.

Yizhen Glass Factory specializes in the making of royal glassware, with dozens of tiled kilns, and the glassware they burn every year is astronomical. In June, the Royal Glass Factory of the Ming Dynasty was established next to Yizhen Glass Factory. The craftsmanship in its factory were naturally selected from Yizhen Glass Factory.

The factory is controlled by Huang Laifu, and naturally adopts the craftsman system like Wuzhaibao. The monthly grain is stable, diligent rewards, and lazy people punishes. For a time, although the glass factory was established, the atmosphere inside the factory was full of vitality, which was in sharp contrast with the Yizhen Glass Factory, which still followed the craftsman system next to it. Many craftsmen of Yizhen Glass Factory were envious of the treatment here and hoped to jump to this side.

At this time, in the open-air workshop in the glass factory, there was a lot of popularity and a wave of heat. On the open space not far from the tiled kilns, there were iron tables placed. Every time the glass melted out of the kiln, several craftsmen shouted and poured the hot glass liquid in the furnace onto the iron table. Then several craftsmen dragged thick round cast iron sticks and slapped them back and forth. Soon after the glass was flattened, they formed a large piece of the same as the tabletop.

This way, a flat glass is made. Of course, although the flattened glass is large, it is not smooth and needs to be polished. At this time, several craftsmen came over and placed the large flat glass on a table covered with thick felt, sprinkled a layer of fine sand, and then placed another flat glass plate. By pushing and pulling the glass on it, the fine sand smoothed the two pieces of glass.

However, this work seems simple, but it requires five or six craftsmen to work for more than one day, and this is not enough. The surface of the glass treated in this way has countless patterns left by fine sand, which needs to be further polished. The craftsmen use a very fine ore powder and water to rub back and forth with small wooden boards wrapped with wool felt for hundreds of thousands of times, and then rub them with wool felt for hundreds of thousands of times. In this way, large pieces of flat glass are finally completed, and if they continue to rub like this, these glasses can also make glass mirrors in the future.

Next to an iron table, Huang Laifu was lucky enough to watch the entire production process of large flat glass. He couldn't help but sigh that this kind of handicraft manufacturing was still too slow. In later generations, glass manufacturing was made by automatic machines. Thick glass liquid kept flowing out of the glass furnace. After being crushed, the hot and thick glass liquid turned into a long glass belt. After cooling, it was smoothed and polished by a machine and cut it. How could it be so troublesome? But thinking about it, it was the Ming Dynasty now, and it was already very good to have this appearance, after all, it had historical limitations.

Of course, the eunuch who was in charge of the silver seal beside him would not know about Huang Laifu's feelings. He just looked at the workers in the factory with a smile and moved the grinded large glass into the warehouse. Each piece of large glass was equally heavy silver.

Since the development of large pieces of glass was successfully launched in late July, it immediately caused a sensation in all walks of life in the capital. Huang Laifu had said before that in order to bring light to dark houses, people would try their best to do everything possible. The glass looks like crystal. Although it is not as elegant as glass, it still looks equally high-end and luxurious, and it is much brighter than window paper or horn sheets. How grand is it to install a piece of glass on the window?

For a time, although Huang Laifu set the price of large flat glass very high, there were still many buyers. Not to mention that the wealthy officials and wealthy families in the capital were pride in installing glass windows, even Emperor Wanli decided to put all the windows in the palace on glass. Moreover, not only the wealthy families in the capital, but also ordered them in the city of Ming Dynasty, which caused strong demand and naturally brought about a lot of wealth. Although the benefits of this glass factory belonged to Emperor Wanli and Emperor Huang Laifu, and then the eunuchs in the silver bureau were also divided into many benefits, so they naturally looked happy all day long.

Now outside the glass factory, there are many merchants waiting in line, hoping to get the goods as soon as possible. Orders from various places in the glass factory have been queued for the New Year. In order to get the goods as soon as possible, merchants from all over the country have used their unique skills, even the eunuchs in the silver bureau, and I don’t know how many people have received red envelopes and banquet invitations. Thinking about their past depression life, the eunuchs in the silver bureau were just sad.

Huang Laifu inspected the factory for a while with his hands behind his back, and finally concluded: "The glass factory is still too small and it needs to be increased in large quantities, otherwise the order will be too busy. You must hurry up and time is money... Eunuch Chen, I will trouble you in this matter."

The eunuchs in the 24th Prison of the Ming Dynasty have always been arrogant, but in front of Huang Laifu, the eunuch in charge of the silver seal and sealed smiled on his face. He said, "Oh, what is Huang Junmen saying? What are we talking about? What are we going to do if we are not tired? Huang Junmen merchants invite him to come down and our family will do it."

He smiled like a flower: "Speaking of this, our family would also like to thank Huang Junmen. If the military gate had not set up a glass factory and made this large piece of glass, how could our family have the best life now?"

For the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, firing glass is actually not a problem. In terms of the firing of glass and glazed glass, glazed glass is even more difficult. The production process is lengthy and time-consuming. The raw materials are selected strictly. It requires the use of precious natural glazed stone and glazed mother. In the later stage, dozens of processes are required to be carefully polished. Therefore, in China, glazed glass is a culture of taste for scholars and officials, and each glazed product has extremely high collection value and appreciation value.

The firing of glass is simple, and it only takes sand, gravel and alkali to melt at high temperatures. For the Ming Dynasty craftsmen, high temperature is not a problem. Sometimes they need to fire glass, and the temperature required to be higher than glass. The key is the problem of thinking. When I was in Yizhen Glass Factory, craftsmen accidentally fired small pieces of glass. However, these glasses are not as elegant as porcelain, and not as gentle as glass. What is the use of this small piece of ugly glass? So in China, the useless place in the past is here.

It was Huang Laifu who stood up and taught them how to cook and grind large pieces of glass. In this way, the natural uses would be ripe. Not to mention anything else, the people of the Ming Dynasty all over the world would have glass on their windows, such wealth would be huge.

The benefits are obvious. When the factory was first set up in June, when glass was not researched and fired, the craftsmen in the glass factory all needed to rely on Huang Laifu's grant to make a living. People's hearts were in danger. In the blink of an eye, the ordinary craftsmen in the factory received as much as two in the monthly banknotes, not to mention those advanced craftsmen. Why didn't this make the nearby Yizhen Glass Factory craftsmen envious and want to skip to do glass factory craftsmen? This is the case with ordinary craftsmen, the stewards of the factory, and the eunuchs in the silver bureau also received a lot of benefits every month. As for Emperor Wanli, who was the biggest winner, he was counting the money every day so much that he couldn't close his mouth.

There was an eunuch in the silver bureau who was in charge of seals and said this, Huang Laifu naturally had to be humble. Finally, he remembered something and said: "Eunuch Chen, there is another thing. Now our glass factory has great benefits, but we have to be prepared for danger in times of peace and safety. We have to keep up with this after-sales service. I heard that many customers cannot install it after buying glass, which makes a lot of jokes. In the future, I think this special glass installation can be made in our factory and set a proper installation standard. Daddy, can you please?"

Since the glass windows are trendy at the moment, Huang Laifu neglected it again, there is no standard for installing glass windows for everyone in the capital. Huang Laifu heard that the popular method of installing window glass in the capital is to first install a net made of tin on the window. The net is designed with round holes, and there is also metal wire in the middle of the holes to tie the handle on the window glass.

Huang Laifu even heard that the Ministry of Revenue Shangpiao Astronomy was tied up. Since there was often wind in the capital, in order to avoid the window glass being blown off and broken by the wind, he gave an order to the servants at home. Whenever he left the house, he immediately mobilized everyone to remove each window glass from the window and put it in the warehouse for storage. Only when he came back could it be taken out and installed.

After the news came out, Huang Laifu laughed loudly, but one day, when he returned to his parents' residence in the capital and saw that his mother also ordered his servants, he immediately couldn't laugh.

Therefore, it is imperative to set a unified installation standard as in later generations and install movable glass windows on the windows.

After hearing Huang Laifu's words, the eunuch in charge of the seal of the Yin Bureau was a little dissatisfied. He thought that it was not very good at the moment. He just wanted to make money with peace of mind. Why bother to care about how others installed the glass after buying it? Huang Laifu is really looking for trouble. But since Huang Laifu said this, Eunuch Chen would not openly give up his face. He nodded with a smile and said, "Huang Junmen is really thoughtful, so he will do this... But what is the installation standard?"

...

On the third day of the 10th month of the 24th year of Wanli, after detailed negotiations with Huang Laifu, Emperor Wanli followed the Daming State Administration of Mining and established the Daming State Administration of Taxation, and ordered Zhang Ye, the left supervisor of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, to be the supervisor, to take charge of tax envoys in various places. At the same time, on the fifth day of the lunar month, he sent Zhang Li to Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou to collect rent and taxes, and provided protection for customs. It was stipulated that 4,000 taels of silver be collected every year, divided into four seasons, and transferred according to the season. Soon, the eunuch dynasty was ordered to supervise the conquest of Tianjin.

The capital was immediately in agitation, and all the officials were in an uproar again, and they submitted memorials to stop them. Emperor Wanli was unmoved and planned to continue to send tax envoys to collect taxes in various places. On this day, Huang Laifu also set his luggage and prepared to return to Ningwu Pass. After all, he was the general of Shanxi, and the garrison of border towns was very important. Every autumn and winter, the generals of each town were busy handling the matter of preventing autumn and winter. Huang Laifu was no exception. It was time to go back after so long after the pass.

Seeing Huang Laifu leaving, Emperor Wanli was quite reluctant to leave. From May to now, since Huang Laifu came to Beijing, he has run imperial houses for him, opened various cement factories, wool mills, glass factories, supermarkets, etc., and has achieved great success in each of them, bringing him a lot of wealth. In Emperor Wanli's mind, Huang Laifu was already a versatile talent. He can not only march and fight, but also manage the country. He is actually a capable official.

In the mind of Emperor Wanli, the future emphasis on Huang Laifu is naturally inevitable. Before leaving, Emperor Wanli recruited Huang Laifu to discuss secretly. Huang Laifu also knew that in the Second Korean War soon, he would return to the capital. Perhaps at that time, he would plan to open a branch of the Wuzhaibao Newspaper in the capital.
Chapter completed!