The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

After a few days, Zhang Fan gradually became free. Zhang Yufang and Zhang Yan took him to the Zhang family's workshop in the western suburbs of Yangzhou.

"Brother Fan, this is our Zhang family's jade workshop." Zhang Yan introduced to Zhang Fan, "There are more than 200 people here. There are 50 craftsmen for carving alone."

Zhang Fan listened to his introduction and looked at the scene in front of him.This place is really not small, with an area of ​​one mu of land.Because the Zhang family's business has reopened now, the busy scene here has returned to the past, and even busier.Zhang Fan could see carts bringing in jade and other raw materials from time to time, and a lot of raw jade and precious stones had already accumulated here.Many craftsmen are doing selection work, not only depending on the value of the material, but also whether the natural shape of the material is suitable for carving.

"The time of making jade in Yangzhou can be traced back to 3000 years ago." Zhang Yufang said, "But the jade here still has to be brought in from outside."

Since the Tang Dynasty, water transportation here has been open to navigation, which has accelerated the development of Yangzhou's jade handicraft industry.Since then, Hetian jade from Xinjiang, Tianhuangshi from Fujian, Dushan jade and plum blossom jade from Henan have poured into Yangzhou continuously.

The three continued to walk forward.

"This is a place dedicated to polishing jade." Zhang Yan introduced, "The east side is dedicated to polishing raw jade, while the west side is dedicated to polishing finished products."

Many people work here.All the jade that has just been shipped must be polished.This job sounds simple, but not everyone can do it.The craftsmen who polish must also have a certain vision for carving, otherwise if there is something missing, it will not be able to finish the finished product.

At the place where the three were preparing to carve jade, a person suddenly hurried up to the three of them.

"Master, Young Master." The man saluted Zhang Yufang and Zhang Yan.

"Mr. Yu." Zhang Yufang shouted, introducing to Zhang Fan, "This is Mr. Yu who is in charge of selecting raw jade here. He has been in this business for 50 years, and he can tell whether he is holding a stone or a priceless jade at a glance. Mr. Yu, this is my nephew Zhang Fan." He didn't publicize who Zhang Fan was, which was also Zhang Fan's request.

"Master Fan." Mr. Yu bowed to Zhang Fan, and then said to Zhang Yufang, "Master, I found a piece of jade, but it was carved by someone. It's just too old, and I can't tell What the hell is it?"

"Oh? There are jades that Mr. Yu can't see?" Zhang Yufang was amazed, and the three of them rushed to the place where the materials were selected.

In a shed, several old material selectors were arguing endlessly over this square piece of blue jade.

"It's Dushan jade." A person said, "Looking at the color, it must be right."

"Dazi Goose, how can this be Dushan jade!" Another person expressed a different opinion, "How can Dushan jade be all green without any variegated color?"

"This thing was shipped from Henan." The original man retorted, "Besides, it's not like I haven't seen Duyu that is all one color."

"But where is it so big!"

"..."

There was a noisy discussion.

"My boss is here." Someone saw Zhang Yufang coming and said quickly.

Everyone also stopped discussing.

Zhang Yufang stepped forward and picked up the piece of jade.Zhang Fan and Zhang Yan also came up to watch.I saw that the jade was square and square, but it was not high, it was just a piece of poop.One of the four corners also had a chip somehow, but it was obviously old and the chip was smooth.

"This..." Zhang Yufang was in a dilemma. Although he didn't have the work of selecting materials for so many years as Mr. Yu, he also recognized most of the valuable jade and stones in the world, but he had never seen this one before.Different from ordinary jade, the piece in Zhang Yufang's hand is a bit more translucent than the most transparent jade.There are slight dust and scratches on it, but it does not affect its beauty.Looking carefully, a lot of effort has been put into the carving of this piece of jade, which is simple and solemn, even with a hint of majesty.

Zhang Fan didn't care about these at first, but when he looked at this piece of jade, he felt more and more wrong, so he couldn't help but said to Zhang Yufang: "Uncle, can I let my nephew have a look?"

Zhang Yufang heard the words and handed over the things to him.Holding it in Zhang Fan's hand, he felt that it was smooth and soft, but also a little bit comfortable.After sizing it up, he turned the square jade over and saw that there were some potholes on the ground, but there were no marks, so he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Suddenly, Mr. Yu said: "Boss, I have never looked at the bottom before, but now that Young Master Fan turned over, I realized that the bottom seems to be covered with mud and rocks. I don't know how long it took, it looks like That's what it is."

Hearing what he said, Zhang Fan hurriedly asked, "Old Yu, can you remove this layer?"

Mr. Yu was a little puzzled, but he still replied: "It's natural, and it doesn't take much effort."

"Then I'm going to trouble Old Man Yu." Zhang Fan said, handing Fang Yu to him, and asked Wang Meng to send a few people to watch.

Zhang Yufang and his son couldn't help being very surprised, not knowing what Zhang Fan meant.Zhang Fan continued to ask, "Who sent this thing?"

"It's a material vendor from Henan, called Sun Zhou, and he's a regular here too." Someone said.

"Where is that person now?" Zhang Fan asked.

"It's right here, waiting to settle the wages."

"Call him here quickly," Zhang Fan said.

Zhang Yufang had some doubts and asked, "Fan'er, this..."

"Uncle, don't panic, I have to bring my nephew to investigate this matter," Zhang Fan said.

When I was young, someone brought Sun Zhou over.

"I've met Master Zhang, and there are two young masters." Sun Zhou didn't know Zhang Fan, but seeing his resemblance to Zhang Yufang, he called him young master.

"There's no need to be polite." Zhang Fan said, "I'm here to ask you, and you have to answer truthfully."

"Villains naturally know everything," Sun Zhou said.

"You brought stones here today, do you remember a piece of square jade?" Zhang Fan asked.

Sun Zhou thought for a while, then suddenly realized, and said: "I remember, of course I remember. The little man picked it up himself, but he couldn't tell what kind of jade it was, but he saw it was very beautiful, so it was shipped here!"

As soon as Zhang Fan heard that he picked it up, he hurriedly asked, "Tell me, where did you pick it up?" There was eagerness in his voice.

Sun Zhou and Zhang's father and son were frightened by Zhang Fan's words.Sun Zhou came back to his senses after a while, and said with some trepidation: "I still remember that it was near the Henan Mansion. Yes... yes..."

"But near the ancient capital Luoyang?" Zhang Fan said.

"Exactly, exactly, near Luoyang." Sun Zhou said.

"It can't be wrong, it can't be wrong..." Zhang Fan started to mutter after hearing what he said.

"Fan'er, what's going on..." Zhang Yufang was about to ask a question, but Mr. Yu came back.

"Young Master Fan, the things have been cleaned up." Elder Yu said, "There are characters underneath, but even though the little old man has read the book for a few days, he doesn't recognize any of the characters on it."

Zhang Fan smiled and said, "That's Xiaozhuan, quickly show it to me."

After receiving it, Zhang Fan looked at the words on it, and his face became even more joyful: "Yes, it is exactly the same as the record!"

"Master Fan, the traces on it may have been carved for thousands of years!" Elder Yu said.

After hearing what Mr. Yu said, Zhang Fan checked again.After a while, Zhang Fan came back to his senses, and said to the bewildered Zhang Yufang, "Uncle, my nephew doesn't have much belongings with me now, please trouble my uncle to get me 1 taels of silver."

"Yan'er, go to the cashier and pay 1 taels of silver." Zhang Yufang said.He didn't ask Zhang Fan why, he knew Zhang Fan would tell him.

When Zhang Yan came back, he handed over ten silver bills of 1000 taels each to Zhang Fan.Zhang Fan handed the banknotes to Sun Zhou without looking at them.

"This... this..." Sun Zhou had never seen so much money.Although the income from selling stones is not bad, but 1 taels is enough for him to transport stones for ten years without eating or drinking.

"Take it, treat it as my money to buy this piece of jade..." Zhang Fan said.

"But my lord, even the most expensive Tianhuang is less than 1 taels!" Sun Zhou said.It's not that he's not greedy for money, but that the money came in a strange way.

"It's definitely worth the price." Zhang Fan said, his voice revealing the extreme happiness in his heart.

Sun Zhou took the money and walked away in three steps, a little at a loss.Seeing him leave, Zhang Yufang asked, "Fan'er, what the hell..."

Zhang Fan, who was still carefully looking at the jade in his hand, heard what his uncle said, and asked, "Uncle, this matter is of great importance. Is there a safe room here?"

"Yes, follow me." Zhang Yufang said, looking at his son, "Yan'er..."

"My cousin is from my own family, so as long as you don't tell the story, it's okay to come and see it together." Zhang Fan said.

Zhang Yufang led Zhang Fan to the door of a room. Zhang Fan ordered Wang Meng to check the surrounding area, and sent all the brocade guards who came with him this time to guard the surrounding area, and then entered with Zhang Yufang, his father and son, and Wang Meng. .

Entering the room, Zhang Fan asked, "Is there any white paper and ink pad here?"

Zhang Yan quickly took out what Zhang Fan wanted.Zhang Fan took the ink pad and covered it with red ink pad with jade.Only then did Zhang's father and son realize that this thing turned out to be a seal, but they had never seen such a big seal before.

Before stamping the seal, Zhang Fan still muttered something: "I am listed as an emperor and first emperor, forgive Zhang Fan for his disrespect." Then he stamped the seal on the white paper.

Carefully holding the official seal in his arms, Zhang Fan said to his uncle and his cousin, "Uncle, cousin, do you recognize what is engraved on it?"

Zhang Yan blushed a little, he had also read books, it was fine to read ordinary articles, but he didn't recognize Xiaozhuan.It's just that he also knew that Zhang Fan didn't intend to humiliate him, and there was no strange group.Zhang Yufang recognized it, took the piece of paper, looked at it, and said in his mouth: "Ordered by heaven, life will last forever!"

Zhang Fan laughed happily when he heard these eight characters.