big song poppi

Chapter 303 0300 [Finally enlightened! 】

done?

Han Zhen was overjoyed and asked, "Is there cement in the package?"

"No."

Lu Jiu shook his head.

Han Zhen asked curiously: "What is that?"

"County Magistrate, when I was firing cement, I accidentally burned these treasures."

Lu Jiu opened the package in his arms excitedly and placed it on the desk.

Inside the package were pieces of colorful glass.

There are glass beads and irregular glass pieces.

It’s not uncommon to make glass by burning cement. Under high temperatures, some strange things will always appear.

Lu Jiu had never seen glass before, so he called it a treasure. However, in the eyes of the royal family and the rich, glass was no longer a rarity, and the price was not high. It was not as good as good jade, tortoiseshell agate, but compared with More than enough.

Zhao Fujin's dowry included a lot of glassware.

Han Zhen picked up an oval glass ball and held it in front of his eyes for a closer look. The glass ball was about the size of a fingernail and similar to the glass on the market. It was not very transparent and had many bubbles.

If you want to burn pure glass, the difficulty is the temperature. The blast furnace temperature must reach at least 1700 degrees.

Otherwise, the only way to lower the melting point of glass is by adding soda ash.

Whether it is a furnace temperature of 1700 degrees or soda ash, it is currently difficult.

Especially for soda ash, this thing requires a certain industrial foundation.

There is soda ash in nature, which can be extracted from evaporation and crystallization of alkaline lakes.

Yup!

It can be purified with natural alkaline water.

Han Zhen vaguely remembered that there were only three alkaline lakes in the world, one of which was in Yunnan.

What a coincidence this is not the case!
Although Yunnan cannot be conquered at the moment, merchants can be sent to buy it.

Thinking of this, Han Zhen suddenly became very excited.

It was said before that the price of glass is not high or low, but that is for the rough products on the market, which have low transparency, many bubbles, and are very thick without exception.

If pure and thin glass can be made, the price will definitely not be worse than high-quality mutton-fat jade.

By then, whether it is sold to Zhao Song or overseas, a large amount of wealth can be harvested.

Suppressing his excitement, Han Zhen asked: "Is there any dry cement over there in Xiaowang Town?"

"There are many."

Lu Jiu nodded.

When he fired cement, he naturally had to test the results.

Han Zhen stood up and said, "Let's go to Xiaowang Town!"

After leaving the study, Han Zhen took Lu Jiu and his guards, mounted his war horse and headed straight for Xiaowang Town.

After half a year, Han Zhen came to Xiaowang Town again, and Han Zhen was completely unrecognizable.

What was originally a rugged mountain trail has turned into a wide and flat loess avenue.

The cottage standing in the mountains has turned into the outer city of the town, with farmhouses lined up one after another.

The only thing that didn't change was the streaks of black smoke that shot straight into the sky.

Farming is no longer the main source of income for the people of Xiaowang Town. Industry and commerce are the mainstay of the economy.

Lao Jiu exclaimed: "In half a year, Xiaowang Town has changed so much."

Recalling that when he followed Han Zhen, it was just a small village with a population of less than a thousand. Now it has expanded several times in size, with a population of over [-].

Brick and tile houses have sprung up one after another like mushrooms after a rain.

Especially the market by the river beach has transformed into the bustling center of the town, forming several streets.

"The village chief is back!"

I don't know who screamed, and Xiaowang Town immediately became excited.

Countless people came from all directions and surrounded Han Zhen and others.

A little kid jumped out, raised his face and said: "Village Chief, Village Chief, I am a little puppy, do you still remember me?"

Now Han Zhen's title has long been changed to County Chief, but the people of Xiaowang Village are still used to calling him Village Chief.

Han Zhen smiled slightly: "Of course I remember, where is your father?"

The puppy replied: "My father is farming."

Tan Qiang, a tenant farmer, now finally has his own land, and he also rents the land from the farmer. Just looking at the puppy's chubby little face, you can tell that he is living a good life.

Han Zhen asked again: "Have you entered school yet?"

"Ah."

The puppy nodded and replied: "I can recite "Hundred Family Surnames"."

At this time, a woman squeezed through the crowd and asked in an anxious tone: "Village chief, is the king of my family okay?"

Han Zhen remembered that this person was Wang Wu's mother-in-law, and she was very shrewd.

Han Zhen joked: "It's very good. I even went to visit the brothel a few days ago."

"Hahahaha!"

As soon as these words came out, the people watching burst into laughter.

Mrs. Wang Wu cursed and said: "This damn ghost doesn't send money home even after making money, yet he still dares to visit a brothel!"

"Village chief, we heard that you married the imperial concubine of Zhao Song. How does it look?"

"Village Chief, what does Bianjing look like?"

"village head……"

Facing the strange questions from the onlookers, Han Zhen always answered patiently.

Those who dared to come around for questioning were all aborigines from Xiaowang Village, and most of them were family members of the backbone of the Qingzhou Army.

After finally sending the people away, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.All the way to the lime kiln factory, Lu Jiu couldn't wait to show off his achievements.

After Han Zhen gave his instructions last year, the kiln manager gave Lu Jiu a separate kiln to build and let him do whatever he wanted.

Lu Jiuyi introduced: "Please see, County Magistrate, this is cement mixed with coarse sand and solidified, and its strength is average. This is cement mixed with fine sand. Its strength has been increased several times, and it can withstand several hammer blows." It won't crack. It's mixed with gravel and can withstand dozens of hammer blows."

Han Zhen ordered: "Old Jiu, go and try it."

He didn't test it himself, mainly because his strength was far beyond that of ordinary people and he couldn't do it accurately.

Hearing this, Lao Jiu picked up the hammer and hit the cement with all his strength.

The first two cement blocks broke into several pieces after just a few hits.

Until the third time, I hit it more than a dozen times in a row, but only the cement on the surface broke away, but there was no crack inside.

Lao Jiu breathed heavily and said in an excited tone: "County Magistrate, this cement is very hard, even harder than glutinous rice mortar. When used to build city walls, even a catapult can't crack it."

Glutinous rice mortar is easy to use, but the cost is too high. The main raw material is glutinous rice. Who can afford it?

Han Zhen knelt down and knocked on the cement block with his hand, a look of satisfaction in his eyes.

With cement, he could build highways.

With the expressway, fishermen in coastal areas will have another way to survive in the future.

Standing up again, he looked at Lu Jiu and said with a smile: "Well done. I promised you that as long as you can burn cement, I will open a factory for you. Now I give you two choices. One is that I will pay for it. You build a cement factory. Second, come back to Yidu with me..."

Before Han Zhen could finish his words, Lu Jiu replied: "I choose the second one."

Han Zhen ordered: "I'll give you an hour to go back and pack your belongings, take your family and follow me to Linzi."

"Thank you magistrate!"

After Lu Jiu said that, he ran away.

Han Zhen gave him an hour, but within a quarter of an hour, Lu Jiu came with his mother-in-law and children.

In fact, apart from bedding and pots and pans, he had very little belongings at home.

Moreover, in his opinion, the county magistrate would definitely not treat him badly.

After hiring a bullock cart and throwing his mother-in-law, children and belongings into the cart, Lu Jiu happily followed Han Zhen out of Xiaowang Town.

……

Han Zhen did not stay in Linzi for long. He inspected the firearms workshop and then went to Songshan Village to catch up with Masangou.

The next day, he rushed back to Yidu.

He arranged for Lu Jiu to enter the Engineering Academy, rewarded him with a ninth-grade official, and assigned him two tasks.

First, he taught a group of cement-making apprentices.

The second is to burn glass.

Han Zhen didn't know much about burning glass. After telling Lu Jiu everything he knew about soda ash, stirring, and the lost wax method, he stopped caring.

Anyway, the annual research funding of [-] yuan can be tossed around as you like.

If it burns out, you will be promoted and make a fortune, but if it doesn't burn out, you will continue to burn it.

Leaders must learn to delegate authority. Keeping an eye on everything will only exhaust themselves to death.

On the second day after returning to Yidu, Craftsman Yuan came again and brought the fifth edition of sample coins.

"Please ask the county magistrate to take a look."

In the main hall, Craftsman Yuan took out a wooden box and respectfully presented it on the hall table.

Opening the wooden box, Han Zhen couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

After giving some personal guidance that day, Craftsman Yuan finally got the idea.

In the wooden box, lying quietly, was a banknote. The style was almost the same as the RMB of later generations, but it was larger and thicker than the hundred-yuan bill.

On the front is an exquisite ink painting of Mount Tai. The painting is exquisite and the majestic atmosphere of Mount Tai is vividly displayed. You can tell at a glance that it was painted by a famous artist.

The three characters written in small seal script in the middle mean Qian Guan!

Below is a line of small characters in plum blossom regular letters, produced by Daqi Bank.

The back is a red and green floral pattern.

Picking up the sample coin, Han Zhen shook it gently, and suddenly there was a crisp buzzing sound.

A trace of satisfaction flashed in Han Zhen's eyes: "Not bad, I finally got the idea."

Hearing this, Craftsman Yuan's high-spirited heart was finally relieved.

His tense face also showed a smile, and he introduced: "The material of the sample coins is made of the best Chengxintang paper, which is made from two pieces of Chengxintang paper."

Han Zhen nodded and asked, "What about anti-counterfeiting?"

"There are two ways to prevent counterfeiting."

Craftsman Yuan took a few steps forward and explained: "The first is the flower pattern on the back. The county magistrate can touch it lightly with his fingers."

Hearing this, Han Zhen gently touched the flower patterns with his fingers and found that these patterns were slightly raised. He didn't know how the craftsmen of the Engineering Academy were able to print them without a letterpress printing machine. Relief work is done on banknotes.

Really amazing!
Han Zhen asked again: "Is there another place?"

Craftsman Yuan replied: "There is another place, which is based on the advice of the county magistrate and contains the universe. The county magistrate holds up the banknotes and points them towards the sun."

Han Zhen raised the banknotes and pointed them in the direction of the palace door.

Under the sunlight, a golden dragon appeared among the banknotes.

Han Zhen looked surprised and asked: "How to do it?"

Craftsman Yuan explained: "A golden dragon made of gold foil is sandwiched between two pieces of Chengxintang paper, and finally sealed together."

This is Chengxintang paper, letterpress relief, and gold foil interlayer. You don’t need to think about it to know that the cost will definitely not be low.

"What is the cost?"

Han Zhen said, picking up the tea cup and taking a sip.

"Uh...eighty!"

"Pfft!"

Han Zhen couldn't hold it in and spit out a mouthful of tea.

(End of this chapter)