But the bright moon shines on the ditch

Chapter 3

Before this day came, Xu Zhiliu didn't know where he would go.

For him, life today is not about taking one step at a time. On the contrary, due to the difficulties of his family and his livelihood, he has carefully calculated and planned every step he has taken since he was a child.

When he was young, he once heard his father mention Jingdezhen, which can be summed up as "a stretch of more than ten miles, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with two to three hundred districts of folk kilns, hundreds of thousands of craftsmen and laborers, so many people eat here", and he yearned for it.

I didn't expect to set foot on it many years later, it would be like that.

Is it the father's death day approaching?He had often thought of that smiling face lately.But at every critical moment, the flames in the sky are always blurred.

He stood on the bluestone path leading directly to the wall, looking back in a trance, he seemed to see the two stone workshops to the east of the Imperial Kiln Factory, with the characters "Zhushan Xianrui" and "Changshui Chaozong" awe-inspiring.

While he was in a daze, Zhang Lei ran towards him and said anxiously: "Zhiliu, why are you still here? The master and the potters are all here, waiting for you!"

After all, he grabbed his sleeve.

The stone-blue sleeves swayed, following the slow pace at the beginning, they gradually became steady.

Zhang Lei looked sideways, and saw the man beside him had a face with sword eyebrows and starry eyes, with deep features, calm and calm.

This indifference blurred his age and experience, so that people almost forgot that he was just a 22-year-old boy.

*
Leaping over the wall, the voices of people came.

The four strong men were wringing out towels with cold water. After wiping their hands, they put them on their shoulders and backs. They looked at each other, and then their dantians sank, and they lifted a custom-made large sagger about three feet long until it was placed on the four corners of the long flower bench.

Everyone couldn't help holding their breath, staring at the big sagger in front of them without blinking.

When firing the kiln, it is inevitable that there will be sediments such as soot. In order to avoid polluting the porcelain, it must be fired in a box made of clay.

At this time, on both sides of the path leading to the kiln door, the saggers that had been placed one after another were all empty. Apparently, the kiln owners had picked up all the small utensils that had been fired a few days ago and brought them home.

Now that the kiln temperature is cooling down, there is no need to worry that the large vessel fired at high temperature will crack into waste products when it comes into contact with cold air. Finally, this last and largest sagger can be opened.

If the porcelain inside can be successfully fired, the task of adding extra color to the reconstruction of the three halls of the dragon vat must come to a successful conclusion.

Everyone looked at their noses and noses and their hearts, and all quietly looked in front of the crowd.

This is also a rare event in Jingdezhen.

Emperor Wanqing loved ceramics, and everyone in the world knew it. Jingdezhen's blue and white craftsmanship is ahead of all famous kilns in the world, and its heavenly craftsmanship is second to none.

Since Emperor Wanqing came to the throne, Jingdezhen’s large and small folk kilns have shown their special skills, and the most glorious decade in Jingdezhen’s history has appeared.

Along with it came several great figures who created brilliance.

Now, these big shots gathered at Longyaokou, waiting for the next scene.

Standing on the east side with a long flower bench as the dividing line, wearing a watermelon felt hat, a gray round gown and a black gown, the plainly dressed middle-aged man is Xu Zhong, the big owner of Hutian Kiln.

At this moment, his eyes are heavy, and his goatee is so tight that a line is sunken in the dimple of his chin. It can be seen how nervous he is.

On the opposite side is his fateful rival, the owner of Anqing Kiln——Wang Yu.

Wang Yu's clothes are the same as Xu Zhong's, except that the cotton robe is a little darker, and the chest is embroidered with the pattern of twining branches.On this trip, he was accompanied by a steward named Siliu, who was quite familiar with him.

And on Wang Yu's left, the old man with a slightly hunched upper body who needs the help of a servant is the county magistrate of Fuliang——Yang Chenggong.

Yang Gong was nearly [-] years old, with gray beard and hair. Although he was not in good spirits, his eyes were still piercing.

He stared at the sagger in front of him, like a revolving lantern in his mind, flashing back frames of his decades of political career, not to mention how many outstanding achievements he had made, at least he was diligent and unashamed.

Who would have imagined that a year before coming to Jingcha, a eunuch came to fight against him everywhere, so that most of his life was ups and downs, and in the end he was betting on a piece of porcelain.

It should be noted that this Beijing inspection is extraordinary, and it does not represent his personal success or failure.If you can't take a step forward, I'm afraid there is only a dead end.

Last night, a winter snow came late, which seemed to be a sign. In the morning, a servant who begged for rewards congratulated him in advance, and said auspicious words that the auspicious snow would herald a good year, and everyone understood the meaning of handing over.

Personally, he also hopes that his ten-year career as a Taoist can end well.

It's just that I don't know if it will be possible.

Thinking of this, he glanced to the west of the flower bench from the corner of his eye. It was a luxuriously dressed young man, wearing a suede mandarin jacket, with a small gold silk heater in his arms, and a jade horse pendant tied around his waist.

This person is An Nineteen.

As the godfather's most respected youngest son, An Nineteen, who was majestic in the imperial palace that ate people but never spit out his bones, was no problem in Jingdezhen, a back garden of the House of Internal Affairs dedicated to firing porcelain for the emperor.

After only one year, Du Tao can sit on an equal footing with Yang Ping.

You can see the current situation.

The monopoly of eunuchs, private involvement in prisons, deception at the top, and confusion at the bottom have been common phenomena since the previous dynasties. It is the turn of the current dynasty that although the civil servants are all trying to be upright, the root of the tree is deep and the cancer has already formed.

No, relying on the backing of someone in the imperial city, An Nineteen extorted money as soon as he arrived there, sucking the blood of the common people.

Fortunately, Mr. Yang has a high reputation among the people, and after a few measures, An Jiu was beaten by surprise, and only then did he understand the truth that a strong dragon cannot overwhelm a local snake.

From then on, he was still aggressive with the outside world, but he would give in to Yang Gong by three points.

Only today, due to the particularity of the giant dragon vat, there is something unusual about the scene.

Seeing that the auspicious time had passed and no one came yet, An Jiu got impatient and frowned slightly.

The stewards are all good people, and they hurried forward to accompany them with smiling faces.At this time, someone shouted "Young Master is here", the stewards breathed a sigh of relief, and the crowd automatically moved out of the way.

Looking from a distance, a tall and straight figure among the continuous mountains stepped down the stone steps and walked slowly towards the atrium.

He didn't breathe, and every step was very steady, just like his life in the past 22 years.

Xu Zhong watched him approach, and bowed to himself, Yang Gong, and all the kiln owners who participated in the firing of the dragon vat with hands clasped in front of him.

However, facing An Nineteen who was in full swing, he just nodded his head.

Xu Zhong's taut goatee was suddenly hurt, and he gasped.Even Wang Yu, his old rival, couldn't help but sweat for this young man.

Xu Zhiliu acted as if he hadn't noticed, and went to the sagger and gave Master Bazhuang a look.

The old master nodded and told everyone to take half a step back.

With a slight "click", the sagger was removed by the big men.

The red-hot smoke over Jingdezhen infected half of the sky.

In the flickering red light, a sleeping blue dragon seemed to flash past before everyone's eyes.

This is a large blue-and-white flying dragon cylinder with a height of about 58 chi [-], a diameter of [-] chi [-] at the top, a diameter of [-] chi [-] bottom, and a weight of about [-] kg.

The shape of the cylinder is huge and upright, and four pairs of mighty and majestic flying dragons are painted in blue and white on the top. The painting is exquisite and the workmanship is exquisite.

The eight flying dragons complement each other, chasing and playing with each other on the edge of the sea and river, surrounded by auspicious clouds, the sea of ​​clouds is well-defined, the blue and white hair color is pure and elegant, and the color is rich and purple.

Yang Gong took two steps forward tremblingly with the support of his servant, and looked around the cylinder carefully. After a long time, he said three times in succession: "Good! Good! Good!"

His words can be regarded as the final conclusion, the big dragon vat has been burned!

Everyone applauded and cheered.

For the reconstruction of the three main halls this time, nearly [-] dragon vats need to be fired and scattered to various houses. They were all completed a year ago, but this super-sized dragon vat has not been delivered for a long time.

Only the Hutian kiln has this type of dragon jar kiln and saggers, and Hutian kiln has several former master craftsmen, all of whom are masters of burning dragon jars, so the pressure naturally falls on them.

The kiln had been opened a few times before, and there were some flaws to some extent. An Jiu was not satisfied with it, so he didn't let go, and kept urging Hutian Kiln to complete the operation.

It's finally done.

Regardless of the mere dragon vat, there are actually 72 processes from the blank to the finished product, and none of the processes can be vague. During the few days when the kiln was fired, no one dared to close their eyes. More than ten masters participated in it from front to back.

Even for Hutian Kiln, the head of the "Baoqing Kiln" that does what it says, when facing the big dragon vat, Xu Zhong, the big owner, and the experienced pile master, dare not make a package at will, otherwise the head will fall to the ground.

But thinking that this may be the last super-large dragon vat before Yang Gong was disarmed and returned to the field, Hutian Kiln finally took over the hot potato.

Speaking of which, Master Zhuang patted Xu Zhiliu's shoulder meaningfully, everyone understood what it meant.

Seeing that the atmosphere was getting more subtle, someone came out to interrupt: "Look carefully, this big dragon tank is a bit better than the previous one."

"The size is also much bigger. The key is that there are eight dragons. You can see their postures, whether they are sitting or lying down, or their eyes are wide open, or their legs are hanging on their legs. All of them are flying out alive!"

"The embryo is warm and moist, and the brushwork is powerful. After ten years of work, there are more than a few points of excellence."

"It's only too much, but nothing less than it." Yang Gong praised again, pushed away the servant's hand, and took Xu Zhiliu's sleeve, with tears in his eyes, just about to say something, suddenly heard a cough.

Looking at the past, An Nineteen seemed to be smiling but not smiling: "Your Majesty loves celadon so much, Duke Yang is the right one to present this treasure."

Yang Chenggong's expression changed: "Thanks to Eunuch An for his assistance."

"Mr. Yang can't say that. The porcelain industry in Rao Prefecture, especially Jingdezhen, is booming today. It all depends on Mr. Yang. You have been hardworking and pragmatic for many years. You have only taken over for a few days on the [-]th, so how can you take credit for it?"

"Eunuch is humble."

"If you want me to say, Lord Yang and Lord An have contributed a lot. Which one can be said to be able to leave the mound? Now that the big dragon vat has been fired, I will immediately arrange for it to be sent to the Imperial Kiln Factory."

Xu Zhong changed the subject at the right time, intending to hand over the hot potato. As for whose credit it was, he didn't care, and he didn't want to get involved in the muddy water.

While speaking, he gave Xu Zhiliu a wink.

Xu Zhiliu pretended not to see it, because he noticed that Yang Gong's face turned pale, and he turned to hold the old man's hand, and gave a sharp look directly at him.

The eyes of the two met, and Xu Zhong was so anxious that his chest was thumping.

At this time, Yang Gong turned around and stood between the two of them.

"This time when I return to Beijing to report on my duties, the future is uncertain, and I don't know if I will see you again in the future. Zhiliu, you are a diligent and diligent child. I have also seen your child's examination questions. With your knowledge, if there is no such accident, you may have already become an official. It is not impossible to be the number one scholar, and to be a marquis and worship minister? It's a pity..."

It's a pity that after all, it's time and fate, and this kid won't be able to return to his official career.

"Forget it. Although there are grades in scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce, there is no distinction between people. I met you once, and I hope that every year you will be better than today."

As for the others, leave it to fate and don't care about it.

Yang Gong expressed his unfinished words one by one in his eyes.An 19 years old is full of strength and power, and the eunuch behind him is powerful, so he doesn't have to offend An Nineteen for the sake of gaining popularity.

Xu Zhiliu understood what Yang Gong meant, and bowed slightly to salute Yang Gong, thanking him for his care of Hutian Kiln and his dedication to Jingdezhen pottery over the years.

Thinking that such a kind and kind magistrate was about to leave, everyone couldn't help crying.

Jingdezhen won the favor because of its unique blue and white porcelain, but it did not change the status quo of too many industrial and commercial classes in society. On the contrary, they were under extraordinary pressure due to the attention of the emperor. In order to survive the fierce competition, they had to strive for excellence in craftsmanship. In business, they had to mediate between the Imperial Kiln Factory, Porcelain Bureau, Xingbang and Sanyao Jiuhui.

If county magistrates are benevolent and loving for the people, their lives should be happier.

However, if the county magistrate is as extravagant as Pan Xiang and An Nineteen, and carelessly caresses about human life, how many Tong Bin kiln gods will appear in this world who will sacrifice their lives for righteousness.

Xu Zhong once mentioned the hurdle of Jingcha with Xu Zhiliu in private, and with Yang Chenggong's current temperament of seeking stability in everything, he might not be able to pass it.

Back in the capital, whenever An Nineteen blows the wind and the eunuch moves around, not to mention how to get promoted, it would be nice to be able to enjoy his old age safely.

According to Xu Zhong's meaning, the people don't fight with the officials. Although An Jiu is a brave man who can't get enough to feed, but they work a little harder, and they can't afford it.

How can a mere pariah fight a eunuch with a pebble against a rock?Therefore, An Nineteen had shown goodwill to Hutian Kiln several times before, Xu Zhong judged the situation and chose to join him.

It's just that Xu Zhiliu is young and hard-boned, and she still refuses to bow her head.

He knew very well that the reason why Mr. Yang behaved cowardly and compromised everything was to protect them.If Yang Gong refuses to show weakness and fights An Nineteen, then who will suffer?
It is nothing more than ordinary people struggling to survive in the middle, and the kiln households headed by Hutian Kiln bear the brunt.

Especially Xu Zhiliu is the most.

Because of this, Xu Zhiliu could deeply feel how cautious and tolerant the hand on his wrist was.

"Mr. Yang, I listen to your words and hope that every year you will be better than today."

After he finished speaking, he looked back at An Nineteen.

Thousands of miles of floating clouds are burnt red, revealing a strange black.

An Jiu's chest twitched inexplicably.

(End of this chapter)