Open an aircraft carrier to fight against Japan

Zhang Ziyu knelt down on the ground, weeping in pain, as if she wanted to cry out all the grievances in her heart, Shen Wanqing stepped forward, squatted beside her, stretched out her hand to wipe the tears from her face, and comforted her softly: "Stop crying."

Zhang Ziyu actually fell into Shen Wanqing's arms like a child. Just as Lin Yuan was about to dissuade her, the master Li next to him said, "Let her cry, it's been so many years, miss, she..." When it came to this, she was so old With tears in her eyes, it took a while before she said reluctantly, "Miss, it's too difficult!"

After Zhang Ziyu cried enough, she got up from Shen Wanqing's shoulders and said to Lin Yuan: "My lord, now I will tell you the whole story."

Zhang Ziyu's tone became calm again, just like when Lin Yuan first met her, she asked softly: "Master Lin, do you know what our ancestors of the Zhang family relied on to make their fortune?"

Lin Yuan shook his head silently, and Zhang Ziyu said softly, "Your Excellency must think that our Zhang family has accumulated such a rich family fortune through plundering and plundering people's wealth, right?"

These words made Lin Yuan's face burn, that's what he thought, Zhang Ziyu understood Lin Yuan's thoughts, and said: "Our family's ancestors didn't live in Fengtian, but in the Zhili area, which is very close to Beijing. At that time, our Zhang family was engaged in the firing of glazed wares, and this glazed wares looked like crystals, but they were clearer and brighter than crystals, so the rich and powerful in the capital admired them very much."

"In addition, our ancestors produced several skilled craftsmen with unique ingenuity, who fired the glazed wares beautifully and colorfully, so every time a glazed wares was fired, the rich and powerful in the capital would rush to buy them, so we Zhang The family accumulated tens of thousands of wealth."

As Zhang Ziyu said, she turned her head and pointed to the glassware behind her, and said: "Our Zhang family has always had a habit, that is, after firing a piece of glassware, if the shape of the glassware is exquisite, it must be imitated and kept. These are 200 yuan. Over the past few years, our Zhang family has preserved the fine products."

Lin Yuan nodded and praised: "Your Zhang family's craftsmanship is truly unparalleled in the world." Zhang Ziyu smiled slightly and said, "Thank you, Lord Lin, for your absurd praise. Mencius has a saying: 'The brilliance of a gentleman will be cut for five generations' , My Zhang family is the same, after several generations, the descendants of the family are greedy for pleasure, no one studies the method of glaze firing, and our Zhang family's glaze firing method has no new breakthrough."

"But the centipede is dead but not stiff. Our ancestors taught some of the burning methods to the loyal servants around us. Master Li and the others are the descendants of the loyal servants. With these loyal servants, our Zhang family can't stop. After all, there are too few experts in this world, and even fewer people who know the goods, so no one can see that our Zhang family's firing method has not improved." "As the saying goes, when the water is full, it will overflow, and the moon will overflow." Profit is loss, a fatal catastrophe has finally come!" Zhang Ziyu said this, her face was full of sadness, she seemed unwilling to recall this past, when Master Li heard this, he burst into tears and said: "Miss, You don't say any more."

Zhang Ziyu smiled lightly, picked up a small glazed dragonfly, and placed it in front of Lin Yuan. Lin Yuan looked at the dragonfly, it was only the size of a finger, but the lines of its body were extremely delicate, especially the pair of wings, which were as thin as a piece. Sha, couldn't help exclaiming, Zhang Ziyu asked: "Look at this glazed dragonfly, it is very exquisite, do you know what it is made of?"

Of course, Lin Yuan knew that the chemical composition of colored glaze was actually similar to that of glass, except that the contents of different elements were different, and the chemical composition of glass was silicate, which was made from sand. Sand was actually silicon dioxide. become silicate.

Of course Lin Yuan couldn't say "silicate", Zhang Ziyu wouldn't be able to understand that way, so Lin Yuan said, "I know, it's just sand."

Zhang Ziyu's eyes lit up, and she said in surprise: "I didn't expect Master Lin to be an expert. Indeed, colored glaze is made of sand, but the craftsmanship inside is very complicated, so I won't tell you all about it, but there is one key craft. , we need to use one thing: we call it stone alkali.” Lin Yuan thought: “The stone alkali she mentioned should be the soda ash commonly used in the silicate industry, that is, sodium carbonate in modern chemistry. The word comes from after the [-]th century. Originally, the soda used in China was trona. Later, synthetic soda was imported from foreign countries, and its purity was higher than trona. That’s why it was called soda ash. When making glass, soda ash must be added. .”

Thinking of this, Lin Yuan nodded and said, "I understand, you can continue."

Zhang Ziyu said: "There are more than a dozen companies in the capital that burn glazed wares. The reason why our Zhang family can take the lead is that the stone alkali we use is very pure. Others' alkali is bought by merchants from Mongolia." The soda was brought back from the soda lake, but the soda in our family was dug out from the mine, and thanks to the blessing of God, the soda we found in the mine is extremely pure, which is why we can produce such exquisite colored glaze."

Lin Yuan knew that before the appearance of synthetic soda, people used trona. There are two sources of trona, one is saline lake and the other is soda mine, so he asked: "Is that fatal catastrophe related to Is it related to the alkali mine?"

Zhang Ziyu nodded and said, "That's right, one day we suddenly discovered that the pure limestone in the alkali mine had been mined out! The alkali that was mined again was far less pure than before. This incident scared the head of the family at that time." It’s broken, because once the stone alkali is gone, our glassware will no longer have the splendor it used to be, and the reputation accumulated by generations of our Zhang family will be ruined.”

"What's even more frightening is that our Zhang family had placed an order for dozens of glazed wares at that time. Almost all of the orderers were dignitaries in the capital, and some of them were even supervised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and sent to the palace. Once the alkali is gone, the promised business cannot be delivered, not to mention the ruined reputation, and the danger of losing your head."

"Our patriarch at the time kept this matter secret. At that time, he thought of transferring part of his family business to outside the customs. But at that time, the border ban was strict and the Han people were strictly forbidden to leave the customs. So we bribed the officials and secretly left the customs. The glazed wares that have been handed down were transported outside the customs, and land was purchased in the Fengtian area in order to find a way to retreat. On the one hand, high-quality alkali was purchased from Mongolia, hoping to be able to fire the same glazed wares as the original."

"But the head of the family tried his best, but he still couldn't make the glassware. Seeing that the date was approaching, he pleaded guilty to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Fortunately, Emperor Daoguang said at that time: Craftsmen are not easy, how can Mingjun be responsible for playthings? My Zhang family was spared. The catastrophe of ransacking the family and destroying the family."

"But who knew that other glass-making craftsmen in the capital would collude with those dignitaries and come to my Zhang family to ask for their custom-made glazed vessels. They knew that our Zhang family could not make them, so they humiliated them in every possible way and made things difficult. The owner knew that It’s wrong, and I can’t argue with it, but in the middle of the night, the head of the family hanged himself!”

"Although our Zhang family taught a part of the craftsmanship to the master, the core craftsmanship is passed down in a single line. It is only passed on from the previous generation of patriarchs to the next generation of patriarchs. Come on! When the head of the family hanged himself, he hadn't chosen the next head of the family, so the most exquisite and core craftsmanship of my Zhang family was lost!"