Fenghou

"What condition did Madam ask her to agree to?"

Lu Xiu said indifferently: "My condition is very simple, An An will be her chief steward of the inner palace with peace of mind, and don't have any sense of wrongdoing."

Yao Mei understood a little bit, "So Madam uses her to fill the emptiness around the prince and not give other women a chance?"

"You're not stupid. She's 35 years old, and she won't have any chance of being a concubine. I'm not worried at all."

"But..." Yao Mei was in a state of confusion.

Lu Xiu shook her head, "You are still a little too young. When you reach my age, you will understand that to maintain your status, you do not rely on your youth and beauty, but on your son, especially in front of a future emperor, no matter how young and beautiful you are You will get tired soon, but as long as you have a son, your status will never disappear, Amei, get pregnant as soon as possible next year!"

Back in her room, Yao Mei collapsed on the bed and fell asleep. The knot in her heart last night was solved by Madam's words. Even Madam didn't care, so why should I worry about it?

……

Chen Qing set off for the official city in a carriage as usual, but the efficiency of the internal guards was excellent. In just one day, everything changed. There was not one carriage, but three carriages, all of which were exactly the same, and they were also closely guarded by cavalry. The window was also tightly blocked by the shield, so that the light in the carriage was dim, and Chen Qing could not see what was going on outside the window, but the guards didn't care about his mood at this time.

When I came to the door of the official room, I saw Lu Wei waiting for him, holding a long box in his hand.

"Come in and talk!"

Chen Qing took Lu Wei into the official room, glanced at the box in his hand and asked with a smile, "Is the thing in your hand for me?"

"Exactly, please take a look, Your Highness!"

Chen Qing picked up the wooden box and opened it. It turned out to be a telescope. Chen Qing's telescope was given to Liu Dajiang on Fujian Road, but he couldn't make another one because the old craftsman who made him the telescope passed away. His apprentice and son's crystal grinding and grinding skills are not up to standard, and they can't make qualified concave-convex mirrors.

Chen Qing got the binoculars and immediately understood, and said with a faint smile, "Did the craftsman in Lin'an find it?"

Lu Wei bowed and said: "I found it. More than [-] craftsmen were owed half a year's salary by the imperial court and couldn't survive. They were taken to Jingzhao together and arranged to work as supervisors for polishing mirrors. It's just..."

"Just what?" Chen Qing raised his head and asked strangely.

Lu Wei sighed: "It's just a lack of raw materials!"

"Our crystal is not good?" Chen Qing frowned.

"Your Highness, we can use crystals to make ordinary one-sided mirrors, but they say that they are not pure enough to make military clairvoyances. The current high-quality crystal raw materials can be used to make three or four clairvoyances at most. If you must use the current crystals, you can also grind them, but will affect the effect."

Of course, Chen Qing didn't want to make a telescope with impurities. He pondered for a moment, and a thought suddenly came to his mind.

"It's very simple! Why didn't I think of it?"

The first thousand and 420 chapter three traps

Not long after, Pei Wenjin reported from the stairs: "Your Highness, they are here!"

Chen Qing nodded, and went downstairs, there were two officials waiting downstairs, one was Gao Fu, the supervisor of craftsman, and the other was a nine junior official, his name was Luo Zhenyu, he was the head of Liuli Workshop.

Of course, what Chen Qing thought of was glass, but he didn’t want to invent glass. Glass existed in the Warring States Period, called Liuli, but the production process is more complicated and the cost is high. It was mass-produced in Tang and Song Dynasties, mainly as precious living utensils. And women's accessories can also be used as glass lamps. Colorless glass is glass, but it is too rough to use it as a telescope lens.

"See Your Highness!" The two saluted together.

Chen Qing took out a red glass bottle from the cabinet and asked with a smile, "Is this made by the craftsman?"

Gao Fu glanced at Luo Zhenyu, Luo Zhenyu nodded, "Exactly!"

"There is a yellow-green glazed fruit plate in my house, which seems to be made by you as well."

"Reporting to Your Highness, all the colored glazes on the market are made by us, and we are the only colored glaze workshop in the entire Jingzhao."

"What about the bottle and the plate?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, after melting, blow it into various shapes with a pipe, or use sand molds to make it."

Chen Qing nodded, "I've come to you for two things. The first thing is about the simple method of colorless colored glaze, the method of the Western Great Food Country."

Chen Qing handed a piece of paper to Luo Zhenyu. Luo Zhenyu took the note and looked at it for a while, then asked puzzledly: "Your Highness said that they used river beach sand and gravel as raw material, and we also use river beach sand and gravel, and then His Highness said that they added plant ash to burn it together. Melting, but then the impurities will be very large."

"How do you remove impurities?"

"The river sand and gravel should be ground into powder first and then cleaned several times. The raw materials obtained will be relatively pure with few impurities."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "It should be the same. Dissolve the plant ash in water first, filter the milky white water after the impurities are precipitated, and dry the milky white water to get a white powder, so that there will be no impurities."

"The humble job can let the craftsmen try."

"I'll teach you another way to make flat glass. First, blow it into colorless glass bubbles, then cut it into tiles with a diamond knife, and then heat it in the furnace. It will slowly flatten and be installed on the window. Up, the wind and rain are not clear, but the light is bright."

Luo Zhenyu's skills are very high, and Chen Qing knows everything. He nodded again and again, "I understand the humble job, and I will try it when I go back!"

"And then there's the second thing!"

Chen Qing turned around and asked Gao Fu, "You know the craftsman who grinds the lenses from Lin'an!"

"Humble job knows, it's the humble job who placed them. They use crystals to grind lenses, which are very useful for those with poor eyesight. They just made a clairvoyance for His Highness."

Chen Qing opened the box on the table and said with a smile, "This is it!"

Gao Fu nodded, "Exactly!"

"But they encountered a problem. Without high-quality crystals, they couldn't make very clear clairvoyance. They should know about this!"

"Beizhi knows that because there are many impurities and the purity is not enough, Beizhi has sent people to Haizhou to look for it."

Chen Qing said slowly, "I think you can ask Liuli Workshop to grind it into a fine powder, remove the impurities in it, and then melt and condense the crystal. Will you be able to get a crystal with higher purity?"

"Humble job arranges immediately!"

Luo Zhenyu also hurriedly said: "Jiangzuojian has a hydraulic grinding mortar and a fine copper mill specially used by the Gunpowder Bureau for grinding powder. I hope I can borrow it."

"The High Supervisor Order will make arrangements for you, and I hope to get good news as soon as possible."

The two saluted and hurried away.

……

Nanyang Palembang, the bell is ringing!when!when!The ground rang, and the merchants in the harbor were boiling, rushing towards the pier from all directions.Countless Wanshi ships appeared on the sea in the distance. This is the arrival of Quanzhou's autumn fleet.

Every April and September, a large number of merchant fleets sail from Quanzhou, bringing thousands of sea merchants. They bring exquisite goods from the Central Plains Dynasty, and then purchase spices, gems, sea pearls, wood and other valuables. Goods returned.

Every time the fleet arrives, it is a grand festival in Palembang City.

A gorgeously dressed businessman and several of his entourages came down from a large ship. The businessman was Liu Dajiang, and his fleet also came, but it was anchored at the big island hundreds of miles away. The Buddha Qi Kingdom purchased the island.

It is his first time to visit Palembang City, and the guide is still Zhang Jiugong. He brought Chao Kun to Palembang City several years ago. Palembang City is the largest city in the Srivijaya Kingdom. Jambi, but the king was in Palembang most of the time.

If ordinary merchants come to buy the island, Zhang Jiugong will definitely dissuade them, because they are not the only merchants who come to buy the island, but without exception, the results are miserable. The islanders beat chicken and eggs.

But Liu Dajiang is different. Zhang Jiugong is also very aware of his background, so he happily brought him to Palembang without stopping him.

A group of people came to an official office and gave an announcement. After a while, a middle-aged official came down. It was Cha Nong who received Chao Kun back then. He is in charge.

After seeing the ceremony, everyone went to the official office and sat down. The people of Chanong were not bad. He heard that Liu Dajiang was here to buy the island, so he couldn't help frowning, and said to Zhang Jiugong: "Did you tell him the risk of buying the island?"

Zhang Jiugong spread his hands and said: "I said it, but he doesn't care, this time he bought the island with gold."

Chanon's eyes lit up. Since they don't care about risks, they certainly welcome it, and they actually use gold. This is the most popular currency in the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom. The king will definitely be very happy.

"Let's go! Let's go to the palace."

Palembang City is dominated by wooden houses, there are many temples, and statues of Borobudur can be seen everywhere.

The royal palace is also a complex of wooden buildings. They were led to sit cross-legged in a wooden house. This was the place where they received distinguished guests, but it still looked very simple.

Zhang Jiugong said in a low voice: "The procedures for buying islands are very simple, as simple as buying goods in the market, but the same is true for locals buying islands. The premise is to have a noble status. Once the noble status is lost, the island land will also be lost. The trap Right here, they will grant noble status to the officials, and when the noble status is reviewed a year later, the officials will have to pay a huge amount of money to maintain the noble status, and if they do not pay, the noble status of the officials will be revoked, and the island will disappear.”

Liu Dajiang said lightly: "I don't care how they review in the future, I only care whether the contract is legal or not, and whether there is a king's seal."

"It's legal at this time. Both the official seal and the king's seal are there. They are very sincere. The businessmen who came to buy the island before will be confused by their sincerity."

At this time, Chanon led a fat senior official into the room. The senior official was all smiles, holding Liu Dajiang's hand very enthusiastically, what was he talking about?

Chanong translated to Liu Dajiang: "This is our deputy prime minister of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom. He is in charge of the land purchase. He said that merchants from the Celestial Dynasty are welcome to come to the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom to buy islands, and they will give the best price."

"Do you want to start now?"

The senior official laughed loudly, patted Liu Dajiang on the shoulder, and said something with a thumbs up.

Chanon translated again: "He said that the king must first grant the merchants of the Celestial Dynasty the aristocratic status of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom, and only with the aristocratic status can they buy the island."

Liu Dajiang and Zhang Jiugong glanced at each other quickly, it was really a trap.

The first thousand and 420 chapters four buy the island

The palace held a simple ceremony, conferring on Liu Dajiang the title of nobility, and then bought a large uninhabited island in the northeast and a nearby small island, which are now the Natuna Islands, at the price of a hundred taels of gold.

Liu Dajiang originally wanted to buy part of the land in the Northeast Peninsula, but many residents of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom lived there. King Three Buddha Qi refused to sell it. They only sold uninhabited islands. The backup plan that King Yong gave him was I bought this island, which is also very good, with a length and width of sixty miles. The island is densely forested, the land is fertile, and there are many excellent natural harbors.

Chanong accompanied Liu Dajiang to take a Wanshi sea boat to the big island for sale to confirm. Two days later, they arrived at the big island. They saw low hills on the island, dense forests, and large fertile plains.

"It's there!"

Chanon pointed to the distant horizon and said: "The contract includes small islands within a hundred miles around, and Mr. Liu will organize a lot of manpower to cut down trees and build houses."

"Can I resell this island to someone else?"

Chanon nodded and said, "Of course!"

"Does the other party also need to have the noble status of your country?" Liu Dajiang asked again.

Chanon laughed, "Buying and selling land has nothing to do with whether you have aristocratic status or not. Member Liu, think about it, this island is already yours, and you are the owner of the island. What do you want to do with it? relation?"

Liu Dajiang frowned and asked: "Then the previous merchant also bought the island, but the island was taken away in the end. How can I explain it?"

Chanong said slowly: "This is what I want to remind Yuanwai. To become a nobleman of the Three Buddhas Qi Kingdom, according to the regulations, you must pay tribute to the king every year. If you don't pay tribute for three consecutive years, you are despising the king, and the king will kill you." Forcibly depriving you of your property as compensation for the tribute, and the land bought by the previous merchants was confiscated for this reason."

Liu Dajiang sneered and said, "So granting me a noble status is still a trap?"

"not quite!"

Chanong defended: "The purchase of such a large island is usually for the establishment of a country. To establish a country, you must have the status of a nobleman, and then become a fence country of the Srivijaya Kingdom. If Liu Yuanwai buys ten acres of land in Palembang City to build a house , then you don’t need anything, you don’t even need to go through the government, just buy it privately.”

"So the key is the tribute and the quantity!"

"That's true. There is no clear regulation on the amount of tribute to be paid. It is decided by the king at the beginning of each year, but it can be discussed with the king."

Liu Dajiang understood that although the status of nobility is not a trap, it is a noose hanging around the neck. When the king wants to tighten the rope, or even kick the stool under your feet, it depends on his mood.

……

Chanon circled around the island and went back. In the afternoon, ten Wanshi sea ships full of soldiers arrived at the big island they had just bought. The soldiers went to the island to camp and rest one after another. There are a total of ten islands, the main island and nine nearby small islands. Each island has fresh water resources. There are four small rivers on the main island, all of which originate from the hills in the center of the island.

"Chairman, give this big island a name!" Zhang Jiugong was very excited and laughed loudly.

Liu Dajiang said happily: "I've thought about it a long time ago. This is the southernmost land of the Yong Kingdom. It is called Nan'an Island. In the future, a Nan'an County will be built here and a powerful navy will be stationed here."

"Should we not buy the goods and return directly to the voyage?"

"No! Let's go to other seaports to buy ten shipments of spices, and then return to Jingzhao."

……

When the time came to October, soon after the princess gave birth to a son, Chen Qing had another son and a daughter. Yu Ying gave birth to a son, named Chen Min, and Zhao Yingluo gave birth to a daughter, named Chen Duo, as she wished.

In the past two days, there has been a major event in the mansion, that is, the bedroom, living room and study room are all equipped with crystal glass, of course glass, which looks as transparent as crystal, so it is called crystal glass.

In addition to Prince Yong's Mansion, some of the mansions of the other five government officials were also installed. The main reason was that the production of this kind of crystal glaze could not keep up.

In the living room on the second floor of the red building in the back residence of King Yong's Mansion, Lu Xiu looked at the lake not far away through the crystal glass, and sighed: "It's too extravagant to use glass as a window!"

Zhao Qiaoyun smiled and said: "The Bianliang Palace also uses colored glaze to make colorful windows. Although it is very beautiful, the light is not so bright. I heard from officials that this kind of colorless colored glaze is fired with river sand, and the cost is very low. Now it is only just now. In the beginning, there were too many burnt outs, and in the future, there will be fewer and fewer waste products, and the cost will be lower and lower, and you can buy one piece for more than ten yuan, big sister, it’s actually not a luxury.”

At this time, I only heard Binger and Xueer chirping beside me: "I see clearly, it's three crows!"

"There were four of them just now! One must have flown away."

When Lu Xiu turned her head, she saw Bing'er and Xue'er standing aside, playing with their father's clairvoyance, as if looking at the roof of Qifeng Pavilion.

"You two!

Lu Xiu's face sank and said: "How many times have I told you, you are not allowed to go to the study to steal things from Dad!"

Bing'er pouted and said, "That's not true! Daddy gave it to us."

"Daddy gave it to you? Ah Mei, is that so?" Lu Xiu asked Yao Mei beside her.

Yao Mei smiled and said: "It was really given to them by the lord, and the lord has a new clairvoyance. According to the lord, it seems that every major general has one, and the old one is given to Xueer and Binger. gone."

Clairvoyant made twists and turns. Originally, they wanted to use crystals to grind them into powder and purify them, but the resulting lenses were even more unsatisfactory. They were not as good as the ones made from crystals. Fortunately, the west side was not bright and the east side was bright. The jade hunters found three pieces in Haizhou. Each piece of high-purity crystal weighs ten catties, which temporarily solves the problem of raw materials for the telescope. It took the mirror grinder a month to make ten wooden barrel clairvoyance eyes, but only half of the materials were used up.

Lu Xiu walked over and picked up the clairvoyance, and looked at Qifeng Pavilion, and she quickly fell in love with this toy.

"This clairvoyance is easy to break. I will keep it with my mother from now on. If you want to play with it, you can play with it. You must put it back after you have finished playing. Do you understand?"