Xiaoyao Nongjiazi

"It's been a tough trip, you go back and rest for a while, and leave the rest to other people." Zhong Qingran persuaded everyone to go back with good words, and found blacksmith Ma Chongwen and military master Yin Cheng to discuss, Wei Yilin and Li Mingxian and other artisans who have a little relationship with glass making were all present.

No matter how capable the third prince was, it was impossible for him to provide Zhong Qingran with a glass-making craftsman.Not to mention Hanhai Prefecture, even in the Great Zhou Dynasty, only rich and noble families could afford to use glass, and the craftsmanship was firmly in the hands of certain families, and it was absolutely impossible to be in the hands of any prince alone.Eating alone cannot last long, regardless of the superiority of today, many powers also need to be delegated. Only when the benefits are distributed just right, and the power to enjoy this benefit is large enough, can they not be coveted by others.

With the recipe, it does not mean that the finished product can be made immediately.Fortunately, there are all kinds of craftsmen in Fucun, and compared to the population of Fucun, the proportion is surprisingly high.Rao is so, the discussion has not been fruitful.

Without knowing which furnace to use, Zhong Qingran directly chose the ironmaking blast furnace. Even if it is not suitable for making glass, it can still be used for ironmaking, so that there will be no waste in the first place. If it is not possible, he will find a way , at worst, take the risk of going to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The salt belonged to Fucun, and Zhong Qingran didn't intend to treat the glass like the salt.He now clearly distinguishes Fucun's assets from his own family business, so as not to get confused.The thought of arguing with people once the village grows will give him a headache, and he doesn't have the time to worry about it.

This time, Duan Tian took people to prospect for mines, which was a public service, and the village paid for it. The mines discovered also belonged to Fucun, but mining was a private act. In addition to paying taxes, you also needed to pay a sum of money to obtain the mining rights. , If you want to get it for free, that's impossible.

Now the spring plowing has basically ended, and the construction of Fucun Village has come to an end temporarily. There are plenty of strong laborers, and it didn't take long for the blast furnace to be built.Ma Chongwen smelted a furnace of scrap iron, and after confirming that the blast furnace was operating normally, Li Xu, the newly appointed manager of the glass workshop, began to smelt glass.

Today is the day of opening the furnace. Early in the morning, a large number of villagers gathered outside the glass workshop.Glass is a luxury item, and this is the first time for a small number of villagers to hear about it, let alone see it with their own eyes.Such a precious item is about to appear in Fucun, no one wants to miss this great opportunity, and wants to see it with their own eyes.

No matter how concise the glass craftsmanship is, glass products cannot become a commodity. This is determined by the productivity of this world. Unless Zhong Qingran has the ability to greatly improve the level of industry and agriculture, the cost of glass will only be a few grades lower than that of the Great Zhou Dynasty. It is absolutely impossible to buy a palm-sized mirror for one or two yuan like in modern times.

The population of Fucun is too small, Zhong Qingran only signed employment contracts with a few people, which also determines that the glass production is not high, so he can only follow the Zhong family first.Zhong Qingran thinks so, the result depends on whether the glass refining is successful or not.

The villagers were all stopped outside the workshop, while the Zhong family and his party all entered the workshop site.

Seeing the red-hot glass liquid flow into the mold, cool naturally, and finally form pieces of frosted glass, all the people present cheered for it.

Zhong Qingran frowned. The color of the glass was muddy and not transparent enough. Using this kind of glass to build a greenhouse would not be very effective.This flaw can be ignored for the time being. As long as the glass can be produced, no matter what the quality of the glass is, it is already a great success, and everything else can be gradually improved.Wanting to understand this point, Zhong Qingran didn't say anything that hurt people's hearts. Right now, let them be happy for a while. I'll talk about this little problem later.

Li Xu, the steward of the glass workshop, asked someone to take out the glass carefully, and after inspecting it in his hand, he picked out a few pieces of the best quality glass and handed them to Zhong Qingran, and said with a smile on his face: "Boss, these are not bad, what do you think? "

"You did a good job. All the participants received the reward according to the original rules. Keep the intact ones, and put the rest of the broken glass back into the furnace." Zhong Qingran did not hesitate to praise, but he didn't know what to say, because he couldn't save face But holding back in his heart, "This batch of glass has too many impurities and poor light transmission. It can barely be used as window glass. You see, the color is too mixed. We have to find a way to remove the impurities. Whoever thinks of a good way will be rewarded." Definitely not less."

Li Xu restrained his smile a bit, thinking that the boss's request is not low!It is already a very difficult task for them to make the glass, and they don't want to be in the eyes of the boss at all. It seems that the pressure on him to be in charge will not be small.

Fortunately, Zhong Qingran is not a harsh person, so he should be given a lot of points, just like this time, even though he did not meet the perfect requirements of the boss, he would not detain them because of this, which reassured him a lot.When a person is in charge, the most fearful thing is to meet a stingy boss, it is really a pity that the food is tasteless and abandoned.

The villagers in Fu Village are all from the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they also uphold the customs of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Like managers and shopkeepers, they will not change employers easily. If there is a problem, otherwise, no matter whether it is the owner or the employee, neither party will break the contract easily.

Li Xu is one of the few family members of craftsmen. He used to work as a steward in the workshop and was also interested in glass refining, so Zhong Qingran was nominated to be the steward of the glass workshop. Now Zhong Qingran has the final say on Fucun. He is harsh, and he can't do anything about it, but such a person will surely not be supported by others, and there will be no scene where more than a hundred people have traveled thousands of miles across thousands of miles to settle in Hanhai Prefecture.

Right now what they got is frosted glass, which doesn't look very eye-catching. Under Zhong Qingran's instructions, after being polished by Li Xu and others, the finished glass looks much more pleasing to the eye, at least it is no longer rough when touched, and it can be bluffing at first glance .

"Qingran, do you mean to use these glass to make windows?" Mr. Zhong took a piece of glass and checked it over and over again, he couldn't put it down.

"Well. But these are not in good condition. It would be great if the color can be removed and the light transmittance can be improved a bit." Although Zhong Qingran said so, there was no disappointment on his face, just like Li Xu thought , being able to smelt glass in the first furnace is the greatest success, and the rest really shouldn't be too fussy.

Flat glass is the simplest glass product. After the glass technology improves, more products will appear, such as glass vases, glass tea sets, etc. If you can find a market, you can make a lot of money selling just glass.

Mr. Zhong obviously thought of this point, and sighed: "It's a pity, if it was still in the Great Zhou Dynasty, maybe our family would have developed since then."

Mr. Zhong just said that. In fact, if you really want to master the glass refining skills, it will definitely have a big impact on the glass market. This will really damage the interests of the existing glass workshop owners. This road is not easy. A third prince may not be able to suppress it. The most likely thing is to give away most of the benefits to others in exchange for the normal development of the Zhong family. Mr. Zhong understands such things in his heart, but if he really wants to accept it like this, the aggrieved energy in his heart will be Forget it.

Right now this is fine, although there are not many sales, at least it can supply a large amount of what the villagers need, and this is enough.

"Grandpa, I'll ask Uncle Shang to make the windows later, and see how the glass windows work. If they're good, I'll replace all the main rooms." Zhong Qingran suggested with a smile.

"That's good, let's go, let's try it now." Mr. Zhong waved his hand and walked home happily.

Seeing Mr. Zhong and others coming out, the surrounding villagers stretched their necks to look in.

Everyone in the village is a fellow, and the glass will be sold outside in the future. Mr. Zhong hopes that everyone will realize the goodness of glass, so where will they hide it?Dafangfang stopped the carriage and let people watch.

There are only a few pieces of polished glass in the carriage, and the rest will not be shipped to Zhong's house until they are polished.

Seeing Mr. Zhong like this, the onlookers swarmed up, wanting to see the glass that only wealthy people can enjoy.

"Is this glass? It looks very precious!"

"Yeah, I heard that this can be used as a window, wouldn't it be very bright?"

"It would be great if my family can use it, but I don't know how much it will cost. I hope the price will not be too high, so that I can work more and save some money, maybe my family can really buy some."

……

After people had seen enough of the excitement, Mr. Zhong drove back in a carriage.

As soon as he got home, Zhong Qingran went to the merchant to find the carpenter Shangli, and discussed with him about making glass windows.This matter was not difficult, as soon as Zhong Qingran told Shang Li what he meant, he immediately got busy.When the glass was first made, the mold was made according to the size of the window, and there was no need to cut it again, which saved a lot of time.After all, this place is not modern, cutting is very troublesome, and it would be a little less troublesome.

The glass window frame is easier to make than ordinary windows. Shangli only needs to dig out a gap for the glass on each of the four inner sides of the window frame.When installing, first fix the three sides of the window frame, then insert the glass, then fix the last frame, apply adhesive, and after it dries, a glass window is completed.If you are not at ease, you can also drive nails on both sides of the glass.

"Grandpa, grandma, what do you think?" Zhong Qingran could feel that after replacing the wooden windows full of window edges with glass windows, the entire upper room was much brighter, and he couldn't help feeling a little bit of joy in his heart.

"Qingran, isn't it too wasteful to use such a precious thing as a window?" Tong touched the glass carefully with her hands, for fear of being damaged.

"Grandmother, isn't glass made for use? It's not expensive." Zhong Qingran understood Tong's feelings, "Glass is brittle and easy to break, but as long as you don't hit it hard, you don't have to worry about breaking it. "

"That's good, I'm afraid it will break within two days." Tong Shi stroked her chest and felt relieved.

Mr. Zhong paced squarely, looked back and forth at the two glass windows that had just been installed in Anzhuang, and stroked his beard in satisfaction.Right now, the windows are really bright and clean, and the interior is well lit, making it comfortable to look at.

Within a few days, including Zhong's family, all the villagers in Fucun village who were able to buy glass had installed glass windows one after another. The decision to replace the windows.

For the villagers who came with the Zhong family, Zhong Qingran will not treat them badly. The price of glass is very discounted. After deducting costs and taxes, he can earn up to [-]% of his income.Glass is a profiteering industry in this world, and Zhong Qingran only makes this little profit, which is really conscientious.

When sailing at sea, Zhong Qingran thought about making a telescope. Now that the glass has been baked, this is the first thing he thought of, even the glass windows and greenhouses had to be placed at the back.

The first batch of glass was not easy to use, so Zhong Qingran didn't bother grinding the lenses. After the process was improved, the second batch of glass was clearer anyway, so he tried to get Li Xu to polish it according to his requirements.

This is a test of polishing skills. It cost no less than 20 yuan of glass, and Li Xu and other talents polished two usable convex lenses.After having the lens, the rest of the matter is much simpler. Zhong Qingran directly used fortune to transform a copper lens barrel, which tightly wrapped the two lenses.After the telescope was made, he tried it out. Limited by the glass quality and polishing skills, the viewing distance didn't expand much, but no matter how bad it was, it was two or three times larger than before without any pressure.

The binoculars are under military control for the time being, except for the one made by Zhong Qingran for Jian Mingyu, the rest will be used by the village guards first. The current goal is to equip each squad with one and keep it by the squad leader.The subsequent polished lenses and matching wooden lens barrels were all made by Shangli, and Zhong Qingran no longer intervened.

"Cry!" "Cry!"

After circling in the air for a while, the two eagles landed at Jian Mingyu's feet.

Hearing the warning sound, Jian Mingyu was shocked. The large beasts around Fucun Village had been wiped out long ago. Could it be a new intruder, or...

Before he had time to communicate with the two eagles, Jian Mingyu blew the long whistle to indicate that there might be an enemy attack. The village guards gathered quickly, and the villagers who were busy in the fields hurried back. As the last person entered the village, the gate of Fucun quickly closed superior.

Jian Mingyu stood on the archery tower at the corner between the south wall and the west wall, held a binoculars to look far away, and scanned around, but did not see any intruders, no matter people or beasts.

Jian Mingyu is not anxious at all. The vision of Dianbai and Minglei is no worse than that of a telescope. In addition, they fly extremely fast. They may be far away and find something coming towards Fucun. Maybe it is still far away. He is not in a hurry, but he doesn't know whether it is an enemy or a friend.

Before the other party showed up, Jian Mingyu communicated carefully with the two eagles. After a long time of effort, he finally figured out that someone was coming towards Fucun.

The rules of Fu Village have been established long ago. When something happens, unless it is absolutely necessary, everyone except the village guard will hide at home and are not allowed to walk around on the street.

Zhong Qingran heard the warning whistle, quickly put down the work at hand, explained to Mr. Zhong and his wife, went back to the room, took the bow and went out.

"Old man, Qingran and Mingyu will be fine, right?" Tong picked up the clothes to mend, but she was not thinking about it at all, the needle was either wrong, or it was too late to fall.

"It's hard to say. If something happens to Qingran, Fucun will definitely not be safe. But don't worry, Qingran is lucky. Since he decided to build a village here, there will not be a lot of bandits around here. A small group of words , the village guard is enough to deal with it." Mr. Zhong smoked a dry cigarette, showing his trust in Zhong Qingran in his words, but he couldn't help worrying in his heart.In many cases, people are like this, reason is better than emotion.Mr. Zhong ignored the beast subconsciously, because the beast would not attack the village unless there were special circumstances.

"God bless, the days have just settled down, so don't make trouble again." Tong Shi put away her clothes. At this moment, she really didn't have that kind of thought at all, "You just wait, I'll go and see tomorrow morning."

"If he's afraid, bring him here." Mr. Zhong took one last puff of his cigarette, knocked out all the ash, and stopped refilling.Shredded tobacco is a rare commodity nowadays, and he smokes less and less, so he should save some of it, lest Qingran try to get him better cigarettes.Qingran was already busy enough, there was no need for him to add trouble to Qingran.

"Morning morning, do you want to stay alone, or follow me and the old man?" Mrs. Tong knocked on the door of the East Wing, and got straight to the point without saying a word of nonsense.

"Grandma Tong, I'm not young, so I won't go with you. If you always have something to do, just call me." Jian Mingchen replied like an adult, alleviating Tong's worries a little.

Confirming that Jian Mingchen wasn't trying to be calm, Tong didn't insist any longer, and before leaving, he urged: "Pack up your valuables, and if something happens, you can run away immediately."

"Okay, Grandma Tong, I'll do it right away." After Tong's figure disappeared around the corner of the door, Jian Mingchen quickly packed a small package.In this regard, the village has been trained some time ago, and all the villagers who are sensible are following the regulations.

Zhong Qingran galloped down the avenue on his snow tread, and soon came to Jian Mingyu's place.

"Mingyu, how's the situation?" Zhong Qingran climbed up the arrow tower of the part-time sentry tower.

"The target hasn't appeared yet." Jian Mingyu didn't look back, his eyes were on the large grassland in front of him.

"The viewing distance of this telescope is still a bit low, otherwise, we can detect it before the two eagles find it." Zhong Qingran looked at the figures of Dianbai and Minglei in front of him, and was proud of his two eagles.At present, the function of the telescope is far inferior to them. Even if its viewing distance is further improved in the future, it cannot replace the two eagles. The difference between the dead and the living is very obvious, and this alone can replace them.

"Here we come!" Jian Mingyu's expression froze slightly, his eyes staring straight ahead without blinking.

Zhong Qingran looked in the direction of the telescope, but couldn't see anything.This was within his expectation, the human eye could not see too far away.If it weren't for the flat grassland here, it is estimated that he would not even have the sight distance now.

The walls of Fucun Village are not thick, and the arrow towers are built inside the walls, not on top of them.Building the city wall is too manpower-intensive, and Fucun does not have the ability for the time being.

Following Jian Mingyu's words, all the village guards with duties took their positions, and the rest of the village guards rode on horseback and stood by.

When Jian Mingyu found the visitor, he also found Fucun over there.It's not that the opponent also has a sharp weapon like a telescope, but Fukumura's goal is too obvious, far more eye-catching than a group of people.

"Zhao Cheng, what's that?" Qu Xi squinted at the blurred shadow in the distance, and suddenly became alert.

"Where?" Zhao Cheng withdrew his eyes from looking around, and followed Qu Xi's gaze, his expression was no longer loose, and his eyes were full of vigilance.

"Go, go back and report to the leader." Qu Xi turned his horse's head and quickly marched towards the large army.

"Come back in such a hurry, is the situation different?" Looking at the two outposts returning in a hurry, Fang Lu, the leader of Valin Village, put away his smile and asked in a deep voice.

"Boss, when I came here last autumn, there was nothing on the beach, but now there is a huge black shadow, which is too far away and I can't see it clearly. Please move to see it yourself." Qu Xi replied respectfully.

"Come on, take me over there to take a look. I want to see who is the one who can scare the two of you back." Fang Lu clamped his legs on the horse's belly and went straight to the target.

"Boss, you can see it here." Zhao Cheng followed closely behind, and within a short distance, he reminded Fang Lu.

Fang Lu slowed down his horse, narrowed his eyes into slits, and stared straight ahead.

"I can't see clearly here, let's go and look a little further ahead." Fang Lu took the lead.

The farther they went, the clearer the black shadow became. When they could tell what the huge black shadow was, the pupils of the three shrank violently, their faces were full of disbelief, and they all exclaimed in unison: "But I haven't been here for more than half a year. How could it be here?" There is such a big village?"

The three of you look at me, I look at you, apart from shock or shock, they have no words to describe the shock in their hearts.How long has it been since then, and there are people who have the ability to build such a large village? Where did these people come from?

At this time, the three of them were still a long way from Fucun, and they couldn't see the materials used for the wall, otherwise, they would be even more surprised.

"Boss, what should we do? Change the route?" Qu Xi hid the surprise in his eyes and looked at Fang Lu expectantly.

"Change the road, don't take any risks. I'll take the people to the south, and you and Zhao Cheng will check out the situation and be careful." Fang Lu immediately rode his horse back and led the people to the south.

"Yes, leader." Qu Xi and Zhao Cheng responded very straightforwardly, without the slightest hint of evasion.

Survival in Hanhai Prefecture is not easy, not to mention other things, the threat of nature alone may cost a person's life every year. Therefore, as long as the aborigines in Hanhai Prefecture are not cowardly, they will go to such dangerous actions without hesitation. implement.

This place is not far from Valin Village. If you march in a hurry, you can get there in more than a day. It is not wise to avoid it. You must find out the real situation of Qingxu, otherwise, this new village will make them feel stuck in their throats, and many things will not be let go. To do it with hands and feet is tantamount to making their already difficult life even worse.

"The large army turned around and went to other places, and two people came straight to our village." Jian Mingyu handed the binoculars to Zhong Qingran. Dianbai and Minglei had already completed their missions, and now they were hovering above their heads.

Zhong Qingran set up the binoculars and glanced in the direction just now. The figures of the two riders jumped into his eyes, then disappeared in a flash. Zhong Qingran kept adjusting the direction so that his sight could always catch them. appearance.