The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

Against the shocked and admiring eyes of the craftsmen, Xia Anran calmly took the pen and ink, and wrote the prepared manuscript.

For example, for his old lady, write a few lines of "Tao Te Ching" on it, for his father, write "Great Wind Song", and for younger brothers and sisters, use the allusions from their names... huh?What if there are no allusions?Just find one with this word that has a better meaning.

In fact, others are quite easy to deal with, but his younger brother Liu Zhi is the most difficult to deal with. Xia Anran asked around but did not ask where he got a compliment with a pig, saying that it is delicious is not counted.

In the end, I had no choice but to express my heart by drawing an abstract ink painting of a piglet myself.This kind of simple Chinese zodiac ink painting full of literary and artistic atmosphere was once popular in the circle of modern literary and artistic youth.

After putting down the pen, the little boy was quite proud, but he didn't expect it to be easier said than done.

I have tried dozens of times just for the color used for writing, but the color is always poorly adjusted. After all, there is no way to guarantee the purity of the raw materials here, and it is almost impossible to make exactly the same thing.

In addition, how to ensure that during the firing process, the two glazes with different ingredients and contents will not fuse?

The glass of lime glaze is too fluid, and if it is not good, it will drive the colored glaze to fly away. Naturally, craftsmen of this brand-new glaze will not use a whole vessel as a luxury.

They made several pieces of porcelain plates, painted and painted various experiments on them.

But even so, in today's era, these glazes themselves are also mineral raw materials, and the amount of scrap caused by the experiment is still so large that Xia Anran's heart hurts.

Fortunately, with the various experiments of the craftsmen, their understanding and technological innovation of firing and glazing have also been improving. I have the impression of "white as snow" in Xia Anran's impression.

Of course, it is still a long way from the "China White", which is so beautiful that it can represent China, and even the highest pixel cameras and printers cannot fully display its glaze color.

According to the preliminary plan, he intends to bring white porcelain into the high-end market, while celadon will be traded as ordinary daily necessities.

But in fact, although it seems that white porcelain is more noble than celadon, for craftsmen who have mastered the ratio of ingredients, it is only a few more steps in the process of preparing glaze color.

Moreover, the porcelain clay made in Zhongshan has the right time and place, and its iron content is relatively low. Even if it is green glaze, the green glaze produced here is also a light green color.

However, after they changed the glazing method from the smearing method to the immersion method, the glaze color is more lustrous. This kind of glassy texture makes it look a bit like emerald at first glance.

Xia Anran, who has a modern aesthetic, thinks that this watery color is really pretty, but all those who have seen the two kinds of porcelain choose to stand on the side of white porcelain.

Especially after the craftsmen figured out how to lay patterns on the porcelain embryo first, and then use the thickness of the glaze to modulate the muffled effect of dark patterns, it has received unanimous praise.

But Xia Anran didn't plan to sell these things before they became famous in the capital, so everyone could only look at them and feel them, but they couldn't take them home.

Xia Anran didn't see the eagerness of the crowd, he was still thinking that he still lacked a quick and inconspicuous livelihood...

Fortunately, when the little prince was canonized and came to the fief, it was just in time for the autumn harvest, and the tax and food collected were at the bottom, so he didn't have to worry about being short of money for the time being.

He wandered around the room, sorted out the resources in his hands, looked around, and finally issued an order.

In his own name, he bought sumac fruit from the whole country.

In Dahan, the proportion of lacquerware is much higher than that of porcelain.

At this time, almost all the bowls and cups were lacquerware. Of course, a large part of these lacquerware were made of wooden bowls with a layer of varnish for waterproofing and anticorrosion, rather than the lacquerware that was made into various artworks and then carved. .

As a natural antiseptic, it is not too difficult to collect and plant lacquer trees. Naturally, people plant them in Zhongshan.Although the allergy to lacquer trees in ancient times was not better than modern people, when everyone found that this allergy was only uncomfortable and not fatal, they bravely persisted.

The lacquer produced by a lacquer tree at one time can be exchanged for half a bag of grain. It does not need much care on weekdays, and it does not like to get sick. You just need to be careful not to touch your children. Compared with planing food in the field, this kind of income can be regarded as a source of income. For nothing.

Therefore, ordinary villages will plant a small piece of mountain on the vacant land, and cut it several times a year in turn, and some more affluent villages will use this income to support poor families in the village, and it should be regarded as the common income of the family.

It's winter now, everything is dormant, and it's natural not to cut the paint in winter. At this time, a knife will hurt the tree.

As for the fruit, people usually don't care much about it. The sumac fruit can stay on the tree for more than ten months if no one cares about it. Now those dried fruits are still hanging on the tree naked.

As soon as they heard that the King of Zhongshan was coming to distribute benefits again, every household immediately became active.

The purchase price of sumac fruit is exchanged for rice at an equal weight ratio of five to one.As soon as the price came out, not only the people of Zhongshan, but also the surrounding counties immediately became commotions.

At this time of winter, the price of rice is already expensive, and farmers only harvest once a year.After harvesting the grain in autumn, except for the small income, the rest is all based on the original.

It's okay if there is nothing wrong with peace, but if someone in the family gets sick or has any accident, you will definitely be stretched.In summer and winter, there is still some income from heat-resistant and cold-resistant fruits and vegetables. Only in spring, there is no harvest except for some wild vegetables. The family is still busy with spring plowing and no one can go out to do work. This is the most difficult day for farmers in a year. .

Even if there was harvesting of rice stalks in autumn and winter last year, the farmers could earn some income, but if there is another opportunity to make money, no one will let it go, not to mention exchanging the lacquer seeds that no one wants for fragrant grains. fool!

Wearing thick clothes in winter, coupled with the slow respiration and transpiration of plants in winter, the allergies are much better. The only disadvantage is that the fruits of the sumac tree generally grow on the treetops, and the sumac tree grows very tall. Only those who are very good at climbing can do it. up the tree.

But soon someone used a more convenient way.

They directly raised the long poles and slapped the treetops, and occasionally used the method of forceful pulling, and some children threw snow balls on their heads. Forcibly, please taste the "wind, frost and rain" of the sumac fruit living in this sunny place. The feeling of "severe snow".

The sumac fruit is black and gray, and it is particularly conspicuous when it falls on the white snow.Picking up fruit is the task of the children. The little doudings have soft waists and good eyes. When they hear that these things can be exchanged for rice, they can't be more energetic to drill around.

Since the purchase requirement is that no branches are allowed, the women also took action to dry the fruits picked up by the children again. The dried branches are brittle and can be patted off with a wooden stick.

With the previous experience of purchasing dilapidated straw, the people have more or less confidence in Zhongshan King's various strange actions this time, so although everyone still does not understand why Zhongshan King wants this lacquer fruit this time, they are collecting materials and going to The action of replacement, however, rushed to collect without any hesitation.

It shows that they have trust in this young little king.

Of course, the same as last time, this kind of acquisition activity for the whole people has attracted the attention of Erdao traffickers.

The government did not crack down on these people. These people are hateful scalpers in modern times.But in the Han Dynasty, for the officials, the existence of these people could greatly save the labor wasted in their scattered purchases and replacements. For ordinary people, although the price was slightly lower, they shipped the goods to The consumption of manpower and material resources required for exchange points is also saved.

After all, not everyone has the conditions to transport bulk cargo in the snow at this time.

Of course, there are many villagers who are reluctant to take the advantage of this point being taken away, and because there is really nothing to do in winter, there are not a few who mobilize the whole family to send the fruit to the exchange point, and then they all together Qi Huan happily took the rice back home, and found some villagers to accompany him along the way, which was quite lively.

The fruit of the sumac tree is a good thing.

The vegetable oil contained in its nuts has a high proportion, and it is different from its abominable existence. It has a delicate fragrance and the taste is said to be very good.

Most importantly, its seed coat contains a considerable amount of natural wax.

Yes, Xia Anran intends to make candles.

There were lamps in the Western Han Dynasty, but few candles. Today's candles are not even used by the emperor's father.Because a small part of these waxes is made of beeswax, while most of them are imported animal wax.

Xia Anran didn't know what it was, he thought it might be something similar to suet in the body of a large mammal.Considering the existence of Longdanxiang now, he thinks it is probably the fat of sperm whales.

However, no one in the Han Dynasty had ever seen a sperm whale, so no one could give him the final answer.

When it comes to candles, in addition to beeswax, most of our country uses white wax produced by white wax insects.After the ancients mastered the artificial breeding technology of white wax insects, it seems that almost in the Tang and Song Dynasties, candles began to gradually become common objects.

The modern multi-purpose paraffin requires chemical refining of petroleum, so now, considering that white wax worms grow in the south and do not exist in the north, Xia Anran feels that lacquer wax is a good substitute.

Especially in today's situation where the whole people of the Han Dynasty grow lacquer.

But in just half a decade, a steady stream of lacquer fruits were sent to Lu Nu's vacant warehouse.His Highness ordered the seeds to be crushed, and then passed through a sieve. The fruit had become powder and was taken away for oil extraction, while the leather fiber remaining on the upper part of the sieve was the raw material for making wax.

After the fruit is stir-fried, it is squeezed while it is hot, and the wax in the peel needs to be steamed.

The first thing to be extracted is lacquer oil, and the brown oil that looks particularly strange is squeezed out.The weather is cold and cool, and it will condense after only a short period of time. This is because the fruit also contains wax, but obviously compared to the wax content of the peel, the condensed varnish is more like lard.The craftsmen stared blankly at the oval bowls one after another, this, is this really edible?

In the Western Han Dynasty, when animal oil was the main product, the people of Zhongshan were a little hesitant to eat this strangely colored product. Today, the only vegetable oil is almond oil.Considering the poor oil yield of almonds, very few people have eaten it.

Xia Anran was also a little uncertain, he very cautiously had a few pieces of meat fried with lacquer oil, and then experimented with feeding several kinds of livestock.

The results of the experiment will not come out for a while, and there is no reference value without feeding for ten days and half a month.Xia Anran only asked people to continue to suppress him, and he focused on the seed coat.

After pressing the seed coat that was just taken out of the steamer, the dripping liquid turned into a solid state while being squeezed, and the yellowish-white wax was quickly collected and sent to the wing room, where the ladies who were waiting Heat it back to liquid, then insert the wick for filling.

This simple and fast way of making, the girls quickly got started.But the more complicated thing is to make long candles, which is the candle making method that Xia Anran saw from some religious places.

A paper stick made of rolled paper is used as a candle wick, and a layer of hay is wrapped on the outside to make it completely absorb the wax liquid, and then wrap the wax liquid on the candle wick little by little. Every time, the wax oil of the previous time must be guaranteed. Dry it completely, and correct its angle by hand rubbing it from time to time to keep it round.

The candle produced in this way has a very thick wick, and the candle flame will burn very high when burning, and it is very stable, and ordinary small winds cannot make it shake.

Of course, compared to ordinary filling candles, this kind of candle is expensive, and it is usually used in formal and serious sacrificial occasions.The girls got started quickly after listening to him explain the operation program.The melting point of lacquer wax is very low, and the temperature of the wax is less than [-] degrees in winter. This job is definitely an easy job in winter, so the girls are very attentive, and basically after three or four sticks, they will grasp the key points.

Xia Anran touched a decent-looking candle, took a knife and cut off the top.He was going to try it at night, and if the effect was not bad, he could give it to Queen Mother Dou.

Empress Dou's eyesight is very poor when she is old. The old lady's eyes can't tolerate smoke, but she is restricted by technology. There are almost no lamp oils today that don't smoke eyes.If the effect of this lacquer wax is really good, it would be a good gift for the old lady.

The people of Zhongshan Kingdom continued to send fruits here, and not long after, Xia Anran unexpectedly received a visit from the officials sent by the neighboring Dai County Sheriff's Office.