Chapter 97 Prince Yu's Thoughts
Zhu Zaijing and everyone walked to Zhang Erhe's side. The place was already very hot at this moment, and the red stove was already burning.
Zhu Zaijing glanced at the coal next to the stove and didn't make a fuss.
Because after more than half a year of understanding, Zhu Zaijing also knew that coal has been used for more than a thousand years.
And now the Mentougou Coal Mine, which is closest to Beijing, is still the property of the palace, and the palace has specially dispatched guard eunuchs to supervise the errands there.
So when Zhu Zaijing saw the coal, he knew without thinking that the coal must have been transported from Mentougou.
Zhu Zaijing looked at the stove again and asked: "How are the preparations now?"
Zhang Erhe trotted from one side to Zhu Zaijing's side, "As for the prince, everything is ready now." , you can start the furnace at any time."
Zhu Zaijing said with a smile: "Then hurry up, my time is very precious, and my money is also very tight, you are like this. It’s not possible to burn coal in vain.”
Zhang Erhe nodded in embarrassment, “I know I’m wrong, so I’ll start immediately.”
Zhang Erhe quickly took action and put the raw materials for making glass prepared on the side into the high-temperature furnace one by one.
The scorching high temperature soon turned these raw materials red. After a while, you can see with the naked eye that these raw materials gradually turned into a hotter golden color under the action of high temperature and began to soften. .
When Zhang Erhe saw the softened raw material, he immediately stretched out an iron stick to wrap around the melted and deformed rough glass, and then skillfully turned the iron stick around the molten liquid glass. On top of the iron sign.
After rolling it to a certain extent, Zhang Erhe pulled the iron stick out of the stove.
I saw a lump of golden glass rolled up on the head of the iron stick, exposed to the outside air. As the temperature in the air was lost, the golden glass rough embryo also began to gradually cool down. Red, and finally gradually cooled into colorless transparent glass.
Although the glass on the iron sign has faded to the point of being colorless at this moment, it is still very high and cannot be touched directly by human hands.
But after reaching this step, Zhu Zaijing was already ecstatic because he knew that this was considered a success!
The next thing to do is how to turn the production method of this small stove into a process-based industrial manufacturing method.
After all, Zhu Zaijing will need a lot of glass products in the future. The single-person small stove production method must be transformed into a larger-scale process-based multi-person operation method. Only then can it be considered a success.
Otherwise, Zhang Erhe would be expected to use an iron skewer to bake and roll the rolls here every day. The rolls would have to be cooked until the Year of the Monkey and the Horse and the Horse before they could be supplied in batches?
Therefore, improvements in these industrial processes must also be put on the agenda.
Zhu Zaijing said: "Not bad, not bad, very good. I like it very much. But I am not satisfied yet. You can communicate with the craftsmen who make the glaze again and think of ideas to see if you can The method of firing this kind of transparent colored glaze will be expanded and streamlined.”
“I don’t have high requirements for this kind of transparent colored glaze. I don’t need to craft every bottle with the same precision as colored colored glaze. What I need now is glass bottles that can be produced in large quantities with the same specifications, do you understand?"
After Zhu Zaijing said these words, Zhang Erhe also quickly replied: "You understand!"
Zhu Zaijing nodded with satisfaction, "Just understand. If you need any help or have any ideas, you can tell Manager Teng and Supervisor Zhang. As long as it is a reasonable request, I can grant it."
Zhang Erhe bowed excitedly and said, "Thank you, my lord!"
After Zhu Zaijing saw the manufacturing process of transparent glass, he was in a good mood. Next, as long as he can overcome the problem of mass production, it will be even better. Perfect. "Meng Chong, I have one more thing to tell you."
After Meng Chong heard Zhu Zaijing's voice, he immediately replied: "Your Majesty has given me an order."
Zhu Zaijing said: "If you go to buy some green tea leaves, you don't need very good tea leaves, just average ones. You can find someone to grind these tea leaves into fine tea powder. The king is of great use!”
When Meng Chong heard this, he became even more excited.
Tea powder?
This must be a big move!
Who would have thought of grinding tea leaves into tea powder in the past?
After all, more than three hundred years have passed since the era of Song Dynasty tea, and the popular way of drinking tea now is to brew clear tea directly with boiling water, so Meng Chong did not guess what Zhu Zaijing wanted for a while. do what.
But that's not important!
Because in Meng Chong's heart, as long as things can be done well according to Zhu Zaijing's requirements, that is the most important thing.
As for what happened next, this is not something Meng Chong can guess.
So after Meng Chong finished his excitement, he immediately replied: "Slave, let's do it now!"
Zhu Zaijing waved his hand and said: "Go quickly, I am also a little bit Can’t wait.”
Zhu Zaijing asked Meng Chong to collect tea leaves and make tea powder. In fact, he also wanted to recreate a classic tea drink.
In the world before Zhu Zaijing traveled through time, when bottled green tea, a tea-flavored bottled drink, was launched, it became popular all over the country!
Chinese people’s love for tea can be said to be engraved in their bones.
Now as long as he can produce bottled green tea as a beverage, and after several years of market cultivation, Zhu Zaijing will dare to directly sell bottled water, which is more profitable.
After all, people in Ming Dynasty have not yet experienced the happy experience brought by bottled drinks.
So Zhu Zaijing decided that as long as Zhang Erhe conquered the mass production technology of glass bottles, he could first put a batch of sweet drinks with the fragrance of green tea on the market to try.
When these dignitaries like the special feeling from bottled drinks, Zhu Zaijing will strike while the iron is hot and introduce more flavors of drinks to continue to cultivate their consumption habits.
As soon as this habit is established, bottled water, a hugely profitable "nature's porter", will naturally come online.
It is conceivable that by then, these people who have become accustomed to consuming bottled drinks will inevitably turn to the extreme taste in order to further highlight their uniqueness and indifferent and elegant sentiments. of bottled purified water.
In this way, whether it is a mid-range flavored drink or a tasteless drink that is deliberately considered high-end, it will become a weapon for the second generation of the Ming Dynasty and the "elegant" gentry!
Therefore, in order to earn money from these self-proclaimed gentry and landlords, Zhu Zaijing had to spend some effort to capture them unexpectedly.
Otherwise, we can expect second-generation ancestors like Yan Shifan, who lack restraint and love sweets, to consume at the low end.
So we still need to find ways to make the product more high-end, and package the colorless and tasteless pure water into an elegant drink that is different from flavored drinks, so that it can become the favorite of most sanctimonious gentry and landlords. .
This is Zhu Zaijing’s ultimate goal!
(End of this chapter)