"I thought of something that could replace the stone pond for drying salt."
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking, he ignored the surprise and confusion of the stewards behind him and ordered someone to bring a porcelain bowl.
Everyone looked at the porcelain bowl, their eyes widened, and they immediately understood what His Majesty meant, and there was a lot of clapping for a while.
"Wonderful, Your Majesty is truly a man of God. Porcelain is made by calcining it at high temperatures, so it is naturally not afraid of exposure to the sun. Porcelain that has been glazed is not afraid of salt water corrosion, so it is best used for salt exposure."
"Yes, yes! Wonderful, really wonderful."
Although everyone praised it to the heavens, they secretly thought in their hearts that they really agreed, why not eat minced meat!
It is indeed very suitable to use porcelain to dry salt, but the cost may be several times, or even ten times more than that of a stone pool.
Zhu Cixiang didn't know what they were thinking, and even if he knew it, he wouldn't care, because he wouldn't consider the production cost at all, but only cares about whether it can be mass produced quickly.
Because Shichi cannot achieve rapid mass production, he will not choose it no matter how low the cost is. However, porcelain is made of clay and can be produced in batches.
As long as a group of master kiln-firing masters are transferred from Jingdezhen, what kind of porcelain cannot be produced?
So he nodded and said: "Of course, salt-exposed porcelain does not need to be so exquisite, as long as it is not afraid of salt water corrosion and hot sun exposure. The shape and size also need to be redesigned."
He has already thought of the ceramic tiles in his previous life. He only needs to surround the four sides of the ceramic tiles and make them into a circle. Although one piece cannot be used for much, it can be mass-produced if it is not enough. If ten thousand yuan is not enough, then one hundred thousand yuan.
Millions of dollars.
Anyway, the materials are just some clay and calcined charcoal, and the labor is negligible.
The reason why today's porcelain is so precious is that it must be carefully crafted and there must be no flaws after being fired. Not only is it time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the defective rate remains high.
For porcelain that can be used for drying salt, you don’t have to worry about this at all. No matter how rough it is, it doesn’t matter how many flaws it has as long as it doesn’t leak.
Zhu Cixiang has always been a person who does what he says, but compared to the past, when he came up with his own ideas and left the details to others, this time he planned to personally supervise and participate.
Because he also wants to bake ceramic tiles at the same time. If it can be produced in large quantities and at low cost, it will definitely be a very good industrial product.
Next, Zhu Cixi ordered people to find a place with a large amount of clay in Yancheng County to build a kiln. He also sent people back to Nanjing to ask Zhang Yan to get him one or two hundred masters who could make porcelain. At the same time, he was looking for a place that was easy to mine and far away.
The coal mines that are relatively close to Yancheng County are best transported by water.
Clay is everywhere, and the quality is not important. In just three days, we found a place with open terrain and a large amount of clay thirty miles south of the county seat.
Zhu Cixiang gave the order, and thousands of people got busy. First, they built ordinary kilns to burn refractory bricks, and ordinary green bricks and green tiles.
Then a professional kiln was cut with refractory bricks, and bungalows were built with the fired bricks. The emperor personally supervised the work. The efficiency was so frightening that in just one month, the entire construction site changed drastically.
Zhu Cixi also had to lament the diligence of people in this era. Thousands of people turned a wasteland into a huge brick and tile factory in just one month.
At this time, more than two hundred master craftsmen transferred from Jingdezhen had also arrived. As Zhu Cihong had explained in advance, these two hundred people were not top-notch porcelain masters, and could only be regarded as average.
But even if it is an average level, it is more than enough. When the real top masters come, it will waste and ruin their craftsmanship.
No, after listening to Emperor Xiao Zhu's explanation, the two hundred porcelain masters who came here after a long journey looked at each other inwardly.
I thought that being recruited by the imperial court in a hurry, or that His Majesty personally issued the order, it would be some big deal, and they would be asked to burn some rare treasures.
But now, looking at the broken things on the table, I just said in my heart, is this it?
In the past month, Zhu Cixiang has naturally not been idle. Instead, he has asked the masters who are good at making pottery to make some samples, and many of them have been fired.
In fact, there are some plates of different sizes, ranging from the size of a small basin to the size of a dustpan. But perhaps because the heat was not controlled well, or the pottery was not made up to standard, almost none of them satisfied him.
Either there are cracks, or the pottery cannot be called porcelain at all, especially the one with the big dustpan, the cracks around it are very large, and it cannot be used at all.
"Do you all understand? Can these problems be solved? I don't want your production to be exquisite. As long as it doesn't crack, it's thicker or rougher, it doesn't matter. Of course, it's best to use porcelain. If that doesn't work, you can also glaze the pottery.
Accept it! As long as you can cook something that satisfies me, I will definitely reward you greatly!"
Zhu Cixiang gave them some more instructions and promises, and asked them to start work immediately.
And all the masters were excited and excited, almost as if they had been given a shot of chicken blood.
Sure enough, with the participation of this group of professional masters, only two kilns produced more than a dozen finished products. Although the porcelain plates were of different sizes, they were almost all porcelain and not a single piece of pottery.
Zhu Cixi was also shocked. They were both made of mud and fired in a kiln with charcoal, but the results were so different that people couldn't tell the difference.
"That's right, for this one, the finished product rate only needs half to be considered a success."
Zhu Cihong stroked the largest porcelain plate that looked like a dustpan and couldn't put it down.
"Your Majesty, if we give you some more time, we can make it thinner and add some more patterns on the inside and outside."
A master chef said carefully, and the others nodded frequently, obviously they were not satisfied with this porcelain. They were sure that this porcelain was definitely the worst and ugliest one they had ever made.
If such porcelain is fired, if it is not smashed, it will destroy its own sign, so everyone wants to burn a new one.
"No, it doesn't matter if it's thicker. There's no need for patterns. The simpler, the better. Just burn it like this!"
Zhu Cixiang immediately waved his hand and refused. What he wanted was efficiency and yield, and adding some patterns. Although it looked good, it was of no use at all. Although it was thinner and lighter, the yield rate would definitely be lower if it was fired in one kiln.
decline.
"yes!"
Naturally, everyone did not dare to refute the emperor's words and responded quickly.
Next, Zhu Cixiang mobilized another 10,000 people, built earthen kilns one after another, and personally formulated a series of production processes.
That is, a team of two master craftsmen, paired with a hundred assistants, is responsible for a kiln and a workshop. Each team competes with each other to see which team produces the most finished products every month, and which team earns the highest wages and bonuses.
The soil, mud and coking coal will be collected separately. From now on, each group will only be responsible for making blanks and calcining.
In addition to this kind of dustpan-sized porcelain plate for drying salt, a large water tank is also needed to hold sea water. Fortunately, water tanks are much simpler than porcelain, and ordinary pottery masters can easily make them. As for ceramic tiles
Zhu Cixiang did not mount his horse immediately.
He plans to design a complete sun-salting process.