Therefore, although Li Dali was also making a living in Hebei Province, he was not very nervous, and was even a little excited. He wished that the matter would get bigger and he could see Zhuang Rui's connections.
When Li Dali thought about it, no matter how powerful the officials in this place were, they would have to keep their tail between their legs when they went to the capital, and they would have to give away some face to the people in Sijiu City.
Not to mention other things, when some department-level cadres in the inconspicuous departments and bureaus in the capital go to local provinces, it is called inspection work. Even if the local people are higher in rank than them, they must smile and accompany them.
In ancient times, this was called an imperial envoy!
"Oh, Lao Xu, you have done me a disservice. They can't do anything to you. Maybe they will deal with me later..."
Yu Zhengjun put on a sad expression. After thinking for a while, he said: "Old Xu, I think you should go out and hide for a while, and then come back after the news has passed. Anyway, you don't have the funds to continue research now."
…”
"I didn't do anything bad, why should I hide? Besides... besides... I don't even have the money to go out..."
Xu Guoqing blushed. He originally had tens of thousands of dollars, but his wife took them back to her parents' home. He only had a few hundred dollars left, which was just enough for him to eat. The factory already owed him money.
Xu Guoqing had no money to pay the electricity bill for three or four months.
Xu Guoqing's words shocked everyone for a moment. They didn't expect that Xu Guoqing would end up in such a desperate place. He could hide for three to five months and only have ten thousand or eight thousand people. They didn't expect that he would even do this.
I can't even get the money out.
Zhuang Rui glanced at Li Dali and said, "Mr. Li, the money for the porcelain can be given to Xugong..."
The set of eight three-color lady figurines that Zhuang Rui bought some time ago is in the box in Peng Fei's hand. At that time, Zhuang Rui gave Li Dali 500,000, and the money was naturally going to Xu Guoqing.
Although he wanted to ask Xu Guoqing to leave this place, Zhuang Rui still didn't bother to take advantage of others' danger.
"Yes, yes, you see I have forgotten all about this. Lao Yu, Mr. Zhuang bought four pieces of porcelain made by Mr. Xu, totaling 500,000...
Look at what I’m doing. Mr. Zhuang said it’s worth so much, so it’s just this much. You’re not in the antique business for the first time. Can the price of modern imitations be compared with the real thing?”
After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Li Dali quickly took out the check from his bag, but the money was different. He did not give the money directly to Xu Guoqing, but to Yu Zhengjun, because those Tang Sancai came from Yu Zhengjun.
Got it from the regular army.
However, Li Dali didn't know that what Yu Zhengjun thought of him just now was not that he thought the money was too little, but that it was too much. Yu Zhengjun thought that modern imitation porcelain would be worth three to five thousand dollars.
"Mr. Zhuang, look, how embarrassing this is..."
Yu Zhengjun took the check and hurriedly handed it to Xu Guoqing. His face was a little red. He originally wanted to use these items to catch some fish, but he didn't expect Zhuang Rui to give such a response after identifying the authenticity.
High price.
Zhuang Rui laughed when he heard this, waved his hand and said: "Boss Yu, Xugong's craftsmanship is worth so much money. Although these Tang Sancai were not made in the Tang Dynasty, they still have extremely high artistic standards and appreciation value, and these Tang Sancai
The cost is probably not low, right?"
"I don't know about this, but I guess it doesn't cost much, right?"
Although Yu Zhengjun knew that Xu Guoqing spent a lot of money imitating these ancient ceramics, he did not know the specific amount.
When Yu Zhengjun thought about it, Gaoyi itself was the place where porcelain clay was produced, and the clay didn't cost any money. It didn't cost much at all to burn these things in the ready-made Changfa kiln.
Moreover, Xu Guoqing's wife used to like stock trading, so some of Xu Guoqing's friends thought that Xu Guoqing's wife had lost all her money by trading in stocks. No one could have imagined that Xu Guoqing had used all the money to make porcelain.
Xu Guoqing gently shook the check of 500,000 RMB in his hand, made a "swish" sound, and said casually: "If we start firing, it will probably be enough for two months..."
"Damn it, it costs so much? Old Xu, how many objects can you burn with these five hundred thousand?" Xu Guoqing's words startled Yu Zhengjun beside him, and his eyes widened.
Xu Guoqing raised his head, as if he was calculating something, and after a while he said: "If everything goes well, we should be able to fire two to three pieces of porcelain imitating Cizhou kiln. If we are unlucky, I'm afraid we can only fire at most
Come out with one..."
"Wha...what?"
Yu Zhengjun was completely dumbfounded, almost muttering to himself: "With five hundred thousand RMB, you can only produce two or three pieces of porcelain?"
"Yes, just preparing those ancient glazes would probably cost a lot of money. Although I have mastered the firing formula of Cizhou kiln porcelain, I have never fired the actual thing, and I still have to explore the heat during firing.
, if you can produce one utensil after burning ten furnaces, then you are lucky..."
The biggest difficulty in firing antique porcelain with modern technology lies in the formula and glaze. The formula can be restored through various clues and a lot of experiments, but the ancient glaze is very precious due to its poor conditions.
The ancient glaze used by Xu Guoqing was completely prepared by himself. He collected various domestic colored ores at a high price, ground them into powder and fired them at high temperature before mixing the color ingredients. It was completely an ancient craft and did not contain a trace of modern chemical factors.
of.
"Old Xu, then...then the cost of the Tang Sancai you made before was also so high?"
Yu Zhengjun was already trembling a little as he spoke. You must know that he took many Tang Sancai objects from Xu Guoqing, and he gave them away as worthless things.
"That's not true..." Xu Guoqing's words made Yu Zhengjun breathe a sigh of relief.
"However, it cost almost several million to research the formula and glaze at the beginning. The cost later was relatively lower, but because there was so much waste, it would probably cost tens of thousands of yuan to bake one piece...
"
All hand-imitation ancient porcelain, due to the non-repeatability of some conditions, can be said that no one is exactly the same. The three-color porcelain that escaped from Xu Guoqing's hands is all of high quality, and the bad ones have long been
He casually broke it into pieces.
In fact, in the past ten years or so, Xu Guoqing has only produced fifty or sixty high imitations of Tang Sancai, which means he only produced three to five items in a year.
Xu Guoqing was obsessed with studying how to restore the firing process of ancient ceramics. He didn't care much about the finished products. Plus, he would be rich, so he gave away a lot of things generously.
Except for the thirty-two utensils that Xu Guoqing took out this time, the others were all given to him by his friends because they liked them, including Boss Yu.
Now that he was almost at the end of his rope, Xu Guoqing took out the more than thirty three-color pottery figurines that he was most satisfied with and sold them, but he really didn't know much about the value of these things.
However, Zhuang Rui took out a check for 500,000 yuan, and Xu Guoqing was not surprised at all. After all, he spent an unknown number of 500,000 yuan to bake these things.
"God, why didn't you tell me earlier? Damn it, I want to take it all back..."
After Yu Zhengjun heard Xu Guoqing's words, he was about to go berserk. He never imagined that the cost of each of the things Xu Guoqing had lying around at home actually cost more than tens of thousands of dollars.
"Lao Yu, forget it, how can you get back the things you gave away?"
Xu Guoqing waved his hand and said nonchalantly that his family had been rich since the early 1980s. At that time, Xu Guoqing became obsessed with the restoration of ancient ceramics. Since the old man could make money, he could not afford to spend money at that time, so he developed a good education.
He has the temperament of a young master.
"By the way, brother Zhuang, do you still accept Tang Sancai? If you want more, you can order what utensils you want and what size, and then I will burn them for you. Don't worry, I will only add a little bit to the cost price.
Just the labor fee is enough..."
Perhaps stimulated by the hard life of having no money during this period, Xu Guoqing is now having a bit of a survival crisis and actually wants to start a business. However, he is still too honest and tells Zhuang Rui all his ideas.
.
If Xu Guoqing had had this idea earlier, even if the ceramics factory was shut down, he would still be able to live a very prosperous life by relying on his skills in repairing imitation ancient porcelain. Of course, it is not too late now.
"I won't accept Tang Sancai, but I'm quite interested in this Cizhou kiln porcelain. Let's discuss it in private when we have time..."
Zhuang Rui was halfway talking, but he was more interested in selling all these high-imitation porcelains to a small shop.
Outsiders don’t know how much the Japanese admire Cizhou kiln porcelain, but Zhuang Rui knows it very well. If it is really proven to be Cizhou porcelain from the official kiln of the Southern Song Dynasty, the price of one piece will definitely be millions or even tens of millions of RMB.
of.
Naturally, the fewer people who know about things like this, the better. Now that Li Dali and Yu Zhengjun are present, Zhuang Rui is unwilling to say more, because if the operation is really successful, what if?
If word spreads, Zhuang Rui's reputation in the international art market will definitely become bad.
However, Zhuang Rui had no psychological burden at all for trapping the little devil. The key was to see whether Xu Guoqing's skills in firing the Cizhou kiln were acceptable.
"Mr. Zhuang, I took you to see him. We don't have anything to do here. How about you and Mr. Xu talk again while Lao Yu and I go talk about other things?"
Li Dali had been around the world for so long, so he naturally noticed that Zhuang Rui had something going on, and didn't want them to hear about it. He quickly grabbed Yu Zhengjun, who was still drawing circles to calculate how many porcelains he had given away, and was about to go there.
Go outside the door.
"Who among you wants Xu Guoqing?"
As soon as Li Dali and Yu Zhengjun walked into the courtyard, a group of people in uniforms came in with noisy shouts from outside. There were police officers and industrial and commercial tax officials, and they blocked the two people back into the room.
