After deciding on a strategy, Pang Gong and Yin Darong began to discuss how to find the person and how to turn around.
Zhou Jun listened, secretly surprised.
Listen to the meaning of these two words, if you don't follow the eight tests, it will be extremely difficult to change from official to official.
After this search for merit, Pang Gong and Yin Darong not only wanted to extend favors, but also gave them gifts. For Zhou Jun, this was a huge favor.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jun stood up from his seat, bowed to the two of you and thanked them: "My boss has worked so hard for me, and I feel very scared."
Pang Gong looked at Zhou Jun and sighed: "Erlang, don't be too polite. Now that our family is helping you, we are actually helping ourselves."
"We, the chamberlains, see endless scenery when we are in the palace. Once we leave the palace, we are left to relax. In a few years, we will be speechless."
"While there is still some residual heat, let's help you find a future and make a fortune in the future. It would be nice to have someone to help you."
After Zhou Jun heard this, he quickly raised his hands and said, "I dare to teach my boss that even if he doesn't get that future, Hengcai should work hard."
Yin Darong smiled and said: "Our family can definitely trust Pang Gong's vision of people. He said that Erlang is a man who can be made, so he must be like that."
Pang Gong said to Zhou Jun again: "Don't think too much, just work seriously in the Shangshu Province."
"Our family will take care of the matter of joining the stream. We will wait for this while."
Zhou Jun responded, bowed goodbye to Pang Gong and Yin Darong, and left the courtyard.
On the way back, Zhou Jun was still thinking about seeking merit.
It is an undoubted historical fact that Wang Zhongsi defeated the Turks.
If it is really possible to identify the prisoners and follow the palace interview envoy to Shuofang, even if they travel with the army, there will not be much risk.
Therefore, this job involves little personal risk but huge political benefits. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Returning to his residence in the outer garden, Zhou Jun saw Hua Yue, tinkering with several large pots in the middle of the yard, his body covered in oil stains.
Walking over, Zhou Jun asked her, "What are you doing?"
Hua Yue saw Zhou Jun and asked him, "Let me ask you something. Smell your clothes. Do you have any strange smell?"
Zhou Jun followed his words and walked to Hua Yue, squatted down and smelled the latter's clothes, and asked doubtfully: "It smells pretty good?"
Blushing to the root of her neck, Hua Yue felt embarrassed and annoyed. She pushed Zhou Jun away and shouted at the latter: "Who asked you to smell me? Smell yourself!"
Zhou Jun smiled, lowered his head again, and smelled himself.
Even though I had just changed my clothes, it did have a strange smell.
But because he was used to smelling it, Zhou Jun really didn't notice this smell without Hua Yue's reminder.
Seeing Zhou Jun deep in thought, Hua Yue said: "Since I came to the Tang Dynasty, I found that every household uses a plant called sapodilla to wash clothes."
Zhou Jun nodded and said: "The saponins have decontamination effects and are usually used for washing."
Hua Yue: "Saponaria seeds can indeed remove stains, but after the fruit is dried and mashed, mixed with white flour and made into balls, it has a peculiar smell."
"In addition, the effect is not strong, and the clothes often cannot be washed clean. Over time, you will have an unpleasant smell when wearing it."
Zhou Jun nodded and looked at the big basin in front of Huayue. He saw animal fat, plant ash, bean sprouts and caramel filled respectively.
After thinking carefully for a while, Zhou Jun suddenly realized: "Are you making soap?"
Huayue was stunned: "What is soap? Do you know what I am doing?"
Zhou Jun: "I probably know something about it. If you mix animal fat and plant ash, you can get a paste-like object, which will make your clothes very clean."
Hua Yue glanced at Zhou Jun again, seemingly too lazy to ask how the other party knew all this, and just said: "Yes, it's just that this thing is called a 'fat ball' in Dashi."
Zhou Jun came to the big basin, looked at the contents inside, and said with emotion: "I didn't expect Dashi to have this."
Hua Yue: "More than a thousand years ago, fat balls existed in ancient Egypt."
"After that, after continuous improvements by the Greeks, Romans, and Persians, it has been perfected."
"In the Palace of Food, the most knowledgeable alchemists can even extract a white powder from plant ash, making the fat globules...soap look more transparent and moist."
Zhou Jun was surprised when he heard what Hua Yue meant. The Arabs had actually been able to separate alkali powder from plant ash.
Hua Yue added: "I once watched from the sidelines how those palace slaves made soap."
"Also, I also read books on making soap in the library."
"After coming to Datang for so long, I have been thinking about whether I can make soap."
"It just so happens that Rouxing's birthday is coming soon. She is very tired from soaping up on weekdays, so I just want to give her a convenient gift."
Seeing Hua Yue start weighing and mixing materials, Zhou Jun found a crescent moon stool, moved it over and sat aside, and said with emotion: "I didn't expect Dashi's craftsmanship to be so advanced."
Huayue didn't stop, and just said: "When I first studied Tang Chinese and Latin with my teacher, I specifically studied the roots of words."
"In the church library of Constantinople, the Latin word for alchemy is alchimia, which is derived from the al-kīmiyā of the Great Ethos."
"On the way to alchemy, Da Shiren learned from Egypt, Persia, the Tang Dynasty, Greece, and Rome and developed their unique alchemical scholarship."
"In the Palace of the Great Eater, the most famous alchemists will be given the title of 'Holy Star' by the Caliph. They will have fiefs, slaves, titles and official positions. The governors of the provinces must salute when they see them."
"But in the Tang Dynasty, the most talented craftsmen and scholars only had a salary that was neither high nor low. Their status was even just a miscellaneous household slightly higher than that of a slave."
Having said this, Huayue sighed: "I don't understand why the Tang Dynasty despises craftsmen so much?"
Zhou Jun just smiled bitterly.
In the Tang Dynasty, craftsmen, technicians and scholars were all classified as lowly households. This is not something that can be explained clearly in a few words.
In fact, not only in the Tang Dynasty, but also in the subsequent dynasties, strange skills and tricks were always regarded as heresy. It was not until foreigners used ships, guns and cannons to knock on the door of the country that they were truly rectified.
Seeing Huayue mixing ingredients there, Zhou Jun looked at it for a while and suddenly asked: "Has Dashi tried adding spices to soap?"
Hua Yue replied: "Of course there is. Dashi is rich in flavors. White flowers and rosemary are common flavor materials."
"It's just that extracting essence requires squeezing and filtering technology, which requires a lot of materials and high cost. It's too expensive. If it's just for daily use, soap alone is enough."
"Generally, only those large workshops have the ability to produce flavors on a large scale and reduce costs."
Zhou Jun thought for a while and asked Huayue: "When we went to Chang'an before, we passed by a wine shop and there was an item called a steaming pot. Do you still remember it?"
Huayue: "Is it the utensil used to steam wine? Of course I remember it."
Zhou Jun: "Can you use that steamer to fumigate flowers and get the essence?"
Hua Yue: "What Erlang is referring to is adding the flower material to water, then steaming it over high heat into a thick juice, and finally evaporating it into essence and water vapor?"
"This method has been around for thousands of years. It is a secret of the Egyptian royal palace."
"However, this method is not only slow to produce materials, but also easily damages the smell of essential oils, and the finished product is often accompanied by impurities."
"Dashi has tried it before, but then I gave it up."
Zhou Jun shook his head and said: "Instead of putting the flower materials in the water to steam them, we should prepare two steam ovens."
"Put water in one, put flower materials in the other, and connect the two stoves in series with pipes."
"Heat one of the furnaces, let the water vapor pass through the tube, enter the other furnace, fumigate the flowers, and then cool them into essential oils."
Huayue was stunned and stopped moving in her hands: "Two stoves?"