On February 21, news came from the capital: Luo Zhending was found guilty of corruption and perversion of the law. He embezzled 56,700 taels of military pay during his three-year tenure in Zhenhaiying, Tianjin. He was also charged with annexing the property of good people and privately transferred to the general barracks.
The army and horses committed several crimes and were punished for their own personal gain, so they were abandoned at Caishikou in the capital. At the same time, the Luo family was ransacked, and all the confiscated property was confiscated to supplement Luo Zhending's embezzled military pay.
Luo Zhending's family members were all kicked out of the General Military Mansion. Those who had relatives and friends defected to their relatives and friends, while those who had no relatives and friends fled to live on the streets.
Fortunately, Luo Zhending kept his mouth shut and did not confess to bribing various officials in Tianjin in prison. Otherwise, the counterattack of these officials would turn Luo Zhending's abandonment of the market into a murderous clan.
When the news came, the officialdom of Tianjin was shocked. Seeing the fate of the Luo family, all the officials secretly said that Li Zhi was so favored by the emperor that he could not be bullied. Those who had previously coveted Li Zhi's property were now frightened and hurried
After calling it a day, Li Zhi's position in Tianjin's official circles became somewhat more stable in a short period of time.
Li Zhi saw the reactions of these people and was secretly happy. Being able to deter these little scumbags greatly improved Li Zhi's property security.
On the night when the news came, Li Zhi wore the imperial Feiyu uniform and held a banquet for his subordinates in the official hall of Fanjiazhuang. Hundreds of managers and officers from various lines had a lively dinner with meat and wine. Li Zhi was very happy at the banquet.
Tables were toasting one by one. Everyone was very excited and drank happily.
The lively banquet announced to the outside world Li Zhi's great victory in this struggle.
I heard that the general who coveted the general's property was abandoned by the emperor, and the people of Fanjiazhuang were also very happy. The general's property was saved, and the good life of the people of Fanjiazhuang was saved. Many wealthy families took out firecrackers to set off, and the children were
Chasing and playing around the firecrackers created a joyful atmosphere in the city.
After a night of commotion, Fanjiazhuang gradually calmed down in Hainan.
Li Zhi drank a lot, and the next day the sun was so high that he got up and saw Cui He dressing up in front of the bronze mirror with a big belly.
Li Zhi still smelled of alcohol and said to Cui He: "Madam, your mirror is too shabby. I will make you a mirror that can see your eyelashes clearly!"
Cui He turned around happily and said hurriedly: "That's what you said! Don't go back on your word!"
Li Zhi was amused by Cui He's childishness and said with a smile: "Hanging yourself with a hook will not change for a hundred years!"
Cui He knew that Li Zhi had laughed at her for being naive again, so he turned around and went back.
Li Zhi got up from the bed and really decided to get a glass mirror. The bronze mirrors of this era were so ineffective that they could only see the eyes and nose vaguely.
Li Zhi wants to make a tin-amalgam glass mirror. This kind of mirror uses tin-amalgam to reflect light, and uses glass and tree paint to protect the tin-amalgam coating. It can not only clearly illuminate people's faces, but is also durable.
But to make such a mirror, you must first make a tin amalgam alloy. Tin is easy to handle, and there are businessmen operating it in Tianjin Acropolis. Li Zhi sat on the bed, wondering where he could get mercury on a large scale. After thinking about it,
Li Zhi had no clue and decided to ask.
Li Zhi recruited Xue Yuanwai, who ran an alkaline noodle business. Xue Yuanwai traveled all over the country and met many people. Now that Li Zhigui is the commander of the second-level capital, he does not need to come to a businessman in person, he can just send someone to summon him.
When Xue Yuanwai heard the call of the guerrilla general, he rushed over from Tianjin City. After entering the official hall and seeing Li Zhi, Xue Yuanwai knelt down before taking his seat.
Upon hearing Li Zhi's inquiry, Yuan Xue raised his hands and said: "Sir Guerrilla, as far as I know, there is no merchant in Tianjin City who sells mercury!"
Li Zhi was a little disappointed and asked: "What should I do if I want a large amount of mercury?"
Mr. Xue stroked his beard and thought for a while, then said, "Sir, you can buy cinnabar from the medicine store and then find someone to refine the mercury."
"Looking for someone to refine mercury? Who to look for?"
Xue Yuanwai said: "I know a true Taoist priest. He has a pomegranate jar for refining mercury. I will introduce him to you!"
Li Zhi replied: "It's all thanks to Yuan Xue's introduction!"
Xue Yuanwai said: "This Taoist priest is called Cao Shoudao, and he lives in Tianjin Wei City. If you want to see the Taoist priest's live demonstration, why not come with me to the Taoist priest's home to find him!"
"Then let's go together!"
Li Zhi took several servants with flags and flags, and rode with Xue Yuanwai to Tianjin Acropolis. Li Zhi entered Tianjin City and found that the Taoist priest's house was located in the west of the city. It was a two-door building.
The small courtyard was quite elegantly decorated. When Li Zhi saw the courtyard, he felt that this was a true Taoist priest.
Xue Yuanwai patted the courtyard door, and a child with his head in a corner opened the courtyard door. Xue Yuanwai explained the purpose of his visit, and the child ran into the courtyard to report the news. After a while, a boy wearing a Xiaoyao scarf and wearing a Buddhist robe appeared.
The Taoist priest came and welcomed them into the courtyard.
There is an alchemy furnace in the yard, and the side room is filled with large and small clay pots. It seems that this is a Taoist priest who knows how to alchemy.
The Taoist priest was tall and thin, with a long beard and a whisk stuck in his clothes. He didn't put on any airs. When he saw Li Zhi's outfit, he knelt down and saluted, and then stood up to speak.
"I have a path from the Tianshi sect. The name of the path is Cao Shoudao, and the name is Lingxu Sanren. I have met you, sir."
Li Zhi asked kindly: "Does Taoist Cao know how to extract mercury?"
"What I'm going to do next is extract it from a pomegranate jar! If you want to see it, Pindao can give a live demonstration!"
"Then let me take a look!"
Cao Shoudao took the two of them into the house, took out a pottery jar, and said, "This is the pomegranate jar!"
Li Zhi nodded.
Cao Shoudao took out a paper bag from a clay pot in the side room, opened it, and found a bag of cinnabar ground into powder.
He filled the pomegranate jar with cinnabar powder until it was nine-tenths full. Then he filled the jar neck with rice ash. He took out a tile cover that was the same size as the jar mouth, with a hole in the middle, and used filaments to cover it.
Tie a crosshair on the tile cover and fasten it to the mouth of the jar.
Cao Shoudao turned the pomegranate jar upside down and inserted it on a "water jar" with the same hole diameter, a certain depth, and filled with water. The interface between the two was sealed, and then the two connected jars were hung.
Inside the "Danzao", the bottom and sides of the water jar are filled with soil, leaving only the pomegranate jar exposed above the soil surface.
The next step is to place a charcoal fire on the soil surface and bake it around and on the top of the pomegranate jar. The main component of cinnabar is mercury sulfide, which will decompose into sulfur and mercury vapor when heated. Mercury vapor is highly toxic, but Cao Shoudao
The device is sealed, and all the mercury vapor flows into a tank of cold water below for cooling.
Sure enough, not long after heating, liquid mercury appeared in the jar below.
