Li Zhi couldn't make sense with the head of the Cai family, so he got up and left.
Walking outside the Cai family, Li Zhi saw the son who had been kicked out of the house by the head of the Cai family kneeling outside the door.
Li Zhi thought that the head of the Cai family had taught his son how to make porcelain, and secretly thought that this man was also a talent. It might be possible to hire him, so he asked: "Young man, what are you kneeling there for?"
The young man glanced at Li Zhi, lowered his head and said, "Master, I have been kicked out of my house. I can only kneel here and beg my father to forgive me. Otherwise, I will have no career outside and I will starve to death sooner or later."
Li Zhi asked: "Are you willing to marry the daughter of the Han family?"
The young man shook his head and gritted his teeth and said, "I only have Cui'er as my wife in this life!"
Li Zhi laughed when he heard this and said threateningly: "If you want to marry Cui'er, how can your father let you go home? I'm afraid that even if you kneel to death here, your father will not change his mind!"
When the young man heard what Li Zhi said, his face was full of panic, and he asked in a panic: "Master, what do you think I should do?"
Li Zhi blinked and said with a smile: "Why don't you elope with Cui'er?"
The young man thought that Li Zhi was going to help him with some ideas, but he didn't expect that he would elope. He immediately lost his energy and murmured: "With this chaos of war, where will I run with Cui'er? Sooner or later I will starve to death here."
A foreign land!"
Li Zhi clapped his hands, walked to the young man, and said slowly: "I heard that your father has taught you this skill for ten years. Do you know how to build a kiln?"
The young man looked at Li Zhi and said, "I can do it! From building a kiln to choosing a crucible to molding and firing the kiln, I can do it all. I am no worse than my father." After thinking about it, he added, "But building a porcelain kiln
To buy various materials, the cost will be several hundred taels of silver. I can't build it with nothing."
"Do you really know how to build a kiln?"
"I really know how to do it. I even improved my porcelain kiln!"
When Li Zhi heard this, he became energetic and said loudly: "Then I will show you a clear path! Come to Fanjiazhuang to build a kiln for me!"
The young man looked at Li Zhi's official robe, thought for a moment, lowered his head and said, "No, even if I starve to death, I can't reveal the family's porcelain-making skills!"
Li Zhi scolded: "What are you leaking? I don't want you to burn porcelain, as long as you build a high-temperature cave to burn glass!"
The young man on the ground was stunned, looked up at Li Zhi, his eyes were shining brightly, and asked: "Burning glass?"
Li Zhi nodded and said: "Yes, glass burning! You build a kiln according to my instructions. You don't need to use your family's secret knowledge of porcelain burning. You just need to build a high-temperature kiln. You help me work and I will give you four dollars a month."
Two months’ money, and I’ll give you a villa at a cheap price, which is enough for you and Tweety to live in!”
The young man on the ground finally reacted and looked at Li Zhi in surprise: "As long as an old porcelain worker can build a kiln, why did the official choose me?"
Li Zhi said: "It is said that your Cai family has the most solid craftsmanship. Do you want to do it?"
The young man quickly replied: "I'll do it! I'll do it! This job won't reveal my family's ancestral skills at all. I'll do it, Lord!"
Li Zhi nodded with a smile and asked, "What's your name?"
"My nickname is Cai Huaishui."
Li Zhi reached out and took out twelve taels of silver from his arms and said, "Cai Huaishui, I believe you can build a kiln. I will give you three months' monthly payment first. You take the money and go and make a call with Cui'er."
Say hello, send ten taels of silver to the girl's family, and it will be regarded as an engagement. You and I will go to Fanjiazhuang to build a kiln, and save dozens of taels of silver in a few months to come back and marry Cui'er!"
"Of course, the premise is that you can help me build a glass kiln. If you can't build the kiln in a few months, you can go home and marry a girl from the Han family."
The young man was overjoyed to see that Li Zhi had thought so thoughtfully. He couldn't help but shed tears in his surprise. He wiped away his tears, got up from the ground, took the money, nodded and said, "Master, I will definitely build it for you."
Glass kiln!"
Li Zhi nodded and asked Cai Huaishui to go to Cui'er's house to say hello. Li Zhi took a flight and bought a horse in the county town. When Cai Huaishui came back, he took the horse to him.
"How did it go with the Cui'er family?"
"I told his father that I got a job worth four or two months, and his father happily accepted my money!" After a pause, Cai Huaishui said with a smile: "Tui'er is very happy!"
Li Zhi smiled and said, "That's all. Get on your horse and follow me to Fanjiazhuang."
When they arrived at Fanjiazhuang, after Li Zhi emphasized the probability of keeping it secret, he showed Cai Huaishui the drawings of the glass kiln he designed. In addition to the main furnace and heat storage room, Li Zhi also designed an annealing channel.
The so-called annealing is to control the temperature change to gradually cool down the high-temperature material at an appropriate speed to eliminate the residual stress inside the material. If the residual stress is not eliminated, the glass will crack on its own.
Li Zhi and Cai Huaishui explained: The purpose of this kiln is to heat the glass raw material in the crucible to a temperature slightly higher than that of porcelain, so that the material can be completely melted into a glass liquid, saltpeter is added to remove color, and then it is annealed in the annealing channel.
Finally, it was clarified and defoamed with salt, poured into a molding machine, and molded. Following this idea, Li Zhi asked Cai Huaishui to design the glass kiln.
Cai Huaiguo is indeed an old porcelain worker. He is familiar with all the techniques of later generations mentioned by Li Zhi, and he is confident that he can make this kiln.
Li Zhi gave Cai Huaishui a thousand taels of silver to purchase various materials. Li Zhi also allocated a piece of land in the southeast of Fanjiazhuang City for Cai Huaishui to build a factory, and hired five handymen to work as helpers and apprentices for Cai Huaishui.
They followed Cai Huaishui to build a kiln for burning glass.
The glass kiln is under construction here, and the six-pounder gun Li Zhi wants has been completed over there.
On March 20, the five gunsmiths finally completed various tests and finalized the six-pounder gun.
Although the 650-pound iron-core copper-bodied cannon did not explode even after a hundred rounds of test firing, the explosion was a big deal. It would cost the life of the artilleryman. Even one shot in a thousand rounds could not explode. For insurance reasons
For the sake of safety, the gunsmiths finally finalized the six-pounder gun to the 750-pound standard. Under this standard, the double-layered chamber wall of the gun was thick enough to completely ensure the life safety of the artillerymen and would not make the artillerymen afraid to fire the gun.
.
On the 21st, the two six-pound cannons were officially test-fired on the sandy ground south of Fanjiazhuang.
Li Zhi also came specially to observe this test firing. Not only Li Zhi came, but many people and children in the city also came to see the cannon. These people gathered around the cannon for several times, and finally Li Zhi had to send twenty additional soldiers.
Come and maintain order.
According to Li Zhi's design, two six-pound guns were mounted on a two-wheeled gun carriage. Each gun also had a front carriage for placing ammunition boxes, which was also two-wheeled. During transportation, the gun carriage and the front carriage were connected to the
Together, they form a four-wheeled carriage for easy towing. Each artillery carriage is equipped with four horses to ensure the speed of the artillery march.
The gunsmiths drove the artillery carriage to the sandy ground, released the blocking bolt between the artillery carriage and the front carriage, and set the artillery gun on the sandy ground.
Seeing the artillery being set up, the onlookers cheered and everyone covered their ears to watch the cannon fire its shells.
