Chapter 41: The Anxious Powerful Clans

Liu Zheng met Zheng Yue Ru at the County Marquis Mansion.

This eldest daughter of the Zheng Family entered the door with a remark that left even Liu Zheng baffled.

"Brother Liu, should I congratulate you, or should I sympathize with you?"

Zheng Yue Ru looked travel-worn, and she drank a cup of tea as soon as she sat down.

Liu Zheng was taken aback: "Miss Zheng, what do you mean by that?"

Zheng Yue Ru took a stack of Silver Notes from her pocket and chuckled: "The congratulations are for Brother Liu's advertising method, which has already opened up the market for several fine wines in Liangzhou; my Zheng Family's reserves were snatched up within three days! This is the ten thousand taels from this time, please keep it safe, Brother Liu!"

Liu Zheng was so excited upon hearing this that he wanted to hug Zheng Yue Ru and give her a big kiss.

It was truly like having a pillow handed to him just as he was getting sleepy.

He hadn't seen Zheng Yue Ru for a few days; it turned out she had gone to Liangzhou for a "promotion."

Ten thousand taels, enough for him to squander for a while longer.

"What about the sympathy?"

Liu Zheng put away the Silver Notes and looked at Zheng Yue Ru with confusion again.

Zheng Yue Ru sighed deeply, stood up, and cupped her hands: "Brother Liu's benevolent heart for the people is plain for all the people of Yinzhou to see, and it has even spread to the cities surrounding Yinzhou. But this time, Brother Liu's Production Team is truly ill-considered!"

Liu Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking to himself that she had come for this matter after all, and said with a relaxed smile: "I had thought that my County Marquis Mansion and the Zheng Family were already as close as brothers, but I didn't expect Miss Zheng to have come as a lobbyist as well?"

Over the past few days, as the County Marquis Mansion drafted the "Production Team" decree, many Powerful Clans and landlords had already come to the door to plead.

After all, this matter concerned the means of production controlled by these Powerful Clans; how could they not be anxious?

In every territory, there are actually two opposing factions that inevitably exist. In this era, these two factions are the Powerful Clans and the common people.

To rule this territory, one must either support the Powerful Clans and oppress the common people.

Or support the common people and oppose the Powerful Clans.

Liu Zheng naturally chose the common people because their base was large, and this was also driven by his own values.

Zheng Yue Ru gave a bitter smile: "How would Yue Ru dare? Yue Ru is only worried that Brother Liu's move will not only fail to achieve the expected results but will also affect the spring plowing at the start of the year!"

Liu Zheng looked unconvinced: "Why say so?"

Zheng Yue Ru explained patiently: "Yue Ru just rushed back to Yinzhou today and read this decree carefully. Brother Liu clearly stated in the decree that the Production Team leaders are to be chosen from farmer representatives, is that not so?"

Liu Zheng laughed heartily: "So Miss Zheng is worried about this?"

"That's right. Liu Zheng believes that farming affairs belong to the common people and should be managed by the common people! Miss Zheng, my mind is made up on this matter, no need to mention it again!"

He picked up his teacup, intending to see her out.

Zheng Yue Ru looked helpless, knowing that once this young master of the Liu Family decided on something, not even nine oxen could pull him back. She sighed deeply again, looked at Liu Zheng provocatively, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth: "Brother Liu, why don't we have another wager?"

Liu Zheng was stunned: "How shall we wager?"

Zheng Yue Ru took a deep breath: "Yue Ru bets that the Production Team decree will be difficult to implement and may even affect next year's spring plowing! If Yue Ru is lucky enough to win, then for the Ancient Thorn Water that has yet to enter the market, Brother Liu shall grant my Zheng Family one tenth!"

Liu Zheng found it quite interesting and laughed heartily: "And if I win?"

Zheng Yue Ru said: "If Brother Liu wins, the Zheng Family will waive the one-tenth profit of the Ancient Thorn Water! Furthermore, the Zheng Family will donate ten thousand slaves to the County Marquis Mansion free of charge!"

Liu Zheng was overjoyed to hear this and immediately agreed.

He didn't believe that such an advanced mode of production as the Production Team could possibly fail, let alone affect next year's spring plowing.

The two immediately drew up this "wager" contract.

Before leaving, Zheng Yue Ru looked deeply at Liu Zheng and warned: "Brother Liu, Liu Zhengyi of Yangzhou is engaging in militarism; it seems he is making moves, Brother Liu should be careful!"

"Lu Zhengyi?"

Liu Zheng sneered repeatedly upon hearing this.

This fellow occupied Yangzhou, which was much wealthier than Yinzhou, yet he couldn't even stop mountain bandits; Liu Zheng had never once taken him seriously. If he didn't provoke him, fine, but if he dared to provoke him first, Liu Zheng wouldn't mind teaching him how to behave.

After settling things with Zheng Yue Ru, Liu Zheng arrived at his Shen Gong Workshop again.

Sure enough, under the management of the Responsibility System, the Shen Gong Workshop had become orderly, with none of the previous chaos. The person in charge of each department didn't need to do manual labor; they only needed to manage.

Today, he was researching another divine object!

Glass!

The reason he had asked Zheng Yue Ru not to put the Perfume on the market yet was that the ceramic jars and bottles currently in Yinzhou were simply unworthy of a true "luxury item" like Perfume!

Good things must be paired with good bottles!

In fact, things like glass were not something that only existed in modern times. As early as 3700 BC, the people of ancient Egypt had already produced glass ornaments and simple glass vessels. But at that time, there was only colored glass; around 1000 BC, Huaxia produced colorless glass. At the beginning of the 12th century, commercial glass appeared and began to become an industrial material. In the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty, to meet the need for developing telescopes, optical glass was manufactured.

However, the glass of ancient China had always been relatively simple low-temperature lead-barium glass. Because of its chemical composition and firing temperature, it would shatter when it encountered hot water, so it could not be used as household vessels at all. This also led to ancient glass being used only as ornaments, unable to be applied to other fields.

And what Liu Zheng wanted to research today was Sodium-Calcium Glass!

This was truly practical glass—sturdy, durable, and would not shatter when exposed to heat.

"Is the young master doing scientific research again?"

"What is he going to make this time?"

"Who knows..."

A habit had probably formed; as long as Liu Zheng stayed in this Shen Gong Workshop for a few days without returning, he was definitely tinkering with something different!

As for the term "scientific research," it was something Liu Zheng had taught them.

The craftsmen understood and were quite expectant.

And this news would spread throughout all of Yinzhou in the first instance.

At this time.

The Wang Family.

Wang Zengming heard this news, and the decadence he had been feeling because of the Production Team was instantly swept away.

"What? Young Master Liu is doing scientific research again?"

"Quick, quick, quick, prepare my horse!"

"No matter what, this time we must get there before the Zheng Family and the Cao Family!"

Wang Zengming felt a surge of energy and rushed out of his house, gesticulating wildly.

With Drunken Yinzhou and Snow Cream, the Cao Family and Zheng Family had made a fortune, making others green with envy. This left Wang Zengming extremely frustrated, especially since his Wang Family hadn't managed to get their hands on anything!

This time, he had to be the first to get it!

Then, when he arrived at the entrance of the Shen Gong Workshop, he already saw the horse carriages of the other two families, and his face instantly darkened: "These two beasts, are they leaving any way for our Wang Family to survive?"

The Shen Gong Workshop was strictly confidential; ordinary people could not possibly get inside.

Thus, the horse carriages were parked at a safe distance outside the main gate of the Shen Gong Workshop, and although it was freezing cold, no one was willing to leave.

"Hahahaha, has Master Wang arrived as well?"

"Master Wang, you are late this time! We have been guarding here for two days!"

Wang Zengming was trembling with rage. He took one look, and sure enough, the masters of these two Powerful Clans had already placed stoves inside their carriages, with "Drunken Yinzhou" roasting on top; it seemed they had come prepared for a Protracted War.

"Hehe, you two are truly hardworking!"

Wang Zengming snorted, climbed into the carriage that had a stove, and sat down without standing on ceremony.

"Master Wang is certainly not one to stand on ceremony!"

"You two, don't go too far!"

"Enough idle talk, what is it that Young Master Liu has developed this time?"

The old man of the Zheng Family, Zheng Sheng, rolled his eyes and stroked his beard with a faint smile: "It probably has nothing to do with your two families."

"Old man of the Zheng Family, don't be arrogant!"

"That is not necessarily true!"

The three old men started arguing on the spot, staring at each other with wide eyes, like children fighting over toys. This was quite amusing to some passersby, who also sighed in their hearts: before this County Marquis and his son arrived, which of these Powerful Clan masters wasn't arrogant and looking down on people? Who would have thought that in just over a month, in front of the Liu Family's young master, they would be fawning and not even dare to let out a fart.

"Bring the wine!"

"Come, come, I'll have my steward bring a few pounds of meat!"

"Whoever gets drunk and falls over voluntarily withdraws from this competition!"

"Fine!"

Meanwhile, Liu Zheng inside the Shen Gong Workshop had already ruined three furnaces of glass.

This was within his expectations; if this stuff were really that easy to fire, given the wisdom of the Huaxia people, they would have already created it long ago.

The raw materials for making glass are quartz sand, limestone, feldspar, and soda ash.

As for this quartz sand and feldspar, they have existed since ancient times because both are important raw materials for ceramics, and our country's ceramics are famous overseas, so this quartz sand is still quite easy to obtain.

Limestone, Liu Zheng had already calcined this when he was in Yangzhou, so it was not difficult either.

And as for soda ash...

This was even simpler for Liu Zheng. Because natural soda ash mainly exists in salt lakes! If Liu Zheng were in any other city, this stuff would be very hard to get. But... this is Yinzhou!

Why did Liu Zheng choose Yinzhou as his fiefdom in the first place? Because there are salt lakes here, as well as salt mines!

Therefore, currently in the entire Longyan Dynasty, Yinzhou is probably the only place that can produce the kind of glass Liu Zheng wants!

With the materials complete, the next step is the craftsmanship.

First is the batching, which is the most time-consuming process because Liu Zheng needs to constantly explore the proportions. Mixing these materials evenly, every different proportion will directly affect the quality of the glass.

Then, the next step is calcination. Heating the prepared raw materials at high temperatures to form a uniform, bubble-free glass melt, generally between 1,200 and 1,600 degrees. This temperature can be achieved by the blast furnace in Liu Zheng's Shen Gong Workshop. The time required is four double-hours, which is more than eight hours, to fire it into a glass melt.

The third process is forming. What Liu Zheng currently wants to make are bottles for holding Perfume, so he had long since made molds out of ceramics. He only needed to pour the glass melt in, and then after a cooling process, the glass first changes from a viscous liquid state to a plastic state, and then into a brittle solid state.

The final step is annealing.

During the forming process, glass undergoes intense temperature changes and shape changes, and these changes leave thermal stress in the glass. This thermal stress reduces the strength and thermal stability of the glass products. If cooled directly, it is very likely to crack on its own during the cooling process or during subsequent storage, transportation, and use. In plain language, it means maintaining a certain temperature to keep it warm or cool it down slowly.

And Liu Zheng, during the production process, added a certain amount of lead, which allows the glass bottles to have a higher refractive index, enabling the bottles to produce dazzling refraction.

In other words, what he is making now is the Crystal Glass of later generations!

Then there is the colored glass of various colors.

This time is different from the previous few times; this is a real chemical reaction, so when Liu Zheng was experimenting, he had already chased everyone outside. Because if one is not careful, a chemical accident will occur.

He stayed in the Shen Gong Workshop for five days.

"Boom!"

That night, a sudden loud noise came from inside the Shen Gong Workshop.

"Ah!"

"What happened?"

"Young Master!"

The entire Shen Gong Workshop was thrown into a panic.