Wanli Xinming

Chapter 25 Trivial Notes ([-])

In April of the first year of Wanli, the city of Beijing was already shrouded in greenery.The palaces in the Forbidden City are in full bloom.The windows of the palaces were torn from the thick mulberry paper and replaced with a breathable and translucent veil.

Some windows of Qianqing Palace and Ciqing Palace were replaced with green glass.These glasses are the first batch of flat glass fired by Zhang Jing's in-house craftsmen.Although the size is uneven, the thickness is different, and there are many bubbles and impurities, the Empress Dowager Rensheng likes the other ones.

Zhu Yijun once persuaded Empress Dowager Rensheng to wait until the production of flat glass was stable, and then replace it uniformly.The Empress Dowager Rensheng said, "I see the sky burning butter candles, and my eyes hurt, but I can't wait." I would rather change the windows to adapt to the glass than wait for the second batch.

Therefore, in the warm pavilion of Ciqing Palace, some of the wooden bars of the window lattices have become triangular, some have become trapezoidal, and some are even circular.With the efforts of the carpenter, I try to decorate it into a symmetrical and beautiful shape, but it is not ugly to the point of irritating eyes.

At this time, in the bright and warm pavilion, palace ladies dressed in gold silk phoenix cardigans and green gauze stitched skirts played mahjong with the queen mother.

The mahjong was specially supervised by the emperor to build the two palaces of filial piety, and two pairs were made.All of them are jadeite carvings, 280 eight pieces of green and glossy without any variegation, and all the jade materials donated by the Burmese Army and Civilian Propaganda Department since the Hongwu period have been used up.

Zhu Yijun reckoned that each pair would cost more than a dozen or two billion yuan in the auction house after 500 years.Even now, if you want to find such a large piece of uniform and non-variegated jade in the whole world, you can't find it outside the Forbidden City.

The Empress Dowager Rensheng sat in a bank, and when she drew the cards again, there were actually ten slips in the thirteen cards, and there were four pairs. .

Mrs. Wang Shi, who was playing mahjong with Xin Ningbo, was very happy to see Ci Yan, and she guessed that the queen mother was a big name.Looking up at the palace maid Yue'e behind the queen mother, the palace maid nodded, touched her head with her hands, pinched her nose, and squeezed her eyes.

In less than half a cup of tea, Mrs Wang played a nine of a kind, and the Empress Dowager Rensheng pushed the card down and said with a smile, "The Tan family can 'cannon'!"

When they saw the cards, they were all seven pairs of luxury. The Queen Mother of Nine had already had three cards, and Wang Shi played the last card, which was indeed a "point of cannon".

Mrs. Wang opened her purse, counted out a handful of golden beans, and sent them to the queen mother, saying: "Uncle today knew that the concubine was here to accompany the queen mother mahjong, and he instructed me: 'The queen mother's family is rich in gold and silver, but you need to be refreshed and go home. Draw some ', but unexpectedly the queen mother is so lucky, the concubine only has the share of filial piety!"

In one sentence, the Empress Dowager Rensheng had a kind face and Dayue, and she said with a wide-eyed smile: "Since the emperor honors me with this new leaf card, we can be considered to have a new family! If you don't touch it this day, I really don't think about it! Come and come again!" Yue E waited to help shuffle the cards, and the queen mother said: "No need, it's fun to build this 'city wall' by yourself!"

During the talk, the four laps are over.Na Yue'e persuaded: "The queen mother, the emperor said that this mahjong will cause people to sit for a long time, which is not good for the body. After playing four laps, it will be looser."

Although Empress Dowager Rensheng was gloomy, she listened to her advice.Just because when she first came into contact, she played day and night, and the pain in her cervical spine was unbearable. At this time, she was no longer stubborn, so she stood up and walked around, drinking tea and chatting with everyone.

When the other two ordered wives to go out and relieve themselves, Mrs Wang took a chance and knelt down and said, "Today, the concubine is shameless, and I want to ask for a favor."

The Empress Dowager Rensheng pulled her face down and sneered: "The emperor said that he ordered his wife to enter the palace to play cards, and he could not help but ask our family for it, as expected!"

That Wang Shi's face was flushed, and he was about to bleed, and cried, "The concubine had no face to say that the uncle was rolling around at home, and he only took the concubine and the child to vent his anger. He pulled up his sleeves, revealing patches of dark blue on his arms.

Empress Dowager Chen saw that she was crying, but she couldn't bear it.First, he said angrily, "You bastard! A man's family can't stand up, but you and your children suffer." Then he sighed and said with a smile: "Well, what's the matter? But I've agreed in advance, if it's difficult, I'll find the emperor. I can't even open my mouth."

Wang cried and said: "It's not a big deal. A few days ago, when the emperor was in charge, there were more than 100 officials who hadn't arrived when the censor called. Our family's bastard was the first one. Don't dare to hide the truth from the queen mother, uncle is really slack.—— There have been a few times before, but they were all fines. I didn't expect that the emperor would lose his title of uncle!"

The Empress Dowager Rensheng frowned.Wei Wei: "If it's about marriage and retirement, I'm easy to say. We don't dare to accept the appointment or dismissal of Zang from a foreign court."

Mrs Wang cried, "Please be merciful to the Queen Mother. The title that our ancestors took for their lives was lost today because of such a thing. Uncle has to die to thank our ancestors! Who else can we count on leaving us orphans and widowed mothers?" said Stop bang bang and kowtow, choked for words.

The Empress Dowager Rensheng felt numb, gave herself a few mouths in her heart, and secretly said, "I don't dare to let foreign women come to play." She had to say something lively: "Well, I know, take a chance and tell the emperor. Said, it is impossible, there is no way.”

Wang Shi's original intention was to ask the Queen Mother to avoid Xinning Bo Tan Guozuo's punishment. Seeing that the Queen Mother's face was not worried, she did not dare to ask again, so she quickly thanked her.When the queen mother was crying, she lost the mood to continue playing, and today's poker game broke up.

In the Wuying Hall at this time, Zhang Jing was bringing the craftsmen of the inner government to report to Zhu Yijun about the manufacture of the flat glass.

Zhu Yijun knew that there was a crucible before, so he asked the craftsman to use the molten glass from the crucible to blow it with an iron pipe. As for how to blow it, he had no idea.

Some craftsmen studied for a few days, using a pipe to rotate and blowing, blowing the glass liquid into a large bubble, laying it flat and cutting it, the glass liquid is naturally flattened to form a flat glass.

It's just that this method uses centrifugal force, so the middle is thick and the edges are thin.If it is placed in an unstable position, it will inevitably come out in a twisted manner, which will lead to the ugly appearance of the glass windows of Ciqing Palace.

At this time, Zhang Jing played: "Your Majesty, this craftsman is good at blowing glass, and there is a trick to blow glass into a cylindrical shape, cut it from the middle with a sharp blade, and put it on both sides, but it is flat and neat." After that, the two craftsmen presented two pieces of glass two feet square. When Zhu Yijun saw it, it was really flat.

Zhu Yijun saw that the craftsman-in-waiting introduced by Zhang Jing was strong, but his cheeks were slack.With a very happy face, he said, "Well done! What reward do you want?"

At that time, the craftsman didn't expect that he would still have a holy day, and he almost wet his pants with excitement.Kneeling there, I only know how to kowtow, but I can't say a word.

Knowing that Zhu Yijun was good at writing big characters, Zhang Jing said, "The emperor might as well reward him with sub-characters, his family may have a family heirloom."

Zhu Yijun nodded, picked up a brush on the big case, wrote the four characters "Great Craftsman Ji Shi", signed "Wanli First Year Royal Brush", and took out a private seal with the words "Master of Physiology" from his purse. .

Then he said: "This method of blowing glass, you don't want to cherish it with a broom, but you have to lead your apprentices so that they know it well and can introduce new ones." After a pause, he continued: "I will reward you with 200 taels of palace silver, two pieces of the inside and outside, and give it to the inner government. Others make a show."

Zhang Jing was taken aback and said: "My lord, this reward is too generous. The most the emperor gave Mr. Zhang is 200 taels."

Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "It's okay, this time, the work of the craftsman should be widely publicized among the craftsmen, so that everyone can learn from him and contribute."

At that time, the craftsman thanked the reward and left the palace as if stepping on cotton.Under the escort of two guards, he went home with the things that the emperor had given him, and the whole shop was a sensation.

(End of this chapter)