Chapter 1,39 Technology

Ouyang Chengxu only knew that these gifts were all high-quality products, and even if they were sold to the domestic market, they were valuable. Now he realized that these things naturally had reasons for their great value. There may only be one in each batch of goods, and this thing must be inspected by several links. The first is naturally the inspection of the workshop, and the best one was selected. The second is the inspection of the chamber of commerce. It is confirmed that it meets the standards and is truly flawless. The third is the court. If every link cannot be inspected, the goods are destined to be unable to become the best product, nor can they become a diplomatic gift!

Each chamber of commerce naturally has its own way of development, and even if your own family wants to join the chamber of commerce, there is still a lot to learn!

Although my elder brother is in charge of his home workshops, Ouyang Chengxu still feels that it is very necessary for him to tell him after he goes back so that he will feel overwhelmed after joining.

After the visit, Ouyang Chengxu felt a lot of emotion. The so-called laymen watched the excitement and the experts looked at the tricks. In the past, he only knew that he would make money after joining the chamber of commerce, but now he knew that it was very difficult to make money when joining. In this regard, he had to abide by various relevant laws. On the other hand, he had to learn other people's advanced things, but today he learned a lot!

"How does it feel after seeing this?"

Ding Zicai asked with a smile!

Ouyang Chengxu sighed and said with a smile: "To be honest, I feel deeply today, and I can see how much the imperial court attaches great importance to this mission. The porcelain used as a gift alone seems so precious. And there are so many processes that it is so numerous that it is unbelievable."

Ding Zicai smiled slightly and said, "It's very normal for you to feel a lot of emotions. After all, it's your first time to come into contact with these, so of course you don't know some of these things, but now you know a little!"

Ouyang Chengxu nodded and said, "I understand a lot now!"

"But that's not enough!"

Ding Zicai immediately said, "What you know now is just some things about related gifts, but this is not enough. For you, you need to know more!"

Ouyang Chengxu couldn't help but say, "So what else do I need to know?"

Ding Zicai was not polite at all and murmured: "Business, agriculture, military... etc., you must know some of these!"

"so much?"

Ouyang Chengxu couldn't help but widen his eyes!

Ding Zicai nodded without hesitation and said, "Indeed, you need to know so much. What you are going to face is officials in other countries' different departments. If others ask about something related to you, you can't say that I don't know. However, we have an official with a certain department, you can ask him or something. On the one hand, you will seem very rude, on the other hand, it is a manifestation of disrespect for others, and in the eyes of others, you will also look down on you. In this way, it will have a great impact on your future contact with them!"

Ouyang Chengxu knew how much this had. Just like himself, he would not respect a person he looked down upon. Moreover, if others looked down on him, it would largely affect these people's perception of the Ming Dynasty!

The mission at this time is largely not as complicated as the diplomatic activities that were later, but there will naturally be no less intrigue. If there is a mistake in diplomatic activities, it will affect the entire Ming Dynasty. Jiang Lang uses Ouyang Chengxu, which is largely hoping to train a group of excellent diplomatic forces from the younger generation!

For Jiang Lang, knowing what role this diplomacy plays.

Ouyang Chengxu pondered for a moment, nodded, and said, "Well, that's fine, I'll learn!"

As Ding Zicai said, if someone asks yourself, why is your Ming army powerful? How was it trained? If I answered by myself, I am not very clear about this, but I think you can ask another adult, which is a big part of this that pushes dominance to others. There is one thing that the adult has the greatest requirement for him, firmly grasps dominance!

At this time, no matter what, you have to say something, and if you don’t say anything else, you must at least make others believe that what you are saying is true.

If you want to say it, you must have a basic understanding. If you don’t understand it, how can you say it is true and how can you convince others?

Even from now on, until you arrive in William's country, there are still several months left. As long as you work hard, you should learn a lot. This mission must not fail. This world is actually a world where the strong prey on the weak, and no one will praise a loser.

For a teacher, it is the most gratifying thing to teach. Ding Zicai also felt that he was not afraid that you would start late, nor did he know nothing, but that you were lazy and didn’t learn anything. In that case, even if you help, it would be mud and rotten wood would not be carved. He smiled and said, “That’s right, and there is only a lot of effort. For you, there is still a lot of knowledge lacking in this regard. Tomorrow, all the adults who are going to work in one place will be concentrated in one place. These adults include various departments. If you don’t understand, you might as well ask for advice. These three people must have my teacher. I think you should be very clear about this. On the other hand, if you ask these adults at this time, don’t have any shame or other ideas. Although some of their official positions are not as high as yours, they have worked hard in the officialdom for many years and know more than you.”

What Ding Zicai is most worried about now is actually the young man Ouyang Chengxu. He is thin-skinned and is very difficult for them to ask questions. After all, it is not very easy to do so, but he knows it is not very comprehensive. Of course, there is no way to be with those adults. Therefore, Ouyang Chengxu must be qualified and asking these adults is very necessary, but on the other hand, this is also a very risky thing, because Ouyang Chengxu is the leader of this mission. If he asks these adults, will there be another situation? It is to expose the situation that he does not know anything to these adults.

At present, these adults naturally look down on Ouyang Chengxu in their hearts. If they look down on them, will they obey Ouyang Chengxu's orders honestly in the future? Although these adults have worked with them before, that was two years ago. I listed their names at the beginning, on the one hand because their official positions are not as great as Ouyang Chengxu, at most they are the same size. In this way, there will be no big gap in control. It is not easy for everyone to accept high-ranking officials to listen to low-ranking officials. On the other hand, I believe that these adults have not changed much in two years.

It’s not that Ouyang Chengxu has no brains. With a slight use of his brain, he will understand the meaning of the court. He will first gather himself and these adults and have an understanding of each other. If there is any problem, it can be exposed now and then solved. It is better than exposing him when he is on missions in the future. He will also have time to understand these adults who will go on missions with him. This will help to get along with each other. After all, this matter cannot be accomplished by oneself, but many people, just like in a war.

Nodded immediately and said, "Well, I understand this!"

Ding Zicai felt a little relieved!

"What are you discussing? So mysterious?"

Murong Fu asked with a smile, watching the two of them whispering there, and then asked curiously!

Ding Zicai smiled and said, "What's there? By the way, Lord Murong, why don't we go to see other workshops while it's still early?"

Ding Zicai's suggestion Murong Fu did not refuse, and smiled and said, "Of course, let's go and see the next one, which is good at making bronze ware! It's not too far from here. Now if you have time, you can also go and see it!"

Ouyang Chengxu also had no objection, so the group got on the carriage and walked towards the next family. Not long after, they arrived at another family!

After learning about the purpose of the people, the boss quickly invited everyone in. The scale of this house is not as large as the one just now, and there were no sees many craftsmen making wooden boxes. However, in this house, I saw that the wooden boxes had been made. Like the previous house, the appearance of this wooden box was similar, almost the same, only the patterns were different from the marks representing the merchants on it!

As gifts, the outer packaging are actually similar. This is also a unified standard. It is just a difference in patterns and marks. This is also a relatively unified regulation. This is also to avoid the occurrence of things that should not happen. Because this incident has happened before. At the beginning, the product as gifts had no regulations on the outer packaging and was chosen by these merchants themselves. Everyone knows that once the product becomes a gift, it will be a double value. Because it is given to either the princes and nobles of other countries or powerful people. Once ordinary products are hung with names such as royals and other names, it will be different. It is said that these people pay more attention to their own products. Some of them have put a lot of effort into the outer packaging. This has caused two serious consequences. One is the merchants' party.

The competition has become a kind of competition similar to evil deeds. The packaging is becoming more and more gorgeous, and it is almost exceeding the value of the goods inside, and the cost is greatly increased. On the other hand, this has also caused the comparison between those who receive gifts. It is better to say that those who win, and those who lose are scattered this anger on the Ming Dynasty. In this way, it has also had a very adverse impact on the relationship between the two countries. Later, the court discovered this and made a special provision on this issue. First, the right to manufacture the packaging box is left to the merchants themselves. Second, the appearance of the packaging box is in the same style as the court, and third, all packaging boxes are made of the same wood. In this way, these trends of comparison are stopped and also greatly save costs. Therefore, the boxes Ouyang Chengxu saw are the same, and the only difference is the size and pattern.

After looking at the box, Ouyang Chengxu also looked at the gifts, but at this time he was surprised to find that there were some gold utensils mixed in the gifts. Murong Fu said just now that gold utensils and jewelry were forbidden from flowing out of the country. Why were there utensils made of gold here in the ranks of gifts? He couldn't help but ask strangely: "Mr. Murong, why are these utensils made of gold? Lord Murong said before that the court explicitly prohibited these gold and silver utensils from flowing out of the country."

Murong Fu smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Ouyang, this is not a gold and silver vessel, but just a gilt or a gold paste on the bronze vessel.

Gilding is the synthesizing of gold and mercury into amalgam, applied to the surface of the copper ware, and then heated to evaporate the mercury, and the gold adheres to the surface of the utensil. The records of gold amalgam were first seen in the "Zhou Yi Shen Tongqi" by Wei Boyang, an alchemist in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The records of gilding technology were first seen in the Liang Dynasty. "Compendium of Materia Medica. Mercury Bars" quoted Tao Hongjing of the Liang Dynasty: Mercury "can digest gold and silver to make mud, and people use it to plating objects." This record was about eight centuries later than the appearance of gilding objects. In fact, this technology had appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was called "Jintu" or "Yellow Tu" in the Han Dynasty.

In ancient copper ornaments, there was also silver plating. The process method was similar to gilding, and silver and mercury agent were applied to the surface of the vessel. Identifying whether the surface of a utensil was gilded, mainly to identify whether there was mercury remaining on the surface of the artifact. The development of the gilding process reached its peak in the Han Dynasty. Most noble tombs in the Han Dynasty had gilding. Unlike the Warring States Period, only small pieces were applied, but there were many large gilding plating tools. The gilding craftsmanship was often combined with silver plating, inlay and other techniques, integrating a variety of decorative techniques.

Golding is also an ancient technique and a treasure of traditional folk crafts of the Chinese nation. Our ancestors had the awareness of cherishing gold more than 5,000 years ago and mastered the technology of putting on gold sheets. By the Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, my country's golding technology became more and more mature, and was widely used for decorations of imperial palaces and nobles or Buddha statues and temples to show their magnificence or dignity.

The gold used in these two methods is actually very small, and to a large extent it is just a decorative effect. It is like applying a layer of paint on the surface of wooden products. At the same time, gilding and gilding are also representative technologies of Chinese handicrafts, which can also make these technologies shine. At the same time, the cost of copper can be exchanged for the price of gold. This is something the court is very happy to do, and these gilding or gilding vessels can be regarded as the top of these export goods, and the price is naturally very expensive.

Scarcity is precious, so the amount of these products produced each year is limited, which is to ensure that the price will not decrease due to the large number of products. At the beginning, the imperial court classified these gilded or gold-plated things as luxury goods, from the mysterious oriental powers, and gilded on the surface of bronze ware in an almost magical way. These alone can double their value, which is naturally not something that ordinary people can own. This is completely a symbol of identity and status, just like the luxury goods such as limited edition sports cars in later generations.

Ouyang Shu felt a little feverish on his face. He spoke without knowing it clearly. Now, it was so embarrassing. He smiled awkwardly and sighed: "This master's skills are really great. When I saw this thing, I never thought that it was gilded on the surface of the bronze ware. Because it was made of gold, just like this golden Buddha, I thought it was really made of pure gold!"

Although the country on this mission did not believe in Buddhism, the people of the Ming Dynasty believed it, so this golden Buddha was largely a representative aspect of the Ming culture. Of course, those who received gifts only regarded this as a rare work of art, rather than a question of what beliefs they had.

Using a praise to resolve the embarrassment caused by his own lack of understanding, and speaking sincerely, Ouyang Chengxu did this very appropriately, which made Ding Zicai and others' views on Ouyang Chengxu have improved a little!

Ding Zicai also smiled and said, "No wonder you read it wrong. Actually, I read it wrong just now. If it weren't for Lord Murong's reminder, I would still be wondering, would this Golden Buddha really be made of gold?"

Ding Zicai belittled himself, and on the one hand he also comforted Ouyang Chengxu. This is not only because you have read it wrong, but I have read it wrong. If this matter is considered embarrassing, then we two will be embarrassing together!

Murong Fu laughed at this time and said, "This also shows that the worker's skill is so skillful that he can be fake and real. We have had similar situations before. When those Gentiles bought our gilded things, they also cut them to see if they were gold. They also found that this was not gold at all, but just a thin layer of gold. They were surprised by this. They could not figure out how to put this gold on this bronze ware. Some people even came across the ocean for thousands of miles, with the purpose of learning our technology, but our technology may be easily taught to them, so they don't know what's going on now!"
Chapter completed!