On the east bank of Bashui, more than ten miles upstream of Bakou, the digging yard lined up along the river bank was busy. Many sand diggers put baskets of river sand on the shore and then carried them to the hydraulic sand picker not far away to stack them.

Each basket is replaced with a bamboo chip, and these bamboo chips can be exchanged for money, that is, the wages for digging sand.

The sand picker kept turning around under the driving of a water wheel, and initially screened the river sand falling at the entrance. The iron sand in the river sand was screened out and then transported to Huangzhou military weapons to supervise iron smelting, casting various weapons or agricultural tools.

The remaining river sand is transported to the glass kiln nearby. After these inconspicuous sand is entered into the kiln, the expensive glass comes out.

Under a sunshade, Lu Yu looked at the digging field in front of him and sighed secretly like other colleagues. The sand was actually the raw material for making glass or glazed glass, and no one could sit still if he knew it.

But if you can't sit still, you have to sit. People use sand to burn glass. If you pour the sand into the stove, the only thing that burns out is garbage.

What is the problem? In terms of the formula, sand is the main raw material for burning glass, but other things need to be added. What are these things? I don’t know.

If he knew, Lu Yu would have been rich eight years ago.

That year was the second year of the elephant. The two sons of the Anzhou general manager Yuwen Liang came to An6 from Chang'an. His adopted second son then began to sell glazed ornaments and products in the city. It is said that they were purchased from Western Regions merchants.

Indeed, the Western Regions merchants, such as the Sogdians, often came from Persia and the merchandisers in the extreme west, but where were the Western Regions merchants? There were some Sogdian settlements in Jingzhou, so everyone was wondering where the Xiyang County Duke bought the goods, and Lu Yu was one of them.

He was from An 6 people. After careful observation, it was found that Xiyang County Gong had a courtyard beside the riverside outside An 6 city, and it seemed that he was digging a lot of river sand. So after thinking about it for a few nights, Lu Yu also went to the riverside to dig river sand.

The river sand was drained and the mud and water were dried, and then put it in the jar and burned it with fire. As a result, it was too late to burn after burning for a long time. The pottery jar seemed not good, so he used a copper jar, but the bottom of the copper jar was still not good.

It seems that there are other things that Lu Yu has tried many recipes, but the results are not ideal. Of course, he occasionally burned small pieces of colored "suspected glazed glass", but they have no use value at all, so he had to give up in the end.

He had figured it out that Xiyang County Duke must have a recipe in his hand, so he could use river sand to burn out glass, but the recipe was very complicated. If ordinary people wanted to try it, it would be difficult to try it unless it was a coincidence.

Not to mention the magical glass treasure mirror, many people organized craftsmen to explore, but they just couldn't figure out the making process of glass treasure mirror.

If it were on weekdays, someone would definitely not be able to hold back and would go to "inviting" relevant people and "ask" relevant secrets. However, the Xiyang County Duke was sensitive and no one dared to make any decisions. So in the past eight years, everyone could only watch Yuwen Wen make money helplessly.

The same is true now. The glass workshop doesn’t care at all that others see them picking sand, and let the merchants who come to order see baskets of sand transported into the kiln. This behavior is to show off: So what if you see it? If there is no recipe, don’t even think about it!

The merchants in the shed all had helpless expressions. They also figured out the key. River sand is the main raw material for burning glass, but they can't burn it out by themselves, so the formula is the key.

The King of Xiyang paid tribute to the emperor, and the news had already spread when the convoy left. The glass floor-to-ceiling windows displayed by shops in Xiyang City made merchants from all over the south of Shannan come to hear about it. When everyone gathered in Xiyang, there was also news in Yecheng.

Glass windows were installed in the palace and the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the court was very tolerant of glass windows and allowed to use them among the people, as long as a single glass piece was not only in the specified size.

From the convoy carrying glass to Yecheng, then merchants from all over the country went to Xiyang, and news came from Yecheng that everyone was in Xiyang, and the glass workshop just happened to burn a lot of glass.

In just over a month, everything was so coincidental that it was no longer coincidental. The intention of the King of Xiyang was obvious: he wanted to make a lot of money with glass.

Many people are upset: Why are they not chosen by the King of Xiyang?

The secret of glass is now except for King Xiyang, only the official kilns in Huangzhou and a few folk kilns. No one dares to fight the idea of ​​the official kiln. I am afraid that the folk kilns will be difficult, because according to some rumors, the owners of those glass workshops spent a lot of money to get the recipe from King Xiyang.

Some people say that each company spent tens of thousands of yuan or hundreds of thousands of yuan, and there were many different opinions. No one thought the price was expensive anyway, because what they saw with their own eyes now makes them want to spend a lot of money to buy the recipe.

On the open space outside the pergola, there were dense wooden boxes. The merchants who were placing the numbers led their followers to order goods. The pieces of glass were carefully inspected by them, and then they carefully packed them, and then carried them to the dock beside the Bashui side to load them.

The cargo ship full of glass flows downstream, enters the Yangtze River through Bakou, and then goes upstream, either through Jiankou to An 6, or from Hankou to Han River, to Xiangyang, Rangcheng, Jingzhou or to Jiangling, Liangguo.

Merchants took light circulation coupons and bought a large amount of glass to transport it back. The profit was doubled, so they were not afraid of the price being expensive, but were afraid that the output would not increase.

There are many rumors from the outside world that are false. The price of glass is indeed expensive, but it is still within the affordability of rich people, and the output is also very large. Although there are many merchants who are rushing to buy, it is not as exaggerated as the so-called orders are scheduled for a few months.

Because all the glass workshops in Huangzhou are ready, each workshop has at least four large glass kilns. Although the output is tight, it can barely meet the current demand.

Lu Yu looked at the mountains of wooden boxes piled up on the open space and the busy scene on the pier, roughly estimated the daily sales of this glass workshop, and then sighed, feeling extremely helpless.

Even if the owner of this workshop spent 200,000 yuan to buy the recipe from Xiyang King, according to the current shipment volume, he would probably be able to make a profit in just a few months. The next thing is pure profit, which is hard to imagine.

So if the workshop owner is full, will the glass formula be leaked out?

According to what the King of Xiyang said to the court, only the Huangzhou territory can burn transparent glass. No one really believes this. However, since the imperial court has Huangzhou official kiln tribute glass, it will not be too confused about what the formula of glass is, so it is even more difficult for others to ask the secret from the King of Xiyang.

The King of Xiyang actually turned transparent glass into a specialty of Huangzhou. This is really touching. Although I don’t know the recipe, since I have to sell it, then everyone should queue up to buy it honestly. The more I buy, the more I earn.

"Look, look, it's Hu Shang!"

Someone whispered and pointed in one direction. Lu Yu looked in the direction and saw a large convoy packing there, while several Hu people with high eyes and deep noses were talking to people.

"Is it Sogdian Hu merchants? They also came here to purchase goods? The news is really well-informed."

"How can we not be well-versed? The old business is about to lose money when we see it. How can they not be anxious? Hehe."

Someone laughed and said, "How do you say this?"

"Don't you know? Sogdian Hu merchants have been trafficking various Western treasures from the Western Regions to the Central Plains over the past few hundred years. Isn't one of them all kinds of glass objects? Isn't this an old business? What about now?"

"It is said that the King of Xiyang presented a colorful glass recipe to the court. The official kilns in Yecheng have already begun to be tested. In the future, Yecheng can also make a large number of colorful glass objects. Will the nobles buy glasses from him from Sogdian human traffickers?"
Chapter completed!