Jingdezhen is located on the bank of the Changjiang River, in the southeast inland of Daming and the northeast of Jiangxi Province. It is bounded by the Yellow Mountain to the northeast, the Huaiyu Mountain to the southeast, and the Poyang Lake Plain to the west.

The Changjiang River flows from the north, passes through Jingdezhen, and then winds its way southwest into Poyang Lake. Changjiang transported timber from the upper reaches and rice from the lower reaches to Jingdezhen, and porcelain made from Jingdezhen was transported to various parts of Daming through the Poyang Lake-Yangtze River waterway.

It is this Changjiang River that has made Jingdezhen, a city in the valley, where 18,000 households and more than 100,000 porcelain workers rely on this small porcelain to survive.

In the early years of the Song Dynasty, Jingdezhen was only a village of less than 800 people, but now it has become one of the four famous towns of the Ming Dynasty.

There are more than 300 porcelain kilns in Jingdezhen, and the industry around the porcelain is known as 8 lines and 36 industries, after hundreds of years of development, Jingdezhen porcelain has developed to the peak of the handicraft industry.

A porcelain needs to go through 72 processes from kneading mud to kiln, and the degree of refinement of this division of labor and cooperation is no different from that of the industrial age.

The forces engaged in the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen include the local gang, the Duchang gang and the gangs united by the other seven regions of Jiangxi, and these three forces are the most powerful.

The merchants engaged in selling porcelain were mainly Hui merchants. Hui merchants brought timber and grain from Huangshan and other places, lent money to the kiln owners, and then used the porcelain from the kiln as a compensation, thus basically controlling most of the city's porcelain production.

Jingdezhen is known as the porcelain capital of the world, and is also known as the four seasons of thunder and lightning town, these titles are all to show that whether it is in the world now, or in the Ming Dynasty, Jingdezhen's porcelain-making technology is unmatched by other regions.

However, even so, the porcelain kilns in Jingdezhen are not always successful in firing. In the absence of temperature control and the limitation of the burning value of the wood, firing porcelain is an uncertain task.

However, with the detailed division of labor and cooperation, as well as more mature porcelain firing technology, Jingdezhen produces nearly 3 million pieces of porcelain every year, which is equivalent to more than 30 taels of silver, and the tax collected annually is more than 10,000 taels.

The average worker in Jingdezhen earns about six and a half taels a year, which is the same as that of an ordinary farmer. The annual income of the painter is nine taels, and the technical work of the upper level is 12 taels.

The fired porcelain, the ordinary porcelain bowl is about 1 yuan, and the top grade can reach 2 taels, and this is still the market price in Jingdezhen.

In the side hall of Wuying Palace, the emperor sitting on the top listened silently, and the eunuch Tao and several porcelain craftsmen introduced everything about Jingdezhen to him.

And Song Yingxing, who was sitting on the left hand of the emperor, was completely fascinated by the listening, and even forgot the existence of the emperor.

For the eunuch and several porcelain craftsmen, this lunch was probably the most difficult meal they had ever eaten.

After listening to the reports of the eunuch and several porcelain craftsmen, Zhu Youzhen took a towel from Wang Chengen's hand and wiped his mouth, and then said to several craftsmen: "Sun Langzhong, the military supervisor, is studying the refractory bricks of the iron-smelting furnace, I see that you are very experienced in fire and repairing porcelain kilns, you might as well visit it, and give an opinion by the way." ”

Dong Tao and Huang Dao'er, who took the lead among the craftsmen, hurriedly got up and promised Chongzhen. Wang Chengen immediately recruited a little eunuch and took these craftsmen out to the Ordnance Supervision Arsenal.

After sending the others away, Zhu Youzhen said to the eunuch Tao slowly: "From the Changjiang River into Poyang Lake, then go south to the Ganjiang River, then cross the Meiguan Ancient Road, then change boats, and go down the Pearl River to Guangzhou, do you know this road?" ”

Eunuch Du Tao's forehead was a little sweaty, and he quickly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister knows this way." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said calmly: "Last year, there were no less than one million pieces of porcelain transported to Guangzhou from this Meiguan Ancient Road, according to the news I received, the people of Macao bought about 200,000 pieces of porcelain, and the Jingdezhen porcelain shipped overseas from Guangzhou exceeded 600,000 pieces, do you know?" ”

The eunuch felt out of his seat, crawled to the middle of the hall, and confessed to the emperor.

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before he said to him: "I see that you are also old and decrepit, so let's go out of the palace to support the elderly, and leave such a hard thing to the young people to do." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The eunuch Du Tao kowtowed to the emperor with a bitter mouth and thanked him.

After disposing of the eunuch Tao in Jingdezhen, Chongzhen took Song Yingxing back to his office in the Wuying Palace.

After asking Wang Chengen to prepare a pot of tea, Zhu Youzhen said to Song Yingxing: "After listening to the reports of those craftsmen, what kind of thoughts do you have about Jingdezhen?" ”

Song Yingxing hadn't recovered from the porcelain making techniques described by the craftsmen, and he subconsciously sighed: "Jingdezhen's porcelain-making technology is really unparalleled in the world." If you want to make porcelain in other regions, it is difficult to reach Jingdezhen in a short period of time. ”

Seeing that Song Yingxing didn't seem to have realized what it meant to ask him to observe this meeting, Zhu Youzhen had to remind: "What I want to ask is, what is the significance of porcelain to Jingdezhen's pottery tools?" What kind of effect does it have for me? ”

Song Yingxing suddenly sobered up, and after thinking for a while, he replied: "For the potters in Jingdezhen, this is the business of more than 100,000 people. For me, Daming, it is a source of wealth.

After the worthless clay is burned, it can be exchanged for silver from overseas in a steady stream, which is really a good thing for Daming. ”

Hearing that Song Yingxing thought about the same as himself, Zhu Youzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief, and he continued to Song Yingxing: "One Jingdezhen can feed hundreds of thousands of people, but it's a pity that I only have that Jingdezhen in the Ming Dynasty.

I hope to replicate a few more Jingdezhen in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, so that the number of displaced people displaced by the disaster can be greatly reduced, and in addition to increasing the income of the Ming treasury. What do you think? ”

Song Yingxing subconsciously nodded and said: "Your Majesty's idea is naturally excellent, but after all, Jingdezhen is a skill that has been passed down for hundreds of years, and there are no such skilled workers in other regions, and there may not be clay suitable for firing porcelain, I'm afraid Your Majesty's idea will be difficult to realize, right?" ”

Zhu Youzhen said without worry: "Skills can be explored, clay can be found, but the most important thing is people."

I need someone to study the reasons and techniques for changing from clay to porcelain, I need someone to constantly introduce new porcelain making techniques, and I also need someone to be able to make different styles of porcelain according to the needs of people in different regions.

I hope that Jingdezhen is not only a place to make porcelain, but also a place to develop porcelain technology and guide the trend of porcelain culture, so that it will become a veritable porcelain capital of the world. ”

Song Yingxing was quite shocked by Chongzhen's idea, he never thought that the emperor would regard a handicraft industry as so important, but for him, he did not dislike the emperor's idea.

Four failed imperial examinations and four long-distance trips to and from the capital made Song Yingxing full of sympathy for the difficult life of ordinary laborers, and also made him full of interest in various technologies that can improve productivity.

Song Yingxing immediately asked automatically: "If Your Majesty allows it, then the minister is willing to study the reason for the formation of porcelain." ”

Chongzhen, who originally wanted Song Yingxing to manage Jingdezhen, was naturally the happiest to hear his voluntary request.

Zhu Youzhen then spoke: "I originally planned to let you take charge of the management of Jingdezhen, which has a permanent population of more than 100,000 and a floating population of more than 300,000 a year.

With such a concentrated population density, it is completely enough to set up a separate county, and I plan to set up Jingdezhen as a separate county, separate from Raozhou, and manage it separately.

In the newly established Jingdezhen County, all the personnel rights are handed over to you, what kind of policies do you think should be implemented to promote the development of the local ceramic industry, and I also give you this power.

But I want you to do two things for me when you take office. ”

Song Yingxing quickly said: "Please ask Your Majesty to command, the minister will definitely do his best." ”

Zhu Youzhen said briskly: "The first thing I have just said is to establish a ceramic academy to train talents for making ceramics, study the technology of making ceramics, and reduce the cost of ceramic production."

The price of porcelain in Jingdezhen is low, but an ordinary porcelain bowl also costs one penny, which is equivalent to one-fifth of the monthly income of an ordinary farmer, which is obviously not a price that ordinary people can afford without burden.

I hope to reduce the price of porcelain to about one-tenth, so that ordinary people in my Ming Dynasty can use porcelain instead of shoddy pottery bowls."

Song Yingxing suddenly hesitated, and he said with some embarrassment: "Now the skills of Jingdezhen potters are very mature, if they are lowered a little, the minister will probably be able to do it." But to reduce the price to one-tenth, the minister did not dare to deceive His Majesty to do it. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "If you want to reduce the production cost, one is to improve the success rate of porcelain firing; The second is to improve production efficiency and try to replace the old process with new technology.

For example, try to replace firewood with coal as fuel, or replace manual painting with machine printing, so that ordinary porcelain can be produced on a large scale and reduce the cost of firing.

Some fine porcelain can be made in the old way by hand. I will give you 10,000 taels of silver every year to test these new technologies. ”

Song Yingxing did not become happy as Chongzhen expected, but became a little hesitant and said: "But Your Majesty, more than 100,000 potters in Jingdezhen rely on porcelain making for a living. ”

Zhu Youzhen immediately shook his head and said: "It's not what you think, after the use of machines to replace manual production, although some potters will lose their jobs in the short term." However, as long as the training and placement work is done well, these people can be transferred to other jobs.

And after the cost of porcelain is reduced, the porcelain sales market will expand more than several times to the present. Porcelain is not only used to make cutlery, water** and knick-knacks, but also to fire tiles and the like..."