"Prince, the peace talks between the Shikoku Army and the Kamakura Shogunate have been successful. The Kamakura shogunate promised to give Zhao Boren the official position of Shikoku Detective, and also agreed that Shikoku merchant ships could do business in any port controlled by the Kamakura shogunate. As previously envisaged, the Kamakura shogunate set very harsh conditions, and began to order weapons from Shikoku. ”

Zhao Qian had already gone through the harsh conditions. The Kamakura shogunate said that the Shikoku Quest could be given, and the ships of the Shikoku Quest could also be traded freely, but the condition was that they were loaded with Shikoku goods and did not support entrepot trade. For the Song ship, the traditional practice was restored, and the seal was sealed. What are the seven goods and eight treasures that the Song Kingdom gave to Ping Qingsheng a hundred years ago, anyway, the delivery was given and the seal was issued. The vermilion seal is one-time, the specified year port, the ship is painted with vermilion lacquer, and then goes to the specified port to show the vermilion seal trade. There are hundreds of them issued a year, and each one is a boat

In addition to the political sector of trade, the Kamakura shogunate demanded that the Shikoku Army withdraw its request for the declaration of legitimacy and not to promote legitimacy to people outside Shikoku. The Four Nations Army can only use the banner of the Source Yoshitsune in this town, and the big flag must use the newly issued banner of the Four Kingdoms.

At the same time, the supply of the four countries should be increased, a hundred times more, and paid with physical luxury goods, so that the generals could be rewarded to the samurai.

Of course, the Shikoku army had to be withdrawn from Kamakura Castle immediately.

"It's okay." Zhao Qian made a statement on this. The so-called harsh conditions must be conditions that can be strictly enforced, and it doesn't matter if they can't be done. For example, the four countries did not have commodities for bulk trade, and now all the foreign trade of the four countries to the Japanese was in the hands of the Great Song Dynasty. Including the officials inside were all from the Great Song Dynasty, and the Kamakura Shogunate's permission for free trade in the ships of the four countries was equivalent to complete free trade with the Great Song Dynasty. Even the ships of the Great Song Dynasty were able to have hundreds of seals of trade every year. One ship in the Great Song Dynasty was three to five thousand tons, and hundreds of ships passed by...... I'm afraid that the Japanese country doesn't have so many goods to complete the trade.

Of course, Luo Yiren knew the twists and turns in this, and he smiled and said, "Prince, the door of the Japanese Kingdom is open. After that, we can trade to our heart's content. ”

"Hmm." Zhao Qian picked up a piece of silver gadget that Luo Yiren had played with before he came, "Minister Luo has worked hard, you come to see this thing." ”

Luo Yiren thought it was a silver ingot, but after taking it, he felt that something was wrong, the weight of the pressure was not light, but it was not silver. Carefully touched it with his hands, and found that this thing emitted a soft silvery-white glow, and the surface was smooth and smooth, and it was not steel. "Is this ......," he asked.

"Copper." Zhao Qian replied.

“…… Oh! It's the kind of jewelry that makes it! Luo Yiren immediately realized that his wife also had a lot of white copper jewelry, which looked like silver, but it was a copper alloy. It will not change color or rust, and it is an excellent material for jewelry.

Zhao Qian asked, "How much does Minister Luo know about this valuable thing?" ”

"I don't like these things." Luo Yiren replied briskly.

"Who do you think is more familiar with these?"

Luo Yiren continued to answer briskly: "I think...... It's still a woman's familiar. Men will be laughed at when they wear this thing. ”

Zhao Qian didn't know whether to agree with Luo Yiren's words or think that Luo Yiren was too straight. After the surrender of Lin'an, the atmosphere of the Great Song Dynasty changed greatly under the leadership of Zhao Guanjia, and of course masculinity prevailed in the era of national salvation and survival. However, when Zhao Qian was a child, he had seen many, many rich people and members of the Jinshi family, and it must be said that they were really 'this thing', and at that time he thought it was a kind of wealth.

This is the era of shiny military uniforms, and the imperial court has recently issued another strict order to crack down on those who are not active soldiers and retired soldiers who wear military uniforms. However, twenty years ago, in that era, those who wore military uniforms would have been considered underground.

"Why did the prince think of the white copper?" Luo Yiren asked.

Zhao Qian replied: "I have recently been promoting a system, the jewelry grading system. Inside are mainly precious stones, pearls, and cupro. You should be familiar with the gemstones. ”

"Jewel...... Uh, I'd love to get acquainted. Now the Sinhalese Lion Kingdom is no longer under the control of our domain. Luo Yiren replied very regretfully.

Sinhala is rich in gemstones, and Myanmar is rich in gemstones, jade, jade. It's a place where the jewelry industry is in the limelight, and the families who first went there made a fortune selling them. The Ministry of Finance is very concerned about this, and has pushed for the classification of 'commodities' and 'luxury goods'. Although the Ministry of Management and Domain is under the direct leadership of the official family, it has not been able to fight the Ministry of Finance in these aspects, and the Ministry of Finance has obtained the right to manage 'luxury goods'. Luo Yiren's heart moved, and he asked tentatively, "I don't know what the prince wants to do?" ”

Zhao Qian didn't answer immediately, but talked about the composition of white copper. This thing has a long history in China, because it was first made up by alchemists, and it is even quite miraculous.

White copper is mainly divided into three categories, "Old Tang Dynasty Book, Yufu Zhi" contains: "The rest of the product takes the white copper ornament calf car. That is to say, in the Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that only the oxen pulling the cart for the courtiers could use white copper as an ornament, indicating that white copper was quite valuable in the Tang Dynasty. The white copper mentioned here should be nickel white copper instead of arsenic white copper, because nickel white copper has strong corrosion resistance and is suitable for decorating ox carts, while arsenic white copper is unstable in nature, and will gradually turn yellow due to the volatilization of arsenic over time.

In ancient Chinese literature, white copper alloys are collectively referred to as cupronickel, which are divided into nickel cupronickel, tin cupronickel, and arsenic cupro. The Yunnan copper ore of the Great Song Dynasty has high nickel content, and the "Book of Han" records: "Qianwei County southwest Zhuti Mountain produces silver", and there is "Zhuti silver eight taels for the first-class (Wang Mang's silver two units)". However, according to the investigation of the mining department of the Great Song Dynasty, Zhu Tishan (southwest of Yibin, Sichuan) produces copper and nickel but not silver, so "Zhu Ti Yin" should be nickel white copper.

Tin cupronickel is nothing special, just smelt tin and copper into an alloy.

Arsenic cupronickel is obtained by igniting red copper with arsenic ore (arsenic, realgar, etc.) or arsenic (As2O3). When the arsenic in copper is less than 10%, it is golden yellow, and alchemists call it "medicinal gold" (i.e., arsenic brass); When the arsenic content is equal to or greater than 10% (arsenic white copper), it becomes white as snow and brilliant as silver, which is called "medicinal silver".

In the early days of the Western Han Dynasty, it arose at the same time as alchemy. According to the Song people's "Rotten Talks on the Table", it is recorded that the three alchemy masters who practiced in Maoshan during the time of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, Sanmaojun, failed due to natural disasters in Danyang (now Xuancheng, Anhui), so they used calcined arsenic powder to turn the copper produced in Danyang into silver to save the hungry people. Therefore, later alchemists called this "medicinal silver" "Danyang silver".

In the early days, China's arsenic white copper smelting was made of realgar or female yellow dots, and around the Eastern Jin Dynasty, China began to refine arsenic white copper, that is, the so-called "point white". Ge Hong, a famous alchemy master of the Jin Dynasty, clearly recorded in the "Baopuzi Jindan Chapter" that copper was turned into "gold" by using realgar. Tao Hongjing, a medical master in the Qiliang period of the Southern Dynasty, also mentioned in his "Famous Doctors" that "realgar can be made into gold by copper", and "the method of refining and obeying is in the immortal scriptures." ”

What Ge Hong and Tao Hongjing got was probably arsenic brass with low arsenic content, and the "male gold" that alchemists referred to may refer to it. In this period, works such as "The Secret Art of Immortal Health" also mentioned the formula of the elixir with copper as "white", but the medication was more complicated.

During the opening of the Sui Dynasty, there was an alchemist named Su Yuanlang, named Qingxiazi, who had learned the Tao in Juqu (Maoshan), and claimed to have obtained the true secret of the great Maojun. He wrote the book "On Treasures", in which it was recorded that arsenic could be used to "turn copper into silver". For the first time, the use of arsenic to dot cupronickel was proposed, which was a major advance in the smelting technology of arsenic cupronickel.

Now that the Great Song Dynasty has a scientific system, the quality of arsenic white copper refined is extremely high, enough to be similar to silver. The physical properties of cupronickel are much better than silver, and the price is higher than that of silver.

After hearing such a passage in the clouds, Luo Yiren probably understood that white copper was a man-made alloy, a specialty of the Great Song Dynasty. But I don't know how the prince became interested in this matter.

Zhao Qian didn't blindly talk about some chemical knowledge, Luo Yiren probably understood, he said his thoughts, "So I plan to promote jewelry grade certification and popularize it in Da Song and overseas, so as to promote the development of Da Song jewelry industry." ”

"How did the prince think of this?" Luo Yiren was greatly puzzled.

"My cousin originally cultivated pearls in the Japanese country."

"Hmm." Luo Yiren said that he knew very well that the Ministry of Domain Affairs was really clear about this matter, and it was also the cousin of the Prince Zhao Qian who was requested by the Ministry of Administration.

"After he returned to the Great Song Dynasty, he still cultivated pearls, and recently cultivated freshwater pearls according to the pattern of seawater pearls, and created super-large pearls." Zhao Qian said as he took out a box from the drawer and handed it to Luo Yiren.

Luo Yiren opened it and looked at it a few times, and sure enough, it was a huge bead. Take it out and play with it, it's really a pearl. He put the pearl back in the box and pushed it back in front of Zhao Qian, still puzzled and asked, "The prince must not be so laborious for personal matters." ”

Zhao Qian smiled slightly: "If this matter involves my cousin, I won't intervene, wouldn't it be because of private affairs." ”

Luo Yiren nodded his head and said that he agreed with this point of view.

Zhao Qian continued: "My cousin wants to sell the new pearls he cultivated to the Eastern Mediterranean, and begs me to help him find someone to introduce him. I didn't bother to take care of it at first, but then I felt like I had to help. But think again, if the Great Song Dynasty jewelry can be classified and there is a clear hierarchy system, if you want to sell these jewelry overseas, you only need to promote the grade standards of the Great Song Dynasty overseas, and the merchants will not have to bother at all. This will certainly make some businessmen unhappy, but it can promote the development of the jewelry industry in the Great Song Dynasty, at least the science and engineering men will understand what jewelry is after reading the standards. ”

Luo Yiren is probably also a science and engineering man, and he was completely interested when he heard this. However, this time, he first asked about the difference between seawater and freshwater beads. Zhao Qian also talked a little about the fact that cultured saltwater pearls are made by grinding shells such as horn shells into a perfect circle, and inoculating pearl oysters such as oysters. Because the pearl nucleus is relatively large, about one out of four shells can survive. Because the sea water is rich in various minerals, most of the sea water beads are white or light yellow in color, but some of them will become golden, black, red, cyan, pink, etc. In addition to the luster of the nacre itself, some pearls reflect light due to polarized reflection, which will give an additional glow. The so-called jewels refer to this. Zhao Qian himself didn't understand it originally, but after seeing the old lady's pearl earrings, he found something wrong, and found an expert to learn this way to understand that there is such a doorway.

Freshwater beads are non-beaded, and pearl oysters are operated on by incision, which is an incision at the location where nacre is secreted, but the bead nucleus is not implanted. The survival rate of pearls is greatly improved, and a pearl oyster can grow more than a dozen pearls. Therefore, it is difficult for freshwater pearls to have a perfect circle, most of them are archetypal or nearly round, and some are even oval, and the layering is not obvious. Saltwater pearls are much higher than freshwater pearls in terms of appearance, luster and price.

Luo Yiren listened a little when he listened, and it was the first time he knew that there were so many doorways here. When he heard Zhao Qian talk about 'pearl powder', he also understood a little. Because of the pearl core, most of the pearl powder in seawater beads is shells, and although the freshwater pearls are inferior in quality, the pearl powder made is genuine pure pearl powder.

But because of the different prices, many businessmen make all kinds of false propaganda. The so-called saltwater pearl powder has a better effect is simply nonsense, but because the public is not clear, it has fooled many people.

"So I want to promote jewelry grades, and in addition to publishing standards, I can also provide professional certifications." Zhao Qian finished the knowledge points and told his conclusions again.

"Sure enough, it will offend a lot of people." Luo Yiren sighed.

"But it will also make the jewelry industry really big." After Zhao Qian finished speaking, he took out a box to show Luo Yiren, and after Luo Yiren opened it, he saw that there was a pair of goose-yellow pearls inside, which was lustrous and luster, and the quality was much better than the larger pearl before. Zhao Qian continued: "This is a cultured pearl in the Nenjiang area of Northeast China, which was made by my comrades-in-arms. They wanted to ask me to dedicate this to the official family, and try to help them get a tribute title. I'm lazy, so I didn't move. Now I think it would be nice if there was a grading system for this thing. Pearls from different regions have a uniform standard, are classified according to various basic theories, and these pearls can also get their own name. You don't have to rely on nobles to promote. ”

"Prince, this will really offend a lot of people." Luo Yiren sighed again.

"Will it offend you?" Zhao Qian asked bluntly.

"Of course not." Luo Yiren replied cheerfully: "After listening to the official family's class, I realized why I didn't love treasures before, and even deliberately despised them. Later, I realized that I just didn't want to borrow treasures to raise my worth, and I was also a stubborn person, and I didn't want to rely on others, nor did I want to be relied on by others. The prince's method is good, and it is really fair to let the treasures of the world be used by others by their own characteristics. ”

"Fair. Ha ha. Zhao Qian couldn't help but laugh out loud. During this time, he found that when people shouted about fairness, the last thing they wanted was probably fairness.