Riding the wind of rebirth

That evening, Mr. Yu and Mr. Zhang used the institute's cafeteria to host a simple thank-you dinner as a reward for Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao's lectures to everyone over the past few days.

Of course, the more important purpose is to celebrate the signing of the letter of intent for the "Star Engine Project".

It would be impossible to finalize the contract in such a short time with such big changes. The fact that we have such a letter of intent is the result of the efforts of all parties.

The final plan is exactly the same as what was discussed before. The entire star-to-ground integrated communication system is based on the Dong-3B satellite carrying a xenon ion electric propulsion system in space, forming a satellite communication network of fifteen medium-sized satellites, five high and ten low.

On the ground, ground access points were built in fifty cities, with 04 fiber optic communication equipment as technical support to establish a nationwide communication network.

The state will organize forces to provide support for the new technologies needed in this plan.

AXA Fund injected funds into the plan through Clover Group and Changjiang Telecom.

The new part of the letter of intent is the revision of the funding part. AXA promises to provide US$300 million within five years to meet the needs of this plan.

This price is already a clear internal price, and is even far lower than the expectations of Zhou Zhi and Li Laoer and Li Laosan. However, there is also a prerequisite, which is technology confidentiality and technology sharing.

In other words, Zhou Zhi and Li Laoer were just suckers for this technology. If it failed, the $300 million would be completely wasted. If it succeeded, Yangtze Telecom would immediately follow up and build its own satellite network. In the next step, the country might also have to follow suit and even launch a more ambitious satellite networking plan.

Zhou Zhi deeply suspected that a large part of the national plan might be paid from the $300 million provided by himself and Li Laoer, but he did not dare to ask more.

After all, the cost of one launch for Hughes is $100 million. Now this is the construction of a complete system. Although it is domestically produced, it is almost a bargain.

There are also many intermediate outputs that Clover Group can use in other areas, such as the huge improvement in the computing power matrix brought by fiber-optic communication switches. The future value of this alone is more than 30 billion US dollars.

After a simple but not ordinary dinner, Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao went to Capital Airport the next day. They were going to fly to New York to participate in the lawsuit against the Music Practitioners Association.

The two people passed the customs at different places. Fortunately, Ikeda Oka was also a foreigner, and she helped Mai Xiaomiao pass the customs.

Zhou Zhi and Zhang Siluo finally met in the VIP lounge of the first-class cabin.

Mai Xiaomiao looks very beautiful after changing into her current outfit. Together with Ikeda Qiu and Zhang Siluo who are also two beauties, the combination of three is really pleasing to the eye and attracted a lot of attention in the waiting hall.

Mai Xiaomiao was still a little uncomfortable, but Ikeda Qiu and Zhang Siluo were experienced and didn't feel anything at all. They just commented quietly on the food and drink provided in the VIP lounge. After drinking a small cup of coffee, Zhang Siluo suggested going to the duty-free shop and asked Zhou Zhi if he wanted to go.

Zhou Zhi shook his head: "Let me show you the luggage."

Ikeda Ooka wanted to tell Zhou Zhi that he didn't have to look after his luggage in the first-class waiting room, but after thinking about it, he didn't say it. Cunning men always make excuses.

After a few people left, Zhou Zhi finally got some peace and quiet. He took out a book from his bag and started reading.

This material is extremely valuable. After Mr. Wang learned that he had obtained a set of "Taoye Tu", he opened the "Catalogue of Qing Palace Ceramics" which he revised seven or eight years ago, picked out the book catalogue from it, and asked the National Museum and the Palace Museum to copy it for him.

This is a work by Tang Ying, the Jingde official who supervised the production of ceramics during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It mainly includes "The Monument of the Record of the Production of Ceramics", "The Thoughts of the Potter", "The Draft of the Edict on the Affairs of Ceramics", "The Legend of Gubaitang", and "The Notes and Explanations of Wenqi Dian". There are also two most important works, "A Brief Account of the Production of Ceramics" and "The Compilation of the Pictures of Ceramics".

From these works, we can see the hardships of an ancient worker.

Tang Ying was a member of the Plain White Banner of the Han army. He was born in Shenyang, the birthplace of the Manchus. Although there are no records about his ancestors in history, it can be imagined that his family should have been the emperor's baoyi and had a relatively close relationship with them.

At the age of 45, Tang Ying became a Yuwenlang of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and was later sent to Jingde to "assist in factory affairs."

During the Qing Dynasty, there were four outstanding Jingde porcelain supervisors. Therefore, the Jingde porcelain produced during their tenure was named after their surnames, namely "Zang Kiln", "Lang Kiln", "Nian Kiln" and "Tang Kiln".

Zang is Zang Yingxuan, the official in charge of ceramics during the reign of Kangxi, who was actually the founder of Jingde porcelain; Lang is Lang Tingji, who created the famous "Lang Hong"; Nian is Nian Xiyao, a bondservant of Emperor Yongzheng and the elder brother of the well-known Nian Gengyao, a scientist, painter and musician in the Qing Dynasty, but he had a big problem, corruption. He was originally dismissed from his post because of his younger brother's involvement, and then was appointed by Yongzheng as the second-rank chief of the Imperial Household Department, and created the famous "Rouge Water" used in Yongzheng porcelain. In the end, he was dismissed from his post for corruption.

The last Tang is Tang Ying.

Tang Ying and Nian Xiyao took a very similar path. They were both the emperor's "house-born slaves". Therefore, according to their resumes, they both controlled important tax offices such as the Salt Customs and the Customs, and guarded the emperor's external money bags. They were the emperor's most trusted people.

However, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger. No one is born with the ability to manage a porcelain kiln. Tang Ying also went through a long period of hard times. Because the porcelain he supervised was disliked by Emperor Qianlong, he was often scolded and asked to "re-burn" and "enter again", and was even fined to use his salary to compensate for the labor and material costs.

Fortunately, Tang Ying and Nian Xing, the third son of Nian Gengyao, were good friends. Therefore, when Tang Ying was assisting the kiln business at Jingdezhen, he received some guidance from Nian Xiyao. In addition, he was very smart, so he soon "learned from his mistakes and became braver", and became a true expert.

After the eighth year of Qianlong's reign, the emperor's instructions to him were basically all praise.

This is due to his profound cultural foundation, his solid and serious research on practical matters, and his management of manpower.

Although Tang Ying was not a member of the imperial examination system, he was also a "cultured person". Judging from the inscriptions on the porcelain and album leaves he left behind, his calligraphy was exquisite and unique.

Among the works he left behind, in addition to the porcelain kiln management system, memorials to the superiors, and edicts to the subordinates, "The Taoyuan Heart Words" is a collection of poems, "The Legend of Gubaitang" is a collection of 17 plays, and "Wenqi Dian Zhu Zengshi" is even a dictionary, which shows his high level of cultural literacy.

On this basis, Tang Ying supervised the production of Jingde porcelain for more than 20 years and finally brought Jingde porcelain to the pinnacle. From the official kilns of the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yongle and Xuande kilns of the Ming Dynasty, and even Longquan and Yixing, Western and Eastern porcelains, there was no doubt that the fakes were indistinguishable from the real ones.

The rest of the pottery supervisors could leave their names in history if they could create a glaze color, such as Lang Tingji who created Langhong and Jilan, and Nian Xiyao who created Yanzhishui and Yanzhihong.

However, when it came to Tang Ying, he created many kinds of glaze colors, ranging from white powder blue, dark green, beige, rose purple, crabapple red, eggplant purple, plum green, mule liver, horse lung, sky blue, royal red, royal blue, eel yellow, snake skin green, oil green, European red, European blue, moon white, jadeite, black gold, purple gold and so on.

In addition, many "combination colors" were invented, such as poured yellow, poured purple, blue and white, five colors, gold drawing, arch flowers, gold smearing, silver smearing and so on.

Therefore, all the later works had to praise him by saying "his factory and kiln have reached their culmination".

Among these works, Zhou Zhi finally found the original author of the Taoye Tu that he received from Lao Lu. (End of this chapter)