Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

Several days later, outside the city of Yunyang, a temporary palace was set up.

"Your subject Shen Zhui greets Your Highness."

Shen chased after Lu Chen and knelt down on one knee.

"Please sit down. There are no outsiders here; there's no need for that."

Lu Chen pointed to the low stool next to him.

"I've called you here alone because I have an important task for you."

After several days of surveying the area around Yunyang Prefecture, Lu Chen and Feng Yue finalized the details of the location for the Prince's Palace.

Lu Chen did not choose the most open area in the center of Jiuqingping recommended by Feng Yue, but deliberately chose the easternmost side of this small flat area in the mountains.

The moat outside the high walls of the Prince's Palace, formed by the diversion of the Jiang River, will completely fill the flat land on the north and south sides outside the walls, leaving no space for passage.

If you don't want to travel over mountains and valleys, the only way to enter and exit the Shiyan area is by small boat through the moat of Wangfu.

"These past few days you've accompanied me to inspect the Shiyan area, east of the proposed site for the Prince's Palace. I plan to build new secret workshops in those mountain valleys."

After Shen Zhui sat down, Lu Chen began to get down to business.

"I will be returning to Chengtian Prefecture tomorrow. You will stay in Yunyang Prefecture with your men."

Your official duties are twofold: one is to act as the representative of the Prince of Ying's Palace and oversee its construction.

Another option was to establish the Prince's Palace Manufacturing Bureau in the name of the Prince of Ying's Palace, with a location chosen in Shiyan.

"Does Your Highness intend to build a crystal and glass workshop here, similar to the one in Linqing?"

This was the first thing Shen Zhui thought of, since it was already a successful case.

Just over a month ago, Qin Fang led his men to transport the second batch of 2,500 pieces of crystal glassware to Shuangyu Port and Yuyao, exchanging them for 130,000 taels of silver.

Half of them were transported back to Linqing and handed over to Gao Mingqian, while the other half were taken directly to Chengtian Prefecture and put into the private treasury of the Prince of Ying's mansion.

This is only half a year's production capacity of the Linqing workshop.

"I have carefully weighed the options. The Linqing workshop specializes in producing exquisite crystal and glassware, and its production capacity is already sufficient. Increasing production further would make it impossible to maintain high prices, which would be counterproductive."

Lu Chen waved his hand.

"In Shiyan, we have more than 20 relatively independent valleys where we can build different workshops."

The glass workshop will indeed be built, but it cannot produce the same items as the Linqing workshop.

I have already sent someone back to Linqing to have Gao Ruopu select a group of experienced glass artisans to come to Yunyang Prefecture. Once they arrive, you can settle them in first.

In addition, I also sent people to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, to hire a group of experienced porcelain craftsmen and purchase a large amount of kaolin clay to transport here.

We will first build two workshops in Shiyan, one for porcelain and one for glass.

The glass workshops in Shiyan no longer produce the same handicrafts as those in Linqing; instead, they produce these glass mirrors.

After speaking, Lu Chen handed a square piece of glass, about one foot in size, to Shen Zhui.

"Your Highness, these appear to be the samples I brought from Linqing... Ah!"

Shen Zhui took the glass and had just stood it up when he couldn't help but gasp in surprise.

A clear face was reflected on the originally clear and transparent flat glass.

"What's going on?"

Shen Zhui looked puzzled.

"I remember very clearly, this piece of glass wasn't originally like this!"

"How is it? Isn't it much clearer than a bronze mirror?"

Lu Chen laughed.

"Turn it over and take a look at the back."

"This is?"

Shen Zhui flipped the glass mirror over to reveal a smooth, flat, bright silver surface.

"Is there a layer of silver foil on the back?"

"Of course not!"

Lu Chen pointed to the back of the mirror.

"What skilled craftsman could apply silver foil so thinly and so smoothly to the surface of glass?"

Even if you apply it, it will inevitably be blurry and have double images, and it will turn black in no time.

This isn't silver foil at all; it's a mixture of two different things.

This is a secret recipe that I obtained by chance.