Liu Tan never expected that the glass that was finally burned would be almost the same color as the beer bottle. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should be happy for seeing something familiar, or depressed because the glass was not transparent enough.
The craftsmen were originally very excited because they had finally made the colored glaze, but now they became uneasy because Liu Tan did not look so happy.
Bi Gao asked cautiously, "Your Highness, is this glass not good enough?"
Liu Tan came back to his senses and said, "For Liuli, this is already pretty good."
He looked at the artisans who looked rather nervous and said cheerfully, "Reward!"
The craftsmen were immediately delighted. His Royal Highness the King of the North has always been very generous. With this reward, they can have a good year this year.
As for the fear caused by the death before, it has now disappeared.
After letting them rejoice for a while, Liu Tan said, "We have achieved our initial goal, but it's still a long way from my goal."
The craftsmen who received the rewards were very motivated at this time. They all hoped to achieve His Royal Highness the King of the North's goal as soon as possible so that they could get more rewards before the New Year.
The craftsmen immediately patted their chests and said, "Your Highness, please tell us what you want. We will do our best to help you."
Liu Tan smiled and said, "I hope you can find out why the glass turns green. This goal may not be easy to achieve. If you really can't find the reason, then try to make the glass as transparent as water."
The craftsmen were all stunned after hearing this, and their enthusiasm brought by the reward immediately cooled down.
An experienced craftsman said, "If we can find an experienced person who can smelt colored glass at this time, we may be able to avoid many detours. Your Highness, please understand."
Liu Tan nodded and said, "You guys study it first and I'll send someone to look for it later."
It is not easy to find a craftsman who can make colored glass. Although Liu Tan said so, he still took the colored glass back to study it.
Maybe it would be easier for him to find the cause than to find the craftsman.
Because as time went by, the little chemistry knowledge he learned at the time was basically all forgotten by the teacher, but he still remembered that the green color of the glass must have been caused by some kind of metal.
As for what metal it is... remains to be verified.
First of all, it can be confirmed that it is not lead barium and calcium sodium, because the ancient glass of the flower-growing countries can be called lead-barium glass. No matter what color it is, it must contain these two elements. Western glass is mainly calcium sodium, and the reason is the same.
So apart from these, the most abundant elements in sand are iron and aluminum, or iron oxide or aluminum oxide.
For iron, perhaps magnetic separation could be tried, but for alumina... Liu Tan couldn't think of any good solution right now.
In fact, magnetic separation is also very troublesome. In later generations, there were magnetic separators that could separate different metal minerals, but now... the only thing Liu Tan could do was to let the sand pass through the magnet.
Fortunately, he had no shortage of magnets, so Liu Tan asked someone to make a groove, lay magnets on the bottom, and then place it in an inclined state, and asked someone to pour sand into the groove from above.
However, he was worried that such magnetic separation would be too rough, so he simply asked someone to make a few more long grooves, pass it a few more times, and then fire it.
After he had arranged all these, Liu Che had already returned from outside with his men.
After Liu Tan got the news, he immediately rode his horse at full speed to Changshou Palace. When he saw Liu Che's rosy face and chatting and laughing with Lu Xuan, he knew that he was having a good time.
He observed for a while and felt that even if Lu Xuan turned around and left with Liu Che, he shouldn't have to worry about anything, as it seemed that the two of them were getting along quite well.
In fact, if Lu Xuan had not tried every possible means to seduce his son, Liu Che would have admired Lu Xuan. This child was talented in both literature and martial arts, and he didn't talk much, but he was very smart and sensible. Every time he spoke, he would always get to the point, and he was also careful and could make people very happy.
When Liu Che saw Liu Tan, he smiled and said, "The King of Wusun and I have caught a lot of fish. You can go and take care of them."
Liu Tan: ...
So he came all this way here to be a cook?
Forget it, his father is about to pass away. I was too busy before and didn’t make some fresh dishes for him to try. It’s not too late to make up for it now.
Liu Tan greeted Liu Che and turned to walk towards the kitchen.
When he was halfway there, he saw a capable eunuch beside Bu Fan coming over with a troubled look on his face and saying, "Your Highness, the fish we prepared...is not enough."
In order to prevent Liu Che from eating wild fish of unknown origin, Liu Tan had people prepare fish long ago, so that he could replace those fish with farmed ones after they entered the kitchen.
Liu Tan asked in surprise, "Not enough? How many did you catch?"
He had someone prepare a dozen or so replacements yesterday. Although he certainly couldn't eat so many fish, he should know the size of the fish Liu Che caught, so he had to find ones of similar size and fatness to replace them. But it turned out that this was not enough?
The young eunuch smiled bitterly and said, "You will know when you go and see."
Liu Tan walked over and was shocked when he took a look.
There are two ponds in the kitchen that are specially used for raising fish. One pond was specially cleared yesterday to hold the fish caught by Liu Che and his friends.
As a result, the pool is now full.
Liu Tan calculated the time it took Liu Che to go out, added the time they wasted on the road, and added the time they were setting up camp. He figured that unless Liu Che pulled the fishing rod up directly after lowering it and still caught some fish, it would be impossible for him to catch so many fish.
Liu Tan felt a little uncomfortable: "How much did Father catch?"
The young eunuch followed him out and whispered, "His Majesty said it was boring for him to fish alone, so he had a few holes dug in the ice for them to fish together. But most of the fish here were caught by him and the King of Wusun together."
Liu Tan gritted his teeth: Lu Xuan!
He took a deep breath and said calmly, "Don't worry, Father must know that we can't eat so many fish. We can just pick a few to cook."
The young eunuch said, "But... His Majesty chose the largest fish and said he must make this, and he wanted a whole fish."
Liu Tan took a closer look and found that there was indeed a very big fish in the pond. The fish looked at least as long as his arm. If it lived another two years, it would probably become a spirit!
There definitely hadn't been a fish this big in the kitchen pond before, so the problem now was either to actually cook the fish and serve it, or to find another way.
Liu Tan didn't dare give the wild fish to Liu Che to eat. He looked at the fish and thought for a while before saying, "Catch it up, knock it unconscious, and find a few more fish to match its size!"
Miao Rui, standing by, was almost impressed by Liu Tan's imagination, but he still whispered, "But, if that happens, the fish's body will be scattered. If His Majesty finds out..."
Even if the assembled fish looks seamless, it is easy to find traces of knife cuts on the fish body when eating it. Liu Che would be fine if he didn't think too much about it. If he thought too much, he would definitely guess it. If he got angry then, no one would have an easy time.
Even Liu Tan can't do it.
Liu Tan wiped his face and said, "So, you guys go find some bamboo, split it into thin strips, then string the fish bones together with the strips, and glue them together with something else."
Miao Rui was stunned for a moment, then said happily, "Your Highness is wise!"
Liu Tan waved his hands. What was this all about? Now he not only had to know how to cook, but also how to forge documents.
However, those who went to look for bamboo were soon defeated - the bamboo would not be given any chance.
In the entire Northern Kingdom, only Gungun has bamboo. The others are all made of shaped bamboo products. You can't use those things in the fish fed to the emperor, right?
So it is best to use fresh bamboo, but those bamboos are all owned by the rolling bamboo, and basically every rolling bamboo that goes in will become fierce.
Although GunGun is no longer aggressive, people are still quite scared when they see its teeth and two bear paws.
Later, even after changing the breeder, he still couldn't get in.
GunGun: Protect the food!
Liu Tan could only go straight to the panda park with a blank expression, thinking that if he made any more noise, he would not be able to cook this meal today!
When GunGun saw Liu Tan, he came over happily and hugged his legs, acting like a spoiled child. When he saw Liu Tan directing people to cut his bamboo, he barked twice in unhappiness but did not act aggressively again.
Liu Tan touched its head and thought about taking it away, then gave it to Liu Che and Lu Xuan to play with, also to give them something to do.
The bamboo cannot be used directly after it is cut down. The moisture in the bamboo needs to be dried out first.
Liu Tan looked at the bamboo that was growing well and said simply, "Don't waste it. Let's make some bamboo rice while we're at it."
Bamboo tube rice? Everyone looked at Liu Tan in confusion. Liu Tan stood there and gave instructions: "This is very simple. Put all the water and rice into a freshly prepared bamboo tube, cover it tightly, and throw it into the charcoal fire. Um, mix in some glutinous rice and pickled meat, but don't put too much!"
This method was really novel, but out of trust in Liu Tan, everyone threw the cut bamboo tubes into the specially found charcoal stove according to his instructions, and sent people to watch them at all times.
After all, Liu Tan only knew how to cook it, but didn't know when it would be cooked, so he had to choose one person to keep turning it over to ensure that it would not be overcooked.
While ordering people to deal with the bamboo, Liu Tan began to think about a question: What should be done with the big fish?
Now the fish that need to be strung together to pretend to be big fish have been selected, but they cannot be strung together raw, otherwise they will fall apart and have to be started over. It is best to process them first, then strung them together after they are cooked, and then cover them up, so that there will be no problems.
Liu Tan looked at the fish and thought for a long time. He felt that the easiest thing to do would be to cook the fish with sauce, because the sauce could cover up the unnatural appearance of the fish bones as much as possible even during the eating process, unless someone gnawed on the fish.
But Liu Che... I guess no one would dare to let Liu Che gnaw on fish bones.
Liu Tan thought about it and finally made a decision: to make West Lake Vinegar Fish!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
