Walking into the lobby, I saw twenty pedal-operated spinning wheels placed in the lobby, and a large flower loom in the easternmost corner. Inside were young ladies between the ages of fifteen, sixteen and twenty.
, a total of twenty people, they are the most ingenious people selected from more than a thousand people. In the words of later generations, they are the technical backbone.
Everyone was gathering around a spinning wheel. They originally thought that only the chief steward would come in. Unexpectedly, seven or eight men came in all at once. They were so frightened that they all returned to their seats, and the hall fell silent.
"Bian Wuniang, what were you arguing about just now?"
Gu Xin asked the eldest woman, who was actually only twenty years old. The woman stood up with a red face and said, "Chief steward, Yang Xiaomei can take your number one reward!"
Gu Xin was suddenly surprised and delighted. He walked three steps and two steps in front of a young lady's spinning wheel, and said with great excitement: "Really? You made it?"
The young lady's face turned even redder, and she handed a spinning spindle wrapped with cotton thread to Gu Xin. Gu Xin picked it up and looked at it carefully, his eyes brightening more and more, completely forgetting about the group of senior officials behind him.
Zhou Chengdong coughed twice in succession, and all the ladies covered their mouths and chuckled. Only then did Gu Xin wake up. He quickly bowed to Chen Qing and said: "I was so excited that I forgot about His Highness. He deserves death!"
Chen Qing smiled and asked, "Has there been any breakthrough?"
"Yes! Yes! It's what the villain just told His Highness. It's an insurmountable difficulty. The villain set a top reward of one hundred guang, and it was actually taken down."
Chen Qing's eyes lit up, "You mean, can the wire be twisted by machine instead of manually?"
"Yes, Your Highness, look at the line above!"
Gu Xin pointed to the thread on the spinning spindle and said, "You can tell it's spun at this glance. It's thin and even. It's obviously not hand-rolled."
Chen Qing also understood the reason behind it. The fibers of kapok flowers are short and difficult to twist into threads. They must be twisted together by hand. But now they can be spun directly. How is this done?
"I don't understand very well, I need to ask."
Gu Xin first introduced: "This is the girl Yang I just told Your Highness. She earns money to support her family. Her name is Yang Xiaomei."
Chen Qing smiled and nodded, "Just ask! I'll be listening."
The young lady obviously knew who the senior official in front of her was. There was only one person in Sichuan and Shaanxi who was called His Highness. She stood up a little nervously.
"Tell me, how did Miss Xiaomei do it?"
"I have been thinking about this these days. Last night at home, I suddenly thought, since straw cotton can be spun by machine, can I mix some straw cotton flowers into it?"
"very smart!"
Chen Qing blurted out that he actually added cotton to kapok, which was a very clever method.
"Keep talking!" Chen Qing smiled and waved his hand.
Yang Xiaomei blushed and continued: "I came here early in the morning and experimented. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't work. Then I increased the amount little by little and found that adding four ounces of grass cotton to one pound of kapok was enough, and it was the best.
It’s suitable. If you add too much, it seems to form a lump easily.”
"That's great, a ratio of two and a half."
"The big boss, the key is to mix the two types of cotton evenly. Be sure to mix evenly, otherwise it will easily break."
"Understood! Understood!" Gu Xin is an expert, and of course he knows the importance of mixing evenly.
Yang Xiaomei glanced at Chen Qing secretly, then summoned up the courage to say: "Boss, actually I have another suggestion?"
Even Jiang Yanxian secretly praised this little lady for being smart and always seizing opportunities. She may only have this opportunity to communicate with His Highness King Yong in her life.
Gu Xin had a headache, so he had to bite the bullet and ask: "Do you have any other suggestions?"
“I think we could actually use hydrospinning!”
Chen Qing's eyes lit up and he asked with a smile: "Do you think hydro-spinning is feasible?"
"I think it's okay. In my hometown, water power is used to grind flour. The flour ground out is white, fine and even. In fact, it's the same with our spinning. The key is to have uniform power. Water power can do this, and then people will be free.
Come out, feed the material next to it, check for broken threads, and the amount of yarn spun by water power must be several times that of our manual spinning, and it must be spun well.”
Chen Qing was filled with praise in his heart. Hydraulic spinning had indeed achieved great development in the Southern Song Dynasty. It was rare for this little lady to have imagined it.
"Yes, your suggestion is very good, and your performance today is also very good. You have solved the biggest problem of kapok textile. It deserves a big reward. I will give you a reward too!"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "I will let the Xianyang County Government reward you with a one-acre yard so that you can take good care of your parents."
There was an exclamation all around. What a reward house! It’s so enviable. One acre of yard in Xianyang costs 1,000 guan. They earn 10 guan a month and have to work hard for ten years to afford it.
Yang Xiaomei burst into tears and knelt down, kowtowing to Chen Qing desperately without saying a word.
Chen Qing helped the thin little lady up and said with a smile: "I rewarded you in the yard, but there is also a hundred coins rewarded by your chief steward. Don't be embarrassed to ask him for it."
Gu Xin saw sweat on his forehead and said quickly: "Don't dare! Don't dare! The villain will also increase the reward."
Chen Qing solemnly said to him: "Rewards are one thing, but what I care more about is to implement the little lady's inventions and suggestions. There are still half a month before the New Year. I hope to see Kapok weaving before the New Year."
Don’t let me down with the first piece of cloth that comes out.”
"It's totally in time. I'll let Xiaomei weave this piece of cloth by herself."
Chen Qing then said to Zhou Chengdong: "As for the application of water power to textiles, I will leave it to your craftsmanship. You can study it first and then test it after the spring thaws."
Zhou Chengdong bowed and said: "I will start working on this matter tomorrow!"
Chen Qing turned back and looked at Jiang Yanxian, who smiled slightly and said: "The humble post will tell the county government, how can you not arrange rewards for His Highness!"
Jingzhao City Juxiang Restaurant is located on West Street. It can be regarded as one of the top ten restaurants in Jingzhao. The Juxiang sake produced in the restaurant is very famous. Jingzhao also implements a monopoly system for the wine. The government makes the koji cakes and then issues a brewing license.
Only restaurants and hotels with a brewing license can buy koji cakes and brew various kinds of wine.
Therefore, the eighteen bowls of bottle-flavored wine that Wu Song drank at the Sanwanbuogang Inn were most likely the inn's purchase of someone else's muddy wine and then mixed it with water, because it was definitely not qualified to make wine. If the county government found out that it was brewing private wine, it would go to jail.
of.
Juxiang sake is very famous, and the restaurant's business is also very good. In a private room on the third floor, three men are sitting together drinking and listening to music. The man on the right is about thirty years old, with a long, thin face and a pale complexion.
, his eyes were not straight, and there was a faint evil aura.
This person is Lu Jiao, the second son of Fangzhou Governor Lu Datong. He is currently an unemployed vagrant, doing nothing at home all day long.
The key is that his father sold his house in Lin'an in order to redeem his sentence. Together with all his savings, he collected 50,000 yuan and gave it to the Ministry of Punishment, and he was freed.
But their family was so poor that they had no money to rent a house. Thanks to their uncle Lu Yihao giving them one hundred taels of silver, they were able to come to Jingzhao. Chen Qing gave Lu Yihao face and arranged a five-acre official house for Lu Datong.
He gave him another 500 guan to live in his house, and then became the governor of Fangzhou.
Lu Xiu also gave his uncle Lu Datong a thousand guan of money. Lu Datong left the 1,500 guan of money to his wife and children, and went to Fangzhou to take up his post. Before leaving, Lu Datong repeatedly told his wife to deal with it.
The son is strictly controlled.
The best way to strictly control his son is to give him only five guan of pocket money every month. Lu Jiao doesn't want to stay at home and spends his time wandering around every day. Five guan is not enough for him to spend in two or three days.
,
He is not harming the people now. It's not that he has changed his gender, but that he no longer has a bunch of scoundrels to work for him. He doesn't even have a follower, he is all alone. Not to mention harming the people, even on the streets.
If he molests a woman, his small body will be beaten half to death.
Lu Qiao was extremely embarrassed. He had never been so eager for money as he was now. He was thinking about how to make money and how to get rich all day long. Once he had money, he could spend his days and nights in Jingzhao City and be extravagant.
But after all, his surname is Lu, and this surname has attracted the attention of interested people.
Lu Jiao met two businessmen friends out of nowhere. Today, the two businessmen friends invited him to have dinner at Juxianglou.
These two people seemed to be quite wealthy, so Lu Jiao began to have an idea of how he could make money from them.