Sun Lan followed Lou Suzhen to visit nearby schools and workshops.
The first person to go was the girls' school.
As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the alley, I heard the sound of reading from the courtyard in front. It was not a man's voice, but a woman's. Several guards were guarding the entrance of the alley.
These people looked like military households. They were all tall and tall, with a somewhat vigilant look on their faces. They carefully observed every passerby.
"When women study abroad, they always have a lot of inconveniences. This unfair gentleman specially sent guards to help take care of them!"
Lou Suzhen admired Zhu Hao's actions very much, and even considered the safety of the woman when she went out to study in advance.
Sun Lan nodded.
As a woman, she is very aware of how dangerous this world is. Fortunately, it is not the Zhengde period. If anyone had opened such a women's school in the capital during the Zhengde Dynasty, they would have been discovered by the emperor's sycophant and all the female students would have been charged.
Enter the leopard room.
Entering the first courtyard, an old woman was cleaning fallen leaves, and in several classrooms with bright and clean windows, there were female teachers holding pointers, pointing at the chalk words on the blackboard, teaching pronunciation and meaning one by one.
These female gentlemen are all female actors in the theater troupe. Since they need to recite opera texts, they have learned to read and write since they were young. Now they are teaching part-time, and they only teach literacy. They do not involve advanced knowledge, but they can do it easily.
Lou Suzhen brought Sun Lan to visit and had no intention of letting Sun Lan be her teacher.
Besides, Sun Lan, as the boss's wife, is equivalent to the female shopkeeper. How can there be any reason to teach in person? Of course, she is responsible for administrative work, management personnel and accounts. These alone are enough for Sun Lan to be tired.
"Now is the winter leisure time. After the spring planting, there are fewer women coming to study. However, because all the students in school can work in the workshop under the name of the master and make money to supplement the family income, many people are thinking of sending them here.
Girl, it’s a pity that the girls’ school is not big enough now and can’t accommodate so many students.”
Lou Suzhen's words were somewhat regretful.
Sun Lan asked in confusion: "Are there so many women coming to study?"
Lou Suzhen said with a smile: "Sister, you don't know something now. Not only girls who have not left the court, but also married women come to study. They are often harder than girls. Of course, the most important thing is,
Here you can learn the skills of spinning and weaving."
"Spinning and weaving?"
Sun Lan felt that her brain was not full.
If you study for women, you can study for women. You can dabble in the "Female Commandments", "Internal Training", "The Analects of Confucius" and other contents. You can even teach poems and songs, which will be the joy of the boudoir.
But Lou Suzhen has always talked about spinning and weaving. Since ancient times, which girl has not learned knitting and knitting since she was a child? Why do they come here to learn the technology?
"Let's go, I'll take you to the back alley."
Lou Suzhen did not explain immediately.
Since we are bringing the female shopkeeper to visit, we naturally have to visit all the nearby industries in order to deepen our understanding.
…
…
There is an entire alley here where girls' schools are located.
The alley in the back alley is a technical school, which specializes in teaching female students to learn spinning and weaving techniques.
Enter one of the courtyards.
This is just an ordinary weaving school. A woman in her twenties with a bun in a bun is explaining the use of the loom in front of more than 20 girls aged 13 or 14. The teaching equipment is
That old wooden loom.
"...Don't worry about me, you continue teaching."
When Lou Suzhen saw that the woman was about to come over to salute and greet her, she smiled and waved her hand and said something.
The woman continued to instruct the students on the technical essentials of weaving.
"Here, you see... you have to pull it, and then step on it... I used too much force just now, and the thread was broken..."
With that said, the woman gave a demonstration herself.
Then, under the witness of Sun Lan, a "weft thread" somehow passed directly through the "warp thread" used for weaving, and then somehow, the weft thread jumped.
"Okay, you guys try it one by one!"
The woman got up and asked a female apprentice to practice.
Lou Suzhen was very satisfied with the woman's teaching, nodded approvingly, and was about to take Sun Lan to the next teaching point.
Sun Lan tugged at Lou Suzhen's clothes and asked in confusion: "Sister, why didn't I understand the technical essentials of the loom before? How on earth could such a wide cloth be woven? And, what about that?
Shuttle, how do you pass it over?"
Weaving has a shuttle, which is traditionally thrown from one end to the other by hand to form the weft threads.
Not only is this procedure cumbersome, but it is also easy to pinch your arms. Because the transfer is done with both hands, the length of your arms limits the length of the weft threads, so that the width of the fabric will not be too large.
Lou Suzhen said with a smile: "That's called a flying shuttle. Did you see that girl? She lifted the zipper and the flying shuttle automatically jumped over. Pull it again and it came back."
"This...how is this possible?"
Sun Lan was born into a scholarly family, was good at female nuns, and had a relatively deep understanding of weaving.
The most difficult part of weaving, apart from tying the thread at the beginning and reconnecting the thread after it is broken, is actually the use of the shuttle. For the loom not far away, it seems that everything is useless.
Everything has a solution.
Lou Suzhen sighed: "I was puzzled at first, but later I found out that there is something called a spring on it, which is made of iron. It bounces back after being pulled, and the shuttle below is fixed on the crossbar.
, very slippery, in short, you will understand after seeing it more. This is just a loom used for teaching. When you see a steam-driven one, you will know that it is nothing at all."
"Ah? Is there a more powerful loom?"
Sun Lan's eyes were opened.
She really wanted to take a closer look at what the shuttle and the spring were and study the operating principle of the shuttle in detail. However, Lou Suzhen was just taking her to visit and did not intend to teach in detail, so she could only temporarily put aside her curiosity.
…
…
Next, Lou Suzhen took Sun Lan to see the new spinning machine.
It is Zhu Hao's improved "Jenny Spinning Machine" that can spin ten yarns at a time, and they are not balls of yarn, but spindles. Each spindle looks very solid. After spinning, there is a special person nearby to take it away.
Lou Suzhen pointed to the spinning machine and said: "This is a hand spinning machine. It spins ten spindles at a time. It uses cotton. The yarn spun is not used as raw material for the workshop. It is only used for hand training. The output will be sent to
The next door is for female school students to practice weaving. If necessary, the spinning machine can be connected to a yarn wheel and driven by a steam engine, and people only need to look after it."
Sun Lan was confused and had no idea what Lou Suzhen was talking about.
Sun Lan asked: "Where is the workshop?"
Lou Suzhen said: "All the civilian courtyards in the two rows of alleys behind are spinning workshops, and all the spun yarns are sent to the weaving workshops... The young master placed all the weaving workshops and part of the spinning workshops outside the city.
In the city... land is too expensive, and labor is also expensive, so it is better to go outside the city, where you can set up a workshop anywhere you want."
"Then...how much cloth can be produced in a year?"
Sun Lan is very concerned about this.
Lou Suzhen smiled and shook her head: "I'm afraid only the young master himself knows this. My task is only to teach girls and pass on skills to my disciples. After they become proficient, they can learn to read and become familiar with spinning and weaving at the same time... I don't do anything else.
I won’t ask, after all, the weaving workshop is not nearby.”
When Sun Lan heard this, she felt more and more mysterious that her husband-in-law was very mysterious.
Can you actually improve spinning and weaving technology and make a profit from it?
Wouldn’t it be embarrassing for an official to go into business?
Lou Suzhen said: "But according to the master, more people are used in spinning now... In fact, weaving is driven by steam engines, so very few people are used, and from Anlu to the capital, and then to Nanjing, weaving
Fabric workshops are gradually expanding their production scale, so they must ensure yarn supply."
What Lou Suzhen said involves an important issue.
With the steam loom, weaving efficiency has been greatly improved, but spinning technology has not kept up, resulting in a shortage of yarn supply.
Although the spinning machine can also be driven by a steam engine, the efficiency improvement is obviously not as immediate as that of the steam loom. In fact, the Jenny spinning machine is already very efficient when female workers hand-operate it, which makes Zhu Hao have to add more
A lot of labor is put into spinning.
Rather than saying that Lou Suzhen was helping Zhu Hao train female textile workers, it would be better to say that she was training female spinning workers to meet the needs of the increasingly large spinning workshops.
"If there's anything you don't understand, just ask, sister. There are too many people here. Usually there are female teachers and students, as well as people who look after homes and homes, clean and cook, and there are also people who come to work. There are at least thousands of people. All kinds of people are not human beings.
People are all good... Fortunately, women don't have as many bad thoughts as men, as long as they do their part well."
Lou Suzhen has only been at the Women's School for a short time, but she is already equivalent to the head of the mountain here, with a little pride in her tone.
"In the evening, there is a play rehearsal in the theater. Let us sisters go over to watch it together and introduce you to Miss Gongye. Her name is Gongye Ling and she is a popular figure in the theater. Mrs. Gongsun, who is also the master's mistress, also comes here to teach from time to time.
...Oh, by the way, Mr. Gongsun’s name is Gongsun Fengyuan, and it is said that he was the person who was cultivated by the young master.”
Sun Lan was confused for a while after hearing this.
Since Mrs. Gongsun is Zhu Hao’s mistress, isn’t Gongsun Fengyuan the husband?
How come it was Zhu Hao who cultivated it?
Lou Suzhen pursed her lips and smiled: "Mr. Tang accidentally revealed this when he was gossiping. This Mr. Gongsun was promoted by the young master. After winning the imperial examination, he was introduced by the young master to serve in the Imperial College... The younger sister of the Gongsun family knows more than me. From now on, you can
If you have anything, just ask her. Let's go and have a look in the next yard."
…
…
Zhu Hao's women's school finally formed a triumvirate model headed by Lou Suzhen, Mrs. Gongsun and Sun Lan.
Although Gong Yeling joined the company early, she does not focus on it now and only comes to teach occasionally on weekdays.
After Sun Lan joined, Lou Suzhen is now responsible for daily management, Mrs. Gongsun is responsible for training female teachers and teaching, and Sun Lan is responsible for overall planning.
For a woman who had basically stayed at home for more than ten years, it was like opening up another period of life. Sun Lan finally understood why Lou Suzhen, a woman who had long passed her youth,
I am so passionate about the thing in front of me and want to make this my lifelong career.
For ordinary people, this is simply interesting, gives a sense of accomplishment, and can also please oneself...
Sun Lan had just joined this big family and didn't want to leave.
What about being a husband and raising a child? Just step aside.
What can make you live more fulfillingly than this?
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