Cotton appeared for the first time in Taoyuan Village, and many people had never seen it, including Song Bangcheng, who had only heard a few words before, and had never seen this thing. Therefore, Chang's cotton was taken back, which immediately attracted the attention of many people, and everyone wanted to know how this thing was woven into clothing and how it was.

Song Bangcheng was also very interested, and he called Chang Xile when he was handling cotton. Song Bangcheng is a very curious person and is interested in everything. And I will try it myself, and there is no such thing as some scholars who disdain to be involved in the unexpected affairs of reading, especially this kind of rough work that only working people do.

Chang Xile feels that only after understanding the people's livelihood can he be a good official, and only when he knows how the people work can he know the hardships involved. Song Bangcheng has such a quality, and there is a high chance that he will become a good official in the future, so he naturally supports him to see and experience everywhere.

When he was about to start processing the cotton, he asked Song Bangcheng to come over early in the morning. And Wan Niang and Song Yuxi also came over, and the two families are now very close to each other, and they often come and go on weekdays. Song Yuxi is now playing very well with several children of the Chang family, and Wan Niang is also very good with several sisters-in-law. Wan Niang was very good at economic affairs later, and it was also because of the relationship with Cao's second sister-in-law and Ding's third sister-in-law in Taoyuan Village these days. Seeing how they managed the workshop, they gained a lot of experience, which Wan Niang didn't expect at that time.

"What is this thing for?" Song Bangcheng saw Chang Yu carrying out a wooden shelf and asked curiously.

Chang Xile introduced: "Look at these cottons, there are cotton seeds on them, and we have to separate the cotton seeds. And this thing is used for separation, which can be called a cotton gin. ”

Song Bangcheng suddenly realized, and admired it very much: "Your brain is faster than ordinary people, this thing is obviously quite easy to pick by hand, you even thought of using tools." ”

Chang Xile smiled, to be honest, if it weren't for the experience of later generations, his first contact with unfamiliar things, he would definitely not be able to study a way to use tools to save trouble and effort at the beginning. Almost all farm tools are slowly explored in practice, and there is a step-by-step process.

"We only plant one acre now, but it is really easy to harvest two hundred catties and pick them by hand, but if we plant more in the future, it will be different. The use of tools can improve efficiency and save labor, so that the cost will be reduced and the profit will be huge. ”

Song Bangcheng also understood this truth, but he had never seen a person like Chang Xile, who could use tools and think about making zuò, and sighed: "Now that Taoyuan Village has so many tricks, you still have to save labor." You want to lead the whole village to get rich, so won't you have to come up with a lot of tricks to achieve it? Sometimes I really want to dig out your brain and see if it's different from normal people. ”

"Then I'll have to stay away from you, maybe one day you'll cut off my head."

"Then I have to have this opportunity! It's not that you don't know that there is a tiger uncle by your side who can pinch people to death with one hand. Song Bangcheng glanced at Chang Yu, looking scared. Now everyone follows Chang Xisheng and calls Chang Yu Uncle Tiger, but his lethality is too great.

From time to time, this little guy went up the mountain to get a bear and a wolf back, especially after having a bow and arrow, and his hunting skills became even more powerful. Chang Xile was afraid that he would bring disaster to the back mountains, and he also accused him of the number of times he hunted.

After speaking, Song Bangcheng sighed with emotion: "Being a villager with you is really a blessing from my previous life." ”

Song Bangcheng has been to so many places, but he has never seen such a thing as Chang Xile.

This world pays attention to clans, in fact, there are still many people in the big family who help each other, but no one is like Chang Xile, who does not simply give money, but points to a path.

After all, it is not easy to maintain one-sided charity all the time. Only by standing up on your own can you change your predicament.

Chang Xile does this is a virtuous circle, not only does not harm his own interests, but even increases his own interests in this circle, but it also achieves the purpose of helping, and does not let the beneficiary feel inferior.

"If I didn't have the villagers, you used to have an egg and a handful of vegetables for me, and I wouldn't have this day." Chang Xile said sincerely.

Song Bangcheng stretched out his hand and wanted to pat Chang Xile's shoulder to express his approval, but before his hand reached Chang Xile, he was patted away by Chang Yu.

Song Bangcheng was unhappy, "You little ghost, you are really too domineering, Brother Chang and I are good brothers, what's wrong with touching it?" ”

Chang Yu just looked at him like this, not saying a word, but the meaning of refusal was very obvious.

Song Bangcheng still wanted to tease him, but Song Yuxi on the side was unwilling, which made Chang Yu angry, what should he do if he ignores him when the time comes.

"Dad, don't you want to see how this thing is used, why hasn't it started yet?"

Song Bangcheng didn't know his son's thoughts, so he could only give up.

Since I came here, although my schoolwork has not been left behind, I have run around the mountains with a few children of the Chang family whenever I have free time. At first, Wan Niang was still a little worried, because Song Yuxi's body and bones were not very good since she was a child, she was weaker than ordinary children, and she would get sick every once in a while.

I didn't expect that after running around like this for a while, people got tanned, their bodies became much tougher, and they ate more than before. It's probably because you're in good health, you can remember your studies better, and your homework is better, so Wan Niang doesn't care about him anymore. However, it is required that daily homework must be completed, otherwise you are not allowed to leave the house.

Song Bangcheng rubbed Song Yuxi's head, "Okay, you're in a hurry." ”

The cotton gin made by Chang Xile is a very simple primitive cotton gin, consisting of two rollers that rotate in opposite directions next to each other, and the seed cotton enters between the two rollers, and spits out from the other side like a strip of cloth, and the cotton seed will be stuck down.

This type of gin is faster than a hand ginner, but it is far less than a foot ginner.

Chang Xile didn't make a pedal cotton gin, first, it was relatively more complicated, he didn't have time to think about it, there was still little cotton now, so he put this aside for the time being, anyway, this cotton gin can also be used now; Second, although the pedal cotton gin has high working efficiency, it can easily damage the fibers and affect the strength of the yarn products produced.

Therefore, unless it is a large-scale processing state in the future, it is necessary to improve efficiency, it is better to use the original cotton gin to dispose of the cotton seed first.

This thing is easy to operate, Chang Xile demonstrated it once, and everyone knew what to do.

Shanzi and Song Yuxi all competed with each other as if they were playing, and finally disposed of more than 200 catties of seed cotton.

Cottonseed can be used to extract oil, and cottonseed oil can also be used, but it must be refined. Unrefined cottonseed oil contains a lot of gossypol, which has a great impact on male fertility, and women may induce menstrual disorders and amenorrhea if they eat it.

Chang Xile was not very clear about how to use such rudimentary conditions to remove gossypol and other harmful substances in it, and it was impossible to test it here, and he did not know whether the refined oil met the standards, so he simply gave up the idea of making zuò cottonseed oil for the time being. Anyway, there are still few cotton seeds, and it is not enough to keep them as seeds, let alone oil extraction.

Even if you plant more in the future, you don't necessarily have to squeeze oil, cottonseed husks can be used to cultivate shiitake mushrooms, and cottonseeds can be ground and used as feed for cattle and sheep and land fertilizer, which will not be wasted.

After picking off all the cotton seeds, the first thing Chang Xile did when he used cotton was to play a quilt.

The tool for playing cotton is also very simple, it is a bow with a tension string and a small mallet, the tension string is placed in the cotton, and the string is vibrated with a mallet mallet to achieve the purpose of combing the fiber.

It's easier said than done. Chang Xile is just when he was traveling, and he saw people playing in the farmhouse. At that time, I also tried to get started, but I couldn't grasp the essentials. Every time it played very badly, it made the cotton fly and choked so much that he coughed and his lungs were about to come out.

Therefore, he is only responsible for guidance here, and he is resolutely not handy.

Before playing cotton, the cotton is placed on a special table for making zuò, which is covered with straw mats. Cotton should be evenly arranged,

Everyone didn't think anything of it, and they tried to do what he asked.

Song Bangcheng and Chang Xile have a virtue, but their brains are good, but their hands and feet are not good.

And it was Chang Yu who did the last surprise or not, but after trying for a while, he mastered the skills and played up in a good way. Everyone else will do it, but after all, it is inevitable that they will be rusty when they have just learned, and they are afraid that the first few quilts are not very good.

Playing cotton is also a technical job and an individual job, and if you don't do things well, it will be greatly discounted.

"It's kind of interesting." Cao's second sister-in-law said while playing.

Cao's second sister-in-law no longer has to go back and forth to set up a stall, the stall directly hired someone to do it, they have been doing it for so long, they naturally know how much they earn every day, so they are not afraid of being greedy. Besides, if you don't trust it, you won't let it go.

Cao's second sister-in-law took out of the food stall in order to take charge of the dogwood workshop and the milling workshop.

The Chang family was trained by Chang Xile, and although he didn't know much about words, he didn't know much about basic arithmetic. And every time he will instill some management theories that are suitable for the situation here, teach them to use numbers to analyze, etc., and the courses are aimed at cultivating them as managers.

Among them, the best learned are Cao Er's sister-in-law and Ding's third sister-in-law, except for Chang Xisheng, the other brothers in the family are not good at management, and are more suitable for work.

Although Chang Xixing is a good hand at farming, and Chang Xiwang is doing a good job in the oil mill, he is willing to spend that effort, but he is not willing to use his brains. So the management was handed over to these two sisters-in-law, and sister-in-law Wang was in charge of the family's affairs. She is the eldest sister-in-law, and it is only natural that she should be responsible for this.

Her temperament is too soft, and she can't manage people outside, but she can do a good job of keeping the house in order.

Although Grandma Sun is still energetic now, the housekeeping matter is gradually transferred to Sister-in-law Wang, but she still doesn't dare to take charge of the money. The Chang family now has a strong foundation, although they invest a lot of money, every time they earn a little back, they have something new to do, so the funds are liquid. But even so, compared to before, there is still a lot of money left on hand.

Although the Wang family is a lot more honest now, Mrs. Sun is still not at ease, it is really Sister-in-law Wang's temperament that makes her dare not fully trust.

"After a long time, my arm is still quite sore." Ding San's sister-in-law said, she also tried it just now, and she knew that this job was not so easy to do.

Grandma Sun watched the cotton look whiter and whiter, and couldn't help but step forward and touch it, "It's good to look at this thing, and it must be very warm in winter with this quilt." ”

Chang Xile said: "The cloth woven with this thing is also very good, but I have to bother my sisters-in-law for the time being." ”

Although cotton is a new thing, the principle of spinning into thread is almost the same, and several sisters-in-law in the family have woven a good cloth, which will not stump them, as long as they think about it a little, they will master the trick.

Nowadays, it is used at home, and there are not many of them, so I don't hire anyone else. And the Chang family still doesn't have the concept of hiring people to serve themselves, and they have always tried to do what they can do by themselves.

Chang Xile had not yet had time to improve the spinning wheels and looms here, he only knew a little about them, and he had to communicate with the carpenters, he provided ideas, and the wooden generals realized their ideas. It's not impossible to toss around by yourself, and knowledge takes a long time. This time he was only going to remind one or two sentences, and let the carpenters figure it out for themselves. Although this process will slow down, it will also improve their creative power.

After all, there is a limit to what he can do, and if these people want to be independent, they have to learn to think, not just rely on him.

The vast number of people are very wise, and as long as they have a suitable soil for growth, they can give many surprises. Most of the various objects in history that have been passed down for centuries were invented and created by these lovely people.

Cao's second sister-in-law said angrily: "Xiao Wu is really becoming more and more polite, isn't it begging to say such things to my sister-in-law." ”

Chang Xile bowed his hand and said seriously: "It's the younger brother who is wrong, and please don't blame my sister-in-law." ”

Cao's second sister-in-law smiled even more happily, "Look, I have a big face, and others can't wait to apologize to me." ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and they all teased Chang Rejoicing.

Now Chang Xile's reputation is very loud in Daoxiang County and neighboring counties, whether it is those farm tools, or at a kind price to harvest rice grain, dogwood, camellia fruit, mung beans, wood and other things, so that the local people have obtained tangible benefits.

In fact, the price of these things charged by Chang Xile was not much higher than that of other merchants, but at a relatively reasonable price, and he could not disrupt the local economy because of himself. Because of the sudden change, it is easy to cause the local economy to collapse.

After all, he can't run all the projects, and if the interests of other businessmen are damaged, it is very likely that he will fight back and get it back in other places. In the end, it was the people who suffered the benefits, and the extra money he gave was only taken away by the merchants in other ways, and he also set up an enemy in vain.

Although he now has the strength to not be afraid of ordinary merchants, he has also been rewarded by the emperor anyway, as long as he does not touch him, no one will touch him at all. But if it really makes people desperate, then it is not necessarily, cutting off people's financial routes is equivalent to killing people's lives, and there are always people who are willing to take risks for the sake of interests.

Therefore, he is just like those merchants, deliberately lowering the price during the harvest and leading to the depreciation of these agricultural products, and the prices are all uniform, and the ups and downs are not large.

In this way, although the merchants were unhappy in their hearts, they were not unbearable.

Everyone saw these in their eyes, and because of him, they were exempt from taxes, so they were naturally very grateful to Chang Xile. Although Chang Xile has always emphasized the brand of Taoyuan Village, everyone still will not forget and ignore the role of Chang Xile.

Therefore, some families will even set up a longevity card for Chang Xile at home, and worship it every day, hoping that Chang Xile will be healthy and live a long life.

Perhaps because of the contrast between the outside world, when the Chang family faced Chang Xile, they were more relaxed than before. often joke with each other, and treat Chang Xile as an ordinary person as a family member, so that Chang Xile can live in a more relaxed environment.

Otherwise, it is really not a pleasant thing to be offered as a god all day long, and to always be happy.

It doesn't take much time to play the quilt, Song Bangcheng took his wife and children to have a meal at Chang's house, and he saw the finished product in the afternoon.

Since cotton cloth had not yet been woven, the quilt was sewn with fine linen and silk. Chang Xile once tried to let everyone use the form of quilt covers, so that it is more convenient to disassemble and wash, and there is no need to remove the stitches and sew every time. But he felt that such a good mention of yì, something that had been widely used in his previous life, would not work here.

Everyone thinks that the quilt is not smooth enough and does not fit well enough, and it is just a few stitches to make up for it, and it will not be tired, so it is no.

This is the first time that Chang Xile's mention yì has been denied by everyone, and at the same time, I feel that not everything is suitable here, and I am also happy about it. The Chang family now has more knowledge and has more ideas than before, so they will not blindly follow, but have learned to think, which is a good phenomenon.

The quilt was bounced according to the size of the one-meter-eight-bed tube commonly used in the previous life, which was wide and large, weighing ten catties. I don't know what's going on here, all the quilts are small and short, and Chang Xile rolls it up every time he sleeps, and he doesn't cover it, and he doesn't cover the left and the right, which is very uncomfortable.

Now it's not that he lacks materials, and he doesn't want to wronged himself.

Wan Niang touched the newly popped quilt and sighed: "This thing is really warm." ”

Cao's second sister-in-law touched the soft and warm quilt, and said: "Isn't it, this quilt is no worse than the silk quilt, and it is not as precious as the silk quilt, not as rough as hemp." This thing can grow more than 200 nearly 300 catties per acre, this is the first time to plant no experience, and next year will definitely be more than this. This is easier than raising silkworms, those silkworms are the most delicate, and they will be finished at every turn. And this thing is easy to flip, and the silkworm cocoon is much more troublesome than this. ”

Song Bangcheng also praised: "If such a good thing can be widely planted, it is really a great fortune for the country." ”

Chang Xile said with regret: "It's a pity that many people still cling to hemp and silk, and the promotion of this thing is blocked, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to become a big tool for a while." ”

This is the news that Pei Qingyun brought him, new things are not easy to promote, and the people do not have much good land, so they must not be forced. Otherwise, once this happens, it is very likely that some localities will force the peasants to plant all for the sake of political achievements, and as a result, they will not even have food rations.

The landlords, who owned a lot of land, were not willing to grow these new things, but were still accustomed to hemp and silk and did not want to change them, so that there were not many people who planted cotton.

Although Chang Xile knew that this was a normal historical process, everyone would eventually see the goodness of this thing and use it extensively. But because he knows the benefits of this thing, he feels that planting one step later is a loss, so he can't help but sigh. You even want to fly over and knock on the heads of those people with stubborn brains, why are you so stupid!

Song Bangcheng had heard him say before, he didn't know how good this thing was, but now he can't help but sigh when he sees it with his own eyes.

"That's it, some people don't have this life to taste this benefit first, our Taoyuan Village knows that this thing is good, and there are more varieties."

Chang Xile nodded, Li Zheng came to see these cotton before, and also appreciated this thing, and decided to let everyone plant it widely next year.

Cotton is suitable for growing on sandy loam soils and is very drought tolerant. There are many small soil slopes in Taoyuan Village that are suitable for this characteristic, and when the time comes, you can clean up those soil slopes and use them all to grow cotton.

Now that everyone has money in their hands, everyone can buy enough farming tools to ensure that everyone can have it. Unlike in the past, when several companies often bought together, they could only be used in turns when they were busy or idle, so it was very delayed. Now there is no need to worry about this, and many people have also bought cattle and donkeys and other livestock, and the efficiency has also been improved, and there is more spare energy to open up wasteland.

When cotton cloth is woven, it is even rarer for everyone to see. It's much softer than linen, it's very comfortable to the touch, and it feels warmer.

Grandma Sun was very proud to boast about how comfortable the quilt was covered at night, and it was so cold that people shivered at night before, and Tang Pozi didn't use it, and now she covered people with sweat on their heads. Especially the quilt that has just been suned, it is warm when I sleep at night, and I don't want to get up from bed the next morning.

In fact, the Chang family has begun to use silk quilts that are not light, and it stands to reason that they are no worse than quilts, so Grandma Sun really thinks it is good, and on the other hand, she is also boasting.

And the new quilt is really comfortable to cover, but the quilt cover is not good for a long time, and you need to play it again.

Now that it is winter, the weather has cooled down, and everyone in the Chang family has a new quilt and mattress, and they all feel very warm.

Everyone heard that their eyes were even hotter, and they all said that they would also plant a few acres of cotton next year.

Grandma Sun said: "Isn't your family manpowered, open more barren mountains, our little five said, this cotton will be harvested at that time, and it is this number." ”

Grandma Sun stretched out five fingers, and the other party's eyes suddenly widened, "So many!" ”

Grandma Sun was very satisfied with the other party's expression, "And this thing is well served, two or three hundred catties per mu is not a problem, so it will be settled." ”

As soon as the man calculated in his heart, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he stopped chatting with his grandmother, and ran straight home.

That night, many humanitarians confirmed the news, and everyone got a clear answer, and they would get free cottonseeds and went home happily, saying that they could plant as many seeds as they could in the spring of next year.

The weather is getting colder, another year is about to pass, and a new year is coming.