In the south of Shuozhou City, there are hundreds of various workshops distributed one after another.

Thanks to the significant expansion of the cotton cultivation area, a cotton processing area has been spontaneously formed.

Cottonseed threshing, cotton thread processing, cotton cloth processing......

All kinds of workshops can be found here.

The shadows of the nobles of Chang'an City almost all appeared here.

"Shopkeeper, someone just came to ask, are those cottonseeds in the workshop sold?"

In a cottonseed threshing workshop of the eldest grandson's family, the steward cautiously came to the shopkeeper.

Normally, cottonseed is considered a waste in the workshop, and there is no need to ask the shopkeeper for how to deal with it.

However, the person who came to buy it today, the steward happened to know that he was a buddy of the newly opened workshop of the Chu Wangfu.

This should be done with caution.

The eldest grandson's family does not deal with the Chu Wangfu, this is simply an open secret.

"Someone buys cottonseed?"

The shopkeeper asked a little curiously.

Although these cottonseeds are the seeds of cotton, there is no shortage of seeds when so much cotton is planted in Shuozhou today.

It can be said that 99 percent of cottonseed is now waste.

Scrap of no use.

Workshops often use horse-drawn carts to pull these cottonseeds directly into the suburbs, and find a wasteland to dump there.

Nowadays, some people take the initiative to come to the door to buy, and the obedient meaning is still willing to spend money to buy, which is a bit weird?

"Yes, the other party said, ten catties for a penny, they came to the door of the workshop to get it themselves."

"It doesn't matter how much money a pound is, it's all scrap anyway, and someone comes to buy it, but it saves us the trouble of going to the suburbs. It's just that I'm curious, what are they buying this cottonseed for? ”

"The shopkeeper, the people of the Chu Palace, always do things strangely. It stands to reason that even if the Chu Wangfu prepares to greatly expand cotton planting next year, it does not need to purchase so many cottonseeds. ”

The steward pointed out that the person who acquired it was from the Chu Palace, and the shopkeeper immediately stopped being entangled.

However, although he knew that his owner did not deal with the Chu Wangfu, he personally did not have any ill feelings towards the Chu Wangfu.

Strangely enough, if Li Kuan hadn't promoted cotton planting in Shuozhou, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to become the shopkeeper of a workshop.

"If they want to buy it, then sell it. It's useless for us to keep it anyway. ”

……

Outside Shuozhou, a river flows slowly into the distance.

In the place where the water is fast, several large waterwheels with unique shapes are located.

Next to it is a large newly built courtyard.

This is the latest workshop built by the Chu Wangfu in Shuozhou.

Speaking of which, the number of workshops in Shuozhou of the Chu Wangfu is really not much, and the scale is not large.

Many people thought that Li Kuanhui would monopolize the cotton deseeding business in Shuozhou by mastering the unique technology of cotton deseeding.

It turned out that this was not the case at all.

One hundred yuan for a seeding machine, although the price is not cheap, but for the nobles, there is no hesitation at all, they have bought a few and built their own seeding workshops.

In this way, the seeding workshop of the Chu Wangfu is not only not the largest in Shuozhou City, but the scale is behind.

I have to say that this is something that many nobles find strange.

What's even more strange is that Bo Chu Suiliang, the lord of the Chu Palace, personally arranged for people to build a unique workshop outside the city, and no one could understand what it was for.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Chu Suiliang stood near the waterwheel and saw the big wooden hammer driven by the waterwheel, constantly beating the things in the trough.

"Master Chu is thin, and the cottonseeds in the vicinity have almost been purchased by us, and they are all dried and put in the warehouse. Today is our first day of processing and we should be oiling soon. ”

Hu Yingang stood behind Chu Suiliang with a smile on his face, introducing the situation in the workshop.

As the first Tuyuhun people to take refuge in the Northwest Trade, Hu Yingang was appointed as the treasurer of the oil extraction workshop, which left a good hope for the Hu people who defected to the Chu Palace.

"This method of extracting oil from cottonseed is estimated to be difficult to keep secret. But after this oil extraction, there are several unique processes, and you must manage them well, and don't let people steal them. ”

When Chu Suiliang first learned that cottonseed could be used to extract oil, he was very surprised.

However, when the students of the Gewu Academy of Guanshishan Academy showed him in person, he immediately agreed to build an oil extraction workshop.

As the head of the Chu Wangfu in Shuozhou, Chu Suiliang naturally knows how great the benefits of this technology will be if it is really used on a large scale.

Oil in Datang is a scarce thing in itself.

Whether it is animal oil or vegetable oil, until the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, it was still relatively scarce.

Otherwise, there would not be a situation where when everyone buys pork, fat meat is more expensive than lean meat.

It seems that after entering the 21st century, snow-white pig fat cannot even be sold for the price of 20% of lean meat.

"Master Chu, don't worry. Even though we buy so much cottonseed and then produce cottonseed oil, there must be people who can guess where the cottonseed oil comes from. However, not to mention that the squeezing of cottonseeds requires special equipment, the taste of the directly pressed oil alone cannot be directly entered, and it needs to be processed by several processes specially prepared by the students of the Gewu College of Guanshishan Academy before it can be considered to be done. And these processes require the use of something special, which is simply not available on the market. ”

As the shopkeeper of the oil extraction workshop, Hu Yingang naturally attaches more importance to the secrecy of technology than anyone else.

Even if Chu Suiliang doesn't remind him, he will do it.

"Well, that's good. Our Chu Wangfu can be described as selfless and selfless for the promotion of cotton, but we can't make people think that the people in Chu Wangfu are stupid and easy to bully. Since they earn money from cotton planting, the money from cottonseed oil has nothing to do with them. ”

Chu Suiliang was not worried that Li Kuan would oppose his decision.

These cottonseed oils basically need special workshops to process.

It is impossible for ordinary people to be involved.

In other words, the Chu Wangfu monopolized the cottonseed oil business, which was just a way to cut off the wealth of the nobles.

If there had been such a financial route, then perhaps there would have been some rebound.

However, this was excavated by the Chu Wangfu alone, and even if the other nobles were jealous in their hearts, they couldn't afford to have any resentment.

At most, the selling price of cottonseed will be increased a little.

However, the wool comes out of the sheep.

The biggest consumers of oil are these nobles.

The cost of this cottonseed oil is high, and the price is naturally high.

"Master Chu, don't worry, I will definitely build the oil extraction workshop into the largest oil supply workshop in Datang, and make it a new best-selling commodity in the palace."