As soon as Guo Song turned around, he saw his father-in-law Du Qiu behind him, and several guards next to him looked embarrassed, obviously Du Qiu didn't let them speak.

Dugu Qiu smiled and asked, "Why is the virtuous son-in-law here?" ”

Guo Song hurriedly saluted and smiled: "Come out for a walk and learn about the market, the cotton gin in this shop is a bit interesting, so look carefully." ”

"This is the shop of the Hou Mochen family, their family now specializes in cotton ginning, this is just for display, and their family also has a hydraulic cotton gin in Xinfeng County."

"Hydraulic ginning, what is it like?" Guo Song asked puzzled.

"Just like the irrigation waterwheel, the river water is used to push the waterwheel, and the waterwheel rotates to drive the iron shaft to rotate, and at the same time drives two large cotton gins, which can roll hundreds of catties of cotton a day."

Guo Song was immediately interested, and hurriedly asked, "Is it in Xinfeng County?" ”

Dugu Qiu nodded, "Their family is going to build twenty hydraulic cotton gins, which can roll thousands of catties of cotton in a day, and this kind of small manpower cotton ginning machine will not be seen on the market in the future, but it is winter now, and the river is frozen, if you are interested, you can go and see it after spring." ”

Guo Song was very interested, and there was a cotton gin driven by water, and he really wanted to go and see it when he had time.

The two came to the largest cotton shop, which is the industry of the Dugu family, the name of the store is Yunmian, covering an area of four acres, and a large warehouse has been built.

Du Isoqiu invited Guo Song to sit down in the guest room on the second floor, Guo Song took a sip of tea and asked with a smile: "Father-in-law is still satisfied with Anxi's inspection!" ”

"It's not bad, the land is fertile, the sun is abundant, and there are irrigation water sources, the only fly in the ointment is that the population is too small, and the lack of labor is a big problem!"

Guo Song pondered for a moment and said: "The problem of labor shortage cannot be solved for a while, but there are also ways, such as recruiting people to go to Anxi to work for a short time, planting cotton for a year or two, including food and housing, and earning forty or fifty yuan a year, there should be someone willing to go, and another way is to relocate criminals, but after all, the number of criminals is not large, and then the way is military households, the family migrates to the past, and all kinds of favorable conditions are sufficient, I think there are still many military families willing to go." ”

Du Gu Qiu hurriedly asked, "Is there an implementation plan then?" ”

Guo Song nodded, "We are going to recruit in Hebei next summer, we have experience in Fengzhou, tax treatment, land allocation, population resettlement or something, once we start to implement it, it will be relatively easy." ”

After a pause, Guo Song smiled again: "But this kind of population migration is a long-term process, more than ten years or even decades, and they all have their own land, it is unlikely that they will do things for you, I think it is more appropriate for you to recruit short-term workers at the moment." ”

Dugu Qiu sighed, "We also think about it this way, in fact, we have already started to recruit short-term workers, forty a year, including food and housing, it is not easy to find people in Guanzhong, but it is easy to recruit people on the Bashu side." ”

At this time, Du Qiu said again: "Virtuous son-in-law, do you think the Guan Long family is really hopeless?" ”

This is the words that Gu Jingqiu has been holding back in his heart for a long time, and it is also the voice of the Long family, it is rare to meet Guo Song today, he simply mustered up the courage to ask.

Guo Song smiled faintly: "What kind of hope is not what kind of hope my father-in-law refers to?" If you want to control the army as before, it is indeed hopeless, but if you just want to join the army or politics, I don't think there is anything you can't do, you can be promoted and added to the official position if you make meritorious contributions, and you can also enter politics if you are admitted to the imperial examination, there has never been any restrictions, if I remember correctly, this year there is a child of the Hou Mo Chen family who has been admitted to the Jinshi! ”

"That's right, the ninety-first, Zen Master Hou Mochen, is currently the chief secretary of Jiaocheng County, Taiyuan Prefecture."

"That's right! The imperial examination is fair, and there is no discrimination against anyone, even if Zhu Jun's nephew can be admitted, we will also admit it, not to mention the Guan Long family. ”

"I understand what the virtuous son-in-law means, and I will tell you."

Guo Song smiled again: "But I have a suggestion, my father-in-law and the other Guan Long family can consider it." ”

"Virtuous son-in-law, please speak!"

Guo Song said unhurriedly: "In fact, I hope that the Guan Long family will use its own abundant assets to build a large-scale workshop, such as the papermaking of the eldest grandson family, which is very imposing, and the cotton gin of the Hou Mo Chen family is actually driven by water power, and after the beginning of spring, I will organize officials to visit." ”

"Your Highness is right, I also advise everyone to develop in large-scale workshops, I wonder if Your Highness has any good industrial suggestions?"

"Isn't it nice to spin? Cotton cloth will become the mainstream in the future, and Persian sugar beets have begun to be planted in Beiting, which can be used to squeeze juice and boil sugar, which will greatly enrich the variety of food, and then you can also build ships, build large sea ships, how much to build, how much to buy by the military, in fact, as long as you develop around the four words of clothing, food, housing and transportation, you can basically make a big industry. ”

Dugu Qiu nodded, "Speaking of textile, I would like to talk to the virtuous son-in-law, in fact, the Dugu family has a very large textile factory in Taiyuan, there are a thousand looms and five hundred spinning wheels, mainly weaving fine linen, originally I also wanted to weave cotton cloth, but the steward of the workshop told me that cotton spinning is more difficult, it has short fibers, easy to break, not to mention, the spun cloth is still relatively thick, if there is a longer velvet like cotton, then the spun thread will be thin and strong." ”

"My father-in-law is not wrong at all, the biggest problem of cotton now is that the fiber is short, and it is not easy to form a thread, mainly because the variety is not very good."

"That's one of the main purposes of my trip to Anxi, which is to look for long-staple cotton."

Guo Song shook his head, "I can't find it, Anxi doesn't have this kind of long-staple cotton." ”

Dugu Qiu smiled: "Don't be so sure, I really found it." ”

Guo Song was stunned, "What kind of long-staple cotton?" ”

Dugu Qiu pulled the rope, the bell rang outside, and after a while, the steward walked in, bowed and said, "Family master, do you have something to order?" ”

"You go to the warehouse and bring that black box, the same black box I brought back from Anthy."

The steward walked quickly, and in a short time he came in with a black box, placed it on the table, and bowed off.

Du Qiuqiu opened the black box, Guo Song stepped forward to take a closer look, it was full of cotton peaches, most of them were blooming, obviously much bigger than the current cotton peaches, Guo Song was shocked, and hurriedly took out one and observed it carefully.

The variety has not changed, it is still the same, but the cotton peach grows bigger, the cotton is snow-white, like a cloud, and he slowly pulls the cotton wool outward, and the fiber length is at least twice that of the current cotton.

Guo Song was suddenly surprised and delighted, this is long-staple cotton! How could there be.

"Where did my father-in-law find this long-staple cotton peach?" Guo Song asked anxiously.

"In Yanji Town, a local Wusun man planted it, he planted hundreds of acres of cotton fields, and then only one cent of the cotton grew bigger, he said it was a different seed, I bought it all, here is only a part."

"Do you have cottonseeds?" Guo Song asked again.

"There must be, I specially kept it, try to plant it next year, if the virtuous son-in-law wants, I can give the virtuous son-in-law a part."

"This is great, if I can grow long-staple cotton, I will promote it on a large scale in the Central Plains to replace hemp."

Guo Song also does not know why there is long-staple cotton, it should be a variation, it is likely that there is only one generation, if this long-staple cotton can be passed down from generation to generation, this will be a great promotion to the development of textiles.

.........

The two chatted for half an hour, and Guo Song got up to say goodbye, and Duqiu also returned home.

Guo Song then came to the middle of the East City, which was called Chang'an's financial street by Guo Song, and the head offices of the four cabinet shops were here, the Baoyuan cabinet shop he had been to last time, the Poly cabinet of the Dugu family, the Fuli cabinet of the Xiao family, and the Baoju cabinet shop jointly opened by Li An, Zhang Lei and Guo Ping.

In the Baoju cabinet workshop, Li An and Zhang Lei each accounted for forty percent of the shares, Guo Ping accounted for two percent of the shares, and she never asked about the cabinet operation, and Li An is old, his energy is not as good as before, and he usually doesn't ask much about the cabinet shop, and now Zhang Lei is mainly responsible for the operation.

Zhang Lei went to Hebei some time ago, and I don't know if he came back? Guo Song wanted to talk to him and ask about the situation in Youzhou.

Guo Song walked to the door of the treasure gathering cabinet and saw a tall man combing a horse, Guo Song couldn't help but look at him a few more times, and was slightly surprised in his heart.

This man is wearing the black and red robe of Baoju Cabinet Workshop, with a sword at his waist, he should be a buddy or a guard, but his intuition tells Guo Song that this man is by no means an ordinary person, he has a kind of awe-inspiring killing machine, and he has a unique temperament in every move, this temperament should be cultivated in his long-term military career, and the killing machine on his body is the precipitation on the battlefield.

It just so happened that this man glanced up at Guo Song, his sharp gaze seemed to see through Guo Song, and there was also a hint of surprise in his eyes, he obviously also understood Guo Song's temperament that had been cultivated through a hundred battles.

'There are still such people in Baoju Cabinet Workshop, what's going on?' Guo Song thought secretly.

Guo Song walked into the lobby, just as Zhang Lei and the shopkeeper walked out from behind, Zhang Lei also saw Guo Song, and his eyes lit up.

"Senior brother, why are you here?" He asked, surprised and delighted.

"I'm here to take a look around the East Market, and by the way, see if you're back?"

"You're just here, I just arrived in Chang'an in the middle of the night last night, and I'm still thinking about having time to have a drink with you."

Guo Song smiled slightly, "It's almost noon now, I'll invite you!" ”

"You're welcome, I just ordered the wine and food, and I'll deliver it right away, let's go to the backyard for a drink, and I also have a bottle of old wine hidden, which can't be drunk outside."

Guo Song nodded happily and followed Zhang Lei to the backyard.