"What crop?" Guo Song asked with great interest.

"Have you ever heard of the White Cloth?"

Guo Song immediately reacted, "Are you talking about Bai Diezi?" ”

White stacks is cotton, in the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an began to sell cotton cloth, called white stacked cloth, was sold by the Sogdians from the West, the price is very expensive, and only the powerful can afford it, of course, the word 'cotton' appeared in the Song Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty was called white stacks, which is a kind of exotic flowers and plants planted by magnates in the courtyard.

"I saw with my own eyes in Gaochang that a family was spinning white stacked cloth, and a lot of white stacked cloth was planted outside the city, which was very interesting!"

Guo Song suddenly became interested, and said with a smile: "It just so happens that I am also going to Gaochang to inspect, let's go and have a look!" ”

.........

Early the next morning, Guo Song led a team of cavalry to Xizhou, this was his second trip to Xizhou, after reaching an agreement with the four major tribes, he went to Gaochang and was warmly welcomed by the people of Gaochang.

This time, he went to Xizhou to inspect and mainly consider the next plan of Xizhou.

Xizhou and Tingzhou are Tang army reserves, there are not many pastures, mainly agriculture, the north of Tingzhou is a large desert, only the middle area because of the high mountain meltwater formed several rivers with abundant water, the land on both sides is fertile, is the best agricultural area.

Xizhou is also good, the Gaochang Valley has always been an important agricultural area, but it was invaded by Shatuo and was greatly damaged, and it will take a long time to recover.

It was not far from Jinman County to Xizhou, it was more than 100 miles away, and the next morning, Guo Song led the cavalry team to enter the boundary of Xizhou.

The topography of Xizhou is very distinctive, there are many mountains and valleys, the drop is very large, the weather is extremely hot in summer, it is like being in a furnace, the agricultural irrigation here mainly depends on the meltwater from the high mountains, due to the low-lying terrain, a large amount of fresh water is stored underground, in order to use the groundwater, the qanats came into being, there are a large number of underground water canals, forming an underground kingdom extending in all directions.

Now the weather is not very hot, the group is rushing south on the official road, and the farmland on both sides has begun to appear human figures, without the oppression of the Shatuo people, vitality bursts out again on this land.

At dusk, Guo Song and his entourage entered Gaochang County, Gaochang County is not too bad, the population has more than 7,000 households, more than 30,000 people, of which the Han people account for seventy percent, there are currently 1,000 Tang troops stationed in Gaochang City, Guo Song appointed a new county order, the county order is called Cheng Ruxiao, and he also followed Meng Jiao to Hexi Shizi, he served in the army to join the army, this time Guo Song with few civilian soldiers, he took advantage of this advantage, served as Gaochang County Commander.

At present, what Guo Song lacks most is civil officials, and there are still four counties in Xizhou, Puchang County, Liuzhong County, Jiaohe County, and Tianshan County, and there are no officials at present, because the population is not large, so military management can only be temporarily implemented.

The group came to Gaochang County, Cheng Ruxiao heard that the envoy of Jiedu had arrived, and hurriedly came out to greet him, Guo Song turned over and dismounted and asked, "What has happened in Gaochang City recently?" ”

"Returning to the envoy, there is no big change, but many people have come back recently, all of them have come back from the mine, dragging their families and mouths, and thousands of people have come back, we have to increase the amount of porridge, and we have to boil more than 30 cauldrons every day."

"All Han Chinese? Or other Hu people? ”

Cheng Ruxiao nodded, "They are all Han people, there are no Hu people!" ”

Guo Song was suddenly annoyed in his heart, Sha Tuo had promised to release all the Han miners back to Hexi, how could there still be thousands of people?

Sima Zhao Wei next to him understood the situation better, and said to Guo Song: "Envoy, they are not miners, but smelters, and the mined ores are handed over to them for smelting. ”

Only then did Guo Song understand, nodded and asked, "How many smelting workers are there?" ”

Cheng Ruxiao hurriedly said: "Returning to the envoy, there are more than 700 people in total, plus their families, a total of more than 3,300 people. ”

Guo Song pondered for a moment, and then asked Zhao Weidao: "How much ore is still unsmelted over there in the mine?" ”

Zhao Wei smiled bitterly and said: "I can't weigh it, the quantity is too large, and it is piled up, so do you want them to continue to engage in smelting?" ”

Guo Song nodded, "It is better to teach people to fish, it is better to teach people to fish, instead of giving money, it is better to let them work by themselves to earn money to support their families, and they can earn a little higher, three times a month, which is enough for them to support their families." ”

"Is the ore going to be shipped?" County Commander Cheng Ruxiao asked.

Guo Song shook his head, "It's better to let them go back to the mine, everything over there is ready-made, they were forced labor before, but now they are not, you can advance three months' wages to them first, let them support their families, and then the mine will provide food and clothing, improve the conditions, I believe they are willing to go back and earn money." ”

"Mobilize tomorrow!"

Guo Song then stayed in the post house, and the next morning, he followed Zhao Wei to the west of Gaochang City.

"Envoy, that's the family!" Zhao Wei pointed to a family on the street.

The black door is closed, there is a drum stone at the door, and the door is quite elegant, it can be seen that this family is well-off, at least it used to be.

Zhao Wei patted the door knocker, and after a while, a middle-aged man opened a crack in the door, looked at a few people outside and asked, "Who are you looking for?" ”

"Lord Lin, have you forgotten me? I only came here some time ago. ”

"You are Zhao Sima, look at my memory, hey! Come in. ”

Everyone walked into the gate, there was a large courtyard inside, Guo Song saw several large wooden shelves, on which were hanging a few white stacked cloths that were drying, and he stepped forward with great interest to take a closer look.

Zhao Wei said a few words in Lin Dongzhu's ear, Lin Dongzhu was so frightened that his face changed, this young man turned out to be Guo Yuanjun, the Hexi Jiedu envoy who destroyed Shatuo, and he was actually interested in Bai Diebu.

Guo Song touched the white cloth, it felt good, thinner than linen, thicker than silk, just between silk and linen.

"Do you still have white stacks?" Guo Song turned around and asked.

"And! And also! Please come with me. ”

Lin Dongzhu took Guo Song to the warehouse, only to see dozens of baskets in the warehouse, which were full of cotton, some lint with seeds peeled, and some raw cotton without seeds.

Guo Song picked up a piece of cotton and looked at it carefully, and shook his head secretly, it was still short-staple cotton, this kind of cotton fiber was short, difficult to spin, even if the cloth was woven, it was very thick, similar to fine linen, and the use value was not great, and he was disappointed for a while.

"It's a hassle to peel the seeds inside!"

"Yes! The most troublesome is to peel the seeds, in the past, after the harvest season, specially asked someone to peel the seeds, now I can't invite anyone, I can only peel it myself, my son and I can't sleep night after night, you look at my hands. ”

He raised his palm, and all ten of his fingers were covered with calluses.

"And then, how do you spin thread?" Guo Song asked again.

"Please come with me!"

Guo Song followed him into the middle courtyard, and saw that the room that was supposed to be the lobby and the next room were full of machines, with spinning machines on the left and looms on the right, twenty of them each, and now there was no one, so they were empty there.

There was the sound of weaving machinery next door, but I saw three women busy in the next room, a woman in her forties, and the other two little ladies were only in their teens.

"This is my wife and two daughters, the younger daughter is in charge of kneading, the eldest daughter is spinning, and my wife is weaving."

"Can't you hire someone now?" Guo Song asked puzzled.

Lin Dongzhu sighed and said: "People will definitely be able to recruit them, but the white cloth can't be sold, and it will be snatched away by the Shatuo people as soon as it gets on the market, in fact, even if it is not snatched away, no one cares, so I have to disband all the guys." ”

Zhao Wei explained beside him: "A white cloth is sold for two dollars in Gaochang, Zhangye sells for five dollars, and Chang'an sells for ten dollars, but a fine linen cloth in Gaochang only costs five hundred dollars, and the white cloth can only be sold if it is sent to Chang'an. ”

In fact, Guo Song also understands that scarcity is expensive, because there are very few white folded fabrics, all of them are expensive, if they are planted on a large scale and textile, their prices are not so expensive, but this is short-staple cotton, if it is long-staple cotton, it is different.

Guo Song stepped forward and squatted down to check the little lady's cotton thread, this is the defect of short-staple cotton, the fiber is not long enough, and it must be manually rubbed before it can be spun on the machine, but in this way, the spun yarn is relatively coarse, and the woven cloth is also coarse.

Guo Song got up and asked Lin Dongzhu, "Where is this planted?" ”

"Outside the city, I have 300 acres of land, all of which are planted with white stacks."

Guo Song took a cotton peach from the basket next to him and said, "This velvet is too short, don't you think?" ”

Lin Dongzhu nodded, "If the velvet is long, spin it directly, and it is not easy to break, but I have never seen the white stacks of long velvet, and I have seen the white stacks of Tianzhu, which is actually about the same." ”

This is indeed a big problem, and high-quality long-staple cotton is still in the Americas!

But there are two sides to everything, one path does not work, and another path may pass.