The cloth is five feet wide, the color is colorful, the texture of the cloth is delicate, and Ge Ma is very different, a bit like silk silk, but it is not silk silk, it is placed in a box and kept well, and it is carefully held out by the Junyi official and presented to the Dasi Farmland Yannian and the pawn country Cheng Ren Hong.

"Dasi Nong, the pawn belongs to the country, this is the wide cloth that Zhuya County paid tribute to last year, hidden in the warehouse of the average loss official, a total of more than 100 horses."

Ren Hong stretched out his hand and picked up a horse and said, "Do you know what is woven from?" ”

According to the local officials who came to pay tribute, this wood is like goose feathers when ripe, and there is a core in it, and the cloth made of its wool is as thin as silk silk, and it is warm and hemp. ”

Listening to this description, Ren Hong secretly said that it was really right, this wide cloth, should be the original cotton cloth, today's cotton is very different from later generations, there is an annual African grass cotton, more suitable for the arid Central Asia, the Western Regions, Ren Hong from the Sogdians has been recommended to Fu Jiezi, in Shanshan, Loulan, Luntai, it dry and other places.

The other is Indian cotton, a perennial woody plant that grows only in the tropics and is almost completely unharvested in dry and cold areas. Previously, when he was in the Western Regions, Ren Hong asked Shi Bodao to get some seeds, but after returning to Chang'an to inquire, he learned that the local Yue people had long been planting cotton weaving cloth in the southern counties of the Han Dynasty, as daily clothing, especially the "wide cloth" produced in Zhuya County and Daner County on Hainan Island is the most famous.

Of course, Dasi Farmland Yannian was no stranger to this thing, and said: "At the end of Emperor Xiaowu, the Taisun Xing of Zhuya County recruited the local barbarians to contribute a wide range of cloth, and the treacherous officials took the opportunity to blackmail and enslave the barbarians, which led to a local rebellion, and Sun Xing was killed. Seeing that Zhuya County was about to be in chaos, his descendant Leopard took the Han soldiers and the local good tribe to recover the county seat, which saved Zhuya. “

Because Sun Bao made meritorious service and had prestige in the local area, Huo Guang, who was in charge, directly took him as the county guard, and he did it for more than ten years, because the local people were mostly barbarians, and they could not collect taxes like the people in the mainland, so they still collected pearls and wide cloth as tribute. It's just that the history department of Jiaozhi stabbed rarely crossed the sea to supervise the island, which led to the local officials being violent, invading and insulting the barbarians, rebellion and action one after another, and the Han Dynasty was difficult to control, and the summer of the fifth year of the first century (82 BC) had to abolish Dan'er County and merge it into Zhuya County.

Some people in the DPRK suggested that the rebellion in the island counties was caused by the officials who extorted money under the pretext of paying tribute on a wide range of cloth, and that it was better to cancel it directly.

But this wide cloth can indeed bring great benefits to Shaofu, the original cotton cloth is better to wear than Ge hemp, but it is not as good as silk silk, but the scarcity is expensive, the wide cloth is considered to be the "Yu Gong" mentioned in the "Island Yi Hui clothes, weaving shells", in Chang'anfang City can sell the price of fine silk, but also often as a gift given by the imperial court to the princes and princes.

The distance of thousands of miles can turn the ordinary things of any other country into a luxury item in this country, and become a wonderful thing that the rich and noble compete to chase and use to show their status.

Therefore, under the dual effect of profit and vanity, the cancellation of the contribution of the South has been fruitless for a long time.

Ren Hong is in a canonical country, in addition to managing the small states of the Western Regions, dealing with those unruly "barbarians" in the Department of Jiaozhi Thorn History is also within the scope of his authority, and after careful weighing, he has a way to get the best of both worlds.

"Dasi Nong, Shaofu Official, this is a poisonous white cloth, also known as cotton cloth, you wait to see, is it the same as the wide cloth of Zhuya County?"

Ren Hong brought a few colorful plain weave cloths, the patterns on them are very rare in the Central Plains textiles, Dasi farmland can not be judged, but the average loser who deals with textiles all day long can understand at a touch:

"It's exactly the same as the Zhuya wide fabric, but the weaving, texture and dyeing techniques are different."

"Sure enough!"

Ren Hong slapped his palm and said: "The Sogdian merchant Jia who traveled back and forth to the poisonous body and the Western Regions once described to me that the poisonous people also used the 'wool' grown on the tree to weave cloth, which sold well in Anxi, Yueshi, Tiaozhi, and Lixuan. “

Zhang Qian must have seen the poisoned cotton cloth, but when he was alive, Hainan Island had not yet been included in the rule of the Han Dynasty, and Bo Wanghou missed the opportunity to discover the Silk Road to India, but fortunately, the Han envoys who followed his career did not give up, and the sea route had already opened to Sri Lanka.

The cotton cloth from Hainan Island has been introduced to the Central Plains for decades, but it has always been regarded as a luxury contribution from foreign lands, and no one has ever thought of transplanting cotton to the mainland.

It wasn't until Ren Hong wrote to Huo Guang, claiming that there was a way to slow down the barbarian rebellion in Zhuya County and increase production in Guangbian at the same time.

However, the general Huo Guang did not directly agree, but just asked Ren Honglai to discuss with Da Si Nong, and finally agreed between the subject state and Da Si Nong.

To do these things, of course, it is impossible to avoid the so-called "agricultural minister" and the Dasi Nong, who is in charge of the economic lifeline of the world, and his subordinate Junyi is responsible for classifying the special products of each county, and can sell more at a high price in Chang'an, and sell those who cannot afford to sell them on the spot.

After Ren Hong and Tian Yannian dealt with him twice, he understood that although Tian Yannian scolded his predecessor Sang Hongyang every once in a while, in his bones, he was also a "utilitarian minister" hated by virtuous literature, and he attached great importance to interests.

In the early years of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu first advocated planting wheat in Guanzhong to solve the dilemma of lack of green and yellow, and finally handled by Dasi Nong, realizing the popularization of winter wheat in Guanzhong.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian brought alfalfa and grapes from foreign lands to the palace, but unlike the scarce plants that are still in Chang'an, Dasi Nong took a fancy to alfalfa and planted them in the gardens of the government by administrative means, so that they were all over Chang'an and Hexi, so that the military horses of the Han Dynasty had excellent fodder.

Nowadays, if you want to plant cotton in Nanhai County, it is very ineffective to buy land and plant it by individuals, and you still have to rely on the power of Dasi Nong.

He pointed to two pieces of cotton cloth at this moment, and strongly persuaded Tian Yannian and said: "Dasi Nong, the officials are greedy for the treasures of Zhuya County, because it is difficult to control the history department of Jiaozhi Thorn, no matter how the officials are replaced, they will invade and insult the barbarians, so they are a few years old. “

"Instead of greedy for the benefits of cotton cloth and causing unrest on the border, it is better to grow cotton in Nanhai County. The climate of Nanhai County is quite similar to that of Zhuya County, and it lacks silk and hemp, mulberry trees are difficult to live, and the sericulture is far inferior to that of the Central Plains. “

"Although Nanhai County is hot, the local people also need clothes to cover their bodies, and Dasi Nong sends people to promote mulberry planting, but often with little success. All localities need to be governed according to customs, and it is better to plant cotton trees instead. There are many accounts in the South China Sea, and women are good at weaving, which will definitely increase the cotton cloth obtained by Chang'an tenfold! In less than ten years, cotton cloth will be able to be dressed in Lingnan and sell well in the Central Plains! “

"There is another type of cotton seed, which can be planted in the Western Regions and Hexi, and can also be promoted by local officials."

This year's Indian cotton is not to mention planted in the Central Plains, and it is difficult to even cross Lingnan, so African grass cotton should also be planted in the northwest, led by the government to promote, under the flowering of the north and south, let the white cotton bloom all over the northwest and Lingnan, and realize the transformation of cotton cloth from luxury goods to consumer goods in two generations, so that it is possible to achieve it.

Tian Yannian smiled: "The old man wants to send the pawn country to Dasi Nong, first the Quyuan plow, and now this cotton ......."

While they were talking, the two of them were interrupted, and a flash of lightning swept across the gloomy sky, and then a huge thunder resounded through Chang'an!

Startled, the dog of the Dasi Agricultural Office barked wildly, and the timid among the crowd sat on the ground with their chests clutched, only Ren Hong and Tian Yannian cautiously looked at the sky outside.

A series of thunderbolts were one after another, which was extremely unusual, making people panic, worried about whether these thunderbolts had hit Chang'an City.

"Something big is going to happen."

Tian Yannian probably did something wrong, and seemed to be very afraid that this thunder was going to split himself, so he looked at the lightning that was swimming like a dragon and snake, and said to Ren Hong: "This kind of weird celestial phenomenon, those Confucian students, I'm afraid they will seize the opportunity again, say that yin and yang are perverse, and make a big fuss!" ”

……

PS: I'm sorry the plane is late, this is a chapter on the 7th, and there are three more on the 8th and 9th.