Throughout June and July, Li Shimin spent time discussing how to promote business development.

At present, more than 100 Hu caravans have reached a loan agreement with Han merchants, in addition, there are hundreds of Hu caravans that have not been impacted, and Han caravans that want to go to the Western Regions are willing to contribute funds and accept the protection of the Han army, so that after most of the Hu people sell their goods and purchase the goods they need, this huge number of troops, consisting of 5,000 cavalry as a protector, will set off from Chang'an.

In the imperial study of Taiji Palace, Qin Qiong, who had been allowed to see, strode inside, holding a large cotton jacket made in Nie Sanniang's ready-to-wear workshop, and on his back, he was carrying a quilt folded into tofu blocks and tied tightly with ropes.

"Your Majesty, the minister has something important to offer."

Li Shimin, who was reviewing the recital, raised his eyes and saw the cotton coat he was holding in his hand and the quilt on his back.

"Uncle Bao is talking about what you have in your hands?"

Putting down the brush, Li Shimin walked over from behind the desk, took the big padded jacket in Qin Qiong's hand, checked it, and found that the jacket was not light.

"This garment is made of cotton from the fiefdoms, oh, cotton is what we used to call white stacks, this cotton is taken by the craftsmen of the garment workshop, and after the seeds are taken, not only can the cloth be woven, but also can be stuffed into cloth and leather to make a jacket, and its warmth effect is more than that of linen silk.

The waiters in Wangjiang Tower wore such sheepskin jackets last year to withstand the cold wind in Guanzhong, and this year, the ready-to-wear workshop responsible for making clothes for them has made this thicker padded jacket. Not only can it help soldiers resist the cold outside the gates, but it can also be used as armor, and the effect is even better. ”

As he spoke, Qin Qiong turned over the sheepskin padded jacket that Li Shimin held in his hand to watch, and showed it to Li Shimin, the outermost layer was a layer of sheepskin that could resist the cold wind, sticking to the sheepskin, and a layer of thick silk cloth was sewn by fine needles and threads. It reached more than a dozen catties.

After the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the weather in Guanzhong was already slightly cool, Li Shimin didn't say much after Qin Qiong's explanation, and directly put this heavy sheepskin jacket on his body, buttoned the hardwood button on his chest, and before he walked out of the door from the imperial study, he felt that the heat did not dissipate at all, and he felt that he wanted to sweat.

"I know at this moment, where Sun Zhengming's kid has planned to plant so much cotton, with this cotton clothes to keep out the cold, the people in Guanzhong will not be frozen to death."

"Hehe, Shicaichen said, this clothing is used as armor, the effect is better, Your Majesty, please take off your clothes and find a guard to try the defense of this clothing."

"Oh? Can this suit really block the sword? Walking out of the palace, Li Shimin only felt that the autumn wind outside the hall had not penetrated his clothes at all, and he knew that the wind resistance of this clothes was also very strong, listening to Qin Qiong so much, he asked in surprise, took off his cotton jacket, and raised his hand to summon a guard in front of the palace.

"Hand over your saber, take off your armor, and put on this garment."

"No."

The guards obeyed Li Shimin's order and took off their armor and changed their clothes on the spot, but Li Shimin pulled out the guard's saber, looked at the sharpness of the knife, and saw Qin Qiong's calm demeanor.

After a while, the guard put the cotton jacket on himself, Li Shimin asked him to stand still, raised his hand and slashed at the guard's chest, you know, Li Shimin is used to the army, and his arm strength is several points stronger than that of ordinary soldiers.

"Hey, that's interesting."

Li Shimin abandoned the horizontal knife and ran over to look at the knife on the guard's chest, but found that he couldn't split the cotton clothes with a knife of eighty percent of his strength, you know, it is an ordinary quilt, and it is not easy to use a knife to cut through, not to mention this kind of compacting, five centimeters thick, and a cotton jacket stuffed with iron bars.

Of course, Qin Qiong reassured Li Shimin to cut it, not only because the cotton was compacted and could resist sharp weapons, but because the design of this cotton jacket interspersed with iron bars was originally designed to defend against chopping.

"Your Majesty, this padded jacket has an iron bar sewn into it, if you cut it with a knife, it is difficult to break it, and not only that, it can also resist bows and arrows."

"Really? Take the bow. ”

After a while, a two-stone longbow was taken by the guard into Li Shimin's hand, and he opened the bow and set the arrow, eighty paces away, and with a poof, the long arrow hit the unlucky guard's abdomen.

However, instead of falling in pain, the guard was pushed back two steps by the impact of the arrow, and then straightened his chest again.

"Sharp arrows can't penetrate this garment?"

Thin iron bars are stuffed in thick cotton, and the blade is difficult to split, which Li Shimin can understand, but small sharp arrows can't shoot through it, which makes it difficult for Li Shimin to understand, after all, the defense of iron bars is limited, and it is impossible to shoot one of the iron bars by himself!

"Hehe, exactly, this is why Nie Sanniang wants to sew a layer of silk cloth behind the sheepskin, although the arrow is sharp, but this silk cloth is soft, the arrow can not be completely cut, the arrow with the silk cloth fell into the thick cotton, it is even more difficult to penetrate this finger thick cotton, Your Majesty, with this cotton armor, my Tang cavalry not only does not need to be afraid of the cold outside the pass, but also can not be afraid of the Turks' sabers and bows and arrows, why worry about the Turks will not be destroyed."

Qin Qiong explained like this, Li Shimin's eyes lit up when he heard it, and after checking that the guard was indeed not injured, he turned his head to Qin Qiong and said, "How much does this armor cost?" ”

"Each piece needs a piece of sheepskin, ten catties of cotton, five catties of iron, and less than five feet of thick silk."

The price of a sheepskin is almost 300 yuan, and ten catties of seedless cotton, according to this year's market price, is only 2,000 yuan, plus five catties of iron and a few feet of silk, the total price is only a few dollars, which is several times lower than the cost of all-iron armor.

And in the winter outside the pass, a soldier wears a pair of iron armor weighing at least thirty or forty pounds, plus winter cold clothes and weapons, the weight is as high as fifty or sixty pounds, under such a high load, they simply can't fight for a long time, and the iron armor blown by the cold wind does not dare to touch the skin, touch a piece, frostbite a piece.

Now, cotton armor is a good solution to this problem, more than a dozen pounds of weight has a very small impact on physical strength, the key is that it keeps warm, and after wearing it, the defense power is not much lower than wearing iron armor.

"Uncle Bao has great merit, and he should be rewarded." Li Shimin, who had settled the account, was overjoyed.

"Well, the minister doesn't dare to take credit, this cotton was planted by Sun Zhengming's kid, and the one who developed this cotton armor was also a craftsman in his family's garment workshop······"

"Really? But he didn't offer it to me, but you did. When Li Shimin heard this, he looked at Qin Qiong with some amusement.

"Isn't he not returning to Chang'an yet, in addition, the Wa State sent an envoy to the Tang Dynasty to enter Beijing with a letter of state, and the envoy was the Inougami Ertian who had a conflict with that kid in Yangzhou······"

"Uncle Bao is afraid that those civil officials will take the opportunity to deal with that kid?"

"Exactly." Qin Qiong is an honest person, and he doesn't beat around the bush, nodding and admitting.

"Hehe, you guys, you're really not afraid of spoiling that kid, by the way, what's on your back?" Li Shimin pointed at Qin Qiong with a smile, only to realize that he still had something like a tofu block on his back.

"This is a quilt, it can also be called a marching quilt, in winter, even if there is no fire, wrap a bed of such a marching quilt, and then cover it with cotton armor, the soldiers can sleep well."

"Well, carrying it like this can make it more convenient for the cavalry to march and camp, go back and let that kid's workshop do more and send it to the palace, it's a bit of a waste of firewood to burn the kang at this time, and it's just right to cover a bed with this quilt."

Li Shimin looked through the quilt, and made the mistake of taking advantage of Sun Xiangfu again, but he had this attitude, Qin Qiong knew that no matter how much trouble those civil officials made this time, Sun Xiangfu would be fine.

followed Li Shimin back to the imperial study, handed over the quilt to an attendant, Qin Qiong said again, "This time I went to the Western Regions with Hu Shang, has Your Majesty thought about who to send?" ”

"Don't even think about it, it's not your share, you still have to recuperate in Chang'an, I plan to let Li Jing go to this matter."

"Pharmacist Li? He is a good soldier in training, but this cotton armor will not be able to equip his soldiers and horses for a while, and he is afraid that he will have to suffer some hardships this year. ”

"There are so many people who want to rush to endure this hardship! By the way, what else does that kid have to say to me? Li Shimin smiled slightly.

The military generals of the imperial court all know that whoever takes up the training task of protecting Hu Shang in the Western Regions will be the main general of the future expedition to the Turks, so recently, the people of the military generals have broken their heads, Wei Chigong, Cheng Yanjin, Li Ji, Hou Junji, etc., have fought in the court many times, but Li Shimin finally decided on Li Jing, he didn't want anyone to question his decision again, so he diverted the topic.

"That's not it, that is, the cotton in the fief has made the nobles of Chang'an covetous, I'm afraid that if it is not next year, there will be many powerful ministers who follow the trend of planting, then, the food impact on the land of Guanzhong will be great······"

Recently, there have been such new problems in the imperial court, and the big sales of several kinds of courgettes have made the nobles covetous, and all families are desperately trying to get seeds at home, digging up those farmers who know how to plant, thinking that they will not grow grain next year.

Now, the huge profits of cotton, and let the nobles covetous, you know, Sun Xiangfu planted cotton is planted next to the river with sufficient water, although not as good as the high-yield fields of later generations, but the yield per mu has reached at least four or five hundred catties, and this year's Chang'an market white stacks although the price has dropped a lot, but the cotton without seeds can still be sold for a hundred pounds, and the value of an acre of land reaches forty or fifty guan, what is this concept? But it's more than 20 times the profit of growing food!

Therefore, as soon as the cotton products of the Qin Mansion were sold on the market, the threshold of his house was broken, either asking him to give him some cotton seeds, or asking him to send him two farmers who could grow cotton.

And if there is no one in the whole Guanzhong to grow grain, then the matter is big, you know, the population in Guanzhong is the most dense place, just a Chang'an City, there are more than one million people, this year just because of a little drought, the price of grain in Guanzhong has not dropped like the rest of the country, the current price of grain per stone is still maintained at the price after the harvest last autumn, about 500 wen per stone, this is still because of the news of the yield of eight stone valleys per mu was released, There is also the reason why more than 2 million stone of grain from the Shijiazi pit has been transported to Chang'an one after another, such as Jiangnan, Jinghu and other places, the price of grain is actually only more than 200 wen and one stone.

If the self-produced grain in Guanzhong is greatly reduced next year, then it is conceivable that it is not a matter of price, grain is the survival guarantee of the people, the gap is too big, it will cause instability in the country, which needs to be regulated by the imperial court, but you let those landlords go to grow low-income grain, do they agree?