The old lady looked back at Changning in surprise, "Gonggong, you know this kind of strange sailboat"

"Lord, yes, this boat has a strange shape, I have not seen it, but this kind of triangular oblique sail, I have seen it when I traveled in Haojing (Macau), this kind of sail is called a schooner, the crossbar at the lower part of the mast can be rotated, you can use the east, west, north and south winds, and when the wind is against the wind, you can go zigzag forward. This sail is different from the hard sail of my Ming Dynasty. It is a soft sail made of sturdy fabric. The soft sail is puffed up with the wind, similar to a soft pocket, and has a larger area to receive wind force. ”

The old lady was amazed: "There is such a magical thing, isn't it, you can run a boat in all seasons in the future?"

"Yes, grandpa, the sea voyage mainly depends on the tide and wind direction, this sail helps, five days to Nanjing. I got the drawings for this clipper from a maritime merchant. This man lost all his money in the gambling house, and borrowed thirty taels of silver from me as collateral for it. I made a copy afterwards. ”

"It takes at least a year to build a ship, and it takes more than three years for wood to dry, so I'm afraid that water can't quench your thirst."

"Grandpa, there is no need to build a ship, as long as the sails of the Fu boat in the hands of the second uncle are replaced, from Nanao Island at the mouth of the Hanjiang River to the Xiaguan Wharf in Nanjing, about 3,000 miles of waterway, I remember that the second uncle has three boats in his hand, with a load of 15,000 quintals (60 tons), all of which are three-masted pointed bottom sea ships have half a month to refit enough, and the old sailors are quick to get started with the new sails."

"It's possible to change the sail alone, but what kind of material is this soft sail made of, there is a way." Chang Ning said.

"The weather on the ocean is changeable, a quarter of an hour ago it may still be sunny, cloudless and very good. After a quarter of an hour, it may be stormy and rainy, lightning and thunder, so the degree of protection of the cargo on the cargo ship should be very high, covering the canvas is the best way for Tessie, Tessie's marine canvas has the characteristics of wear-resistant, highly strict waterproof, corrosion-resistant, simple operation, soft texture, tear-resistant, etc., in order to adapt to the environment at sea. As far as I know, Tessie has several ways to make canvas, but time is running out. Tessie's canvas is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and we can directly sew a row of the cheapest sturdy linen cloth into a row, then stitch it together and brush it with glue to make it waterproof, and these linen cloths can be purchased locally. A piece of cloth is only two cents of silver, and it can be made with thirty taels of silver. I can use it for a year, and then change it to a regular canvas. ”

The old lady bowed, "This is a method, let's use this method, go back and make arrangements, first make three sets, all on the ship, in case of damage, there are bandits on the sea, if you encounter it, you have to fight, especially to prevent the use of rockets to burn the sails, how to prevent fire prevention to be carefully studied." Tell me, why are you in such a hurry, and what are your plans? ”

"I was about to report to my grandfather, Lao Wu said that the most profitable business in the world is clothing, food, housing and transportation, it can be seen that clothing is in the first place, whether it is cotton cloth or linen cloth or silk, it is the largest commodity, I studied it, the link that can generate profits is nothing more than the production of raw materials, cotton and linen are planted, and silk is fed silkworms and cocoons by mulberry fields. The raw materials are preliminarily processed, and the cotton and linen are seeded and combed into fibers and spun into threads. That is, spinning. Finally, it is woven into cloth with a loom. Finally, the woven grey cloth is printed and dyed into a cloth, and then trafficked to the cloth shop for listing. The first link does not need us to do, and most of the second link is completed by housewives and children at home spinning wheels, silkworm cocoons are reeled at home, and raw silk is sold, which can be bought in the market. Our Li family mainly does a weaving workshop, but the scale is not large, there are more than 50 looms, and there are about 100 employees. ”

Chang Ning said: "Yes, the weaving workshop is in the hands of your fourth uncle, and the raw materials are all purchased cotton yarn, and the upstream vendors will directly transport it to the wharf of the town by boat." The products are shipped to Chaozhou Prefecture. We make pure white grey fabric, printing and dyeing, generally in Chaozhou Prefecture, we do not master the technology of printing and dyeing, at most we can only do jacquard processing in the weaving process to increase value. ”

"Dare to ask Uncle Ning, how much cloth can the loom weave in a day, and what is the profit?"

"Our skilled workers on looms can weave one piece of cloth a day"

"How long and wide is a piece of cloth?"

"The size of a piece of cloth depends on the loom, and the width of the cloth generally does not exceed the width of a person's shoulder, but it is more than one foot and two inches (about 40 centimeters) and four feet (13.3 meters) in length. The loom is too wide, and the operation is inconvenient and affects the efficiency. ”

Li Jing took out a spring from his arms, which he asked Wang Laosan to use the remaining Foshan steel leftovers to build. Said: "This thing is called spring, it is made of Foshan fine soft steel, this thing can be compressed and rebounded" said to press the spring by hand, between the more compressed the spring is shorter, but also can be seen more laborious. As soon as Li Jing let go, the spring immediately rebounded.

Then he handed the spring to his grandfather, and the old lady continued to compress and rebound with great interest, and for a moment his childlike heart rose, and said with a smile: "This thing is exquisite, and it is really interesting to make this thing of soft steel that can be elastic and shrink." ”

"Childe didn't make this thing for fun," Chang Ning said with a smile.

"Uncle Ning, you said that the main reason for limiting the width of the loom is that the stroke of the shuttle should not exceed the width of the person's shoulder, otherwise it will affect the efficiency, and if the spring is used to promote the lateral movement of the shuttle."

"Childe means that this thing can be woven into a larger cloth."

"Yes, if both ends are driven by springs, we can enlarge the width of the loom to one foot and two feet (4 meters) depending on the strength of the springs. And it's twice as fast. Such a worker would be twenty times more efficient at weaving. You can weave two pieces of cloth ten times as wide in one day."

"What, twenty times more efficient". The old lady and Chang Ning looked at each other, shocked beyond measure.

Chang Ning groaned and muttered to himself: "A piece of white grey cloth, two coins of silver minus the cost of cotton yarn and one penny of silver." Skilled workers labor to five cents of silver (a day to earn five cents of silver, a year of 18.25 taels of silver, belongs to a not low wages, the same era of Qi Jiajun soldiers, a day for three cents of silver salary), a loom a day has a net profit of five cents of silver. There are 60 looms in the family, and the income is three taels of silver a day, or 1,100 taels of silver a year, which is already a relatively large income for the family. If you switch to a new loom, the wage is still five cents of silver, the cost of cotton yarn remains the same, and the profit of a piece of cloth can reach one penny of silver. Sixty looms made a profit of 22,000 taels a year. It's scary. ”

The old lady pondered for a while and asked, "Jing'er, are these things and that pulley set made by Wang Laosan, except for him and his two relatives and disciples, no one knows." ”

"This time it was urgent, Wang Laosan pushed all the orders down, closed the door to concentrate on manufacturing, his business is not good, just barely maintained, we have little land here, and there is not much demand for building farm tools. No one should know, and the workers in the oil mill can't understand it. ”

"Jing'er, do you have the means to keep the shuttle and the moving pulley secret, grandpa has lived for sixty years, this officialdom is the same as a shopping mall, black eyes can't see silver, there is no one in the officialdom of our family at present, although there are officials on the side of the lord of Chengxiang County, but such a big interest is not reliable."

"Grandpa, this is not difficult, as long as you make an iron box, put the pulley block and shuttle together, lock it with a lock, and generally stop work during maintenance and repair, and open it with a key when pouring."

"Well, okay, Jing'er is thoughtful, this key is placed here in grandpa, Gonggong, you personally go to Wang Laosan's blacksmith shop, ask him if he is willing to take his apprentice to Li Mansion as a house slave, as long as he is willing to come, give him fifty taels for one year, fifteen taels for two apprentices, he is still a widower in his thirties, give them grandfathers, one person marries a girl. Let's live a good life in this house from now on. ”

Chang Ning nodded, "He barely had food and clothing outside, and when he entered the Li Mansion, he had such a good treatment, and he didn't have to pay taxes, and he was forced to do it, so he didn't do it." ”

"Gonggong, you buy some official slaves from the loom craftsman family outside, try to be a good master, and you must buy it for the whole family. Put the stone wall of the Yukou Cultivation Road in the small valley of the eastern mountain col of Chaishan, and the idle people are not allowed to approach. Make a new loom as soon as possible. ”

"Grandpa, I plan to go to Chaozhou Mansion in the next two days, to the second uncle to see the three boats, the family as soon as possible according to my drawings to do the sails and rigging, as soon as possible, I want to hurry up the modification, if grandpa agrees to buy rapeseed on credit, it is best to hoard half a year's inventory to avoid the shortage of follow-up raw materials, and the produced rapeseed oil will be transported to Chaozhou Mansion within a month to hoard. Enough 100,000 catties (about 50 tons) were transported to Nanjing.