Cotton is not only cold, the woven cloth is more durable and soft than the kudzu hemp, and the price is lower than that of silk.

As for the difficulty of removing cottonseeds?

That's not a thing at all!

The large-scale planting of cotton was in the early Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang gradually became popular by coercive means, which also led to the development of the entire cotton industry chain. However, there have been cotton cultivation and processing before, but these are all small-scale and have not produced scale effects, and have even been regarded as flower farming.

Cotton is divided into early-medium-ripening, early-maturing and extra-early-maturing varieties, which are not sensitive to light length. It is a light-loving crop and is suitable for growing under sufficient light conditions.

After Zhen Qian obtained 6,000 acres of saline-alkali land in Cangzhou, he began to plant cotton, which was originally intended to be transported to Heiyu City as a thing to protect against the cold. However, in order to solve the winter problem of the victims of Hizen Province, Fujiwara Shuxiong bought a large number of cold things from Tang Shang, Zhen Qian thought of cotton, so he shipped a lot of cotton from Cangzhou and sold it to Fujiwara Shuo to make quilts.

"Did you put the cottonseed in the quilt as well?" Zhen Qian asked while covering his forehead.

Oh, my God!

Why did you make such a big joke without paying attention!

Immediately, Zhen Qian was dumbfounded and left the cotton seeds in the quilt, this kind of thing doesn't matter much, but the silk spinning thread that Wang Lun said is the key. For the textile matter, Zhen Qian really didn't care too much, of course, it was not that he was negligent, but the textile industry was mostly in the south of the Yangtze River, and the textile technology in the north was naturally not eye-catching, plus the silk silkworms could not be cultivated in the Wufeng Islands, so he didn't care about it for the time being.

Now that I think about it, I really made a mistake.

"It's my mistake, this matter will be handed over to Zhen San to deal with, and after Zhen San comes up with mature technology, Wufeng Islands and other places will also plant cotton on a large scale in the future?"

"Although the silk cotton produced by this thing can be woven into cloth, the price is not low, even if the cotton seeds can be removed, the yield is low, and it is not appropriate to occupy arable land!" Wang Lun reminded.

"It's okay!"

Zhen Qian knew that Wang Lun would be wrong, cotton likes heat, good light, drought tolerance, and avoids stains, and is suitable for planting in loose and deep soil, in the process of its growth and development, as long as there is sufficient temperature, light, water and fertilizer conditions, etc., just like perennial plants, it can continue to grow branches, leaves, buds, flowers, boll formation, continue to grow and develop, with unlimited growth and strong regeneration ability.

"The cultivated grain area of the Wufeng Islands and other places naturally cannot be occupied!"

Zhen Qian is not stupid, the yield per mu in this era is already low, how can he sacrifice his roots to seek the end? But cotton is indeed a good thing, not more than silk needs to raise silkworms, mulberry reeling silk and other complicated processes, hillside land can be planted, barren land can also be planted, there is no silkworm delicate, woven cloth is the real people can wear the cloth.

“…… But there are many slopes and wastelands in Wufeng Islands and other places, and cotton can be grown in these places, don't underestimate this small cotton, the profit in it is not lower than that of crystal chips! ”

Wang Lun is not a rotten Confucian, he used to have no chance in the Zhen family except to enjoy happiness, he has never done anything, when it comes to farming, it is not much worse than the old farmer who faces the loess with his back to the sky and a drop of sweat and eight petals, after Zhen Qian's explanation, he also understands the use of cotton.

The yield exceeds that of growing hemp, the price is lower than that of silk, and it does not occupy arable land, and it is comfortable and durable to make cloth, which is such a good thing.

Zhen Qian's mind is now full of seed deseeding machines (later known as ginning machines), water-powered spinning wheels, and even accidentally invented the copycat-like Jenny spinning machine in advance, and then with the convenience of his own sea routes, cotton cloth was sold to the whole world, and cotton was planted in Wufeng Islands and other places, and the wool industry was developed in Heiyu City, and he might be able to create the first industrial revolution in the Tang Dynasty.

Thinking of the history of "sheep eating people" in Britain in later generations, Zhen Qian almost laughed out loud.

"Someone, go and call Zhen San over, I have something important to discuss with Zhen San!"

Since Zhen Sanzhi came to the Wufeng Islands, Zhen Qian basically couldn't see him, unless Zhen Qian sent someone to call him, if he suddenly took the initiative to find Zhen Qian that day, it must be something he couldn't figure out, or he was in urgent need of money, food and manpower.

As soon as Zhen San arrived in the Wufeng Islands, he proposed to build pontoon bridges and bridges to communicate the north-south traffic of the Wufeng Islands, and then began to build large reservoirs on several main islands to provide hydraulic power for all kinds of machinery, irrigation and drinking are secondary, and not long ago he proposed to build an observatory on the highest peak of the Wufeng Islands for observing celestial phenomena.

In the eyes of later generations, the construction of the observatory was just a project, but in ancient times, the meaning was completely different.

The ancient astronomical observatory is not so simple as observing the celestial phenomena, the emperor is the representative of heaven and earth, ordinary people observing the celestial phenomena, will immediately be regarded as peeping at the imperial power, intending to rebel and subvert the imperial court, and it is certain to destroy the family.

Throughout the dynasties there have been people in charge of astronomy. As in many ancient civilizations, these skywatchers often served as priests, as tribal leaders or as senior advisors to kings.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the sky-watching activities were institutionalized, and the highest astronomical official was called Taishi Ling, who had jurisdiction over the two departments of the Observatory and the Mingtang. The Observatory is also under the specific responsibility of Lingtaicheng.

The supreme leader of an astronomical institution is usually appointed by the emperor himself.

Not only can ordinary people not touch the knowledge of astronomy, even if they do, only the officials appointed by the emperor himself can observe the celestial phenomena, but the curiosity about the celestial phenomena can be eliminated without an obstruction.

Zhen San's purpose in observing celestial phenomena is naturally not to change the dynasty and peep into the heavens, in addition to the use of the compass in ancient navigation, there is only astrological pulling.

Astrology is one of the important navigational inventions of the ancient Han working people.

The method of using the position of the stars in the sky and their angular height with the sea level to determine the position and direction of the ship in navigation is also called astronomical navigation.

As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, some people already knew that they could identify the direction by looking at the Big Dipper by taking a boat at sea.

Fa Xian, a monk from the Eastern Jin Dynasty who studied scriptures from India, said when he returned to China by boat: "The sea is vast, boundless, and I don't know anything, but I can only watch the sun, moon and stars. ”

The tools of star-pulling are called star-pulling boards, which are made of high-quality ebony. There are twelve square planks, the largest one is about twenty-four centimeters long on each side, the following pieces are decreasing by two centimeters, and the smallest one is about two centimeters long on each side. Another small square made of ivory is notched at the four corners, and the length of the four sides of the notch is one-quarter, one-half, three-quarter, and one-eighth of the length of the smallest piece above. For example, to observe the North Star with a star-pulling board, hold the center of one end of the board in your left hand, stretch your arm out, and look at the sky, the upper edge of the board is the North Star, and the lower edge is the horizontal line, so that you can measure the height of the North Star from the horizon of the location. Depending on the height, it can be replaced and adjusted with twelve planks and four ivory blocks. Once you have the altitude of the North Star, you can calculate the geographic latitude of the location.

(End of chapter)