"It's called cotton. There is a large amount of cultivation in the northwest, but not in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains, this thing is more often used for viewing. Seeing that Chai Yu didn't understand, Zhao Weiji began to explain cotton to her.

"And this thing is the new textile material you were talking about?" Chai Yu was still a little unconvinced.

"Yes, when the flowers of this thing wither, they will leave a cotton boll, and the cotton boll will have cotton seeds in it, and there will be fluff around the cotton seeds. When the bolls are ripe, they will explode, and then the whole white velvet will be there. This pile is somewhat similar to kapok and can also be used as a filler. But this cotton is a little better than kapok in that it can prevent it from forming threads, as well as cloth. The cost is much lower than silk, and the comfort of wearing is not necessarily worse than silk, but there is no silk Huashun. ”

"Is this really that good?" Listening to Zhao Weiji's blowing of cotton to the sky, but Chai Yu still couldn't believe him after all.

"You still don't believe all that? In this way, there are already some ready-made cotton products in my house, do you want to take a look? ”

In the end, "this ......" couldn't resist the temptation of making money, Chai Yu chose to compromise and followed Zhao Weiji to the Anding County Mansion.

It turned out that as early as half a month ago, Zhao Weiji found cotton. After learning that the people around him were only using cotton as ornamental flowers, Zhao Weiji had the idea of making cotton products. But after careful inquiry, it turned out that there was no large-scale planting in the Central Plains, and this cotton came from the Western Regions, but in this way, Zhao Weiji still purchased some mature cotton bolls from Hu Shang through some channels.

Soon, Zhao Weiji and Chai Yu returned to the Anding County Mansion. As soon as he entered the door, Zhao Weiji led Chai Yu to a room in the backyard. Before I got to the room, I heard the squeak of weaving from inside.

When I entered the room, I saw that Rue Xiang and Li Xiaohua were working on two different machines. One is an ordinary loom, and Zhao Weiji transformed it to adapt to spinning cotton threads into cotton cloth. And the other, if someone familiar with the first industrial revolution sees it, it will definitely shout: Jenny machine.

Jenny Machine, also known as Jenny Spinning Machine. In the 60s of the 18th century, the English weaver Hargreaves transformed and invented the hand-cranked spinning machine. This kind of machine can spin a lot of cotton threads at one time, and the work efficiency is very high. And it was the emergence of such machines that opened the prelude to the first industrial revolution.

When Zhao Weiji purchased a certain amount of cotton, there was a problem in front of him, that is, the spinning technology of silk was not suitable for spinning cotton into cotton thread. Although in weaving technology, the difference between cotton thread and silk thread is not enough. This can be achieved with a slight adjustment of the existing loom. The technology of silkworm reeling and the technology of spinning cotton thread are basically two concepts, so there were no spinning machines at all in this era. So Zhao Weiji combined the current process to make it, and simply plagiarized the highly efficient Jenny machine. Studying engineering physics in college, it was easy for him to steal a Jenny machine.

The result is a scene in front of us, the 8th-century Song Dynasty, where the Jenny machine should have appeared in the 18th century. Of course, it can't be called Jenny machine now, Zhao Weiji is very ashamed to name this machine directly: Zhao's spinning machine.

It has also been several days since the end of the transformation of the loom and the manufacture of the Jenny machine. Rue Xiang was originally a master of weaving, and after teaching Xiaohua to use Jenny's machine, they began to work. So now there is a ready-made cotton cloth in front of Chai Yu.

Zhao Weiji picked up a piece of cotton cloth and handed it to Chai Yu, and then said to her, "You come and feel it." ”

Chai Yu took the cotton cloth, looked at it carefully, and then carefully stroked it with his hand several times to feel the texture of the cotton cloth. Then Chai Yu had to admit that this was indeed a good thing, and the texture was even tighter than silk. And the touch is also very soft, and there is also a very close feeling, although it is a little worse than silk products, but the difference is not so huge. It's just that a piece of cloth of the same size is heavier than a silk one.

Zhao Weiji saw that Chai Yu had a preliminary understanding of cotton fabrics, so he began to further compare the advantages and disadvantages of cotton fabrics and silk fabrics: "Although silk is light and thin, it fits, is smooth, breathable, and more shiny. However, it is not strong enough and is prone to fading. But cotton cloth is different, although it is heavier than silk, but the touch on the body is not too far worse than silk. And cotton fabrics are obviously warmer in winter. There is also the fact that cotton fabrics are relatively not so easy to fade. The most important point is that the production cost of cotton cloth is very low. The production cost of such a cotton cloth is about one-sixth that of silk. ”

If what Zhao Weiji said earlier could only impress Chai Yu a little, then the last sentence directly captured Chai Yu's heart. The biggest point of this cotton cloth is that it is cheap, and it is cheap and at the same time, it also has the texture of throwing sackcloth for a few streets. Once such materials appear on the market, they will definitely cause a trend. But Chai Yu still has the last hesitation at this time, is this material easy to dye? Even if the material is good, if it is not dyed, it is useless, and everyone can't wear filial piety every day.

Zhao Weiji also saw Chai Yu's last hesitation, so he said: "You bring this cloth back to print and dye it today, I don't have this technology here, so I only have white cloth for the time being." You go back and use your silk farming techniques to print and dye. If it's feasible, we'll make the next step, do you think it's okay? ”

As soon as he heard that Zhao Weiji had already said this, Chai Yu did not twist and refuse. Then he took the cloth and said goodbye and left the Anding County Mansion.

……

A few days later, Zhao Weiji received an invitation from Chai Yu to him and invited him to dinner. He understood, it seemed that Chai Yu had come to a conclusion, so he happily went to the appointment.

"I said, landlord, it's not interesting for you to invite me to such a big restaurant."

"Recently, the capital turnover has been poor, and it is a point to save a little."

It turned out that the place where Chai Yu invited Zhao Weiji to eat was just a small restaurant.

Seeing that Zhao Weiji still wanted to tease her, Chai Yu immediately put on a straight face and said, "Let's get down to business." I took that cotton cloth back and dyed it, and it was very easy to color, and the color effect was good. Although the color fades a little after drying and washing a few times, it is not much different from silk. Basically, no problem. Is there anything else you want to tell me? ”

Seeing that Chai Yu was starting to get down to business, Zhao Weiji also put away his smile. When he heard Chai Yu's question, Zhao Weiji thought about the shortcomings of cotton cloth and said: "Another disadvantage of cotton cloth is that it is easy to mold, so it has to be taken out from time to time and dried in the sun." ”

"Will the color fade when exposed to the sun?" Because silk fabrics often fade after being exposed to the sun, Chai Yu couldn't help but ask with some worry.

"Not really, as long as you don't get out in the sun for a long time. Moreover, cotton cloth is less susceptible to insect bites than silk. ”

"Oh."

"Then let's talk about how to work together." Zhao Weiji just wanted to start talking about the conditions of cooperation, but was interrupted by Chai Yu.

"Why are you helping me?"

"I'm not helping you." Zhao Weiji paused, and then said: "I want to make money." I found cotton and figured out how to make cotton thread, cotton cloth. But I don't have the technology to print and dye, and I don't have the way to sell. It just so happens that you are doing this, you have a mature system, and if you cooperate, my upfront investment will be much less, and sales will be much easier. Besides, I won't give it to you in vain. I am a technical shareholder, I will provide you with Zhao's spinning machine and usage, to help you transform the loom, used to weave cotton cloth. You have to give me thirty percent of the sales, just the sales of cotton. Silk is not used. ”

Although Zhao Weiji said so, Chai Yu was still very moved. Because she knew that she was already taking advantage of it, this man now had the golden mountain of Zhengshan tea behind him, and if he wanted to do this cotton cloth business alone, he would be successful. What's more, he also has the sharp weapon of Zhao's spinning machine, and he also saw it that day, the spinning efficiency of Zhao's spinning machine is indeed very high. Even if other competitors figure out how to make cotton cloth, the production speed in a short period of time cannot be compared with Zhao Weiji's here. So Chai Yu knew that he really took a big advantage.

For a time, Chai Yu's psychology was mixed. His father died young. For so many years, her mother raised her alone. Although there is a precept from Song Taizu to give preferential treatment to his descendants, the years of war have led to not a lot of flattery provided by the imperial court. In order to make her mother's life better, Chai Yu, who was just twelve years old at the time, used this support to start a business. Now, when there was a crisis in the business, there was a man who helped her, although this man's surname was Zhao, but it also made her realize the long-lost warmth of being able to rely on others. For a while, Chai Yu also felt that he didn't hate this surnamed Zhao, but it was just this Zhao in front of him.

"Hey, didn't you listen to what I said?" Seeing that Chai Yu seemed to be thinking about something else, Zhao Weiji couldn't help but ask out loud.

"Listening, listening." Hearing Zhao Weiji's inquiry, Chai Yu immediately came back to his senses.

"Just listen, we still have one of the biggest problems we face."

"What's the problem?"

"It's the question of where cotton comes from. Didn't I say before that this cotton was not grown in the Central Plains. It is only found in the northwest, but it is not cultivated on a large scale. We can't always buy from the northwest."

"Could it be that this cotton is not easy to grow?"

"No, this thing can be grown anywhere, and it's easy to grow, and the yield is not small."

"That's not easy, we can't get some seeds and plant them ourselves."

"I know I breed, too. But the key is that you have land? ”

"Wait until I'll do the math." After speaking, Chai Yu lowered his head and thought about it, and then said, "I have more than ten acres." ”

"I also have more than a dozen acres, but it's not enough." Zhao Weiji shook his head and continued: "If we want to produce cotton cloth on a large scale, more than 30 acres of land will definitely not be enough. The key is where to find more land to plant? It's better to have two or three hundred acres. ”

Hearing Zhao Weiji say this, Chai Yu also began to worry.

Just when they were worried, a strange man's voice came from the side: "I'm sorry to disturb, I wonder if this thing called cotton you said can make money after planting?" If I could, I would have been able to find a place to grow it on a large scale. ”

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[To explain here, due to the needs of the plot, the cotton I use here is fine staple cotton native to Central America.] Not a coarse suede native to Asia. If you feel that it is unreasonable, please forgive me. I am a new author, and there must be a lot of shortcomings when writing the book, and I hope that readers will give me a lot of help and support. Thank you here]

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