Pan Mei and Qin Zaixiong, as well as more than two dozen barbarian chiefs, sat in the living room drinking tea and chatting together, and Yuping was making tea for them. I don't have any opinion on Yuping Pan Mei, I heard that she is a wise and capable woman, and she gets along well with her daughter. Besides, if there are no three wives and four concubines, is a man still called promising?

Most of the chiefs Song Jiu knew that Chenzhou drank and danced to the mountain songs, but he couldn't name them. One by one.

After sitting down, Song Jiu asked Qin Zaixiong: "How is Chenzhou now?" ”

"Ha Luha, brother, I want to thank you, last time I bought a lot of farm tools and agricultural books to go back, I asked the court to send a few old farmers to teach the children, the life of the people of Chenzhou has been much better in the past two years, maybe you won't be able to recognize it in two years."

"Big brother, it can be better, I'll take you to Hezhou to take a look in a while."

"Shundian."

Song Jiumeng, this eldest brother just arrived in the capital and knew the Daoshun store? Said: "Okay, I'm having a treat today, where do you stay?" ”

"The inn."

The specific Song Jiu doesn't know what to do, as soon as Pan Mei comes back, he will arrange them to the post house first, when will the emperor summon them, that is the emperor's business, don't let them come to the Song family first, and then go to live in the inn where the wealth is life-threatening, it doesn't matter if the guest house is stayed, the side is Shundian, this food and accommodation are terrible.

Song Jiu first went to change out of his official uniform.

Even Pan Mei took off her official uniform, and when she came in civilian clothes, she didn't look like she was wearing an official uniform. Sitting down again, he said, "General Pan has worked hard in the past few years. ”

Now that Qin Zaixiong is speaking, he understands how unaccustomed northerners will be to the south. It's like when he came to the north at this time, he was in a hurry to buy a coat to wear, it was really cold. Pan Mei said: "It's okay. When I first went down, I wasn't used to it. Stay for a few years. I slowly got used to it. Here's what you're looking for, see if it's it? ”

Song Jiu opened the small bag and took a look. said: "That's it." ”

"Your husband can't speak clearly, let my subordinates find it."

"Isn't he right?" Song Jiu asked in confusion, it wasn't that his gentleman couldn't speak clearly, it was Song Jiu who was mistaken, really wrong.

"That's wrong, this thing is not in Lingnan, but in Limu Mountain on Qiongzhou Island, and it's not called grass cotton, the Han people still call it cotton. The locals call it Jibei, fortunately, some of the cloth circulated to the Central Plains, my subordinates did not find it in Lingnan, and followed Jibei Bu to find it, and only luckily found it after the last. One night later, the old man will return to Beijing. ”

Pan Mei didn't say much, but he could imagine how hard his soldiers ate for this small bag of cottonseeds, how big Lingnan was. From Lingnan to Hainan, it is no wonder that Pan Mei has brought it back now. Maybe because of the death of a few soldiers.

"General Pan, it's worth it!" Song Jiudao.

"Xiao Jiu, it's not that simple. I've heard that no one but the Li family will get it, including removing the seeds. Weaving. ”

"I know it's short. It is not the long-staple cotton of the Western Regions and Dashi, so some Li people use silk yarn to blend with it. Blending is also difficult, but if it is directly spun and weaved, it is even more difficult for this kind of coarse cotton. There is no hurry, I think it can adapt to the weather in the north, at least a few years. In this time, I can work on a more efficient loom. ”

"You will do this too?"

"I won't."

"Then what are you blowing!"

"Everything in the world changes for a reason, and it is also the category of physicology." However, Song Jiu also had a headache, the first cement, the second copper smelting, and the third textile machine. Regardless of how much it will cost, it will give him a headache.

So that the test of anti-rust paint was moved, not that it could not be done, but it was made, and the test laboratory product was used to coat it on the white jade bridge cable, and then put it down. Because if you want to mass produce and reduce costs, you still need a lot of money to test it, but if you test it, who will you sell it to? At present, the use of anti-rust paint is not large, and it is not worth spending energy on research and development.

But the laboratory is still a gold hole, the cost of the two acids is compressed, and the various ores are doing their best to identify their composition. This is more difficult, he can remember how many molecular formulas, he can't remember the molecular formulas, how to screen. After screening, it should be purified, and after purification, the reaction results of various substances together should be tested. One is more complicated than the other. However, it is even more important than the sum of steel, copper, textiles and cement.

I didn't understand this Pan Mei, and asked again: "Xiao Jiu, they all said that the river has become better, why is it so bad?" ”

He just asked, and had no other ideas, no matter how bad the river was, the Song Jiu family was not too bad. Song Jiu replied: "General Pan, it's getting better, someone is going to build a house last year, let me send students to inform them, let them all stop, and build it in the future." ”

"You're going to pay for this?"

"General Pan, there are quite a few families in the river, and more than 200 households have poured in this year, as well as nearly 1,000 foreign households, and they have also made contributions, and they cannot be disregarded. Moreover, there are some coolies in Hebei who have worked hard. I have so much money to build houses for so many people, even if I have money, I can't give it out, so that's when I really buy people's hearts. This is the capital, and I am a courtier, can I buy people's hearts and have a good end? ”

"Yes, people are self-aware. It's good that you know the way. ”

"Maybe I'll be sloppy with the small ones, but I can still grasp the general direction. I plan to start planning and design next spring, but I still can't start construction. Each person has his own ideas, and he will mediate them one by one, at least until the end of autumn, or even the spring of the following year. Now almost all the people have work, and by that time they will have more money in their hands, and I will support a small part. In addition, so many families build houses in a unified manner, materials are used more, and large-scale transportation will reduce costs. In addition, in recent years, people have built many houses, and many people have gained experience, and even half of the craftsman's money can be saved. The cost of housing will fall further. Combined, every family can build a new house. At least the river will be completely new when the time comes. ”

Song Jiu said this, ran to the room to find a drawing, and said, "General Pan, look, this is a sample map in the future river. ”

Pan Mei opened it and looked at it, suspicious: "How much does this cost?" ”

It's so beautiful on top.

"It doesn't necessarily cost much, it's mainly a unified plan, which looks neat. When you look at it again, you feel incredibly beautiful. ”

"Do those people have so much money in their hands?"

Timid smiled as she listened.

"What are you laughing at?"

"General Pan. There are families in Hezhou who work together with husband and wife, if it is good. The old man and the old lady worked in four people, and by the next year, most people would be able to build beautiful houses without the support of Jiulang. ”

Pan Meicai returned to the capital, and she didn't quite understand, Yuping said again: "On average, one person works, and the monthly salary will be about three yuan." ”

"That's right...... No wonder they said that the river was getting better, and it turned out that the money was hidden at home. ”

Actually, there's going to be a big problem here.

Yuping added: "The school has been open for more than three years, and there has been open-air education for more than three years. Not only have the economic conditions in the river improved, but more than ninety percent of the people could read a few words and do simple arithmetic. By next year, it can be said that this will be one of the best square districts in Beijing, just one house away. ”

"Xiao Jiu, there is no shortage of cloth in the north, what do you want this for?" Pan Mei didn't want to talk more about the people in the river, so she went back to the topic of cotton. He said this for a reason, although both Wu Yue and the Southern Tang Dynasty had a better economy than the Song Dynasty. It was the economy of the Song Dynasty that was gradually recovering. Still not catching up with the results of the climate and topography of these two countries. But the best silk and hemp in the country is not in Wuyue, nor in the Southern Tang Dynasty, but in Hebei!

"General Pan, I'll talk about Sangori first. Generally, people raise more five-foil silkworms, some more, some less. On average, there may be less than five foils. It takes 1.7 acres of mulberry field to raise five foil silkworms, and 60 catties of silkworms are obtained from five foils. Each catty can take one or two or three points of silk, that is, seventy-eight taels. If you are skillful. It can be woven into fifteen thin small silks, but the price of small silk is cheap and difficult to weave, and those who are not skillful can not do it, and the small silk is only four or five hundred dollars a horse, but this is also the largest benefit. It can reach more than seven dollars. The whole family was nailed to it. If you want to save effort and weave it into silk, there are only two horses, and the income is less than three dollars. I'm talking about the silk industry. If the yield of kudzu is lower, more sloping dry land is used to grow kudzu. But what about cotton? One acre of land can collect sixty or seventy pounds of lint. ”

This is Song Jiu's speculation, and now the output is generally worse to death, but there are still about sixty or seventy catties of lint.

"General Pan, look at this underwear on my body, it is a cotton cloth woven from long-staple cotton transported by Da Shi, soft and insulated, and the price of a horse is almost 20 yuan. There are also a small number of cotton cloth of the Li nationality, and the price is not less than ten yuan per horse. The kind of blended cloth of the Li people is ten catties per horse, and the cotton cloth of the Dashi people is twenty catties per horse. Calculate its benefits. And it won't be as tiring as the silk industry. ”

"So much, why didn't you say it earlier in Tanzhou?"

"General Pan, my husband is obsessed with learning, and occasionally said a few words to me, I was young at the time, I don't know the severity, I'm afraid even my husband didn't think about it. After such a long time, where can I think of it one by one. ”

"Brother, can Chenzhou plant?"

"You can plant, but no matter where it is, it must go through a few years of adaptation, Brother Qin, you might as well go back and send someone to Qiongzhou to ask for some seeds, don't ask how the harvest is, first carry it down, carry it for a few years, let it adapt, I will test the new loom here, and then hand over the new loom to you." Chenzhou will be better when the time comes. "Song Jiu is talking from the heart, Chenzhou is a point, Chenzhou is good, the surroundings will be better, otherwise the north is Beijiangman, the southwest is Nanjiangman, the northeast is Meishanman, and then the southwest is the powerful Tian clan, and then the northwest is the more barbaric Kuixia barbarian area. Conscription by force is certainly not the solution, and co-opting is even worse. But after seeing the various benefits brought by the advanced mode of production, they wanted to learn well, wanted to live a happy life, and spontaneously approached the Han civilization, which was more effective than any strategy.

Pan Mei finally understood its value, and after a while, she asked, "Who else will grow mulberry and silkworms in the future?" ”

"More is cheap, more people plant, the price of cotton cloth will automatically fall, and the price of silk will automatically rise, just like the ancient people in the past ate millet and beans, wheat was introduced, and began to eat noodles, and there were more people who planted rice, and began to eat rice and noodles, and beans and millet in the Tang Dynasty were still the staple food, but now flour and rice have become the staple food. How to change, don't worry, I just see that with it, more people will wear thick clothes. ”

"This is better than the work of Pingshu."

"That's martial arts, this is literary skills, it's not good to compare, both civil and military, the country can be strong. Otherwise, no matter how rich you are, it will just be a weak Tang country. ”

While chatting, a few people came outside, all of whom knew each other, Zhao Chengzong and a few Yanei.

As soon as they met, several Yanai sang fat and greeted Pan Mei, who was a senior and a major general of the country, and it was not their turn to put on a big name. Pan Mei said with a smile: "Chengzong, why did you have time to come here?" ”

The attitude is extremely kind.

But his attitude made Song Jiu's heart furious, could it be that Pan Mei was Zhao Pu's person? The dispute between the three Zhao made him a little bit of a bow and a snake shadow.

Zhao Chengzong said: "General Pan, I'm here to find Jiulang. ”

"Sit down and talk."

Zhao Chengzong and a few people sat down, Yuping was busy making tea again, Zhao Chengzong said: "Jiulang, Hezhou development, my business is getting better, but big trouble is coming." ”

Yuping proudly said to Pan Mei about the changes in the river, but there is a hidden crisis in the middle, not only the future construction of Hezhou, but also a headache for Zhao Chengzong, and even a headache for the imperial court in the future! (To be continued......)