After Zhang Bao "went to work", the brother and sister went to the right room. One silently recited the new texts he learned yesterday, and the other pasted them in block letters. After less than half an hour, I already felt that my fingers were almost stiff.

Duan Ning couldn't stand it: "It's still so cold with the stove burning in the house, let alone outside, in such weather, do you still have to go out to practice horseback riding?" What will I do when I go to school tomorrow? Shuning laughed at him: "Could it be that my brother was stumped by such a cold weather?" This is the first snow, so what if it's colder? Duan Ning had a headache when he heard this: "I want to continue to study and practice hard, but even my hands are stiff just by writing in the house, won't I turn into a popsicle when I go out?" What else can I do? He jumped to his feet, moved to the brazier, and stretched out his hand to roast it.

This is indeed a problem. Shuning looked at the condensed ink, and couldn't write it anymore. She put down her pen, took two and stepped on the brazier, gave one to her brother, and sat on one, thinking about what to do.

Duan Ning thought hard for a long time, and popped out a sentence: "Damn, my feet are also icy." ”

Shuning laughed and asked, "Will it be ice next to the brazier?" Didn't my brother wear socks? ”

"It's worn, it's a little better than not wearing it, but it's still cold."

"If one pair is not enough, wear two pairs, why don't you ask someone to play a thicker pair?"

When Duan Ning heard this, he jumped up: "This method is good, why didn't you say it earlier?" Can you fight? ”

Shuning nodded: "Yes, didn't Mongolia transport some blankets to sell?" Go to those people and ask for some wool, spin it into thread, and weave it into socks, which are much warmer than socks made of ordinary cotton yarn. If you have a lot of wool thread, you can also knit it into clothes and wear it. ”

Duan Ning heard this, so he rushed to the main room to call the second sister-in-law, but the Tong family, who was settling the accounts, was startled, and after asking what was going on, he smiled: "I don't need to look for wool now, I just bought wool thread before, and I was going to use it for socks, but I didn't expect the weather to be cold like this so soon." You go to ask Xiaomei, I'm afraid that I've already made one. ”

Duan Ning went to find Xiaomei, and when she came back, her right foot had already changed into woolen socks: "There is only one, and the other one will be fine tonight." It's so warm. ”

Shuning pouted: "Just put it on, even if it is warm, it is impossible for your feet to change from ice cubes to warm soup so quickly, less bluffing." ”

Duan Ning smiled proudly: "When I look back, my sister asked Xiao Tao to also make a pair, and you will know when you put it on." But he sighed again, "It's a pity, it's only on the feet, if only you could wear socks on your hands." Unfortunately, the leather gloves used for horseback riding are too bulky, and no one wears them on weekdays. ”

Tong heard it in the main room, and said with a smile: "You can't wear socks on your hands, but our women have fur handguards, but it's a pity that you guys will be laughed at when they use them." ”

Duan Ning was depressed, but these words reminded Shu Ning, isn't it okay to make a pair of gloves? Although I don't know how to knit woolen gloves, I can use a clever way to make the palm part of my hand according to the knitting method of socks, and then knit another five finger parts, and then sew them with thread. If you can do it successfully, and then put on a big leather glove on the outside, what are you afraid of cold?

Do what you think. Shuning hurriedly went to find the second sister-in-law to ask for thread, and when she tried it, she didn't need a few woolen threads, so she tried ordinary coarse cotton threads first. She immediately got to work.

When she was having lunch, she had already made the palm part of one of them, thought about it, and went to measure the length of her brother's hairy fingers. The gloves can be stretched out and the palms can be sloppy, but if the fingers are too far apart, too long or too short, it will be troublesome. After the meal, she made the finer finger parts according to the measured size, and she didn't even go to sleep in the afternoon, and finally sewed the finger part to the palm part of the hand before the evening, and she was able to do it so quickly, probably because she usually made socks. She put her hand in and tried it herself, and it was ok, generally it looked like a glove. So I took it to my brother to try.

Duan Ning had been wondering what she was doing for a long time, and she was very happy when she saw the gloves, so she hurriedly put them on, just right. He happily urged to call another one, and Tong came to look at it, and said, "Isn't this the same as a leather glove for horseback riding?" It's just a thread, it's not difficult to see, ask the people below to do it, it's fast and good, and it will be useful tomorrow. After that, I told the second sister-in-law and Xiaomei Xiaotao to do it.

Shuning was a little aggrieved, and Duan Ning comforted her: "Sister, let's do the other one well, and I will wear my sister's work to go out tomorrow." Shuning smiled, thought about it, and said embarrassedly: "Brother still wears someone else's made, my pair is not very good-looking, and it is made of cotton yarn." Go back and ask them to make you a pair of woolen thread, make sure that you are warm, and you are not afraid when you ride a horse. ”

"How can you wear this when riding a horse? After a while, it was wet with snow. I have leather gloves. ”

Shuning thought for a while and said, "Then ask someone to add a layer of leather to the outside of the wool gloves, so that they are not afraid of getting wet?" ”

"Why bother, just bring it all." Tong said, "Isn't it okay to wear leather when you go outside, and change your wool when you enter the house?" ”

Shuning was only responsible for making samples, and the official production was handed over to the maids at home. However, trying new things is something to be promoted, so Shuning began to create fingerless gloves again. Because Tong lamented that wool gloves were more flexible than leather gloves, he also regretted that it was a pity that it was inconvenient to do live writing.

The next day, Shuning made a pair of fingerless gloves, which were easier to make than the full fingers, after all, the finger part took much less work. When he tried it on for Duan Ning at night, he immediately wore it and wrote a few words, turned a few pages of the book, and shouted that it was convenient. Tong handed over the official production to the second sister-in-law and Xiaomei Xiaotao, but this time, she also joined the production army, knitted a pair for her husband and herself, and also brought Shuning, the creator, to help.

Duan Ning went out wearing fingerless gloves, causing a sensation among his friends, and those who envy him followed suit. And after Zhang Bao put on the "warm brand" wool gloves made by his wife, he also attracted attention among his colleagues and asked questions. For a time, the wool blankets of the Mongolian merchants were unsalable, but the wool was in short supply, and they were sold at a good price, and more shrewd merchants negotiated with them about the future wool business.

Heavy snow is falling, and the persistent cold weather has the whole city looking for a good way to survive the winter. Inspired by wool gloves, some people came up with a style of gloves with satin and cotton, and embroidered on them to appeal to women. Even if they did not have the financial means to make wool covers for silk or sheepskin or wool, some people came up with gloves made of coarse cloth and cotton or rags. There are also people who work on other parts, such as making padded socks, padded shoes, wool boots, soft leather hats, scarves woven of wool thread, and so on. For a time, there were a lot of new winter clothes in the city, and some people returned to the customs and made a lot of money.

Shuning watched that what she thought of was made by others first, and she sold it to make a fortune, so she had to sigh at the wisdom of the ancients.

People from relatively well-off families can borrow this kind of foreign material to withstand the cold winter, but what about the poor who have no money to spare?

Fortunately, Yin Yuheng of Fengtianfu is still a capable person, and his subordinates Zhou Fucheng, Qin Tongzhi, Zhizhong Zhang Bao and others are all doers with good official reputations. Yu Heng has been talking about this matter since he saw the gloves Zhang Bao was wearing. Nowadays, there is a bumper harvest of cotton, cotton is sold very cheaply, and cotton cloth is also an easy thing to obtain. In the past, a few people would die every winter, and although the court didn't pay much attention to it, it would always reprimand it as usual. This year, the imperial court faced Lao Maozi in the north with troops, and returned with a great victory, and the Manchu Dynasty was happy. At this time, if someone in Fengtian froze to death, it would be too bad for the scenery and annoy the emperor, and he Yuheng would not be pleased.

After thinking about it, he summoned the officials and told him his plan: he planned to requisition the women of the people, and use the method of exchanging them for forced labor, so that they could use the cheapest coarse cloth and miscellaneous cotton to make some quilts, gloves, shoes and socks, and distribute them to the poor in the city, so that no one would freeze to death.

This year, Fengtianfu has a good income, and Lord Yin of the Mansion wants to be a good person in exchange for political achievements, how can anyone say that it is not good? Maybe the boss gets a commendation, and he can bring some benefits to the people under him, in case he doesn't get any benefits, but he eats and hangs up, anyway, it is Lord Yin's proposal, and they won't be blamed. In view of this, not only did everyone echo in unison, but Zhou Fucheng also proposed to find a few uninhabited but relatively sturdy houses in the city, take in homeless beggars and others, provide some porridge and water every day, and then summon doctors to give medicine to the poor on fixed days, which would be more secure.

Yu Heng nodded and said that this kind of thing had a good reputation, so he assigned a task, and everyone started to do things separately. When the number of people who died due to the continuous low temperature in Fengtian City reached six, the cold prevention and poverty alleviation operation was officially launched.

As long as the government really wants to do something, it will always see results. It wasn't until the month of Layue that the number of people who froze to death in Fengtian City stagnated at nine, and the number of people who froze to death every year in the past was twenty or thirty people, so for the people in the government, this mere nine people was simply negligible. Although it is said that the statistics should be counted after the spring weather warms up after the new year, this great feat of Fengtianfu still reached the ears of the Son of Heaven through the constant correspondence between several "friends" and the capital.

Emperor Longyan Dayue, not only issued an order to praise Fengtian Mansion, but also gave Yin Yuheng a handwritten letter of "Public Loyalty to the Country", and Yuheng happily found the best craftsman to make a plaque and hang it. There were rewards from all over the house, and Zhang Bao got a silver bowl, which was the first gift he had earned by himself, and he immediately offered it to the altar and worshiped day and night. Yu Heng felt that the color head was caused by Zhang Bao's gloves, and when he drank with his subordinates to celebrate, he also pulled Zhang Bao and said that he was a lucky general.

Other people's praise is gone, Lord Fu Yin's words are very important, Zhang Bao seems to have foreseen the prospect of rising step by step with his boss's blue eyes in the future, and he was drunk that night, and finally Changgui was carried home by Changgui.