In the middle of summer in June, the countryside is full of life. Millet seedlings in the fields have begun to tassel, and all kinds of crops are growing vigorously.

In the ditch at the head of the field, several hoeing and hard-working Zhuang Ding soaked in the running water, discussing whether there would be refreshing locust leaves in the evening.

Several wagons carrying bundles of hemp came from a distance, through the fields and into the manor.

In front of the hillside, the original fence has been replaced with a rammed slab wall, and most of the houses in the manor have been replaced with half-mud and half-brick tile houses, which are two completely different pictures than more than a month ago.

In the southwest corner of the manor, there are several pools of hemp, where more than a dozen villagers are busy working, and the finished hemp is dried on the wooden frame.

In the southeast corner of the manor, there is a large house school, and the sound of schoolchildren chanting is constantly heard.

Behind the school is a small square, where many women are picking up dried food, and a woman listens to the sound of reading for a long time, and suddenly puts down the dustpan and yells loudly towards the school: "Dog, why can't I hear your recitation!" If you don't take it seriously, go home and spank your ass to bloom! ”

"The leopard's head falls on the rabbit and the crane ......"

Suddenly there was the sound of a child reading in a shrill voice, and the voice was so hoarse that it was sad to listen to, but the woman who had just yelled laughed happily when she heard it.

"Go work elsewhere, don't disturb the schoolchildren here!"

Li Zhusheng, who was on duty in the school today, walked out of the big house and waved his hand to the women and reprimanded.

Seeing this, all the women scattered with their utensils, but there was also a cheerful and pungent woman who pointed to one of them with a beautiful face and laughed: "The concubine can't let go of those stubborn and disgusting things before she comes over, but Su Niangzi has nothing to do, and she just comes close to take a look at the big master!" ”

Li Zhusheng's face turned dark after hearing this, and he stomped his feet to be annoyed, but the women laughed more presumptuously, and Mrs. Su was not shy, she leaned over and whispered: "I simmered a duck on the stove, do you come at night?" ”

"Humph!"

Li Zhusheng snorted coldly with a straight face, turned around and walked back to the school, and after a while, his teaching voice sounded in the room again: "Shu Yan, today's duck is also ......."

The countryside is full of fun, and although the villagers are busy, they are also happy and peaceful.

But the joys and sorrows between people are not the same, and Zheng Man, who is engaged in the county, has a sad face, looking at Li Tai galloping back and forth on the horse, while drawing a bow and shooting the straw men on both sides.

"Lang Jun, June is almost at the end, and there are only three months left before the time limit for returning to the infusion, where can I find the grain of ten thousand stones?"

Finally waited for Li Tai to stop and rest, Zheng Man hurriedly stepped up and said with a sigh.

Things have developed to this point, and he can't help but be worried. The county has great hopes for this cooperation, and every time Zheng Man returns to the city, the county order Du Yun will summon him to ask about the details of the manor's operation.

In addition, Li Tai's previous eye medicine also inspired Zheng Manshi's idea of progress. In May, a large family in the county went to the county government to borrow personnel to make statues to pray for blessings, and Zheng Man was worried about affecting the manor's servants, so he fought back.

But nearly two months had passed, and he saw that the manor was still sown with five acres of corn and some miscellaneous grains, and that some mulberry seedlings had been planted in the mulberry fields on the hillside, so that no more farming had begun.

The construction of the manor house is renewed day by day, but no matter how good the manor is built, it can't produce food out of thin air. Those ploughing oxen and horses sometimes lend them to the villagers who are close to the left, are they planning to borrow grain from the villagers near the left? This is a joke!

"Zheng Zheng, rest assured, I regard this place as a long-term business, and I will never betray my trust!"

Li Tai glanced at Zheng Man, who had a bitter face, and comforted him with a smile, naturally he couldn't say that he was ready to use both hands in his heart, and practicing the bow horse diligently was to prepare for running away one day.

"But ......"

Zheng Man was about to say something, but Li Tai patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "At dinner, if you talk to Zheng again, I will go to Nanpo to supervise production now." ”

Located on the southern slope of the blue brick compound, the wall is built higher, and the area of the circle is also larger, there are more than one hectare of land, and you can't see what is busy inside from the outside.

When Li Tai walked into the courtyard, he saw five mills working under the pull of oxen force, and next to the mills were five tall spinning wheels, constantly spinning twine.

Because of the need to build a furnace to melt copper and cast new gears, the spinning wheel has been continuously debugged and run-in, and it has only been officially put into production recently.

Erecting a grinding mill can make the output of cattle power more stable, and the crops such as corn and hemp seeds processed by grinding are also a side harvest, and the water of the crop oil pressed out can also play a moisturizing role in the structure of the wood.

The disadvantage is that the ox power required is increased, unlike the water power, which is constant and unconsumed, and cannot produce continuously day and night. Especially at night, because the materials and products are flammable, fireworks are strictly prohibited, and you will never dare to work with the lights.

Li Tai also had to sigh that the ancients were full of wisdom in the details of their governance, and it was not that he was a modern person who could think about everything with a pat on his head.

Although there were twists and turns in the process, it was finally a phased success.

Although the bevel gear cast in copper is not as good as that made of steel in later generations, it is enough to drive the simple processing machinery of the spinning wheel, and the melting and casting of copper is relatively simple, and there is no need to invest huge artificial materials to open a new steel industry, and production can be maintained at this stage.

"Ah Lang, yesterday I spun more than 600 catties of twine, if you are more proficient, you can do it with a constant output of 800 catties per day!"

Li Qu, who was overseeing the work, rushed up to him and reported to Li Tai on the production of these spinning wheels.

Five spinning wheels spin 800 catties of hemp a day, if converted into a large catty system, it is more than 300 catties of twine output per day, which is nearly double the effect of water-to-large spinning wheels. However, compared with traditional spinning threads, it is more than ten times better, which is also acceptable.

"Good, keep up the good work!"

Li Tai was quite satisfied with the result, and then asked, "Is the hemp material that I have purchased recently enough?" ”

After hearing this, Li Qujian shook his head: "I only collected more than 700 catties today, and all the townships near Zuo have already been purchased, after all, the villagers themselves also need to store hemp for work." ”

When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help frowning again, although the price of hemp is relatively low, it is also a necessity for the villagers to produce and live, whether it is their own clothing or rent and collection.

Although Shangyuan is a fertile township, it is also a narrow township, and the acres of land received by the vast majority of households are far lower than the number of acres stipulated in the uniform land order. The limited arable land naturally needs to be used for the amount of land, and even if it is planted with hemp, it is only a small amount, and the accumulation itself is not much.

After the spinning wheel was put into production, Li Tai exchanged gold for cloth and sent people to buy hemp near Zuo. After collecting more than 3,000 catties, the accumulation of savings in the left township will bottom out. More than 3,000 catties of hemp material is only a few days of processing by a large spinning wheel.

His production capacity here is up, but the production of raw materials is insufficient. If you go further afield, the cost of transportation to and from will skyrocket.

At present, Li Tai is facing trouble, not only the lack of hemp supply. After standing in the compound for a moment, he turned to the weaving yard next to him.

In the past nearly two months, in addition to other kinds of labor, the troops have built dozens of looms. Twine is only a semi-finished product, and it has to be spun into cloth before it can be traded.

Although Li Tai knows how to make a large spinning wheel, he is not omniscient, and he is relatively new to weaving. Therefore, these dozens of looms are only the current form of craftsmanship, and they still need to weave cloth from warp to weft.

"Lord Yulang, yesterday the ladies weaved more than sixty pieces of cloth."

The who was in charge of managing the weaving yard stepped forward to report, and Li Tai smiled and encouraged a few words after hearing this.

"The new artificial weaving, so the artificial weaving. One horse per day, more than five zhang of weaving. ”

This is the content of the weaving efficiency described in Han Yuefu's "Picking Turnips on the Mountain", and in another Yuefu poem "Peacock Flying Southeast", in addition to the stalk of "hanging southeast branches", there is also a sentence describing the heroine Liu Lanzhi's good weaving "three days to break five horses".

It can be seen that in the ancient technical environment, it is relatively normal for a weaver to weave a piece of silk a day. Even the heroine of the love story sung through the ages can't do two horses.

The weaving of cloth is less demanding than that of silk, and the twine is thicker, and skilled weavers can weave two or three horses a day. A piece of cloth is two feet two feet wide and forty feet long, and about seven or eight catties of twine can be woven into one.

Nowadays, there are more than 30 weavers working in the weaving factory, which is already the number of all the people who know how to weave.

As for the female soldiers sent by the county government, most of them are Hu women and do not know how to weave. After all, weaving cloth is printing money, and there is no difference between idle and busy, and the county government will naturally not give the fine weaving lady to Li Tai for use.

"The situation is not good, do you really have to pack up and prepare to run?"

After leaving the weaving yard, Li Tai squatted in the field, writing and calculating on the ground with a branch.

In the middle of summer, the acres of land are gradually produced, and the prices in Guanzhong have also fallen, and it is no longer as exaggerated as when Li Tai first came to buy a piece of cloth, but the price of a stone of coarse millet is still stable at about five pieces of cloth.

Now the weaving yard weaves sixty horses of cloth a day, which is converted into grain at twelve stones, and a month is three hundred and sixty stones. In fact, this kind of output is already quite considerable, and it is more than enough to support a family, and the other outputs in the manor are net profits.

But the problem is that Li Tai is still burdened with a huge debt of 10,000 stone of grain, and it can only reach one-tenth in three months, and the huge gap is a serious problem.

Although he was very calm on the surface, Li Tai was also panicked in his heart. If the food shortage in Wuxiang County is just to maintain administrative consumption, he can also try to drag the debt for a while. But this batch of materials is for the post-autumn parade of the township soldiers, and the impact will be great!

If there is a lack of this 10,000 stone grain, Yuwentai may not be able to make a big parade, he will not be able to build a government army, and there will be no way to talk about the twelve generals of the Eight Pillars State, Yang Jian will not be able to ascend to the throne, and the Sui and Tang empires of later generations will disappear!

King Gao, I am our loyal minister of Great Wei! What you can't do with hundreds of thousands of horses, I'll help you do it, can't you be crowned a king?