In addition to Yan Song and Zhou Shangwen, the main officials from other places also arrived in Beijing.

The cabinet has been discussing the candidate for the secretary of the Ministry of Industry for a long time, and Zhu Houzhao has been pressing, which he wants to leave to Xing Guan.

It's a pity that after Wu Wending set out on the expedition, because he was far away from the ocean, he didn't come back, and the court had no way of knowing the situation there at all, and Xing Guan was probably still alive.

The emperor could only think so.

And although the candidate has not yet been decided, things are still being promoted.

Zhu Houzhao also listened to the cabinet discussions several times, and gradually he gradually had some impressions.

Cotton is different from corn and potatoes, China has a long history of cotton records, about from the Han Dynasty there have been some records of cotton textile technology, and some emperors' clothes in the Northern and Southern Dynasties were made of cotton cloth.

Cotton cloth is still much more comfortable to wear than linen, and you don't need to delve into any material characteristics, you can know it at a glance.

By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, there were records of cotton planting in various places, the first being Hainan, Liangguang, and then the Jiangnan generation.

It is precisely because of the excellent characteristics of cotton cloth that the planting area of cotton has gradually expanded, and when it comes to real popularization, it is the Ming Dynasty.

This began with Zhu Yuanzhang, who stipulated in the first year of Hongwu when he promulgated the tax in kind that in principle, peasants should pay taxes with no cloth, resulting in peasants who did not grow cotton could only buy to pay taxes.

Although it is somewhat inexplicable to say that such a tax is stipulated, it has objectively made cotton cultivation popular, and the amount of cotton cloth collected in the country has even reached an astonishing scale of 17.8 million horses a year during the Yongle period.

Especially in areas with developed commodity economies such as Jiangnan, cotton planting is very common in Songjiang, Jiashan and other regions, and it also leaves a saying that "you can't buy Songjiang cloth and can't harvest Weitang yarn". (Weitang is located in Jiashan)

Not only that, in addition to making cotton into cotton cloth, the ingenious Chinese can also process various colors, stripes or some simple geometric patterns such as red, yellow and blue. Let's just say it's not amazing.

Among them, there is also a kind of three-shuttle cloth, which is different from ordinary cotton cloth, because of the special production method, which makes this cloth very soft and especially suitable for close wear.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know what he was wearing, but in fact, his pants were made of tribute three-shuttle cloth.

In general, the cotton cultivation and textile technology of the Ming Dynasty had completely reached the level of commercial use, and there was no need for special promotion like sweet potatoes - until Zhu Houzhao listened to a special report from them.

He muttered about cotton and cotton, and always felt that there should be some connection with Xinjiang.

Because he paid attention to outdated political news in his previous life.

Later, he called Zhou Shangwen, Mei Kejia and Wang Qiong, the governor of Shaanxi, into the palace.

Zhu Houzhao had already constructed some memories and logic, and said to the three of them: "When I was looking through the ancient books, I remembered that there was a kind of Gaochang cloth in the Tang Dynasty, which was unusually white, and the quality seemed to be better than that of cotton cloth in the Central Plains? ”

Among these three, Wang Qiong was born in a school and had the most knowledge, and he responded: "What Your Majesty said is good, the Tang Dynasty destroyed Gaochang, set up the Anxi Protectorate, and the Silk Road was very lush, and since then, the amount of cotton cloth flowing into the Central Plains in the Western Regions has been quite large." During the Anshi Rebellion, in order to support Chang'an, Xizhou, that is, Gaochang, also transported a large number of military cotton cloth. ”

Zhou Shangwen was a little curious, "How to count military cotton?" ”

Zhu Houzhao frowned, "That's second." The key is whether the Western Regions is more suitable for growing cotton than the Central Plains. ”

Pinghai Bomei Kejia said: "The cotton grown in the Jiangnan area is also very good, and it has almost reached the situation where there must be a loom in the tenth room. ”

"I know that there are many cotton varieties in Jiangnan, but this involves border security. For a long time, the northwest region has been a desert Gobi, arid and barren, sparsely populated, and barren vegetation. If cotton can be grown, it's different. I can use Xinjiang as a cotton planting area and bring the textile technology of Jiangnan to the past.

It is far away from the mainland, and it doesn't matter if it can't be sold at a price, first, it can be sold to the west, and second, the imperial court can support and designate the purchase of cotton cloth produced in Xinjiang. In this way, the importance of Xinjiang has been raised, it is no longer a remote and rarely populated place, and the imperial court has more practical support for the development and operation of Xinjiang, and future generations will be reluctant to this place. ”

When the three of them heard the emperor say this, their minds came to life, and the emperor's consideration was on a higher level.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao did remember that Xinjiang's cotton was better, and the northwest region was also a major cotton production base.

Of course, there was a period of time when it was inferior to the mainland, but with the development of economy and society, people slowly used their brains, and naturally discovered interesting things - cotton is a kind of light-loving and heat-loving crop, where is it not planted in Xinjiang?

Therefore, the planting trend of cotton is rising in Xinjiang and Gansu, while it is declining in inland areas such as Shandong.

Not only that, Xinjiang's cotton is often high-quality cotton, which is determined by natural endowment. Therefore, there is news that foreigners do not buy Xinjiang cotton, which is a joke, and the reason why Xinjiang cotton is exported is precisely because of its high quality and can be sold at a high price. There are not enough good things in the country.

Even further west, Uzbekistan has the reputation of 'Platinum Country', a place with a severely arid continental climate, but cotton cultivation is a must, and it is precisely because of the stable yield and excellent quality of cotton that it has won this title.

Of course, this is not important to Zhu Houzhao at this moment, cotton is good and cotton cloth is good, these are two concepts, and there is textile technology in between, and in order to grow cotton on a large scale, you don't know how much effort people have put into agricultural infrastructure such as land leveling and water source irrigation. Moreover, according to Mei Kejia's saying that 'ten families must have looms', no matter how good they are, they may not be able to sell at a price, and the small farmers are economically self-sufficient.

However, this can be solved, and even Zhu Houzhao has directly said that it was purchased by the imperial court.

Wang Qiong thought carefully about the emperor's words, and couldn't help nodding, "In this way, Xinjiang may become a treasure." ”

Zhu Houzhao meant this, "It shouldn't be wrong, there are cotton cloths in the Western Regions, why can't cotton be grown?" In order for the imperial court to promote the prosperity of the cotton textile industry, cotton is indispensable. I will send a decree to Yang Yiqing, let him start handling this matter, the Han family, still like to plant something, this is something in the bones, when the scale is formed, I want to turn the herdsmen into farmers! ”

"Hahaha."

The Son of Heaven joked about it, and they couldn't hold back.

And the scale of cotton cloth used by the royal family and nobles is also very large, and some people can make it very much. First support this for a while, and when you gradually find that the quality of cotton in Xinjiang is better, you will not worry.

However, there is still one person who is still undecided, Zhou Shangwen is almost finished, and he is still asking: "Your Majesty, what is the military cotton cloth that Wang Zhongcheng mentioned just now?" ”

Wang Qiong chuckled, "I haven't seen it recorded in the book. However, I happened to see a cotton nail this time, and it should be excellent. ”

"Cotton armor? Is it the cloth face nail of the Yuan Dynasty? How is it different from Iron Armor? ”

"I asked carefully, and it's not difficult to make, but cloth armor is mainly for defense, against firearms. The cotton armor I saw was mainly used to protect against the cold, but for some reason, the winter has become colder and colder over the years, so I came up with this method.

In fact, it is to place cotton on both sides of the iron armor. First of all, the picked cotton is wet, repeatedly patted, made into a very thin cotton sheet, a number of such cotton sheets are embellished into a very thick and solid cotton cloth, between the two layers of cotton cloth is iron armor, the inside and outside are fixed with copper nails. This is the cotton armor. ”

Zhu Houzhao has never seen it, but Wang Qiong said it in plain language, "I know what Jingyu Hou is thinking, this kind of cotton armor is a very practical and even life-saving thing to fight in winter, Ping Haibo, you help from the side, find a few craftsmen to try out this kind of cotton armor, like Liaodong, Mobei and Xinjiang The weather is very cold after winter." You must know that every time a soldier has more protection from the cold, the border of the Ming Dynasty can be expanded to the north. ”

"Yes, your ministers obey."

Zhou Shangwen didn't expect the emperor to attach so much importance to it, in fact, Wang Qiong mentioned that winter is getting colder and colder, and Zhu Houzhao knows that winter will be even colder.

===

I don't know what I've been busy with lately, and I'm tossing every day. It's so fast every week, and now it's inexplicably Wednesday again, and there will be a meeting tomorrow, a meeting the day after tomorrow, and it's going to be a weekend again......

(End of chapter)