Ten days later, under the bidding of the Industrial Division, the cotton clothing workshop was quickly completed.

Li Congyan, accompanied by Wu Conghan and Li Sisheng, came to Xingzhuang Village in the south of Dengzhou City.

At this time, most of Xingzhuang Village was enclosed in the cotton clothing workshop, and the villagers who were expropriated received a lot of compensation, and then moved to the surrounding villages by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The villagers who did not have requisitioned houses continued to live in Xingzhuang Village, and most of the craftsmen and apprentices required for the workshop were young and strong in the village.

Li Congyan and others rode horses to the door of the cotton clothing workshop, and at this time, Hu Jing, the new head of the workshop, was already waiting at the door, and saw Li Congyan and others hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

"Lord, this is the new director Hu Jing, who was originally a steward of the woodcraft workshop, very capable, and this time he was promoted by his subordinates to the head of the cotton clothing workshop."

"Hmm!"

Li Congyan turned over and dismounted, smiled and encouraged Hu Jing a few words, and then walked into the workshop with everyone.

As soon as she entered the workshop, Li Congyan saw many apprentices carrying bales of cotton into the factory courtyard in front of her, and she could still hear the sound of spinning wheels running, a busy scene.

"Lord, these rooms are the production of cotton cloth, and according to the instructions of the Lord, the workshop will improve the silk loom and use it to weave cotton thread and weave cotton cloth."

At this time, the textile technology in the south of the Yangtze River has developed greatly, although the spinning wheel used by the weavers is not as good as the spinning wheel in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it has been very mature, and the efficiency of the textile has also been greatly guaranteed.

When the cotton clothing workshop was being built, Li Congyan ordered someone to get a spinning wheel, and then made some improvements according to the appearance of the spinning wheel in later generations in his memory. For the sake of insurance, when Li Congyan was improving the spinning wheel, he also specially recruited several spinning workers to assist, and finally it took a few days to improve it successfully.

The director, Hu Jing, followed Li Congyan and introduced the situation of the cotton clothing workshop to Li Congyan.

"The workshop has already woven a batch of cotton cloth, and the Lord is really a man of God, and he can even think of using cotton to spin cloth and make clothes, this cotton is soft and warm, and the woven cotton cloth is very soft and comfortable, and it is more wear-resistant than linen, and his subordinates thought that in the future they could sell cotton cloth as a separate commodity, and they would definitely make a lot of money."

Li Congyan looked at the principal Hu Jing approvingly, this person's mind is very good, he sees the commercial value of cotton cloth, and also sees the advantages of cotton, he can play independently, look for selling points that can make money, and he is a good seedling for business.

"That's right! In the future, when the output of the cotton clothing workshop can fully meet the needs of the army, we can try to sell cotton clothes, quilts, and finished cotton cloth to the outside world. ”

Hu Jing saw that his proposal was adopted by Li Congyan, and he was overjoyed, and immediately crossed his hands to receive the order.

Li Congyan touched the cotton cloth samples sent by the two apprentices, the skills of the cotton clothing workshop are very good, this cotton cloth is almost the same as the cotton cloth of later generations, the difference is only that the color is not as diverse and colorful as that of later generations, and the cotton cloth under the current is only the true color of cotton, dark white.

"These cotton cloths are to be printed and dyed, and the cotton cloth used to make cotton clothes is to be dyed red, and the cotton cloth used to make quilts is to be dyed gray."

"Whoa!"

Hu Jing said: "When my subordinates and Li Sicheng and Minister Wu were preparing for the construction of the cotton clothing workshop, they had already discussed it, and they felt that the cotton clothes and quilts would use various colors, so they had already arranged a dyeing workshop in the workshop. It's just that the dyeing craftsmen are not yet in place, so they are not yet operational. The instructions of the master will be implemented as soon as possible, and the personnel of the dyeing workshop will be in place as soon as possible. ”

"Well, that's good!"

The style of the new army cotton suit designed by Li Congyan is similar to the style of the flying fish suit, the upper body is a slightly slim Hanfu style, and the lower body is a pleated skirt like the flying fish suit, all of which are filled with cotton and made of cotton cloth.

With such a design and a bright red rendering, the padded clothes made are sure to be very eye-catching. The gray color of the quilt can absorb heat as much as possible, and the army can also be more resistant to dirt when the army is out.

At this time, Hu Jing said with a smile: "My subordinates have seen the style of the cotton clothes issued by the lord, which is similar to the regular clothes of our shogunate, and the use of bright red must be very eye-catching, and it will definitely become the face of our Dengzhou new army, so that those Qiu Ba in other military towns will be jealous when they see it!" ”

Everyone laughed.

Subsequently, Li Congyan inspected the textile workshop, cutting workshop, and finally came to the finished product workshop.

There are already some samples of cotton clothes and quilts in the finished product workshop, Li Congyan randomly checked a few pieces, and the quality of these samples was found to be very good, and he said with satisfaction: "It seems that Minister Wu, Li Sicheng, and Director Hu are very competent, and the things in the cotton clothing workshop are very good." With these cotton clothes and quilts, when winter comes, the soldiers will definitely be able to live a warm winter. ”

Wu Conghan, Li Sisheng, and Hu Jing forked their hands and said: "I am willing to serve the Lord!" ”

Li Congyan encouraged the three of them a few words, and then picked up a cotton coat, and suddenly remembered the size standard of later generations, so he said: "In the past, tailor-made clothes had to be tailor-made, and tens of thousands of soldiers were laborious and laborious to customize, and once a war broke out, the officers and soldiers in the army would continue to change, either retired, killed, or recruited, so the shogunate had no time or energy to tailor them one by one. ”

The director Hu Jing nodded and said: "The lord's worries are very reasonable, but his subordinates don't have the idea to solve them at the moment, please show the lord." ”

"Size, you can set the standard for the size of clothes, and everyone chooses the corresponding clothes according to the size."

"Size?"

"Lord, what does this size mean?"

The three of them were a little puzzled, looking at the puzzled looks of the three of them, Li Congyan continued: "The size is the mark of size, with the soldier being tall, short, fat and thin as the standard, every inch difference in height and every five catties in weight, the size will be gained, with No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 as the mark. In this way, as long as the officers and men in the army know their height and weight, they know what size of clothes they should wear, so that the army directly counts how many No. 1 cotton clothes and No. 2 cotton clothes are needed, and then procures and distributes them according to the demand, which saves a lot of time and trouble. ”

After saying this, Wu Conghan, Li Sisheng, and Hu Jing suddenly realized that this method was really unheard of for the three of them: "I really don't know how the Lord came up with such a good method!" ”

The three of them sighed in their hearts for a while, and then Li Sisheng crossed his hands and said: "Lord Qiqi, my subordinates have discussed with Minister Wu, and now the cotton clothes workshop has also made some sample cotton clothes, is it possible to distribute these cotton clothes to officials at all levels of the shogunate, as well as generals in the army, which can be regarded as a kind of welfare for everyone?" ”

Li Congyan said with a smile: "It's okay, but it's not now, and there are not so many sample cotton clothes in the cotton clothing workshop now." In this way, when autumn came, the shogunate officials each gave two cotton clothes and two quilts, and the colors and patterns were printed and dyed according to the standards of the regular clothes of officials at all levels. ”

"This cotton coat and quilt are a benefit of the shogunate, and that's fine. The shogunate's regular clothes were issued once every two years, and this cotton garment should be issued once every three years. The necessary money and food were allocated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and procured from the cotton clothing workshop. ”

"Whoa!"

After deciding, Li Congyan said to Wu Conghan with a smile: "Look how powerful our Li Sicheng is, he won a big deal for the cotton clothing workshop in just a few words!" ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, Li Sisheng was a little embarrassed to salute and thank him, and Wu Conghan said to Hu Jing with a smile: "This Shangguan of yours is not thin on you, and he will send a big business when he comes up, you have to show something." ”

Hu Jing said with a smile: "Minister Wu is right, I'll send Li Sicheng one more lady's cotton coat when I go back." ”

"Stop, if you want to give me a lady's cotton clothes, give me a woman first."

The crowd burst into laughter.

Speaking of this, Li Congyan remembered one thing, Wu Conghan, Li Wei, Li Ren and other old subordinates are still single today, and there is no woman around him, it seems that this lifelong event is also on the agenda.

After some inspection, Li Congyan set off to return to Dengzhou City, and in the evening of this day he also made an appointment with Bai Jixun, the commander of the Zhenfu Division, to discuss matters.

Wu Conghan and Li Sisheng stayed in the cotton clothing workshop and negotiated with Hu Jing some of Li Congyanxin's requirements to implement them as soon as possible.

When Li Congyan returned to the mansion, Bai Jixun was already waiting in the side hall, Li Congyan strode in, and said with a smile to Bai Jixun, who was saluting with crossed hands: "It's very early, is there any new news from the Zhenfu Division?" ”

Bai Jixun forked his hand and said: "Your Majesty, this is the information that the Zhenfu Division has just received, and it is still about the Khitan army. ”

"Read!"

"Whoa!"

Bai Jixun opened the information and said: "The Khitan lord Yelu Deguang led his troops to withdraw to the Khitan territory, and the losses in all parts of Youyun were heavy, and it is estimated that the population captured by the Khitan army is at least more than 100,000, and the rest of the grain, livestock and other losses cannot be counted!" In particular, Yingzhou and several other cities that were captured by the Khitan army are said to have been looted by the Khitans and turned into veritable ghost towns! ”

In addition, there is also news that Shi Jingjiao sent people to deliver a large amount of money and grain to the Khitan army before the Khitan army retreated north. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence at this time, and there is no confirmation for the time being. ”

Li Congyan was still in a very good mood when he came back, but his face was already gloomy at this time.

The numbers in this information are very cold, but those 100,000 mouths are all fresh lives, all flesh and blood people! Now these compatriots have been taken captive by the Khitans, and the end is destined to be tragic, most of them are used as slaves by the Khitans or cannon fodder for the southward invasion.

"Shi Jingjiao!"

According to Li Congyan's understanding of history, Shi Jingjiao definitely did something to send money and grain to the Khitans, and it is very likely that this matter is true. At this time, Li Congyan was furious in his heart, and he only hated why he didn't bring guns with him, if there were guns, Li Congyan must have rushed to Taiyuan at this time and shattered Shi Jingjiao's body into ten thousand pieces!

Li Congyan took a deep breath, calmed down, and asked, "Is there any other news?" ”

"And a piece of information."

Bai Jixun said: "In Luoyang, today's sage Li Siyuan suddenly issued an edict and reappointed Li Zanhua as the envoy of the Zhaoxin Festival, but he asked Li Zanhua to go to Luoyang to live, just to enjoy the payment of the envoy of the festival. ”

Hearing this, Li Congyan's complexion changed drastically.