Destiny Only Han

Chapter 440 Liu Ying: In That Faraway Place!

Cotton and wool mills.

Outside the nearly two-foot-high fence with glass shards stuck in it, luxuriously decorated four-wheeled carriages and tall horses that looked like extraordinary horses were parked.

At the gate, many well-dressed men were standing or squatting.

These are the hero Xungui who came to see the ribbon cutting.

It's just that only two guards in black blouses stopped them outside.

Liu Ying hadn't arrived yet, so they naturally wouldn't let anyone in first.

Even if, those who were blocked by them were either the old Qin aristocrats who had been rich for many generations, or the founding heroes with great military exploits.

But beating a dog depends on the owner. Although the doorman is soft-spoken, Liu Ying is standing behind him.

The prince of the Han Empire!

A moment later, Liu Ying galloped all the way on the horse, the golden crown on her head was shining, and the blood-red cloak behind her was fluttering in the wind, looking very coquettish...

"finally come!"

Fan Kuai spat out the stick in his mouth and strode forward to meet him.

"I've seen Marquis Wuyang." Liu Ying got off her horse and bowed her hands slightly.

Well, he still doesn't want to call this guy a little uncle...

Fan Kuai didn't bother to think about it, he just said in a strange voice: "Let's go, thank you for the flowers that everyone has been waiting for..."

"It's never too late for good things." Liu Ying smiled and pointed to the gate of the workshop: "Everyone, please follow me."

The first thing that catches the eye in the workshop is a pool made of cement. On the elevated canal in the distance, the flowing water lifted by the waterwheel is poured into it continuously.

Around the pool, a group of workers with slightly mutilated limbs kept coming and going. They poured the wool from the distant warehouse into the pool. After cleaning, they moved it to the shed on the other side and rubbed it repeatedly with hot water mixed with soda ash.

This is to degrease the wool, thereby reducing the mutton smell on it.

Soda ash is purified from the trona mine dug out of Tongbai Mountain. As for the wool, it did not come from the Huns, but was harvested from Guanzhong during this period.

Well, the trade with the Huns has just started at this time, and it will take at least one or two months for all the goods to be shipped back to Guanzhong.

Although Liu Ying took Fan Kuai and others to visit the wool textile factory, she didn't intend to tell them the secrets of wool processing, but led them to the distant factory without stopping.

In the place where the red carpet was spread in the distance, several handsome ministers held red strips of paper in their hands, quietly waiting for the arrival of Liu Ying and his party.

This is preparing for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Liu Ying felt that it was a waste to cut off the best silk, so today's ribbon-cutting ceremony cut red paper instead of red silk.

"Come, come, everyone has a share..." Liu Ying held the scissors in her hand, and greeted Fan Kui and others who looked confused and stood in a row with her.

Fan Kui was stunned for a moment, he had seen someone who was so searchy, but he had never seen someone who was so searchy at such a happy event today, but he still shook his head helplessly, and silently stood beside Liu Ying.

After all, this is the son of his wife's sister. If he spoils him, what else can he do?
Even if this little brat still refuses to call him uncle...

After a while, accompanied by the sound of paper-cutting, a tall and strong worker in the distance swung a sledgehammer and slammed it hard at a limit bolt on the waterwheel.

With a sound of bumping, the water wheel sank suddenly, just landed in the rushing water channel, and then creaked and turned.

Along with the rotation of the waterwheel, there are a series of gears and connecting rods, and finally, the power is transmitted to the spinning wheel in the workshop.

Liu Ying signaled Fan Kui and others who were following behind her to put on the masks issued to them, and then walked into the house marked with the spinning workshop.

After entering, I saw a machine made of iron and wood in the middle of the room. There were two huge wheels on both sides of the machine, belts were wrapped around the wheels, and there were nearly two hundred spindles one foot long and short on the support. .

At this moment, the spindle was spinning rapidly, and those workers standing in front of the spinning wheel, wearing white overalls and masks, lifted up baskets of combed wool, picked up a ball and lightly striped it on the spindle, and the wool was in an instant. Turned into a tough thin line.

Behind Liu Ying, a series of exclamations and unquestionable shouts sounded.

Many of them came here today, not to participate in the so-called ribbon-cutting and visit the wool textile factory, but to watch Liu Ying make a fool of himself, and watch those thin silk threads being torn into pieces under Pei Ran's great efforts. Seventeen or eight...

But now things are contrary to their wishes. Seeing the wool continuously turning into thin threads, their wide eyes are full of greed.

Just, I really want to have it!

But just think about it.

It's not that they haven't poached engineers from Shangxiantang over the years, and then built their own workshops to seize the market.

But it is a pity that their actions will not only face the pressure of administrative forces, but also after they spend a lot of money to produce qualified products, the price of the same product on the market will be cut in half in an instant.

The retail price is lower than their cost price...

Then, I could only watch Shangxiantang buy their workshop at a very low price, and then the price of the goods rose back to the original price.

So based on the principle of joining if you can't beat them, these guys started to approach Liu Ying, trying to get involved as usual.

It's just that Liu Ying asked them to come today not to make them shareholders, but to let them become their own suppliers and accomplish another almost impossible thing.

So Liu Ying spread her hands and said: "Currently limited by the shortage of raw materials, this workshop can only start work for half a month and rest for half a month, so let's forget about buying shares."

Fan Kuai came out as a representative of public opinion and asked: "Insufficient raw materials? Are you talking about these wools? Can't we weave ramie and silk here?"

Liu Ying half-lied and explained: "No! These machines are too powerful and can easily tear ramie and silk, so they can only process tougher wool or cotton that has a small sowing area."

Hearing Liu Ying's words, everyone nodded one after another. Cotton is more or less grown in their family's farm, but they all use cotton silk to fill bedding or robes, and they don't realize that this kind of silk is The wadding can also be used for textiles.

Now that I think about it, cotton wool is somewhat similar to silkworm cocoons. Even without these weird-sized machines, they should be able to be spun into silk with an ordinary spinning wheel, and then made into cloth!
For a moment, they felt complacent that they had found a new way to make money.

"Since the raw materials are insufficient, why don't you buy them?" Fan Kuai said loudly, "There is no solution for cotton for the time being, but isn't it said that after the peace talks with the Huns, the exchange market will be closed? They don't have much else, but there is a lot of wool! "

Liu Ying nodded her head in agreement, and then a bit of sadness appeared on her face:
"Having said that, if we blindly buy wool from the Huns, what if he suddenly stops selling us, or raises the price?"

"The miner barbarians are the most ungrateful for profit!"

Zhou Bo who was hidden behind the crowd was silent, he seemed to hear something else from Liu Ying's words.

The smell of war.

Could it be that His Majesty wanted to use troops against the Huns again, so he used the prince's mouth to test them?Zhou Bo's mind was full of thoughts, and doubts arose.

In the crowd, a voice suddenly sounded.

"Your Highness said that it is better to ask for others than to ask for yourself. Instead of letting the Huns earn the money, it is better for us to raise sheep ourselves. We can sell the wool to cotton and wool textile factories, and we can also kill and eat meat!"

In an instant, everyone laughed in agreement, especially talking about killing and eating meat.

With the construction of Chang'an City and the new city, Guanzhong has reproduced the flow of people in the past when the Qin State was in power.

And the most intuitive feeling is that there is not enough meat.

This is the most benevolent city under the foot of the emperor, and there are [-] conservative middle-class households with well-off families. Calculated on the basis of the average daily consumption of one catty of meat per household, that is one hundred thousand catties of meat per day!

At this time, a pig can get less than a hundred catties of lean meat after removing the inedible parts such as bones.

Calculated in this way, at least a thousand pigs are eaten every day in the vicinity of Chang'an City, and if some people eat mutton, the number of livestock consumed will increase significantly!

It's just that people at this time have a sense of urgency.

For example, Zhang Cang, who is white and fat, squeezed out from the crowd and said: "Now that the Han Dynasty is in its infancy, if we use the abandoned fields to raise sheep for the sake of profit and tongue, I'm afraid that when the time comes, the Guanzhong will be destroyed." People starve to death..."

The scene he imagined was probably the so-called sheep cannibalism.

At that time, the Spaniards discovered the silver mines in the New World and became extremely rich, so poor countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands began to try their best to serve these upstarts, and selling woolen textiles was one of them.

Naturally, raising sheep has become a very profitable business.

British feudal lords and landowners have fenced up their land to graze sheep, tore up the lease treaty, and forcibly expelled the tenants who cultivated the land for them on the territory, and these tenants lost the land they depended on to support their families. With young children, wandering towards strange places.

This is the "enclosure movement" of "sheep cannibalism" in the bloody history of British capitalism.

Well, one thing to note here is that it was not because of the "sheep cannibalism" enclosure movement that led Britain to capitalism, but because of the development of capitalism that brought about the "sheep cannibalism" enclosure movement in Britain.

Liu Ying smiled and waved her hands and said, "Isn't it unfounded to worry about the sky? Nowadays, with the gradual peace of the world, large tracts of abandoned farmland in the Kanto region have been reclaimed. At this time, even if a grain of grain is not planted in Guanzhong, it will not affect the people in Guanzhong to eat enough." meal."

"It's a big deal, how about transferring it from other places? As far as I know, Bashu has another bumper harvest this year. If the grain is not transported out in time to eat, I'm afraid it will rot in the local granary!"

"Besides, have you heard that there is a kind of land that can be harvested three times a year?"

At this moment, Liu Ying turned into Jing Ke, ready to meet him.

(End of this chapter)