I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 39 The big man’s money printing machine?

Dong Hong and Xue Liang both looked at Li Heng doubtfully.

Xue Liang asked: "What exactly does Lang Jun do?"

"Invite more people in, and in a short period of time."

Dong Hong asked: "Why!"

"We provide farm tools."

"That can only absorb refugees. The refugees are limited after all. The Wei army has always had strategies for farming and absorbing refugees. We can absorb more than 800 people in two months, which is enough. We can't rush everything."

Li Heng suddenly said: "What if we not only provide farm tools, but also cloth?"

"Is it the strategy you mentioned last time?"

"That's right!"

Dong Hong knew what he wanted to do, and he had been thinking about Ramie before.

Later, they sent people to cut down a lot of ramie and came back, peeled and cramped, soaked in water, and dried in the sun.

Dong Hong said: "Ming Gong, does he know that we also need to prepare winter clothes?"

"Of course I know, so I'll spin more."

"Do you know how long it takes to weave a piece of cloth? If we satisfy ourselves and then use it to attract others, how much more will it take?"

"Prepare at least two thousand bolts of cloth."

Dong Hong asked again: "Do you know how long it takes to weave the ramie silk from the spinning wheel to the completion of a piece of cloth?"

Li Heng remained silent.

Dong Hong knew at a glance that Li Heng had no idea about this matter. He reminded: "From the beginning of the spinning wheel, weaving a piece of Sichuan brocade takes three months, and weaving an ordinary piece of linen takes half a month. We Now there are only nearly 200 people who can be used to weave cloth. It would take five months for 200 people to complete the weaving of two thousand pieces of cloth, and they would work non-stop every day."

Dong Hong said while sitting next to the ditch.

There were ripples on the water and frogs croaking from the rice fields.

Since Li Heng wants to talk about this matter, let's make it clear.

To prevent this guy from mentioning this every day in the future.

"Let them work non-stop for five months. Some of them haven't even built their own houses. Where will they sleep once the weather turns cold?"

Li Heng said: "I didn't ask all the more than [-] people now to join in and weave cloth day and night."

"Then how do you finish your two thousand bolts of cloth?"

"You come with me."

"where to?"

"Come with me and you'll know."

"Even if you tell the truth today, I won't agree with your opinion." Dong Hong sneered, "Manpower is really precious to us. Everything has its own order. Although you are the county magistrate, I have righteousness in my heart!"

"Well, you have great justice in your heart." Li Heng nodded and continued to move forward.

Several people walked along this road to the ditch in front, turned a corner, and stopped by the ditch in front of a poplar forest.

In the ditch, there is a rotating wooden device.

Dong Hong recognized that this was the device used by the paper mill to make paper pulp.

Use the current to drive the wheels in the water and drive the devices on the shore.

However, the device on the shore in front of me is not a water hammer for making paper pulp, but a...

"This is?"

Li Heng said: "It's obviously a spinning wheel."

"This is a spinning wheel!" Dong Hong was a little surprised.

"If we can use water power to make pulp, we can use water power to spin."

"Is this possible?"

"Xue Liang, please open your eyes to Dong Ziling."

"Here." Looking at this hydraulic textile machine, Li Heng was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

He is not an engineering genius in the strict sense, but Xue Liang is indeed very good.

As early as more than a month ago, he was discussing this matter with Xue Liang.

If this matter were placed in Europe in this era, Li Heng would definitely not be able to do it.

But in China in this era, it’s really not that difficult.

The water dam appeared in the Han Dynasty, and borrowing water power was not unfamiliar to people in the Han Dynasty.

Marx once defined tools during the Industrial Revolution. A developed machine must have three parts: engine, transmission mechanism and machine tool.

The engine of the water-powered textile machine is the water wheel.

The spinning wheel itself in the Han Dynasty was driven by a rope pulley.

In fact, Li Heng didn't know much about these. When he was about to try it, Xue Liang took him to find a spinning wheel and explained a lot in detail.

Li Heng proposed the idea of ​​using a water wheel to drive a spinning wheel, and Xue Liang began to think of a way.

It was only now that Li Heng realized for himself that China in the agricultural era was indeed far ahead in certain technologies.

The spinning wheel of the Han Dynasty could twist and combine relatively uniform silk or strings of different thicknesses.

(In 1972, a musical instrument called "Hanser" was unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha. Its strings were made of sixteen single filaments that were twisted and stranded. Each string was spun very evenly and could produce a harmonious tune.)
Of course, when he thinks so, he does not mean to always sing about the greatness of his ancestors.

He is an exploratory personality. He believes that future generations must find ways to make each generation better than the next. They must not forget the achievements of the past, but they cannot just use the achievements of their ancestors to impress themselves.

The road is long and far away, and I will search up and down.

Xue Liang started playing around with it, and Dong Hong was obviously attracted. He asked, "What is this?"

Xue Liang was fiddling with it and said, "It's a spindle. There are eight spindles in this spinning wheel."

"Eight?"

Dong Hong was completely shocked.

"This idea was proposed by Lang Jun. I thought it was ridiculous at first. After trying it more than ten times, it really works!"

Xue Liang's tone was also very excited, and his movements were very smooth.

First, place the ramie thread brought over on the spinning wheel.

Then install the rope pulley connecting the water wheel and spinning wheel.

Under the action of flowing water, the water wheel rotates with the rope wheel, and the force is transmitted to the spinning wheel, and the spinning wheel starts to operate.

Now thinking about Dong Hong, who was calm and calm, his eyes almost didn't bulge.

"In order to prevent the threads from intertwining, I also installed some wooden forks here." Xue Liang pointed to the row below and said, "But these wooden forks may not last long and need to be replaced regularly."

"Use an iron fork instead later." Li Heng added.

The operation of this water-powered spinning machine is not very smooth, but the weaving is satisfactory.

"If this thing is sent back to Chengdu, wouldn't it be the brocade of my great man..." Dong Hong immediately thought of Shu brocade.

Shu brocade is now sold as far away as Cao Wei and Sun Wu.

The biggest pain point of Shu brocade is that supply exceeds demand.

Li Heng said: "No, it's too rough, so we can only weave it first, and the tightness of the cloth weaved from it needs to be adjusted. But we recruit people, and as long as we give them cloth, they will be satisfied."

You know, during the Three Kingdoms period, food and cloth were hard currencies.

It is equivalent to the hydraulic textile machine standing here, which is a disguised money printing machine.

"And the water flow in this canal is limited. We need to increase its water flow, which also requires more people."

Li Heng turned to look at Dong Hong and said, "Now do you still think we can't finish two thousand pieces of cloth?"

"Okay! But why are you so anxious to attract more people?"

"Because there was a war between Han and Wei last month, Sima Yi now knows that we are encircling the fields. The next step will be to strengthen the walls and clear the country. If he considers more radical methods, he will even force all the people in this area to move to Leave us an uninhabited space in the Chang'an area!"

As soon as Li Heng said this, Dong Hong was stunned again.

(End of this chapter)