Ordinary clear day

Chapter 18 Gloves
After Zhang Bao went to work, the brother and sister went to the right room.One silently recited the new text learned yesterday, and the other pasted the words in big letters.After less than half an hour, I already felt that my fingers were going to be numb.

Duan Ning couldn't stand it: "It's still so cold inside with the stove burning, let alone outside. In this kind of weather, why not go out and practice horse riding? What will we do when we go to school tomorrow?" Shu Ning laughed at him: " Could it be that such a cold weather has stumped my brother? This is the first snow, so what if it gets colder?" Duanning had a headache when he heard this: "I want to continue to study and practice hard, but just staying indoors Even his hands are numb when writing inside, won’t it turn into popsicles when we go out? What else can we do?” He hopped his feet, moved to the brazier and stretched out his hands to warm it.

This is indeed a problem.Shu Ning looked at the congealed ink, and couldn't write any more.She put down her pen, took two sheets and stepped to the brazier, gave one to her brother, and sat on one by herself, thinking about what to do.

Duanning thought hard for a long time, and said, "Damn it, my feet are freezing."

Shu Ning laughed and asked, "Is it still cold next to the brazier? Could it be that brother isn't wearing socks?"

"Wearing it is better than not wearing it, but it will still be cold."

"One pair is not enough, just wear two pairs, why don't you ask someone to make a thicker pair?"

When Duanning heard this, he jumped up: "This is a good idea, why didn't you say it earlier? Can we fight?"

Shu Ning nodded: "Yes, didn't Mongolia ship some blankets for sale? Go to those people and ask for some wool, which can be spun into thread and woven into socks, which are much warmer than socks made of ordinary cotton yarn. If there is a lot of wool, it can be woven into clothes."

Duan Ning was aroused when he heard that, so he rushed to the main room to call Er Mo, which surprised Tong Shi who was doing the accounts, and after asking what was going on, he smiled: "There is no need to look for wool now, I just bought it the other day." The woolen thread is intended to be used for making socks, but I didn’t expect the weather to be so cold so early in the morning. You can ask Xiaomei, I’m afraid I’ve already made one.”

Duanning went to look for Xiaomei, and when he came back, he had already put on wool socks on his right foot: "There is only one, the other will be fine tonight. It's really warm."

Shu Ning curled her lips: "I just put it on, no matter how warm it is, it's impossible for your feet to change from ice cubes to lukewarm water so quickly, so stop bluffing."

Duan Ning smiled triumphantly: "After a while, my sister named Xiao Tao will also make a pair, and I'll know when I put them on." But he sighed again, "Unfortunately, there are only socks on the feet. It would be great if I could wear socks on the hands. It's a pity that riding a horse The leather gloves used are too bulky and no one wears them on weekdays."

Mrs. Tong heard it in the main room, and said with a smile: "You can't wear socks on your hands, but we women have fur gloves. It's a pity that you guys will be laughed at if you use them."

Duanning was very depressed, but these words reminded Shuning, wouldn't it be enough to make two gloves?Although I don't know how to knit woolen gloves, I can use a tricky method to make the palm part according to the knitting method of the socks, and then knit the five finger parts, and then sew them on with thread, won't it be all right?If you can do it successfully and put on big leather gloves on the outside, then why are you afraid of the cold?
Do whatever comes to mind.Shuning hurriedly went to Ermo to ask for thread. When trying to make it, she didn't need the few woolen threads, so she tried it with ordinary thick cotton thread first.She immediately started to do it.

During lunch, she had already finished the palm of one of the hands. After thinking about it, she went to measure the length of her brother's hairy fingers.Gloves can be stretched out, and the palm part can be sloppy, but if the finger part is too far apart, it will be troublesome if it is too long or too short.After dinner, she worked on the finer finger parts according to the measured size. She didn't even go to sleep for a nap, and finally sewed the finger parts to the palm part before the evening. She could do it so quickly, probably in normal times. For socks sake.She put her hand in and tried it herself, and it was okay, generally speaking, it looked like a glove.So I took it to my brother to try.

Duanning had been wondering what she was doing for a long time, and was very happy when he saw the gloves, so he hurriedly put them on, they were just right.He happily urged him to call the other one, and Tong went to have a look, and said, "Isn't this the same as a leather glove for riding a horse? It's just made of thread. It's not difficult to see, let the people below make it." , it’s fast and good, and it will be useful tomorrow.” After saying that, he ordered Ermo and Xiaomei Xiaotao to do it.

Shu Ning felt a little wronged, Duan Ning comforted her and said: "Sister, let's make the other one too, and I'll take the one my sister made to go out tomorrow." Shu Ning smiled, thought about it, and said embarrassedly: "Brother It’s better to wear someone else’s pair. My pair is not very good-looking, and it’s made of cotton yarn. Ask them to make you a pair with woolen yarn later, to keep you warm, and you won’t be afraid when riding a horse.”

"How can I wear this while riding? It gets wet from the snow after a while. I have leather gloves."

Shu Ning thought for a while, and said, "Then ask someone to put a layer of leather on the outside of the wool gloves, so you won't be afraid of getting wet?"

"Why bother, just take them with you." Tong Shi said, "Wear the leather ones when you go outside, and change the wool ones when you enter the house. Isn't that all right?"

Shuning is only responsible for making samples, and the official production is handed over to the maids at home.But it is worth advocating to try new things, so Shuning started to create fingerless gloves again.Because Tong lamented that wool gloves are more flexible than leather gloves, but also regretted that it was inconvenient to do live writing.

The next day, Shu Ning made a pair of fingerless gloves, which were easier to make than full-fingered gloves, after all, the fingers required much less work.When I tried it out for Duanning at night, he immediately wrote a few words while wearing it, and even flipped through a few pages of the book, yelling that it was convenient.Tong's handed over the official production to Ermo and Xiaomei Xiaotao, but this time, she also joined the production team, knitting a pair for her husband and herself, and also brought in the creator Shuning to help.

Duan Ning went out wearing fingerless gloves, which caused a sensation among friends, and admirers followed suit.And after Zhang Bao put on the "warm brand" wool gloves made by his wife, he also attracted the attention of his colleagues, who asked questions one after another.For a while, the wool blankets from the Mongolian merchants were unsalable, but the wool was in short supply and sold at a good price, and more savvy merchants negotiated future wool business with them.

The heavy snow is coming and going, always falling and stopping. The continuous cold weather makes people in the whole city looking for a good way to survive the winter.Inspired by woolen gloves, someone came up with a style of gloves with cotton and satin, and embroidered them to attract women's love.Even if there is not enough financial resources to make a wool cover of silk or sheepskin or wool, some people have come up with gloves made of coarse cloth sandwiched with cotton or rags.There are also people who work hard on other parts, such as making quilted socks, quilted shoes, woolen boots, soft leather hats, woolen scarves and so on.All of a sudden, there were a lot of new-style imperial winter clothes in the city, and there were people peddling back to the pass, making a lot of money.

Seeing that the things she thought of were made by others first, and sold for a fortune, Shu Ning could only marvel at the wisdom of the ancients.

People with better families can borrow these kinds of foreign objects to resist the cold winter, but what about the poor who have no money left?

Fortunately, Yin Yuheng of Fengtian Mansion is still a capable person, and Zhou Fucheng, Qin Tongzhi, Zhizhong Zhang Bao and others under him are all hard-working factions with good official reputations.Ever since Yuheng saw the gloves Zhang Bao brought, he has been talking about it.Nowadays, the cotton harvest is abundant, cotton is sold very cheaply, and cotton cloth is also an easy thing to get.In the past, several people would die every winter. Although the imperial court didn't pay much attention to it, they would reprimand them as usual.This year the imperial court used troops against Lao Maozi in the north and returned with a big victory. The Manchu court is very happy.At this time, if someone in Fengtian froze to death, it would be too disastrous and annoy the emperor, and he, Yuheng, would not be able to please him.

After thinking about it, he summoned officials of all sizes and said his plan: He planned to recruit civilian women and use the method of exchanging corvees for them to use the cheapest coarse cloth and miscellaneous cotton to make some quilts, gloves, shoes and socks, etc. Warm supplies are distributed to the poor in the city so that no one will freeze to death.

This year, the income of Fengtian Mansion is abundant, and Mr. Fu Yin wants to be a good person in exchange for political achievements. How can anyone say it is not good?Maybe the boss won the award and could bring some benefits to the subordinates. If he didn't get any benefits, he would suffer instead. Anyway, it was Mr. Fu Yin's proposal, so it wouldn't be their fault.In view of this, not only did everyone agree in unison, but Zhou Fucheng also proposed to find a few uninhabited but relatively solid houses in the city, take in homeless beggars and others, and provide some porridge and water every day. It will be more secure if the quilt is laid, and then doctors are called to donate medicine to the poor on fixed days.

Yuheng nodded his head and said it was good, since such things are well-known, so he assigned tasks and everyone started to do things separately.When the number of people who died due to the continuous low temperature in Fengtian City reached the sixth person, this cold prevention and poverty alleviation operation officially started.

As long as the government government really wants to do something, it will always see results.Until the twelfth lunar month, the number of people frozen to death in Fengtian City stagnated at nine and did not continue to increase. In the past, two or thirty people would freeze to death every year. Individuals are simply negligible.This feat is incredible. Although it is said that the statistics should be counted after the spring of the next year and the weather warms up, this great feat of Fengtian Mansion was spread through the constant correspondence between several "friends" and Beijing. In the ears of the emperor.

Emperor Longyan Dayue, not only ordered a good life to praise the Fengtian Mansion, but also gave the mansion Yin Yuheng a handwritten letter of "Gong Zhong Ti Guo", so happy that Yu Heng found the best craftsman to make a plaque and hang it up.There were rewards from all over the house, and Zhang Bao got a silver bowl, which was the first imperial gift he had earned by himself, and he immediately offered it on the altar and worshiped it day and night.Yuheng felt that Zhang Bao's glove caused the lottery this time. When drinking and celebrating with his subordinates, he even pulled Zhang Bao and said that he was a lucky general.

Others' compliments are worth it, but the words of Mr. Fu Yin are very important. Zhang Bao seems to have foreseen the prospect of getting promoted step by step with his boss's blue eyes. He got drunk that night, and finally Chang Gui died carrying him home. .

(End of this chapter)