In the midsummer of June, the fields are full of vitality. The millet seedlings in the farmland have begun to ear, and all kinds of crops are growing vigorously.
In the ditch at the edge of the field, several villagers who were working hard at hoeing were soaking in the running water and discussing whether there would be delicious cold locust leaves to eat in the evening.
Several carriages pulling bundles of linen materials came from a distance, crossed the fields, and entered the manor.
In the manor in front of the hillside, the original fence has been replaced by a wall made of rammed earth boards. Most of the houses in the manor have been replaced with half-earth and half-brick tiled houses. Compared with more than a month ago, they are completely different.
Two images.
In the southwest corner of the manor, there are several pools for retting hemp. More than a dozen villagers are busy working here, and the retting hemp material is drying on wooden racks.
In the southeast corner of the manor, there is a large schoolhouse, where the sound of schoolchildren reading can be heard constantly.
Behind the school is a small square, where many women are rummaging around to dry dried foods. A woman listened to the sound of reading for a long time, then suddenly put down her dustpan and shouted towards the school: "Dog, why can't I hear you reading?"
!If you don’t take it seriously, I’ll spank you until you get home!”
"The leopard's head falls, the rabbit falls, and the two cranes..."
The high-pitched sound of a child reading suddenly rang out in the big room. The voice was shouting at the top of his lungs, which made people sad to hear. However, the woman who had just yelled laughed happily after hearing it.
"Go work elsewhere and don't disturb the schoolchildren's study here!"
Li Zhusheng, who was on duty at the school today, walked out of the big room, waved his hands and scolded the women.
Seeing this, all the women dispersed holding their utensils, but there was also a cheerful and aggressive woman pointing at a pretty girl among them and said with a smile: "I can't let go of those naughty and disgusting things, so I came here, but Madam Su has nothing to do."
Come out, come closer just to take a look at the big boss!"
After hearing this, Li Zhusheng's face darkened and he stamped his feet in annoyance, but the women laughed even more wildly. Mrs. Su was not shy either, and came over and whispered: "I've got a duck simmering on the stove, will you come at night?"
"
"snort!"
Li Zhusheng snorted with a straight face, turned around and walked back to the school. After a while, his teaching voice sounded in the room again: "Shu Fu, today's duck..."
The countryside is full of interesting things, and although the villagers are busy, they are also in a happy and peaceful mood.
But people's joys and sorrows are not the same. The county clerk Zheng Manjiu had a sad look on his face, watching Li Tai walking back and forth on the horse, while drawing his bow and shooting at the straw men on both sides.
"Mr. Sir, it's almost the end of June, and there are only three months left before the return deadline. Where can we find thousands of stones of grain?"
After finally waiting for Li Tai to stop and take a rest, Zheng Man quickly came up to him and sighed.
When things had developed to this point, he couldn't help but feel worried. The county had high hopes for this cooperation. Every time Zheng Man returned to the city, the county magistrate Du Yun would summon him to inquire about the details of the manor management.
In addition, Li Tai's previous use of eye drops also inspired Zheng Man's idea of promoting his career. In May, a large family in the county came to the county government to borrow statues of staff to pray for blessings. Zheng Man was worried that it would affect the manor's servants, so he argued against it.
.
However, nearly two months had passed. He only saw the five hectares of millet and some miscellaneous grains sown in the manor, plus some mulberry seedlings planted in the mulberry fields on the hillside. Other than that, there was no more farming.
The construction of the manor houses is being updated day by day, but no matter how well the manor is built, food cannot be produced out of thin air. Those cattle and horses are sometimes lent to the people of the Sakon country. Is it possible that they intend to use the people of the Sakon country when the time comes?
Borrowing food? What a joke!
"Don't worry, Mr. Zheng. I regard this place as my long-term career and will never betray anyone's trust!"
Li Tai glanced at Zheng Man, who had a grimace on his face, smiled and comforted him, saying that of course he couldn't say that he had already made preparations in his heart. He practiced bow and horse diligently just to prepare himself for running away one day.
"But……"
Zheng Man was still waiting to say anything, but Li Tai patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I'll talk to Zheng again at dinner. I have to go to Nanpo to supervise production now."
The green brick courtyard located on the south slope has higher walls and a larger enclosed area. It covers an area of more than an acre. From the outside, you can't see what is going on inside.
Li Tai walked into the yard and saw five mills working continuously under the power of oxen. Next to the mills were five tall spinning wheels, spinning twine.
Because it is necessary to build a furnace to melt copper, cast new gears, and the spinning wheel has only recently been officially put into production after constant debugging and running-in.
Setting up a grinding mill can make the output of cattle power more stable. The crops processed by grinding are also a side harvest, and the oil and moisture of the pressed crops can also protect the wooden structures.
The disadvantage is that it requires more cattle power, which is not as constant as water power. There is no consumption, and it cannot produce continuously day and night. Especially at night, because the materials and products are flammable, fireworks are strictly prohibited, and you must not work by light.
.
Li Tai also had to lament that the ancients were full of wisdom in every detail of their business affairs. It was not like a modern man like him who could think everything through just by tapping his forehead.
Although there were twists and turns in the process, it finally achieved staged success.
Although the copper-cast bevel gears are not as good as those made of fine steel in later generations, they are sufficient for driving simple processing machinery such as spinning wheels. The melting and casting of copper is also relatively simple, and there is no need to invest huge amounts of artificial materials to open a new gear.
The steel industry can maintain production at this stage.
"Alang, we spun more than 600 kilograms of twine yesterday. If we are more skilled, we can produce 800 kilograms per day!"
Li Quji, who was supervising the work here, came up and reported to Li Tai the production status of these spinning wheels.
Five spinning wheels can spin 800 kilograms of hemp a day. If converted into large kilograms, it will produce more than 300 kilograms of hemp thread per day. Compared with the efficiency of a large water-spun spinning wheel, it is nearly doubled. But compared with traditional spinning
In comparison, the performance is more than ten times better, which is acceptable.
"Very good, keep up the good work!"
Li Tai was quite satisfied with the result, and then asked: "Is the linen material purchased recently sufficient?"
After Li Quji heard this, he shook his head: "We only collected more than 700 kilograms today, and all the nearby villages have already bought them. After all, the villagers themselves also need to store hemp for work."
When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help but frown again. Although the price of linen was relatively low, it was also a necessity for the villagers' production and daily life. It was used for both their own clothing and rent collection.
Although Shangyuan is a fertile township, it is also a narrow township. The acres of land received by most equal-field households are far less than the number of acres stipulated in the equal-field order. The limited cultivated land naturally needs to be measured, and even hemp cultivation can only be a small amount.
I don’t have much savings myself.
After the spinning wheel was put into operation, Li Tai exchanged gold for cloth and sent people to buy linen material in Zuojin. After collecting more than three thousand kilograms, the savings in Zuojin Township were exhausted. More than three thousand kilograms of hemp material was just a big spinning wheel.
It only takes a few days to process.
The production capacity here has increased, but the production raw materials are insufficient. If the goods are purchased further away, the transportation costs will increase again.
The trouble Li Tai was facing now was not just the insufficient supply of linen. After standing in the courtyard for a while, he went to inspect the weaving yard next to it.
In the past nearly two months, in addition to other types of work, the tribesmen have built dozens of looms. The twine is only a semi-finished product and needs to be woven into cloth before it can be put into trade.
Although Li Tai knew how to make large spinning wheels, he was not omniscient and omnipotent, and was relatively unfamiliar with weaving. Therefore, these dozens of looms were only a current form of craftsmanship, and weavers still needed to weave cloth one by one.
"Master Sir, the ladies woven more than sixty pieces of cloth yesterday."
Mrs. Xu, who was in charge of managing the weaving field, came forward to report. After hearing this, Li Tai smiled and encouraged her.
"The new silk is artificially woven, so the silk is artificially woven. One piece of silk is woven every day, and the silk is more than five feet long."
This is the content of the weaving efficiency described in the Han Yuefu poem "Going Up the Mountain to Collect Weeds". In another Yuefu poem "Peacock Flying to the Southeast", in addition to the stem "hanging oneself on the southeastern branch", there is also a description of the heroine.
Liu Lanzhi's sentence "Broken five horses in three days".
It can be seen that under the ancient technical environment, it was relatively normal for a weaver to weave one piece of silk a day. Even the heroine of the most beautiful love story could not weave two pieces a day.
The weaving process of cloth is lower than that of silk, and the hemp thread is thicker. A skilled weaver can weave two to three pieces a day. A piece of cloth is two feet two feet wide and forty feet long, and about seven or eight kilograms of twine can be used.
Knit into one piece.
Today, there are more than thirty weavers working in the weaving field, which is already the total number of people in the book who know how to weave.
As for the female soldiers sent by the county government, most of them are barbarian women who do not know the weaving skills. After all, weaving is printing money, and there is no difference between whether they are idle or busy. Naturally, the county government will not give a fine weaver to Li Tai
use.
"The situation is very bad. Do we really need to pack up and prepare to run away?"
After leaving the weaving field, Li Tai squatted in the field and used branches to write calculations on the ground.
As the season entered midsummer, acres of land gradually began to produce output, and prices in Guanzhong also dropped somewhat. They were no longer as exaggerated as when Li Tai first came when one piece of cloth could only buy one bushel, but the price of one stone of coarse millet was still stable at around five pieces of cloth.
Now the weaving farm weaves sixty pieces of cloth a day, which is converted into food, which is twelve dan, or 360 dan per month. This kind of output is actually quite considerable, and it is more than enough to support a family. Other outputs in the manor
All are net gains.
But the problem is that Li Tai still has a huge debt of 10,000 shi of food, which can only be reached by one-tenth in three months. The huge gap is a serious problem.
Although he was calm on the surface, Li Tai was also panicking in his heart. If the food shortage in Wuxiang County was just to maintain administrative consumption, he could also try to postpone the debt. But this batch of supplies was for Qiu.
The military parade in the countryside has a huge impact!
Without these ten thousand shi of food, Yu Wentai might not be able to hold a great parade, he would not be able to build his army, the Eight Pillar Kingdom's twelve generals would not be able to talk about it, Yang Jian would not be able to ascend to the throne, and the great empires of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in later generations would disappear.
ah!
King Gao, I am a loyal minister of our great Wei Dynasty! I have helped you solve the problems that hundreds of thousands of people cannot handle. Is it too much to be granted the title of king?