"And all the way from the Western Regions to the west, this large area produces cotton. The cotton produced not only has a high yield, but also has very long and slender lint, and is the highest quality cotton."
Liu Jin nodded solemnly and said.
"But the Western Region is under the control of the Oara people. Now that the Oara have moved eastward and are annexing the former Tatar tribes, how can we possibly get the Western Region?"
At this time, Xu Guangzuo said helplessly.
This matter is also a headache for Emperor Hongzhi now. The northern grasslands are beginning to become unstable again. Once the Oara unifies the northern grasslands, another Mongol empire may rise and pose a huge threat to the Ming Dynasty.
"Nothing is impossible~"
"Last year, we were able to completely wipe out the army of the little Tatar prince. We can also clean up the army of Oara and drive the Oara people to the west."
Liu Jin smiled and said very confidently.
"And the second method I mentioned about finding alternatives is actually related to the northern grasslands."
"Cotton can be used for spinning and weaving, and wool can also be used for spinning and weaving. Compared with cotton, wool is warmer, and wool can be produced all year round with greater output."
"wool?"
Zhang Mao, Zhu Fu, and Xu Guangzuo were stunned again when they heard this.
"Is it cashmere?"
Zhang Mao thought for a while and said.
"No, it's just wool. This wool is completely different from cashmere."
Liu Jin smiled and shook his head and said.
"Cashmere is the smallest and softest wool on sheep. The yield is very small, and generally only small amounts of cashmere can be obtained from lambs."
"Wool is different. Wool is produced in large quantities and is sheared from adult sheep. After the wool is sheared, the sheep will grow hair again, continuously."
"But this wool is very dirty and smells like sheep. Who would want this wool?"
Zhu Fu thought for a while and said, with a look of disgust on his face when he said this.
As we all know, the wool of sheep is very dirty because it is mixed with grease, soil and many other things, and there are also small animals and the like in it. More importantly, the smell of wool is too strong, even on the grassland.
I don't know how to knit anything with wool.
"Let's go, I'll take you to a place, and you will know if this wool can be used for weaving~"
Liu Jin smiled and said very mysteriously.
In fact, Liu Jin has been researching this technology for using wool to weave cloth for a long time.
Wool is very dirty, and the smell of sheep mutton is also very strong, but it can be dealt with using methods.
Clothes, towels, etc. made from wool in later generations are all good things.
"Mysterious~"
Zhang Mao, Xu Guangzuo, and Zhu Fu suddenly became curious, and followed Liu Jin out of the Liu Mansion toward the southern suburbs outside the capital.
Here in the southern suburbs of the capital, Liu Jin dedicated a large area of land and built a Tiangong Institute here specifically for the study of various technologies.
Here at Tiangongyuan, Liu Jin raised tens of thousands of blacksmiths, carpenters, potters, and other people who relied on craftsmanship and technology in this era. These people did not have to do anything else, and they only studied systematically here.
Learn Arabic numerals, learn mathematics and some simple physics and chemistry knowledge, and then study various technologies according to Liu Jin's requirements.
When recruiting people, Liu Jin only recruited a small number of older people, and most of the people were teenagers and apprentices.
These people are still young and have strong learning ability. At the same time, their imaginations are richer and more plastic. They are not restricted and comfortable when studying various things, and they are more creative.
Artillery technology, flintlock muskets, explosive bags, new spinning machines, looms, etc. were all developed here. Of course, the most important technical guidance was provided by Liu Jin.
The entire Tiangong Institute is divided into three research directions. One is the physical research direction. Now it mainly studies machinery and steel, how to make more precise, faster, and more effective machines, how to smelt better steel, how to
Rapid forging of steel, etc.
One is to study chemistry, mainly to study explosives and develop more powerful explosives, and at the same time, to study the dyeing of cloth.
The last one is to study biology, mainly medicine, because Liu Jin classified medicine into the category of biology. Here we study medicine, study how to treat diseases and save people, and study Western medicine in later generations.
Tiangongyuan is the place that Liu Jin attaches most importance to. He has invested a lot of money here. Just to feed tens of thousands of people requires millions of taels of silver every year, not to mention all kinds of
Research and the like also require a lot of money.
But it still has a certain effect. It frees Liu Jin from technical research. If he wants to come up with something, he can just provide some information and let the following people study it. Basically, they can research it.
Liu Jin would often come here to take a stroll, take a look, see if there are any new achievements, and then think of ways to use these achievements to promote the development of capitalism.
At this time, Zhang Mao, Zhu Fu and Xu Guangzuo came to the Institute of Chemistry. The entire Institute of Chemistry was divided into many areas, each with different research content.
"It stinks~"
"Liu Jin, what exactly is this place?"
Xu Guangzuo covered his nose. He couldn't stand it anymore. It was so smelly here and the smell was too strong.
"This is the place where I specialize in studying how to turn wool into raw materials that can be used for weaving~"
Liu Jin smiled and introduced.
Only then did everyone observe carefully, and saw that the huge open space was filled with mountains of wool. At a glance, it was obvious that these wools were purchased from the grassland.
It was very dirty, a lot of wool was in clumps, the white wool had turned into black and gray, and it exuded an evil stench, the smell of sheep.
Looking further into the distance, there are large pools here, with wool soaked in the food. Someone is constantly cleaning the wool, cleaning off the dirt and the like on the wool.
Because the wool was so dirty, the water in this pool was black, turbid, and very dirty.
Looking further into the distance, there are large pots here. The big pots seem to be cooking something, and a strong smell is coming from here.
"Come on, everyone, follow me~"
Liu Jin looked at the disgusted looks of the three of them, smiled and said: "These wools are all the wool that I had people buy from the grassland."
"On the grassland, no one wants this wool. The price is very cheap. A pound of salt can be exchanged for a cart full of wool~"
"Now everyone, take a closer look at this wool. It is very dirty, with mud, sheep fat, etc. all mixed together, and it also has a very strong sheep smell."
"To turn this wool into wool that can be used for weaving, it needs to go through several steps."
"The first step is to clean~"
Liu Jin said as he led them to the cleaning area.
"We first clean the dirt and other materials on the wool with water, so that the wool will become much cleaner~"
"Then we remove some things from the wool, such as plant seeds and the like. You can take a look at the cleaned wool. Does it look much better?"
Liu Jin picked up some clear and clean wool, smiled and said.
"It is indeed much cleaner and whiter~"
Zhang Mao and the others looked at it carefully and couldn't help but nodded slightly.
"This cleaning is the process of removing grease. We can boil it in boiling water to remove some of the grease mixed in the wool. We can also boil lice and other things in the wool to death."
Liu Jin took three people to the area where wool was boiled. The washed wool was thrown into boiling water and boiled. You can clearly see that a lot of grease and other dirty things were boiled out.
"Let's take a look. The odor of the wool after cooking is much smaller, and it is not too greasy."
Liu Jin said with a smile while explaining.
Zhang Mao, Zhu Fu and Xu Guangzuo watched and listened carefully, and they couldn't help but nod.
"Next, the boiled wool will be soaked in potion to remove all the grease and mutton smell from the wool~"
Soon, Liu Jin led the three of them to large pools. A lot of wool was soaked in these pools, and each pool had different chemicals in it.
There is a pool specially used to remove grease, which contains fatty acid calcium specially used to make soap, which can completely remove grease from wool.
There are also some pools that have bleaching chemicals added to them, which can restore the color of the wool to a snow-white state; some pools are specially used to remove the smell of sheep, and the soaked wool will not have any odor.
"Let's take a look. These wools are the final processed wool. Do you think this kind of wool is worse than cotton?"
Coming to the last step of the process, Liu Jin smiled and picked up a ball of wool. It was very white, snow-white, snow-white, and as soft as cotton. The key was that there was no peculiar smell, and there was no longer any smell of sheep.
.
"Incredible~incredible~"
"Is this still wool?"
“This is better than cashmere~”
Zhang Mao held the wool in his hand and widened his eyes. He couldn't believe it. Even though it was cashmere, it still smelled like sheep. But the wool in front of him had no peculiar smell at all and was very white.
"If this is the case, this wool can really be used for spinning and weaving~"
Xu Guangzuo also widened his eyes and couldn't help but nodded.
