There are two stewards in the weaving workshop, both women. They are both technical talents that Bai Shan poached from Qingzhou City. A weaver girl with the best weaving skills and an embroiderer girl with the best embroidery skills. Bai Shan gave them the wages they paid.
There are quite a few of them, and they even promised to support them in their old age in the future.
It's not difficult. The current weaving shop belongs to the Beihai County Government. Their identities are in his hands. If they are willing in the future, he can take them away or buy an industry in Beihai County and let them live there.
The thing about caring for the elderly in the shop is that they have the skills, so there is nothing difficult about it.
They also knew that there were noble people coming today, and they wanted to go to the alley to pick them up, but they got stuck early in the morning. In order to satisfy the noble people, they had to take care of things first, so they had no time to go ahead to pick them up.
The door was wide open and they saw Mr. Zhou and the princess coming together. Although it was not the first time for them to see the two of them, they were still a little excited.
The two men immediately led people to greet her, bowed their knees and saluted, "Greetings to the princess, and to Lord Zhou."
Mingda raised his hand slightly and said: "No need to be polite, let's go to the weaving workshop first."
She looked around curiously and asked, "Are there weaving workshops on the left and right?"
"Yes." Jiang Zhiniang introduced: "At first, Magistrate Bai only rented two yards for us, both of which were at the end of the alley facing the river. On this side were the looms, and on the other side were the embroidery ladies.
A place for clothes.”
In fact, because the long-term workers were in urgent need of clothes, they initially needed a large number of embroiderers who could cut and mend clothes. There were very few people who followed Jiang Zhiniang.
Even now, "The three courtyards on this side belong to the embroiderers, and there is another one over here. Only those two are the places where we weavers study."
She said: "Many people who come here don't know how to weave, and it can't be learned in a day or two, so the output is very low. Now the fabrics used by embroiderers to cut clothes are still bought from outside."
Zhou Man and Ming Da nodded and went in to see the weavers weaving on the loom.
Zhou Man took it very seriously. She also had a loom at home, but it was very different from the one here.
The loom is in the third sister-in-law's room, and she weaves the best cloth in the house, so every year they hand over the linen weaved by her.
Sometimes she would use the extra fabric to make clothes for everyone. In her memory, she could make a new dress every year.
There is still a big difference between the two. Zhou Man said with a smile: "I also have one at home, but it's not like this. It's a hand-cranked one, where people sit like this and then pull and push with the harness...
"
Zhi Niang was stunned for a moment and then said: "That's a waist knitting machine. Many people now have them in their homes, but the speed of the waist knitting machine is not as fast as the treadle machine. As far as I know, weaving mills everywhere have long since replaced the treadmill."
Zhou Man nodded slightly, "What you are doing now is much faster than what I have ever seen."
Her third sister-in-law's weaving speed is considered fast in the village, but now the weaver girl, who is not very skilled, uses a pedal machine, and her speed seems to be about the same.
Not to mention the skilled weavers, there was a weaver poached from Qingzhou on the side. Their hands and feet moved together and they did it very quickly.
Zhou Man looked at the loom thoughtfully, but she said nothing and began to ask about the lives of the female workers.
They live a good life here, not only the new female workers who come to apply for work, but also the Zhinang who was poached from Qingzhou also feel that they are living a good life.
Here, they not only receive high wages, but also receive red envelopes every month. The amount of the red envelope is determined based on the number and quality of the apprentices they teach.
Because of this red envelope, they are very devoted to these students.
After seeing the weaving workshop, they went to see the embroidery workshop opposite.
The people inside were sitting on one table per person, cutting clothes.
Yue Xiu Niang said: "What they are making now are the simplest clothes. There are no embroidery patterns, and they use the most common blue linen..."
It is also because the clothes they make are provided to the long-term workers and do not require embroidery. The embroiderers also want them to master the magical functions of needle and thread first, and then embroider after they are proficient.
But embroidery is actually different from making clothes.
Those who can embroider will definitely be able to make clothes, but those who can make clothes may not necessarily be able to embroider.
There are so many people, and the embroiderers can only teach them the basics. If you want to go further, it will not only require more efforts, but also their elite guidance.
But that is mostly one-on-one teaching, and we don’t have that condition yet.
Yue Xiu Niang took them to see the clothes made by the newly embroidered ladies.
Zhou Man and Ming Da are not very good at female workers, but they can still read, and there are some very powerful palace maids and cakes nearby.
They all do.
So they picked up the clothes and checked them. Zhou Man and Mingda thought they were pretty good and nodded repeatedly. At least they didn't see the clothes with one sleeve long and one short as Bai Shan said before.
But the palace ladies frowned and whispered: "The stitches are a little loose..."
"The acupuncture technique is not very good either, it breaks easily..."
Yue Xiu Niang heard this, her face was a little embarrassed, and she nodded: "Yes, they are all beginners, so the stitching skills are basic. By the way, these are the first batch of embroidery ladies, and the clothes they make are pretty good."
."
Zhou Man simply took out the clothes from the basket and showed them to the palace maid. As a layman, she still didn't want to look at them and just listened.
The palace maids checked the stitches and nodded reluctantly. Although there were still many problems, the quality was indeed better than the previous batch, so it was barely wearable.
Ming Da's eyes wandered on their faces, and after a while he smiled slightly and said to them: "If I am inconvenient, you can take care of this weaving workshop for me."
The maids immediately shied away, "I have to take care of the princess."
Mingda said: "How can I need so many people to take care of me? It's time for you to learn more skills. If you are released in the future, you will be able to support yourself if you have skills."
The palace maids who were about to shirk immediately stopped talking. Instead, they glanced at Zhou Man, knelt down and saluted, and responded respectfully: "Yes, I will follow the princess's teachings."
Zhou Man said: "You knitting girls are all good. I think there is nothing more to learn in this area. But to run a weaving workshop well, in addition to being a knitting girl, you also need to be able to keep accounts and deal with people to discuss business."
Zhou Man had a good relationship with the palace ladies. When it was her turn to be on duty in the palace, she would often chat with the palace ladies and chamberlains.
A lot of it talks about the future.
The empress is kind and allows the maids to be released when they reach a certain age. However, they are already quite old when they are released from the palace. Most of them are over twenty-five years old. Some of the more useful ones will be retained forever.
For example, Aunt Shang, she is nearly forty years old now. Normally, she will stay with the Queen until the Queen goes west. She also has several choices.
One is burial;
But the Queen probably won't like it, so no one will ask for it. Unless Aunt Shang is determined to die, there is a high probability that she won't choose this option.
The second is that the next emperor and empress will honor her, but there are also levels of honorary support. One is to directly seal the imperial edict and give her a house and servants, so that she can take care of her until her old age; the other is to send her to Zhuangzi to honor her.
There are also servants to take care of you, but it is not as comfortable and noble as the former one;
The third option is that the next emperor cannot remember her, or even does not have a good relationship with her, then she will have to find a way to release her, otherwise she will only die if she stays in the palace.
Given Aunt Shang's qualifications, if she does not return to her parents' home after her release, she will work as a nun in a powerful family to earn some money to support her family;
Or they can find other jobs, such as taking on some knitting girls, and rely on some of their previous savings. Basically, most palace maids make this choice.
It's fine when you're young, but life becomes more difficult as you get older.
Therefore, like the chamberlains, the maids also like to save money. If they cannot save money for retirement, then they will have to find a way to get married.
But even if they can step on the 25-year-old line and leave the palace, this age is very old outside, and it is difficult to find a suitable man. Most of them are widowers, even with children, and life is even more difficult.
Especially the ladies-in-waiting who have seen all kinds of men in the palace, they would rather be single and have a harder time than marry themselves off and fall into deeper quagmire.
So Mingda and Zhouman's words moved them very much.