Chapter 1208 The talent show of the white folded cloth in the mansion of the Duke of Lu
Chapter 1208 The white cloth talent show at Duke Lu’s Mansion (please subscribe and vote)
The three weavers were instantly frightened by the conversation between the two. They felt that they were not facing a dignitary of the Tang Dynasty.
Rather, they look like two forest heroes who seem to have evil intentions.
They were originally full of expectations and were waiting to perform cotton seed removal, spinning and weaving for these Tang Dynasty dignitaries.
Qin Qiong, who was walking with Li Jing, couldn't help but shouted.
"Brother Mao Gong, don't talk nonsense, I asked Lao Cheng just now.
They say they are looking for someone to show us how to make white folding cloth, and I think these women are the ones to show us."
After all, Li Ji was a famous general. He forgot about his inappropriate jokes and woke up in the blink of an eye.
"White folded cloth, that thing. Is it because of this that His Majesty rewarded the Han and Tang Dynasty merchants with 500,000 acres of wasteland?"
Liu Hongji also came over and interrupted with a smile.
"It's not like you don't know that Lao Cheng loves to show off. Since he has asked people to demonstrate, we can see it for real in a while."
"But having said that, clothes made of white folded cloth are indeed very comfortable..."
When he said the next sentence, Liu Hongji specially touched the piece of clothing on his body.
It was he who spent more than ten years making an exquisite and luxurious white folded cloth gown that is very comfortable to wear.
Xue Wanjun over there nodded in agreement.
"Xue also bought a few pieces and wore them specially when practicing fighting skills. They are very sweat-absorbent and really comfortable."
A large group of famous generals walked into the front hall one after another, and were led to sit down by the servants of the Cheng Mansion.
As for a group of young people, they only sat behind their own fathers and winked at each other uncomfortably.
After a while, General Cheng returned to the front hall and saw all the young and old men sitting down.
Then he cleared his throat and said loudly, "Cheng Mouguang invites you all to come today. There is really something big going on."
"You must not know that my family, Sanlang, presented to the court the machinery for making white folded cloth in the name of the Han and Tang Dynasty trading houses."
"His Majesty, Long Yan, is very pleased. That's why he generously awarded the Han and Tang Dynasties 500,000 acres of wasteland to the Han and Tang dynasties for farming and planting cotton."
"Everyone should also know that the white cloth was originally used by profiteers from the Western Regions to defraud us of our property..."
After hearing this, the faces of Liu Hongqi and the Xue brothers, who were just proud of themselves for wearing white cloth clothes, turned dark.
I always feel that these words are not very harmful, but extremely insulting.
What the hell are you trying to do to defraud me of my property? You mean that we are all fools who were deceived by profiteers from the Western Regions, right?
Although they complained fiercely in their hearts, everyone still tried their best to be patient and wanted to hear what was going on.
Facing those unkind eyes, General Cheng, who had experienced many storms, continued to speak calmly.
"Everyone must know that if you want to get a piece of silk, you need to feed the silkworm chrysalis first, wait for it to spin silk and form a cocoon, and then boil the cocoon to get the silk..."
"And if you want to obtain a piece of linen cloth, the process is also very complicated...
After planting and harvesting the hemp, there is also the process of soaking the hemp, washing the hemp, bleaching the hemp, and finally soaking the hemp.”
"And the raw material of this white folded cloth is cotton. After the cotton is picked, it only needs to be dried and it's almost done."
Fang Xuanling, as the Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty who was in charge of the government and knew very well about people's livelihood matters, reacted instantly.
"Zhijie, do you mean that the cotton process is the simplest?"
"That's right, Cheng Fu, go and bring a sack of cotton that we have dried and let them have a good look at it."
Cheng Fu agreed loudly and rushed out of the front hall. Cheng Ping quickly handed over the bag of seed cotton that had been prepared long ago.
After Cheng Fu walked into the front hall carrying the sack, a distinguished guest came forward and grabbed a large handful.
Whether it was a Confucian general like Li Daozong or a fierce general like Yu Chigong, they all copied it first and looked at it carefully.
Xue Wanche had a well-informed look on his face as he fiddled with a piece of cotton in his hand and said.
"Xue has seen this cotton a lot, after he was injured in Tuyuhun.
When Cheng Guang and Cheng Liang were debriding my wounds, they liked to dip it in the essence of wine and apply it on my wounds."
"My family, Sanlang, tried planting more than 1,300 acres of cotton outside Chang'an this year. You must have heard about it."
Cheng Yaojin clapped his hands with a smile and said.
"After the cotton is dried, it will look like this. If you want to make it into white folded cloth, you need to use the cotton gin and spinning machine invented by my family Saburo."
After hearing this, naturally there were fat and strong servants outside, who brought in a foot-operated cotton gin and a foot-operated spinning machine.
"By the way, bring in the machine we used to weave linen."
Soon, another loom was placed in. Patting these three looms, General Cheng smiled proudly.
"Next, you can see these three ladies showing you how to turn the dried cotton into white cloth."
After hearing Cheng Yaojin's rambling speech, everyone realized a problem.
Is it really as simple as he said?
The three weavers came to the machine. First, the weaver in charge of the cotton gin took out a handful of seed cotton from the sack.
Then he stepped on the machine and began to send the seed cotton into the machine.
Naturally, the wooden sticks used here are no longer wooden sticks, but leather sticks, because the friction coefficient of leather sticks is larger and more suitable.
Previously, Cheng Chubi couldn't find leather for a while, so he could only make a wooden stick gin.
Everyone saw that after the seed cotton was sent in, it quickly floated out from the other end.
All the cotton seeds on it had been blocked, and with a pull of the weaver's hand, all the cotton seeds fell into the bamboo basket on the floor.
With such a gentle and skillful operation, in a short time, a pile of cotton as white as snow appeared in front of Zhi Niang.
Cheng Yaojin picked up a handful and said proudly to those who had already stood up and came forward to take a closer look.
"If we had to remove the seeds by hand, we would only be able to remove a few kilograms a day. But with this cotton gin invented by my son, a weaver can remove thirty to fifty kilograms."
With the cotton in hand, the weaver girl next to her picked up a ball of cotton, began to make hollow cotton slivers, and then began to operate the spinning machine.
Following the movements of Zhi Niang, the hollow cotton sliver was like an obedient silkworm, spinning endless silk threads until its body was turned into slivers of yarn.
In a short time, a few hollow cotton slivers had already wrapped all the white cotton sheets on the spindle.
Cheng Yaojin asked someone to bring in several spindles that had been woven into cotton thread, and said that one person could spin about three kilograms of thread in one day.
Three people can almost scrape together enough cotton thread for a piece of white folded cloth after a day's work.