After entering early spring, the ice and snow in Guanzhong began to thaw, the river water rose, and green wheat seedlings appeared in the wheat fields. Busy farmers could be seen everywhere in the endless wilderness.
On this morning, Guo Song led a large group of officials to the Playing River in Xinfeng County. The Playing River is relatively short, only about a hundred miles long, and flows into the Wei River. However, this river is characterized by rapid water flow, which is particularly suitable for use of barrel carts to lift water.
For water irrigation, there is no need to manually step on the waterwheel, and the water flow is directly used to turn the drum truck. There are at least dozens of drum trucks on a river.
However, Guo Song led officials here to inspect not the bobbin carts, but the new hydraulic cotton gin. With Guo Song's encouragement, the capital of the Guanlong nobles invested heavily in the Western Regions, mainly involving cotton planting and promotion. In addition,
The sweet tea industry was also in the plans of the Guanlong nobles.
In the huge cotton industry chain, the Houmochen family chose the two intermediate steps of cotton ginning and spinning. At present, spinning has not become popular, but with the large-scale promotion of long-staple cotton by the Dugu family this year, spinning will sooner or later
become a major industry.
The reason why Guo Song was interested was that the Houmochen family used water power to drive the cotton gin, which would greatly reduce the cost of cotton production.
A dense number of barrel carts appeared on the river, one next to another, but they were either water barrel carts or water-driven wooden runner. There were rows of wooden houses in front of them. At a glance, there were dozens of them.
, and there are also several huge warehouses.
At this time, the head of the family, Hou Mo Chensen, had already led more than a dozen clan members to wait on the roadside.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty the King of Jin, for your humble duty!" Hou Mo Chen Sen stepped forward and saluted.
Guo Song smiled slightly and said: "I have long wanted to see your family's hydraulic cotton gin, but it has not been possible because of the ice in winter. I wonder if it is used now?"
"It has been used. Your Highness, please come with me."
Guo Song dismounted, gave the reins to the soldiers, turned around and smiled at the ministers: "Everyone, let's walk over!"
Everyone dismounted and followed Guo Song into the wall. Guo Song came to the waterwheel and took a closer look. He immediately understood the principle of the water-powered cotton gin. There was a long iron shaft embedded in the waterwheel, and the waterwheel rotated to drive the cotton gin.
The iron shaft rotates, and the other end is directly connected to the cotton gin.
Houmo Chensen introduced with a smile: "Originally, wooden sticks were used, but the wooden sticks were not strong and had to be replaced every month at most. It took a whole day to replace them, so we simply used iron rods."
Guo Song nodded, "I saw a hole in the iron rod."
"Yes, this kind of iron rod needs to be specially customized, and holes should be left when casting, so that it can be easily fixed to the wood."
Guo Song said with a smile: "Another way is to make the head of the iron rod into a square shape and the bayonet into a square shape so that it can be fixed when inserted. Of course, it would be better to leave an eye and add an iron bolt."
Guo Song followed Hou Mo and Chen Sen into the house again. It was exactly as he thought. The house was a large cotton gin, with thirteen copper rods as thick as arms. The largest copper rod in the middle was directly connected to the outside.
The penetrating iron shaft,
A clerk stood on the wooden frame and kept throwing cotton bolls evenly above. The cotton bolls were rolled into the iron cabinet below. After the cotton seeds were squeezed out, they fell into the large basket along the wooden trough.
"good!"
Guo Song praised him and asked: "How many kilograms of cotton can be rolled in one day?"
Houmo Chensen laughed and said: "About three hundred kilograms a day, twenty cotton gins are running at the same time, six thousand kilograms a day. The problem now is that there are not so many cotton bolls. Maybe after large-scale cotton planting, this place will become busy.
"
Guo Song nodded and smiled at the officials around him: "Let's brainstorm what other things can be done with water power. I'll give you some ideas. We can use water power to grind wheat. Let's talk about it."
Pan Liao said with a smile: "Since grinding wheat can be done, grinding soybean milk, pressing oil, and pounding rice should also be possible. I remember it existed in the Han Dynasty, and the water hammer was used to pound rice."
Zhang Qianyi said: "You can grind ink for me!"
Everyone laughed, and Du You said: "Actually, water power has been used since ancient times. As long as it involves grinding, hulling, and grinding, water power can be used. For example, paper pulp needs to be stirred, sugar boiling needs to be stirred, rice milling, and rice pounding.
, any sieve surface can be used.”
Houmo Chensen had a thought in his mind and asked quickly: "Can we use water power to spin thread?"
Guo Song smiled and said: "This is a good idea. How did Patriarch Hou Mochen come up with it?"
"Our family has a flax spinning workshop that employs two hundred people. A spinning wheel usually only has two or three spindles, and a large spinning wheel only has five spindles. It can spin up to three kilograms of fine linen thread in a day. If the spinning wheel is bigger,
, manpower is not enough, but water power is. We can build a very large spinning wheel and use water power to drive it. Maybe it can drive dozens of spindles at the same time."
Guo Song gave a thumbs up and said: "If you succeed in developing the large hydraulic spinning wheel, I will promote you to the title of Duke!"
Hou Mo Chen Sen is currently hereditary Duke of Longquan. According to the current situation, there is no hope for his family to be promoted to Duke. However, the King of Jin suddenly gave him a chance. He suddenly flushed with excitement and said quickly: "I will develop it as soon as possible.
The big spinning wheel with water power has lived up to the expectations of His Highness the King of Jin."
Guo Song nodded and said to everyone: "Today's trip was not in vain. It taught us that not only can we use animal power, but we can also use many powers of nature, such as water power, wind power, and coal burning.
To gradually replace wood, these things not only need to be explored by the private sector, but also need to be developed and promoted by the government, and the research results of Taixue must be fully utilized. I hope that the Council of Ministers can formulate a long-term plan and promote it in all aspects."
...........
On the way back from Xinfeng County, Guo Song invited Du Guqiu to come over. After a while, Du Guqiu urged his horse forward and rode alongside Guo Song.
Du Lingqiu asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, how is the situation with Broken Leaf?"
Guo Song shook his head, "Now the news there is cut off. The Shi family built a news point in Suiye, but it was also destroyed. The life and death of his family members are unknown. Guo Jinwen, the governor of Anxi, has sent people to inquire about the news. There is no reply yet. In addition to waiting,
There is no other way at the moment.”
Du Lingqiu sighed slightly and asked again: "Your Highness, what do you want from me?"
Guo Song smiled and said: "Actually, there's nothing wrong. I just wanted to ask you about the beets. The first batch of beets has already arrived!"
After the first batch of sugar beets grown in Beiting were harvested last year, they were all purchased by the Dugu family at a high price. They were first shipped to Lanzhou, but as the Yellow River froze, a large amount of sugar beets did not have time to be transported back to Chang'an. Now that spring has begun, Guo Song is more concerned about this matter
thing.
The method of boiling sugar was passed from Tianzhu to the Tang Dynasty a hundred years ago. Sugar cane boiled with sugar cane has appeared, but it is extremely expensive and has always been reserved for the rich and powerful. Currently, it is basically not available in the Chang'an market, mainly in Chengdu and Chengdu.
Luoyang, you can get a good price there.
The main reason is that it is inconvenient to transport sugar cane from the Lingnan area, and the scarcity of raw materials results in low frost sugar production and naturally high prices.
Before white sugar and brown sugar appeared, maltose and honey were used as sweeteners, but the taste was not as pure as brown sugar and white sugar. If sugar made from beets can be promoted on a large scale, it will have an extremely important impact on consumption upgrades.
Du Guqiu nodded and said: "The first batch has arrived a few days ago. It was transported by camels. It weighs 30,000 kilograms. The Yellow River is currently in the flood season and will not be officially open to navigation until the end of the month. So I will try to cook a batch here first and see.
How is the quality?”
"Have you started cooking?" Guo Song asked again.
"I started cooking it today. I specially asked Wu Yingtai, the old head of the Wu family, to cook the first pot of sugar for me."
"Is this Wu family famous?"
Du Guqiu smiled slightly and said: "They are a sugar-making family with a heritage of almost a hundred years. In the past, the frosting sugar in the palace was made by their family. Now the famous sugar-making experts in Luoyang are all disciples and grandsons of the Wu family. Wu Yingtai can make it
Bingtang, Emperor Daizong was full of praise for him."
Guo Song was immediately interested. The purity of boiled sugar must be very high to produce rock sugar. It seems that this sugar-making family is indeed capable.
"Actually, I think we can build a sugar boiling workshop in Beiting to boil the beets into coarse sugar and then transport it back to Chang'an for refinement."
Du Lingqiu smiled and nodded, "I also think about it this way. In fact, not only beets, I also consider building a large-scale sugar boiling workshop in Lingnan to boil the raw sugar first, then transport it to Yangzhou by sea, and then transport it from Yangzhou.
"
Guo Song shook his head and said: "This transportation process is too long. Last time I suggested that you introduce sugar beets to Fengzhou for large-scale planting. Have you considered it?"
"Reporting back to Your Highness, we started the implementation last year and planted a thousand acres on a trial basis. However, it will take two years for sugar beets to grow. If the Fengzhou planting is successful and sugar juice can be boiled like Beiting, we can promote it.
The process takes at least five or six years, so in the past few years, Beiting’s beets have been the main focus.”
Guo Song smiled and nodded, "I'm just asking what to do. You decide for yourself. I won't interfere."
Dugu Qiu said with a smile: "Actually, His Highness is right. The journey is indeed too far. If it weren't for the fact that the Dugu family and the Dou family were involved in the shipbuilding industry, we would not have thought of setting up a sugar mill in Lingnan."
"Shipbuilding has started?" Guo Song was slightly startled.
Dugu shook his head, "Not yet, we are still selecting a location."
"Still selecting a site? The progress is too slow, we need to speed up!"
Du Guqiu smiled bitterly and said: "The Ruhekou mentioned earlier is too remote and there is no dock. The former shipbuilding workshop has been abandoned for hundreds of years and there are no more craftsmen to recruit. We thought about it again and decided not to build ships there."
"Then what? Where do you decide to build the ship?" Guo Song asked.
"We are considering building a shipyard near the mouth of the Zhanghe River. There is a good shipbuilding foundation in that area, and there is also a seaport that does not freeze in winter. In addition, we consider that shipbuilding will take too long. It will take several years just to prepare the materials.
It will take at least ten years to build a three-thousand-stone sea-going ship, so I am considering purchasing a batch of sea-going ships first."
This news cheered up Guo Song, and he quickly asked: "Have you got any plans to buy a ship?"
"We have an idea! A well-known maritime merchant in Yangzhou wants to sell ten ships, all of which are eight thousand stone ships. We have already sent him to contact him."
"But Liu Dongshang's family in Yangzhou?"
Du Lingqiu nodded, "It's the Liu family's ship. Their family has been engaged in maritime trade for decades and owns hundreds of ships. It is said that Zhu Si was eyeing it, so their family began to disperse their assets and had no choice but to sell the ships."
Guo Song thought for a moment and said, "Who went to Yangzhou to contact the Liu family?"
"Quinzi Mingli and Dou Yi's nephew Dou Yang."
"Can I contact them?"
"It should be okay."
"You ask them to go to Yangzhou Gaosheng Inn. They will have my latest instructions there, and I will write a personal letter to the Liu family."