"This thing is called cotton. It is cultivated in large quantities in the northwest, but not in the Central Plains. In the Central Plains, this thing is mostly used for ornamental purposes." Seeing that Chai Yu didn't understand, Zhao Weiji began to explain cotton to her.

"So this thing is the new textile material you mentioned?" Chai Yu was still a little unsure.

"Yes, after the flowers of this thing wither, they will leave cotton bolls. There are cotton seeds in the cotton bolls, and fluff will grow around the cotton seeds. When the cotton bolls mature, they will explode, and then there will be a whole white velvet ball. This kind of

The velvet ball is somewhat similar to kapok and can also be used as filler. But this cotton is better than kapok in that it can prevent thread formation, as well as cloth. The cost is much lower than silk, and the wearing comfort is not as bad as silk.

It’s just that there is no silk Huashun.”

"Is this thing really so good?" Hearing Zhao Weiji's boast about cotton, Chai Yu still couldn't believe him after all.

"You still don't believe it? Now, I have some ready-made cotton products in my house. Do you want to come and take a look?"

"This..." In the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of making money. Chai Yu chose to compromise and followed Zhao Weiji to the Anding County Government House.

It turned out that Zhao Weiji discovered cotton as early as half a month ago. After learning that people around him only regarded cotton as ornamental flowers, Zhao Weiji had the idea of ​​​​making cotton products. But after asking carefully, it turned out that

There was no large-scale planting in the Central Plains, and the cotton came from the Western Regions. But even so, Zhao Weiji still purchased some mature cotton bolls from Hu Shang through some channels.

Soon, Zhao Weiji and Chai Yu returned to the Anding County Mansion. As soon as they entered the door, Zhao Weiji led Chai Yu to a room in the backyard. Before they reached the room, they heard the squeaking of the fabric coming from inside.

Cloth sound.

When they entered the room, they saw that Yunxiang and Li Xiaohua were working on two different machines. One was an ordinary loom, and Zhao Weiji modified it to adapt to spinning cotton thread into cotton cloth. The other one was an ordinary loom.

, if there are people in later generations who are familiar with the first industrial revolution who see it, they will definitely shout: Jenny machine.

Jenny machine, also called Jenny spinning machine, is a hand-operated spinning machine invented by the British weaver Hargreaves in the 1760s. This machine can spin a lot of cotton threads at one time and is very efficient. And

It was the emergence of this kind of machine that kicked off the first industrial revolution.

When Zhao Weiji purchased a certain amount of cotton, a problem faced him: the silk spinning technology was not suitable for spinning cotton into cotton thread. Although in terms of weaving technology, the difference between cotton thread and silk thread was not that big.

.This can be achieved by simply adjusting the existing looms. The technology of sericulture and reeling and the technology of spinning cotton thread are basically two concepts, so there were no spinning machines at all in this era. So Zhao Weiji combined the current technology

The production team simply copied the very efficient Jenny machine. It was easy for him to plagiarize a Jenny machine as he studied engineering physics in college.

The result is the scene before us. In the Song Dynasty in the 8th century, a Jenny machine appeared that should not have appeared in the 18th century. Of course, it can no longer be called a Jenny machine. Zhao Weiji shamelessly named this machine: Zhaoshi Spinning Machine.

Yarn machine.

It has been several days since the renovation of the textile machine and the manufacture of the Jenny machine were completed. Yunxiang was originally a master of weaving, and after teaching Xiaohua how to use the Jenny machine, they started working. So now there are ready-made cotton cloths placed by Chai Yu

in front of.

Zhao Weiji picked up a piece of cotton cloth and handed it to Chai Yu and then said to her: "Come and feel it."

Chai Yu took the cotton cloth, looked at it carefully, and then carefully stroked it several times with his hands, feeling the texture of the cotton cloth. Then Chai Yu had to admit that this was indeed a good thing, and the texture was tighter than silk.

Even worse. And the touch is very soft, and it has a very close-fitting feeling. Although it is worse than silk products, the difference is not that huge. It just seems that for a piece of cloth of the same size, the cotton one is smaller than the silk one.

Silk is heavier.

After Zhao Weiji saw that Chai Yu had a preliminary understanding of cotton fabrics, he began to further compare the advantages and disadvantages of cotton fabrics and silk fabrics: "Although silk is thin, well-fitting, smooth, breathable, and more lustrous, it is not strong enough.

And it fades easily. But cotton is different. Although it is heavier than silk, the feel when worn on the body is not much worse than silk. And cotton fabrics are obviously warmer in winter. Also, cotton fabrics are relatively

It’s not that easy to fade. The most important thing is that the production cost of cotton cloth is very low. The production cost of such a piece of cotton cloth is about one-sixth of that of silk.”

If what Zhao Weiji said before could only slightly impress Chai Yu, then the last sentence directly captured Chai Yu's heart. The biggest advantage of this cotton cloth is that it is cheap, and at the same time, there are many linen cloths available in the street.

Texture. Once such a material appears on the market, it will definitely cause a trend. But Chai Yu's last hesitation at this time is, is this material easy to dye? No matter how good the material is, it is useless if it is not easy to dye.

Let everyone wear mourning every day.

Zhao Weiji also saw Chai Yu's last hesitation and said, "You take this piece of cloth back today and try it for printing and dyeing. I don't have this technology here, so I only have white cloth for the time being. You go back and use the technology of your silk and satin shop to dye it."

.If it is feasible, we will make the next step, do you think it is feasible?"

Upon hearing that Zhao Weiji had said this, Chai Yu no longer hesitated to refuse. Then he hugged the piece of cloth and said goodbye and left the Anding County Mansion.

…

A few days later, Zhao Weiji received Chai Yu's invitation to him and invited him to dinner. He understood that it seemed that Chai Yu had come to a conclusion, so he happily went to the appointment.

"I said, Landlady, it would be too uninteresting for you to invite me to such a small restaurant for dinner."

"The cash flow has been slow recently, so it would be nice to save some money."

It turned out that the place where Chai Yu invited Zhao Weiji to eat was just a small restaurant.

Seeing that Zhao Weiji still wanted to tease her, Chai Yu immediately said with a serious face: "Let's get down to business. I took that piece of cotton back and dyed it. The coloring was quite easy, and the coloring effect was good. Although it was a bit stained after it was dried and washed several times.

It's faded, but it's not much different from silk. It's basically fine. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Seeing that Chai Yu was getting down to business, Zhao Weiji stopped smiling. After hearing Chai Yu's question, Zhao Weiji thought about the shortcomings of cotton and then said: "Another drawback of cotton is that it is prone to mold and needs to be removed from time to time.

Come out and bask in the sun."

"Will it fade if exposed to the sun?" Chai Yu asked worriedly because silk fabrics often fade after being exposed to the sun.

"That's not the case, as long as it's not exposed to the sun for a long time. And cotton is less susceptible to insect bites than silk."

"oh."

"Then let's start talking about how to cooperate." Zhao Weiji was about to start talking about the conditions for cooperation when he was interrupted by Chai Yu.

"Why are you helping me?"

"I'm not helping you." Zhao Weiji paused and then said: "I want to make money. I discovered cotton and figured out how to make cotton thread and cotton cloth. But I have no printing and dyeing skills, and no sales channels. It's just right.

, you are in this field and you have a mature system. If I cooperate with you, my initial investment will be much less and sales will be much easier. Besides, I don’t give this to you in vain. I am a technical investor.

I will provide you with Zhao's spinning machine and how to use it, and help you modify the loom to weave cotton cloth. You must give me 30% of the sales, which is only the sales of cotton cloth. No silk."

Although Zhao Weiji said this, Chai Yu was still very moved. Because she knew that she had already taken advantage of him. This man now had the golden mountain of Lapsang Tea to support him. If he wanted to do this cotton business alone, he could

Successful. What's more, he also has the powerful tool of Zhao's spinning machine. He also saw it that day. The efficiency of spinning cotton thread on Zhao's spinning machine is indeed very high. Even if other competitors figured out how to make cotton cloth, in a short time

The production speed cannot be compared with Zhao Weiji's. So Chai Yu knew that he really took advantage of it.

For a time, Chai Yu had mixed emotions. Her father died very early. Her mother had raised her alone for so many years. Although Taizu of the Song Dynasty gave preferential treatment to his descendants and admonished him, years of wars caused the imperial court to

The support provided was not very large. In order to make her mother's life better, Chai Yu, who was just twelve years old at the time, used this support to start a business. Although she had achieved some results in the past few years, she was still suffering on her own.

Now, when the business was in crisis, a man helped her. Although this man's surname was Zhao, it also made her experience the long-lost warmth of being able to rely on others. For a moment, Chai Yu felt as if she didn't hate this surname.

Zhao, but only the Zhao in front of me.

"Hey, did you listen to what I said?" Seeing that Chai Yu seemed to be thinking about other things, Zhao Weiji couldn't help but ask.

"I'm listening, I'm listening." After hearing Zhao Weiji's question, Chai Yu immediately came back to his senses.

"Just listen, we are still facing the biggest problem now."

"what is the problem?"

"It's the source of cotton. Didn't I say before that cotton is not grown in the Central Plains. It is only grown in the northwest, but it is not grown on a large scale. We can't always buy from the northwest."

"Isn't it difficult to grow cotton?"

"No, this thing can be grown anywhere, and it is easy to grow, and the yield is not small."

"That's not easy to handle. Why don't we just get some seeds and plant them ourselves?"

"I also know how to plant it myself. But the key is, do you have the land?"

"Let me do the math." After saying this, Chai Yu lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, "I have more than ten acres."

"I also have more than ten acres, but it's not enough." Zhao Weiji shook his head and continued: "If we want to produce cotton on a large scale, thirty acres of land will definitely not be enough. The key is to find more land for planting.

What? It would be better to have two to three hundred acres."

Hearing what Zhao Weiji said, Chai Yu also started to worry.

Just when they were worried, a strange man's voice came from next to them: "I'm sorry to bother you, but I wonder if this thing you call cotton can make money after planting it? If so, I can find a large area.

Where to plant.”

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[Explain here, because the plot requires that the cotton I use here is fine velvet cotton originating from Central America. It is not coarse velvet cotton originating from Asia. Please forgive me if you think it is unreasonable. I am a new author,

There must be many shortcomings when writing the book. I also hope that readers can give me a lot of help and support. Thank you here]
Chapter completed!