Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When the envoys from various countries came to see the emperor, the Queen Mother of Annan Du had been sent to the palace.

And our emperor is developing sewing machines!

Zhu Guoxiang opened an experimental area in the outer city on the east side of the imperial city, and the BMW has been moved to the secret room here.

A hundred meters away is the headquarters of the Inspectorate, and there is a drum for hearing outside the Donghua Gate.

To the south is the waiting and resting area for officials, as well as the parking lot for carriages to and from the imperial city.

There are also temporary dormitories for officials nearby, which are specially for officials who work too late to stay overnight. This situation usually means something big has happened.

At this moment, only Shen Yourong and Li Qingzhao came with them, bringing their children to watch the emperor tinkering with his things.

In addition to the royal family, there are also several young craftsmen and young apprentices.

The craftsmen graduated from the Jinling Ship School, which has a mechanical major. The apprentices are all children from Luoyang and Kaifeng, with clean family backgrounds, and are allowed to contact and study BMW.

"Your Majesty, this hook shuttle is extremely unstable, and it hooks the wrong line while hooking." A young craftsman said.

Zhu Guoxiang sat next to him and directed: "Observe carefully why it hooked wrong."

So, a group of young people lay there, staring at the wooden hook shuttle.

The final shuttle of the sewing machine will definitely be made of iron. But now it is in the experimental stage, and wood is easier to polish and improve quickly.

Because there is no rubber, the transmission belt is replaced by cowhide.

There is a 15-year-old boy in the crowd, the son of Zhu Guoxiang and Wen Xiaomei, named Zhu Wenzhu.

Zhu Wenzhu is good at painting, especially bamboo.

But he doesn't like Confucian classics very much, but he is good at poetry and songs.

He doesn't like agronomy either, but he is interested in mathematics and physics. In the past two years, he has become fascinated by machinery.

After observing carefully for a while, Zhu Wenzhu said: "When the hook shuttle is reset, it may lead the thread to be crooked, interfering with the subsequent thread inserted."

An apprentice named Yu Ang said: "If the hook shuttle needs to be reset, it is difficult not to interfere with the sewing thread. Can you make a hook shuttle that does not need to be reset?"

"How to repeat the hook without reset?" Another apprentice questioned.

Yu Ang said, "Just make it repetitive."

Zhu Wenzhu suddenly had an idea: "Have you seen the Tai Chi fish diagram? The Yin and Yang fish can repetitively revolve endlessly. Make this single hook shuttle into two hook shuttles connected at the head, just like the Yin and Yang fish. The front hook shuttle hooks the line and presses it down. There is no need to reset and put the line back, but let the line slide to the other end. The back hook shuttle hooks the line and presses it down again, and the line of the front one will withdraw. After this improvement, the sewn lines are still connected to each other, and will not fall apart if the line drops in one place."

Not only did the craftsmen and apprentices not understand, even Zhu Guoxiang was a little confused.

Zhu Guoxiang didn't know much about machinery, but he had seen sewing machines when he was young. After all, at that time, the sewing machine was a classic dowry item with three turns and one ring.

Therefore, Zhu Guoxiang knew the external structure of the sewing machine and directly directed the craftsmen and apprentices to make it. But the internal structure had to be independently researched and designed, and it was refined and improved bit by bit.

Just when everyone was confused, the apprentice named Yu Ang understood and clapped his hands and praised: "The Yin-Yang Pisces is really wonderful!"

The two teenagers simulated the motion image of "sewing machine shuttle" in their minds!

Zhu Wenzhu said to everyone: "It's like this, bring the axe, wood and knife."

Soon, he picked up the axe to chop the wooden board, and then used a knife to carefully carve it to make a deformed Yin-Yang Pisces object.

Zhu Wenzhu pulled the thread off with his left hand, turned the newly made shuttle half a circle with his right hand, and then turned it half a circle again after the hook line was pressed down, and then pulled the thread out with his hand: "That's it, this shuttle is called Yin-Yang shuttle."

Everyone finally understood.

The craftsman who was best at carpentry began to make a more sophisticated Yin-Yang shuttle.

Then he installed it and stepped on the pedal to start working.

Who knew that the Yin-Yang shuttle only turned half a circle and the thread got stuck...

Zhu Wenzhu's expression was a little embarrassed, and he lay down to observe why the thread got stuck.

The idea is right, but the shape of the Yin-Yang shuttle still needs to be adjusted. If you are lucky, you can get it done in one day, but if you are unlucky, you need to adjust it for several days.

Zhu Guoxiang did not intervene throughout the process, just sat next to him and watched quietly.

Li Qingzhao took the cold drink brought by the eunuch, handed one to Shen Yourong and one to Zhu Guoxiang: "A loving mother sews clothes for her son. If this sewing machine is well made, it will be much easier for a loving mother to sew clothes."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "First, use it to sew official uniforms, military uniforms and other items, and a large number of sacks for loading goods. Then slowly turn it to civilian use, and there will definitely be merchants willing to imitate it."

The original sewing machine still seems to have too high a technical content for the Ming Dynasty industry.

But many parts can be replaced, and it is not necessary to follow the original.

As for parts such as the Yin-Yang shuttle (swing shuttle), after the final design is finalized, it can be cast using a clay mold, and then let the craftsmen polish it finely.

Technology must rise little by little.

When the sewing machine is done, Zhu Guoxiang will start to build a steam engine.

It doesn't have to be too sophisticated. At first, it was only used in various mines near coal mines to drain the water in the mines. It trained a group of craftsmen who were skilled in machinery and then improved other machinery.

Both spinning machines and looms need to be improved, otherwise even with steam engines, it would be difficult to use them for textiles.

What's more, cotton has not been completely popularized, and there are only more than two million mu of cotton fields now.

Before the Dongting Lake Basin is fully developed, farmland in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cannot be converted into cotton fields on a large scale, and national food security must be guaranteed!

The Ming Dynasty's "Patent Law" is about to be formulated, but it may be difficult to implement in the future. Putting aside the difficulties in implementation, let's get the "Patent Law" out first.

What the superiors like, the subordinates will follow.

Nowadays, people all over the country in the Ming Dynasty are actively improving machinery and improving the manufacturing process of various commodities.

Especially after the publication of the two books "Basic Mathematics" and "Basic Physics", many ordinary scholars and even craftsmen bought the books to study and research.

Any practical book has always been a best-seller in ancient China.

For example, various agricultural books and arithmetic books have a large sales volume.

The abacus books of the Ming and Qing Dynasties have always been very popular, and booksellers directly use engraving.

The father and son of the Zhu family have brought about a technological impact, and are in a state of accumulation.

In the next few decades, there may be a blowout.

After studying until dusk, the Yin-Yang shuttle has been improved twice.

It can already hook the thread and sew normally, but it still occasionally gets stuck after an average of more than ten turns.

Zhu Guoxiang clapped his hands: "It's getting late, so let's stop here today and continue to improve the Yin-Yang shuttle tomorrow. Today's research has made a major breakthrough. Dinner will be rewarded with a meat dish and a hundred coins per person."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The craftsmen and apprentices saluted happily.

Craftsmen are paid, while apprentices are provided with food and accommodation, and there are additional rewards for completing the project.

Zhu Guoxiang said again: "Zhu Wenzhu and Yu Ang have performed outstandingly today, and each will be rewarded with a silver dollar."

The two bowed to thank him.

Zhu Wenzhu didn't lack that dollar, and being recognized by his father was what made him happiest.

Back to the Supreme Palace, Zhu Guoxiang sent Shen Yourong and Li Qingzhao back to their respective courtyards.

Then, he took Zhu Wenzhu to Wen Xiaomei's place - the mother would naturally be proud of her son's good performance.

The Queen Mother Du of Annan stayed alone in her empty room on the first day of entering the palace.

After two days, a eunuch finally reminded her: "Your Majesty, the emperor conferred the title of Taishang Shufei to the new Madam Du yesterday."

Zhu Guoxiang then remembered and said, "We will go to Taishang Shufei tonight."

Du waited and waited until the eunuch passed the message, and then she made up and dressed up until dark when she finally heard "The Emperor has arrived."

"I pay my respects to your Majesty!" Du's newly learned Chinese had a rather strange accent.

Zhu Guoxiang observed carefully and was quite satisfied with this concubine, at least he liked her appearance and temperament.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Can you communicate in Chinese?"

Du replied: "I know a little, I have studied for half a year. If I don't understand, we can communicate in writing."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How much rice can be harvested per acre in the top-quality paddy fields in Annan?"

"Ah?"

Du seemed to understand, but felt that she had heard it wrong.

This Ming Dynasty emperor, who did not ask his name or age when they met for the first time, actually asked about the per-acre grain yield in Annan?

Mrs. Du was afraid of making a mistake, so she quickly took out a pen and paper and wrote down a few Chinese characters: "Your Majesty is asking, paddy fields, grain, per mu yield?"

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said, "Yes."

Mrs. Du replied in fear: "I don't know."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "It seems that you must be from a wealthy family and don't pay attention to farming."

Mrs. Du's mood became more and more flustered, and the more flustered she was, the less she understood: "I... didn't quite understand."

"It doesn't matter, you can learn Chinese slowly," Zhu Guoxiang said, "It's just that the hot summer is coming soon, I will take you to Dongxi Garden to escape the summer heat in two days. I will take you to Dongxi Garden to meet the other sisters. You can play games with them. These few often play mahjong. They also like to play Cuju and shuttlecock."

Mrs. Du held her sleeves tightly with both hands and said awkwardly: "Your Majesty, can you speak slower and less? I don't understand."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "Forget it, let's eat. Do you drink?"

Mrs. Du said, "I can drink a little."

Several candles lit up, and the room became much brighter.

Du and Zhu Guoxiang sat opposite each other, secretly looking at the emperor, and the more they looked, the more they liked him.

Zhu Guoxiang's appearance is not bad in modern times, but in ancient times, he was a very handsome middle-aged man.

His square face, slightly fat, represents calmness, dignity, and nobility.

After a few glasses of wine, Du's face turned red. This widow seemed to have a second spring, and her eyes were drawing when she looked at Zhu Guoxiang.

Zhu Guoxiang picked up a piece of meat and asked casually: "Do you have children in Annan?"

Du replied: "One son and one daughter."

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "The son is an Annan noble, right?"

Du said: "It is the king of Annan."

"King... cough cough cough!"

Zhu Guoxiang, who was chewing meat, almost spit it out, and was choked by the rice and coughed repeatedly.

After a long pause, Zhu Guoxiang said in disbelief: "Are you the Queen Mother of Annan?"

Mrs. Du lowered her eyebrows and nodded.

Zhu Guoxiang really couldn't figure out what was going on. He thought his son was deliberately making trouble and forcibly demanding that the vassal queen mother send it to him.

This little bastard!