Ruins of the past

That night, a carpenter secretly left the city and came to a post station outside the city.

A traveling businessman met him under the wall and sneered: "What's wrong? Have you thought about it?"

The carpenter hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "I have a piece of news that I can sell to you. I guarantee it will be useful to you."

The traveling businessman asked curiously: "What's the news?"

The carpenter said: "You have to give us one thousand taels and send our family out of Qingyang County."

The businessman frowned and said, "One thousand taels is too expensive."

The carpenter laughed and said: "This news will definitely make Chu Qiguang die without a burial place, and it may even make the Wu family bankrupt. If I sell a thousand taels to you, you will be considered lucky."

Meow~~

While the two were talking, a cat meowed, startling them. When they looked up... they saw a white cat looking at them faintly.

Chu Qiguang arranged for the cat demon to monitor the craftsmen in the workshop.

…

That night, the body of the traveling merchant was transported to the dock and sank to the bottom of the river.

Bai Mi looked at his head that was slowly submerged by the river water, opened his mouth and yawned: "After finishing the work, let's disperse."

The group of cat demons following behind dispersed.

Soon after, accompanied by the sound of gurgling, gurgling, a fluffy head with two erect ears surfaced...

That same night, there were monsters in the workshop.

The craftsmen were awakened by screams in the middle of the night. They followed the sound and found that the carpenter had turned into a half-human and half-demon.

That deformed and strange face appeared in their minds every night, making them tremble with fear.

Later, it was said that the carpenter was punished by Heavenly Taoist Master Xuanyuan because he wanted to sell out his workshop.

Originally, after the craftsmen went through the Taoist temple's exorcism rituals and the heavenly demon foundation building method, they thought it was Taoist Xuanyuan who appeared.

This time, the demonization of the carpenter greatly stimulated them. No one dared to think about selling the workshop, and even in the next period of time... their work efficiency was greatly improved.

At the same time, through the connection between the Wu family and the Taoist temple, all the gentry, officials, and wealthy families in the county received invitations to attend a Wu family meeting in ten days.

…

Liyang County, inside the textile workshop of the Chen family.

A master craftsman pointed at the fabric in front of him and said proudly: "This double-sided embroidery is an ancestral skill of our Su family. Even in Jiangnan, there are only a few people who can embroider this Kirin offering treasure map. Even I, It also took half a year to complete.”

Chen Yuebai looked at the embroidery work in front of him, nodded with satisfaction, and decided to use this embroidery as the highlight of their store.

During this period, the Chen family, relying on their wealth and wealth, almost suppressed the Wu family in the cotton market and took away most of the cotton accumulated by the cotton merchants, leaving only a small half for the Wu family. Home.

Chen Yuebai thought to himself: "Just harvesting cotton cost nearly 50,000 taels of silver, but the Wu family spent not much less than us. Humph, just this one step almost squeezed out all their capital. How can you fight with us when you come down?"

In addition to harvesting cotton, the Chen family also recruited a large number of people from the Jiangnan area.

For example, the double-sided embroidery master in front of me, Master Su, is one of the masters specially invited by the Chen family from Jiangnan. In addition to him, there are more than a dozen master embroidery masters and more than 200 weavers, all of whom are experienced. , a skilled old weaver.

In addition to them, the Chen family also specially imported the latest pedal spinning wheels and handlooms from the south of the Yangtze River, and also invited local craftsmen to innovate them based on the northern environment.

Chen Yuebai followed a master craftsman to a cellar. He looked at the people who were adjusting the loom inside and heard the master craftsman say: "The climate in the north is dry, and the cotton velvet is intermittent and cannot be made into strands. Although it can be made into cloth, the quality is poor. good."

"In the past few months, we have repeatedly studied, and finally we made a cellar, several feet deep, and built a house on it. The eaves are about two feet high, and windows are made to let in the sunlight. People can live in it. We can spin in the wetland, so that it can be close to the south. Earth is no different.”

While talking, the craftsman picked up a piece of cloth and said, "Master, please look at this cloth. This cloth is fine and white, wide in width, durable in making clothes, and dyed well. It is not inferior to the high-quality cloth from the south of the Yangtze River."

Chen Yuebai nodded with satisfaction. With the new pedal spinning wheel, handlooms and skilled workers recruited from Jiangnan, the quality and quantity of weaving have improved, but the labor cost has become cheaper, and the total cost has been reduced.

"When the time comes, whatever the Wu family sells, we can sell it cheaper than him. The more cotton weaving they buy, the more they will lose. If you don't want to lose tens of thousands of taels of cotton, you have to come and beg us. .”

"After the Wu family is eliminated, whoever is doing cotton textiles in Beiyue Mansion will not follow our Chen family's lead. When the mutual trade opens, they will make money every day."

"Although it cost more than 100,000 taels of silver to go back and forth, it was all worth it."

Thinking of this, Chen Yuebai couldn't help laughing. Just then the boy in the distance ran over and said something.

Chen Yuebai frowned, looked at the craftsman on the side and said: "Chu Qiguang said that he invented a new machine that does not require manpower, only water power and horse power, and the output can be twenty times that of the traditional loom. Master Cai, you Do you think it’s possible?”

Master Cai laughed and said: "It's absolutely impossible, Master, have you ever heard of Jiangnan commoners being sold all over the world? I have never heard of any machine in Jiangnan that does not require manpower and can have twenty times the productivity. This is simply unheard of, Master. Don’t be fooled.”

…

Rumors about new water-powered spinning machines and water-powered looms have already made a splash in Qingyang County.

The time finally came when Chu Qiguang was going to hold a press conference.

On this day, all the wealthy families in Qingyang County were invited to the textile workshop.

There were four to five hundred people in total, including the masters and young masters, as well as the servants and nurses, making the workshop seem small and crowded. If it weren't for the face of the Wu family and Taoist temple, I'm afraid many people present would be too lazy to stay.

In front of them were two machines covered by curtains, and Chu Qiguang stood in front of the curtains. With a clap of his hands, the boys on both sides turned a huge scroll down with force.

Above is the amount of cotton cloth that the Ding family sells to the northern demon clan every year.

Looking at the four to five hundred spectators below, the veins on Chu Qiguang's forehead were twitching slightly. He endured the anger of wanting to rush down and beat a few people to death. He sighed helplessly in his heart: 'Sure enough, they will come as soon as there are more people...'

He had no choice but to endure the illness in his heart and began to say: "As we all know, among the northern demon clan, except for wolf demons, cow demons, and sheep demons, other races need a lot of cold-proof clothing, and if the demon clan wants to maintain their human form, they also need Need clothes to keep out the cold.”

"Not to mention that the slaves of all races, including the human race, they captured also need clothing to keep out the cold."

As he spoke, he clapped his hands again, and behind him was a second huge picture scroll, which showed the demon clan's demand for cotton cloth after the opening of the mutual market.

"One million pieces, this is the amount of cotton cloth that the demon clan needs every year."

As the scrolls fell one by one, and Chu Qiguang's explanation, everyone present was gradually attracted attention, looking at the estimates of Lingzhou's population, the estimate of cotton cloth demand, and the amount of cotton shipped from the south every year. It is estimated... and for comparison, Lingzhou's local production of cloth is very small every year.

The feeling given to everyone present is that...cotton cloth is a rigid necessity and has a huge market in the entire north and among the demon clan, which makes people salivate.

And Chu Qiguang became more and more comfortable as he spoke on stage, and the spirit in his mind seemed to be constantly sublimating, making him speak more and more freely: "In recent years, many places in the north have been ordered by the court to grow cotton, and many state capitals have Cotton was even taxed."

"Cotton cultivation has now spread to more than half of the counties in Lingzhou, but most of the counties still do not produce textiles. This is because the cloth in the north is never as good as that in the south."

"So cotton from the north has always been transported to the south, and cloth from the south has been transported to the north. The cotton we grow in the north has to be woven into cloth in the south of the Yangtze River and sold to us."

"But today..."

As Chu Qiguang pulled the curtain, revealing two machines behind that were constantly operating to produce cotton yarn and cotton cloth, Chu Qiguang said slowly: "...We want to redefine textiles!"

Chen Gang said: "Understand the applause." After saying this, he took the lead and applauded.

Accompanied by bursts of applause below, Chu Qiguang felt that his spirit seemed to rush out of his physical body, as if he had gone straight up to the sky, to the end of the starry sky, and saw an abyss beyond the imagination of all life, and saw the endless... ...a depth that cannot be understood or described.