eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 735: Turning herders into farmers
In addition to Yan Song and Zhou Shangwen, other major officials from various places also came to the capital.

The cabinet has been deliberating for a long time on the choice of minister of the Ministry of Industry, but Zhu Houzhao has been suppressing it. This is what he wants to leave to Xing Guan.

It's a pity that after Wu Wending went on the expedition, because he was far away across the ocean, he didn't come back. The court had no way of knowing his situation there. Xing Guan was probably still alive.

The emperor could only think so.

And although the candidate has not yet been decided, things are still moving forward.

Zhu Houzhao also listened to several cabinet deliberations, and gradually he got some impressions.

Cotton is different from corn and potatoes. China has a long recorded history of cotton. There have been some records of cotton textile technology since the Han Dynasty. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, some emperors' clothes were made of cotton.

Cotton is still much more comfortable to wear than linen. You don’t need to delve into the material properties for this, you will know it once you try it.

By the Tang and Song Dynasties, records of cotton cultivation began to be recorded in various places, first in Hainan and Guangdong and Guangxi, and then in Jiangnan.

It is precisely because of the excellent characteristics of cotton that the planting area of ​​cotton has gradually expanded. When it comes to its true popularity, it was the Ming Dynasty.

This started with Zhu Yuanzhang. When he promulgated the physical tax in the first year of Hongwu, he stipulated that in principle, farmers must pay taxes when paying taxes. As a result, farmers who do not grow cotton can only buy it to pay the tax.

Although such a tax stipulation is somewhat inexplicable, it objectively popularized cotton cultivation, and the amount of cotton cloth collected nationwide even reached an astonishing scale of 80 million pieces a year during the Yongle period.

Especially in areas with developed commodity economies such as Jiangnan, cotton planting is very common in areas such as Songjiang and Jiashan. There is also a saying that "you can't buy enough Songjiang cloth and you can't harvest Weitang yarn." (Weitang is located in Jiashan)

Not only that, the ingenious Chinese can not only make cotton into cotton cloth, but also process red, yellow, blue and other colors, stripes or some simple geometric patterns.Let’s just say it’s great or not.

There is also a kind of three-shuttle cloth, which is different from ordinary cotton cloth. Because of the special production method, this kind of cloth is very soft and is especially suitable for personal wear.

Zhu Houzhao didn't know what he was wearing. In fact, his trousers were made of tribute cloth.

In general, cotton planting and textile technology in the Ming Dynasty had fully reached the commercial level and did not need to be promoted like sweet potatoes - until Zhu Houzhao listened to one of their special reports.

He kept talking about cotton, cotton, and always felt that it should have some connection with Xinjiang.

Because he paid attention to political news in his previous life.

Later he called Zhou Shangwen, Mei Kejia and Shaanxi Governor Wang Qiong into the palace.

Zhu Houzhao had already constructed some memories and logic. Facing the three of them, he said: "When I was looking through ancient books, I remembered that there was a kind of Gaochang cloth in the Tang Dynasty. It was extremely white and seemed to be of better quality than the cotton cloth in the Central Plains?"

Among the three, Wang Qiong was a scholar and had the deepest knowledge. He responded: "Your Majesty is right. The Tang Dynasty destroyed Gaochang and established the Anxi Protectorate. The Silk Road was very prosperous. Since then, the Western Regions have flowed into the Central Plains. There is already a lot of cotton cloth. During the An-Shi Rebellion, in order to support Chang'an, Xizhou, that is, Gaochang, also transported a large amount of military cotton cloth."

Zhou Shangwen was a little curious, "How does it count as military cotton?"

Zhu Houzhao frowned, "That is the second best. The key is whether the Western Region is more suitable for growing cotton than the Central Plains?"

Pinghaibo Mei Kejia said: "The cotton grown in the Jiangnan area is also very good, and it has almost reached the point where every household must have a loom."

"I know that there is a lot of cotton planted in the south of the Yangtze River, but this involves border security. The northwest region has always been a Gobi desert, arid and barren, sparsely populated, and with barren vegetation. If cotton can be grown, it will be different. I can Use Xinjiang as a cotton planting area and bring the textile technology from Jiangnan. It doesn’t matter if it is far away from the mainland and cannot be sold at a high price. First, it can be sold to the west. Second, the court can support it and designate the purchase of cotton cloth produced in Xinjiang. In this way The importance of Xinjiang has been raised. It is no longer a remote place with few people. The imperial court has more practical support for the development and management of Xinjiang, and future generations will be reluctant to leave this place."

When the three of them heard what the emperor said, their minds came alive. The emperor's considerations were at a higher level.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao did remember that the cotton in Xinjiang was better, and the northwest region was also a major cotton production base.

Of course, for a while it was not as good as the mainland, but with the development of the economy and society, people slowly used their brains and naturally discovered interesting things - cotton is a light-loving and heat-loving crop, so why not plant it in Xinjiang? ?

Therefore, the cotton planting trend is rising in Xinjiang and Gansu, but declining in inland areas such as Shandong.

Not only that, Xinjiang’s cotton is often high-quality cotton, which is determined by natural endowment.Therefore, there is news that foreigners do not buy Xinjiang cotton. It is a joke. Xinjiang cotton is exported precisely because of its high quality and high price.There are not enough good things in the country.

Even further west, Uzbekistan is known as the 'Platinum Country'. That hellish place has a continental climate with severe drought, but growing cotton is a unique skill. It is precisely because of the stable, high yield and excellent quality of cotton that it earned this title. .

Of course, this is not important to Zhu Houzhao at this moment. Good cotton and good cotton cloth are two different concepts. There is textile technology in between. And in order to grow cotton on a large scale, you don’t know that people have to level the land, use water sources for irrigation, etc. How much effort has been put into supporting agricultural infrastructure.Furthermore, according to Mei Kejia's saying that "ten households must have looms", no matter how good the goods are, they may not be able to sell for a high price, and the small farmers' economy is self-sufficient.

But this can all be solved, and Zhu Houzhao even directly said that the imperial court designated the purchase.

Wang Qiong carefully considered the emperor's words and couldn't help but nod, "In this case, Xinjiang may become a treasure land."

This is what Zhu Houzhao meant, "It should be true. There is cotton in the Western Regions, so why can't we grow cotton? If the imperial court wants to promote the prosperity of the cotton textile industry, cotton is essential. I will send a message to Yang Yiqing and ask him to start handling this matter. No matter what, the Han family still likes to grow something. This is something in their bones. When it reaches a large scale, I will turn all herdsmen into farmers!"

"Hahaha."

The emperor's joke made them unable to hold back.

The scale of cotton used by the royal family and nobles is also very large, and some people can make it very well.If we support this for a while first, and then gradually discover that the quality of cotton in Xinjiang is better, we won’t have to worry.

However, there was still one person who was still undecided. Zhou Shangwen saw that it was almost done and still asked: "Your Majesty, what exactly is the military cotton cloth that Wang Zhongcheng mentioned just now?"

Wang Qiong chuckled, "It's recorded in the book, but I've never seen it. But I happened to see a cotton armor this time, and it should be excellent."

"Cotton armor? Is it the cloth armor from the Yuan Dynasty? How is it different from iron armor?"

"I asked carefully and found that it is not difficult to make, but the cloth armor is mainly for defense and against firearms. The cotton armor I saw is mainly used to keep out the cold. For some reason, winter has become colder over the years, so I came up with this idea. Wait for a solution.

In fact, cotton is placed on both sides of the armor.First, the picked cotton is wetted and beaten repeatedly to make a very thin piece of cotton. Several such pieces are then embellished into a very thick and solid cotton cloth. There is an iron armor between the two layers of cotton cloth and the inside and outside are fixed with copper nails.This is cotton armor. "

Zhu Houzhao has never seen it, but Wang Qiong said it in an easy-to-understand way, "I know what Marquis Jinglu is thinking. This kind of cotton armor is very practical and even life-saving in winter combat. Ping Haibo, you can help me. Find a few craftsmen to try out this kind of cotton armor. The weather in Liaodong, Mobei and Xinjiang is very cold after winter. You know, every time more soldiers can protect themselves from the cold, the Ming Dynasty's territory can be expanded one more point to the north. point."

"Yes, I will obey the order."

Zhou Shangwen did not expect that the emperor would pay so much attention to it. In fact, Wang Qiong mentioned that winter is getting colder, and Zhu Houzhao knew that winter would be even colder.

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I don’t know what I’m busy with lately, I’m so busy every day.Week after week goes by so fast, and now it is inexplicably Wednesday again. There will be a meeting tomorrow and a meeting the day after tomorrow, and it is actually the weekend again...

(End of this chapter)