Infrastructure masters in the red building

"Very good." Jia sat down at the desk of the Investment Promotion Office and welcomed the women. "I have been waiting for you to make requests to the Investment Promotion Office. I am very pleased to see you today."

Jia Fang in Taoyuanzhai basically maintained his original relationship with the villagers, and did not bring the official authority of "Pingnan Jiedushi".

And the villagers here are used to seeing his handsome young face, and they really can't associate him with any "big official".When these women saw Jia Fang, although they called out "Third Lord" respectfully, their eyes were kind and they did not regard him as an outsider.

"Having said that, if we want to build a factory and repair a workshop, we still have to follow the procedures." Jia Fang finished his opening remarks and then officially entered the agenda, "It's roughly like this. You need to make a plan. I will give you some comments and ask some questions. You can go back and revise this plan.”

"After the final plan is finalized, the Investment Promotion Office will calculate a budget for you, and then grant a business loan based on this budget, and then build the factory and put it into production."

Sister Qiu immediately replied after hearing this: "Master Jia, we all know what you said. But we have discussed it for a long time, and we really don't know how to do this 'plan', so I came here today to ask."

Jia Fang asked again: "Are there any of you who know how to calculate accounts? Have you got a 'diploma'?"

Several women looked at each other, and finally fell on one of the younger ones: "Li San's family can settle accounts, and the diploma failed, but the examiner said that the arithmetic part passed."

Jia Fang wondered, "Have passed the arithmetic part, but not the literacy part?"

In Taoyuanzhai's "diploma" exam, there are many "practical questions" in the arithmetic test paper, which are to test the villagers' practical application ability of arithmetic, and most of them are written in words.Therefore, Li Sanjia said that the arithmetic part was passed, but the text part was not. Jia Fang was a little strange.

Li Sanjia's face blushed: "Writing...the writing is too ugly——"

Jia Fang encouraged her: "Don't be discouraged, practice for a while before you take the exam, you will definitely pass. But since you understand the accounts, that's great. The Investment Promotion Department will send a special bookkeeper to help you calculate, but you also have to It’s good to know what’s in your heart.”

Li San's family nodded vigorously.

Jia Fang added: "This plan is actually not difficult. The Investment Promotion Office will send a commissioner to discuss with you and work on this plan together."

He turned his gaze to the face of Gui Xiaxue who was sitting beside him.

"This Teacher Gui from Xiaoxiang Academy is your planning assistance specialist."

When Jia Fang said this, both sides were surprised.

Sister Qiu spoke bluntly, and said directly: "Mr. Jia, did you make a mistake? We asked Xiao Gui before you came just now... Teacher Gui, he doesn't know anything about spinning. I don't understand a little bit!"

Gui Yaxue also opened his mouth wide and looked at Jia Fang, very surprised by this assignment, but this expression lasted for no more than a second. Gui Yaxue immediately smiled, wantonly, while staring closely at Jia Fang. , as if he had seen through Jia Fang's intentions.

But Jia Fang explained confidently: "I just want a planning specialist who doesn't understand anything."

"It's enough for you to understand the technology of spinning and weaving. What I need is a layman who doesn't understand at all. With his eyes and thinking, re-examine your old methods in the past, so as to see what steps and tools are in it. It is worthy of innovation."

Jia Fang had already realized this when he was in the sugar factory. Tian Youming was so young, but he was also bound by the "ancestral" craftsmanship. He couldn't think of a way to improve it, and he needed onlookers to wake him up.

As for why it is Gui Xia’s study—it’s because Jia Fang believes in his heart that the curious baby’s temperament is more like his own.

Jia Fang feels that he has now reached the state when he was persuading the fourth prince in the refugee camp. He needs to catch the big and let go of the small.Therefore, he needs to find an agent in grassroots affairs.

There are already suitable candidates for village management, finance and public order.But in terms of technological innovation, he has been lacking such a person who is more like himself—until Gui Xiaxue appeared.

Gui Xiaxue immediately nodded to the older ladies in front of him and said with a smile, "Guys, don't look at me who doesn't know anything about spinning and weaving, but I'm very experienced in planning. Don't we just complement each other?"

Jia Fang almost let out a "huh" laugh, trying to hold his face tight, thinking that this guy really dared to say——Gui Xia came to Taoyuan Village not long ago and had never made any plans. People really asked, This guy probably used his experience as a secretary in the county government of Wuyuan County to make up the numbers.

Gui Xiaxue gave him a sideways glance, which probably meant: Since you dragged me into the water, don't make trouble behind me.

This Gui Xiaxue is also an acquaintance, and has never been afraid of Jia Fang's "official authority".

Jia Fang nodded, and said solemnly: "That's true. Teacher Gui is very experienced. Let's discuss it first, and I will listen by the side." Make helpful suggestions.

I saw Gui Xiaxue took out a pen and paper, solemnly prepared to record, and then asked these elder sisters:

"What kind of yarn are you going to spin and what kind of cloth are you going to weave?"

"Oh, cotton and linen, where do the materials come from?"

"Oh, I bought it from outside the village. What is the purchase price of the raw materials? What is the approximate quantity you can buy now? How many catties of cotton, how many catties of hemp, and how many pieces of cloth can be spun? ?”

"How much labor do you need to weave these cloths?"

"..."

Jia Fang felt relieved when he listened: this Gui Yaxue is very good.He doesn't have any specific knowledge about spinning and weaving, but has a fair bit of business acumen and common sense.Jia Fang read it right, Gui Xiaxue is at least a good candidate for planning.

As he listened, Jia Fang began to wonder: I don't know how skilled the new immigrants from Yujiang are in spinning and weaving.

Judging from his daily life in the Rongguo Mansion in the capital, the Rong Mansion used a lot of cotton cloth produced in Songjiang. The jackets Sun and Shuangwen wore and the shoes under their feet were all made of cotton cloth.It shows that cotton has been widely planted in Songjiang area, and the cotton spinning technology has been considerably improved.

In addition to cotton cloth, a kind of summer cloth is occasionally used in the mansion, which is made of hemp.This kind of cloth is light, breathable and sweat-absorbent, which is very suitable for summer wear, but the problem is that it is harder than cotton cloth, and it is more transparent, so it is easy to "smoke", so it cannot be worn when going out.Jia Fang himself only wears linen clothes as pajamas.

Gui Xiaxue said with a smile: "Sister Qiu, the products you mentioned don't sound special, they can be bought elsewhere. Have you ever thought about weaving something different from others? For example, when others weave linen and cotton, you weave linen and cotton together..."

Jia Fang woke up suddenly: Yes, blended.

Sister Qiu was confused by Gui Ya's theory: "Teacher Gui, what are you talking about? Hemp and cotton are woven together... What kind of weaving method is this?"

Her reaction was somewhat similar to Tian Youming's earlier, and it was a bit hard to accept when she suddenly heard about a brand new approach.

At this time, Jia Fang started to help Gui Ya learn to speak: "Yes, mixed weaving. Since we can get cotton and linen materials here, we can consider making blended weaving materials, using half cotton thread and half hemp thread, and cotton thread for warp. The twine is weft-woven in one place, and a fabric between cotton and linen can be obtained."

"This kind of fabric can combine the advantages of cotton and linen. It is harder and more wear-resistant than cotton, but softer and smoother than linen." Jia Fang looked at the sky outside. The sun is shining brightly in Taoyuan Village today, and the weather can be seen to be hot. Get up, "This kind of clothing must be easy to sell locally."

A group of women stared at Jia Fang and Gui Xiaxue in unison. They probably never expected that young people like Jia Fang and Gui Xiaxue, who had never touched a loom before, could come up with such an idea.

But it sounds like this idea is... not bad!

Everyone turned their heads to look at Sister Qiu.Someone said: "Sister Qiu... just replace the cotton ingots on the loom's weft thread with hemp ingots..." It is not difficult in terms of craftsmanship.

Li Sanjia also said: "In this way, the cost of this new cloth is exactly half of the cotton cloth and half of the linen cloth, and the labor remains unchanged."

Sister Qiu immediately made a decision and said, "Okay, so, let's find a loom to try when we go back today. If it works, please ask Xiaogui... Teacher Gui to write it into our plan."

Jia Fang also has a good impression of this Qiu sister. She is very decisive, and at the same time has a relatively calm style.As the helm of an enterprise, her style is more appropriate.

Then everyone talked about the venue, equipment and technology.The women chattered about the need for empty yards for drying and seeding cotton, large tanks for retting, and workshops for looms.

"We counted it now. There are seven households here, and they can produce seven spinning machines and seven looms. Right now, there are only so many, but we think we will need to ask a carpenter to build a few more in the future..."

Jia Fang listened for a while, then lost his mind again.

Textile technology has experienced several leaps in history. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Daopo brought back the improved cotton spinning technology from Hainan, and made and improved a series of textile machinery. Since then, the hand textile industry in the south has developed rapidly. At the same time, cotton was also promoted and began to be widely planted in many places.

However, few people noticed that water-powered looms had already appeared in China in the Yuan Dynasty, and not only in one place, but in many places with water resources in the Central Plains.

To a certain extent, this kind of hydraulic machinery has all the characteristics of "advanced machinery" that appeared in the industrial revolution, and is composed of power equipment, transmission devices, and operating devices.Most people in the world believe that Britain is the earliest place where the Industrial Revolution took place, but some people think that the early hydraulic textile machine in Britain is very close to the hydraulic machinery of the Yuan Dynasty in China. It is likely that it was introduced to the West from China and improved by Westerners. Then put into production use.

The realization of hydraulic spinning in the West was more than 400 years later than in China.

However, due to the influence of various reasons, China's water-powered textile machines did not continue to develop, and they did not find a stable and long-lasting power source like steam engines to replace water power and become a new power source like Britain.

Maybe that's why the Industrial Revolution didn't happen in China.

Despite this, Jia Fang still hopes that his villagers can try water-powered spinning—after all, China has used the technology of water-turning milling for more than a thousand years, and textile machines are improved on the basis of water-turning milling, bringing hydraulic engines to the world. The kinetic energy of the loom is transmitted to the loom by the belt and the guide wheel, and the yarn wheel is rotated while the spindle is rotated, thereby completing the process of twisting and winding the yarn.

The same is true for hydraulic looms.

He mentioned this idea a little bit, and a group of women were shocked again: "You mean...you mean, spinning and weaving with water wheels?"

But some people said that they had heard about it: "Indeed... When I was young, my mother once said that my ancestors used to have such a loom."

Others also gradually began to think: "Yes, I said why the looms left in the village are all near the water, next to the mill. The feeling is... so the waterwheel can also be used to spin yarn!"

Jia Fang guessed that these women's villages might also have tried hydraulic spinning.However, due to the instability of hydraulic power, this technique gradually disappeared and returned to manual work.

However, in his Taoyuan village, water resources are relatively abundant. Even in the dry season in winter, the water of Qingfang River can provide part of the power.Therefore, his suggestion is to choose a piece of land by the Qingfang River as the site of the textile factory.The women moved the looms there first, and started work when the factory building was completed.At the same time, Gui Xiaxue led a research and development team to try to build a hydraulic loom.

If in the future, the scale of this textile factory is really large, and the hydraulic resources are not enough to meet the power requirements, then we can consider introducing alternative power such as steam engines at that time.After all, the road has to be walked step by step, and the meal has to be eaten bite by bite!

"Me? Can I do it too?" Gui Xiaxue's reaction showed that he didn't have much self-doubt, on the contrary he was very eager to try.

"Yes!" Jia Fang nodded, "It's not difficult. The principle is the same as water milling, but you need to pay attention to how the looms of the elder sisters work, and then introduce the power to replace their labor. gone."

At this moment, Sister Qiu finally came to her senses: "Jia Sanye, you mean, we don't need to do it when the loom is turned with water?"

Jia Fang smiled: "It's roughly like this. As long as the machine is turned on, the strings will rotate with the wheel, and the whole loom will operate by itself. But the loom still needs people to take care of it, twist the end of the thread, replace the spindle and so on. It’s hands-on. It’s just that with a new machine, one person can take care of multiple looms. The same person can weave several times more fabric than before.”

He turned to Gui Xia to learn again: "Xiao Gui, dare to think and do something. When designing a loom, find a way to add more spindles. Now, how many spindles can you install on a spinning machine at most?...Three spindles? In this way, Xiaogui, when you design, you can consider installing 32 of them."

"32?" The surprised eyes of the women once again showed that most of them thought Jia Fang was joking and bragging.

Gui Xiaxue was very happy to hear it, nodding his head and writing it down on the paper: "32...that's good!"

"Let's do this first. Let's build the workshop first, weave cotton and linen cloth, and then research the hydraulic loom... By then, I can guarantee that the entire Taoyuan Village will no longer be short of cloth to make clothes. In the wallet, there will never be a shortage of circulation coupons."

The women looked at each other in blank dismay, none of them thought that once the "plan" came out, this would be the result.The prospect Jia Fang described to them was so wonderful that it was hard to believe.

But what are the risks behind this? Will the huge costs incurred in the development of hydraulic machinery also be carried on them and become their debts.

While everyone else was still excited, Sister Qiu had already thought of this, she opened her mouth slowly, and asked Jia Fang: "Master Jia, it's not that the little lady wants to throw cold water on you, the little lady just wants... If this If the hydraulic loom can’t be built, or if it can’t be built...whose fault is it?”

Jia Fang laughed when he heard the words: "I just want to discuss with you, everyone's textile factory, I want to take a stake."

——Investing in shares?

The women once again looked at each other in blank dismay. They came to the Investment Promotion Department today to inquire about how to do the "planning" book. Who would have thought that all kinds of new methods and rhetoric would be put in front of them one after another, making them think about it from the beginning to the end? I'm dizzy.

Jia Fang said that he wanted to invest in shares, but what is the method of investing in shares?

But when the women heard what he said, they all felt in their hearts that the risk of running a textile workshop was greatly reduced - after all, Mr. Jia was dragged into the water by them, and this workshop will definitely succeed in the future!