Chapter 145 Getting Rich

"Sister!" The Su family's broken courtyard was crowded with people watching the excitement. When Xiao Tao saw Su Ying, she hurriedly shouted.

"What's the matter, Xiaotao!" Su Ying was confused.

"Look, there are so many good things!" Xiaotao took her sister's hand. There were several bundles of cotton, plain gauze and linen cloth in the yard.

"Did you give this to me?" Su Ying turned around and asked Hu Erlang.

The villagers cannot afford these things. Cotton is a precious commodity, and fine gauze and linen are worn by wealthy people.

Poor families cannot afford them, nor can they afford them, and they are rare in county towns.

Among the people present, the most likely one was Hu Erlang, whose family owned a grocery store in the county town.

"Ahem, yes!" Hu Erlang coughed lightly and said in a low voice.

"I'm going on a long journey with Master Fu in a few days. I may not be back for the New Year. The weather is getting colder, and I thought your family might need these things to keep warm. They're cheaper in the state capital, so I brought some along on the way."

He was exiled thousands of miles away. It was summer at the time and he only brought thin bedding, which would not have allowed him to survive the winter.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Su Ying thanked him. "I was just wondering where to buy it, and you brought it to me. It's just in time! How much is it? I'll give you the money."

Su Ying knew that the money her family earned these days was not enough to pay the bill, but she couldn't pretend to be ignorant and not pay.

"Don't!" Hu Erlang waved his hand and whispered to Su Ying.

"This is a thank you gift. Because of your vermicelli, my grocery store is booming. Now that I've met Mr. Fu, the future will only be better! This little bit is my thank you."

"How can I do this? But Mr. Hu is so kind that I can't refuse him, so I would be disrespectful to do so!" Su Ying thanked him with a smile, thinking about how to repay him.

This cotton is not the cotton grown in modern farmland, but kapok.

In ancient times, the ways of keeping warm were different in the north and the south. The rich people in the north used silk quilts, furs, fox skins and other animal furs to keep warm.

In the south, people fill their quilts with materials such as duck down and kapok to keep warm.

The poor used reed fluff as filling, which was not warm at all. In ancient winters, the poor either starved to death or froze to death.

Kapok is the white fiber inside the seeds of the kapok tree after they burst open. This kind of kapok fiber is short and has poor toughness and cannot be woven.

Moreover, the kapok tree has a long growth cycle, is afraid of cold and is not cold-resistant, and is only suitable for growing in parts of the south. Therefore, kapok has never become the main means of keeping out the cold.

The cotton used in later generations first appeared in the Indus River Basin. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, cotton was introduced into the Central Plains from the Southeast Asian countries.

But due to problems with textile technology, people did not recognize its value and only used it as an ornamental plant.

Gaochang was a cotton-producing area in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang army destroyed Gaochang and brought cotton planting technology back to the Central Plains.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, cotton was grown in several areas of the Central Plains, and only the powerful and wealthy could afford to wear clothes made of cotton.

At that time, Qiongzhou had the most advanced cotton spinning technology, and Li women were good at spinning.

Huang Dao Po brought cotton textile technology and production tools back to the mainland from Qiongzhou and taught them, which greatly improved the mainland's textile technology.

Cotton truly became affordable clothing for ordinary people thanks to Zhu Yuanzhang's vigorous promotion of cotton planting across the country in the early Ming Dynasty.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of their status, or whether they were from the north or the south, the people of the Ming Dynasty all wore cotton clothing to keep warm, and this practice has continued to this day.

At this time, the cotton and cloth sent by Hu Erlang were extremely precious to the Su family.

Although Lingnan is not as cold as the north, the winter is still cold, wet and cold with a large temperature difference between morning and evening.

It is now late autumn, and the Su family covers themselves with their clothes at night. They are all thin summer clothes, so they feel cool when they sleep all night.

Su Ying asked her brothers to move the things into the house, took out honey and mixed it with water for Hu Erlang and Fu Zhong, father and son, to drink.

Fu Zhong only knew that these fugitives came from Chang'an, but he didn't expect that they were dignitaries of the previous dynasty. Fu Zhong was nervous, afraid of being recognized, and silently thought of his excuse.

From the conversation between Hu Erlang and Su Ying, he heard that the Su family was exiled by Tian Khan not long ago.

He was in the position of Shaofu and rarely inquired about news from the court.

From what he heard, it seemed that it was because of the locust plague in the capital. He vaguely heard that an official was punished for angering the Khan by exterminating locusts. Could it be this Su family?

Normally, the exiles are very miserable, but why are all the exiles here smiling, with light in their eyes, and full of vitality?

This place was so different from what he had known before.

"Let's go!" Su Ying took out a few veiled hats, a few empty buckets, and bamboo swords, and wrapped the exposed parts of her hands with cloth.

He took several brothers, Hu Erlang, and Fu Zhong and his son into the woods.

Fu Zhong was from Jiangnan. When he was young, his family suffered a misfortune and he went to the capital to become a eunuch.

When I was young, I went into the mountains and saw wild bees. Now I am entering the woods fully armed, and I can’t help but wonder what artificial beekeeping is like.

Fuwang had never seen anything like this before. He looked around with curiosity and lifted his veil from time to time to look around.

A buzzing bee flew over her head, and she was so scared that she quickly dropped her veil.

Start by going to the five beehives you initially placed.

Su Ying asked everyone not to come close and she went forward with an empty bucket to operate.

There was a strong aroma of honey in the air, and you could tell without even looking that the beehive was full of honey.

Carefully pull out the partition, it is covered with honeycombs, the honey inside overflows and keeps dripping down, pulling out long threads.

Use a bamboo knife to cut the honey. There is still a lot of honey in the hive. There is no rotor to shake the honey, otherwise all the honey in the hive can be shaken out.

The honey in the partitions was cut off one by one, and one beehive contained half a bucket of honey.

He came over carrying honey, and everyone looked at him with joy.

The thick honey exuded a fresh and sweet fragrance, attracting bees to fly over following the scent. Su Ying quickly closed the lid.

"Can a beehive produce so much?" Hu Erlang asked in surprise.

If beehives were placed on all the hundreds of thousands of mountains here, how much honey could be produced in a year?

Fu Zhong was also greatly shocked.

I had only heard of artificial beekeeping but had never seen it. The nobles in the palace were so noble that they could hardly get a small jar of honey in a year.

Most of them are wild bees picked from cliffs. I have never seen such safe and simple artificial beekeeping as this.

I cut down the other beehives one by one. The first five beehives produced the most honey, while the others produced less, but the output was still quite high.

The seven or eight wooden barrels we brought were almost unable to hold all the items.

Everyone carried the wooden barrel out of the woods. The villagers and children who had received the message had been waiting for a long time.

"Aying, how is it? Is there too much honey?" Madam Zheng asked loudly.

"Too many! It's almost full! I'll make some beehives another day!" Su Ying smiled and opened the lid to show the villagers.

"Oh my God! Such a big bucket!" exclaimed the villagers and children.

With several large buckets of honey, even the air is sweet.

"We're rich!" someone said excitedly.

"Of course, Hu Langjun and the others want all this honey!" Su Ying said with a smile.

"Great! Great!" The villagers felt like they had become nouveau riche.

This honey is much more valuable than vermicelli, and it is easier to make than vermicelli. Just put the beehive in the woods and you will have honey after a while.

"Aying, can we eat honey now?" a child asked eagerly. He hadn't eaten sweets for a long time and was craving for them.

"Don't be impatient, wait a minute, everyone will be able to drink!" Su Ying said with a smile.

The honey in the wooden barrel must be put into a jar for easy transportation to the county town. There will be a lot of honey left in the barrel, which can be mixed with water for the children to drink to satisfy their cravings.