Aristocratic families followed suit and created wool workshops
Chapter 72: Aristocratic families follow the trend and build wool workshops
After the workshop was completed, Chu Huaibei put it into operation immediately. When the first batch of sweaters appeared in the garment workshop, it caused a sensation in the whole city.
It was already past the second day of the second month, and the weather had started to warm up, so many people began to change into lighter coats.
Chu Huaibei asked the waiter in the clothing shop to change into a sweater, one reason being to show how the clothes looked when worn, and the other to prove the warmth-keeping effect of the clothes.
After the wool is dyed, the clothes knitted out have many colors and patterns. Aunt Wen has even developed a way to use colored yarn to weave various floral patterns on sweaters. I have to say, her craftsmanship is not much worse than those bloggers in her previous life!
Sweaters are cheaper than cotton clothes, making them affordable for most families. Children's clothes are especially affordable, and the bright colors make them popular with children.
A month's production was sold out in three days. Of course, we also have to thank the Northern Territory family, as this group of people bought the most.
Chu Huaibei had taken them into account in the first place, in order to allow more people to wear warm clothes. The speed of spread relying solely on the palace was too slow.
The workshop has now recruited a second batch of workers, and those who learned in the first batch will teach the newcomers, so that Aunt Wen can have an easier time.
She never stipulated that the workshop employees were not allowed to work for other families. She was just waiting for the wealthy families to offer high salaries to poach people, which would not only allow the people to make money but also speed up the promotion of knitting technology.
However, one thing that surprised her was that only one of the first batch of employees in the workshop was poached, leaving 19 people who came to work in the workshop every day and had no intention of leaving.
When Chu Huaibei stipulated daily wages, he also took the issue of staff turnover into consideration and gave them maximum freedom.
In just three months, wool workshops in the north began to pop up like mushrooms after rain.
In order to avoid attracting attention, Chu Huaibei did not move his workshop to Fengjing. He simply asked the caravan to bring some finished products and sell them in the shop.
After half a year of development, women in three out of ten households in the northern border worked in workshops everywhere, and their family living standards improved greatly.
Of course, as women earn more money, their status in the family also becomes higher. Many women who were previously treated coldly by their husbands and mothers-in-law gradually straightened their backs.
Everything is slowly progressing as Chu Huaibei hoped.
The noble families of the northern border couldn't understand, and simply thought the King of Zhenbei was doing good for the people. Even Xue Zhan was initially influenced by his mother, and urged her to keep an eye on the workers in the workshop to prevent them from being poached.
"Oh~ I was worried they wouldn't dare to poach people. This is exactly what I want."
"ah??????"
Xue Zhan was so shocked by his prince's thoughts that his brain short-circuited and he couldn't understand it at all.
Chu Huaibei didn't give any extra explanation and asked his family to set up a workshop as well. If they couldn't find someone who could weave, she would send a master to teach him.
Seeing that the prince said so, Xue Zhan did not refuse. His mother was tempted from the beginning, but because of her face, she did not want to do a job that would steal business from the prince's palace.
Qin Feng was much more open-minded than Xue Zhan. At the very beginning, he ran to the palace to ask for her opinion. After getting a definite answer, he quickly built a workshop at home.
It's a pity that he is still there. His family eats hundreds of sheep every year, and all the wool is lost.
Later, they followed Chu Huaibei's advice and shaved all their sheep in June. At that time, the Qin family had the same reaction as when Chu Huaibei first proposed shaving, thinking that Qin Feng was just obsessed with money.
Apart from the Wang Mansion and the Qin Family, only the Zhou Zhifu Family practiced this practice of shearing sheep.
Others remained skeptical, not wanting their sheep to encounter unforeseen problems. From ancient times to the present, they have never sheared sheep.
Some overly pedantic scholars think that this behavior is the same as shaving a person's head. It is too insulting to people, oh no, too insulting to sheep. If you want to kill or cut someone up with just one word, you should die with dignity.
It was not until the winter when the sheep were slaughtered that the managers of the three families discovered that the sheep were fatter than in previous years, and some were even twice as heavy as before. The managers reported the matter to their masters in a daze of disbelief.
Chu Huaibei didn't react much after receiving the news, which was normal. However, the rest of the group were quite shocked. It turns out that shaving really can make you grow fat!
"Dad, if Hengheng shaves his hair, will it grow faster?"
Hengheng was extremely anxious because his father pressed him to the ground and rubbed him every day. He thought it was because he was short and not strong enough.
He had forgotten everything he had learned from books, including the principle that one should not damage one's body and hair, which are gifts from one's parents.
"No, you are not a lamb..."
Chu Huaibei struck without mercy.
"Chu Yiheng, today, please review the Book of Filial Piety with me."
When Du Jiping heard Hengheng's outrageous words, he was so angry that he started calling him by his full name.
"Master, Hengheng is wrong."
Hengheng had a look of despair on his face and followed Du Jiping back to Lancaoyuan to study.
Only Chu Huaibei's gloating laughter remained.
Sun Mingsi glanced at Chu Huaibei helplessly. She never missed any opportunity to tease children. His father had always doted on him, and he had never experienced anything like this.
He took care of the child in the same way as his father did and never made fun of the child. But he saw that Hengheng still loved Huaibei very much and never held a grudge. Maybe this was a special way of getting along between parents and children?
When the Qin family received this news, no one had any opinion about Qin Feng. They just thought that the prince was really amazing, and even his sheep-raising skills were different from those of ordinary people.
Zhou Ming touched his short beard and praised himself for following the King of Zhenbei without hesitation. He knew that the King of Zhenbei would not do this for no reason.
He returned to his study and wrote a letter to Zhou Shangshu, also reporting that shearing sheep in the summer could significantly increase their weight. Nothing that could make money should be left out.
The sweater trend swept the summer and spread to the south in great numbers. It was already late autumn of another year, so I won’t go into details.
In mid-April, after the weather in the north warmed up, Chu Huaibei brought three people who were responsible for looking after the sweet potato seedlings and planted all the potato seedlings on the fields that had already been fertilized in the sugar factory.
Chu Huaibei’s calculation was correct, it was just about one acre of land.
When this land is harvested in October, there will be at least 2,000 kilograms. Assuming 50 kilograms is needed to cultivate 12,000 seedlings, and 3,000 seedlings are needed for one acre, we can plant 10 acres of land next year and 100 acres the year after.
It is enough to distribute potato seedlings to the people.
It is now the seventh year of Jingren, and there are more than two years until the winter of the ninth year of Jingren. I hope my efforts can catch up with that war.
She had already sent people to surround the mountain in Qizhou. No one could enter without her order. She had instructed them to prioritize making three types of defensive weapons. At least 26 of each type, and then place five on each city wall.
The extra ones were the three that were moved from Youzhou to Fengjing. She didn't think the emperor would remember to return them to her after they were built.
In June, the caravan headed to the northwest again to collect debts from the three northwestern tribes.
At the same time, the imperial court received urgent news from Quanzhou in the south that months of heavy rain had caused floods in Quanzhou, causing heavy casualties among the people, and disaster relief was urgent.
The court argued for two whole days about the choice of disaster relief personnel. Finally, the emperor summoned the Minister of Revenue Xu Mingda as the imperial envoy for disaster relief, awarded him the Dragon Roar Sword, and allowed him to execute first and report later if anything happened.
The eldest prince was appointed as the deputy envoy for disaster relief, and he worked with Minister Xu to provide disaster relief.
When the news reached the northern border, Chu Huaibei sneered. The emperor couldn't wait to improve his eldest son's resume and see how he performed this time.
Xu Mingda personally counted the supplies and after confirming that there were enough herbs and food, he notified the eldest prince to set off immediately.
The urgent report only said that there was a flood in Quanzhou, and they still needed to inquire about the details along the way.
The group felt something was wrong as soon as they arrived in Jiangzhou. It was two states away from Quanzhou. There were many pedestrians on the road, and they were all heading north.
Some were traveling in horse-drawn carriages, some were carrying bags and bringing their families with them, and there were even more people in tattered clothes, who looked numb as if they had been walking on the road for a long time.
The further south we went, the more the tree bark and grass roots on the road had been eaten away, and refugees lying on the ground could be seen everywhere on both sides of the road, and it was unknown whether they were dead or alive.
Xu Mingda's face became uglier day by day.
It is not difficult to guess that the flood had already occurred, but the prefect did not report it immediately. Instead, he concealed the true situation until he could no longer conceal it.
When we arrived outside Quanzhou City, we didn't see a single living person except for crows flying by.
The city's originally bluestone streets have been covered in mud and water, and their original appearance is no longer visible. Everywhere is littered with garbage, wood blocks, tiles, and broken porcelain washed down by the flood. The shops along the street have broken doors and spilled goods, creating a mess.
When we found the government office, we saw some living people. Two yamen runners were cleaning the office.
"Where is your prefect?"
Anyone who knew Xu Mingda could tell from his tone that it couldn't be colder.
"I pay my respects to you, sir. The prefect is currently settling the remaining people in the mountains outside the city."
The two yamen runners knelt on the ground in fear and trepidation.
"Stop sweeping, go ahead and lead the way."
"Yes, sir."
The two men quickly got up from the ground and led their men towards the only mountain outside the city.
At this time, Quanzhou prefect Shi Weian comforted the people on the mountain: Don't panic, people from the court should be coming soon, and they will not starve to death here.
When the water level in the river began to rise, Shi Weian arranged for everyone in his family and relatives and friends to move into the mountains, and also stationed people at the foot of the mountain to guard and not allow anyone to approach.
He had originally just been taking precautions, but he hadn't expected that the embankment, which had just been built last year, would have a huge hole in it, and the flood would overflow in an instant.
He watched the embankment being built and knew its importance, so he didn't dare to take too much and only took 12,000 taels of silver!
How come there is such a big hole?
He had no time to think about this problem. He just wanted to keep his official position, so he had the news suppressed and prevented the people in the city from leaving the city at will.
At that time, the water had just overflowed the embankment. In addition, the rain had stopped and the sky began to clear up. He thought it would not rain again. After the water level receded, he had someone fill the gap and the matter would be covered up.
Then it started to rain heavily the next day for half a month, and the floods completely submerged all the nearby villages.
Seeing they were blocked from climbing the mountain, the people waded northward. Those who were more alert were able to bring food with them from their homes, but those who left later left empty-handed, their houses flooded, and there was no food to be found.
Those who can walk out of Quanzhou alive are lucky, as many people are directly washed away by the flood.
In Minzhou, which is adjacent to it to the north, the situation is not much better than that in Quanzhou due to heavy rain for half a month, with floods gushing out from the embankments that have not yet been raised.
Minzhou doesn't even have a high mountain, so the people all went to Liangzhou in the north, thinking that it would be better there. However, the terrain of Liangzhou is even lower than that of Minzhou, and the flood came all the way from the south, so the people had no choice but to run away.
This was the scene that the relief workers saw when they first arrived in Jiangzhou.
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