Chapter 961 Chapter 961, knitting a sweater
During the Chinese New Year, Daozi fell in love with going out and playing. Every day as soon as she opened her eyes, she would pull Xiao Yeyang out of the house.
Xiao Yeyang had nothing to do and was happy to accompany his son. He would take Daozi out of the house every day, either to go shopping or to listen to storytelling in a teahouse.
As the highest official in Xiliang, Xiao Yeyang is always watched wherever he goes.
From the first day of the Lunar New Year to the Lantern Festival, Xiao Yeyang met almost all the officials in Liangdu with his son.
"I have to go to the government office tomorrow. Let me feed my son."
Daozi sat on his special children's chair and let Daohua feed him rice one spoonful at a time.
The little guy is very active. Ever since he learned to walk and run, he has been extremely uncooperative during meal times. He either runs to play with this or runs to get that.
Daohua custom-made a children's chair for him, and every time it was time to eat, she would carry him to the chair and sit down. This gradually helped him to change his habit of running around.
Daohua handed the bowl of rice to Xiao Yeyang, and then started eating her own.
Daozi took two bites of the rice Xiao Yeyang fed her, then snatched the spoon and wanted to eat it herself.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold the spoon properly, so I either couldn’t scoop up the food or couldn’t feed the food into my mouth.
Xiao Yeyang was getting anxious watching from the side and was about to snatch the spoon from his son's hand to feed him himself, but was stopped by Daohua.
Daohua handed Xiao Yeyang another spoon: "You feed yours, and let your son imitate himself."
Next, as Xiao Yeyang fed it, Daozi imitated him repeatedly, and finally succeeded in holding the spoon in its mouth.
After dinner, Daohua took her son to the house to digest the food, while Xiao Yeyang sat on a recliner and watched the news coming from all over.
"Now that the threat from Western Liao has been temporarily eliminated, Xiliang must develop quickly."
"In the past, the people here suffered from war for years, and social development was severely hindered. Now that there are no external threats, all the problems that existed before should be solved."
"Now that I have taken over Xiliang, I must restore people's livelihood."
Rice Flower: "What do you want to do?"
Xiao Yeyang thought for a moment and said, "The most fundamental thing about managing a piece of land is to ensure that the local people have enough food and clothing. The promotion of high-yield grain varieties is now being carried out in an orderly manner, but economic development cannot rely solely on this."
"The official roads in Xiliang are in such poor condition. I want to renovate several of the main official roads in Xiliang. The stone factory has produced a lot of cement, so I'll use it to build the roads."
"There are also post stations. Not only are there too few of them, but they are also in a state of disrepair and too far apart, making it very difficult for passing merchants to rest."
After hearing what Xiao Yeyang said, Daohua smiled and said, "You have a good idea. There's a saying that goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. I support you."
"Xiliang is a large area, and only when the roads are easy to travel on can we attract people from other places. With more people moving around, the economy will naturally grow."
"However, infrastructure construction requires a huge amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Does the Dusi have enough resources?"
Xiao Yeyang smiled and said, "The Wei family left behind a lot of silver, which can sustain us for a while. Every year, each garrison can also collect a batch of tax silver. I plan to let the border troops build the road and treat it as training."
Seeing that Xiao Yeyang had thought it through, Daohua didn't ask any more questions. However, when she saw him rubbing his forehead again, she couldn't help but ask, "You've already made all the arrangements, so what are you worrying about?"
Xiao Yeyang sighed, "I'm worried about the soldiers stationed at the border. Most of them haven't married yet, and many of them are already quite old. Seeing them guarding the border without even a descendant to burn incense for them, I feel a little annoyed."
Daohua was silent. She had no way to solve this problem.
Xiao Yeyang suddenly said, "The court raids the homes of powerful officials every year. These officials keep many maids in their homes. I might as well submit a petition to my uncle the Emperor and ask him to send the maids from the prisoners' homes to be wives for the border soldiers."
The more Xiao Yeyang talked about it, the better he thought this idea was.
Daohua reminded him, "If you want to marry off your soldiers, don't you have to build a house for their families to live in first?"
Xiao Yeyang nodded and said, "I will set aside a piece of land near Jiangjun Town to build a house." After that, he hurriedly got up and went straight to write the memorial.
He is so active, which shows that he is always worried about the marriage of his soldiers.
After the Lantern Festival, Xiao Yeyang started to get busy again.
In February, when spring plowing begins in various places, rice flowers also become busy.
The climate in Liangdu is better than that in Ganzhouwei. By mid-February, the temperature is not so cold anymore and it is time to sow seeds.
Daohua had bought two farms and a ranch before, but had never visited them. Taking advantage of the spring plowing season, she planned to take her son to see them.
As for the tens of thousands of acres of wasteland, there were no major requirements for rice in the first year, so the tenants were allowed to plant some corn and potatoes to maintain the land, and dig canals at the same time.
In early March, the temperature had warmed up noticeably, and Daohua took the rice out of the house and headed straight for the farms and pastures outside the city.
As the most aristocratic family in Xiliang, the Wei family naturally owns the best manors and ranches.
The fields of the two farms were both top-quality fertile land. Seeing that the tenants were cultivating the land in an orderly manner, Daohua did not stay long and went directly to the pasture.
This pasture is not as big as the one that Daohua bought in Ganzhouwei, but it has a good location and the grass grows lushly.
When Daohua bought the ranch, he bought all the cattle and sheep raised in the ranch. When the carriage drove into the ranch, he happened to see the herdsmen shearing the sheep.
Seeing Daohua staring at him, Yan Shouhou quickly said, “The sheep raised on this ranch are of the sheep breed, and their wool can be harvested once every spring and autumn.”
Daohua asked, "What will they do with the wool?"
Yan Shouhou: "They would sell the wool to merchants, who would twist it into yarn and then weave it into wool blankets and felt."
Rice Flower thought of the woolen sweater she wore in her previous life and asked, "Doesn't anyone make sweaters with wool?"
Yan Shouhou was silent for a moment. "Compared to cotton clothes, woolen clothes are still too expensive. I haven't heard much about them."
Daohua nodded and said, "Don't sell this batch of wool. Let the ranch people wash it and send it to the mansion. I have other uses for it."
After that, Daohua took Daozi to play in the pasture for a while, and then went home.
After returning home, Daohua drew knitting needles for large sweaters and gave them to Guyu, asking her to ask the carpenter in the mansion to make a few sets.
In mid-March, Yan Shouhou delivered several boxes of washed wool to the palace.
There were maids and old women in the mansion who knew how to spin yarn. Daohua found a few of them and asked them to spin wool yarn of different thicknesses according to her requirements.
After that, I bought some dye to color the wool. By the time I had finished dyeing all the wool, it was already the end of March.
"What are you going to do?"
The rice flowers were making quite a noise, which attracted Guo Ruomei over.
Daohua smiled and said, "I want to use wool to knit clothes."
Guo Ruomei: "Just let the servants do these things, why do you have to do it yourself?"
Daohua: "They don't know how to make what I want to make." After saying that, she took out two knitting needles and started knitting in front of Guo Ruomei.
"Wool blankets and felts woven on textile machines are simply unaffordable for ordinary people, but those made with bamboo needles like mine are affordable for many people."
Watching the rice flowers weave a piece of cloth in a short while, Guo Ruomei was surprised: "I only knew that a loom could weave cloth, but I didn't expect that two bamboo sticks could also weave."
As he said that, he looked at Daohua in surprise, "How do you know this?"
Daohua: "I read it in a storybook."
(End of this chapter)
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