With six or seven more helpers to run errands, Qiao Xin's burden was suddenly much lighter.
She didn't have to run the bookstore herself. Her granddaughters helped to keep the accounts, and she assigned a capable manager to coordinate matters between the bookstore and the music workshop. Basically, there would be no problems with the tower. If she really couldn't make up her mind about something, she could come and ask Qiao Xin for advice. It was always much more relaxed than having Qiao Xin take care of everything personally.
The sunflowers planted in Yunxi Town are almost ready for harvest. Taking advantage of the good weather in the past two days, Qiao Xin has sent people to guide the harvest. The emperor of Linshui Town reclaimed half of the land, and Qiao Xin used it to grow ramie, and the other half was planted with late rice.
As soon as the early rice in Laohu Town was harvested, the restless men took the initiative to go over and help their employer harvest the rice. Qiao Xin did not expect that everyone would be so enthusiastic!
How can we not be positive? Just look at the neighboring Hunshui Village, which is still submerged in flood water this year, and the flood victims from Weizhou City who have come in batches, been resettled, and sent back to their hometowns. You can see what the situation is like outside now.
In comparison, their Laohu Town has avoided one natural disaster after another and has had bumper harvests year after year. Isn't that the happiest thing?
All this is thanks to the leadership of the Qiao family. Now the old lady said that after the harvest is completed, she will lead everyone to plant another season of cabbage and radish, so that everyone can stock up enough cabbage and radish before winter comes.
When the time comes, whether you keep it for yourself or take it to the street to exchange for money is not entirely up to you, right?
In that case, what are you waiting for? This group of energetic men wandered around several towns, hoping to get the Qiao family to store all the autumn grain in one day.
Seeing that everyone was enthusiastic and noisy, Qiao Xin knew what to do. So she let the newly appointed manager lead everyone to harvest the crops in each village, arranged meals and wages for them every day, and then left them alone.
Qiao Xin, who originally planned to rest for a few days, turned around and received news from the Niu Dabao brothers.
The seed remover and cotton popping machine are ready!
Everyone doesn’t know what to do, and needs Qiao Xin to go over and take a look!
Well, my vacation plan has gone down the drain again!
This matter really cannot be delayed. Whether everyone can cover themselves with warm quilts this winter depends on this one move.
The winters in Laohu Town are extremely cold, not to mention the conditions for surviving the winter.
Poor families stuffed leaves, dead grass, reeds and other materials into sacks to keep warm, and some simply built their nests on the thatched piles in the kitchen. Some people would rather sleep in the host's cowshed or sheepfold than return to the bare ice house.
Those with slightly better conditions could afford one or two quilts made of kapok wool, but they were hard and prickly, leaving your skin covered with bumps after sleeping on them for a night.
When Qiao Xin first came, she used the same quilt for two months. I can't forget that feeling.
Silk quilts, fur quilts, and feather quilts can easily cost hundreds or even thousands of taels each. That is a treatment that only the masters of large families can afford!
It was only after she escaped from the bandit's den that Qiao Xin was willing to buy good quilts for her family, but these could never replace the position of cotton quilts in Qiao Xin's mind.
Soft, warm, and durable. Apart from not being wrinkle-resistant and having fewer colors, there is really nothing wrong with it.
Niu Dabao looked at Qiao Xin eagerly, tinkering with the parts one by one. He had never seen this thing before, and it was all adapted from the drawings sent by the old lady.
Qiao Xin took a look around and couldn't help but sigh that the brothers' craftsmanship had improved. Look at the wood, each one was polished to a smooth finish and felt great.
"No problem, assemble it!"
"Why!"
After getting the news, the Niu Dabao brothers immediately took action. They took a look at a basket of scattered parts and found the one they wanted.
This way, he knew his work clearly. After a while, a strange machine half a person's height stood in front of everyone.
A bracket was fixed on a square wooden board, and two wooden shafts were placed horizontally on the top of the bracket, one above and one below, of the same length, with only a thin piece of paper between them. Qiao Xin originally wanted to install an iron shaft and a wooden shaft. However, iron was too expensive, and it was difficult to buy materials even if she had money.
In desperation, they had to replace the shaft with a sturdy wooden one. Although the parts wore out quickly, wood was cheaper and easier to obtain than iron. At worst, they could ask the Niu Dabao brothers to prepare more parts to offset the loss.
There is a crank on the right side of the axle. When working, the crank is turned by the right hand, and the mill shaft connected to the crank rotates accordingly. A person sitting next to it steps on the pedal with his left foot to rotate the upper and lower shafts. The two shafts rotate in opposite directions and squeeze each other.
After the left hand adds cotton between the axles, the cotton wool and cotton seeds are automatically separated under the pressure of the two axles. The cotton wool is taken out of the basket in front of the car, and the cotton seeds fall into the basket at the back of the car.
After someone brought a basket of cotton over, Qiao Xin sat in front of the embossing machine and demonstrated it herself.
As long as the machine is made, embossing is a simple job. The speed is not as fast as manual labor. Just such an improved version of a single-person embossing machine can emboss at least 100 kilograms of cotton a day. This efficiency is naturally not comparable to modern machines, but compared with the three-person embossing machine of this era, it saves a lot of manpower.
In fact, embossing machines have appeared in the south a long time ago, but it only takes three people to operate one machine, and the distance between the two axes is relatively large. They are generally used for other purposes. Moreover, the machine drawings are controlled by large families, and ordinary people rarely see them.
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