Chapter 84 Chapter 84 Wearing New Clothes
As summer arrived, the cotton planted in spring began to harvest, and Lingzhou's two textile workshops officially opened. Shi Jin and Xu Yan were the managers of the two workshops respectively.
As for Yao Niang, now that someone is in charge of the workshop, she has given up the position of manager. Rather than managing the workshop, she prefers to study how to make more things with cotton and wool.
Lin Si agreed and assigned her and Ding Pu to a small department, the Technical Department.
After Ding Pu stopped working as a blacksmith, he became more cheerful, his skin became smoother, and his figure became thinner. In short, everything about him was right.
After making the gunpowder, he asked Lin Si for a book to read and made a suggestion to Lin Si.
"My Lady, I think that in order to reduce our casualties, we can create several weapons like the one in the 'Compendium of Firearms'. They can be used not only by our troops but also by the fifth watch."
Lin Si was very surprised. "The sun is rising from the west. Can a salted fish turn over?"
Ding Pu shrank his neck and said, "County, County Master, if I don't find something for myself to do, what will you do if you send me to work as a blacksmith? I don't want to do that."
Lin Si knew this, so he deliberately said, "But gunpowder and firearms are dangerous. If you are not careful, you may lose your life."
Unexpectedly, Ding Pu showed a salty smile and said, "I would rather be blown to death than work as a blacksmith."
In this way, Ding Pu successfully secured for himself a job that would take some time to produce results. During this period of time, he would definitely not be sent to forge iron or do other physical work.
That's great.
To make firearms, one not only needs to understand the principles, but also to have close contact with the blacksmith.
Ding Pu used to hate the quenching step in blacksmithing the most. It would burn him so much that he almost cooked himself.
Therefore, when he returned to Li County and saw Zhao An and Tao Yanghui teaching students, he stayed away from them.
Zhao An is the dean of the blacksmith major in the technical school, and Tao Yanghui is the vice-dean. Both of them teach the students personally.
Students majoring in blacksmithing are the same as those majoring in carpentry. As long as they study hard and get passing grades while in school, they will be assigned to a workshop and have work to do directly as workers.
Ding Pu held a glass of boiled water and drank while waiting for Zhao An and Tao Yanghui to finish class.
The three decided to have dinner at a small restaurant in Li County.
If you ask which place on Xihe Road is the richest now, it must be Li County. In the past, Li County only had breakfast stalls, but now it has restaurants, and the business is pretty good.
Nowadays, many people find cooking tiring and troublesome, so they just have a quick meal in a restaurant.
This trend became even more prevalent after some poor families and businessmen brought their children to Li County to attend school, especially among businessmen.
There are no empty houses for sale to them in Li County now, so they rent some dilapidated empty houses, spend some money to hire people to renovate them, and live there barely enough.
The house was narrow, and the slaves' household registration had to be re-registered in Xihe Road. They could not be brought here before it was completed. In order to help their children familiarize themselves with the environment, some people came to Li County first.
As a result, the merchants and their wives who had never done housework could only take their children to eat out every day.
The three of them came to the restaurant. There were already several tables occupied by families with children. They could faintly hear some words like "The restoration of the family depends on my son/daughter".
Order the dishes and boiled water.
Ding Pu spoke first, "I came back this time to discuss cooperation with your technical school. I'll go to the carpentry department tomorrow. Today, the three of us will catch up."
Tao Yanghui raised his glass of boiled water and said, "I also want to tell you something today. You haven't been in Li County recently, so you don't know. I'm getting married in the second half of the year."
Ding Pu's pupils trembled. "When did it happen?"
Tao Yanghui patted Zhao An's strong arm and said, "Not only me, Zhao An has also seen the girl. Isn't this responding to the county lady's call for free love?"
Free love is the special issue of this month's newspaper. The viewpoint is to oppose blind marriage and encourage young girls and men to have more contact with each other, which is the so-called blind date.
However, the age for marriage remains unchanged.
Tao Yanghui was rarely shy: "We are in a free love relationship as advocated by the county lady. We are not seeing each other. She was the daughter of a blacksmith who I became his apprentice. She was interested in me even then because she thought I was ambitious and studious."
Ding Pu suddenly realized, "Yes, we have followed the county lady to Xihe Road for six years, and it is time to get married."
Tao Yanghui teased, "How about the girl you went to see the day before yesterday?"
Zhao An was silent for a moment. "She thought I spoke too little and asked me if I was mute."
Tao Yanghui and Ding Pu burst into laughter at Zhao An's words.
Ding Pu's smile was just beginning to spread when a voice filled with shock came crashing down on him: "Ding Pu?! Why are you here?! You're not dead!"
Ding Pu shuddered all over and turned his head towards the sound - the burly man in front of him with an unshaven beard and wide-open eyes was none other than his blacksmith master from back then.
Thinking back to those days, he covered his heart with his hands, looking miserable because his eighty-year-old mother was critically ill at home. He said he must go back, but of course he never came back and there was no news from him.
Ding Pu had even forgotten about this person, who would have thought to meet him here.
Ding Pu's eyes rolled, and he was just thinking about how to make up an excuse when he saw the young man holding his hand: "My little apprentice, you are not dead? I thought you were in trouble. I paid so much apprenticeship fee, but I didn't learn much skills. I thought you must have run away."
Ding Pu:......
"I did encounter some problems at that time, but luckily I was lucky." Ding Pu coughed twice and tried to force a smile of surviving a disaster.
The blacksmith looked at Zhao An and Tao Yanghui again and asked, "Isn't this Dean Zhao and Dean Tao?"
Zhao An and Tao Yanghui knew Ding Pu's character very well, so they knew what was going on without having to guess. The two of them spent a long time trying to smooth things over for Ding Pu.
They invited Master Cao to give lectures to students, and he didn't know about this incident at the time.
After coaxing the master away, they finished their meal and then found a place to discuss business.
Zhao An rarely took the initiative to speak. "Given your personality, you're so proactive. Are you planning to start a fight?"
Ding Pu shook his head, "No."
Tao Yanghui: "You even hid it from us?"
Ding Pu: "Really? I'm just looking for something to do. What if I'm assigned to do manual labor again?"
Ding Pu took out his drawings and said, "I want to make a few for the troops to try out and see which ones they find useful." He then pointed to the drawings in the first chapter and said, "One of them is this gunpowder arrow. It's quite simple to make. Just wrap the gunpowder in oil paper, tie it to the back of the arrowhead, insert the fuse, and ignite it before shooting."
Zhao An and Tao Yanghui exclaimed in amazement, "This thing is great, it can burn the enemy's food supplies."
"The second is the fireball, which uses iron. And the arquebus, which is much more difficult to make. It will take a long time to figure it out, so we won't be able to catch up in the near future."
Zhao An scratched his head, "Why do I feel like these are all very useful? People in other places still use swords."
Ding Pu: "That's not necessarily true. The county lady said that we have no horses, only infantry. If we don't work on our weapons, we're probably going to lose."
After some research and discussion, the three decided to make the simplest gunpowder arrow first.
They have been living a good life under Lin Si's rule, so it is absolutely impossible to let them return to Dachen's rule.
The three of them sighed, "The county lady must not lose."
*
The Buqu team also plans to expand its enrollment. Nan Shuang and Nan Qiao will be the chief examiners, and those who want to sign up can participate voluntarily.
Although this part is called a part, everyone knows that it is just about serving in the army.
If they were the palace soldiers in the past, they would not be able to be recruited, but now everyone is scrambling to serve as Lin Si's subordinates.
There is only one reason, the treatment is good and you can eat meat every day!
As a result, when the recruitment notice of the Buqu came out, the literate county magistrate read it at the top, and everyone below was dumbfounded.
"Buqu also requires a night school diploma? Such strict requirements."
"You thought it was so easy to eat meat every day."
"I'm not good at reading and writing. I was planning to sign up, but now it seems I've given up."
"I saw you swearing yesterday that you would join the army no matter what!"
"Yesterday is yesterday, and today is today."
"I really want to eat meat."
"Then you should go to night school."
"I don't have the time for that."
The people talked to each other, and all their original thoughts disappeared.
After all, attending night school takes time and money, and it is difficult to learn to read. It would be better to farm instead of spending that time.
Nie Congran was on duty today. He heard that cotton was harvested in the summer and cotton cloth was woven in the textile workshops, so he was eagerly waiting to buy it.
The two younger sisters in the family have long wanted to wear new clothes that don’t prick them. The three of them saved money for half a year and finally bought a piece of cotton cloth in full today.
Nie Congran walked past the signboard holding cotton cloth, which made people who knew him before look jealous.
"It's only been a short time since I became a military officer, and I can already afford to buy cloth!"
"Let's go ask why they didn't require night school when they were selecting people from the palace soldiers to join the army. Mr. Nie couldn't read before."
Nie Congran hugged the cotton cloth and answered honestly, "It wasn't required at the time, but later on I still had to take classes to learn to read, and I also had to take exams. If I failed, I couldn't stay."
Only then did they give up and give up.
Nie Congran continued to carry the cloth home, his mind full of thoughts of giving his two sisters a surprise.
"Look, what did I buy?"
Nie Congyan's eyes lit up. "It's cotton cloth. Didn't they say they didn't know when it would go on sale?"
Nie Congran raised his chin and said, "I wait outside the textile workshop every day after get off work. This is the first piece of cloth produced and sold by the Lingzhou textile workshop."
Nie Congxu was also happy, muttering "new clothes, new clothes".
Nie Congyan couldn't wait to touch the plain white cotton cloth. It was indeed soft and comfortable, many times better than linen.
She was full of confidence. "Tomorrow I will burn some ashes, and then go with Ah Xu to find some indigo leaves, dye the cloth and make some clothes."
The three siblings all felt that the linen clothes on their bodies were even more prickly.
But just bear with it for a few more days and you’ll be able to wear new clothes!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com