Chapter 77 Silk and Satin Shop (Li Wangshi)
Zhao Yuanli said: "Master, Li Gu from the bone carving workshop in the village, Li Er from the jewelry shop and Li Wang from the silk and satin shop have all handed it over. So, where should we go first?"
Zhao Zhen said: "What did you say?"
Zhao Yuanli said: "Li Guyan said that the bone bow has been polished and the bone carving has been finished. I also made a few pieces; Li Erchu's jewelry shop was opened; Li Wang's silk shop was also opened, but there was no profit, but a sum of money was withdrawn. It was said that there were not enough clothes, and a batch of silkworm cocoons were collected. "
After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said: "Then let's go to the silk shop first."
The two went to a silk and satin shop. Unlike the small courtyards of farmers elsewhere, there was no courtyard wall along the street, but a row of four houses built as storefronts. The row behind them was used as daily residence. Li Xiaoer and his wife moved here. The left and right wings were used as warehouses.
Entering the silk and satin shop, there were more than thirty pieces of silk and satin of various colors placed in the middle of the counter, and some coarse cloths were placed on the counter on the left for selection. The two rooms on the right are tailoring and sewing places, where Mr. Li is currently sewing new clothes. There were also three or five women there, each with his head down, sewing.
After seeing the two of them entering the shop, Mrs. Li came over to see Li.
Zhao Zhen said: "Wang Qiao is in charge, but are you worried about not making a profit?"
Wang Qiao looked a little nervous and said: "Master, there are not many villagers coming to the silk shop now. When buying silk and satin, only two pieces of coarse cloth were sold in the first half of the business, and there was no one who could make clothes.
Now the first crop of silkworms has spun cocoons, but no one in the village knows how to reel them, so they all sent the cocoons to the shop and collected them as promised. More than 5,000 kilograms of fresh silkworm cocoons were collected and made into dried cocoons. Now they are all made into dried cocoons, weighing about 2,500 kilograms, and about 500 kilograms of silk can be reeled out.
They are all placed in the side room. I asked the farmer and found out that raising silkworms is not too difficult according to the instructions. I just feed the silkworms and clean the silkworm room every day, which does not delay the farming time. The income from one crop of silkworm cocoons is 700 Wen. From April to October every year, four or five crops can be cultivated depending on the number of mulberry leaves.
Seeing the profits, many villagers want to raise silkworms. Nowadays, many people have set aside their side rooms to make silkworm houses. There are ready-made mulberry forests in Liangcun, Zhangzhuang, and Tianzhuang, and people have come to buy silkworms. kind.
It's okay now. I can organize people to reel and weave the cocoons I collected. I'm afraid there will be a backlog if there are more cocoons in the future. "
Zhao Zhen said: "Is reeling troublesome? ”
Wang Qiao said: "In fact, it is not difficult. You can soak the cocoons in hot soup, draw the silk with your hands, and roll it into a silk frame. It just takes a little longer. There is also a hand-operated silk reeling machine, which is much faster. Put a copper coin with a square inside and a round outside on the cocoon pot, pass the thread through the coin, bring the cocoon threads together, and twist them around the silk frame.
I asked Butler Zhao to borrow it. The carpenter has built ten of them now. I heard that there is already a pedal reeling machine, but I have never seen it. I heard that when reeling, you can free up your hands for stringing and adding thread, and it is faster than hand reeling. The car is much faster. At the same time, the cooked cocoons can be moved into a warm water basin for reeling, and a charcoal brazier can be placed under the silk frame to dry the reeled raw silk immediately.
I think reeling is time-consuming and unnecessary. Huge profits can be made, but if we teach the farmers to only collect raw silk in the future, this will not only increase the farmers' income, but also reduce the backlog in the shop. We can even woven silk and satin, and we can collect them according to the quality of the shop in the future. The master requested that we only make ready-made clothes, embroidery, and also do some printing and dyeing, and weave some satin with good patterns."
Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "I will also go to the outside world to find out if there is anything like what you mentioned. "Reeling cart."
Wang Qiao heard this and said: "If there is a pedal reeling cart, we can raise more silkworms in the future. Not only that, if there is a good weaver in the future, we can set up a weaving workshop." , specializing in this is better.”
Zhao Zhen listened and nodded. The idea was indeed a good one, but unfortunately the conditions were not met yet. The Weaver Girl also has to search slowly, and now she can only weave some plain brocade.
While talking, Wang Qiao led Zhao Zhen to the backyard. A dozen women were reeling silk, and there were many people surrounding them. Wang Qiao grabbed a handful of cocoons from the bag, held it in his hand, and said to Zhao Zhen: "Master, look at these, these are the best cocoons."
He pointed to the cocoons in another frame next to him. Said: "Those are inferior silkworm cocoons that cannot be reeled or are not easy to reel. Although they cannot be reeled, they can be used as raw materials for silk, cotton and silk spinning like silkworm clothes."
said He opened a silkworm cocoon and explained to Zhao Zhenxiang the uses of the cocoon coat, cocoon layer and pupa lining in detail.
Zhao Zhen then realized that only the silkworm layer can be reeled, not the entire cocoon. Reeling requires cocoon peeling, cocoon selection, and cocoon cooking before the silk can be extracted from the cocoon through a reeling car. While demonstrating, the woman reeling the silk taught the people around her how to unravel, organize, gather, sheath, unwind, add threads and add threads when the cocoon is finished reeling or decapitated in the middle, and even The winding and drying of raw silk are demonstrated one by one.
From time to time, people would go to the silk reeling cart to experience it. Zhao Zhen watched it from the side. The women Wang Qiao found really taught them meticulously. I feel like I have learned something.
After watching the instruction on silk reeling, Zhao Zhen returned to the shop in front. Zhao Zhen said: "Now that we have begun to teach silk reeling, we don't need to worry about the pedal reeling carts for now. We still need to make more hand-operated reeling carts. Yuanli, you ask the carpenters to make a batch of reeling carts. There will be no wood on the mountain." "Young master, give one to everyone who has learned it. If there is a pedal reeling machine in the future, if anyone is willing to use it, just make it and let them buy it."
Zhao Yuanli listened and nodded in agreement. He said: "Don't worry, owner, this hand-operated silk reeling machine is easy to make. It will be used by all the sericulture farmers in the next round of cocoons."
Wang Qiao next to him also looked happy after hearing this. meaning.
Zhao Zhen said: "Yuanli, you write a batch of vouchers, stamp them all with my seal, and send them to Wang Qiao." Then he said to Wang Qiao, "Wang Li, if you take these vouchers, anyone who learns how to reel silk will Everyone will be given one. It means that you can exchange it for a hand-operated silk reeling cart at my village."
After thinking about it, Zhao Zhen said to Zhao Yuanli: "There are two taverns in the village. Post a notice to explain the matter."
Zhao Yuanli and Wang Qiao responded.
Zhao Zhen asked Wang Qiao: "Li Wang, is there anything else you can do now?"
Wang Qiao led Zhao Zhen to the tailoring office on the east side and said, "Master of the village. , let’s see, these are the clothes the village owner made for the heroes in the village. In five days, they will be complete.”
Zhao Zhen picked up a light blue lock-pattern cross-collar shirt and looked at it. It was made of fine brocade, which was light and breathable and had dense stitches. There is also a moon-white silk tunic, two pairs of shoes, socks, and trousers.
Zhao Zhen nodded with satisfaction and said to Wang Qiao: "Yes, they are all ready and sent to the village."
Wang Qiao agreed and led Zhao Zhen forward. A few steps later, it was Wang Qiao's tailoring place. He pointed to the clothes on the table and said: "Master, this is the emerald blue ten-piece brocade skirt and green flash red satin blouse made for Bai Xiaoniang. They are made now." Okay, do you want to send it to the village now?"
Zhao Zhen said, "We can send it to the village together in five days."
Wang Qiao agreed.
After talking with Wang Qiao, Zhao Zhen and Zhao Yuanli returned to the village.
After dealing with the blacksmith shop and silk shop, Zhao Zhen took a look at his attributes. The main profession, the manor owner, gained a lot of experience.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Good health and abundant financial resources.
I have been busy moving in the past two days, so I am sorry for not updating in time.
(End of this chapter)