Daming Yinghua

When Zheng Haizhu walked into the yard, Han Ximeng's second aunt, Qian Shi, was leading the crowd and standing in front of two completely different spinning machines.

The Qian family was born in a family of landowners in cotton fields in Songjiang. After marrying Han Zhongwen, the Qian family's cotton was mainly supplied to the Han family, who spun, dyed, and weaved.

Therefore, the Qian family, who has always treated Han Ximeng as a daughter, since she is familiar with spinning cotton, heard Dong Erya say that Miss and Miss Zheng asked the Han family for help to invite spinning workers to Chongming to figure out new machines, so she also came to have a look. .

Qian and two spinning women brought a three-spindle pedal spinning machine.

That is the machine that has been used in the Susong area for 400 years, and it was passed down by Huang Daopo.

Nanzhili originally used single-spindle spinning machines.

After Huang Daopo learned more advanced weaving skills from the women of the Li nationality in Hainan, she learned by analogy, and improved the three-spindle spinning machine for spinning hemp in the south of the Yangtze River, so that the three-spindle machine can also spin cotton, so that the cotton thread can be spun. The efficiency has increased by three or four times, keeping up with the speed of raw materials needed for weaving.

The British spinning jenny, since its inception, has eight spindles spinning out the thread. Although the fineness of the yarn may not be as good as that of the Chinese cotton thread, the efficiency is indeed higher.

After Zheng Haizhu came to the late Ming Dynasty, she was in Songjiang Prefecture, which is known as "clothes and quilts in the world". After witnessing the processing and sales of the cotton spinning industry, she wondered why China, which is full of skilled craftsmen, did not produce jenny machines before the West?
Because it is not necessary.

In the late Ming Dynasty, it was not like the European countries in the same period, expanding to the sea and dumping cheap goods.

The volume of foreign trade of the imperial court is very limited, and the demand for silk cloth in the internal circulation is not hungry. Neither political autocracy nor economic form can stimulate the rapid development of textile productivity.

On the territory of late Ming China, which was enjoying the demographic dividend, the three-spindle spinning machine invented by Huang Daopo was able to meet the supply of yarn used for weaving. There were no weavers and other yarn workers. "Three spindles became eight spindles." Where did the motivation come from?
Tang Po's grandmother, a Guangxi woman who can only manage her life within the radius of activities of her official husband, must have had nothing to do with the stimulation of capital to develop the multi-spindle spinning machine.

Perhaps because of this, her work progressed very slowly, stopped with the passing of her life, and was abandoned in the corner of the house, covered with cobwebs and dust, until a traveler was surprised to find it.

But Zheng Haizhu, who has understood Mrs. Tang's mind, has no ability to continue the work of the deceased.

No matter how hard she tried to recall the illustrations of "Jenny's Spinning Machine" in her middle school textbook, she couldn't figure out how to use one wheel to drive several vertical spindles?

Han Ximeng and Fan Polu walked around the loom for several days, but got inspiration from the embroidery technique and the flying stitches of sewing. Under the vertical roving spindles, the same number of cotton yarn rotors were arranged correspondingly. , in the middle is the horizontal axis for collecting finished fine yarns, and the wooden wheel behind the spindles in Huang Daopo's "Three Spindle Spinning Machine" is moved to the side.

After the arrival of the second aunt Qian and the spinning lady, the most critical part was also figured out by these women-the wooden frame and the wooden pole.

"Miss Zheng," Mrs. Qian said to Zheng Haizhu, holding a long branch that Dong Erya picked up from outside, "if there is a wooden frame with slots on both sides of the bars, this branch is like a tree branch. The sliding bar that can be pushed and pulled back and forth in the slot is used to restrain the seven or eight juxtaposed yarns. A few rows of such wooden grids from top to bottom can connect cotton yarn, roving yarn and spun yarn. When the wooden wheel is shaken, the cotton yarn is spun into spun yarn through the roving spindle, and the slide bar is pushed back and forth in this way, just like several three-spindle spinning wheels are spinning spun yarn at the same time."

Ah, after listening to Qian's gestures, Zheng Haizhu finally got the hang of it and understood how the entire transmission should work.

But Qian quickly frowned again: "However, such a change is several times larger than the three-spindle pedal spinning machine we Songjiang people usually use, and the power required is much stronger. If you use cotton thread to connect the hook, if you shake it for half an hour, the thread will snap."

After Mrs. Qian finished speaking, she heard someone outside the door say: "Several masters...several grandmas told me that villains think that beef tendons can be used to wind large and small wooden wheels."

Qian Shi and Han Ximeng looked back, and saw a middle-sized man with a short mustache standing next to Hua Er, a girl from the Liao people outside the door, talking with his head bowed.

Because of this humble attitude, Qian saw at a glance the man's new hair in the coarse cloth turban, which could not even be combed into a bun.

After Mrs. Qian went to the island yesterday, she heard from Han Ximeng that the Liao people recruited by Zheng Haizhu to farm the land and serve as soldiers were all Han Chinese who escaped from the Jurchens outside Kuandian Pass.When Hou Jin enslaved them, he ordered them to shave their heads as smooth as a Jurchen, leaving only a lock of hair the size of a coin at the back of their heads, which was formed into a thin braid.

At this moment, seeing the appearance of the man outside the door, Mrs. Qian asked Zheng Haizhu, "Is this young man from your village?"

Zheng Haizhu nodded and said, "His name is Ah Shan. Because he has some carpentry skills, I will take him to see him today."

Ah Shan was the one who cried out in front of the huts and fields that Hou Jin forced food to kill people. When he first landed on the island, he looked thinner than the wild dogs on the road. He gained weight after two months of eating, and his eyes began to shine, but He still bowed his waist habitually when speaking, and he didn't even completely get rid of the habit of "Master, Master" when he opened his mouth.

Mrs. Qian looked at the courtyard, it was full of women, even if Fan Polu hadn't left the cabinet, the little girl was still a female steward who supervised many male sewing workers on weekdays.

Qian then greeted Ah Shan kindly: "Come in, take a look at these wooden wheels, and give us some advice."

Ah Shan hurriedly crossed the threshold, walked to the eight-spindle spinning machine, stretched out his hand, turned the wooden wheel, gestured with his thumb to measure the width of the hub, and then pulled the thread on the wheel of the traditional three-spindle spinning machine.

Han Ximeng is proficient in embroidery, and he usually focuses on the subtleties. When his eyes fell, he saw that Ah Shan's left thumb was particularly thick and thick with calluses. Looking at the rest of his movements, he clearly used his right hand.

Han Ximeng couldn't help being curious, this carpenter is not left-handed, it stands to reason that the left hand is not as strong as the right hand, why is the thumb of the left hand like this?Could it be that in the carpenter's business, there is any work that is supported by the left hand?
I just heard Zheng Haizhu say: "Ah Shan, you carpenters, do you want to peel the tendons?"

The tone was very flat, even with a hint of tenderness, I hope this young man doesn't have to be nervous to answer.

Ah Shan took a few steps back, still not daring to look at the dazzling women in front of him, and said with lowered eyelids, "Mrs. Do this job. In Nanzhili, there are more cows than deer, so you can use beef tendon for the small ones.”

Mrs. Qian glanced at Ah Shan, then at Hua Er who was repairing the mule cart outside the door, and looked at Zheng Haizhu: "These people you recruited, not to mention their duties, have their own skills, which is really good."

Zheng Haizhu looked at Ah Shan, and said with a smile: "Just as you said, use beef tendons to tie it up, and see if it can be moved. If it is done, it will be the same as making a cannon cart, and I will give you a reward."