People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 766 Chen Han Introduces the Franchise Method!

The next morning, the sound of looms from the Songjiang workshops echoed along both banks of the canal.

Zhu Youwei stood in front of the dye house, her fingertips twirling a strand of freshly spun cotton thread. Sunlight streamed through her fingers, making the thread glisten.

"The beauty of Songjiang cloth lies primarily in its cotton yarn," she said, turning to Wenniang. "Look at the length of these fibers; they are 30% longer than those of ordinary cotton."

Wen Niang took the cotton thread and gently stroked it, then suddenly exclaimed softly, "This feels as smooth as silk!"

Chen Han walked over from the dye vat, his official robe cuffs stained with indigo dye. He unfolded a piece of undyed cloth and held it up to the light, where fine cloud patterns immediately appeared. "Songjiang cloth has even warp and weft, with 120 threads per inch. Even the best looms in Hangzhou can only produce 80 threads."

The creaking of wooden wheels came from the backyard of the workshop. Old Master Zhou, accompanied by two craftsmen, pushed in a wheelbarrow piled high with freshly picked cotton bolls. The old man picked one up, broke it open, and found seven plump seeds nestled among the snow-white cotton fibers.

“Most cotton bolls in Songjiang have five seeds, but this one has seven.” The old man scraped the surface of the cotton seeds with his fingernail. “Look at this waxy layer. It will naturally lubricate the yarn when spinning, so there’s no need to sizing it.”

Zhu Youwei took the cotton boll and gently pulled it, the cotton fibers stretching out three inches without breaking. Suddenly remembering something, she turned to Wen Niang and asked, "How long were the fibers in the batch of Taicang cotton we collected yesterday?"

"At most two and a half inches." Wen Niang took out a piece of cloth from her purse at her waist. "And it's prone to pilling."

Several weavers gathered around to compare the two types of cotton. Liu Niang boldly touched it and exclaimed in surprise, "This Songjiang cotton feels like touching a baby's face, so soft and smooth."

Just then, Lin San Niang arrived with three horse-drawn carriages, accompanied by the women's army from Hangzhou. The carriages were piled with various fabrics, with a dark red Ning silk on top.

"As instructed by the princess, I have brought samples of the finest fabrics from various prefectures in Jiangnan." Lin San Niang unfolded a bolt of Huzhou silk. "This is the most expensive; one bolt costs six taels of silver."

Zhu Youwei laid the Songjiang raw cloth and silk fabric side by side on the stone table. Everyone held their breath and watched, seeing the sunlight shining brightly through the silk fabric, but turning into a soft, diffused color on the Songjiang cloth.

“Silk and brocade excel in their luster, while cotton is superior in its breathability.” She tapped her fingers lightly on the table. “But what if we could combine the strengths of both…”

Suddenly, Wen Niang exclaimed "Ah!" and brought out a ceramic jar from the corner of the dye shop. "Your Highness, look at this! The cotton thread that was soaked in soy milk last time has a silky sheen after dyeing!"

Chen Han took the jar and examined it closely. The indigo cotton thread inside indeed shimmered with a pearly luster. He dipped his finger in water and wrote the words "slurry" on the stone slab: "The Hangzhou Textile Bureau uses rice slurry; perhaps we could give it a try..."

“Use soy milk,” Zhu Youwei interrupted him. “Songjiang is rich in soybeans, which are 30% cheaper than rice.”

Grandpa Zhou slammed his cane down heavily: "I remember now! The family recipe mentions that mixing soy milk with mulberry leaf juice will produce an exceptionally bright blue color."

Everyone busied themselves with their tasks. Wenniang led the weavers to set up ten small pots, soaking cotton yarn in different proportions of soy milk. Liuniang's daughter, Xiaotao, squatted in front of the stove, adding fuel to the fire, her little face flushed red in the light.

Around noon, the first batch of experimental products was ready. Zhu Youwei laid out the dyed strips of cloth one by one in the sunlight, and the seventh piece of cloth suddenly attracted everyone's attention... The blue was like a piece of clear sky after the rain, so vibrant that it almost seemed to drip down.

“This is it!” Lin San Niang couldn’t help but reach out and touch it. “The texture… feels like touching warm spring water.”

Chen Han had already opened the ledger and started calculating: "Songjiang cotton is worth two taels per dan (a unit of weight), which can be sold for five taels when woven into cloth. If dyed using the new method, it is worth at least eight taels."

Wenniang suddenly knelt beside the dye vat, tears falling onto the bluestone slab. "My father... back then, because he couldn't dye this blue, the employer broke his hand..."

Zhu Youwei gently pressed down on her trembling shoulders. In the distance came the sound of weavers testing their looms, like an ancient ballad.

As dusk fell, the storyteller at Taibai Tower was reciting a new tale. Tea drinkers craned their necks, listening to his description of the legendary new cloth from Songjiang.

"Do you all know what 'the sun warms the jade in Lantian and smoke rises from it' means?" The storyteller stroked his goatee. "Today, I saw it with my own eyes in the workshop. The newly dyed Songjiang cloth was steaming with a faint mist under the sunlight!"

In the private room on the second floor, Manager Shen's teacup hovered in mid-air. He stared at the fabric sample that had just been delivered to the table, his fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of the fabric... where the two characters "Songjiang" were embroidered in small seal script with gold thread.

Suddenly, the sound of children singing drifted in from outside the window. Manager Shen opened the window and saw a dozen or so little girls in blue overalls walking hand in hand along the canal, each with a newly dyed piece of cloth hanging from their waist as decoration. When the evening breeze blew, those pieces of cloth looked like countless blue-winged butterflies.

As the night watchman's clapper sounded, lights were still on in the workshop's backyard. Zhu Youwei used silver scissors to cut a piece of cloth, checking its weave and density against the candlelight. Chen Han pushed open the door, bringing with him the scent of night dew.

"Old Master Zhou has presented his ancestral jacquard mold." He took out a wooden box from his pocket, "He said that his grandfather obtained it from a merchant in the Western Regions in the second year of the Hongwu reign."

Inside the wooden box lay a palm-sized copper coin, engraved with an intricate grape pattern. Zhu Youwei pressed a damp cloth onto the copper coin, then transferred it to a cotton cloth, and the pattern immediately appeared clearly.

“It’s even more exquisite than woodblock printing…” She suddenly looked up, “What price could a Songjiang cloth print with jacquard patterns fetch?”

Chen Han wrote a "ten" on the ledger and added a vertical line. Suddenly, the candlelight flickered, making the "swastika" appear to dance.

The next morning, a Suzhou pleasure boat arrived at the canal dock. Manager Shen, carrying two hundred thousand taels of silver notes, knelt before the workshop entrance for a long time. Behind him followed more than thirty members of the Shen family, each holding a yellowed account book.

Zhu Youwei had Wenniang accept the silver notes, but returned the account books intact. "Tell everyone in Suzhou," she said, pointing to the new cloth drying in the sun, "that in three months, I want Songjiang cloth to cover every bed in Jiangnan."

When Wenniang returned from seeing off the guests, she found Zhu Youwei standing in front of the dye vat, lost in thought. The newly made jacquard fabric was piled in the corner, shimmering like flowing water in the morning light.

"What is the princess thinking about?"

Zhu Youwei picked up a wisp of drifting cotton. "I was thinking, if this cotton grew in the border regions, would it be more resistant to the cold..."

……

The morning mist shrouded the canal. Chen Han stood on the bluestone slab in front of the workshop, facing more than twenty craftsmen gathered from all over Songjiang. He held a roll of yellowed cotton cloth sample in his hand, his fingertips gently stroking the surface of the cloth.

“You are all among the most skilled craftsmen in Songjiang.” Chen Han spread the fabric sample on the stone table. “I have invited you all here today to brainstorm and make this Songjiang cotton fabric the best it can be.”

The dyer, Zhao Laosi, took a closer look and suddenly exclaimed, "Eh!": "The warp and weft density of this cloth is 30% denser than that of ordinary cloth."

“Not only that,” said Liu San, the loom maker, pointing to a fine line. “This twill weave seems to be an improvement on Shu brocade.”

Chen Han nodded and took out a drawing from his sleeve, unfolding it. The drawing depicted the improved loom structure, with dimensions densely marked next to it.

“This is a new type of loom from the Hangzhou workshop, but the cotton fibers from Songjiang are longer, so adjustments are needed.” He pointed to the center of the drawing, “Adding a yarn divider here will make the warp tension more even.”

Carpenter Wang Er stared at the blueprints for a long time, then suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Brilliant! Add a movable buckle, and it will save half the effort when changing the shuttle!"

The crowd gathered around, each adding their own suggestions. Chen Han had Wen Niang write down every suggestion, and soon three pages were filled.

Around noon, ten improved looms were set up in the workshop's backyard. Chen Han rolled up his sleeves and personally demonstrated how to use the newly installed yarn-separating rollers. The cotton yarn made a subtle clanging sound as it passed through the copper rings, and the woven fabric was indeed smoother.

"It's not enough." Chen Han touched the fabric that had just come off the machine. "The silky sheen of the Songjiang cotton hasn't been fully brought out."

A commotion suddenly arose from the dye house. Zhu Youwei arrived with several peasant women, their baskets piled high with fresh mulberry leaves. "Try this," Zhu Youwei said, grabbing a handful of mulberry leaves and crushing them, the bright green juice dripping into the dye vat. "The mulberry leaves from Songjiang are thick and the juice is rich; perhaps it can enhance the luster of the cotton fibers."

The dyers immediately got to work. Zhao Laosi first soaked the cotton yarn in soy milk, then immersed it in indigo dye mixed with mulberry leaf juice. The dyed yarn was hung on bamboo poles to dry, gleaming like pearls in the sunlight.

Chen Han stared at the strand of yarn for a long time, then suddenly turned and walked towards the accounting room. He took out a blue booklet and wrote down "Three Essentials for Improving Songjiang Cloth".

"First, the loom was equipped with a yarn-separating wheel and a movable buckle." He wrote steadily. "Second, the yarn was moistened with soybean milk before dyeing, and mulberry leaf juice was added during dyeing. Third..."

The pen suddenly stopped. Laughter from the weavers drifted in from outside the window; Liu Niang's daughter, Xiao Tao, was playing with a ball of cotton. Chen Han's eyes flickered, and he continued writing: "Thirdly, select seven-seed cotton bolls, retaining the waxy coating when removing the seeds."

As evening fell, the storyteller at Taibai Tower struck his gavel.

"Dear readers, what a strange thing happened at the Songjiang workshop today!" He deliberately lowered his voice, "The Duke of Chen personally wielded a hammer to forge iron, just to make a small part for a loom!"

The tea drinkers burst into laughter. But Manager Shen, who was in a private room on the second floor, couldn't laugh. He stared at the fabric sample that had just been delivered to the table, his fingers trembling slightly. The fabric shimmered like silk in the candlelight, and with a gentle shake, it flowed like ripples on water.

In a tavern by the canal, several old dyers were marveling at the newly produced cloth samples.

"This feels...like touching a cloud."

"More than that! Look at the evenness of the dyeing; I've never seen anything like it in my forty years of dyeing fabric."

The bartender chimed in, "I heard that Duke Chen is offering a reward of one hundred taels of silver; whoever can improve the dyeing formula will receive double the reward!"

Suddenly, a hunched figure stood up from the corner. The old dyer, Sun Tuozi, tremblingly pulled out an oil paper package: "This is a Western Region dye recipe passed down from my grandfather, originally meant to be taken to my grave..."

At dawn the next day, ten new dye vats were set up in the workshop's backyard. Sun Tuozi directed the young men to mix the dyes according to ancient recipes, adding ground seashell powder and tea oil. The dyed cloths were hung on bamboo racks to dry, shimmering in the morning breeze.

Chen Han picked up a scrap of fabric and examined it closely in the rising sun. Intricate patterns faintly emerged from the fabric's texture, as if they were alive and changing with the light.

“It’s done.” He turned to Zhu Youwei and said, “One bolt of this cloth is equivalent to three bolts of ordinary cotton cloth.”

Wenniang rushed over, clutching the order she had just received: "The Shen family of Suzhou has placed another order for 500 bolts of silk, saying they are to be presented as tribute to Yingtian Prefecture!"

Zhu Youwei shook her head: "No rush, let's prioritize the people of Songjiang." She pointed to the women who were queuing to receive the cloth, "Letting them wear good cloth is the best advertisement."

As dusk fell, cargo boats laden with new cloth sailed down the canal in all directions. The blue cloth flags flying at the bows fluttered in the wind, and the two characters "Songjiang" on the flags shone brightly in the setting sun.

When the night watchman struck the clapper, Chen Han was still revising his blueprints under the lamp.

He dipped his brush in ink and drew a new component, labeling it with the five small characters "movable yarn divider." Outside the window, the laughter and chatter of weavers returning from work mingled with the babbling of water, drifting into the distance.

……

Before the morning mist had dissipated, the sound of looms from the Songjiang workshops already echoed along both banks of the canal. Zhu Youwei stood in front of the dye house, her fingertips twirling a strand of freshly spun cotton thread. Sunlight filtered through her fingers, making the thread shimmer and translucent.

Chen Han walked out of the accounting office, holding a newly drafted booklet filled with numbers. He walked to Zhu Youwei's side and said in a low voice, "Songjiang cloth has become quite popular, but if we rely on just one workshop, the output will ultimately be limited."

Zhu Youwei glanced at him sideways: "You have an idea?"

Chen Han nodded, opened the booklet, and pointed to a page: "I visited sixteen cloth workshops in Songjiang these past few days and found that although they each have their own skills, most of them are hampered by outdated looms and a shortage of money. If we can get them involved, the output will at least triple."

Wenniang happened to walk over and, upon hearing this, couldn't help but ask, "Does the Duke mean... that they should also weave cloth according to our method?"

“Not only that.” Chen Han closed the booklet. “I want them to ‘join’.”

"Franchise?" Zhu Youwei frowned slightly.

Chen Han explained, "It means that their respective workshops are used as collateral. We provide the looms and technology, and send managers to supervise the factory. They are responsible for production. The cloth produced is purchased by us and then sold in a unified manner. This way, we can guarantee the quality and ensure that each party can make a profit."

Zhu Youwei pondered for a moment, then glanced at the distant weaving workshop. There, female workers were busily shuttling between the looms, the shuttles flying back and forth, the cloth stretching out inch by inch.

"This method works, but how can we ensure they won't cut corners?"

Chen Han smiled slightly: "That's why we need our manager to come to the factory. Every piece of cloth must meet our standards, otherwise we won't accept it."

Wen Niang's eyes lit up: "In this way, each workshop will naturally follow our rules in order to make money."

Zhu Youwei nodded: "Okay, let's give it a try."

……

Three days later, a new notice was posted on the bulletin board in front of the Songjiang Prefectural Government Office, attracting a large crowd.

"Women's Workshop is recruiting franchisees. Any cloth workshop in Songjiang is welcome to apply!"

The crowd was in an uproar.

"Franchise? What does that mean?"

"I heard it's a new idea from the Duke: the workshops will provide the looms, we'll provide the manpower, and they'll sell the cloth they produce!"

"How will the wages be calculated?"

"The notice says that the price is based on the quality of the cloth, and two taels of silver will be paid for each bolt of top-quality cloth!"

The cloth merchants were discussing it animatedly; some were tempted, while others hesitated.

Old Master Zhou stood on the periphery of the crowd, leaning on his cane. He squinted at the crowd for a while, then suddenly turned to Zhou Dehai behind him and said, "Go and bring us our family's land deed."

Zhou Dehai was taken aback: "Grandfather, what are you doing...?"

"Join us!" the old man declared decisively. "The Zhou family absolutely cannot miss such a great opportunity!"

……

(End of this chapter)