Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 545 The biggest problem
As soon as Zhang Luan left the Jinyiwei Beizhenfusi Yamen, he went straight to find his youngest son Zhang Yanling to discuss something.

These days, the younger son often did not come home, so Zhang Luan went to a familiar place to look for him as agreed. Originally, he was unwilling to lower himself to run to see his younger son, as it would make him look very embarrassed.

But who knew that his youngest son was so indispensable to him? Many questions piled up in his mind without being answered, and Zhang Luan felt very uncomfortable. He even lost interest in his favorite matters between men and women. In the end, he could only shamelessly look for him again and again, as if he felt that his life had no hope if he couldn't see his youngest son for a while.

Just as Zhang Luan was on his way to see his youngest son in a carriage, in a courtyard on the southern outskirts of the city, Zhang Yanling was demonstrating a new money-making project to Qin Zhaoqin, a wealthy merchant from Huizhou. That was to weave cloth using the hand-cranked loom he had just invented.

The steam loom was still a little difficult to invent at that time, but the loom improved by Zhang Yanling was similar to the Jenny loom that became popular later, and had a significant improvement in weaving efficiency.

Eight copper spindles spun at high speed in front of Qin Zhao's eyes, like a group of tireless golden bees. Zhang Yanling's fingers flew between the spindles, feeding the fluffy cotton strips into the greedy metal mouthpiece. The work that originally required eight spinning wheels was now being simultaneously swallowed and spit out in the belly of this monster that was more than four feet wide.

Qin Zhao was dazzled by what he saw and exclaimed, "Second Young Master, this thing is indeed very efficient for producing cloth, but... it looks very complicated to operate, and it may be difficult for ordinary people to learn... Is it really necessary to go to so much trouble to improve it?"

"Nature has its necessity!"

Zhang Yanling said as a matter of course: "This improvement can greatly save manpower. With fewer people, we can produce more cloth. In this way, we can suppress the price of cloth and let ordinary people have clothes to wear. Isn't it great?"

In Zhang Yanling's view, the improvement of looms is an inevitable result of the development of the times.

Although the Jenny loom he studied was not a product of the steam age, it was introduced early and can be regarded as the official start of the First Industrial Revolution.

The changes that a flying shuttle brings to the advancement of civilization are unpredictable.

People live only for food, clothing, shelter and transportation, among which food and clothing are the most important.

People have to eat to live in the world, and food and clothing are the basic needs. The prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty was more due to the great geographical discoveries. The large-scale planting and promotion of corn and sweet potatoes brought from America allowed the people to have a basic food and clothing. After the reform and opening up, productivity exploded, and grain production increased explosively, thanks to the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

In this era when there were no high-yield crops, the land output was limited, and the population was constantly expanding. In order to ensure that the people would not go hungry, in addition to expanding the territory and expanding the arable land, the only way was to find a way through trade, transporting rice from Annan, Siam and other places in the south to meet the needs of the people, which required a lot of money.

The key to dressing is weaving.

In the past, weaving required too much manpower and the output was too little, resulting in the average person having only a few pieces of clothing to wear in their lifetime. This greatly restricted the circulation of cloth and the ready-made clothes that were derived from it, and to a certain extent limited economic development.

As the Ming Dynasty is about to enter a mini ice age, people's demand for clothing will only increase. If one more piece of clothing is needed to keep warm in the icy and snowy weather, I wonder how many more people will survive.

And Zhang Yanling appeared in this era just to change all this.

Qin Zhao smiled bitterly and said, "Even if we save manpower, we still need a huge number of people to produce cloth on a large scale. Where can we recruit so many people?"

"Men need to do farm work or carry and lift to support their families. This society has almost reached its limit in using them. On the contrary, most women are almost idle. If we talk about recruiting female workers from all over the country, it should be difficult, right?"

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "Master Qin, why don't you tell me what you think?"

"Well...it's really hard to recruit female workers."

Qin Zhao said, "The social atmosphere in our Ming Dynasty is still very conservative. Women usually stay at home and it is impossible for them to work. Even if there are women who want to do this kind of work, they want to bring the raw materials and machines back home and do it themselves. Can you accept that each family can do what they want?

"Also... doing so may result in a mix of good and bad weavers, making it difficult to control. This is far less efficient than working together, and the quality can be fully guaranteed."

Zhang Yanling smiled and nodded: "Mr. Qin said it very well, so we should set up a separate workshop, in which all managers and workers are women, so that more women can put aside their concerns and work in the workshop. But if we directly start the project without promoting it, even in the most open-minded places, such as Songjiang in Jiangnan, it is unlikely that anyone will respond."

Qin Zhao smiled and said, "That's what I was thinking. If your new loom is proven to bring about a huge change in society, and people can see the huge benefits it holds, and it's publicized, there will definitely be people who will follow suit. But in the early stages, I'm afraid it will be difficult to push forward."

Zhang Yanling smiled and nodded: "So I am indeed in a dilemma... I have a good thing, but I can't use it in practice. Isn't all my previous efforts in vain?"

"Second Young Master, you should be the kind of person who thinks ten steps ahead before taking one step. You wouldn't have thought of all this beforehand, right?" Qin Zhao asked curiously.

Zhang Yanling nodded: "I did think of a solution, but it is quite complicated and requires certain conditions to achieve." "What? You mean... can you find some help?"

Qin Zhao was shocked.

I've told you that the biggest problem you're facing now is that you can't find enough workers, let alone get them to concentrate on weaving cloth for you.

If you can solve even this difficult problem, then you, as a relative by marriage, deserve to make money.

Zhang Yanling sighed and said, "Your Majesty is going to start a river project to divert the Yellow River. Did you know about this news?"

“Yes, I have heard about it.”

Qin Zhao said, "It is said that it was your father who proposed the plan. I heard that it has been submitted to the cabinet for review and will be brought to the court later."

"Heh... Even you know about this? It seems that someone is indeed not at peace and is spreading rumors about the chaos caused by the relatives of the emperor. I heard that recently the students of the Imperial College in the capital have been discussing court affairs to the point of being reckless. I don't know where they got the news from, but as a result, all the big and small things in the court are spread from their mouths, and even the common people in the capital know about it... Humph, this is too inappropriate."

Zhang Yanling himself was not averse to the idea of ​​scholars participating in politics.

After all, as a doctoral student at a medical university in his previous life, he was also considered a scholar.

However, after becoming a person in a high position in this life, as a vested interest, what you are going to do will be publicly discussed by others for no reason, and you will even be pointed at by others. You will always feel uncomfortable in your heart.

In particular, Zhang Yanling also knew that the comments of the students of the Imperial College on the Yellow River works were all negative. They were not providing opinions or supervision at all, but were purely trying to prevent the project from being launched with conservative views.

As public opinion ferments, it will bring great resistance to the advancement of the Yellow River river engineering projects.

Qin Zhao blinked and asked, "So... you need to make money now, a lot of money, to prepare money and food for the Yellow River workers, right?"

"That's it."

Zhang Yanling couldn't help but smile and said, "That's what I said. Maybe I can find a solution, which means I can find a way to find help."

"Where can I find it?"

Now Qin Zhao became even more curious.

Zhang Yanling asked with a smile: "Master Qin, do you know how many eunuchs and palace maids there are in the Ming Dynasty? How many relatives of criminals serve the government, the music registers of the Jiaofang Bureau, and the women who don't know their place but have no choice?"

"what?"

Qin Zhao was greatly surprised for a moment.

There was no need for Zhang Yanling to explain it in too much detail. In fact, at this point, she already roughly understood what Zhang Yanling meant.

Since Zhang Yanling had successfully improved the loom, he had to concentrate manpower to carry out weaving on a large scale in a systematic manner. The purpose was to raise money and food for the court, so the manpower should of course be provided by the court.

The imperial court itself did not have any extra manpower, but as for the inner court system serving the royal family... there were too many women who could participate in weaving.

Qin Zhao hesitated and said, "Most of the women in the Forbidden Palace have their own jobs. Can they really spare the time to do this?"

Zhang Yanling said with emotion: "Master Qin may not know that the inner court system of the Ming Dynasty has long been bloated... The palace maids and eunuchs occupy a lot of money and grain, but create very little value. Because it is a stable job, there are still poor families who send their children to the palace when they are young, and every year there are also palace maids who join the palace in the name of prisoners of war. All of these people have to be supported by funds allocated from the inner treasury.

"In the past, they had no ability to make money. They had a large number of manpower but could only wait for the inner court to release money and food to support them. Now, isn't it good to let them be self-sufficient?
"Don't worry, if we do this, it will most likely lead to healthy development. When people around the world see the huge benefits brought by this loom, they may follow suit, and it will be much easier to promote it!"

(End of this chapter)