Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 93: Dyeing Technology
“This is a treasure!”

Ah Man stroked a piece of egg-blue fine cotton cloth, and felt it was soft and smooth. When she turned her head to the sunlight, she saw a line of silver water flowing on the surface of the cloth, as if starlight was mixed in when the cloth was woven, and it even had a faint sense of brocade. Even though she was knowledgeable, she couldn't help but wonder: "How is this done? Is this really dyed?"

"Of course it was dyed. I just dyed it casually." Yuanye said modestly. After all, the "dipping process" was too complicated to explain. It could not be explained in three or five sentences. It was even more impossible for her to understand it, so she could only say it modestly.

Ning Ning was also surprised to take a closer look at the bean green cotton cloth. She stroked the smooth surface and felt that it was extremely delicate. Then she looked at the neat and beautiful pine needle-like fine lines on it and asked curiously, "Master, is this also dyed?"

It was really beautiful. She had never seen such beautiful and soft fabric before. The color was very bright, not dirty and dull like ordinary fabrics. It looked like it was glowing at first glance. Moreover, the patterns on the fabric were also delicate and beautiful, with uniform shapes and clear edges. Even the slightest details were visible, as if it was woven. It was really extraordinary.

She liked it as soon as she saw it and was even tempted to buy it. She felt that it would be very beautiful if made into a kosode. Even though the color and pattern of the fabric were obviously more suitable for men, she still wanted to buy it.

Yuanye glanced at it and smiled, "Of course, dye it with the original color first, then tie-dye it with the over-color, and finally fill it with starch to create this neat and consistent pattern."

Tie-dyeing has already existed in this era, but now it is called "tie-dyeing" in Japan. Generally, the cloth is tied with raw silk and then dyed twice to partially color the cloth in order to form patterns.

The patterns will vary depending on the bundling technique, the secondary dyeing time and the tightness of the bundling. For example, the famous "deer pattern" can be tie-dyed to create a "deer pattern" that looks like the natural pattern on a deer's back. It is very popular and is currently a top-notch high-end fabric.

Since the tie-dyeing technology already existed, of course he wanted to use it, but he made some improvements on it by using the "printing paste chemical tie-dyeing method". He first used a woodblock to size the cloth, so that when the cloth was dyed a second time, only the unsized part would participate in the chemical reaction to obtain a dyed pattern. The final effect was more stable than the original binding tie-dyeing method, and the edges of the patterns were clearer. The dyer could not be completely sure what kind of patterns the original binding tie-dyeing method would produce, and the edges of the patterns were usually fuzzy and there was serious color bleeding. To produce high-quality products, one had to rely on luck, and the scrap rate was very high.

These processes are the result of Yuanye's hard work for half a year. He tried again and again in the laboratory and barely mastered the Shihlin dye and sulphur dye technology. He then tried hard to recall modern printing and dyeing techniques and improved the existing techniques of this era. Finally, he conducted another small-scale test and obtained these samples.

Now he can dye in five colors: red, yellow, cyan, green and black, and depending on the process, the dyeing spectrum is also very stable and wide.

For example, for red, he can obtain multiple color samples such as silver red, water red, scarlet, crimson, crimson, and crimson purple according to the dyeing time and different raw materials and additives;

For example, taking yellow, with similar processes and different raw materials and additives, he can obtain multiple color samples such as goose yellow, chrysanthemum yellow, apricot yellow, golden yellow, khaki, and tea brown.

The same goes for other colors, which can all have multiple variations of one color and stable coloring, and will not fade after long washing. He also recalled the old TV series "The Dye House" that he had watched before, and restored the sizing technique himself, so that the cotton cloth, which still felt slightly rough at that time, could appear silky and soft after printing and dyeing, and even slightly reflective, a bit like coarse silk, but a bit like a show-off - after washing several times, although the color will not fade, this soft and silky feeling will completely disappear, returning to the original feel of the cotton cloth.

However, he felt that it was enough for use in Japan's medieval era, and could already form a dimensionality reduction attack on all current dyeing workshops and dyers. At the same time, he had also calculated the costs. Even if there were more processes, the raw materials were used more efficiently, and the costs were much lower than those of his peers. Even if everyone sold at the same price, he could still make a lot of money. He could even drive all these people out of business by slightly lowering the price.

Once a monopoly is formed, he will have the final say on the selling price. It’s just a matter of time before he becomes the king of cloth dyeing!

Seeing that the first group of "audiences" seemed to have a good response to the samples, he gained confidence again. He took out all the better samples of dyed cloth from that period and asked them to comment on them to see which colors and patterns were the most popular. Most of the dyed cloths were wasted. He spent nearly half a year on this and spent five or six hundred strings of cash on repeated attempts. The cost was not low.

Such brightly colored fabrics with different patterns made Aman and Ningning, two extroverts, even more excited. They touched and looked here and there and felt they couldn't see enough.

Yayoi and Qing, both introverted girls, were also very interested in these bright fabrics and the beautiful patterns on them. Perhaps no girl could resist them. Ningning was delighted and became thoughtful. She felt that she should learn this craft so that she could open a workshop in the future and make more money to expand the Kinoshita family. She was in luck because Oda Nobunaga was promoting "free trade" and even she could open a workshop in the future.

Ah Man was even happier. She wasn't very interested in wearing beautiful clothes, but with her eyesight and knowledge, she could already see countless copper coins rolling in. She immediately rubbed her hands and said to Yuan Ye expectantly, "These cloths will definitely sell for a high price. Let's get started!"

She had long seen that Yuanye was not an ordinary person, and was definitely not a stupid guy who was often kicked in the head by a donkey. Her eyesight was never wrong, and Yuanye had indeed come up with something new.

Yuanye doesn't need to worry about the rest, she can take care of it! "Don't worry yet!" Yuanye also wants to make a lot of money, but there are many more problems in real life than in games and novels. Only technical skills are useless, and there are still a lot of miscellaneous things to do.

He immediately began to enthusiastically discuss with Aman how to obtain raw materials in a stable and large quantity.

There are already stable purchasing channels for raw materials such as soda ash, sulfur, salt, and limestone that provide three acids and two alkalis, and we just need to increase the purchasing volume. However, if we want to open a dyeing workshop, we will also need fine linen, cotton, indigo, gallnut, alum, madder, hematite, mercury, acorns, persimmon leaves, holly leaves, chestnut shells, sage, grass seeds... and dozens of other various raw materials. It is not a small project to find them all at once, or to find them in large quantities.

In addition, there is the problem of the site, which is also difficult to deal with. He had previously borrowed a piece of wasteland from Takeuchi Manor from Oda Nobunaga to open a soy sauce workshop. As a result, the scale of the workshop became larger and larger, and there was thick smoke and strange smells all day long. The fuel supply in Takeuchi Manor began to become scarce, seriously affecting the daily life of the manor. Oruki Seibei was already looking unhappy.

If I want to open another dyeing factory, the dyeing tanks will need to be heated for a long time to maintain the water temperature. The fuel demand is even greater than that of the soy sauce workshop. If I continue to chop wood and burn charcoal near Takeuchi Village...

I guess Seibei's face is longer than a donkey's. We really have to settle the score with him.

Moreover, he has been recruiting gang members and arming them. Seibei is very vigilant about this and has implicitly reminded him not to do so. As long as the number of armed gang members increases, he can only propose to Oda Nobunaga to move out of Takeuchi Manor - there are more than 30 armed gang members in Hara now, and they are training every day after they have nothing to do. A surprise attack may make Seibei's house rush down, leaving Takeuchi Manor leaderless and directly occupying it.

Even though he never had such intentions, and was not crazy enough to want to occupy Oda Nobunaga's direct territory, but Seibei was a very rigid person and still felt that he was a threat and refused to let him continue to expand his power.

He did not recruit any more. He stopped recruiting new people two months ago and fired several troublemakers who had made mistakes. He temporarily maintained an armed force of more than 30 people. His plan to recruit 120 Lang gang members in a year was aborted.

These are all land issues in the final analysis. No wonder land is the number one means of production. It is inconvenient to do anything without your own land. Even chopping wood and burning charcoal requires relying on others. And Aman has no good solution to this problem. After all, land is the lifeblood of the warriors. They shout "life depends on it" all day long, believing that land is their only place of survival and the source of their strength. They will not give up an inch of land, and even if they have money, they cannot buy it.

The two of them discussed for a long time but couldn't think of a good way to get another large piece of land. Ningning was also very interested in business matters and came over to offer advice. However, although she was smart, she was too young and lacked experience. Yuanye and Aman couldn't think of any good ideas, so she had no idea at all and could only do her best to be filial.

The three of them huddled together for a long time but to no avail, which made Yuanye's excitement cool down a little. He felt that there was still a long way to go, and it was not so easy to make a lot of money in ancient times - damn bastard, the protagonists in those time-travel novels had everything they wanted, but he had nothing. It was really too difficult!
But it didn't matter, just take it slow, there would always be a solution. He worried for a moment but then stopped worrying about it. He invited the whole family to have a good meal to celebrate the successful dyeing process.

He was in a very good mood and enjoyed a delicious meal. Then he sent Ningning away reluctantly. By the way, he picked out a few high-quality sample cloths as gifts and asked her to take them back to the Asano family. While continuing to maintain their relationship, it was also a way of advertising in advance - this little apprentice liked staying with him more and more. After all, the food here was good and the life was interesting. However, it was not convenient for her to spend the night here, so she had to go back to the Asano family.

When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, he lay awake for a while, then began to think about the land again. He planned to spend some time in the next two days to dye a piece of good cloth - the "chemical tie-dyeing method of printing paste" is not limited to dyeing one color, but the more colors and the more complex the pattern, the more times the printing plate needs to be washed and dyed repeatedly, and the higher the scrap rate will be. The cost will soar to the point of being unprofitable and not cost-effective.

But it would be a good gift. He planned to dye a piece of fine cloth with extremely bright colors and complex patterns, preferably mixed with gold and silver, and take it to Oda Nobunaga as a bribe. Oda Nobunaga, who loved new things, would be very tempted by it. Then maybe he could persuade him to lend him another piece of wasteland, even if it was in a remote corner. If there was a lack of water, he could pay for a well himself.

If that doesn't work, Oda Nobunaga still owes him a favor, so maybe he can use it now. He can use the favor + cloth to directly exchange it with him for the ownership of a piece of wasteland in Takeuchi-sho, and obtain the right to freely cut down trees near Takeuchi-sho, in order to shut up Oruki Seibei, the village head.

As for continuing to arm the Lang party, it was not easy to ask for it. After all, raising troops in the heart of someone else's country would easily cause misunderstandings even if he had no intention of rebelling. He could only think of a solution in the future. He had thought too simply before. He had no ill intentions and it was justified to arm the Lang party. However, in this unfortunate era, betrayal and conspiracy were the mainstream. It was no wonder that Seibei became alert when nothing happened.

Of course, this problem could be solved naturally by moving out of Takeuchi Manor, but if he were to live out on his own and slowly gather his gang, it would be less safe for him to rely on the nearly three hundred gang members and six or seven hundred miscellaneous foot soldiers in Takeuchi Manor. He didn't want to move out for the time being, and if he wanted to move out, he would have to wait until he had enough money so that he could recruit and arm all his people at once.

He was thinking about what to do next, and the more he thought, the further he got from his destination. He faintly heard some noise, as if someone was shouting, and it wasn't just one person. It sounded like a riot, but the distance was far, as if it was at the other end of the village, so the noise didn't sound that loud.

He had been in this era for more than a year and had participated in several wars. His mentality had become much calmer, so he did not panic. He went out to see what was going on. As soon as he went out, the noise of commotion in the distance became louder, and there was even a red light in the night sky, as if there was a fire.

(End of this chapter)