The Golden Family, rising from the Western Regions

Chapter 126: Great Construction Period

Half a month later, the caravan returned with a batch of grain and cotton.

At the entrance of Hexibao Village, Li Xiao came to greet him.

It was discovered that Li Dashan, Li Ergun and others had become much darker.

It seems that the desert sun is indeed hotter than that in Golden State.

"Dalong, our drinks are selling really well!"

After seeing Li Xiao, Li Ergunzi dismounted and walked quickly forward to report the results of this time.

"According to your instructions, after we arrived at Bieshiba, we sent two large carts of wine to Xiao Tuladuo."

"That guy was very satisfied after drinking it."

"Immediately, I gave the order to call all the restaurant owners in Bie Shiba over, as well as the merchants passing by."

"After tasting our wine, those people thought it was good."

"In less than half a day, the remaining 18 carts of wine were sold out."

Li Ergunzi brushed the dust off his body and said with a grin.

This trip to the desert broadened my horizons and I found it much more interesting than fighting in a war.

"It seems that our wine is quite popular!" Li Xiao nodded and smiled faintly, although this deal was made with the help of Xiao Tuladuo's face.

But fortunately, Xifenglie is of good quality.

After this contact, those bosses and merchants will most likely continue to buy from us in the future.

"It's very popular. When we came back, the merchants asked me when the next batch of wine could be delivered." Li Ergunzi said happily.

"The second batch of Xifeng Lie has been brewed, a total of 500 jars."

"After a few days of rest, you can take your men and set off at any time, second uncle." Li Xiao said.

"Okay, great!" Li Ergunzi nodded, looking very motivated.

Although Xifenglie is Li Xiao's business, he also gets a commission.

The more he sells, the more he can get.

"How much did it sell for?" Li Xiao asked.

"The unified price is three hundred coins per dou." Li Ergunzi stretched out three fingers and said.

This price is not cheap either.

The price of ordinary alcoholic beverages in this era was about two hundred coins per dou, which is about twelve pounds.

But the price of three hundred wen is the wholesale price given to those merchant owners.

When they sell it again, it will probably reach four hundred coins or even more.

Therefore, Xifeng Lie is destined not to be affordable for ordinary people. It is a high-end product that only nobles can enjoy.

"Three hundred wen? That's not expensive." Li Xiao laughed.

After all, it is a monopoly product and cannot be bought anywhere else.

According to Li Xiao's idea, it can even be sold at a higher price.

However, the price cannot be too high in the early stage. After all, the most important thing is to cultivate the habit of drinking white wine among the nobles.

After they fall in love with Xifenglie, the trend will spread from top to bottom, and people from the lower classes will also gradually try white wine.

In Li Xiao's plan, Xifeng Lie is just his flagship product.

When the Hexibao Winery's industry becomes more complete and its output increases, he will also launch a more popular wine and enter the low-end market.

Li Ergunzi continued to report, "Three hundred coins a dou, and this time we sold a total of one hundred and eight strings of cash."

"I've already bought all the cotton and grain."

After a quick thought, he figured out the account.

This ability is indeed unique among his peers.

"Very good." Li Xiao looked satisfied and nodded slightly.

His horizons had broadened, and he no longer cared about a mere hundred strings of copper coins.

However, Xifenglie is a long-term business after all, and the key is steady and long-term development.

In the long run, Xifeng Lie can indeed be considered to have made huge profits.

Then, Li Xiao looked at the carriages behind, which were full of grain and cotton.

Even the horses that Li Dashan and others rode on were filled with cotton.

"How much is a pound of cotton?" Li Xiao asked.

Jinzhou is not short of food, but the reason it buys food from the desert is to be prepared for any eventuality.

In this era, copper coins are not as valuable as grain.

Hexi Fort was preparing for large-scale brewing again, and Li Xiao didn't mind having too much grain in his hands.

But when it comes to cotton, Golden State really doesn't have any.

“Cotton is quite expensive.”

"One pound costs one hundred coins."

Hearing this, Li Xiao was stunned for a moment.

"So expensive?"

Li Ergunzi smiled bitterly: "This is the price they gave me because of Xiao Tuladuo's face."

Well, Li Xiao has really broadened his horizons.

In later generations, China planted cotton on a large scale, so people always subconsciously felt that cotton was a low-end consumable.

But during this era, cotton was not yet cultivated on a large scale.

Even in the desert, most people only grow crops, and the cotton yield is not high.

So the price is more expensive.

In Chinese history, large-scale cotton cultivation really began during the Hongwu period.

In order to allow ordinary people to wear cotton clothes, Zhu Yuanzhang forcibly promoted cotton planting.

"This output is still too low. It's a pity that I'm not the governor of the desert." Li Xiao sighed.

Once again, he expressed his yearning for the desert.

Although 70% of the land there is desert, the remaining 30% is much richer than the Golden State.

More suitable for developing agricultural planting.

"It would be great if we could turn the desert into Jinzhou's granary." Li Xiao thought to himself.

……

Two days later, Li Ergunzi set out again, carrying 500 jars of Xifenglie to the desert.

Hexi Fort began a period of vigorous construction.

Li Xiao built a winery and named it "Hexi Winery".

Some people were hired to make wine.

At the same time, some carpenters and blacksmiths were found in the surrounding fortresses.

The carpenter's task was to make the Hexi spinning machine and the loom improved by Li Xiao.

You don't need too many. With the current reserves of cotton and wool in Li Xiao's hands, only twenty machines are enough to handle the work.

After all, the working efficiency of these two machines is ten times that of ordinary machines.

As a result, Li Xiao established the first textile company in China.

"Hexi Textile Company."

Twenty women from Hexibao were hired to start making cotton and woolen cloth.

As for the old man and other blacksmiths, their task is also very simple, which is to forge armor plates.

In order to improve the efficiency of blacksmithing, Li Xiao improved the drop hammer device.

Cattle and horses are used to drive a huge wheel, which is connected to a falling hammer by a rope.

When the wheel rotates, the drop hammer is lifted to a certain height and then released. The drop hammer falls by gravity and hammers the iron material placed on the anvil.

This repetitive process can save the blacksmith a lot of time and effort, and improve the efficiency of blacksmithing.

Unfortunately, the river freezes in winter.

Otherwise, Li Xiao would have planned to build a hydraulic system. But fortunately, Jinzhou was not short of cattle and horses.

……

Half a month later, the weather became even colder.

Large flakes of snow fell from the sky.

Looking around, the whole world turned into a vast expanse of white.

In this snowy wind, Li Ergunzi came back again.

He sold all 500 jars of Xifenglie and brought back more food and cotton.

This time, he led his men to the desert himself and completed the mission very well.

Although this second uncle's fighting skills were average, he was born to be a businessman, and he was passionate about it.

It also made Li Xiao trust him more.

However, due to the heavy snow, trade with the desert will have to be suspended for a while.

It was also this day.

The result of Li Xiao's hard work for more than half a month was finally born.

In the vast snow and wind, Li Xiao was wearing thick sheepskin, wrapping his whole body tightly.

But even so, I could still feel a slight chill eroding my body.

At this moment, he was holding a bow and arrow in his hand, his eyes fixed on a set of armor fifty meters away.

"簌~"

Accompanied by a whistling sound, a breath later, the arrow accurately hit the chest area of the armor.

Afterwards, Li Xiao jumped on his horse and gathered around the armor with the old man and others not far away.

"It didn't penetrate!"

“It bounced off.”

Sanbao widened his eyes and said in surprise.

In front of everyone at this moment was a set of cotton armor that had just been completed.

It is similar in style to the cotton armor worn by the border troops in the late Ming Dynasty, and is white.

It mainly consists of body armor, shoulder armor, sleeve armor, skirt armor, crotch armor and breastplate.

The armor is made of two layers of cotton cloth, one inside and one outside.

In the middle of the two layers of cotton cloth, a layer of armor plates was covered with nails.

It is the kind of iron sheet used to make armor.

The only difference is that this armor is made of iron plates forged from Wootz steel.

Harder than ordinary nail plates.

At a distance of more than fifty meters, even if Li Xiao shot the arrow with all his strength, he could not penetrate the cotton armor at all.

Because the outer layer of cotton has a certain buffering effect, it disperses the force of the arrow.

It just pierced the outer cotton.

Everyone was surprised at the protective power of the cotton armor.

"I didn't expect that this cotton armor is so strong, much better than leather armor." The old man murmured.

Most of the nomadic cavalry on the grassland wear leather armor, and only a very small number are qualified to wear iron armor.

With Li Xiao's strength, he would have pierced the enemy's chest from fifty meters away.

But now, facing this armor made of cotton and iron sheets, it only pierced the outer cotton cloth.

This shocked the old man and others.

The effect was beyond their expectations.

But Li Xiao was not as surprised as they were at this moment, because he had long known that the protective power of cotton armor was far stronger than that of leather armor.

After all, it is made of multiple layers of cotton compacted and sewn into a nail.

When the sword chops, the multiple layers of tight cotton can act as a buffer and disperse the force to the surrounding area.

Even if the outer layer of cotton is pierced, there are still many scales in the middle layer that can still block the sword and stab.

Therefore, it is difficult to pierce the cotton armor unless you happen to pierce the connection between the two armor plates.

Afterwards, Li Xiao continued his experiment.

"Pull in to 20 meters and shoot."

As a result, even at a distance of twenty meters, it could only penetrate the outer cotton cloth, but still could not penetrate the armor plates inside.

However, Li Xiao also knew that this was probably due to the Wootz steel.

If it is replaced with ordinary iron sheets, the effect will definitely not be so strong.

"Switch to the spear."

Afterwards, Li Xiao mounted his warhorse, holding a spear and looking sharp, and began to attack the wooden stake covered with cotton armor.

When he rushed forward and stabbed down with the spear in his hand, he heard a cracking sound.

The spear shaft broke with a sound.

The surface of the cotton armor was completely torn, with cotton wool flying everywhere, revealing a layer of densely packed Wootz steel armor plates inside.

"Sigh~"

Seeing this scene, Li Dashan and others standing in the distance took a breath of cold air.

"Isn't this okay?"

"It hasn't been pierced yet?"

"But it's also because it's a wooden stake. If it were a real person, even if the armor wasn't pierced, they would definitely be thrown off the horse."

"The defensive power of this armor is quite impressive, almost comparable to iron armor."

"The key is that it is much lighter than iron armor."

A set of armor weighs about sixty to seventy kilograms.

The weight of the cotton armor, even with the helmet, is only about 20 kilograms.

Too much lighter.

It is absolutely perfect for light cavalry.

The most important thing is that the cost of cotton armor is low.

Even a set of ordinary iron armor costs as much as eight sets of cotton armor.

To change the wart armor, you need more than twenty sets.

So, at this moment, Li Dashan and others all laughed.

The image instantly emerged in my mind: the Jinzhou cavalry, all wearing cotton armor, crushed the group of nomadic cavalry wearing leather armor.

They are not on the same level at all.

Li Xiao's experiment is not over yet. He will use other weapons to test the damage to the cotton armor.

Swords, spears, bows and arrows have little damage to cotton armor.

When facing the beatings of heavy weapons such as maces and iron clubs, the effect of cotton armor is even stronger than that of iron armor.

Because there are two layers of dense cotton, it can disperse the force and reduce the damage of heavy blows.

Until the stage of using the divine arm crossbow.

The invincible defense of the cotton armor was finally broken.

At a distance of forty meters, even with the use of Wootz steel armor plates, a single layer of cotton armor can still be easily penetrated by crossbow arrows.

Li Xiao was not disappointed when he saw this scene.

After all, even heavy armor may not be able to withstand the crossbow, let alone cotton armor used to replace leather armor.

In terms of cost-effectiveness, cotton armor is almost the ceiling among light cavalry armor.

So, Li Xiao looked at everyone and said in a firm voice: "This winter, we need to produce a large number of cotton armor."

"Equip our soldiers."

(End of this chapter)