The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 339 This machine is for you
The old shopkeeper stopped upon hearing this, and Jiang Shaohui also became interested: "I wonder what advice Young Master Yue has for me?"

Yue Wenxuan smiled and waved, and then several people walked in, carrying a strange machine.

Jiang Shaohui's men couldn't help but gather around to look, but at first glance, they couldn't tell what it was for.

The men Yue Wenxuan brought were seen stirring the axle by hand...

The machine started to rotate, with the two shafts turning in opposite directions.

At this point, cotton is fed into the middle of the two rollers, and the two rollers squeeze each other. The cotton seeds are squeezed out and fall to the inside, while the clean cotton passes through the two rollers and falls to the outside. In the blink of an eye, the "cotton ginning" step is completed.

Jiang Shaohui's men's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. When they saw the iron rods they used to gin cotton, they suddenly felt like "Ah, what kind of primitive people am I?"

Jiang Shaohui was also incredibly surprised: "Huh? You can... you can gin cotton like this? This... this is thirty-two times faster than my cotton ginning method."

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "This machine is called a mixer, and I'm giving it to you today! You can make your own to improve your workshop's production efficiency."

Jiang Shaohui was greatly surprised. Such a powerful machine should be passed down to sons, not daughters, and you actually... just gave it to me like this?

This...this is such a great kindness.

Just as he was about to finish his prayers, Yue Wenxuan suddenly waved his hand and said, "No, don't thank me yet. Let's move on to the next step."

Jiang Shaohui: "???"

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand, and several more people carried in a large bed.

A very big bed!

Strangely, there were no blankets or quilts on the bed, but instead a net covering it, and many small wooden pillars were erected around the bed...

Jiang Shaohui asked in great surprise, "What is this?"

Yue Wenxuan chuckled: "This thing is so much fun. When I was a kid, I loved watching other people play with this."

Jiang Shaohui: "???"

Yue Wenxuan said to the craftsmen, "Let's begin."

The craftsmen immediately sprang into action, placing the cleaned cotton they had just extracted using the agitator onto the large bed. Then, they slung a strange, large bow over their left shoulder and, with a oddly shaped wooden hammer in their right hand, began to pluck the bowstring as if playing a musical instrument…

With a hook and a hammer, they will bounce down with a "whoosh" and then vibrate continuously, making the cotton placed on the bouncy bed fly up.

With each bounce and thud, the originally flat cotton bolls bounced up and down, and the cotton began to soften.

Yue Wenxuan really loved watching this when he was a child; he was happy whenever he saw cotton being fluffed.

The plastic cotton-fluffing figure also started singing: "Fluffing cotton, fluffing cotton, half a pound of cotton fluffs out eight ounces and eighty centimeters, old cotton fluffed into new quilt covers, warm and comfortable, everyone praises it, fluffing cotton, fluffing cotton, laughing heartily in the cotton pile..."

His singing was a mess, but Jiang Shaohui and his men were completely mesmerized.

They still use small bows to fluff cotton, drawing the string to do so. It takes a very long time to fluff a whole bunch of cotton, and it's extremely labor-intensive. Even a fool knows how tiring it is to draw the bowstring...

But when they saw the trampoline and the large bow in front of them, they realized that cotton could be fluffed in this way! Jiang Shaohui's jaw almost dropped to the ground: "My God, your method of fluffing cotton is at least thirty-two times faster than mine."

Yue Wenxuan: "Fun, right? Haha, this was my favorite thing when I was a kid. Hmm, this trampoline and the big bow are for you. Find a craftsman to make them yourself, and make a lot of them."

Jiang Shaohui was completely stunned: "Such a treasure, and you're giving it to me again?"

"Yes, it's a gift for you, it's free."

Jiang Shaohui was completely ecstatic, his mind racing: My God! This trip to Chuzhou was absolutely worthwhile. Forget about making money from the textile industry, just getting the agitator and the tumbling machine is already a huge gain.

He plans to worship again...

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand to stop him again: "Don't thank me yet, there's more to come."

Jiang Shaohui was utterly astonished: "There's more?"

Yue Wenxuan waved his hand, and several more craftsmen walked in. This time, they carried out a three-spindle foot-operated spinning wheel.

This time, Jiang Shaohui knew at a glance that the spinning wheel had three spindles, and that it must be something extraordinary, because his own spinning wheel only had one spindle.

Sure enough, Yue Wenxuan's craftsman sat down in front of the spinning wheel, stepped on the pedal, and the spinning wheel began to spin rapidly. Compared with Jiang's hand-cranked spinning wheel, it directly won in terms of speed. Then all three spindles started to turn, and three threads of cotton were spun out at the same time...

Jiang Shaohui was speechless at this point, completely dumbfounded. The shopkeeper and craftsmen behind him were also stunned.

They still hadn't realized what had happened after a long time.

Yue Wenxuan's workers brought in another loom...

Next came another loom performance, but it would be too long to describe here, so let's skip the details.

The performance is over!

Jiang Shaohui collapsed to the ground with a thud, muttering, "Last time, when Young Master Yue invited me to open a textile factory, I thought it was because he lacked textile technology and wanted to rely on merchants from Jiangnan for help... Now I realize that our little bit of technology is utterly worthless, utterly worthless... Every step in the textile industry is being utterly crushed by Young Master Yue's new machines!"

"I really don't understand, Young Master Yue, if you are so capable, why don't you open your own textile factory and earn the money yourself? Why do you have to give me the profits?"

Yue Wenxuan smiled, offering no explanation.

In fact, he himself wanted to establish one, not in his own name, but in the name of the Northern Song government—a "state-run textile factory." But state-run enterprises alone weren't enough. Just like with the previous private paper mills, state and private enterprises had to be given equal importance and given equal importance! Healthy competition between state-owned and private enterprises was crucial; otherwise, monopolies would inevitably lead to chaos. The Song Dynasty's many industries were in disarray precisely because the government monopolized too many things.

However, there's no need to explain this too clearly to Chiang Kai-shek.

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "I did this, of course, because of Brother Jiang's father, Minister Jiang! I heard that Minister Jiang sold grain and let the villagers bring their own measuring measures, calling it 'Jiang Ziliang' (meaning 'Jiang the Self-Measurer'). Based on this alone, I felt that giving some profits to the Jiang family would be beneficial to the people."

Jiang Shaohui: "Ah? I see."

Yue Wenxuan continued, "I hope that Brother Jiang can be like your father, thinking more about the interests of the people when doing business. Treat your workers well and pay them more wages, and treat your customers who buy your goods honestly, without cheating or deceiving them. If you do business honestly, then it will not have been in vain that I gave you these machines."

Jiang Shaohui quickly composed himself and bowed deeply: "I will remember Young Master Yue's words and will not forget them for even a moment."

(End of this chapter)