After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times

Hui Niang had of course heard of this man; one could say that the reason the new emperor was able to ascend the throne so quickly without causing disastrous consequences—Guo Pu counted as one of the key reasons.

She and Beigong Chun both believed that Guo Pu had chosen Zhao Hanzhang because he knew that Heaven had chosen Zhao Hanzhang.

Since he said it was a match made by Heaven, then it must be a match made by Heaven.

A smile involuntarily appeared on Hui Niang’s face as well.

Fu Tinghan led them to the Observing Things Department of the Ministry of Industry; it was a deep compound made up of multiple courtyards in series, with each courtyard researching something different.

The Observing Things Department of the Ministry of Industry was still primarily focused on civilian-use research, and he took them to the textile sub-bureau.

The courtyard was large and flat, divided into several small groups huddled together doing research, all speaking in low voices.

Zhao Hanzhang looked very surprised, so Fu Tinghan explained, "They heard that this time even the Empress Dowager would be accompanying you, so they’ve restrained themselves a lot; even when they argue, they’re speaking softly."

"So if I come by myself, they don’t bother to restrain themselves?"

Fu Tinghan said, "You come often; they don’t have the energy to care that much."

They had produced new spinning machines and looms; compared to the old textile machines, they were nearly half the size, but the number of spindles had increased—this spinning machine now had as many as forty-eight.

Fu Tinghan said, "Take spinning hemp as an example. The previously improved spinning machine had twenty spindles and could spin twenty-five jin of hemp yarn in a day; now it can spin sixty jin of hemp. Before we modified them, the common spinning machines generally had only two to five spindles and could at most spin three jin of thread a day. Moreover, the commonly used spinning machines were still primarily hand-cranked; we’ve continued the last round of improvements and now use foot treadles."

Although as early as the First Year of Yongjia, Fu Tinghan had already improved the spinning machines and looms, and had not blocked the outflow of the technology, the new spinning machines and looms had still only spread within a small range and had not become widely adopted.

Zhao Hanzhang had ordered the county governments everywhere to make statistics; at present, the largest number of first-generation improved textile machines was in Yu State, but even there they accounted for only twenty percent of households, followed by the Shu region.

The new-style textile machines in the Shu region had been brought there by Zhu Chuan; it was said that he had bought ten spinning machines and looms, and after all the hardship of transporting them to Shu, he had two of them dismantled so that craftsmen could copy them.

But the share in the Shu region was also not high; only some large households and a small number of middle-income families had replaced their old textile machines with the new ones.

With such a small share, there were both advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage was that promoting the second generation of new textile machines would involve much smaller losses, and the cost of replacing the common textile machines would be reduced;

the disadvantage was that when the first generation had already been so difficult to promote, how much harder would it be for the second generation?

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "How is the quality? Spinning machines and looms are expensive; a household might buy one and use it for ten years, even several decades, normally only replacing spare parts like the spindles."

Fu Tinghan said, "We’ve used them continuously for three days and haven’t found any major problems so far, but there are still some areas that need a bit of refinement."

He had someone sit down to spin thread, then pointed out the problem areas to Zhao Hanzhang. "We have four types of fibers for spinning. Aside from silk, which is a long fiber, wool, hemp, and cotton all belong to short fibers. I feel that the thread it produces is slightly too coarse for silk and not conducive to weaving fine, exquisite fabrics. I want to start with the spindles and make another set of interchangeable spindles so that when fine thread is needed, one set of spindles is used, and when coarse thread is needed, another set is used."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "In an ordinary household, very few people would be able to replace the spindles themselves, right?"

"That’s right. Changing the spindles once takes a great deal of time, and ordinary households might not even know how; they’d have to invite a craftsman to come over, which would be another expense. So I want to make a spindle that can switch between coarse and fine; that way we can save a lot of time and cost on replacements."

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "Have you made it yet?"

Fu Tinghan said, "We already have some ideas."

The craftsman beside them quickly said, "Your Majesty, we all believe that such a spindle capable of both coarse and fine is not that important, because most of the people who raise silkworms in the countryside are concentrated in Yu State, Jingzhou, and the Shu region. To save effort, silkworm farmers generally won’t also grow hemp; they sell their silk and satin, then turn around and purchase hemp yarn or hemp cloth from others. So the spinning machines only need to be made in two types—one clearly labeled as fine-thread spindles and one as coarse-thread spindles."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "Some households not only need fine thread for satin, but also want fine thread for cotton and hemp, don’t they?"

The craftsman then laughed and said, "Minister Fu also raised this question, but we’ve tested it. The hemp yarn spun by the coarse-thread spindles can be made half as fine simply by using a bit of skill. All the weaver women know this; otherwise, why would hemp cloth be divided into coarse and fine types?"

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