Han Du came to the East Palace. Due to Zhu Biao's special permission, Han Du walked in without any notification.
"My lord, Han Du, pays homage to His Highness the Crown Prince."
Zhu Biao heard this, glanced up at Han Du, and then lowered his head. He casually said, "Put the east and west down, and I will help you deliver them."
"What?" Han Du was confused for a moment and suddenly came back to his senses. Judging from what Zhu Biao meant, he had misunderstood him and thought that he was here again to ask him to help deliver a letter to Princess Anqing.
Hearing the deep resentment in Zhu Shou's tone, Han Du felt a little embarrassed. Ever since Han Du and Princess Anqing used Arabic numerals to encrypt letters, Zhu Biao's face towards Han Du had never been better.
Thinking about it, he clearly knew that there must be unknown secrets in this letter, but Zhu Biao couldn't understand any of them. Wouldn't this make him, who prides himself on reading poetry and books, feel uncomfortable?
Therefore, Zhu Biao naturally had no good feelings toward Han Du.
Unless Handu is willing to tell him the secret of the ghostly talisman in the letter, but this is obviously impossible.
"Your Highness misunderstood, I am not here to ask for your help today."
"Then what are you here for?" Zhu Biao asked Han Du.
Because Han Du's approach really made Zhu Biao dissatisfied. In the past, when Zhu Biao didn't help Han Du deliver letters, Han Du would come to the East Palace several times to look for him from time to time. But since Han Du and An Qing began to write such ghostly letters, Han Du would not come to the East Palace at all except to come to him to deliver letters. This is one of the reasons why Zhu Biao is so angry with Han Du.
Han Du told Zhu Biao that he asked Lao Zhu for cotton and Lao Zhu's instructions.
"Cotton? There should be some stock at the Imperial Mansion." After all the fun, when he heard that Han Du came to him for something important, Zhu Biao immediately put aside his playful intentions and said seriously.
"How many?" Han Du was very anxious. Although Han Du was relieved to find cotton, he was worried about the quantity of cotton at the same time. Now a large amount of treasure money is needed. If the quantity of cotton is not large, the problem has not been completely solved.
"Uh, do you want a lot of cotton?" Zhu Biao's expression suddenly became surprised, he lowered his head and took stock, and said: "The cotton in Huangzhuang is mainly used by the palace, but it can't be used up every year. There may not be much in stock now. But there are still tens of thousands of kilograms. Is it enough? If not, I will come and think of a solution."
When he heard that there were tens of thousands of kilograms of cotton, the big stone in Han Du's heart finally fell to the ground smoothly. He breathed a sigh of relief and quickly replied: "That's enough, that's enough."
Tens of thousands of kilograms of cotton are enough for the Banknote Printing Bureau to print several months' worth of banknotes. Even then, treasure banknotes will still need to be printed, and it will be time to harvest this year's new cotton. At that time, you can charge as much as you want.
While the big problem was solved, a question emerged in Han Du's mind.
"Your Highness, there is something I don't know whether I should ask or not?"
"Ask." Zhu Biao said nonchalantly, "You can ask whatever you want."
"How come your Highness has so much cotton?" Han Du was very puzzled by this. The main use of cotton now is to weave it into cotton cloth and make clothes.
Of course, now there is an additional use for making banknotes. But the amount of cotton required for banknote paper cannot be too much, that is, it is a one-time deal. After enough treasure banknotes are printed, there will no longer be a need to make banknote paper. Unless by that time, new treasure banknotes need to be printed, then cotton will continue to be needed.
The East Palace alone has tens of thousands of kilograms of cotton in reserve. If it were all woven into cotton, even if everyone in the East Palace wore it, they wouldn't be able to wear it all.
Why did Zhu Biao keep so much cotton?
Zhu Biao listened and patiently explained to Han Du: "Actually, these cottons are not from the East Palace, but grown by the Huangzhuang itself. Because the value of cotton is relatively high, in the past few years, my father issued an order to encourage people all over the world. To grow cotton, they even exempted the people who grew cotton from some taxes. Seeing that the emperor liked the people to grow cotton so much, the people in Huangzhuang, whether it was to suit his interests or for other reasons, anyway, the cotton they grew in these years lasted for one year. More than a year. There was so much cotton that the palace could not use up. After all, these cottons belonged to the royal family. The people in the palace did not have the courage to sell them, so they had to store them. As time went by, I forgot about this time. That’s it, if you hadn’t mentioned it today, I wouldn’t have remembered that there were still tens of thousands of kilograms of cotton in Huangzhuang that had not been processed.”
After hearing Zhu Biao's explanation, Han Du's first reaction was to be stunned.
Is there still so much cotton that I can’t use it all?
How is this possible, let alone the ancient times when productivity is low now. Even under modern productivity, it is difficult to hear that the huge amount of cotton produced will be unsalable. I have only heard that there is not enough cotton.
Cotton can not only be woven into cotton cloth, but can also be filled into clothing to make cotton-padded clothes and quilts.
Thinking of cotton-padded clothes and quilts, Han Du suddenly woke up and knew the crux of the problem.
Han Du has been in Ming Dynasty for so long, but he has never heard of cotton-padded clothes, let alone quilts. Although because the weather was getting hotter, Handu didn't notice this on weekdays. But now Han Du thought about it carefully and determined that there was indeed no such thing as cotton-padded clothes and quilts in the Ming Dynasty.
No wonder Zhu Biao said that there is no end to cotton. It turns out that people today only use cotton to weave it into cotton cloth. Although cotton is better than linen, the clothes made from it are skin-friendly and warmer than linen. But for cotton to truly keep you warm, you still need to use a large amount of cotton to make cotton-padded clothes and quilts.
"There is really too much cotton grown in Huangzhuang. Next year Gudu is planning to order them to plant less cotton." Zhu Biao said casually.
There is no doubt about the productivity of Huangzhuang. The Huangzhuang is a unique feature created by Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang can be said to be a maverick emperor in all dynasties. As an emperor, if you want something, you can basically order tribute from various places. But Lao Zhu was different. He was the emperor who was most afraid of disturbing the people. Not only would he not issue orders for the people to pay tribute, he even established an imperial village and prepared to farm his own land to support the palace.
Originally, Lao Zhu loved Xiaolongtuan's tea very much, but since Lao Zhu learned about the complicated process of making Xiaolongtuan and the huge expenditure of people's efforts. Not only did he borrow his favorite drinking habit, he even issued an order prohibiting the public from making Xiaolong Tuan as tribute.
