Baskets of white cocoons filled the warehouse. Wang Siniang and Li were girls from the south of the Yangtze River. They had both seen silkworms, but they had never seen silkworms raised so well and smoothly this time. [No pop-up novel website]
The discarded dead silkworms and diseased silkworms are very few and can be ignored. Wang Siniang has raised silkworms for old. According to her experience, at least 10% to 20% will be lost every silkworm season. They did not expect that the method taught by Miss Li was so effective! Not to mention that the quality of the harvested silkworm cocoons is amazingly good. According to general terms, the number of silkworms raised this time is at least 12% or more - in previous years, it was considered a good year to have 70% or 80% silkworm flowers.
The master's silkworm seeds are good! Miss Li’s teachings are great! Now they finally had an explanation! Wang Siniang and Li Zheng both breathed a sigh of relief. They both knew the impact of their independent performance this time on their future status in the villa. Especially Li Zheng, who was one of the six students taught by Zhao Yingong personally at the beginning. Later, He Ning was parachuted in and became the "Seven Gods". They are the master's personal students, and their status in the villa is different from that of ordinary slaves. Everyone knows that they will be the master's confidants in the future. Therefore, on top of his own sense of superiority, he also has a strong sense of uneasiness. The sense of competition is particularly strong.
When the spring silkworms were harvested, Wang Siniang gave the silkworm ladies a holiday, so that the villagers could go home, and the slaves rested for a few days to prepare for the upcoming second silkworm raising.
Sericulture can actually be done multiple times a year. In some places with excellent water and heat conditions and sufficient supply of mulberry leaves, mulberry leaves can even be grown eight seasons a year. Judging from the climate conditions in Jiangnan at that time, it was not a problem four or five seasons a year. In Huzhou, some farmers also raise five-season silkworms.
But in actual sericulture. Farmers rarely raise silkworms for multiple seasons, and most only raise silkworms for one season. After the appearance of raw silk in June, the work of sericulture comes to an end. On the one hand, the scale of small-scale peasant economy is limited. Farmers have to take care of planting and other side businesses, and sericulture requires a lot of manpower. Continuous sericulture for a long time requires labor that small farmers cannot support. On the other hand, and the most important problem, the traditional method of sericulture does not have a clear concept of disinfection, although the silkworm room is also cleaned. Measures such as painting with lime water are used, but the cause of silkworm disease is not clear. After the temperature rises, the silkworm room is not disinfected enough. Viruses and bacteria are also more active, and the chance of getting silkworm diseases increases significantly.
In addition, it also involves the temperature and humidity control required for raising silkworms. Spring is neither cold nor hot. Moderate wetness and dryness. It's summer and autumn. This natural advantage ceases to exist and requires human intervention. There are very high requirements for sericulture technology and capital investment. This is difficult for sericulture farmers, who are mostly small farmers, to do this.
In Li Yao'er's view, farmers in Jiangnan generally only raise silkworms for one season, which is a waste of mulberry resources. Considering the water and heat conditions in the south of the Yangtze River, raising silkworms in three seasons is a relatively safe approach.
When Shen's family started collecting cocoons, the silkworms of Shen Kaibao's family had not yet "went up the mountain". The whole family was struggling. Seeing the silkworm baby's body becoming transparent and gradually starting to stop eating, the whole family felt relieved. This year's success or failure all depends on this. If the silkworm flowers are not good, the land taken out will have to be named Cao. Not to mention that I owe Master Zhao a huge debt! What should I give back to others? Every time Shen Kaibao thinks about this, he is so anxious that he can't sleep.
A brazier was set up under the "mountain shed", and the cooked silkworms originally on the silkworm foil were moved to the "mountain shed". Fire was used below to urge the silkworms. When the silkworms were heated on the hill shed, they climbed up the clusters made of straw. In the house, there was the sound of crumbs.
This is the first step for silkworms to make cocoons. Silkworms that cannot get up the cluster are not healthy and cannot make cocoons - even if they get up, they will sometimes just crawl around but refuse to make cocoons. At this time, apart from praying silently in their hearts, they could only leave everything to luck.
The humidity in the silkworm room is very high - the silkworms have to excrete silkworm urine before going up the mountain, so there is a strange wet smell in the air, but this is also a sign that the silkworms have matured and are about to form cocoons, so everyone is very happy. Looking forward to a good year this year.
Three days after "going up the mountain" the engine was turned off as usual. Shen Kaibao opened the corner of the reed curtain with trembling hands and took a look, his heart pounding. The whole family gathered behind him, holding their breath and not even daring to take a deep breath.
fine! The straw clusters are completely white, and at first glance they look like eight, maybe nine. This has been a rare good year in recent years! Shen Kaibao's family was immediately filled with laughter, and now they were at peace. The whole family suffered from hunger, insomnia, debt and interest for a month, and finally it was not unjust.
The same laughter arose everywhere in the village. This year's silkworm flowers are very good, and most people can pick 70-80% of them. A few like Shen Kai Baobao's family can pick nine points.
The farmers, who were breathless due to famine and debt, breathed a sigh of relief. I finally got through it this year. The riverside and rice fields were now filled with women and children. These people are much thinner than a month ago, their eyes are sunken, and their throats are hoarse. However, the sense of relief made their emotions very high.
Everyone is thinking about their plans after collecting the cocoons. Naturally, some of the cocoons must be returned first to the rice and mulberry leaves borrowed from Mr. Zhao. Fortunately, Mr. Zhao is here this year, otherwise it is hard to say how much of the cocoons will be left as his own.
The next step is naturally the highlight of women - silk reeling. Reel out the white silk and sell it to silk customers in exchange for silver and copper coins: the debts owed must be paid off, and the jackets and summer clothes in the pawnshop must be redeemed... Housewives and men in each family are making plans. Indispensable expenses, see which ones must be spent and which ones can be postponed.
Duoduoniang also came back from the Shen family. She was full of joy. Although she had been working hard this month, the one or two silver wages she had just earned was heavy in her arms. She also brought back four-color thank-you gifts from Wang Siniang. These "delicious foods" made the children in the family as happy as monkeys unlocking the door. There is also a piece of Songjiang cotton.
Duoduoniang's silkworm flowers weren't bad either, and they were worth eight points. In addition, Duoduoniang had eaten all her food this month and even got back a tael of silver, so she immediately became the object of jealousy among her neighbors. Raising silkworms at home, whether the income is good or bad depends on God's will, or whether it is better to help others raise silkworms and make stable money.
Every household now brought out their silk carts, and women started making silk. The sound of silk reeling machines and the heat of boiling water pots were everywhere in the village. A lively and happy scene
However, everyone's joy did not last long. The first batch of "silk cocoon guests" arriving along Tang Road brought bad news.
The first silk cocoon guest to arrive was "Yellow Pigtail". He was sick when he was a child, and his family was afraid that they would not be able to support him, so he left a pigtail on the back of his head and did not cut it off until after the "marriage". However, this nickname But he stayed.
He did not have a silk shop of his own, so he made a living by tapping the raw silk from the cocoons that several silk shops in Hangzhou City purchased nearby every year. I am very familiar with the people in the village. He is a pretty decent person, although he will inevitably deceive others, but he is not excessive. If a family is in trouble and they really can't go to him, he is willing to lend a penny and a half of debt to the family for emergency purposes without any mortgage.
The person "Huang Xiaozhai" is most familiar with in the village is Shen Kaibao's family. In the past, when he went to the village to collect cocoons, he would always stay at his house. This time, as usual, I brought four-color water gifts.
"Kaibao, are you selling cocoons this year or making silk at home?" Huang Xiao braid pulled Shen Kaibao to sit under a willow tree next to the vegetable patch behind the Shen family's house and asked quietly.
"Of course silk is sold. How much can silkworm cocoons be sold for?" Shen Kaibao said disapprovingly. Selling silkworm cocoons is only done by people who don't have enough manpower at home.
"The market is not going well this year." Huang Xiaozhai patted his thigh and sighed, lowering his voice and said, "You probably don't know yet, but this year the city's government office put out a notice saying that this year's silk cocoons -"
"I know this. How is the market going?" Shen Kaibao was already shocked. He had always had a bad premonition about this year's raw silk market. The fatigue of the silkworm season and the joy of the harvest once diluted this worry. This year's yellow Xiao Zhuan's words made his whole body tense again.
Huang Pigtail sighed again: "It's so bad! It's so bad that everyone has no way to survive!"
He is literate and often travels around the city. His information is much more detailed than that of Shen Kaibao. This year, in the name of relief, he has contracted all the raw silk and cocoon sales in the province to the Famine Relief Bureau, so all silk cocoon shops have to go to the Famine Relief Bureau. You need to get an approval before you can purchase it.
"...Brother, think about it, on the one hand, money for famine relief is coming from here, and on the other hand, from the magistrate to the committee members of the famine relief bureau, no one should get their hands wet. Think about it, can the market be better this year? Come on?"
Therefore, this year, colleagues in the industry discussed together and set a public price. All companies, large and small, as well as the "silk customers" who went to the countryside, had to purchase according to this public price. They could only keep it low and not raise it.
When Shen Kaibao heard that people were about to hang up, he hurriedly asked: "Don't be too pretentious. What is the price this year?"
"Twenty-five taels of silver per load of silk."
"What?!" Shen Kaibao almost jumped up: the market price has dropped by more than half compared to last year. His heart suddenly sank to the bottom and his mind became groggy. "This is asking us silkworm farmers to hang themselves!"
"Brother! Don't be anxious!" Huang Xiao braid said quickly, "There is nothing we can do about this..."
Shen Kaibao didn't know how he got home. A heavy feeling of uneasiness enveloped the originally happy village. After Huang Xiaobin, several more silk guests came, and their words were similar to Huang Xiaobin's. Only this price is not willing to be increased by a penny. No matter whether you are begging or scolding, these people will stick to the original price without any change. They are also "firm" in saying: If you add one, two or two taels, what will we eat? The silk business is difficult to do this year! (To be continued...)
