As soon as he saw Zhang Mingwei, Zhu Cixi said a little embarrassedly: "Sir's request cannot be completed on time. That's all we have at the moment!"
As he spoke, he pointed to several transport ships in the fleet that followed him on the river.
Looking at the generals who had followed Zhang Mingwei for a long time, they were not surprised to see this scene.
However, the imperial officers and soldiers, including Lu Jiude and below, including Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong, as well as the newly recruited troops, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others, were all shocked.
You know, this is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the future emperor of the Ming Empire! When I met Duke Xingguo, I was not only excited, but also took the initiative to admit my mistakes, just like a student meeting a respected teacher!
At this moment, they couldn't help but have a deeper understanding of Duke Xingguo's status and power.
Zhang Mingwei didn't think much about it. After all, this kind of thing was too common for him. When Zhu Cixiong said this, he asked curiously: "What is that?"
"The cloth and cotton required for the military uniforms." Zhu Cihong heard this and quickly replied, "Didn't Sir say that the uniforms need to be changed so that the soldiers can fight with peace of mind, and asked me to handle this matter?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Mingwei remembered.
Indeed, when the army moved south from the north, it was in July and August, when the weather was hot. It's now October, and we will soon go west to hunt down bandits. Plus it's still the Little Ice Age, so the weather is already a bit cold.
The army led by Zhou Yuji was the one that Zhang Mingwei gave priority to supplying with new uniforms, and they could only collect more than 20,000 uniforms. Therefore, he led this number of troops to pursue Zhang Xianzhong's troops.
This is not Zhang Mingwei's hypocrisy. Although the previous imperial army had considered these things, after all, even the military pay was always in arrears. However, Zhang Mingwei felt that since he had led the army, he should do his best to meet the needs of the army within his ability.
All the time, when he was in later generations, he always looked back on past history and felt very sorry for the revolutionary martyrs who fought against superior enemies under such difficult conditions. If the situation of the revolutionary martyrs can be improved, at least the blood of heroes will be spared.
It's a pity that he didn't travel through that era, but since he traveled to the late Ming Dynasty, he had to do his best. This military uniform is necessary for the army, so naturally he wants to complete the change as much as possible.
However, there are currently nearly 300,000 displaced thieves who have been recruited. Although some of them will return to their hometowns, most of them are actually homeless and need to be organized into field soldiers, engineering soldiers, etc.
If their military uniforms can still be relaxed, then the troops that are organized into regular armies and will go to the west to fight, including the reorganized bandit army, as well as Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong and other troops, must change their uniforms.
Even if Zhang Mingwei selects these troops again, the regular army has now reached about 150,000, and there is indeed a lot of military uniforms needed.
Therefore, upon hearing Zhu Cixiang's words, Zhang Mingwei immediately asked, "Don't you have that much inventory?"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Cixiang suddenly said angrily: "The warehouses in Nanjing are all full of things that can starve rats to death. Where do you get the inventory? I only received these after I suppressed them temporarily."
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he suddenly realized that he had finished his work.
It would be strange if the warehouses in the late Ming Dynasty could still accumulate supplies!
But he was also a little strange, so he asked: "Isn't Jiangnan a land of plenty, producing silk and the like?"
"Yes!" Zhu Cixiang answered after hearing this, and then spread his hands and said, maybe he learned it from Zhang Mingwei, "But how can it be so fast to weave cloth into cloth in such a short period of time?"
The Ming Dynasty military uniforms generally distributed military uniform materials, that is, fabrics, etc. to the soldiers themselves, and then the soldiers' families made the military uniforms, instead of directly issuing finished clothes.
Therefore, Zhu Cixiang's answer was cloth and the like rather than military uniforms directly.
Upon hearing his explanation, Zhang Mingwei, who had been accompanying Zhu Cixiang to the city, suddenly stopped. This made Zhu Auao, who was following him and listening to the two of them talking, almost bump into him.
When Zhang Mingwei stopped, everyone else naturally stopped too. They were a little confused for a moment, and they all looked at Duke Xingguo, wondering what happened to him.
Zhang Mingwei turned to look at Zhu Cixiang, patted his forehead, and asked with a smile: "At this time, is there no shuttle yet?"
Although it was a question, his tone was actually affirmative.
Sure enough, when Zhu Cihong heard this, he asked inexplicably: "What is a shuttle?"
After answering, he turned around again, fearing that it was because of his lack of knowledge, and asked the people around him: "Have you ever heard of a flying shuttle?"
The group of people behind him shook their heads together after hearing this. But Sun Yingyuan added: "Your Highness, I have never heard of flying shuttles, but there are darts."
When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he felt funny in his heart and even threw darts at you.
By this time, he was already determined.
Because there is so much history written about traveling through the late Ming Dynasty, there is naturally a lot more information on black technology.
Cotton is spun to obtain cotton yarn, which is then woven to obtain cotton cloth. In this whole process, there were two very big improvements, both of which occurred after the eighteenth century.
The first big improvement was in weaving. In the 18th century, the British occupied India, which made the cost of obtaining materials such as cotton extremely low, which stimulated their ability to weave cloth. As a result, in 1733, British clockmaker John Kay invented the flying shuttle, which greatly improved the efficiency of weaving.
And it is true that the improvement of weaving efficiency naturally stimulated the demand for cotton yarn. So, in 1764, James Hargreaves, a spinner in Lancashire, England, accidentally invented a new type of spinning machine, which he named the famous Spinning Jenny after his daughter.
It can be imagined that the original spinning machine had one spindle, but the Jenny Spinning Machine has been improved to eighty spindles. This improvement in efficiency is not ordinary.
It is also because of this that the Spinning Jenny made many people who were using old spinning machines homeless at that time, so many people smashed the Spinning Jenny and were not allowed to make this new type of spinning machine.
In China, during the Yuan Dynasty, there was a person who made a very big contribution to the textile industry, that is, the famous Huang Daopo. However, her contribution was not only to improve the spinning efficiency, but also to make a set of rolling, elastic, spinning and weaving tools (such as a stirrer, a vertebrae, a three-spindle pedal spinning wheel, etc.) to improve the spinning efficiency. Improvements to the entire cotton-to-cotton process.
If we just talk about spinning efficiency, of course the Spinning Jenny, which appeared hundreds of years later, is much higher.
Therefore, after understanding the difficulties encountered by Zhu Cixiang, Zhang Mingwei immediately thought of two good things, the shuttle and the spinning jenny, one of the magic weapons of time travel.
"Find some master carpenters immediately! It's best to know how to make textile machines." Zhang Mingwei turned around and gave instructions to Liu Jin, the family member who was following him, and then smiled at Zhu Cixiang and said, "There are two good things that can make a lot of money." The earth improves the production process from cotton to cotton cloth!”
Upon hearing this, everyone who heard it could not help but be stunned. How come the Duke has such good things so casually?
When Zhu Cihong and Zhu Aao heard this, they were not shocked, but overjoyed. Because they know where Zhang Mingwei’s things came from, and he said so, they are definitely good things!
Even though she was thinking about it, Zhu Yuyao couldn't help but ask: "Sir, could it be a formula or style similar to cement or glass?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Mingwei thought for a moment, nodded and said, "Absolutely!"
The production of these two things, the flying shuttle and the spinning jenny, would lead to a monopoly in the textile and weaving industry. It is not wrong to say that they are like a treasure trove.
When Zhu Cixiang heard this, he quickly said: "Sir, you have already donated two formulas for making a fortune to the court and the people of the world. This time, the Duke should keep it for himself!"
After he finished speaking, he looked at his sister specifically. I thought to myself, if I dug out all the good things from the Duke and used them myself, I would be sorry for my sister!
He is the prince and will be the Ming Emperor in the future. Donating to the court means donating to him. This is correct.
However, after hearing this, Zhang Mingwei shook his head and said: "These two things are too overbearing. If I use them myself, all other people engaged in textiles and weaving will lose their livelihoods, or they will lose the source of supplementing their household income. This is not what I want." have witnessed."
Having said this, he paused again and said: "What I want to see is that the people of Ming Dynasty can live and work in peace and contentment, and no longer suffer from hunger and cold! Therefore, these two good things that can greatly increase the production of cloth must be made public , let Ming Dynasty have more clothes, lower the price of clothes, and everyone can change clothes!"
Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but look at him with very admiring eyes. Especially the group of generals who were born as bandits. They used to belong to a very poor class. Naturally, they knew how big a deal it was to have new clothes to wear!
According to what the Duke said, his new things would allow ordinary people to wear new clothes, so that the people of the Ming Dynasty would no longer suffer from hunger and cold. For a while, many of them had red eyes when they felt the same.
The Duke serves the country and the people, and there is no one in the world who can match him!
Zhu Yuluo was also moved. When she was about to speak, she suddenly heard Zhang Mingwei change the subject: "But you are right. It is not good if it is just free. There must be restrictions, including the previous cement formula. !”
What he said was something no one expected. Suddenly, they were a little dumbfounded by Duke Xingguo's sudden change.
"Sir, what is the restriction? Does it require payment?" The prince asked on behalf of everyone.
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