After Liu Shimin watched several pairs of weavers operating looms with great interest, he picked up a set of jacquard books and flipped through them for a while.
Suddenly turning around, Yang Zuo said to Han Zhongwen angrily: "Mr. Han, you and the housekeeper have been following you. Every time Miss Zheng answers our questions, she has to carefully weigh your faces first. Why, are you afraid that our family will steal from us?" ?”
Han Zhongwen waved his hands hurriedly: "How dare you? How dare you? My father-in-law condescends to come here. My family will tell you everything you know."
Ma Xianglin stepped forward and said with a smile: "Mr. Han, let's go and invite Ma to the front hall for a glass of chrysanthemum wine. Don't be an eyesore here."
Han Zhongwen naturally obeyed the order, laughed, and went out with Lao Peng and Ma Xianglin.
Liu Shimin pouted, and when he turned to Zheng Haizhu, his expression was much warmer, and he waved for her to continue taking him to visit the weaving workshop.
"I heard from General Ma that the girl is from Zhangzhou?"
"Back to my father-in-law, I am from Longxi County, Zhangzhou."
"Oh," Liu Shimin took out the cleansing handkerchief he took out from the hotel, rubbed the velvet on it, and praised, "The Han government is blessed with a good general like you. Come on, tell me, tell me, this How did you weave the veil?"
Zheng Haizhu knelt down respectfully and led Liu Shimin to a row of baskets. Pointing to the piles of cloth inside, he said: "Please see, father-in-law, these are woven rough cloths that are going to be dyed. Common ones in Songjiang." The medicinal patch cloth and purple flower cloth are dyed with polygonum indigo and local purple flowers respectively, showing dark blue and brown."
Liu Shimin nodded and pointed to the robe on his body: "Yes, the gown I am wearing today is made of polygonum blue material bought in your Fucheng clothing store. Literati have always admired the kind of indifferent green, such as sky blue, water, green bamboo and green. The smoke is blue and the plums are green. But I love this kind of dark blue. It looks like the sky at night and I can't figure it out. However, Xianglin said that the rhombus cloth he wears is the best Songjiang cotton, which makes me also Make a suit. Hey, he is a young man, and he is so brave and dashing. He looks good in anything he wears."
Zheng Haizhu always maintained a high degree of concentration in the face of such a powerful internal official as the eunuch. At this moment, he was smacking Liu Shimin's words, and then thinking about Ma Xianglin's behavior of rushing to Songjiang to accompany him, he felt a little strange.
The two most notorious groups of expatriate internal officials during the Wanli period were the mining tax eunuchs and the weaving eunuchs.
It stands to reason that Ma Xianglin, whose father died at the hands of a mining tax eunuch, would be disgusted with a weaving eunuch with a similar nature, right? Unexpectedly, they seemed to be quite personal friends.
But Zheng Haizhu took a deeper guess and just waited quietly for Liu Shimin to stop talking, and then followed the other party's intention and continued to explain: "My father-in-law is right, I also think this blue color is like the night sky.
The young woman's hometown is by the sea. She used to get up in the middle of the night to cook medicine for her mother. She saw the dawn between the night sky and the sea, and the blue was mixed with orange and red. It was really dazzling.
After arriving in Songjiang, I saw medicine-stained cloth and purple-flowered cloth, which were exactly blue and yellow. The young woman discussed with the weavers to bury thin rods at random in the rough cloth to act as false wefts, and no cotton yarn was woven in the false wefts. First, soak the blank cloth with indigo and violet dyes. After beating and drying, the false weft is made of silk thread that has been dyed red, and the pile loops are woven using a knotting technique. The loops are then cut and the false weft is removed. , it’s done. "
Liu Shimin gently touched the cloud-like red velvet on the handkerchief with the pads of his fingers while squinting his eyes to listen to Zheng Haizhu's story.
He entered the palace at the age of sixteen and was like a fish in the sea. He has been swimming around the huge inner court of the empire for more than ten years and has met countless people.
From the maids serving the emperor's concubines to the female craftsmen in the weaving and dyeing bureau, their eyes, if not dull, were still shrouded in fear and humility.
Not unlike the woman in front of her, her expression was calm and serious, but her eyes were flashing with warm and vivid sparks from time to time.
For a brief moment, Liu Shimin remembered that the noble woman in the Forbidden City also had such a distinctive look in her eyes.
Although, his comrades had already found out clearly that there must be no connection between Miss Zheng and Concubine Zheng.
But this kind of look is indeed more popular with those who are proud in their bones. For example, the Holy Emperor versus Concubine Zheng, or General Xiaoma versus Miss Zheng.
And when the senior who was hiding in Jiangnan talked about this girl with me, his admiration was also very clear.
"Shi Min, tell me whether that girl is something you can build."
The words of the seniors are still in my ears.
With a "pop" sound, the weaver beside him accidentally let go of the shuttle and dropped it at Liu Shimin's feet.
Liu Shimin came to his senses, lowered himself and picked up the shuttle for the weaver.
The weaver was so frightened that he bent down repeatedly and stammered for a long time, unable to speak a word.
Liu Shimin patted him on the shoulder, smiled gently, told him to relax, and continued to sit back and weave.
In such a large machine room, there were many experienced weavers, and they couldn't help but think that the eunuch whom the employer received today looked very kind-hearted. It is said that eunuchs are as fierce as tigers, and weaving eunuchs are the biggest evil tigers. There was a big incident in Suzhou in the past. The eunuch Sun Long squeezed local fabrics to pay tribute and levied excessive taxes. The people in Suzhou rioted and almost beat Sun Long to death in Gusu City. .
I just hope that this Eunuch Liu will not be a smiling tiger.
Liu Shimin's eyes fell back on the handkerchief and asked Zheng Haizhu: "The red color of Yunxia is very authentic. Most of the dyeing materials we see are banyan or cinnabar, but they cannot dye this red. What did you use to dye it?" of?"
Zheng Haizhu replied: "Back to my father-in-law, it is a kind of grass unique to the hills of Longxi County. Our locals call it Xiapu grass. We crush it into pulp, soak it in raw silk, and dry it for ten days. It turns so red. It's unusual." The color will not fade even if it is washed with water or exposed to spices."
"Oh?" Liu Shiyu asked curiously, "Don't we need to add lime?"
Zheng Haizhu shook his head: "Just the slurry of grass leaves is enough."
She was sure that after traveling to Zhangzhou, she had seen Fujian people dyeing cloth and silk countless times. The natural plant dyes were so awesome.
Wait, she suddenly froze, and something like lightning flashed through her mind.
"My father-in-law, I am stupid, do you need to add lime to the dye? After I came to Songjiang, I only saw people who added alum to polygonum indigo."
Liu Shimin smiled: "It seems that you Fujian people are fed by God, so you don't know. The big-leaf banyan dyes here in the south of the Yangtze River must add lime. Otherwise, the dyed silk and satin will be all ocher color, which is too dark and will not be used in the palace." The noble people won’t want to wear it.”
Zheng Haizhu tried his best to calm down and put on a very enlightened look.
Liu Shimin was so sophisticated that he immediately caught the flash of hesitation in the young woman's eyes.
However, he misunderstood the reason for the other party's concerns, and thought that this loyal little servant was worried that his employer's workshop would be favored by the court.
Liu Shimin simply teased: "Haha, is Miss Zheng hiding her clumsiness? She is afraid that I will drag your master directly into the ranks of the imperial merchants. Look at the weavers, each of them looks worried, they must be afraid of themselves A craftsman who has been incorporated into my weaving bureau. Don’t worry, girl, the cloths in your home are indeed very well woven, but the ladies in the palace only wear silk and satin clothes. However, this velvet and cotton cleansing handkerchief you came up with Son, we can sell it to Fan merchants from the imperial court."
