During the Sui Dynasty, when Emperor Yang visited the south, the Yangzhou government served tens of thousands of civilians and built a palace on the east peak of Shugang in the northwest of the city. It took many years to complete.

When the Sui Dynasty fell, the imperial palace was destroyed by war. In the early years of the previous dynasty, someone spent huge sums of money to restore the site and named it Jianyuan, which meant "drawing lessons from the past to serve as a warning to future generations."

Over the past three hundred years, Jianyuan Garden has been built and destroyed several times, and it has been repaired many times. At this time, it has become a villa outside Yangzhou City with historical sites everywhere.

Jianyuan built buildings and pavilions along with the mountain. It covers a wide area. The ancient trees on the mountain block the sun. It is winding and winding. Climb to the middle of the mountain. The stone paved mountain road is winding and steep. After passing a bamboo forest, you can see a tower halfway up the mountain.

The small lake, which is more than ten acres in size, is like a bright mirror embedded among the trees and rocks.

There are several monasteries built on the opposite side of the pond. In the open verandah facing the lake, many people are watching around a wooden cart.

"This cotton mill was originally passed down by the Li people in Yazhou, also known as the churning cart. It was passed to Wuxi through central Guizhou. It has been improved many times by successive craftsmen and is better than before. The main structure of the churning cart is a pair of different thicknesses.

The rolling shaft is made of hard wood. You can also wrap animal leather on the rolling shaft to avoid damaging the cotton. Cuiyao and Xiaobi, the two of you will turn these two rolling shafts."

Wang Jun ordered two maids to use the wheels to turn the two rollers of the mixer, and pointed out the rotating parts of the rollers to his father Wang Wenqian.

"Dad, look here, the rolling thickness is different, and there is an inch difference with every moment of rotation. Look at your daughter feeding the cotton seeds between the two shafts. During the rolling of the rotating shafts, the cotton seed shells and lint are separated.

Come on, this is much faster than peeling cotton seeds by hand! It is really ingenious..."

Wang Wenqian stroked his beard and looked at it for a long time. He didn't know how fast the cottonseed shelling was compared to peeling the cottonseed by hand.

Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were records of cotton in the Western Regions. It was said that cotton is like grass, the seeds are like cocoons, and the silk in the cocoons is like fine silk. It is called Baidiezi.

At that time, cotton was transplanted to the Central Plains, but it was regarded more as ornamental flowers and plants in the royal gardens. By the time of the previous dynasty, a large amount of cotton cloth was introduced to the Central Plains from the southern border of the Western Regions. In the previous dynasty, there was "Guibu Bairu"

The poem "Snow, Wu cotton is as soft as clouds" spread widely, and people in the Central Plains and Jianghuai areas also began to plant a small amount of cotton.

However, what restricts the cultivation of cotton and the promotion of cotton cloth is the removal of seeds from cotton cloth. Weaving is more complicated and more difficult than that of hemp. This ultimately makes cotton fabrics extremely expensive, so that, like silk fabrics, they become exclusive products of aristocratic families, officials, and clans, and are not the same as those of hemp.

Common people have no chance.

And due to the limitations of weaving technology, and the fact that most of the cotton that came from the Western Regions in the early years was coarse-staple cotton, the comfort and aesthetics of cotton are inferior to silk fabrics. This has caused the demand for cotton fabrics in the upper class to be far lower than silk fabrics.

For these many reasons, even though cotton has been planted in the Central Plains and Jianghuai regions since the previous dynasty, the quantity was still extremely limited and it was not promoted on a large scale.

The cultivation of cotton is actually not much more difficult than that of hemp, and the amount of cotton seeds produced per acre of land is not much lower than that of hemp. It can be seen from this that if we can really use the new cotton grinding wheel, the big bow, and the multi-hammer spinning wheel, once the difficulty of weaving cotton fabrics is

, lowering the level of cotton fabrics to the same level as linen fabrics, and vigorously promoting cotton cultivation will be promising.

After all, cotton fabrics are far superior to linen fabrics in terms of warmth and comfort.

Wang Wenqian thought to himself that for a person like Han Qian, it is really interesting that most people think that he is a deviant and a dangerous person. It is a pity that few people in Chuzhou really take this person seriously.

Their success failed and they were forced to withdraw from Jiangnan.

"When I returned to Yangzhou, I tried planting more than 200 acres of cotton in Zhuangzi. In the past few days, I have found craftsmen to imitate cotton mills and other weaving equipment one by one. It is indeed feasible. Dad immediately ordered to collect more cotton seeds and teach weaving.

Next year, Yangzhou will use some river floodplains and sandy soil to plant 10,000 to 20,000 acres of cotton on a large scale. When the people see the benefits, it may not take four or five years for the counties in Huaidong to start planting cotton.

Everyone can benefit a lot from it." Wang Jun continued excitedly.

She also showed her father Wang Wenqian the undershirt she was wearing on her upper body and the purple cloth trousers she was wearing on her lower body, which were draped like skirts. They were both produced in Qianyang; the socks on her feet were also made of Qianyang cloth, which was very light and breathable.

It’s not the thick and hot felt socks that I used to wear in early summer.

In the past two days, she has been trying to make cloth shoes with her maid. However, to make the soles, she first needs to use glutinous rice paste, paste the layers of cloth to dry, and then sew them tightly with thick cotton thread. It is very time-consuming and has not been made yet.

But she first took out a few pairs of semi-finished shoe soles to show her father: "If these cloth shoes are made, the soles are made of wear-resistant cowhide with fine nails, and they will be light and breathable. I will also make two for you, dad."

Pair, you can wear it next month!”

"You can farm the three to five hundred acres of land in Zhuangzi for fun. Don't interfere with anything else." Wang Wenqian said with a slightly gloomy expression.

Wang Jun was in high spirits, as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him. Zhanran's beautiful eyes dimmed a little, and he asked: "If this can be done, all the states in Huaidong will benefit a lot. We must avoid this suspicion."

Can’t make it?”

"Others can learn this method no matter how much they promote it, but our family should be more cautious," Wang Wenqian said.

Although the Yueyang troops attacked Jinling and even fought a fierce battle with the Louchuan Army on the river, the Chuzhou army did not contribute much. However, after Yang Yuanpu succeeded to the throne in Jinling, he still followed the original agreement and issued an imperial edict to King Xu Xin, Yang Yuanyan, according to Yang Taihai, Chu

The Si states established the Huaidong Kingdom, with Chuzhou as the capital.

Although these are most likely that Yang Yuanpu also knew how to endure, seeing that Yueyang's soldiers and horses captured Jinling and suffered heavy casualties, in order to delay the time to recuperate, but this also gave them a formal opportunity to establish Huaidong Kingdom, and also established Huaidong in accordance with Yang Yuanpu's new emperor's edict.

The Shangshu Province is responsible for the military and political affairs of the five states.

At present, Wang Wenqian is serving as Minister Youcheng and staying in Yangzhou. He is stationed in Yangzhou with Zhao Zhen, Yin Peng and other generals. On the one hand, he must be prepared for the possibility that Jinling will change his coat at any time. On the other hand, he must raise grain and fodder to support 40,000 elites.

It has resettled hundreds of thousands of descendants of noble families, slaves, and children who were forcibly moved from the three states of Su Changrun to the north bank of the Yangtze River during the Jinling War.

None of this is easy.

Among the five prefectures in Huaidong, only Yangtai is far away from Liang Jun's eastern battlefield. It has been recovering well in recent years and has a population of nearly 600,000.

Sizhou, Haizhou and Chuzhou, where King Xin Yang Yuanyan had been stationed in the vassal state for many years, were desolate and sparsely populated, with a combined population of less than 400,000.

On the one hand, it was frequently harassed by Liang Jun, and at the same time, it was located in the buffer zone between Liang and Chu. The imperial court had never bothered to spend a lot of effort to control the floods on the east bank of the Huaihe River and Hongze Lake, which led to the decline of people's livelihood and the abandonment of farming.

At this time, including the tens of thousands of people who were forcibly kidnapped to the north bank, the total population of the five states in Huaidong was about 1.1 million.

To support 100,000 standing elite troops with a population of 1.1 million is extremely stressful and unimaginable.

As far as Yangzhou is concerned, the four counties are all upper counties, with a total of more than 50,000 households and a population of more than 380,000. However, raising 40,000 elites requires more than 600,000 yuan of money and food every year, which is far more than that of Yangzhou.

Past financial ability.

In this case, it is necessary to significantly increase land taxes and levies to cope with the situation.

However, the taxes borne by the common people in the four counties of Yangzhou were already extremely heavy in the past. If they really wanted to double the taxes, the people would have no way to survive and it would most likely trigger a civil uprising, which would give Jinling an excuse to intervene in the military and political affairs of Huaidong.

affairs.

The only way is to follow the example of Xuzhou, clearing land ownership, and the additional taxes will be borne more by the aristocratic families who own a large number of land and houses but only bear a very small amount of taxes and corvees.

Among the high-ranking generals in Huaidong, there were very few people who came from large clans. Therefore, there was little resistance to the forced recruitment of slaves and maidservants on the south bank. At this time, the new land system was implemented in Huaidong, and Ruan Yan, Rao Geng and other high-ranking generals also supported it.

Wang Wenqian himself also set an example in Yangzhou, first clearing his family's land and raising taxes.

In the early years, Wang Wenqian traveled to Yangzhou and liked the scenery of Shugang very much. He had long thought that if the second prince had no chance of inheriting the throne, he should seek to vassalize Huaidong, so he personally replaced the Wang family's fields and houses early.

Come to Yangzhou.

At present, the Jian Garden on the east peak of Shu Gang, the 20,000 acres of farmland and houses nearby, and more than 400 households of slaves and maidservants are all his private property, Wang Wenqian.

With this additional levy, almost 30% of the annual harvest from these fields must be handed over to the state government as taxes and reduced labor money to support the army.

Although there was no resistance from Huaidong's high-level officials, and Wang Wenqian also set an example, how could they be willing to accept such a strong increase in the power of the powerful clans and clans in the Yangtai area?

Even if Wang Wenqian suggested that King Xin select a large number of clan clan sons from Yangtai and Taizhou to serve as Huaidong Xingxing Provincial Committee officials in order to consolidate his control over the Yangtai region, there was no way to completely quell this dissatisfaction.

Not to mention the resentment felt by Su Changrun's descendants from the clan who had their slaves taken away from the three states and who were forced to move to the north bank in the later stages of the Jinling War.

Therefore, Wang Wenqian is left behind, but no matter how good his posture is, a lot of criticism will be focused on him.

Wang Wenqian can be honest in front of Wang Xinwang Yang Yuanyan, but can he withstand the words of everyone?

By then, if there are people everywhere in Xingshangshu Province saying behind his back that he colluded with Xuzhou, even if Wang Yang Yuanyan believed in him, he would have to follow Shen Yang's example and resign due to illness to show his innocence.

Even though he knew that cotton fabrics could be popularized and would be of great benefit, Wang Wenqian did not want Wang Jun to do it. Refusing marriage twice was embarrassing enough. Wang Jun really wanted to come forward to promote cotton cultivation and cotton fabrics, even if no one slandered her.

His collusion with Xuzhou will also attract criticism from countless people.

Furthermore, in Wang Wenqian's mind, Huaidong was undefendable, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and was not a place for business. King Xin was occupying Huaidong at this time, and more importantly, he was looking forward to new opportunities in Jinling or other places;

Therefore, even if cotton planting is of great benefit, it is not necessary to do it immediately.

Wang Jun would not make it difficult for his father, nor did he want to have a direct dispute with his father on these matters not long after arriving in Chuzhou, but he thought that there were many people in the village who had initially mastered the methods of cotton planting and weaving, and then consolidated them.

, and then released them in batches as good people, helping them to settle in the lower towns and counties, buy fields and houses, grow cotton, and weave cotton cloth.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Hangou was dug in Yangzhou to connect the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. In the Sui Dynasty, the Hangou was further transformed, and the Jiangnan Canal, Tongji Canal, and Yongji Canal were dug on the north and south sides. Yangzhou has always been one of the cores of the lifeline of water transportation in the east. Waiting for the Huaihe River

After the prosperity of East China Sea salt, salt officials and salt merchants gathered in Yangzhou, making the social atmosphere in Yangzhou far more civilized and active than other places.

As long as the servants and craftsmen in the mansion are dispersed and settled down, although the scale of cotton planting and cotton weaving in the early stage is limited, as long as there are demonstrative examples, the villagers in the neighbors and even the rural gentry can see the benefits with their own eyes.

In Yangzhou, where the social atmosphere is relatively more civilized, the promotion of cotton fabrics will not be too slow.

Wang Jun was thinking about something in his mind. From a distance, he saw Yin Peng leading several people climbing the mountain to Jianyuan with anxious expressions. He wondered what was going on. He asked Yin Peng, who was in charge of the prison in Yangzhou, to wait impatiently.

Come to Jianyuan to see your father in person?

Yin Peng led people into the open corridor and handed an opened secret letter to Wang Wenqian.

Wang Wenqian took out the secret letter, and after reading it, his face, which had been slightly gloomy just now, suddenly became even gloomier.

"Dad, what happened?" Wang Jun asked with concern.

"Wang Lin is dead." Wang Wenqian handed the secret letter to Wang Jun and said.

After Wang Jun read the secret letter, he immediately suspected that there were twists and turns in it and questioned:

"How could Mr. Wang commit suicide by swallowing poison? Did Emperor Yanyou want to use Shen Yang?"

In fact, when she was in Fanchang, she was worried that Wang Lin might be liquidated by Yang Yuanpu after her identity was exposed by Han Qian. At that time, she mentioned to Yin Peng that she would find an excuse to take Wang Lin back to Yangzhou, but Chu Chu

On the state side, Ruan Yan is responsible for contacting and negotiating with the people in Yueyang about surrendering, and Yin Peng has no decision-making power.

Ruan Yan decided to keep Wang Lin there at that time, and his purpose was just to make it difficult for Shen Yang to defend himself. In order to avoid suspicion, he had to leave Yang Yuanpu's side, causing Yang Yuanpu to lose a capable minister who could really assist him.

However, Ruan Yan's original plan did not come true in the end, and Wang Lin was liquidated in this way. Even though Wang Jun did not know about Yang Yuanpu's appointment of Shen Yangxin at this time, she believed that because of Wang Lin's "suicide note"
To be continued...