Wanli Xinming

Chapter 276 Ranunculus Silk
New immigrants in the northeast have been able to feel the emperor's benevolence since they crossed Shanhaiguan. The trial of barefoot doctors also started in the northeast.

In Guangdong, where the commodity economy is already very developed, there are "bell doctors" everywhere at this time, that is, go to Fang Langzhong.They carry special bells and medical equipment, and usually take a little apprentice to walk the streets and take them to the doctor.

Citizens who have common diseases usually seek medical treatment or pharmacy with doctors in the clinic, and Lingyi can't get this market.Therefore, they do not generally treat common diseases, but take a partial approach: specializing in intractable diseases.

For example, snake coil sore, rheumatoid, vitiligo, hanging thread wind, etc., the doctor who claims to have his own plaster "Yi Tie Ling" does not have one thousand or eight hundred.Some remedies can also hit a blind cat and kill a mouse. Many patients who have been sentenced to death by famous doctors, under the tinkering of the bell doctor's remedies, actually have miracles.This has also led to the fact that even in cities with medical school graduates, Lingyi still has his client base.

There is also a class of bell doctors who specialize in men's and women's hidden diseases and provide abortion services.If they really have the ability, they will also enjoy a high reputation in the hidden channel, and some of them are tired of walking, and they will change from walking in the middle to sitting in the big brothel.

Of course, all of the above are considered to be the good side of Lingyi.In fact, most bell doctors are sort of liars.They may know some medical skills, but they are nowhere near as good as their words.

Zhangmen Wu Clan was fooled.Because of the failure of the family business, the old wife became anxious and suffered from a strange disease.The symptoms are that the eyebrows and eyelids move up and down when talking with people, the muscles on the face twist and make faces, and gradually descend to the arms and even the body involuntarily dancing.

I have changed many doctors, prescribed countless prescriptions, and asked God to make wishes everywhere, but I can't relieve it.His son Zhang Xiaoyi threw away his business and went out to seek medical treatment.Suddenly, one day, a doctor bell called in front of Wu's door to treat incurable diseases, and Wu's hurriedly sent the girl out to lead him and his younger apprentice in the door.

The bell doctor entered the door, not looking to hear anything.Just look at the old lady's face, like a physiognomist.Then he made an assertion: "This disease is called Eye-Catching Disease - did the old lady get it from a sudden fire?"

When Wu shi heard this, he immediately nodded and said yes.The doctor said again: "It must be about money." Wu shi nodded again.

Doctor Ling took another look at Mrs Wu's clothes and smiled, "It's still due to old grudges. Although it's not easy for the old lady to be a widow for many years, she can't get enough food and clothing, she's the legacy of her deceased husband, and now she doesn't care about the underground people. already."

After hearing this, Wu called Qu and said: "I don't care about him! He let go when the child was five years old, and it has been 20 years now. Regardless of hundred days, anniversaries, birthdays, Zhongyuan, ghost festivals, which time do you not recite scriptures and do dipping? , How much money was spent on burning paper!"

Doctor Ling said with a smile: "Hey, this kid has been traveling for many years. I don't know how many times I have encountered a disease like yours! Old lady, if your deceased husband is still alive, what do you do for a living every day?"

After hearing this, Mrs Wu said, "If he was alive and established a household, I wouldn't be like this every day, taking care of the cooking girl Hong? What else can I do? When he kicked his legs, Xiao Yi was still ignorant, and he was lucky to have his uncle, Uncles and uncles help, I just do these things."

Doctor Ling sighed, "That's right. You only think about him three or five days a year, and the rest of the time you're not living your own life! Has he ever worn a piece of clothing you made in 20 years, and ate a bite of you?" Cooked meals. I don’t know how much resentment I have accumulated.”

It was the first time that Mr. Wu heard this kind of bizarre remarks, but after thinking about it, he was able to justify it, which made some sense.He asked him, "How about that?"

Dr. Ling was relieved to see that she approved this section.Taking a look at the little apprentice, the two quickly entered the big flickering mode, and finally succeeded in defrauding [-] taels of medical fees and disappeared without a trace in Shunde City.

Wu spent money, but the disease is not getting better.When Zhang Xiaoyi came home and heard about it, the mother and son smiled wryly at each other.Zhang Xiaoyi sighed: "I didn't expect my mother to pull me to grow up, but I was deprived of my pension money, and my son was not filial." After speaking, tears fell.

It turned out that when Wu's deceased husband died, because Zhang Xiaoyi was there, the in-law's family did not take back the land of her family, so she took her son to guard the [-] acres of mulberry forest to live.

Rent out 65 mu of this mulberry forest, and get 75 taels of silver--the remaining 140 mu are called for wholesale and retail of harvested leaves, and you can get [-] taels of silver.The income of [-] taels of silver per year supports two mothers and children, so the quality of life goes without saying.

Mrs Wu was a very wealthy widow in Shunde city.Although there are more disputes in front of the door, Wu's family has a brother, a son and an uncle, and they can support them.She hired a few honest servants and women, who guarded the door every day, and did not communicate with the three aunts and six women.

Although his son Zhang Xiaoyi is not good at reading, he is smart and literate.He likes to read books and newspapers, and he has ordered a copy of "Nanjing Daily" at home. In addition to reading the serialized novel Xiaoyi over and over again, Zhang Xiaoyi also likes to study other news in depth.

One day, I saw a message: "Daming exported silk to Japan for [-] cents per foot. After dyeing in Japan, it sold for [-] cents. Two and a half times the profit is in the hands of the Japanese. It is a pity."

Because of the mulberry forest at home, Xiaoyi has a clear understanding of the entire silk production process.When I went out to investigate, I did find that there were no large-scale dyeing workshops in Shunde.As soon as he went home to discuss with his mother, he went to work with great fanfare.

At this time, Shunde, Guangdong was producing the fist product in the Daming silk industry - silk, also known as fragrant cloud yarn.Its front is black, with a faint luster, like black pottery.The reverse side is brown with irregular cracks, like the texture of Ru kiln slices.

When this kind of silk is worn and walked, the clothes will rub and make a rustling sound, so the silk is also called "Xiangyunsha", which was later renamed "Xiangyunsha".It is a high-grade fabric, especially favored by Japanese aristocrats.

When Zhang Xiaoyi intervened in this market, although fragrant cloud yarn was expensive, the output was not large.Zhang Xiaoyi also produces according to the traditional craftsmanship, which is called "drying".First, use a boat to salvage the river mud and smear it on the silk soaked in yam juice.Because the content of iron in river mud is just right, it can react with diospyross juice to dye silk.After standing, wash it, spray the yam juice again, and put it on the dewy grass to "spread the mist" - that is, absorb water.Then it is dried and left to stand for four months to become fragrant cloud yarn.

Zhang Xiaoyi made some good money in the first two years—twice as much.In the third year, Zhang Xiaoyi invested 2000 taels to triple the size of the workshop, and planned to eat half of Shunde's silk production.But I didn't expect that a new trading company in the north also saw this profit, and opened a Xiangyun yarn production company in Foshan.

Zhang Xiaoyi heard about this trading company and was not worried about it.Because no one has thought about this business before, but no one has succeeded in leaving Shunde.Shunde people think this is a local specialty and no one can imitate it.

But things took a turn for the worse the following year.Foshan's Xiangyun yarn trading company found a trick - no one knows how to break through, this thing has no technical content.But then a large number of extremely cheap fragrant cloud yarn appeared in the market, and the fragrant cloud yarn in Shunde was unsalable.

Zhang Xiaoyi had been to Foshan before, posing as a recruiter to investigate.It was found that the Foshan trading company did not use the steps of river mud, and it was possible to produce fragrant cloud yarn of similar color directly by sealing the ranunculus six times.He was puzzled.

The old craftsmanship of catching river mud, smearing river mud, and crossing river mud requires a lot of labor. Zhang Xiaoyi found out after investigation that the labor cost of his workshop was much higher than that of commercial companies in Foshan, and he could not compete with them at all.

In fact, the trick found by the Foshan trading company is very simple. They dug up the river mud in Shunde and sent it to the Jingshi Gewu Institute to analyze the components involved in the chemical reaction - as long as the corresponding solution is prepared according to the iron content in the Shunde river mud, it can be produced.

Although the quality of Foshan Xiangyun yarn is a bit worse than that of Shunde, the two silks from different origins are not placed together, and it is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish the difference.The large quantity and low price of fragrant cloud yarn hit the export market, knocking down all the workshops in Shunde at once.

Zhang Xiaoyi tossed all the savings of the family for many years, and owed more than 200 taels of foreign debts in order to dismiss the workers.Shunde also has a large number of ranunculus workers unemployed. ——This is just a small microcosm of the turmoil caused by the improvement of production efficiency in the entire empire.

In fact, after Zhu Yijun took the initiative to open the primary industrial production mode, it was not only ranunculus, but also caused huge turmoil in dozens of industries such as raw silk, silk, cotton spinning, ironware, and grain and feed processing.

There are differences between the north and the south in this turmoil. North of the Huai River, because industrial production has absorbed a lot of labor, there is a thriving scene everywhere.Although there are occasional conflicts between mining and farmers over land, most of them are caused by local mishandling.

In the southern part of the empire, a large number of small production workshops were destroyed by more efficient large trading companies, resulting in a large number of unemployed people who could not be absorbed. There was a huge contradiction and conflict with the previous status quo where there were fewer people and more people on the ground, which attracted the attention of the emperor and the court. .

(End of this chapter)