Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 46: A Month of Sticks, a Year of Knives, a Lifetime of Guns (Please Read)
Why cotton reflects light like silk has to do with the material structure of the fiber.

When silk is observed under a microscope, its cross-section is 'O'-shaped. A piece of silk is equivalent to a full cylinder. This full shape with a smooth surface can naturally reflect more light.

The microscopic structure of cotton fiber has a 'C'-shaped cross-section, like a hollow, flattened straw with an uneven surface. Naturally, this appearance does not reflect much light.

So if you want cotton to reflect more light, you just need to change the 'C' shaped fiber into an 'O' shape. How to do it? Use a high concentration of caustic soda solution to soak the cotton and make it swell. The principle is similar to soaking dried sea cucumbers.

This "mercerization process" is really not high-tech. It is a technology from the 1840s and has long been eliminated. The latest modern mercerization technology replaces the caustic soda solution with liquid ammonia. It is also the process of soaking the cotton to make it expand, but with a different material.

Lu Jin is temporarily unable to get caustic soda because it requires a large amount of cheap industrial salt, and naturally he is also unable to get the mercerizing process, but this is not important. Mercerized cotton is only used to prove his strength.

Even if you can't master mercerization, you can still weave the kind of fine and tight cotton cloth like modern shirts and sell it without any problems. Just make a multi-spindle spinning machine and a flying shuttle loom first.

There is also the Hualou for weaving Shu brocade, which is called jacquard loom in modern terms. It is not difficult to replace the Hualou with the punched card coded jacquard loom developed in France. If you connect a water wheel, it will become an automatic CNC programmed jacquard loom, which can greatly improve production efficiency.

My undergraduate major was in Mechanical Engineering at Lujin University, and the first lesson I took was about the classic mechanical structures of various machine tools, sewing machines, textile machinery, papermaking machinery, vehicle structures, engines, etc.

This kind of pure wooden thing was not difficult for him at all. After obtaining a master's degree in mechanics, he switched to a doctorate in materials because of his work in aerospace, which had higher requirements for mechanical properties.

He has a lot of technology, but it is not easy for others to get it. Just exchanging it with food? That is not enough. He also has to pay heavy taxes!
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, was credited with expelling the Tartars and rebuilding China, but what people in later generations criticized most about the Ming Dynasty was its economic policy.

Due to limited vision, Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Dynasty could only collect grain tax and various commercial taxes at a rate of 30 out of 1, which was basically equal to 0. This led to the Ming Dynasty being very poor.

At the beginning of the dynasty, the country was poor and could not pay wages, so it printed banknotes indiscriminately. In the last years of the dynasty, it was still poor and could only collect grain taxes. When natural disasters caused a reduction in grain production, the country was dumbfounded.

If they continue to collect taxes by force, the people will rebel. If they don't collect taxes, the court will have no money and will eventually be dragged down by the Liao salary.

Judging from the collection of commercial taxes alone, it has even regressed from the Song Dynasty. Why was the Song Dynasty so rich? Various court monopoly systems and commercial taxes accounted for a large proportion.

Lu Jin was unwilling to follow Zhu Yuanzhang in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Since changes had to be made, he might as well start from Luzhou.

After communicating with several merchants, he learned that the main crops in Hefei at the end of the Yuan Dynasty were mulberry and hemp, while cotton and cotton textile industries were mainly concentrated in Jiangnan and Jiangxi.

Songjiang Prefecture at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was already the leader in China's cotton textile industry, and it did not develop only in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it is too late to engage in cotton spinning in Luzhou in a short period of time. There are no raw materials. Planting cotton has to wait until next year, and spinning hemp is not possible either.

Traditional Chinese summer cloth has always been made of ramie, a kind of stalk as thick as a finger. The outer skin of ramie has to be peeled off, twisted into threads by hand, and then connected together one by one by hand. This process is called "chengji" or "jima".

Since mechanical spinning is not possible, it must be eliminated and flax should be grown instead. Flax is a grass and after simple retting and mechanical combing, it can be spun by machine, which can exponentially improve production efficiency.

In ancient China, even sacks for carrying things were considered high-value commodities. Life was so hard that industrial reform was necessary.

Due to the limitation of raw materials, cotton and linen cannot be produced on a large scale for the time being, but we can first build machines and conduct small-scale trial production. After merchants have tasted the sweetness, they will naturally plant more cotton and switch to flax next year.

Mulberry silk is readily available, so let’s start promoting it with jacquard machines.

But three projects were not enough for four people, so Lu Jin took out the brick-making technology of "corridor-type tunnel brick kiln". This brick kiln uses coal as fuel and can burn bricks continuously for 24 hours.

With bricks, we can use them to cover city walls, and they can also be used for construction. Building factories also requires a large number of bricks, but green bricks are different from red bricks, so they definitely need to be improved.

The technology he provides and the products he produces are what Lu Jin needs very much at the moment.

Merchants made money, Lu Jin collected taxes, and got corresponding products, and also promoted technology. Why not do it?
In the end, the Fan family donated 35,000 shi of grain and claimed the jacquard loom for weaving silk, the He family donated 30,000 shi of grain and claimed the cotton spinning technology, the Hu family donated 25,000 shi of grain and claimed the hemp spinning technology, and the Qin family donated 10,000 shi of grain but only got a brick kiln.

A total of 100,000 shi of grain were obtained.

It is not enough to just provide grain, they also have to provide craftsmen for Lu brocade. After the technology is in place, they also have to collect taxes on Lu brocade, and one-half of the tax on Shu brocade. It is a luxury product, so it is normal to collect heavy taxes.

Cotton cloth earns three out of ten, linen cloth earns two out of ten, and brick kiln earns one out of twenty.

In the future, if you want to support or suppress certain industries, you can also control them based on the intensity of taxation.

After seeing off a few merchants, Zhang Wen also came to the door.

"Brother Lu, Zhu Shou and I have moved to the city. My sister cooked some food today and asked me to invite you to our home for dinner."

"Okay, I heard from Ye Sheng that there are a few weapons in Zuo Junbi's house, so I'll go over and take a look and see what kind of long weapon I should choose.

"Call Ye Sheng along later. He is good at using the horse lance, so let him be our spear and stick instructor.

"Also, you have to drive my car back tonight, retrieve the pickaxe and sledgehammer, and deliver them to the two craftsmen." Lu Jin agreed immediately.

We came to the former Zuo's residence, which is now the residence of Zhang Wen and Zhu Shou.

Zhang Yunxiu had a very pleasant chat with Lu Jin that day. Lu Jin was her eldest brother's boss and they had just moved into a new house. So she prepared a few dishes and invited Lu Jin to eat. However, she did not expect that Lu Jin would also bring Ye Sheng with him.

There was a dish of steamed fish with soy sauce, tofu with green onions, a plate of braised pork with amaranth, and a pot of old duck soup. There was plenty of rice and many main dishes, but very few vegetables.

There was no way around it. This was the condition in ancient times. There was no vegetable basket project in the Yuan Dynasty.

However, even though Zhang Yunxiu was so attentive, Lu Jin still had no taste for the food he ate. His taste for food had been spoiled by modern industrial condiments, and everything he ate tasted tasteless. Eating had lost its fun for him and had become a simple way to absorb energy.

The few of them quickly finished their lunch and came to the yard where Zuo Junbi once practiced martial arts. There were two weapon racks on both sides of the yard, with swords, spears, halberds, crescent-shaped swords, hook-and-sickle spears, single-eared and double-eared Fang Tian Ji, as well as maces and knife-clamped sticks.

It seems that Zuo Junbi is not very good at fighting, but he has collected quite a lot of weapons at home. He is indeed worthy of being a hereditary military general.

Seeing Ye Sheng following him, Lu Jin immediately asked humbly, "Ye Sheng, what are the requirements for long weapons such as spears and sticks? If I choose a long weapon, which one should I choose to practice?"

Speaking of fighting and martial arts, this is what Ye Sheng is good at, he introduced it immediately.

"My lord, there is a saying among martial artists: 'a month of sticks, a year of swords, a lifetime of spears, and a treasured sword hidden at all times'. This saying is exactly what it means.

“The stick is the easiest to practice with. After a month of practice, three or five people can’t get close to you. But it is only suitable for ordinary people to use for self-defense. The stick has limited lethality and it won’t easily kill people, and it won’t cause a murder case.

“In battle formations, long weapons are the absolute main force, and swords are only backup weapons. If long weapons are lost, they will choose to draw their swords and fight to the death. Therefore, except for the cavalry, the army does not need to deliberately practice swords and knives. They only need to practice privately and normally.

“Among the other types of long weapons, they can be divided into three types according to their length.

"Take the spear for example. It is a long weapon used in foot combat. It is usually one body length plus one arm length. This is a flower spear, suitable for use by colonels and generals in the army.

"In addition, there are long weapons for horse fighting, which are usually two body lengths. If it is a large spear for military formations, it is better to be three times the body length."

Lu Jin nodded repeatedly after listening to this. He didn't expect that long weapons could be classified into so many different lengths.

According to Ye Sheng, the most common long weapon in infantry combat is the fancy spear, which is twice the height plus the length of an arm. Assuming a person is 1.8 meters tall, the length of the spear should be about 2.5 meters.

The length is neither too long nor too short, so you can perform many fierce moves, and it is not too difficult to turn in your hand.

Horse fighting is probably the kind of fighting between generals. Usually, the height is twice that of the general. If the height is 1.8 meters, then the weapon should be 3.6 meters.

The long spear of the infantry battle formation is three times the height of the person. If a person is 1.8 meters tall, then the spear is 5.4 meters long.

Such a long spear, of course, cannot be used for fancy things, it can only be used for stabbing, and it is long enough, has strong lethality, and has a long killing distance, so it can also be used for chevaux de frise.

However, this kind of spear is not suitable for single-person use because it is too long to wield and it is easy to be killed in a one-on-one fight. It can only exert its maximum power when used in a military formation.

Lu Jin was the chief commander and a general. If he chose a long weapon, it would probably be one for horse fighting, which was twice his height. It is said that Emperor Yongle Zhu Di had a 3.6-meter-long spear.

Lu Jin is 187cm tall, so to be twice as tall, the weapon would have to be about meters long.

So Lu Jin asked again.

"To be honest, I haven't learned any martial arts, but I am very strong. If I have to choose a weapon that is quick to learn and can make use of my strength, what do you think I should choose?"

"This." Ye Sheng hesitated after hearing this.

Lu Jin also recently discovered that he has great strength. On the day he crossed over, he hit a cavalryman on the head with a swing of his stick. He was also carrying dozens of kilograms of armor and running a long distance with Xiao Sijiu on his back. His strength and endurance have increased a lot.

When he fought Zhu Liangzu before, he wielded the mace weighing dozens of kilograms with great vigor and did not feel tired at all.

Although he went to the free gym of Harbin Institute of Technology quite often, it should not have such an effect, so he speculated that it might be because of the time travel, and his body was strengthened. Moreover, as a time traveler in space, he had been in contact with ancient people for more than half a month, and there was nothing abnormal.

So he probably also added a buff of self-disinfection when traveling through time, so that he didn't become a source of plague infection.

Now that my body has been strengthened, what kind of weapon should I choose?

Ye Sheng hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"If you want to learn quickly, gain strength, and master martial arts quickly, then I recommend using a halberd."

"Halberd? Fang Tian Ji?"

Lu Jin raised his eyebrows, took the Fang Tian Hua Ji from the weapon rack, played with it in his hands, and asked, "Why? I heard that this is a ceremonial weapon, right?"

Ye Sheng shook his head and explained.

“My lord, you don’t know that the best long weapon is actually the spear. It is the fastest to learn a spear, but it is extremely difficult to master it. After all, you learn a stick for a month, a sword for a year, and a spear for a lifetime.

"Most people can only learn the three moves of blocking, grabbing and stabbing after a month of training. If they use it in a formation, that's enough, but if they encounter a general who can use a fancy spear in a one-on-one fight, they will die in one move."

"." Lu Jin thought about it, it seemed to be true, he only learned a salted fish thrust after studying for a month, and then the other person used a set of fancy little combos like a counterattack, he was afraid that his life would be in danger.

At this time, Ye Sheng said again.

“And the halberd is not just a ceremonial weapon. It has a spear head and double edges, and can be used to stab, chop, split, and hook.

"It has four weapons in one: the sickle spear, the horse lance, the long-handled axe, and the crescent-shaped sword. The moves are flexible and easy to master. Once you learn one of the four moves, you can kill people with it. It is also extremely effective against the spear, but it requires a lot of strength from the user.

"If you are confident in your courage, then the Fang Tian Ji will be the perfect weapon for you."

Lu Jin nodded and asked, "What about the ceremonial weapons?"

Ye Sheng further explained, "The round poles are for ceremonial purposes, and the square poles can be used to kill people."

Lu Jin looked at the Fang Tian Hua Ji and suddenly realized, "Because the Fang Tian Hua Ji has a chopping move, we need to find where the blade is. Holding the square pole in the hand will make it easier to find the blade?"

"exactly!"

Add a setting. Someone said earlier that the protagonist is a mobile source of poison. Isn't it a consensus to wear self-contained disinfectant? ? ? I thought it was a consensus (doge). There is another chapter today.

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(End of this chapter)