Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 234: Jinling Textile Factory, the Princess Works as a Female Worker? [Subscription Request]

When Liu Kuan heard that Zhu Huilan was about to give birth, he immediately rode back on horseback.

The Liu Mansion was very close to the imperial city, and Liu Kuan arrived home quickly.

After entering the mansion, he went straight to the central courtyard, and heard Zhu Huilan's cry coming from the delivery room that had been prepared on the side.

Su Caiwei was waiting outside. When she saw Liu Kuan, she immediately came forward and saluted, "Master."

Liu Kuan asked anxiously, "How is Huilan?"

Su Caiwei said, "According to the doctor, the princess was about to give birth soon. She was sent to the delivery room just in time, and the palace has made many preparations. She has only been in there for a short time, so she should be fine."

Hearing that it was a normal delivery and not an accident, Liu Kuan felt a little relieved.

After all, this wasn't the first time he'd experienced this.

What follows is an anxious and long wait.

I don’t know if Zhu Huilan was in good health or just lucky, but more than an hour later, the loud cry of a baby was heard in the delivery room.

Soon, a midwife came out happily, bowed to Liu Kuan, and said, "Congratulations to the prince consort on the birth of his precious son!"

Liu Kuan was naturally happy when he heard that Zhu Huilan had given birth to a son.

Su Caiwei next to her also looked happy.

For her as a concubine, the best situation is that Liu Kuan's wife has a legitimate eldest son. In this way, even if she gives birth to a son in the future, she will not worry about the identity of a concubine's eldest son.

She was a knowledgeable woman and knew that being the eldest son of a wealthy family was the most difficult thing.

"How is Huilan?" Liu Kuan was most concerned about Zhu Huilan's safety.

The midwife smiled and said, "The princess is fine and is resting."

Liu Kuan entered the delivery room and first looked at his son - his skin was still red and a little wrinkled, and his eyes were closed, so it was impossible to tell whether he looked good or not.

Then he came to the bedside, held Zhu Huilan's hand, and said, "Huilan, you've worked hard."

Zhu Huilan's face was pale, but her face was full of smiles.

She married Liu Kuan more than two years ago, but she has been unable to conceive for a long time, which makes her very distressed.

Now not only did she give birth to a baby, but she also gave birth to a big fat boy, so she was naturally very happy.

"This is my duty," she said. "My husband, please give the child a nickname... We can choose a full name when the child is one month old."

Perhaps remembering Liu Kuan's "bad behavior" of directly giving his daughter a formal name, Zhu Huilan did not forget to give some advice.

Liu Kuan stood up again and looked at his son, then said with a smile, "You should choose the child's nickname."

Zhu Huilan had the child brought to her so that she could take a look at him. She had originally wanted to give him a name that was not very nice - a name with a very nice meaning would make it easier to raise the child.

But remembering what Liu Kuan had said, that naming customs in later generations were different from those of today, she said, "Let's call him Ping An. I hope he can grow up peacefully."

Liu Kuan nodded, "This nickname is good."

Watching his son safe and sound with Zhu Huilan, and thinking of his daughter Xiaoxue, Liu Kuan felt that the bond between him and the Ming Dynasty was getting deeper and deeper, and he began to truly integrate into this era...
···
A few days later, a delegation sent by the Muromachi shogunate arrived in the capital on behalf of Japan.

Liu Kuan was not in charge of the reception of the delegation and did not even go to see it. He did not know how shocked and amazed the Japanese envoys were when they saw the bridge across the Yangtze River, but one can imagine it.

He did hear from Zhu Biao that when Zhu Yuanzhang received the Japanese envoys' homage, he deliberately asked several Taoists to stand in a more conspicuous position in the court.

As long as the Japanese envoys saw it, they would start to imagine and speculate without Zhu Yuanzhang saying anything.

In addition, Zhu also asked the Guangming Guard and the Jinyi Guard to cooperate with the officials of the Siyi Hall to perform several dramas, which was enough to make the Japanese envoys conclude that he was obsessed with seeking the elixir of immortality.

The visit of the Japanese envoy was just a casual conversation for Liu Kuan after dinner. After the sale of shares of the railway company came to an end, he was mainly busy guiding the establishment of a state-owned textile factory.

On February 20th of the 17th year of Hongwu, the Jinling Textile Factory, which had been prepared for more than a month, was finally established and began to recruit workers.

As a government-run factory under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department of the Ministry of Revenue, it could mobilize a lot of government resources. Therefore, on that day, the people of Shangyuan and Jiangning counties in the capital discovered that there was an additional notice on the notice boards inside and outside the city...

outer city.

At the beginning of the Si hour (around nine in the morning), Deng and Guanyinnu finished selling vegetables at a nearby market, and then returned to Huaishuli with today's harvest and half a load of unsold vegetables.

"There are more vegetable vendors at the market this year than last year, so business is getting tougher. Last year, we never had so much leftover vegetables."

Guanyin Nu was carrying the load of leftovers, while Deng was only carrying the meat and tofu she bought at the market. She walked in front, complaining from time to time.

Guanyin Nu smiled and said, "Nowadays, the imperial court is not as strict with merchants as before, so naturally more common people are willing to become vendors. But we don't have much food left. I'll keep some for myself when I go back and give the rest to the neighbors. I can even earn a favor."

Compared with three years ago, although Guanyinnu's skin is not as white, his face is rosy and he has become stronger, giving people a fleshy feeling.

The same is true for Deng - the two former princesses now look more and more like peasant women.

Deng said, "Let's give it to the neighbors. We have a better reputation and I'm sure we can help that useless person."

The useless one naturally refers to Zhu Chong.

Since Zhu Chong got the promise from Old Zhu and the guidance from Zhu Biao on August 15 last year, he came back to explain to the two ladies. So the three of them tried their best to perform, hoping to impress Old Zhu as soon as possible so that they could become the prince and princess of the Ming Dynasty again.

Showing favors to the people in the neighborhood was also part of Zhu Er's family's plan to return to the throne.

Not far from the market, Deng noticed a crowd gathered around a nearby notice board, where an official was reading something. Deng, who loved to join in the fun, and Guanyin Nu, now more concerned with court policy, joined them.

Guanyin Nu was rather reserved, and since she was carrying a basket of vegetables, she just listened from the outside.

However, Deng was more aggressive and relied on her skills to attack others.

"Where did this rude woman come from? She actually touched me."

"Who is this? Why are you pulling me?"

"This woman is so rude!"

"···"

If someone had dared to speak to Deng like this three years ago, she would have whipped him/her all over the face.

But now he was shameless and walked in without paying any attention.

Others were helpless against her - it was in broad daylight under the emperor's feet, and most of those being pulled were men. They couldn't just attack a young woman like her.

When they got inside, Deng went to read the notice herself.

Although the Ming Dynasty's notices to the people weren't written in plain language, they were still clear and concise. Deng understood it immediately after reading it, and a look of joy crossed her pretty, sassy face before she left the crowd.

"What's written on the notice?" Guanyinnu asked curiously.

Deng said, "The government has set up the Jinling Textile Factory and is openly recruiting female weavers. They say that if you pass the interview and complete the training and are accepted, you will receive at least one guan of monthly salary!"

"At least one guan (a string of silver coins) a month?" Guanyin Nu was surprised. "I heard that among all the weaving workshops in the capital, the Huang family's weaving workshop pays the highest wages, but it takes an experienced weaver to earn more than one guan (a string of silver coins) a month. Does this Jinling Textile Factory only recruit experienced weavers?"

Mrs. Deng shook her head. "It only says that you need to know how to weave. You will receive training after you pass the interview."

“How to train?”

"How would we know?" Mrs. Deng shook her head again, then said with bright eyes, "The vegetable business is getting tougher these days. Even though we can earn three or four strings of cash a month, it's too tiring. We also have to haggle with peddlers at the market. It's not worth it."

"The Jinling Textile Factory seems to offer good pay, and it's government-run. Why don't we apply and give it a try?"

Guanyin Nu hesitated and said, "We have special identities, can we go in?"

Deng said nonchalantly, "We'll know after we give it a try. I don't believe that person is so strict—if we can't do anything, how can we behave?"

Guanyin Nu said again, "Let's go home and discuss it with the head of the family before making a decision."

"There's no point in discussing this with him. I'm the boss."

Deng had a vicious character to begin with, but now that she had been demoted to a commoner and had suffered "human suffering" for more than two years, she was not as vicious as before. However, because she had to sell vegetables in public in the market, her character became even more fierce and aggressive.

To Zhu Chong, she is definitely a tough wife.

During lunch, the two told Zhu Chong about this. Zhu Chong was indeed undecided, so he listened to Deng.

The next day, after the two went to Jinling Textile Factory to sign up for an interview, more than one person immediately reported the matter to Zhu Yuanzhang.

In Fengxian Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was processing memorials, smiled upon learning of this. "They actually thought of becoming weavers at the Jinling Textile Factory. Our two daughters-in-law are truly capable. Well, let's see how they perform in that textile factory."

After saying this, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a handwritten note and asked someone to convey it.

···
Although Jinling Textile Factory was established on February 20th, it did not officially start production until a month later, on March 20th, because it took time to recruit female workers and train them.

Although Liu Kuan was only responsible for guiding the establishment of the textile factory, he also came to inspect the factory on this day.

The Jinling Textile Factory was located in the southwest of the outer city, beside the Changgan River, not far from the locust tree where Zhu Chong's family lived.

Due to limited time and the experimental nature of the factory, the first batch of steam textile machines put into use were small, with only twenty sets of spinning machines and looms.

Naturally, there weren't many female workers needed, only about a hundred or so.

For safety reasons, dozens of steam textile machines were separated into several different workshops. The so-called workshops were factory buildings built with the construction technology of the time. They were spacious and bright enough to fully guarantee the working conditions of female workers during the day.

Liu Kuan had been dealing with the minor officials and other managers at the Jinling Textile Factory who were not even clerks for two or three months, and had already become familiar with them.

These officials all knew that Liu Kuan disliked pomp and circumstance, so even though they knew Liu Kuan was coming back for inspection today, the textile factory continued to operate as usual without any grand welcoming ceremony.

Instead, the factory supervisor, factory director and other officials took Liu Kuan to inspect each workshop.

"Please look, Doctor Liu. This large row of buildings in front of us are all cotton weaving workshops. Twenty steam looms are in operation today, and we estimate that we can weave 500 bolts of cotton cloth a day."

"Each steam loom can produce 25 bolts of cotton cloth a day, which is more than ten times the efficiency of a hand loom!"

Liu Kuan knew very well that the use of steam engines in textiles had the greatest efficiency improvement in spinning - with the increase in the number of spindles, its efficiency could be increased by dozens or even hundreds of times!

In comparison, the steam engine's improvement in loom production efficiency is lower.

It was amazing that the steam loom developed by the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau was ten times more efficient than a hand loom the first time it was put into use.

Thinking about this, Liu Kuan nodded and said, "Let's go into the workshop and take a look."

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)