The Legend of Zhen Huan: Year after year, we share the spring breeze

After finalizing these, An Lingrong went to look at the loom again.

The warp yarns are arranged in parallel and wound onto the warp beam to ensure uniform length and tension. The weaver uses foot pedals to control the raising and lowering of the heald frames, separating the warp yarns to form a shed.

The shuttle carries the weft yarn through the shed, inserting it into the weaving mouth. During this process, the shuttle's movement trajectory and speed must be precisely controlled to ensure that the weft yarn is accurately interwoven with the warp yarn.

After the shuttle completes weft insertion, the reed on the sley moves toward the weaving fell, pushing the newly introduced weft yarn toward the warp yarn, tightly interweaving them. As weaving progresses, the finished fabric is wound into a roll by a take-up device. Simultaneously, the warp let-off device pays out warp yarn as needed, ensuring continuous weaving.

old loom

An Lingrong noticed that the weaver needed to throw the shuttle alternately with his left and right hands. This traditional weaving method was not only slow, but also difficult to increase the width of the cloth due to the limitation of the weaver's arm length.

A skilled weaver working eight to ten hours a day can only weave fifteen to twenty feet of cloth at most.

"Master, come and take a look at this!" An Lingrong called to the blacksmith beside her and took out a blueprint from her sleeve.

The drawing shows a simple device in which a slide rail is added to the loom, the shuttle is mounted on the slide rail, and the rope is pulled to drive the loom through springs on both sides.

[I can't find a picture of a flying shuttle loom, so please imagine it yourself!]

The blacksmith took a closer look, and a look of embarrassment appeared on his wrinkled face.

"Madam, this is not easy to do!"

"Why?" An Lingrong was stunned.

She originally thought the hardest thing to make was the spinning machine.

The blacksmith sighed, "There are too many impurities in pig iron these days. If I were to make such a thin spring, it would probably break after just a few uses." He paused, then lowered his voice and said, "Unless..."

"Unless what?" An Lingrong's eyes lit up.

"Unless it's made of fine steel." The blacksmith said this and immediately looked around nervously.

Fine steel is a material strictly controlled by the imperial court and is specifically used to make weapons.

An Lingrong's expression remained calm: "Okay, I can go find it."

The blacksmith opened his mouth in shock, and his beard trembled.

"Don't worry, it's a formal channel."

"If Madam can really get some fine steel, I'm willing to give it a try!"

"Okay!" An Lingrong turned to Shen Yunfei and said, "Go find some fine steel!"

After saying that, he turned around and talked to the master.

"Master, please make this slide first so the shuttle can slide back and forth inside it!"

"it is good!"

An Lingrong turned around and saw Shen Yunfei standing there motionless. His face, which usually wore a cynical smile, now showed a rare confusion.

"What's wrong? You can't get it?" An Lingrong frowned slightly.

Fine steel is difficult for ordinary people to obtain, but for him, the king's uncle, it is a piece of cake.

Shen Yunfei took a deep breath and touched the back of his head: "Cousin, do I have to use this thing?"

"Of course!" An Lingrong said firmly, "This is the most crucial step in improving the loom."

Even if the spinning Jenny was made, without the flying shuttle loom, the yarn spun would just be piled up in the warehouse.

Shen Yunfei's expression changed again and again, and finally turned into a long sigh.

He looked around and made sure that there was no one around. Then he carefully lifted the hem of his clothes, bent down, and slowly pulled out a dagger from his leggings.

"Here." He handed the dagger to An Lingrong, his voice filled with obvious reluctance. "I begged my second brother for a full half month before he gave it to me."

An Lingrong took the dagger. Although she knew nothing about weapons, she could feel its heavy weight.

She drew the scabbard with a clang, and a cold light instantly illuminated her eyes.

"What a great dagger!" she exclaimed, but without hesitation turned around and handed the dagger to the blacksmith beside her.

When the blacksmith saw the dagger, his eyes lit up immediately. "This... this is top-quality steel! I've been working as a blacksmith for forty years, and this is the first time I've seen such quality!"

"Melt it!" An Lingrong said decisively.

Upon hearing this, the blacksmith immediately perked up and shouted towards the backyard at the top of his voice: "Quick! Light the fire! Light the furnace! Get out all the best coke!"

When Shen Yunfei heard this, he rushed to the furnace in two steps. He saw the blacksmith's apprentices skillfully adding charcoal and blowing air. The flames in the furnace shot up high. The beloved dagger was clamped in the pliers, gradually turning red in the flames, and finally turned into a pool of molten iron.

When he returned to An Lingrong, his usually high-spirited eyebrows drooped listlessly.

"Puff..." An Lingrong couldn't help laughing. "Okay, don't feel bad. When we get back to the capital, I'll find a better one for you."

Shen Yunfei knew it clearly in her mind - this kind of dagger is hard to come by, how could a little girl like her find one?

But looking at my cousin's rare gentle smile, the depression in my chest eased a little.

He secretly thought that at worst he could go back and risk being beaten by his father and "borrow" the dagger given by the emperor.

"Cousin, you have to keep your word." He forced a smile, but his eyes couldn't help but drift towards the fire.

"Of course!" An Lingrong smiled and took out a handkerchief and handed it to him: "Wipe the sweat off!"

Shen Yunfei took it and saw a small word "Rong" embroidered on the corner of the handkerchief.

He had heard Liu Zhu call her "Sister Rong", which should be her maiden name.

When he looked up again, An Lingrong had already walked away.

Shen Yunfei stood there, the handkerchief in his hand still lingering a faint fragrance.

Only then did An Lingrong have time to take the coarse porcelain bowl handed to her by Liu Zhu. She looked up at Wang Yu standing in the yard and waved to him.

Wang Yu did not dare to delay. He took two steps at a time and trotted up to her, leaning forward slightly.

He originally thought that these people in front of him were just ordinary merchants, until he heard that they actually had fine steel, which was controlled by the court, and then he realized that they were extraordinary.

Standing in front of An Lingrong at this moment, even his breathing became lighter involuntarily.

"Madam, what do you want me to do?" Wang Yu asked respectfully.

An Lingrong took a sip of tea and then slowly spoke, "How many looms and spinning machines are there in your workshop? How many workers did you have in the past?"

When Wang Yu heard this, a hint of sadness flashed in his eyes.

He sighed and said, "Madam, this workshop was left to me by my father. After he passed away, he handed it over to me to manage."

As he spoke, his eyes unconsciously glanced around, "I worked hard for several years. At its peak, I had eighty spinning machines, fifty looms, and over a hundred workers."

At this point, his voice deepened. "But since the Sun family fell six months ago, the small workshops we depended on have also suffered. To make ends meet, we've sold most of our spinning machines and looms, and now these are all we have left."

An Lingrong nodded thoughtfully and asked, "How many workshops like yours are there in Suzhou City? Roughly how many workers do you have?"

Wang Yu rubbed his hands together and answered seriously, "To be honest, my wife, my workshop is only considered medium-sized in Suzhou City. There are more than ten larger workshops than mine, such as Li's in the east of the city and Zhao's in the west gate. They are all large workshops with hundreds of machines. As for those smaller than mine..."

He laughed bitterly, "There are countless of them. Most of them are small households with three or five machines. They weave some cloth and sell it to cloth shops in exchange for some small change."

He paused briefly and continued, "As for Suzhou City's spinners and weavers, there are at least a thousand of them. But now..."

Wang Yu shook his head and said nothing more.