"Aunt, can there be a market nearby to buy silkworm paper?"

"Some of them are in Jiujiang Daxu. Silkworm paper shops usually rent shops in the market. Some seed manufacturers carry shoulders and backs, or fly alone in small boats, shuttle through small markets in the countryside, setting up stalls and selling them on the spot."

"Oh, how much silkworm paper is suitable for each production?"

"It depends on how many mulberry leaves there are in your mulberry field, but generally there will be more silkworm paper. In the past, silkworms and ants spent not many mulberry leaves. If there is no profit, the excess silkworm can be abandoned. If there are many people who want to buy raw silk, you can go to the mulberry market to buy mulberry leaves without being stuck in your own mulberry field. Furthermore, if you encounter floods or diseases, the more silkworm paper will not be harvested."

After asking about silkworm seeds, Zhao Hening stood up and said, "Aunt, can you see your silkworm?"

Huang also quickly stood up and said, "It's okay, it's just that the humble house is ugly, which may hinder the girl's eyes."

"If my aunt is not there, I am also from a poor family."

When he opened the door curtain cloth, Zhao Hening found that the layout of the silkworm chamber was very different from that of Jiangnan. There were small windows on the mud wall and small holes in the corners of the wall. It seemed to be for ventilation, but they were covered with thick paper and linen cloth, which should be used to prevent fly insects. The silkworm chamber was most afraid of high temperature and humidity. The thatched roof helped ventilation, and the mud wall could block moisture, but the floor was directly in contact with the mud foundation. During the rainy season, water vapor was easily invaded.

"Aunt, why don't you build a silkworm room alone?" Zhao Hening couldn't help asking.

Huang looked embarrassed and said, "The girl is joking, and her family is in trouble, so she is really unable to build another silkworm room."

Zhao Hening shook his head. The human and silkworms lived in the same room. The noisy environment, excessive popularity, and dirty space were not conducive to the growth of silkworms. Then he said, "Aunt, don't think I'm too much. I have seen other people raise silkworms at home. Silkworms lived in the same room. Silkworms were prone to illness. It would be better to think of a way to build a separate silkworm room."

"What the girl said is that I also have plans to raise more money to save money, so I will hire someone to build a thatched hut."

"Aunt, when will this silkworm be 'up up the mountain'?"

"What does the girl mean by 'up up the mountain'?"

"It is to form cocoons." The Jiangnan region calls it "up the mountain" to form cocoons on silkworms on foil, which obviously Huang doesn't know.

"Oh, tomorrow will be three sleeps. It only takes one day, and there will be one sleep in three days. It is called the 'big sleep', and it is also one day. Four or five days after the fugation, the silkworm will form a cocoon, and it is called the 'superfoil' locally."

Zhao Hening was interested in the differences between the two places and asked, "Can you take a look at your silkworm foil?"

Huang took Zhao Hening to another house, with a pile of rectangular bamboo products piled up in the corner of the wall, which is silkworm foil. The silkworm foil is about three feet and two inches long, and the bamboo slices form a skeleton like a swimming pool lane. On the skeleton are thin bamboo slices curved into an inch long and half inch wide oval, forming small spaces that facilitate silkworms to spin silk and form cocoons, which are obviously different from the commonly used "grass dragon" in the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhao Hening asked: "Your silkworm foil is very different from Jiangnan, but what are the requirements?"

"It turns out that the girl is from Jiangnan, no wonder..." Huang said, "Jiujiang's climate is humid and hot, and such silkworm foils are easy to ventilate and drain. Before applying the foil, you must use fire to roast silkworm foil to burn off the remaining silk after the cocoon. After applying the foil for one or two days, you must 'bake cocoons'. The silkworm foil is opposite like a herringbone, spread about twenty pieces, all of which are firmly surrounded by straw mats and thick paper, and small holes are made in the upper corners to facilitate water vapor. Put a brazier in the middle of every eight silkworm foil, and bake it for about an hour and a half. The silkworm foil must be reversed up and down and roasted again. In this way, the silkworm pupa has been roasted to death, so that the dry cocoon can be removed with confidence."

Zhao Hening said: "It must be because the local climate is humid, so roasting cocoons can prevent the cocoon from rotting." Of course, in addition, roasting cocoons can also kill parasites such as silkworm pupae and flies that are attached to silkworm pupae, so that the state of the silkworm cocoons is fixed on the upper foil is conducive to silk reeling.

"The girl is smart, and she can understand it at a glance." Huang praised, "It just takes more money to roast a cocoon."

"Oh, how much money do you want?"

"Each six sheet of foil consumes three kilograms of charcoal, which consumes about two cents of silver."

Zhao Hening thinks this amount of money is nothing, but for poor farmers, one more cent is also money. Zhao Hening was not confused about this matter and asked again: "Did you reel your own silk thread after collecting the cocoon?"

The reason why I asked this question is because Zhao Yingong encountered the problem of purchasing silk cocoons when he was running a silk reel factory in Hangzhou. Silkworms worked hard to raise silkworms, but most of them were unwilling to sell the silkworms, which made too low profits. In the medieval agricultural society, the value of labor was very low, and it was very common to use a large amount of labor to exchange for insignificant cash returns. Silkworm farmers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang generally sold their own silk hair, forming a large-scale rural side job.

In addition, there is a "Silk Cocoon Guild" in the middle that monopolizes a small number of cocoons sold directly, so Zhao Yingong was unable to directly purchase cocoons from farmers, so he could only buy them from Sik Cocoon. After much consideration, Zhao Yingong decided to start from scratch and directly control the production of cocoons from the place of origin. To be precise, it is the model of a small producer cooperative similar to Leizhou Agricultural Cooperative.

"It's really my own silk reels," Huang asked a little curiously, "There are people in Jiangnan who sell cocoons directly? This is too unprofitable. Besides, no one here buys cocoons."

Cocoon City is a product of the machine silk reeling industry. Without the massive demand from silk reeling factories, Cocoon City will not be formed. The revolutionary place of Cocoon City is to separate the silk reeling industry from the sericulture industry. Zhao Hening thought that it seems that the local silk reeling industry is not as developed as Jiangnan, and no one can collect sporadic cocoons. This is a manifestation of insufficient social division of labor.

"Is it good to sell raw silk?" Zhao Hening asked again.

"It's OK, I bought it all from local silk shops and vendors."

Zhao Hening was quite surprised and said: "Since Australians came, Franji merchants have more and more traders, and Tongyang trade has surpassed one year, and the sales of raw silk have not increased significantly?"

"It's true, as usual."

Zhao Hening asked: "Doesn't it mean that 'The broad thread yarn and the cowherd silk, five silk, eight silk, cloud satin, and light satin are all the capitals outside the mountain, and the East and West are expensive?' Someone made bamboo branches and said: Foreign ships competed for officials and businessmen, and the cross door opened to the two oceans. Five silks and eight silks are good, and silver and money are piled up on the Haobangfang."

The Huang family's rural peasant woman had the farthest destination for her to visit was Jiujiang Market. Naturally, she didn't know the whole story, but she just didn't know it.

Zhao Hening changed the topic and asked: "Is raw silk traded in the silk market?"

Huang said: "This is natural."

Then Huang introduced the situation of Silk Market. Jiujiang has not yet formed a professional Silk Market. Similar to Sang City, Silk Market may be a place as small as one or two shops, mostly built in existing markets. Silk Market generally only provides a place where both buyers and sellers will negotiate, and also set up a public scale to charge a certain proportion of commission from both buyers and sellers.

Local Sang City and Silk City all provide loans, with monthly interest rates of about 2%. Once small farmers encounter natural disasters and man-made disasters and the cash is not enough to maintain reproduction, they have to invest in usury.

Seeing that the Huang family and his son were in trouble, Zhao Hening couldn't help but ask: "It is said that the family has ten acres of land, and it can be used to raise silkworms for eight people. Why do you live so poorly?"

Huang sighed, with a sad face, but he didn't say anything.

Seeing that his mother didn't speak, Guan Zongbao explained: "I have a medicine jar at home. I take medicine all year round, work all day long, drink and smoke, and I have already squandered all my savings for many years. If I were not frugal, my mother and son would have become slaves."

Le Ziren, who was on the side, was familiar with the local situation and explained to Zhao Hening: "Jiujiang is the most important thing for fish, mulberry silk, and even the gentry and gentry will not give up their business. From spring to winter, there is no need to worry about having nothing to do. If you have capital, the benefits of fish and silkworms will turn into grains like wheels. People without capital can also mow grass and pick mulberry, and live. The only thing you need to worry about is luxury and waste. After autumn and winter, the grains and rice will enter the warehouse to fill the year. Jiujiang is worried that the mulberry branches will be hard, and they will not save money as much as the day of sericulture, and they will not be able to control the winter. Widows will have their own strength, but they will have surplus resources. This is the reason for their frugal life. Therefore, the proverb says: 'Widows have grains and stolen'."

Unlike other farmers who grow rice, farmers who work in mulberry-based fish ponds have products that are not grains, but fish, raw silk, and mulberry leaves. They cannot achieve self-sufficiency like rice growers. They need to exchange grain from the market to survive. Therefore, their living conditions are subject to income. The factors that affect income are one is that this model requires a large amount of capital investment, and the other is that the products need to be put directly on the market, so the lives of farmers are at a higher risk.

At that time, fish escape, mulberry harvests will be lost, silkworms have no mulberry leaves or have no harvest, if they fail to produce silkworms, the loss may affect the production under the production. The market turmoil also makes it difficult for farmers to stabilize their lives. Farmers in mulberry-based fish ponds hold money after their products are sold, and they also have to face temptations such as gambling and alcoholism. Worrying that the mulberry branches are hard at the tail is said to be afraid that they will invest a lot of capital in daily life and are not frugal enough, so they will find it difficult to save money to buy rice and grain for winter.

Zhao Hening was a little puzzled and asked Guan Zongbao: "Who is the medicine jar you mentioned? Your wife or a child?"

Guan Zongbao said: "It's my dad."

"Why don't you see others?"

Huang said: "I just came here to make trouble last night. I forced a tael of silver to buy it, saying that I wanted to go to Guangzhou to do business."

After hearing this, Zhao Hening showed a very sympathetic expression, sighed, and said, "It's so pitiful, how could there be such a father in the world?"

Guan Zongbao said, "Girl, if possible, I would like to ask Chief Le to uphold justice for my mother."

Faced with the sudden request, Le Ziren was confused. He, a small police officer, had no foundation in the local area and could not control the family matters, so he looked at Zhao Hening.

Zhao Hening said without hesitation: "I am the most shameful person in the world. I have suffered any grievances. Even if I speak up, we will definitely help you." After that, he looked at Le Ziren and Zhang Jiayu.

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