Chapter 197： too expensive

After the Double Ninth Festival, all the villagers in Dongchen Village peeled cotton seeds at home, including the Jiang family.

Ying Bao thought about it for a whole night, sorting out the plot of the book, and found that it focused on the heroine and didn’t describe much about the peripheral characters.

Even his parents and younger brother, a tool man, didn't even mention a word, let alone Chu Chu and others.

However, the book describes the process of ginning and weaving by cotton farmers, saying that they use a cart-driven gin to remove seeds from seed cotton, which is very fast, much faster than manually picking them one by one.

It is said that a bookshelf is fixed on the table, with a wooden axis and an iron axis placed across the upper part of the shelf.

The iron shaft is on the top and the wooden shaft is on the bottom. There is a crank on the right side of the wooden shaft. A flywheel cross-shaped wooden frame is installed on the left side of the iron shaft.

During operation, the two shafts are rolled together, and the left hand adds the seed cotton between the shafts. The cotton is taken out of the front of the car, and the cotton seeds fall behind the car.

Yingbao took a charcoal pen and drew the shape of the cotton gin on the paper. Some details were probably just that, and the carpenter probably needed more work.

“Dad, let’s use this to roll out the cotton seeds. It should be faster than picking them up by hand.” She handed the drawing to her father.

There is too much cotton at home, so getting cotton seeds is a big project. The whole family has to work hard, and it can’t be completed within a month or two.

Jiang Sanlang took the picture handed over by his daughter, looked at it carefully, and nodded: "I'll ask Wang Ke to try it out. If it works, we can make a few more for use."

Now that he is the village leader, he has to take care of all the big and small things in the village, including cotton ginning.

Because Sun Li was urging him to sort out all the cotton seeds quickly, part of them would be kept by the villagers, and the other part would be sold to the county government.

It is said that the imperial court valued this batch of cotton seeds very much and asked the county magistrate to send a batch of cotton seeds and cotton to the Ministry of Household Affairs in Kyoto.

Ying Bao suddenly remembered something and asked, "Dad, why haven't the two looms our family ordered from Manager Zhou arrived yet?"

“I asked Manager Zhou, and Zhou Mao said he would definitely bring it when he came to collect the golden ears this time.”

Jiang Sanlang often took his wife to the county town to visit his eldest son, so he had more contact with Zhou Mao.

Yingbao nodded.

The golden ears at home can be harvested in half a month, so she will go to the county town first and stay there for a few days before returning after finishing the business at the shop.

At noon, Jiang Quan loaded several baskets of chestnuts onto the carriage and hung several large gourds on the roof.

These gourds are each as big as a bathtub, and hanging on the sides of the carriage is simply scary.

Erni climbed into the carriage with a baggage and sat with her little cousin.

Today, Erni was extremely happy when her third uncle asked her to accompany Yingbao to the county town.

She has never been to the county town even once in her entire life. Now she has to spend a few days in the county town.

"Bao'er, take Xiao Hei over. Dacheng said that there is a dog at home that can guard against thieves at night." Chun Niang carried Xiao Hei into the carriage and told him: "Xiaojie also wants to take a look at Xiao Hei, so he will be left here in the future." The county seat.”

"Okay." Ying Bao held Xiao Hei in her arms and waved to Chun Niang: "I'm leaving, Auntie."

“Be careful on the road.”

"knew."

Jiang Quan whipped his horse and drove away, quickly leaving the village.

Hurrying slowly and hurriedly all the way, we finally arrived at the door of the county store before dark.

The shop was closed at this time, but fortunately Jiang Quan still had a key in his hand.

Jiang Quan and Er Ni unloaded the chestnuts and gourds, put everything into the shop, then closed the shop door and led the carriage into the backyard.

There were many bricks and tiles piled up in the backyard, almost filling the huge yard.

“Where’s the eldest brother?” Erni walked into the thatched house and didn’t see Jiang Cheng, so she couldn’t help but ask Jiang Quan: “Don’t he stay here at night?”

“Eldest brother should go to Plum Blossom Lane.” Jiang Cheng slept in the shop on weekdays. He probably knew that his second brother was coming back today, so he went to Plum Blossom Lane.

Jiang Quan lit the oil lamp with a fire stick and said, "You will stay here tonight and go back to Plum Blossom Lane tomorrow."

“Yeah.” Erni had no objection, took the oil lamp and looked around.

The house is quite neat and clean, with a wooden bed and complete bedding, barely enough for two people to rest. "Don't people in the county build Kangs?" Erni asked, "Isn't it cold in winter?"

“I don’t know. Anyway, we didn’t sleep on the kang and we didn’t feel cold.”

Jiang Quan: "Don't run around in the house with Ying Bao. I'll go out to buy some food. What do you want to eat?"

Yingbao said: "I want to eat sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice **** and donkey meat roasted on fire."

Turning around, he asked Er Ni: "What do you want to eat? Let my second brother buy it for you."

Erni didn't know what else to eat, so she said, "Just like you."

"Okay." Jiang Quan took out three hundred coins and went out happily.

The advantage of living in a county town is that you can eat many kinds of delicious food every day. As long as you have money, you can buy everything.

The little black dog barked after him, as if he still had it.

Ying Bao ran to the door and shouted in the direction where Jiang Quan disappeared: "Second brother, buy something more for Xiao Hei to eat."

“I know!” Jiang Quan ran away in a flash.

Erni sat down by the bed, touched the edge of the bed, and asked her little cousin, "Yingbao, where should we go to play tomorrow?"

Yingbao thought for a moment: "I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. I have to tidy up the shop and customize some things. I'll take you out to play the day after tomorrow."

“Okay.” Erni didn’t mind either.

It is very satisfying to be able to go to the county seat. Besides, she really didn’t know what fun places there were in the county.

After a while, Jiang Quan bought back a lot of delicious food.

There are donkey meat roasted on fire, sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice balls, mutton buns, pepper kebabs, and mutton wontons.

Except for the glutinous rice **** and mutton buns, which Erni had eaten before, she had never seen the others before.

“Wow! It smells so delicious!” Erni picked up a mutton bun and took a bite.

Jiang Quan brought a few pottery bowls, filled them with glutinous rice **** and wontons, and handed them to his two cousins, while he ate the wontons in the pottery pot.

A bite of pepper kebab and a spoonful of wontons, not to mention how delicious it is.

Yingbao picked up a bowl of glutinous rice **** and ate them, and said to her second cousin, "Where did you buy those fruit baskets from? I want to order a batch of bamboo woven boxes to pack those preserved fruits."

Jiang Quan took a bite of the meat skewers and said, "I bought it from a vendor before. Then I saw that the price in the bamboo shop was about the same, so I bought it at the bamboo shop. I'll take you there tomorrow."

The next day, Jiang Cheng came over from Plum Blossom Alley, bringing a basket of steamed buns that he had steamed himself.

Seeing that my second brother was spending money to buy food outside, I couldn't help but say to him: "We have rice, noodles and eggs at home, and there are a lot of vegetables growing on the courtyard wall. Why don't you make some by yourself?"

Jiang Quan muttered: "Isn't it that Ying Bao and Er Ni are both here? I didn't buy too much."

Jiang Cheng snorted and took the steamed buns to the kitchen to cook porridge. Erni quickly went to help light the fire.

After dinner, Jiang Cheng took care of the shop, while Jiang Quan took his two cousins ​​to the bamboo shop to order a bamboo box.

Yingbao took a fancy to a delicate bamboo box as big as a book, and asked the bamboo craftsman to make it even bigger, with a delicate lid.

"If I compile it according to your request, it will not be worthwhile if it is eight pieces." said the master bamboo craftsman.

Yingbao: "Then how much do you want?"

Jianjiang: "At the very least, it would take twenty-five cents a piece."

"It's too expensive." Yingbao said seriously: "My family wants to customize hundreds of them, and it's a long-term order. Your price is too outrageous, forget it, I'll go look elsewhere. Your bamboo shop is not the only one in the county. "

After saying that, he turned around and left.

Erni and Jiang Quan followed closely.