Chapter 124: The Great Construction Era
Half a month later, the caravan returned, bringing back a batch of grain and cotton.
At the village entrance of Hexi Fort, Li Xiao came to greet them.
He noticed that Li Dashan, Li Erguzi, and the others had all become much darker.
It seemed that the sun in the Great Desert was indeed more scorching than in Jin Prefecture.
“Da Long, our alcoholic beverage sold quite well!”
After seeing Li Xiao, Li Erguzi dismounted and quickly walked up to report this trip’s results.
“As per your instructions, after we arrived at Bieshibao, we sent two carts of wine to Xiao Tula Duo.”
“That guy was very satisfied after drinking it.”
“He immediately ordered all the wine shop owners in Bieshibao to be summoned, along with the passing traveling merchants, all gathered together.”
“Those people thought our wine was good after tasting it.”
“In less than half a day, the remaining eighteen carts of wine were all sold out.”
Li Erguzi patted the dust off his body and grinned as he spoke.
This trip to the Great Desert had broadened his horizons greatly; he found it much more interesting than fighting.
“It seems our wine is quite popular!” Li Xiao nodded faintly with a smile. Although this deal was made thanks to Xiao Tula Duo’s face.
But fortunately, the quality of Western Wind Fierce was solid enough.
Those bosses and traveling merchants, having made this connection, would likely continue buying in the future.
“Very popular. When we were coming back, those merchants even asked me when the next batch of wine could be delivered,” Li Erguzi said cheerfully.
“The second batch of Western Wind Fierce has already been brewed, a total of five hundred jars.”
“After resting a few days, Second Uncle, you can take people and set off anytime,” Li Xiao said.
“Alright, great!” Li Erguzi nodded, full of enthusiasm.
Although Western Wind Fierce was Li Xiao’s business, he also got a commission.
The more it sold, the more he could take home.
“How much did it sell for?” Li Xiao asked.
“Uniform price, three hundred copper coins per dou,” Li Erguzi said, holding up three fingers.
This price was not cheap either.
In this era, ordinary alcoholic beverages were priced around two hundred copper coins per dou, about twelve jin.
But the three hundred copper coins price was the wholesale price for those merchant bosses.
When they resold it, it would probably reach four hundred copper coins or more.
Therefore, Western Wind Fierce was destined not to be affordable for commoners; it was a high-end product only nobles could enjoy.
“Three hundred copper coins? Not expensive,” Li Xiao chuckled.
After all, it was a monopoly product, unavailable elsewhere.
In Li Xiao’s view, it could even be sold for more.
It was just that initially, the price couldn’t be set too high; the most important thing was to cultivate the nobles’ habit of drinking white liquor.
Once they liked Western Wind Fierce, it would trickle down from the top, and the lower classes would gradually try white liquor as well.
In Li Xiao’s plan, Western Wind Fierce was just his flagship product.
Once the Hexi Fort winery’s industry became more perfected with higher output, he would launch a more affordable alcoholic beverage to enter the low-end market.
Li Erguzi continued reporting: “Three hundred copper coins per dou, this time we sold a total of one hundred and eight strings.”
“Already all used to buy cotton and grain.”
With a quick turn of his mind, he calculated the account clearly.
This skill was unique among his peers.
“Very good,” Li Xiao nodded gently, looking satisfied.
His horizons had broadened; a mere one hundred strings of copper coins were no longer in his eyes.
However, Western Wind Fierce was a long-term business, emphasizing steady flow.
From a long-term perspective, Western Wind Fierce was indeed highly profitable.
Then, Li Xiao’s gaze turned to the carriages behind, all loaded with grain and cotton.
Even the horseback on which Li Dashan and the others had switched carried cotton.
“How much is cotton per jin?” Li Xiao asked.
Jin Prefecture did not lack grain; buying it from the Great Desert was for preparedness.
In this era, copper coins were less value-preserving than grain.
Hexi Fort was preparing for large-scale winemaking, and Li Xiao did not mind having more grain on hand.
But for cotton, Jin Prefecture truly had none.
“Cotton is quite expensive.”
“One hundred copper coins per jin.”
Hearing this, Li Xiao was instantly stunned.
“So expensive?”
Li Erguzi smiled wryly: “This is still the price given out of respect for Xiao Tula Duo’s face.”
Well, Li Xiao had truly gained knowledge.
In later Huaxia, cotton was grown on a large scale, so people subconsciously saw it as a low-end consumable.
But in this era, cotton had not yet begun large-scale planting.
Even in the Great Desert, most areas only grew grain, with low cotton output.
So the price was relatively high.
In Huaxia history, large-scale cotton planting truly began in the Hongwu era.
Zhu Yuanzhang forcibly promoted cotton planting so that common people could wear clothes made of cotton cloth.
“This output is still too low. It’s a pity I’m not the Great Desert Governor,” Li Xiao sighed.
Once again showing his yearning for the Great Desert.
Although seventy percent of the land there was desert, the remaining thirty percent was much more fertile than Jin Prefecture.
More suitable for developing agriculture.
“If only I could turn the Great Desert into Jin Prefecture’s granary,” Li Xiao thought to himself.
……
Two days later, Li Erguzi set off again, taking five hundred jars of Western Wind Fierce to the Great Desert.
Meanwhile, Hexi Fort entered a period of vigorous major construction.
Li Xiao built a winery, named ‘Hexi Winery’.
He hired some people specifically for winemaking.
At the same time, he found some carpenters and artisans from the surrounding fortress.
The carpenters’ task was to make Hexi Spinning Machines, as well as the looms improved by Li Xiao.
Not too many were needed; with the current reserves of cotton and wool on hand, twenty machines would be enough to keep busy.
After all, the work efficiency of these two machines was ten times that of ordinary machines.
Thus, Li Xiao built Huaxia’s first textile mill.
“Hexi Textile Mill.”
He hired twenty women from Hexi Fort to start making cotton cloth and woolen cloth.
As for the Old Master and the other artisans’ task, it was simple: forging armor plates.
To improve forging efficiency, Li Xiao improved the drop hammer device.
Using cattle and horses and other livestock to drive a huge wheel to turn, the wheel connected to the drop hammer via rope.
When the wheel turned, it lifted the drop hammer to a certain height, then released it; the drop hammer fell by gravity, hammering the iron material placed on the anvil.
Repeating this saved the artisans much time and effort, improving forging processing efficiency.
Unfortunately, the river water froze in winter.
Otherwise, Li Xiao had planned to make a water-powered device.
But fortunately, Jin Prefecture did not lack cattle and horses.
……
Another half month passed, and the weather grew even colder.
Large snowflakes drifted down from the sky.
Looking out, the whole heaven and earth had turned into a vast expanse of white.
Amid this wind and snow, Li Erguzi returned again.
He sold all five hundred jars of Western Wind Fierce and brought back even more grain and cotton.
This time, he led the people to the Great Desert himself, and the mission was accomplished outstandingly.
This Second Uncle’s fighting skill was average, but he was born for business, and he was passionate about it.
This made Li Xiao trust him even more.
However, due to the heavy snow, trade with the Great Desert would have to pause for a while.
It was also this day.
The results of Li Xiao’s half month of hard work finally came to fruition.
In the vast wind and snow, Li Xiao wore thick sheepskin, wrapped tightly from head to toe.
Even so, he could still feel wisps of cold air eroding his body.
At this moment, he held a bow and arrow in his hand, eyes fixed tightly on a set of armor fifty meters away.
“Swish~”
Accompanied by a whistling sound, one breath later, the arrow precisely hit the front chest of the armor.
Then, Li Xiao mounted his horse, and with the Old Master and others nearby, they all gathered around the armor.
“Didn’t penetrate!”
“It bounced off.”
San Bao widened his eyes and said in surprise.
At this moment, before the crowd was a newly made cotton armor.
Similar in style to the Ming end-period border army’s cotton armor, it was white.
Mainly composed of body armor, shoulder guards, sleeve armor, skirt armor, crotch armor, and heart mirror.
The armor was sewn from inner and outer layers of cotton cloth.
Between the two layers of cotton cloth, cannon nails were used to lay a layer of armor plates.
The kind of iron shards used for making iron armor.
The difference was that this armor used iron shards forged from wootz steel.
Harder than ordinary armor plates.
From fifty meters away, even with Li Xiao’s strength in shooting, it couldn’t penetrate the cotton armor at all.
Because the outer cotton provided some buffering, dispersing the arrow’s force.
It only pierced the outer cotton cloth.
Seeing the cotton armor’s protective power, everyone was amazed.
“I didn’t expect this cotton armor to be so sturdy, much better than leather armor,” the Old Master murmured.
Grassland nomadic cavalry mostly wore leather armor; only a very few could wear iron armor.
With Li Xiao’s strength, from fifty meters, he would have pierced the enemy’s chest long ago.
But now, facing this armor made of cotton and iron shards, it only pierced the outer cotton cloth.
This shocked the Old Master and the others.
The effect was beyond their expectations.
But Li Xiao was not as surprised as them, because he had long known that cotton armor’s protection far surpassed leather armor.
After all, it was made by compressing and sewing multiple layers of cotton.
When sabers chopped, the multiple tight layers of cotton could buffer, dispersing the force around.
Even if the outer cotton was pierced, the middle interlayer had many armor plates, which could also block saber stabs.
So, unless it precisely hit the joint between two armor plates, it was hard to penetrate the cotton armor.
Then, Li Xiao continued the experiments.
“Pull it in to twenty meters for shooting.”
The result: at twenty meters, it still only penetrated the outer cotton cloth, unable to pierce the inner armor plates.
But Li Xiao knew this was due to the wootz steel.
If ordinary iron shards were used, the effect wouldn’t be this strong.
“Switch to spear.”
Then, Li Xiao mounted a war horse, held a spear, eyes sharp, and charged toward the wooden stake fitted with cotton armor.
When he rushed up close and thrust the spear down hard, there was a cracking sound.
The spear shaft broke on impact.
The cotton armor’s surface was completely torn open, cotton fluff flying, revealing the densely arranged wootz steel armor plates inside.
“Hiss~”
Seeing this, Li Dashan and the others in the distance all drew in a sharp breath.
“This doesn’t work either?”
“It still didn’t pierce?”
“But it’s also because it’s on a wooden stake. If it were a real person, even if the armor wasn’t pierced, they would definitely be knocked off the horse.”
“This armor’s defense is pretty amazing, almost comparable to iron armor.”
“The key is, it’s much lighter than iron armor.”
A set of iron armor weighed around sixty or seventy jin.
While cotton armor, even with a helmet, was only about twenty jin.
Much lighter.
Perfectly suited for light cavalry.
Most crucially, cotton armor had low cost.
Even a set of ordinary iron armor cost as much as eight sets of cotton armor.
To match Pockmarked Armor, it would take more than twenty sets.
So at this moment, Li Dashan and the others all smiled.
In their minds instantly appeared the scene of Jin Prefecture cavalry all wearing cotton armor, crushing those nomadic cavalry in leather armor.
Not even in the same league.
But Li Xiao’s experiments weren’t over; next, using other weapons to test damage on the cotton armor.
Sabers, spears, bow and arrows, etc., had negligible damage to the cotton armor.
Facing heavy weapons like maces and iron maces, the cotton armor’s performance was even better than iron armor.
Because the two layers of dense cotton dispersed the force, reducing blunt impact damage.
Until the Divine Arm Crossbow stage.
The cotton armor’s invincible defense was finally broken.
At forty meters, even with wootz steel armor plates, the single-layer cotton armor was still easily pierced by the crossbow arrow.
Seeing this, Li Xiao felt no disappointment.
After all, even heavy armor might not withstand the Divine Arm Crossbow, let alone cotton armor meant to replace leather armor.
In terms of cost-performance, cotton armor was almost the ceiling for light cavalry armor.
So, Li Xiao looked at the crowd and said firmly: “This winter, we need to mass-produce cotton armor.”
“Equip our soldiers.”
