Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 423 - 420: It’s Not Easy Being a Weaver

The workshop at Lin Family Manor has been bustling these past few days, as all the cotton harvested from both the Lin and Lu Manors has been brought into the workshop. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The people of Lu Family Manor, each household received twelve strings of coins from selling the cotton, were overjoyed. If the land were used for growing hemp, such generous returns would not have been possible!

It’s important to note that for a farmer in the Great Tang, an annual income of fifteen strings of coins was usually sufficient for self-sufficiency, with possibly a little surplus.

This fifteen-coin income included not just grains and silk from the fields but also all household income from agricultural by-products.

And now, just from growing cotton, each household from the two manors can earn ten strings of coins! This amount is more than enough to buy grains and coarse cloth, to pay "rent" and "adjustment" fees.

Besides cotton, Lu Family Manor also planted a lot of sweet potatoes. Although they don’t make vermicelli, sweet potatoes are still a good staple food.

It is foreseeable that both Lin Family Manor and Lu Family Manor can have a good year, with basic food and clothing not being an issue.

However, the money from Lu Family Manor has already been distributed to each household, but the money from Lin Family Manor has been withheld by the Clan Leader of the Lin Clan.

With forty-two households, there were a total of five hundred and four strings of coins, all invested into the workshop as initial capital.

This workshop at Lin Family Manor is a communal property of the clan, with Lin Wanwan as the absolute major shareholder.

Previously, the construction costs for labor and materials for the workshop were all paid by Lin Wanwan. This was a significant investment, totaling one hundred and twenty gold coins from Lin Wanwan.

After that, inviting clan women to work also required Lin Wanwan to cover the wages.

Therefore, Lin Wanwan holds a seventy percent stake in the workshop, which was officially named Lin Workshop after completion, and the remaining thirty percent is shared among the Lin Clan.

And this time, the money from selling cotton is the first investment from the Lin Clan into the workshop, used to purchase cotton from other villages in Mao County.

Although the money has not been distributed to individuals, the people of Lin Family Manor are still very excited.

The thought of having a share in the impressive workshop and warehouse erected on the rocky ground at the entrance of the village excites everyone.

Of course, there are those within the clan who opposed not distributing the money and investing it in the workshop. But they have no say and cannot make any decisions.

Such major decisions are entirely up to the Lin Clan Leader, the elder members of the clan, and the next generation of chosen key figures.

Now the workshop at Lin Family Manor is divided into two parts. The front part is mainly managed by five individuals selected by Lin Wanwan: Sun Chuyao, He Ada, Lin Mengbo, Lin Mengjin, and Lin Mengxing, who are responsible for collecting external cotton.

The rear part of the workshop is composed of Lin Family Manor’s women — anyone willing can come to learn. Each person receives a basic monthly wage of two hundred coins, with additional piece-rate bonuses and lunch subsidies.

This year, the entire Lin Family Manor did not grow silk or hemp, so there was less need to weave cloth.

The women, besides being busy weaving fishing nets every day, take care of household chores, and the labor intensity is not high. Therefore, hearing that the workshop is hiring weavers, there was no one who didn’t want to go.

Except for a few particularly stubborn families who didn’t want their wives to leave home to work, and elderly women who were too old and unable to weave cloth, almost all women over fifteen in Lin Family Manor came to work at Lin Workshop.

Lin Wanwan started teaching with the foot-operated cotton gin, guiding everyone on how to conveniently and quickly remove cotton seeds from cotton.

This de-seeded cotton naturally has great use and can be further processed with spinning machines for spinning, bouncing cotton, dyeing, and then woven into cloth on weaving machines.

The separated cotton seeds are not wasted either. Some are used in Lin Wanwan’s medicine cabinet for traditional medicine, while some are used for oil extraction — though extracting oil is another big project that Lin Wanwan currently doesn’t have the energy for and is putting on hold.

Regarding cotton ginning, cotton bouncing, and spinning, Lin Wanwan doesn’t need to teach much by hand; she just demonstrated the usage of various tools a few times, and the diligent Tang dynasty rural women familiar with such work all understood it.

The step that requires the most learning is dyeing. For this, Lin Wanwan didn’t completely employ modern "borrowism" but sourced materials locally in the Tang dynasty, using natural materials like fake indigo, Vachellia bark, black ink, turmeric, sappanwood, madder, and grain wood to dye the spun cotton thread.

Afterward, the dyed cotton thread is woven into various colorful cotton fabrics.

Weaving is no longer just simple weaving; the weaving technology part also requires a lot of effort.

Although Lin Wanwan can bring in advanced tools like the Huang Daopo weaving machine, she is not well-versed in how to "twist yarns for color matching, thread the harness for patterns," etc., in the weaving technology. For now, she has only taught the simplest.

She has so much to learn every day. Medicine cannot be neglected even for a day, and although she currently plays the ancient zither and harp less often, she still spends an hour practicing daily.

In addition, she must study modern farming videos hard. For this cotton enterprise, she also needs to learn weaving technology.

Hand weaving technology has become an intangible cultural heritage project in modern times, and it is not easy for Lin Wanwan to learn it. Fortunately, in modern times, as long as you want to learn, you can always find a place to do so by spending money.

The internet and live broadcasts are also great; there are many meaningful live teaching courses that can be purchased and watched repeatedly.

Lin Wanwan’s learning of weaving technology is simply like driving ducks onto the shelves, similar to her study of medicine, spurred by circumstances and not a genuine interest, unlike learning the ancient zither or harp, which she enjoys much more.

She constantly motivates herself with the saying "The sea of learning has no boundaries; hard work is the vessel," and for the happiness of the Great Tang people, Lin Wanwan really has it tough!

Compared to her being busy and overwhelmed, Xiao Chong’s days arouse Lin Wanwan’s envy once again.

He has five hundred acres of official fields, rents half to the people, and his manor guests cultivate the other half.

Half of these official fields also contained a lot of cotton. Just from selling cotton this time, Xiao Chong made quite a bit.

Keep in mind, when the common people planted cotton and made money, they still had to set aside a portion to pay taxes, while officials didn’t have to pay taxes. These official fields were their extra subsidies.

Xiao Chong doesn’t need to learn farming or weaving, and he can enjoy the fruits without labor, which made Lin Wanwan extremely envious.

When he came with manor guests to Lin Family Manor to sell cotton (actually to mooch a meal), Lin Wanwan made many sarcastic remarks.

Xiao Chong, being who he is, understood the underlying meaning, found it a bit amusing, and wanted to tell her — does she even know that the County Magistrate has mountains of official duties to handle every day!

If he didn’t assign tasks properly, he’d be utterly exhausted.

To be a good official is not easy; to be a good official who accomplishes things is even harder.

"Cousin, do you know what poem I’ve been fond of recently?"

"How could I know that?" replied an exhausted yet fulfilled Lin Wanwan, too tired to think, and certainly not a worm in his stomach.

Xiao Chong laughed and said, "The road ahead is perilously long, and I will seek knowledge high and low."

"Couldn’t have guessed that you also like this line from ’Li Sao.’ You’re stealing my motto!"

"Hahaha, but heroes tend to think alike after all."