Chapter 253: Selling Looms or Opening a Factory

The Knight Squad of Wubei Territory is about to welcome their first expedition.

After informing Ruidar of this matter, Luoning also finalized the list of Professional Knights and Magicians who would accompany him.

The target of this attack is neither a tribe of savages nor the careless Knight Squad of Swamp Town, but the Bolante Bandit Group, which has at least one Golden Knight.

Therefore, Luoning is taking Ruidar, Maiken, and Aierlong with him.

Three Advanced Professionals: Qiaofuli, Luogena, and the newly promoted Magician Jennie;

Two Intermediate Knights: Kelami and Babulin;

Four Primary Knights: Dawei, Tangmu, Geladuo, and Tuomashi, who remain the ones with the most potential.

The remaining Professional Knights who are not going on the expedition are led by Huoen, who will take dozens of militiamen and divide them into several groups to be responsible for the defense of the various towns.

Wubei Territory is at the very rear of Wushan Territory; unless a major war breaks out, no enemy will attack here.

In the past, the greatest threat to the territory was the Magic Beasts in the Magic Beast Mountain Range.

But with Kaierluosi wandering around recently, even the Magic Beasts with a bit of sense will not come near here.

Therefore, the defense of the territory is basically just keeping an eye on the commoners to ensure they don't cause trouble, and guarding the hundreds of Slaves that Andongni sends over every few days.

For Professional Knights like Huoen, this is not a difficult task.

The only thing that makes Luoning feel a bit regretful is that he is afraid he will not be able to witness this year's autumn harvest, and he does not know if the grain in the fields will give him a surprising yield after the technological innovations and the application of fertilizer.

The hoofbeats of the Tayunjv sounded *da-da-da* as Luoning arrived at Ziguo Village in Sanfang Town.

The main reason Luoning did not take Huoen on the expedition was that the matter of sericulture required him to take the lead.

With the arrival of June, the temperature in Wubei Territory has risen and is getting hotter, which is already suitable for silkworm farming.

Ten acres of Mulberry Trees, ten thousand Mulberry Trees, are now a lush green; these leaves will become the rations for this group of silkworms.

Following Luoning's instructions, Ziguo Village has already cleared out several rooms, and the carpenter's apprentices have also made enough wooden basins for the silkworms to use during this time.

Actually, it would be most appropriate to make these out of bamboo strips, but Qingzhu Village does not have a bamboo weaver yet, and Luoning did not have time to study it in detail, so he had to use wooden basins instead; the effect is about the same.

"My Lord, the silkworm cocoons have basically hatched, and the silkworm eggs laid by the silkworm moths after mating are all here."

Huoen pointed to the silkworm eggs placed on Linen Cloth in several wooden basins and said.

Standing beside him were Lia and the farmers specifically recruited to work in sericulture.

Luoning nodded and bent down to carefully examine these silkworm eggs.

They are currently as small as sesame seeds, but as they develop, the silkworm eggs have turned from their original black to transparent, and one can even see the outlines inside; it is expected that the baby silkworms will hatch in two or three days.

"After they hatch, remember to feed them with the tender leaves from the tops of the Mulberry Trees. When feeding, be sure to wipe the water off the leaves and cut them into small pieces to sprinkle evenly on top; do not make it too thick."

Silkworm farming generally takes about a month and a half, and Luoning definitely won't have time to come over later, so he can only give more instructions now.

"In addition, pay attention to the silkworms' molting state. At this time, they usually lift their heads and neither eat nor move. You should not disturb them, and there is no need to feed them Mulberry Tree leaves. Wait until the molting is complete before feeding them whole leaves, and use the leaves to spread them out into more silkworm basins."

Actually, Luoning had already told Huoen this content once before; now that he is saying it again in front of more people, it is good for them to remember it well.

In particular, the cleaning of dead silkworms must be timely to avoid posing a threat to the healthy silkworms around them.

This world has no disinfectant, nor any medicine to prevent infection, and since Huoen and the others are farming them for the first time, the best method is to keep them spread out a bit.

Besides the good hatching of the silkworms, good news also came from Master Dan, who had also moved to Ziguo Village.

Master Dan, combining the suggestions Luoning put forward last time and referring to the structure of the Waist Loom used by Lia and other seamstresses, carried out a meticulous transformation of the Pedal Loom.

After several months of continuous improvement, the first Loom in Wubei Territory finally made a breakthrough.

It has no problems in terms of mechanics, usage, and so on; it only needs to handle the two functions of reed threading and heddle threading, and it can basically be handed over to Lia for use.

Although it will continue to be optimized as different problems are encountered during use, it has now achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1, which is very rare!

Luoning praised the other party greatly and wished him success in breaking through to become a Grand Master.

At the same time, he asked him to continue the improvements and, using this Loom as a template, to transform it into a Loom suitable for the production of Linen Cloth and wool.

After all, Silk belongs to a different material than linen and wool; the structure of the Loom has commonalities, but there are still differences in the details.

For example, linen fibers are relatively coarse and require greater tension and a stronger mechanical structure to process and weave;

While silk is relatively soft and requires a more precise mechanical structure and tension control.

Now that there is a Silk Loom, it should only be a matter of time for Master Dan's ability to improve it into a Linen Cloth Loom.

After the Looms are produced, Luoning can consider whether to sell the Looms or open a weaving factory to cash in.

If the method of selling Looms is adopted to cash in, it will inevitably attract imitation by others, and the market for sales may not necessarily be very large.

Just like the Curved Plow back then, Luoning chose to sell it to Wushan Castle all at once.

Wushan Castle could not sell them after a few times because those lords who had not bought them had already obtained imitations through their own channels; although they also spent some money, it was much cheaper than buying from Wushan Castle.

If Luoning sells Looms, he might also face such a problem.

If he takes advantage of the fact that the outside world does not have Looms while Wubei Territory does, and opens a weaving factory in Wubei Territory to collect and quickly process the linen, wool, and other resources of other nobles in Wushan Territory, and then sell them at a price relatively lower than the market, could this bring about a huge improvement in the financial problems of Wubei Territory?

Luoning had been thinking about this matter since he left Master Dan, and until he saw Qiaofuli, he handed the problem of the weaving factory to the newly appointed Financial Officer.

"My Lord, this question of yours is really making things difficult for me!" Qiaofuli said with a bitter face.

Since serving as the Financial Officer of Wubei Territory, he has been both happy and worried.

The happy part is that he is deeply trusted by the lord, and all matters regarding money management have been handed over to him;

The worried part is that there are too many places in the territory that need money, and sometimes a single expenditure requires hundreds of gold coins; his hands tremble when he handles the money.

There is another thing that makes him even more anxious, and that is the problem of storing the gold coins.

Although the castle has Guards on duty, and although the gold coins are hidden in secret passages and hidden rooms, and although ordinary people cannot find them...

He still sleeps with fear and trepidation every day, terrified that he will wake up and find all the gold coins gone; how would he answer to the Lord?

"It doesn't matter if you don't understand; you can go and learn."

Luoning said earnestly: "Didn't I give you a raise? You can go outside and find a merchant teacher to learn how to do business properly. If the money is not enough, tell me, and I will sponsor your studies!"

Having said this, he changed to a stern tone again.

"You are still young; if you shrink back when you encounter difficulties, how will you make progress in the future?"

"Look at Wilson; how did he step by step go from Administrator to Administrative Chief? He never complains to me that things are difficult to do!"

Chahar kept his head lowered, nodding continuously, silently thinking to himself that the master was right and the master made sense.

Luoning stepped forward and patted the other's shoulder: "Work hard, Chaha'er, don't let down my expectations of you; I have always believed in you!"

Chaha'er's eyes immediately welled up with tears: "Rest assured, Master, I will definitely work hard!"

There were still many matters, both large and small, in the territory, but aside from controlling the general direction, Luoning had already learned to let go of the small things.

This was both to cultivate the abilities of his subordinates in preparation for the future, and also so that he himself could live better.

Since he had already transmigrated, he couldn't possibly still be busy as a dog every day, could he?

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was almost the twelfth of June, the day for the Wushan Territory noble assembly.

Luoning mounted Kaierluosi a day early and landed on the mountain behind Wushan Castle in the middle of the night. (End of chapter)