Chapter 91: 91. Opening Cotton

Ziguo Tribe, the kitchen of Jennie's house.

Luoning, with Huoen, began the attempt at boiling cocoons.

At the very beginning, Luoning did not think about reeling silk, but chose to move in the direction of "opening cotton."

To open cotton, one needs to put soda ash or baking soda into the pot during the cocoon boiling process, but where would he find such things on such short notice?

Thus, he could only make some wood ash on the spot; this stuff is also an alkaline substance, and although it looks a bit black, it will adhere to the silkworm cocoons after being added to the pot.

However, during the boiling process, the wood ash will react with the sericin and impurities on the silkworm cocoons, which can eventually be washed away, and it will not stain them.

Because it was the first time boiling cocoons, Luoning only selected a dozen or so silkworm cocoons for the attempt.

He first removed the floating silk from the outer layer of the cocoons, then threw them into a small pot, added clean water and wood ash, and began to boil them over a high fire.

After more than half an hour of continuous boiling, Luoning saw that it was about right, so he fished out the yellowed cocoons and cleaned them thoroughly with clear water.

The moment they touched the clear water, the yellowed cocoons turned white at a speed almost visible to the naked eye, which drew an exclamation of surprise from Huoen.

Next, to his disbelief, Luoning peeled open the cocoons, removed the dead silkworm pupae inside, and then used his hands to stretch them out and fit them onto a cotton ring made from a bamboo strip found beforehand.

Although he failed a few times, practice makes perfect, and Luoning soon mastered the technique.

At first, a thin layer of silk sheet didn't look like much, but after Luoning stacked seven or eight of them, a piece of "cloth" appeared before everyone's eyes.

"This step is called 'opening cotton'; stacking these dozen or so cocoons together like this can form a silk cap."

Luoning introduced: "Make a few more of these silk caps, then take them out to wash twice and dry them in the sun. After that, you can cut, stretch, spread them out, and stack them together to get a silk quilt."

Huoen carefully took the silk cap handed over by Luoning, his eyes full of disbelief.

He had always thought that boiling cocoons was just another way to eat silkworm pupae, but he never expected that what was in front of him was actually a special kind of fabric.

Jennie, on the side, also looked at this scene in astonishment.

Up to this moment, they finally understood a little why the Lord valued sericulture; it turned out to have such wonderful uses!

"My Lord, your profound knowledge makes me deeply admire you!"

Jennie bowed deeply to express her admiration, "Although I don't yet know what the silk quilt you mentioned is, I can perhaps already foresee that it will definitely be worth a fortune!"

"That is only natural," Luoning laughed.

Although this world has Battle Qi and Magic, it cannot do without food, clothing, housing, and transportation; there will always be people who need good things, especially things that can represent the status of the nobility, which are worth even more.

"Huoen, since you are interested in sericulture, you can try more, but you must be careful to leave behind silkworm seeds; don't use them all for experiments."

He suggested, "Additionally, this is only one way to use silkworm cocoons; we can also reel silk."

"Reel silk?" Huoen was very curious and pricked up his ears to listen.

"You can think of a silkworm cocoon as a ball wrapped by a single thread; what we need to do is find the end of the thread, and then condense seven or eight silk threads together to form a single strand of silk."

Luoning gestured as he said: "Then we can use these silk threads to weave cloth and make clothes."

His description was still too abstract; both Huoen and Jennie were in the state of poor students listening to a teacher give a math lesson.

But this did not hinder the two's admiration and wonder for Luoning, just as Huoen said—although I don't understand, I feel it is very impressive.

Huoen looked at the silk cap in his hand, thinking of all the silkworm pupae he had eaten and all the cocoons he had thrown away in the past, and suddenly felt a sense of wasting natural resources.

While the two were talking, Maiken walked in from outside, "My Lord, Ruidar and Tangmu have already arrived."

"Very well."

Luoning introduced to Jennie and Huoen: "Ruidar is my commander; I am going to see him. Huoen, if you are interested, you can try opening cotton first; we will study how to reel silk later."

After saying this, he left the kitchen.

Huoen and Jennie did not realize the intention behind Luoning calling Ruidar over; they just thought it was to deal with Sileiyin.

After the two withdrew their gaze, they began to lower their heads and carefully observe the silk cap in their hands.

"This thing is so light!"

Jennie stroked it, "If it can really be made into a quilt as Lord Luoning said, then it must also be very light."

"Besides quilts, it can also be made into clothes; the Lord said that more than a thousand silkworm cocoons can make a silk dress."

Huoen emphasized: "The Lord also said that he will recruit dyers in the future to produce colorful silk, and the dresses made from it will be far more rare and precious than ordinary noble gowns!"

He looked at his wife earnestly, "I must make such a dress for you and Ailin!"

Jennie was very moved, "I believe you can do it!"

In Luoning's temporary room, he met Ruidar and Tangmu who had rushed over from the Qingzhu Tribe.

"My Lord, Wilson already arrived safely at the Qingzhu Tribe yesterday, and today he has already started the census work."

Ruidar reported the situation there, "With the assistance of Zhuweite and Ximu, the people of the Qingzhu Tribe are quite cooperative. According to Wilson, he will be able to complete the registration work today."

Luoning nodded; the Qingzhu Tribe only had three hundred or so people, and their dwellings were relatively concentrated, so there was indeed no difficulty.

Returning to the main topic.

"There shouldn't be any problems with Jennie and Huoen, but it is necessary for you to come over."

Luoning said: "If things progress as Jennie expects, then the people from the Huitu Tribe will probably arrive here later. Ruidar, Tangmu, take your men and hide in the Shanlin on both sides, and cut off their retreat after they enter."

The Ziguo Tribe is a ring-shaped mountain with a gap left; if the retreat is blocked, it will be a case of luring the enemy into a trap and closing the gate to catch the dog.

"Leave it to us, don't worry!"

Ruidar laughed, "I heard from the Administrator that the savage tribe in the woodlands has existed for twenty years; I didn't expect you to have already solved more than half of them so quickly. If the outside world heard this, they would probably be amazed by your ability!"

"They just aren't willing to spend the effort."

Luoning shook his head; if a noble were truly determined to eliminate a savage tribe, it could still be done, but they just lacked the motivation and did not want to bear the losses.

The reason he was able to conquer them so quickly was, on one hand, the blitzkrieg; the Qingzhu Tribe did not react in time to form an effective resistance, while the Ziguo Tribe surrendered without any resistance at all.

As the sky grew dark, Jennie had already arranged for a Servant to prepare dinner, and Huoen was in the warehouse selecting better cocoons according to the method Luoning taught to keep as silkworm seeds; this time the number of silkworm seeds was a bit larger, with a full hundred or so prepared.

Ruidar, Tangmu, and the others had gone out early to lie in ambush, while Maiken had been staying by Luoning's side, serving as a personal guard.

"How did the statistics go today?"

Luoning was in the living room, looking at the pieces of parchment handed over by Ailin, which recorded the information tallied by the other party.

Ailin stuck out her tongue, feeling a bit embarrassed, "It's not finished yet, give me one more morning, and I will definitely be able to finish it!"

Luoning smiled as he checked it.

There were almost no specialized craftsmen in the savage tribe; a few people had labels like mason or carpenter after their names, but their specific skill levels were unclear.

However, for Luoning, anyone with some foundation in these areas could be put to use.

"Your handwriting is quite good, much better looking than Wilson's."

"Really?"

The young girl Ailin was so happy to hear this praise that she even gave a little hop.

Luoning did not understand why she was so excited, but he still nodded, "Of course, I never tell lies."

He was indeed not lying; the neatness of Ailin's handwriting and the comfort of reading it were indeed a bit better than Wilson's.

It wasn't finished being registered today, likely because she was just starting and unfamiliar with the process.

Luoning handed the parchment back to her, "Keep it up, but your Magic talent is good, so don't forget to practice. To me, the value of a powerful Magician is much greater than that of an Administrator!"

Administrators could be trained in batches, but Magicians could not.

What Luoning valued in Ailin had always been her Magic talent.

"My Lord!"

While they were talking, a Guard ran over from outside, "Horses are coming from a distance. The commander asked me to notify you; it might be people from the Huitu Tribe."

Luoning raised an eyebrow, "How many people have come?"

"It seems to be a dozen or so, the road is too far, so it's not very clear."

"Good, go notify Jennie and Huoen, we are opening the gates to welcome guests."

Thanks to book friend 160703171657310 for the tip, and thanks to the dozen or so patrons for their monthly tickets and recommendation votes this month~ I've been a bit busy at the end of the year and haven't had time to carefully read or comment on some of the interactive messages, please forgive me, everyone.





(End of this chapter)