Chapter 1064: On Silk

The few of them looked at each other, but in the end, they still shook their heads: "No, no, silk is so precious, we had better forget it; that is not something that can be used to make clothes."

Changle, however, indicated it was nothing: "The silk of the Xuanyuan Tribe is precious, but they have quite a lot of it now too. We in Huaxia also have no shortage of silk. It might not be of the same quality as the Xuanyuan Tribe's, but we have plenty. If you like it, I will have someone make it for you. The amount of silk I personally possess is truly vast."

What Changle said was not wrong. At first, Baifeng also thought that silk was just silk, and as long as it was silkworm silk, it was all the same. Later, he discovered it was truly different. The silk of the Xuanyuan Tribe—that is, the Xiling—was actually of better quality than Huaxia's. This might be because the Xiling had been cultivating silkworms for longer, had more experience, and possessed better silkworm breeds.

Baifeng only domesticated wild silkworms into white silkworms. Although silkworms are extremely easy to domesticate, the time spent had not been that long, and the changes were limited. Now it seemed that the silkworm breeds in the hands of the Xiling and Leizu were indeed better. The silkworm breeds that Leizu had desperately protected back then were also the most critical factor.

Therefore, while Huaxia had silk, and because Baifeng understood more about large-scale, industrialized farming, the output was much higher. The output of a single season could exceed the Xuanyuan Tribe's entire annual production.

The Xuanyuan Tribe's silk quality was better, and just as Xuanxiao said, Leizu was still innovating in weaving to make the silk quality even better. Huaxia was innovating too, but only with Hemp Cloth, making its texture tighter and softer, and figuring out how to increase output and speed up weaving.

As for the quality and speed of weaving, there was now some progress. The person who made this innovation was Miaoyin, which Baifeng had not expected at all. She had thought of the method of Embroidery a while ago, but since this was a technique that tested ability and craftsmanship, it had been so long and was still in the testing phase!

One of the major difficulties was dyeing. Natural silkworm silk only came in white and yellow. At least in Baifeng's silkworm factory, the silk currently being produced only came in these two colors. The Royal Robe and Coronation Robes that Baifeng wore for sacrifices were made of pure golden silk, which was the brightest and most noble.

Although Baifeng had not set a rule for the color yellow, everyone seemed to have tacitly agreed that such pure golden-yellow clothing should only be used by the Royal Family. As long as it was someone in Baifeng's household, regardless of gender, they could use it, but other Nobles could not.

However, Huaxia had few dyes, and golden-yellow silk accounted for a large portion of Huaxia's total silk production. If it were only supplied to the Royal Family, it would be impossible to use it all. Therefore, everyone—anyone—was allowed to use golden silk as ornamentation on their clothes.

That is to say, one could use silk of this color woven with other silk to make fabric, but one simply could not use it in a solid color.

Over these years, Huaxia had also been constantly searching for various new natural dyes. For plants that were not edible but had color, the first use they thought of was whether they could be used to make pigments.

Besides the simple dyes from before, Huaxia had discovered dyes like persimmons, lotus seed shells, and gallnuts, though the colors were indeed not that beautiful.

At the same time, color-fixing technology was also improving. Rice Wine, salt, and wood ash were already the basics. Now, they had discovered that things like ox-hide glue and egg whites had special effects, so the clothes worn by the people of Huaxia now gradually had color.

This was also the reason why people from other tribes could recognize at a glance that you were from Huaxia. Everyone's clothing style was the same, so why was yours so vibrant? That must be Huaxia.

But although dyeing was stronger than before, the colors were still very limited. Miaoyin always said she could not find suitable dyes to dye the colors she liked, and the colors she did dye faded easily. Whenever she encountered a problem, she would come to find Baifeng.

Without silk threads of various colors, Embroidery was just empty talk. Without threads with sufficient color contrast, the embroidered patterns were not good-looking either. Therefore, Miaoyin's ideas and designs for Embroidery had not yet produced any very good finished products due to the limitations of materials.

As for Changle's offer to make them clothes out of silk, the Warlord Qianxi politely declined. They found it hard to imagine what that scene would be like, but Yangasha said without a moment's hesitation: "Okay, I want it, as long as you really have silk to give me."

Ayuduo held her sister's arm: "Changle said he has so much silk, so he must have it; it won't be fake. Look, Huaxia can have so much grain and silk; isn't that perfectly normal?"

At this, Dahong helped Changle by saying a word: "Huaxia really does have that much silk. Their people have long since used silk to make clothes to wear. You don't need to worry about this, and I don't think there is any need to save Changle the trouble. If you really were to count it up, in the entire world, there are few people who can be wealthier than Changle.

They have good things that we tribes haven't even seen before, so since he wants to make you clothes, you should hurry up and accept."

The Warlord Qianxi stroked his beard; it seemed that was indeed the case. They felt silk was too precious and felt they couldn't just ask for it like that, but since both Changle and Dahong said so, there should be no problem, right?

So the two immediately changed their tune and said: "Changle, we will take the clothes. If the clothes can't be made, just give us the silk, and we will take it back and make it ourselves; that works too."

Changle laughed happily: "Okay, you can also take it back yourselves; you don't need to worry about the silk."

The person in charge of the Boat this time was Zisheng. He still knew nothing about the matter with Ayuduo, but he knew another equally explosive piece of news, which was the matter of the Suiren Clan. When he came last time, this had not yet happened. He had originally intended to tell Chai to give him a good shock, but he did not expect to see Changle Prince.

He knew that the Prince never concerned himself with these matters of delivering goods, but today, seeing him come over in person like this made him a bit puzzled. Moreover, there was a woman constantly following by the Prince's side, and the two seemed quite intimate. What was this?

Seeing that Changle and the others had finished chatting, he went over to report on his work.

"Changle Prince!"

Everyone looked toward Zisheng. Changle also pulled Zisheng over at this moment and introduced him to everyone: "This is Zisheng, our Huaxia Navy Commander and General. All of Huaxia's affairs on the water are under his management."

Zisheng smiled and greeted everyone. He was still waiting for Changle to introduce him; if these people were not clear about their identities, he would not know how to say what he had to say next.