Several merchants gathered in the silk shop and did not choose to buy, but they did not want to leave either. They just looked around. Soon, more merchants entered the shop. After learning that this batch of cheap silk was seized by the soldiers from the pirate's lair, these merchants felt that they could still lower the price. However, the officer in charge of selling the silk did not want to waste his energy on bargaining. After hanging up the sign saying "No Bargaining", he no longer paid attention to the merchants who were bargaining. In his opinion, as long as the price of selling the silk was lower than the price of the silk's origin, the greedy merchants would choose to buy it. There was no need to continue to lower the price. This task was given to him by Ang Lee, so he naturally wanted to do it well. He wanted to sell these goods as soon as possible, but at the same time, he could not sell them too cheaply. The construction of the port required a lot of funds. As far as the funds raised were concerned, it was far from enough. It seemed to be enough for the construction in the short term, but in the long term, it was still not enough. The goal of Tianguang Port was to build a super-large port, which required a high amount of funds for construction. No matter how much money they had, it would not be enough.
The merchants were still unwilling to give up. They were still shamelessly bargaining, but the official who sold the silk completely ignored them. He believed that these merchants would eventually buy it. He was not in a hurry. He had already figured out the temperament of these merchants.
Ang Lee changed into an ordinary merchant's outfit and quietly entered the silk shop. He saw the merchants who were bargaining and the official under their command.
"I want this piece of silk and dozens of bolts of silk. I want them now."
After entering the silk shop, Ang Lee directly became a buyer and played a double act with the official under his command.
"Well, wait a moment. Pack the silk for the guests."
The official also knew what Ang Lee meant. He hurriedly asked his subordinates to pack the silk and make it seem that the silk shop was having a good start.
Ang Lee's straightforwardness naturally made the other merchants quite dissatisfied. They had already joined forces and were ready to lower the price. However, Ang Lee suddenly came and bought a lot of silk without any explanation. This simply ruined their plan. Naturally, they regarded him as an enemy.
"You bought so many of them without even asking about the price. Brother, you are really generous."
A merchant said in an unfriendly tone.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "The price of these silks is at least 50% cheaper. Why wouldn't I buy them? If not for the fact that I don't have enough money with me, I would have bought all the silk in this room. As long as I sell it at the nearby port, I can make half the profit. Only a fool wouldn't buy it. "
"Brother, these are all stolen goods seized from the pirate lair. Aren't you afraid of any accidents?"
A merchant asked.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Accident? What accident can there be? If I buy it today, I'll sell it in a few days. As long as I can make money, I'm not afraid of any accident. You're just worried that these silks have an owner! I've already asked, and the pirates killed the owners of these goods. These goods are now ownerless. If you're worried, then don't buy them. When I earn enough money, I'll come back and buy two sets. "
After that, Ang Lee didn't talk nonsense with these guys. He directly took the silks and left the shop, heading to the Tang dynasty's military camp a few miles away.
Ang Lee's approach made the merchants in the silk shop dumbfounded. They thought about it carefully and found it reasonable. If they could make half the money quickly, why not?
"I'll take all of these, and these."
"There's a first come, first served rule when buying things. These are all things that I saw first."
"I came first. I'll take all of them."
More than a dozen merchants actually fought for them. They were very clear that the price of these silks was very cheap. Such cheap silks were rare. It would be a pity if they missed this opportunity. Since they didn't succeed in bargaining, they naturally wouldn't miss this good opportunity to make a fortune.
Because the three merchant ships had a lot of goods, and many of these merchants didn't carry too much money, the merchants didn't buy a lot of goods. Each merchant only bought a part of the silks, and a large number of merchants went to buy them. It was possible to sell all of these goods. At most, these goods would be sold out in a month.
After Ang Lee transported dozens of silks to the military camp, he didn't send them back to the shop. These were all for his own use. Among his subordinates, there were also tailors. These tailors could tailor some clothes for Ang Lee according to Ang Lee's requirements.
These were all silks, and silk clothes were very comfortable to wear, especially in the tropics. Indeed, thin silk was the most comfortable. Comfort was also a very obvious feature of silk.
There were five main characteristics of silk. The first was that it was very comfortable to wear. Real silk was composed of protein fibers and had a very good biological compatibility with the human body. Coupled with the smooth surface, its friction and stimulation coefficient to the human body was the lowest among all kinds of fibers. Therefore, it was naturally the most comfortable to wear.
The second characteristic was that it had good moisture absorption and release properties. Silk protein fibers were rich in hydrophilic groups, and because of its porous nature, it was easy for water molecules to diffuse. Therefore, it could absorb or release moisture in the air and maintain a certain amount of moisture. Under normal temperature, it could help the skin retain a certain amount of moisture and not make the skin too dry. When worn in summer, it could quickly release sweat and heat from the human body, making people feel very cool.
In addition, silk not only had good heat dissipation properties, but also very good heat retention properties. Its heat retention properties benefited from the porous fiber structure. There were many very small fibers in the silk fiber, and these small fibers were composed of even smaller fibers. Therefore, more than 30% of the seemingly solid silk was actually hollow. There was a lot of air in these voids, which prevented the dissipation of heat and made the silk have good heat retention properties.
The third was the sound absorption, dust absorption, and flame retardant effect. Real silk fabric had a high void ratio, so it had good sound absorption and air absorption properties. Therefore, in addition to making clothing, it could also be used for indoor decoration. Because silk had moisture absorption, moisture release properties, moisture retention, air absorption, and porosity, it could also adjust indoor temperature and humidity, and it could also absorb harmful gas, dust, and microorganisms. In addition, real silk fiber had small thermal deformation and was relatively heat-resistant. When heated to 100 degrees, there was only a small brittle. Most synthetic fibers had thermal deformation four or five times greater than real silk. The burning temperature of silk was three or four hundred degrees, which was a non-flammable fiber. The burning temperature of synthetic fibers was more than 200 degrees, which was flammable and meltable. Therefore, using silk fiber as a raw material for indoor decoration could not only play the role of sound absorption, dust absorption, heat retention, but also play a flame retardant function.
The fourth was that it had a certain ultraviolet resistance. The tryptophan and tyrosine in silk protein could absorb ultraviolet light, so silk had a good ultraviolet resistance function. Ultraviolet light was very harmful to human skin. Of course, after silk absorbed ultraviolet light, it would undergo chemical changes, so that silk fabrics would easily turn yellow under the exposure of sunlight. In order to maintain the beauty of silk, it was better not to put silk in the open air. Therefore, in the process of silk transportation, it was better to put it in a dry and cool environment, such as the cabin, and not on the deck of the ship, which would cause the quality of silk products to decline.
The fifth was the health care function. The health care function of real silk fiber was irreplaceable. It contained 18 kinds of amino acids necessary for the human body, which was almost the same as the amino acids contained in human skin. Therefore, it had the beautiful name of the second human skin. Wearing real silk clothes could not only prevent ultraviolet radiation, prevent the invasion of harmful gas, and resist harmful bacteria, but also enhance the vitality of epidermal skin cells, promote the metabolism of skin cells, and at the same time, have a good auxiliary treatment for some skin diseases.
However, silk had advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages of silk were that it was easy to wrinkle, easy to absorb moisture, not strong enough, and faded faster. These were unavoidable.
Silk was a relatively important export product of the Tang Dynasty. Before Ang Lee promoted the industrial development, silk was among the most important take-out products of the Tang Dynasty. Even the name of the main land and sea passage was called the Silk Road, which showed the importance of silk to the Tang Dynasty. Now, because of the more profitable industrial products, the importance of silk seemed to be less important than before, but its importance was still not low. Silk was still one of the most important foreign trade products of the Tang Empire, and it could bring rich profits to the Tang Empire every year.
The origin of silk in the Tang Dynasty had already begun in the ancient times. It was said that the wife of the Yellow Emperor, Leizu, invented silkworm breeding. But at that time, there was no concept of silk, but Leizu was the ancestor of silk, which was not disputed.
There was also a beautiful legend about Leizu's invention of silkworm breeding. It was said that after the Yellow Emperor defeated Chi You, he established the Tribal Alliance, and the Yellow Emperor was elected as the leader of the Tribal Alliance. He led everyone to develop production, grow crops, domesticate animals, smelt copper and iron, and make production tools. And the work of making clothes was handed over to his wife, Leizu. In the process of making clothes, Leizu and the other three people under the Yellow Emperor made a specific division of labor. Hu Chao was responsible for making hats, Bo Yu was responsible for making clothes, Yu Ze was responsible for making shoes, and Leizu was responsible for providing raw materials. She often led the women up the mountain to peel bark and weave hemp nets. They also skinned the fur of various beasts hunted by the men and processed them. Not long after, the leaders of the tribes all put on clothes, shoes, and hats. They thought of various ways to make a lot of food that Leizu usually liked to eat. But when Leizu saw it, she always shook her head and didn't want to eat it at all.
One day, these women quietly discussed and decided to go up the mountain to pick some wild fruits for Leizu to eat. They went into the mountain early in the morning and ran all over the mountains. They picked a lot of fruits, but when they tasted it, it was either bitter or sour. It wasn't delicious. It wasn't until the sky was dark that they suddenly found a mulberry forest full of small white fruits. They thought they found a good fruit, so they were busy picking it. No one had time to taste a small bite. By the time everyone finished picking the basket, it was already dark. They were afraid that there were beasts on the mountain, so they hurried down the mountain. When they came back, these women tasted the small white fruit. It didn't have any taste. They used their teeth to bite it, but they couldn't bite it. Everyone looked at each other. No one knew what kind of fruit it was. At this time, the shipbuilder Gong Gu came over and found the women standing there in a daze. He quickly asked what happened. The women told him about how they went up the mountain to pick the small white fruit for Leizu. When Gong Gu heard this, he laughed and said he wanted to see it immediately. In order to prevent her from moving, these women took the thin thread wrapped around the stick to her side. Leizu was a very smart woman. She carefully looked at the thin silk thread wrapped around the wooden stick and asked which mountain and tree the white fruit was picked from. Then she happily said to the women around her that it wasn't a fruit. It couldn't be eaten, but it was very useful. You have done a great service for the Yellow Emperor.
It was strange. Ever since Leizu saw the white thread, she mentioned it every day. Her illness was getting better and better. She started to want to eat. Soon, her illness was completely cured. She ignored the Yellow Emperor's advice and personally led the women up the mountain to see what was going on. Leizu observed in the mulberry forest for several days before she found out that the small white fruit was made by a worm. It wasn't a fruit from the tree. When she came back, she reported this to the Yellow Emperor and asked him to protect all the mulberry forest on Qiaoguo Mountain. The Yellow Emperor agreed.
Since then, under Leizu's initiative, the history of mulberry planting and silkworm raising began. In order to commemorate Leizu's achievement, the later generations respectfully called her First Silkworm Empress.
This was the story of Leizu's invention of silkworm breeding. Although there was a certain legend, it was very likely to be a true story. After thousands of years, no one could tell whether it was true or not. Just take it as true. After all, silkworm breeding was definitely invented by the ancestors. This was definitely not wrong. It was also possible that it was invented by the people under Leizu's command. But because Leizu was the leader, he gave this name to Leizu. This was also very likely.
Ang Lee took the silk back to the barracks and let his tailors make it into clothes. It was mainly used to make underwear. Silk clothes were the most comfortable to wear. Underwear was best made from silk. The cloth Ang Lee chose was not all silk. There were also brocades mixed with silk and cotton. These were more suitable to be made into outerwear. Of course, in the tropics, outerwear was only a thin layer. If one wore too much, it would be too hot. Who could stand it? Even the armour of the soldiers was changed to a light rattan armour.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
