Chapter Four: Weaving Woolen Cloth

The next morning, after waking up, Madam Wu noticed her son had yet to appear, so she went to the backyard to look for Qin Song. Upon arriving at the small courtyard where Qin Song lived, she saw his maid, Green Bamboo, sitting inside, busy with her head down.

At Green Bamboo’s feet was a wooden basin filled with hot water, and beside it lay a pile of unidentified hair. Just moments ago, Green Bamboo had been squatting on the ground, washing these hairs with the household’s hot water.

Once cleaned, the hair was spread out on a wooden rack and placed under the sun to dry.

“Green Bamboo!” Madam Wu called out.

“Madam!” Green Bamboo quickly stood up and saluted upon seeing Madam Wu.

“What are you doing here?” Madam Wu asked, pointing at the items on the ground, her face full of curiosity.

“I don’t know either. The young master ordered me to do this,” Green Bamboo replied honestly. “These are all wool; the young master asked me to wash the wool clean.”

“Mother, you’re here!” Qin Song emerged from inside the house upon hearing Madam Wu’s voice.

He approached Green Bamboo and inspected the cleaned wool, unable to help but praise, “Not bad!”

Green Bamboo’s work was meticulous; the wool was not only spotless but free from any impurities.

“Master, what do you want to do with this wool?” Green Bamboo asked, eyes shining with joy after being praised.

Her question was exactly what Madam Wu wanted to ask.

“You’ll know soon enough,” Qin Song said, patting Green Bamboo on the head before turning to Madam Wu. “Mother, come with me.”

Curious about her son’s mysterious expression, Madam Wu followed Qin Song inside.

“Master, you’re here!” “Madam!” Inside, Qin Song’s personal servant, Little Deng, was bent over, one foot on a wooden plank, holding a saw.

Little Deng was cutting neat, straight grooves into a square wooden board, making it look like a wooden brush.

Upon seeing Qin Song and Madam Wu, Little Deng hurriedly saluted.

“Song’er, what are you doing?” Madam Wu asked, clearly not understanding.

“Mother, I plan to weave cloth from wool!” Qin Song replied.

“Weave cloth from wool? How is that possible?” Madam Wu’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Although local shepherds in the northwest had mastered wool weaving, for various reasons, woolen cloth had yet to be widely circulated.

“It’s not impossible!” Qin Song, aware that his family hailed from Yuezhou, a famous textile family throughout Jiangnan Commandery, quickly envisioned a new direction for the Qin family.

The Qin family’s cloth production primarily used silk, which was expensive and typically reserved for nobles and the wealthy.

Common folk mostly wore hemp or ramie cloth, made from flax and vine fibers.

But hemp and ramie had a serious flaw—they didn’t keep people warm.

As for cotton cloth, Qin Song hadn’t found any trace of its use in this great Xia dynasty.

Therefore, he conceived the idea of weaving woolen fabric to produce woolen clothing.

Of course, creating a single wool garment was only the first step.

What Qin Song truly aimed for was to use technology absent in this era, and at a pace far beyond its time, to mass-produce woolen clothing.

The key lay in improving the spinning and weaving machines to greatly enhance production efficiency.

Having been born in the northwest, a renowned textile region, and coming from a family engaged in weaving, combined with his dual doctorates in science and engineering, Qin Song had no trouble improving these machines.

“Mother, trust me. Soon you will see the results!” Qin Song said confidently, noticing Madam Wu’s hesitation.

Madam Wu could only set aside her doubts for the moment and watched her son work.

After washing, the wool needed sun drying, but to save time, Qin Song dried it directly over a brazier.

Once dried, he placed the wool between two wooden combs made by Little Deng, pulling and combing it repeatedly.

To the astonishment of Madam Wu, Green Bamboo, and Little Deng, the once limp wool instantly became fluffy.

“Master, are you going to make clothes from this wool?” Green Bamboo was the first to realize, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“But the wool is so short; how can it become clothes?” Little Deng, holding the wool, was intrigued but didn’t quite grasp the process.

Qin Song smiled slightly and brought over a spinning wheel already assembled nearby.

Under the amazed and joyful gazes of the three, Qin Song took a handful of combed wool, gently rolled it into a long strip, and twisted a fine thread from one end with his hand.

A miraculous scene unfolded: under Qin Song’s skillful hands, the wool thread did not break but stretched longer and longer.

Finally, he tied the wool thread to the spindle of the spinning wheel and began to pedal continuously.

As he twisted with both hands, the fluffy wool instantly transformed into yarn, winding neatly onto the spindle.

Before long, the spindle was wrapped in a thick coil of wool yarn.

“Master, you’re amazing!” Green Bamboo’s eyes shone brightly, full of admiration.

Little Deng, standing nearby, was dumbfounded, utterly stunned.

Madam Wu remained frozen in place, seemingly unable to fully grasp what she was witnessing.

Once enough wool yarn had been spun onto the spindle, Qin Song removed it and picked up two knitting needles he had prepared earlier, beginning to knit.

In a short while, he produced a palm-sized piece of woolen fabric.

“Mother, look!” Qin Song held the wool fabric out to Madam Wu.

Feeling the smooth surface of the fabric in her hands, Madam Wu still found it incredible despite witnessing its creation with her own eyes.

“Mother, I have designed a new spinning machine in my mind that can rapidly produce woolen fabric!”

“Really?” Madam Wu, now fully understanding, gazed at her son with tears of joy and overwhelming emotion.

Why was it that shepherds in the northwest could already keep warm in the dead of winter with woolen clothes, while many ordinary people elsewhere still had to rely on garments made of hemp cloth?

The crucial reason was technology.

The complex production process made woolen clothes slow to produce, costly, and expensive compared to hemp cloth, and the quality was often poor.

People even preferred to wear specially treated whole sheepskins for warmth.

Moreover, because the wool wasn’t degreased, the locally woven wool garments carried a strong odor.

While shepherds might have grown accustomed to the smell, others found it unpleasant.

But to Qin Song, the technique of wool degreasing was by no means a problem.

Therefore, the wool fabric in Madam Wu’s hand was not only smooth and resistant to shedding but also largely free of any foul smell.

At this moment, Madam Wu realized that if this kind of woolen cloth could be produced quickly and on a large scale, it might truly solve the Qin family’s current crisis.