The first year of Yuanzhen was a joyous year. After spring planting and summer harvest, Luoyang City experienced celebration after celebration as single young men and middle-aged men in the court successively married, ending their days of paying bachelor taxes to the court.
It was also a year of rapid national recovery. In future history, it was listed as the most critical year of the Ten Years of Ascension.
This year, both north and south generally enjoyed favorable weather. Although individual regions experienced minor droughts and floods, due to hydraulic engineering construction over the past two years and the farmers’ diligence, drought and flood conditions were quickly alleviated.
After April, wheat in Jiangnan and the Central Plains successively turned yellow. The heavy, drooping wheat heads made hearts leap with joy.
Summer harvest and summer planting continued for a month and a half. By early June, agricultural work across the nation had basically concluded.
But most farmers couldn’t rest, as the planted soybeans and rice still required weeding, pest control, and fertilization. However, there was considerably more leisure time, allowing surplus labor to be freed up.
At this time, county offices and schools throughout the nation jointly went to the countryside to promote new spinning wheels and looms. Simultaneously, all provinces and commanderies opened a new department—the Weaving Bureau.
Craftsmen dispatched from Luoyang to various localities served as bureau weavers or chief technical advisors. Besides promoting new textile equipment, they also established large weaving workshops, constructing large-scale spinning wheels and looms to produce cloth for the court.
The Weaving Bureau’s responsibilities included not only managing nationwide textile production but also balancing prices of raw materials like cotton, hemp, and raw silk to maintain the ratio between farmland and mulberry-hemp-cotton cultivation while protecting the interests of mulberry farmers, hemp farmers, and cotton farmers.
Taking advantage of the agricultural slack with abundant available labor, a vigorous nationwide “Warm Clothing” campaign was launched. At the grand court assembly, Zhao Hanzhang declared, “My requirement is very simple: within five years, under my governance, there shall be no more common people who lack adequate clothing and die from cold.”
It sounded simple, but all officials knew how difficult this was.
Without suffering cold, one certainly wouldn’t suffer hunger either. Not suffering from hunger and cold—even the Reign of Wen and Jing could hardly achieve this.
Yet all officials responded loudly in unison, full of fighting spirit to accomplish it.
Predecessors couldn’t achieve it, but their sovereign might not be unable to.
Before this, who could have imagined spinning wheels and looms could increase efficiency ten to fifteen times?
Large-scale textile machines had even more astonishing efficiency. Although currently only one weaving workshop existed per province, the production volume calculated by Minister Fu showed them that ensuring every citizen had warm clothing within five years would not be a pipe dream.
Moreover, this didn’t even account for civilian production.
One must know their nation operated on a small-farmer economy—most cloth resources actually resided among the common people.
Led by the Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Works with local government assistance, the Weaving Bureau manufactured large quantities of spinning wheels and looms for sale and rental.
Indeed, besides purchasing, common people could also rent spinning wheels or looms.
Because of the high efficiency of spinning wheels and looms, many families jointly purchased them, even using villages as purchasing units.
Villages set aside plots to build textile houses, placing purchased looms and spinning wheels inside. Villagers in need could apply and queue to use them.
Some organized by clan.
Within the Xiping Zhao clan, Zhao Ming wrote home commanding people to build textile houses on both the eastern and western sides of the village, each equipped with five spinning wheels and looms, providing them for impoverished clan members to use.
Wealthy families naturally wouldn’t crowd into these two textile houses. They simply waved their hands and purchased their own.
When Zhao Hu learned of this, he immediately had his steward go to the capital’s Weaving Bureau to order one hundred spinning wheels and one hundred looms.
The Weaving Bureau didn’t appear unprepared. Their products were developed in the twelfth month, confirmed through trials in the first month, and production began in February.
In late February, the Mohist master suddenly appeared in the capital, entering the palace under Yuan Li’s protection for an imperial audience. In March, large numbers of Mohist disciples came to join. That month, craftsmen from the Bureau of Technical Investigation began receiving orders to go to various provinces and commanderies to oversee spinning machine production.
By now in June, three months had already accumulated a large batch of spinning wheels and looms.
The capital’s Weaving Bureau had accumulated the most, but they also received the most orders.
Besides orders from Sizhou, there were massive orders from Yuzhou and Shu.
Upon receiving Zhao Hu’s order, Zhang, the weaver at the capital’s Weaving Bureau, felt somewhat troubled. After hesitating, he still declined Zhao Hu’s request.
If he truly gave Zhao Hu one hundred of each, current warehouse inventory would be depleted by one-third. Yet His Majesty had said spinning wheels and looms should prioritize common people first, then merchants.
After declining Zhao Hu’s steward, Zhang the Weaver immediately went to find Fu Tinghan at the Bureau of Technical Investigation. When Fu emerged from the laboratory drenched in sweat, he reported this matter.
Fu Tinghan considered briefly before saying, “Issue a new regulation: within two years, a single entity purchasing from the Weaving Bureau may not exceed twenty spinning machines each per transaction. Application intervals must exceed six months.”
Zhang the Weaver was dumbfounded, not expecting such a regulation could exist.
Such non-legal regulations could be directly established by Fu Tinghan as Minister of the Secretariat without going through the Secretariat Department and Chancellery. Zhang the Weaver immediately acknowledged and posted this regulation publicly, telegraphing all national Weaving Bureaus to implement it simultaneously.
Zhao Hu, who had already arranged for people to build cloth shops, was furious upon learning this. “Is this regulation specifically targeting me? Who blindly issued this regulation?”
Wu Yin replied, “It was Minister Fu.”
Zhao Hu fell silent.
Wu Yin asked tentatively, “Master, should we still purchase? Or have people form other merchant houses to queue for purchases?”
Zhao Hu replied irritably, “Everything now requires household registration and travel permits. Merchant houses also need official tallies. Due to abolishing death contracts, government household registration offices have all expanded. Every merchant house’s capital and employee backgrounds are recorded clearly. Do you think we can conceal this?”
Moreover, the county magistrate in Luoyang was his own grandson—he could deceive anyone but not his own flesh and blood.
If he played such tricks at the capital’s Weaving Bureau, the next moment censors would report it to the throne. He might face no consequences, but Zhao Zheng would certainly be charged with favoritism.
Though Zhao Zheng might know nothing about it.
Besides him, Zhao Cheng would also receive a charge of lax household management.
Between descendants’ official careers and his own financial prospects, Zhao Hu could still distinguish priorities. He wasn’t short of money anyway.
So though annoyed, Zhao Hu still waved his hand. “Follow the regulations.”
Wu Yin took his leave.
But with excellent profit opportunities laid before him yet unable to profit, Zhao Hu remained unhappy.
After enduring one day, the next day he still couldn’t restrain himself and entered the palace to dine with Zhao Hanzhang. Of course, not empty-handed—he brought generous gifts.
Zhao Hanzhang’s status was different now, so Zhao Hu had also become more generous.
When Fu Tinghan returned to the palace, he heard Zhao Hu had come to dine with them. Only then did he recall the new regulation, saying to Zhao Hanzhang, “He must have come to pull strings.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “Seventh Grand-Uncle is confused. If he wants to make money, he hasn’t even focused on the key point.”
Fu Tinghan was puzzled. Zhao Hanzhang pulled him along to dine with Zhao Hu. After hearing Zhao Hu finish speaking, she said, “Seventh Grand-Uncle, others having things is not as good as having them yourself. Since the Weaving Bureau’s current production cannot keep up, why not make spinning wheels and looms yourself?”
Zhao Hu replied, “Your Majesty jests. The new spinning wheels and looms are new products from the Bureau of Technical Investigation. I have no blueprints…”
Zhao Hu paused mid-sentence, looking toward Zhao Hanzhang. Seeing her face bearing a faint smile, his eyes widened involuntarily.
—