In the middle of June of the 27th year of the reign of Qin Shi Huang, on the south bank of the wide river, the black and white long-haired Qiang sheep were pressed to the ground by strong Qiang men, their hooves were tied tightly, and they bleated in fear.

However, this group of sheep was greeted not by sharp copper knives, but by a group of Qiang women with loose hair, who had bone wool combs in their hands, and hinged off the long hairs that were about to fall off the Qiang sheep one by one, put them in leather bags, and then go to the river to wash them in the afternoon......

While doing the work that they had to do twice a year, the Qiang girls of different ages looked at the Qin officials who were observing them from a distance, and they did not shy away from talking loudly, and from time to time they let out a burst of laughter.

"What are they talking about?"

Heifu summoned the cavalry general Qiang Huang, his ancestors were also Qiang, although there is a difference in the accent between the northern Qiang and the Longxi Qiang, but it can be roughly understood.

"Do you really want to hear it?" Qiang Huang couldn't help laughing.

"Just say it."

Heifu sat outside the felt tent by the river, drinking the butterjuice that he had become accustomed to, and when added with a little sugar, it tasted like sweet milk, no wonder the princes of the Yue clan on the other side of the river liked brown sugar so much.

"Then I'll say it."

Qiang Huang said, those Qiang girls are discussing, these black-faced Qin officials have been observing them for two days in a row, don't they have a crush on someone and want to sleep with her?

At this time, another old Qiang girl said mysteriously that maybe she was not interested in them, but in sheep...... Then he told a joke, saying that some Qin soldiers stationed in the border fortress could only attack the ewes because there were no women all year round.

"Poof."

The joke was so flavorful that Heifu squirted out a mouthful of buttermilk and choked on himself.

However, the Qiang girls were not wrong, he was indeed interested in their sheep and wool......

In fact, a similar scene had been seen once as early as a few days ago, when Li Xin and Heifu led their troops to arrive at the "Jishi Mountain" in the upper reaches of the Caohan Sai to sacrifice the "source of the river" considered by the Central Plains people for Qin Shi Huang.

The so-called "Qiang" is the meaning of "Xirong Shepherd: the ancient Qiang people are famous for shepherding sheep, not only have domesticated the long-haired "Qiang sheep" (Ganjia Tibetan sheep) similar to the sheep of later generations, and developed a more mature wool textile technology.

This kind of black and white, or all black, or all white Qiang sheep grow long hair every autumn and winter, and the next spring and summer will fade when the air gets hotter.

According to this habit, the Qiang women hinge the hair twice in spring and summer, and the fine bamboo grate comb combs the coarse wool that has been taken off or will be taken off from the Qiang sheep, washed and loosened with a bowstring, and then can be kneaded into coarse wool and spun.

Think about it, the Central Plains and the south planted a large number of kudzu, hemp, and silk to make clothes, but there are no such things in Qiangdi, if you don't want to freeze, you can only make ideas from animal skins. The local altitude is high, the temperature is low, the animals are generally draped in a thick fluff, in the early days may be directly peeled to keep out the cold, and slowly also created the wool weaving process, coarser wool woven into blankets, felt tents, finer wool woven into clothes to keep out the cold.

This woolen cloth is also a specialty of the Qiang region, which is called "weaving skin" in "Yu Gong", and pays tribute to Qin every year. But the Central Plains was not so cold, and the nobles and common people wore through the silk silk, but they disliked the roughness of Qiangrong's woolen clothes, and there was a smell of sheep that was difficult to get rid of—just like the smell that could never be removed from those hinged Qiang women.

Heifu did not dislike it, and exchanged a piece of brown sugar for a few woolen sweaters, which were quite similar to Tibetan robes, and found that even the worst sweaters of later generations were finer and more comfortable than them.

It's not easy to wear, but the ability to keep out the cold should be no problem, otherwise thousands of Qiang people would have frozen to death in the terrible winter of Huangzhong, not to mention migrating to the wider Qinghai-Tibet Plateau......

The people of the Central Plains always think that Rong Di is cold-resistant, but in fact, the main reason is just that people wear thick clothes.

In addition to wool, yak hair called "犛牛" was also used by the Qiang people for weaving, and it was also woven into a blanket called "犛罽" (máojì), which was imported into Xianyang as a tribute, but it was only hung in the corner of the palace to make it fresh, and no one liked it.

In this way, Heifu also strengthened the idea that "the stones of the mountain can attack jade".

The ruler is long, the inch is short, not to mention the Greece and Rome in the far west, even if it is the neighboring Qiang people who are close at hand, it seems that they are backward from the Central Plains everywhere, but there are many things that are worth learning from the Central Plains.

Heifu doesn't know if there are similar technologies in the Xiongnu, Hexi, and Western Regions, but there are other sheep breeds? But just what he saw in Qiang was enough to support his article "Hinged Wool for Clothes"!

He described what he had seen and heard to Qin Shi Huang in the song, and proposed that the caravan of Wu Shilu go deep into the Qiang, exchange all kinds of salt, sugar, and grain for a large number of male and female Qiang sheep, and bring them back to the pastures of the border county to raise.

Then use plunder, deception, purchase and other means to let some Qiang women who are good at hinged wool weaving into the plug, teach wool weaving technology to the border people, and let the east and west weaving workshops of Xianyang Shaofu be transformed to improve efficiency.

Heifu is still holding the position of "Shaofu Cheng", and this proposal is within his duty, so he did not hesitate to write it.

"It shouldn't be difficult to replicate this technique with the techniques of the ink writers and the craftsmen of the Shaofu weaving room, and even carry it forward."

It's quite comfortable to think that in the near future, you will be able to wear a woolen sweater without odor in winter.

Before finding the promotion of cotton spinning technology, woolen clothes should be the most suitable winter clothes, but not the so-called "winter clothes" in the Central Plains, in fact, it is comparable to two layers of burlap, and it is not like fur, you have to kill animals to obtain, only rich nobles can afford to wear it, wool can be constantly regenerated, and the price is not expensive.

After the sweaters were distributed to the soldiers in the border counties, the problem of keeping out of the cold that plagued the soldiers of the Hanghan Sai could also be solved smoothly, and the strategy of "tuntian" could be made more feasible.

That's why Heifu said in the song that if it can be extended to the entire north, it will make "the poor people in the world happy!" ”

The body is warm, and the head cannot be forgotten.

Touching his hair, Heifu had an idea, thinking of the dogskin hat brought by the northeastern classmate in the dormitory when he was in the police academy in his previous life, but unfortunately the school is in the south, and that buddy has only easily caught a chance to snow once in three years to wear it out......

Just do it, he quickly drew the appearance of the dog skin hat with pen and ink on the paper he carried, now it is not as good as later generations, the Central Plains slaughtering dogs has become a trend, it is as popular as pork, Yan Zhao, Huai Si Pei is especially shang, so dog skin is not rare.

Thinking that many years later, the soldiers of the Qin army wearing dogskin hats and tweed coats held bows and crossbows, guarding the snowy Great Wall, and even marched to the colder old forests in the northeast, this picture is quite emotional......

At this time, Heifu did not expect that his painting did not matter, and in later generations, this kind of hat, even if it was brown and yellow dog hair, would be called "black dog hat" to commemorate its inventor.

After drawing the dogskin hat, Heifu put the drawings behind his bag, so that the people who had packed up their tents and went to the river to meet Li Xin.

This time along the river to the east, is Li Xin's proposal, after the sacrifice of the source of the stone mountain river, he wanted to come downstream, look at the opposite bank, to see the future soldiers pointed to the place, so he left 500 soldiers in Caohan to build a camp, open up wasteland, the rest of the 500 horsemen gallop lightly.

The south bank of the Great River is the land of Rongqiang, which is divided and is not difficult to subdue. On the north bank is Hexi, which is the country of the Yue clan with 100,000 people who control the strings and stretch for nearly a thousand miles.

It's a pity that a towering mountain range blocked Li Xin's view, preventing him from seeing the grasslands of Hexi and the nomadic camp of the Yueshi people.

Li Xin rode a white horse on the riverbank and asked the guide and interpreter to question the local Qiang people.

"What is this mountain called?"

Li Xin pointed to the high mountains on the north bank and asked the Qiang herdsmen.

After the Qiang herdsmen made a comparison, the translator gave Li Xin's answer: "He said that the herdsmen on the north shore called it 'Gaolan'. ”

Li Xin remembered this name deeply, and Heifu also heard this, and secretly thought, could this be the Lanzhou area in the future?

Next year or the year after, he could send an army to defend Tuntian on the south bank, and send some Shandong immigrants from Guanzhong to come here to establish a city as a stronghold for advancing Hexi.

Li Xin took off the jade jue on his body, threw it far into the river, and swore loudly: "Gaolan, Gaolan...... Within three years, the letter will help this river! A must-climb to this mountain! ”

Heifu stood behind Li Xin, his face was also solemn, but what he thought in his mind was: the predecessor of ramen, "soup cake", has become popular among immigrants from Weinan and Shandong, and it is also very popular, and it will also be brought here with immigrants in the future, is it ...... Is this providence?

This was the end of Heifu and Li Xin's trip, and the next day, the two of them also began to return to Didao with more than 1,000 soldiers.

Heifu didn't know that although his own people were still in Longxi, but the three pieces of music had been brought back to Xianyang by Qin Shi Huang at this time, except for the high saddle stirrup was a military secret, secretly implemented, and the secret was not revealed, the rest of the Tuntian, sweater two strategies, the emperor sent a hundred officials to discuss, which actually caused a big debate between France, Confucianism, and Mo......