Chapter 2409: Difficulties

Li Yao'er had dealt with all sorts of people over the years, and her ability to read character had grown considerably. Seeing the fire kindle momentarily in this young man's eyes, she recognized ambition when she saw it. She was secretly amused: the desire for fame and profit was indeed everyone's weakness! The thought that she could elevate or destroy fortunes with a word, manipulating ordinary people's fates like game pieces, stirred a flush of pride.

A slight smile played at the corners of her mouth. "I've come here to promote improved breeds and advance the silk industry..." She went on to explain her specific objectives in detail. "I chose Fenshenghe as a partner because your family has been engaged in sericulture here for many years and knows the local situation. I'd like you to tell me everything about local silkworms, mulberries, silk, and weaving."

Li Yao'er had already learned something of these matters—partly from materials Chen Xuan provided, partly from her own conversations with Fenshenghe's craftsmen and accountants.

However, an important lesson from years of promotion work was that field surveys required collecting as much information as possible, because everyone's accounts contained discrepancies. Some were deliberate lies; others were unconscious embellishments. Moreover, such information often converged through some mysterious "group psychology," leading collectors to completely wrong conclusions.

Since the young man before her was Fenshenghe's young owner with years of practical experience, his information would have both overview and detailed accuracy—highly valuable.

When it came to describing local conditions, Chen Lin spoke without reserve. "Quite a few families raise silkworms locally..."

Xiangshan County had been a silted sandbar at the Pearl River estuary before the Ming Dynasty, only connecting to the mainland during that period. Sandy fields were numerous, and low-lying terrain meant many fish ponds. Bordering Shunde, Guangdong's oldest silk-producing area, the influence had led local farmers to plant mulberries and raise silkworms. But the scale remained modest.

After the Longqing Opening of the Seas, surging raw silk and satin exports had significantly increased local sericulture households, and planting mulberries and raising silkworms gradually became fashionable. However, output still couldn't compare with traditional sericulture regions like Shunde and Foshan.

"Besides Xiangshan, Shunde, and Foshan, which other places in Guangzhou Prefecture have a significant sericulture industry?" Li Yao'er asked.

"Dongguan as well. Actually, their scale is larger than ours."

"The conditions here seem excellent—you should be able to raise more silkworms."

"True enough, but our sales are limited. Raise too many, and the raw silk has no outlet."

"Oh?" Li Yao'er grew interested. This was information she couldn't obtain from casual conversations with others. She pressed further:

"I understand large quantities of raw silk and satin are exported from Guangzhou—thousands upon thousands of bolts shipped out. How can there be no market?"

Chen Lin explained that local silkworm breeds were poor, producing inferior raw silk. Whether sold domestically or for export, it couldn't fetch good prices.

"The Guangzhou and Foshan weaving households are numerous, but certain satin varieties require Lake Silk from Huzhou—local silk isn't strong enough."

"How many weaving households and workshops are there in Guangzhou and Foshan? And locally?"

"That I can't say precisely. Perhaps one or two thousand households there. Locally, about a few dozen weaving households, and only one workshop—Fenshenghe. Actually, even in Guangzhou and Foshan, workshops are rare. Most are individual weaving households."

This roughly matched Li Yao'er's intelligence from Guangzhou. According to Municipal Government materials, the city and its environs contained five major guilds: the Python Robe Guild, the Eighteen Guild, the Eleven Guild, the Golden Color Guild, and the Canton Gauze Guild—plus more than a dozen smaller guilds covering all processes from silk reeling, pounding and refining, warping, refining and dyeing, to weaving. More than 2,500 weaving households operated one or a few looms each.

Including subordinate counties like Foshan, Dongguan, Shunde, and Xiangshan, weaving households throughout Guangzhou Prefecture numbered no fewer than three thousand.

In terms of production scale and output, Guangzhou Prefecture's silk weaving industry ranked among the best in the entire Great Ming. But raw silk quality constrained further expansion.

"So you're saying you also need to import silk from outside?"

"For any satin with woven patterns, we must use Lake Silk. If we're particular, it has to be 'Thin Silk.'" Chen Lin sighed. "My father tried using local silk as a substitute. He and the weavers experimented endlessly, but either the warp threads broke easily during pattern lifting and couldn't be woven, or the finished patterns were crude and ugly... In short, he failed." He looked helpless. "I'd heard Lake Silk is strong because they dry cocoons with fire when collecting and reeling, rather than air-drying. We tested this ourselves. Though results were better, they still fell short of Lake Silk—I imagine it's a closely guarded secret method, not easily learned."

Li Yao'er was unimpressed. People in this timeline were particularly superstitious about secret recipes and techniques. In truth, Lake Silk's strength wasn't mysterious at all. Fire-drying was one factor, but the decisive element was the silkworm breed itself.

As for why only Huzhou possessed such breeds—it was simply because Huzhou, as a major sericulture production center, enjoyed natural economies of scale. Industrial concentration promoted specialized division of labor and technological advancement. During her time in Hangzhou, Li Yao'er had visited nearly every sericulture and silk-producing county in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In terms of scale, technology, and related commercial organizations, the Suzhou-Hangzhou prefectures of the 17th century led the nation.

"Have you never tried introducing Huzhou silkworm breeds?" Li Yao'er asked.

"Of course we considered it," Chen Lin sighed. "But persuading silkworm farmers to change breeds is as hard as ascending to heaven!"

He recounted how his father had once purchased silkworm eggs from Huzhou and offered them free to farmers for trial raising—but not a single household was interested. Eventually, he hired workers to raise them himself as a demonstration. Whether due to unsuitable water and soil or other reasons, the silkworms died in droves. Not only did he lose considerable money, but he became a laughingstock among the clan.

"After that, my late father lost heart and never mentioned breed improvement again."

Li Yao'er felt considerable empathy. Promoting silkworm seeds in Hangzhou had required countless efforts, with many setbacks along the way. Truthfully, it was a losing proposition—impossible to sustain purely through individual or small-group efforts. Fei Dasheng's sericulture improvement in Wujiang had received local government support, and Jiangsu-Zhejiang silk industry capitalists had provided substantial aid. Even so, her sericulture improvement work had stumbled forward haltingly. For a small workshop like Chen Lin's father's, success had been impossible.

"Breed improvement isn't a matter of one day or one night. Even in Suzhou and Hangzhou, it isn't easy." Li Yao'er said. "I noticed the factory has machines for both silk production and satin weaving."

Chen Lin explained that after purchasing raw silk from silkworm farmers, Fenshenghe had to perform a series of processes—silk conditioning, weft winding, warping, sizing—before mounting it on looms to weave various satins. Post-weaving required boiling, refining, and dyeing. However, these pre- and post-processes were mostly outsourced to specialized artisan households. The workshop itself handled mainly the weaving processes requiring larger equipment.

Traditional silk textiles were rarely produced at large scale. Even in the more commercially developed Qing Dynasty, satin weaving remained mostly a cottage industry with individual households operating one or two looms. Production followed a putting-out model: yarn and satin shops distributed raw materials and loom supplies to weaving households, who produced at home, returned finished goods, and settled processing fees. The shops handled sales. Under this dispersed production model, product specifications varied and quality was inconsistent.

Fenshenghe had formerly followed this model. In Chen Lin's father's time, he felt this approach could never guarantee quality. When he spotted new patterns and varieties in Guangzhou and brought them back for weaving households to produce, the entire process was also painfully slow. So he decided to establish his own production site.

"Your father had considerable foresight," Li Yao'er smiled.

"The Chief is too kind. But establishing our own site wasn't easy. The disputes alone were countless—many weaving households in this village depended on Fenshenghe's putting-out work for their livelihood. When they heard my father intended to produce internally, they came to make trouble. Many were clansmen. If our family hadn't been the direct eldest line, with clan elders mediating, Fenshenghe would probably have been smashed to pieces."

"How was it eventually resolved? Mediation alone probably couldn't settle things."

"Nothing more than spending money to buy peace." Chen Lin smiled bitterly. "Later, my father discussed it with the clan elders. Anyone willing to work at the workshop would be accepted, with weaving fees unchanged; additionally, every male over fifteen in the clan would receive one dou of rice monthly. Only then did things calm down."

"That's no small expense!"

"Though not small, it was worth it. Without clan protection, how could this workshop have operated in peace? Water bandits and criminals coveting our wealth were one thing, but many weaving households in the county glared at us like hungry tigers, wishing Fenshenghe would burn to the ground! Those secretly cursing my father and me to die young were probably numerous—now they've gotten half their wish." He sighed.

Li Yao'er remembered noticing when she first arrived that though Fenshenghe's buildings were well-preserved, internal facilities and machines bore traces of deliberate damage.

Marauding soldiers and bandits wanted only to loot valuables. They had no interest in these heavy "money-making tools," let alone destroying them specifically. This had clearly been done out of spite.

She thought back to when Phoenix Villa was besieged during her Hangzhou days, nearly causing disaster. Though Hao Yuan had instigated from within, the series of sericulture improvements and reeling factories she'd established had also been a factor.

Reform and improvement, no matter how well-intentioned, inevitably provoked counterattacks when they touched vested interests. Thinking this through, she felt her choice of Nansha had been truly correct. A trace of a smile appeared on her face.

"Since ancient times, building a career has never been easy—especially transformative endeavors. But our Senate either doesn't do something, or sees it through to the end. Fenshenghe now advances and retreats together with the Senate. It will certainly become a top-ranking silk textile enterprise in the future."

(End of Chapter)