Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 139 - 11: Textile Machine

Chapter 139: Chapter 11: Textile Machine

Roman had Vic manufacture a hundred individual longbows.

Longbow archers were a ranged unit, serving a suppressive function.

They were not very effective against heavy armor units but could hold a significant advantage against less disciplined troops.

However, their training was exceedingly difficult, even for a professional army detached from all other duties, it took half a year of training to be considered qualified, and the logistical challenge was enormous.

Arrowheads and arrow feathers were the least of the concerns; the former were easily cast, and economies of scale meant that producing tens of thousands of iron arrowheads at once could meet their needs for several months.

There wasn’t much difficulty producing arrow feathers either, as this land was abundant with birds.

It was the production of arrow shafts that was particularly challenging; a carpenter’s apprentice could manage to make only twenty to thirty shafts a day, even with a full set of planes, chisels, saws, and especially after Roman invented the human-powered lathe.

Roman’s specially manufactured foot-powered lathe increased the efficiency of the carpenters’ work by several times over.

The times were barbaric, technology backward, and tools primitive.

Outside of Sige Town, making ten arrow shafts a day was considered the mark of a competent carpenter—lacking proper tools, they had to rely solely on filing by hand.

And so, training longbow archers was only slightly less challenging than training riders.

Regular training was manageable, as arrows could be reused repeatedly.

But as soon as warfare escalated, at least ten thousand arrows would need to be deployed in a single battle, and the majority could not be recovered.

For now, Roman only planned to train one hundred longbow archers, capable of volley firing with a certain degree of accuracy.

...

In the midst of busyness, a few days after the first snow melted, Sige Town began to experience a significant drop in temperature.

Winter wasn’t conducive to production in an agrarian society.

Many farmers had taken out their treasured woolen shirts and sheep coats for warmth.

With brick houses, they thought, this winter should certainly be more bearable.

However, most slaves didn’t have that luxury; penniless, they could not afford warm clothes.

Roman had realized this problem before the autumn harvest.

During this time, he also purchased a lot of wool, and not a few sheep were slaughtered at the livestock shed, accumulating many pelts and hides.

Even then, Roman and Vic had come up with the Hydroelectric Bleaching Machine, Jenny Spinning Machine, and foot-powered loom, all of which were the precipitates of civilization and the accumulation of human wisdom, but which were readily available to Roman.

Tens of thousands of pounds of wool, processed by boiling, bleaching, and carding, were then spun into threads using the Jenny Spinning Machine, and finally woven into cloth with the loom, forming a complete textile production process.

He planned to distribute two woolen shirts to everyone in Sige Town, with slaves receiving an additional two sheep coats as winter welfare.

Others couldn’t comprehend it and were simply shocked.

Handling tens of thousands of pounds of wool manually would require a hundred women two months to spin into thread.

The low productivity of this era was no joke.

Normally, such a quantity of wool would be gradually absorbed by the market—

For those who raised sheep, it was better; they could shear the wool once before selling the animal, with each sheep providing a bit more than one pound of wool. Adult sheep sold with their fleece commanded higher prices.

For those who couldn’t afford to keep or shear sheep, they had to buy it—

Wool was inexpensive; two pounds could be bought with a single copper coin.

But that was raw material. Once brought home, there was time-consuming and laborious work to clean the wool.

And such tasks often had to wait until the slack agricultural season, eating into their limited rest time.

To sustain their everyday living, women and daughters all had to chip in.

From dawn to dusk, ceaseless work was necessary to barely maintain the needs of a family.

Was it hard? Extremely hard.

But misery, for this era, was just a part of life, they were accustomed to it.

After changing textile technology, things were completely different, wool was being washed and spun with incredible speed, efficiency was extremely high.

Large quantities of clean wool were first spun into yarn, then woven into fabric, and from fabric, transformed into thick wool clothing. The entire process was exceedingly labor-saving.

The low cost was enough to disrupt the woolen market beyond their borders, as long as this place was turned into a textile hub, wealth would keep flowing endlessly.

However, Roman had no interest in economic warfare.

What he wanted was an invincible iron fist smashing faces, not shearing their wool!

Was there a quicker path to wealth than war in this world?

No!

He invented the spinning machine and the loom purely to save time and labor costs, the products they made were limited to being functional—that was it. Without improved production efficiency, it would be impossible to satisfy everyone’s needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.

Roman had no intention of engaging in a trade war; he simply wanted them to be able to work even in the dead of winter.

How could it be that everyone huddled in bed shivering all winter long?

Eat well, dress warmly, and get to work promptly!

Then Roman found himself in an awkward situation, there wasn’t enough wool.

In Sige Town, with over four thousand people, ten thousand pounds of wool, when divided, averaged about two pounds per person.

But after boiling and bleaching, ten thousand pounds of wool could shrink by at least three thousand pounds, since feces and dirt clung to the material shouldn’t be counted as weight.

Luckily, Daken found a velvet merchant and brought in another three to four thousand pounds of wool, relieving the problem of insufficient wool for warmth.

This damned place was unbearably hot in summer, and although winter wouldn’t freeze anyone to death, it made it impossible to work.

Wool clothing had to be given to those most in need, so families with warm clothing could only receive two wool garments, totaling a little over a pound.

But those of slave origin could get four pieces, including two sheep coats, totaling about five to six pounds.

Wintertime was inseparable from thick clothes.

Roman gathered over a hundred women, teaching them how to use the spinning machines and looms to process those clean, white wool threads.

...

Roman sat in front of the loom, pressing down on the pedals; the heddle frame raised, separating the warp threads to allow the weft thread through.

Then he released his foot, and the heddle frame lowered, the warp threads closing again.

He completed one standard weaving motion.

The structure of the loom was simple, the weaving efficiency very high, but the learning difficulty was not low.

Farmwives who had never encountered such a thing were quite clumsy and slow in their actions, afraid to be more assertive.

Roman was not discouraged; he could only hope they’d become proficient with practice.

He dealt with these fools all day and had basically learned to keep his blood pressure in check.

He was prepared to teach them hand in hand, and personally demonstrate the weaving process; standing by his side were carefully selected women known for their dexterity and skill.

His movements were smooth and fluid, his fingers incredibly agile, the operation graceful and precise.

But when they tried to imitate him, there was an awkwardness, a sort of trying and failing to emulate his grace.

Roman couldn’t even show disgust or aversion; such negative expressions would only increase their psychological pressure. In this kind of delicate work, the more flustered they were, the more prone to mistakes.

As he numbly carried on with the daily teaching, a shrill voice came from outside the crowd.

"Master Roman, master, something’s happened..." Jimmy panted as he ran over.

Roman released the pedal, the heddle frame lowered again, and the warp threads closed.

He stopped his movements, slightly frowning, "What happened?"