Daqin: When I return from sea, I will offer you a map of the world

Chapter 50 Meng Yi's little curiosity about Zhao Si

"Hmm..." Shi Huang agreed to Meng Yi's request.

Salt has always been an important weapon in the country. The sun-dried salt method further reduces the cost of salt production and further improves the efficiency of salt production, but the shortcomings have also become obvious.

In the process of drying salt, as long as the weather is bad, all the previous work will become useless.

In ancient times, there were no satellites and no weather forecasts, but basically all the schools of thought had some research on the weather, and the Yin Yang school was the one with the deepest attainments.

Meng Yi nodded and continued to report.

"Make a plow, turn a yoke, and when you are plowing, you will get twice the result with half the effort!"

"Make a foot, make it efficient and accurate!"

Meng Yi became a little curious when he thought about himself.

Meng Yi's curiosity is not without roots, but because Meng Yi treats ink.

He was originally a Mohist.

A qualified ink artist must know the relevant principles of certain tool making.

Because this thing can't be bypassed in the Mohist classics, it's just that some are good at it and some are not.

Of course, after the ages of Mozi, the Mohist school has been divided into three parts. There are not no Mohists who only study the classics and theories without learning craftsmanship.

Meng Yi can be regarded as a relatively traditional Mohist.

His craftsmanship belongs to the average level of Mohists in this era, and he has learned most of the skills and principles.

Therefore, after seeing some practical little inventions made by Zhao Si, Meng Yi became a little interested.

Quyuanli is a milestone in the development of agriculture in the long river of history, but it can only be regarded as a good little invention in the current era.

In fact, this era is relatively primitive, the people generally have little savings, and the world is generally still using relatively primitive farming methods. Except for the farming model in Guanzhong, which was generally more mature due to the influence of the Great Qin State System and generally began to use cattle with plows, the rest of the area is hard to say. .

In short, the meaning is really not that great in this era. If Quyuanli is to be popularized in the world, the premise is that most individual farmers can allocate Quyuanli to start farming.

However, the short curved plow can also be pulled by manpower, and the production cost is not so high. Compared with the more primitive farming method of Leisi, it is not impossible to popularize the short curved plow by human power, and the farming efficiency will definitely be improved. .

Zhao Si never considered the matter of using humans as animals. On the one hand, it was because of the influence of modern people's thinking, and on the other hand, it was also because of his lack of understanding of this era.

Does using Leisi count as treating humans as animals?
Meng Yi was different. He saw the specific process summarized by Wang Ben and the performance of the big and small Quyuanli, and he was keenly aware of it at the first time. Although the small Quyuanli was relatively inefficient, it was possible to replace animal power with manpower.

Cows are so expensive, it’s not a matter of treating humans as animals or not, but a supplement when farming cattle are really unavailable.

However, because Wang Ben is not a professional, the recorded data is mainly based on asking military craftsmen, so some of the key points need to be verified by Meng Yi himself to confirm whether his ideas are correct.

Because Wang Ben only recorded that the small Quyuanli was produced first, and then the large Quyuanli was produced.

And Zhao Si didn't mention at all whether Xiao Quyuanli had the attribute of being able to replace animal power with manpower.

As for the other small tools such as vernier calipers, files, and planes, they were put aside by Meng Yi first.

"What?" Seeing that Meng Yi was thinking about what he said, Shi Huang asked.

"This Quyuanli minister has some ideas." Meng Yi frowned and said.

"How?" Shi Huang motioned Meng Yi to get angry.

"This curved plow first produced a small plow, and then after comparing it with a straight plow, it was not as efficient as a large plow, so a large curved plow was produced."

"It's just that the big plow is heavy, and it is difficult to cultivate it without animal power. The small plow is light, but I don't know if it can be pulled by human power." Meng Yi said.

The First Emperor took the bamboo slips and read them again, nodding his head in agreement.

If this small curved plow can be used by manpower, it can really be popularized. Although the cost of the small plow will not be low, it will not be as high as unacceptable like a large plow. Animal power can also improve the efficiency of farming, and the common people have no reason not to use it.

"If this plow can be used, it needs to be calculated, and the examinations in various places must be revised." The Emperor Shihuang said.

At present, officials from all over the Qin Dynasty have an inspection system. As a country with a farming and warfare system, the amount of local grain production has a great impact on the performance evaluation of officials.

Basically, Daqin has a systematic reward and punishment system from officials to civilians.

As a self-cultivator, if you farm well, pay more taxes than others, and produce more land than others, you can get real title rewards.

It is real money that is directly implemented to the individual.

As an official, if the local food supply is too low and you can't explain why, you will be punished and blamed directly.

Qin State has heavy taxes and severe penalties, but rewards are also in place. Even the farm cattle that are raised have a cattle beauty pageant every year. The best cared for and the most robust cattle can get certain rewards.

If your farm cattle are thin, there will be a local chief to condemn and inquire.

Of course, these descriptions refer to the Great Qin before the unification of the world.

The maintenance of a perfect reward and punishment system requires the support of a large number of officials with sufficient quality, education and ability. However, the current Qin Dynasty, which dominates the world, has spread dozens of times in size at once, and the administration of officials is relatively corrupt.

This degree of corruption is based on Xianyang Guanzhong as the radiation circle. In Xianyang and Guanzhong areas, the administration of officials is still clear, and the reward and punishment system is still perfect. The farther away, the worse the administration of officials.

Let's put it this way, if Zhang Liang was a person from Guanzhong and wanted to assassinate Qin Shihuang, he might be turned away by the government if he didn't act.

But Zhang Liang, who was assassinated in Bolangsha, was able to escape.

In general, the Daqin official administration has too many stalls and many things to look at the world can only stay on paper, and it cannot be implemented in reality outside Guanzhong.

However, grain production, as one of the core standards for assessment, must be universal across the country. If Quyuanli can be used by humans and spread to thousands of households, the specific assessment performance standards will definitely have to be readjusted.

In this way, those who do not want to promote must promote it, and it is impossible to meet the assessment standards without promotion, because the new assessment standards are directly formulated according to the output of Quyuanli after promotion.

But in practice, the first emperor cared more about animal farming and the popularization of cattle.

A small tool can only slightly increase a certain amount of food production, and the food production in the Six Kingdoms region is very different from that in the Guanzhong region.

It has nothing to do with geographical factors. The bitter cold in the Qin Dynasty was a recognized fact in the Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States period. Guanzhong is now the world's granary, and it is also the result of the Qin people building channels for hundreds of years, stimulating production, and reforming the legal system of officials.

In many areas of the Six Kingdoms, the climate is more pleasant than that of Guanzhong, and the natural conditions are better, but the grain production is left behind by Guanzhong by a large margin.

Obviously, the land of the Six Kingdoms that has just been conquered still has a long and long way to go.

Human power is definitely not as good as animal power!

Even with the Quyuan plow that can be cultivated manually, Daqin still wants to take the route of popularizing cattle.You can't put the cart before the horse because of a curved plow that can be used by humans.

If oxen and plows cannot be popularized, the world will not be like Guanzhong.

(Short curved plows can be cultivated by hand. There are documents to support it, so I won’t post it. The paddy field is not very good, it’s a bit choking,

Human farming Qu Yuanli will not write a big book in this book. The protagonists, Meng Yi and Shi Huang, have three levels of thinking.

The protagonist's cognition is inherently stuck in the short Quyuanli. Now it is not as good as the long Quyuanli. There is no basis for popularizing Quyuanli, because except for the Guanzhong area, cattle farming in other areas cannot be popularized by the people.

Meng Yi believes that the short curved plow has the possibility of manpower replacing animal power.

The first emperor believed that this was just a small episode, and the appearance of Quyuanli would not change Daqin's current strategic steps and routes for promoting farming.

In fact, in the feudal era, if manpower widely replaced animal power and became a long-term mainstream phenomenon, there must be something wrong with the imperial court. )
(End of this chapter)