A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 765 Prelude to Great Development

Lao Bai Niu: Some book friends mentioned the matter of Jing Shen more than [-] feet one after another, and they were surprised. In fact, I have already said it conservatively.At that time, the pain of water use in the Northland was difficult for modern people to understand, so I just posted a few words of information.

There is a plain in the north of Chang'an City, hundreds of miles wide, where people live in wells fifty feet deep.Biyuan, originally tens of miles from north to south, two to three hundred miles from east to west, with no mountains, rivers, lakes, and wells fifty feet deep.The depth of the wells in the central part of Chengcheng County, Shaanxi Province ranges from 26 to more than 30 Zhang.Heyang County is located in Hanyuan, and the wells are thirty or forty feet or even fifty or sixty feet deep.The water wells in Wanquan County are eighty or ninety feet deep, and the shallow ones are fifty or sixty feet deep.

……

On October 15th, the [-]th year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting received his own assistance and hurried back to Shaanxi. Along with him were the [-] Jingbian troops led by Wu Zhengchun and Gao Xun.

Wang Pu also led his subordinates back to Datong Town. During this time, he stayed in Xuanfu Town, and the food and grass were temporarily supplied by Xuanfu Town.

However, according to the military law of the Ming Dynasty, these grains were only temporarily lent by Xuanfu Town to Datong Town, and they would be returned by Wei Jingyuan, the governor of Datong afterwards.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs has also stepped up the planning and development of the Anbei Protectorate's Mansion. Specifically, the measures of each town, the goals to be achieved, especially in terms of agriculture and animal husbandry, what canals and embankments to be built, how many fields to reclaim, etc., from Minister Zhang Gui to his subordinates The officials are all busy.

Wen Fangliang, Zhong Xiancai, Gao Shiyin and others also went out one after another to inspect the areas under their jurisdiction, accompanied by a large number of officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, preparing to survey the land to be reclaimed in various places in advance to prepare for the large-scale construction in the coming year.

Wang Dou is going to implement the large farm plan in Monan, not to mention the temporary military and civilian settlements, but also the future commercial settlements and immigrant settlements. There are a lot of equipment needed, especially columbine carts, waterwheels, barrel carts, etc. Good equipment can be said to be in short supply.

Of course, the use of these equipment requires strong financial resources. For example, the large water truck in Jingbianbao can irrigate [-] mu a day, but the cost of a water truck is as high as more than one hundred taels, and ordinary people can't afford it.

Even the keel waterwheels used by many folks can irrigate [-] to [-] acres of water per day, but the cost of a waterwheel is more than ten taels. Many ordinary people can't afford it, and usually several households share one Waterwheels, landowners and gentry in the countryside, often make profits by renting out waterwheels.

Wang Dou was in Xinzhuang back then, not to mention waterwheels, which needed animal power to pull them. The cost of digging a masonry deep well that cost more than 20 taels could not be dug. A family of three relied on carrying water to irrigate the fields, so the birth of Water bearers specialize in helping people carry water, and a load ranges from a few wen to more than ten wen, depending on the distance of the journey.

There are also advanced agricultural tools such as coupling plows and columbine carts, especially columbine carts, which can simultaneously complete tasks such as ditching, sowing, and soil covering, and also ensure that the row spacing and plant spacing are consistent. In terms of efficiency, at least one hectare can be planted a day. Still in the case of cattle.

Such an advanced planter was invented by Su Duwei Zhao Guo as early as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but it has been rarely used in the Central Plains. Why?too expensive!The cost is too high.

This is one of the reasons why ancient technology is difficult to promote.

Moreover, what advanced equipment brings is often the unemployment of some people.

During the Industrial Revolution, workers often destroyed machines. Is it for production efficiency or to earn a living?This is a difficult problem.

Orders for various waterwheel factories have soared, and the owners of various factories are desperately recruiting craftsmen. Although most of the orders are currently placed by the military and officials of the Duhufu, there are also some businessmen who are planning to start a business with a forward-looking vision and plan to order large waterwheels and columbine car etc.

Even some wealthy gentry who plan to immigrate outside the Great Wall are also planning to buy these equipment.

The people who immigrated in the future will spread all over the three towns of Xuanda, as well as Shanxi, and even all over Shaanxi. These guys are making a lot of money.

Moreover, in the foreseeable many years, the demand for water trucks and other things will continue to flow. After all, the Duhufu digs canals, builds water conservancy, etc., for the time being, it is still aimed at military settlements, as well as government-owned settlements. You still need to solve the water problem yourself.

Even if their fields are close to the river in the future, but under the current drought, the water level of many rivers in Monan has also dropped, and water trucks are needed to bring the river water up.

Fields that are not close to rivers need irrigation wells and waterwheels even more.

So for a while, not only the well-drilling and car-making personnel in Xuanfu Town, but also those in other towns were in short supply.

……

Although the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is headquartered in the town, there are still some research institutes located in the suburbs, beside the farmland, next to the factory, in order to better conduct experiments and manufacture.

This is a courtyard, not far from the southwestern outskirts of the mountain. The hall is full of books, and there is even a newly collected "Illustration of Qi Qi Qi Shuo". Intermediate researcher Wu Shihuan wears glasses and writes on hard paper with a clam pencil Writing and drawing.

The pattern on the paper is a kind of machine, a bit like a columbine cart, but it is not. The original carpenter Wu Shihuan has now entered the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to hold important positions. These people also have a resounding title: researcher.

I heard that the name was chosen by the Marquis of Yongning himself.

Each of them has their own research tasks. Wu Shihuan was originally a carpenter and mason, and of course his main research was in the direction of machine making and urban construction.

According to the old man Wu, this is really a matter of honoring the ancestors. He is about to be buried, and he did not expect to become an official and have a title similar to a literati one day.

Unknowingly, Wu Shihuan has been in the Wangdou system for many years, and his beard and hair are completely gray, but he is still full of energy and has inexhaustible energy.

He is also living well now. At the beginning, Wang Dou gave benefits to the people and subcontracted some unimportant factories to the people. At that time, Wu Shihuan and his children opened a waterwheel factory. Now the waterwheel factory has a prosperous business and has become a famous factory in Xuanfu Town. one.

With no worries about food and clothing, and holding an important position with a generous salary, Wu Shihuan has nothing else to think about, only thinking about whether he can be famous in history one day.

Just like Su Duwei Zhao Guo, he invented the columbine cart and became famous through the ages.

Over the years, he has also learned a lot of literacy, and decided to pass the cultural assessment at the end of the year and win the title of craftsman.

There are many craftsmen in Xuanfu Town, and there are many high-class craftsmen, but there is not one master craftsman. Wu Shihuan has grown stronger and decided to take the lead in becoming the No. 1 craftsman in Xuanfu Town.

Of course, if Lai Yuanlong and others are willing to take the assessment, it will be easy for them to become craftsmen. After all, he was born as a clerk ambassador, but he obviously has no intention of entering the craftsman system. Concentrate on researching your own firearms.

Li Maosen's level of education was not good enough, and Li Zhifen subconsciously believed that he was a gentry, so he didn't think about going to be a craftsman.

At this time, this courtyard is shared by some researchers of the Civil Science Department, each of whom is tinkering with things of their own interest.Next to Wu Shihuan's compound is a middle-aged fat man named Long Kun, also a mid-level researcher, who spends all day looking for earthworms.

"No, no, although the wheat can be harvested in this way, it will be scattered all over the ground, which will increase labor..."

Wu Shihuan always felt dissatisfied when he changed the pattern.

What he wants to study is actually a harvester. Since Monan needs to carry out large-scale development, and the population is sparsely populated for the time being, there is no problem of machines and labor competing for jobs. It is necessary to produce more food in a short period of time, which is very important for high-efficiency Machinery is in high demand.

According to Wu Shihuan's thinking, there are fast sowing machines in the world, and naturally there are also fast harvesting machines. This is what he is studying recently.

This matter has even been set up in the civil science department, and a large sum of funds has been obtained, but it has been unable to produce results, which makes Wu Shihuan very anxious.

He put down his glasses, walked out of his office, and came to the courtyard in front of him. Some assistants and craftsmen were busy working on several wooden machines. Looking at these machines, Wu Shihuan frowned. He had several problems right now.

One is after the wheat is cut, how to arrange it neatly and put it in a basket properly, otherwise it will be scattered all over the ground, and it is better to do it by hand.

The second is the problem of efficiency. According to Wu Shihuan's estimation, after this thing is completed, the harvesting speed will be twice as fast as that of manual labor.

If this product is only twice as fast as manual labor, it will definitely be difficult to promote it. The columbine can grow one hectare a day, but because of the high price, the people are unwilling to use it, let alone this product. The harvesting speed must be increased.

Just how to improve it?
Worried, Wu Shihuan paced in the courtyard, and unknowingly walked to the nearby courtyard of Longkun. The two of them were free, and they would visit each other, or chat and drink tea together.

When I got here, I saw Long Kun instructing his assistants to go to a damp and quiet place where cow, pig, horse, chicken and other feces, as well as a large number of fruit peels and leaves, etc. were piled up, muttering to himself , write down something in the notes.

"...Earth Dragon likes to be quiet and prefers humidity. In winter, it needs to be covered with thick leaves and dung, so as not to die without food..."

He was so busy that he didn't notice Wu Shihuan's entry at all.

This fat middle-aged man contributed to the method of raising chickens on pastures and the method of hatching eggs in soil vats, which greatly developed the animal husbandry in Xuanfu Town. After a few years, he has now become the main staff of the Civil Affairs Division. His net worth is equally rich, because every livestock farm that uses pastures to raise chickens and ducks has to pay him a certain patent fee.

He is now researching feeding chickens and ducks with earthworms, because he found that the cost of raising earthworms is less, and the chickens and ducks fed are bigger and fatter, and the egg laying rate is greatly improved.

Moreover, earthworm feces can fertilize the land. Medicine is also called earthworm, which can be used as medicine. It has the effects of clearing away heat, calming convulsions, diuresis, and relieving asthma.

So for the past two years, he has been researching this earthworm. After the Civil Science Division was established, it set up a project specifically for this.

He muttered to himself, although Wu Shihuan came in, he was still thinking about his own affairs. He watched Long Kun's movements, but he didn't seem to notice, so he just murmured suddenly: "What should I do if the wheat is scattered all over the place?" ?”

Long Kun inadvertently replied, "I'll keep it in a basket."

Wu Shihuan's eyes suddenly lit up: "Yes!"

He went out in a hurry, Long Kun still continued to write something in his notes, not aware of Wu Shihuan's coming in and going out at all.

All of them, who are skilled and ingenious, are full of enthusiasm for work in the environment of Xuanfu Town.

(End of this chapter)