"Look at this, can it be built?" Zhao Kuo took out the Quyuanli blueprint from his arms.
He originally wanted to find Mo Feng to build it, but Mo Feng was excitedly leading the Mo family disciples to select a site to build a college near Handan these days!
But it's not the Mohist Academy that Zhao Kuo promised them before, but Handan Academy.
With the decline of Qi State, Jixia Academy, which was once prosperous for a while, also declined. Especially after Xunzi returned to Zhao State, only Lu Lianzhong in the Academy could take on important responsibilities, and it was no longer what it used to be.
At this time, Zhao State's construction of Handan College will definitely replace Jixia Academy and become the holy land of Eastern thought. At the same time, Zhao State will also be able to attract a large number of talents.
By then, the Mohist family will also become a member of Handan College, and Zhao Kuo promised Mo Feng that he will vigorously support the Mohist family in researching technology in the future.
"This is... a plow? But it seems to be a little different." Zhao Zhu scratched his head. Although he was not responsible for making tools, he still understood what he should know.
The plow had been invented during the Warring States Period, and its performance surpassed that of the original Weishu, but it was still inferior to the mature straight-shaft plow during the Han Dynasty, but it was already the most advanced in the world at that time.
"It's almost the same as a plow, but some improvements have been made. The long and straight shafts have been changed to short and curved shafts, so I named it a curved shaft plow. And a wheel disc is added to the plowshare, which can rotate, making it easy to turn around and turn.
Save manpower and animal power." Zhao Kuo pointed to the scroll and said.
"Change the straight shaft into a curved shaft! Change the long shaft into a short shaft! The plow can rotate! What a genius! Although I don't know the actual effect, in theory it can definitely greatly increase the speed of plowing. Who came up with this idea!" Zhao Zhu
Said excitedly.
"This king came up with it." Zhao Kuo said shamelessly.
Zhao Zhu's face froze for a moment, he looked at Zhao Kuo blankly, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, please stop joking with me. We Zhao people all know that you can fight, but when it comes to making farm tools..."
"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do." Zhao Kuo shrugged and said without blushing or heartbeat.
Zhao Zhu looked at Zhao Kuo suspiciously, still not convinced.
"As long as it can be made, it will be fine. From today on, the workshop will work hard to build the curved plow. By the time of spring plowing, I will let all farmers in Zhao State use the curved plow." Zhao Kuo said.
"Your Majesty, if we have to build so many weapons before spring plowing, I'm afraid we will have to stop building weapons." Zhao Zhu said.
"Have all the damaged weapons been repaired?" Zhao Kuo asked.
The Zhao army has been fighting for such a long time, and naturally a lot of damaged weapons have been damaged. Those that can be repaired will be handed over to the workshop for repair, and those that cannot be repaired will be remade.
"Your Majesty, we will be able to repair everything in three days," Zhao Zhu said.
"Repair the damaged weapons first, and then build the Quyuanli. There is no need to build new weapons for the time being." Zhao Kuo said.
"promise."
"And this one, I want you to build it too." Zhao Kuo took out the waterwheel drawing and handed it to Zhao Zhu.
In addition to building water conservancy projects and encouraging the reclamation of wasteland, these are two ways to increase productivity that he came up with after racking his brains.
As for composting, most people think that ancient people did not know how to fertilize. In fact, composting technology has been promoted as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. "Book of Rites: Yue Ling Pian" records that "(Summer Moon), the soil moistens the mattress, and heavy rains
When the time is right, burn the water and use it to kill weeds, just like using hot soup to excrement the fields and improve the soil."
"Mencius" also records that "if there is not enough manure in the field, the surplus must be taken." However, Europe did not start to study fertilization until after the tenth century.
In addition, farmers during the Warring States Period were aware of the dangers of pests and began to capture them. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" recorded that "when farmers find locusts, they kill them, and they ridicule them to return crops."
As for farming oxen, it was also popularized in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the late Jin Dynasty, the oxen were put on nose rings. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" records that "the five-foot vertical sticks are used to guide the oxen, and the oxen does what he wants, and it is compliant."
The xuan here is the bull nose ring.
If a cow has a nose ring, even a dwarf five feet tall can pull it.
So Zhao Kuo really couldn't do much, after all, he didn't know how to improve grain seeds.
However, during this period, there were really people who specialized in farming, and that was farmers!
Zhao Kuo has sent people to search for him, but there is no news yet.
"Your Majesty, it is not difficult to make a waterwheel, but it is difficult to transport. If you want to promote it, I am afraid we can only distribute the technology to every county and let them build it on their own." Zhao Zhu said.
The problem of technical confidentiality is designed into this. Although the curved shaft plow and waterwheel are not like saddles and stirrups, the technology can be plagiarized at a glance.
But after taking a look, as long as you do more research, it won't be difficult to make it.
It can be said that if you want to keep this kind of thing a secret, don't take it out, and as long as you take it out, don't think about keeping it a secret.
If it is only made in the workshop, Zhao can still hide it for a while. If it is distributed to counties, it may appear on the heads of the kings of the Six Kingdoms in a few days.
But this thing is also related to learning efficiency.
For example, saddles and stirrups are now common in the Qin State, but in other countries, including Korea and Wei, where Zhao Kuo personally gave saddles and stirrups to them, there are still no organized cavalry.
This is the difference between monarchs.
"Then let's issue it." Zhao Kuo waved his hand.
Now that he had brought this thing out, he had no intention of keeping it secret.
"In this case, I will make the sample first, and then give it to the king for review. If there are no problems, we can promote it." Zhao Zhu said.
"There are a lot of hungry people outside recently. You can recruit some people to come in and take action, but be careful not to let spies sneak in." Zhao Kuo said.
"I will give the order," Zhao Zhu said.
"Thank you for your hard work. I will treat you to dinner when I have time." Zhao Kuo patted Zhao Zhu on the shoulder.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhao Zhu was immediately moved and overwhelmed.
He has managed the workshop for nearly ten years, and neither Zhao Wangdan nor Zhao Huiwen has ever visited it once. Now in just half a day, Zhao Kuo has patted him on the shoulder twice and invited him to dinner.
From today on, I, Zhao Zhu, belong to Zhao Wangkuo!
"By the way, how much is the monthly salary of an ordinary craftsman?" Zhao Kuo asked before leaving.
"Your Majesty, for three stones of corn every month, one piece of cloth will be distributed at the end of each year. But starting from March last year, three stones of corn every month has become one stone of millet and two stones of wheat, and there will be no cloth at the end of the year." Zhao Zhu leaned over.
said.
Zhao Kuo frowned slightly. He said three stones of corn per month and one bucket per day, a standard meal, "Don't you respond upward?"
"Yes, but the court has no food. Moreover, many people outside are starving to death. We just replaced the corn with wheat. At least we can still support the family to survive, so no one has any complaints." Zhao
Zhu said.
"Go ahead and order everything to be restored to corn starting from this month." Zhao Kuo said to Liu Ping.
The emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, and he can't even afford the craftsmen two stones of corn.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zhao Zhu thanked him quickly.
"We have to find a way to make steamed buns." Zhao Kuo thought deeply.
During the Warring States Period, people's staple food was generally corn or rice. Wheat was only eaten by people in disaster years or at the lowest level, because boiled wheat is really not delicious.
But it is different if it is made into steamed buns. Steamed buns are the only staple food that can compete with rice in later generations, and fermented steamed buns are more conducive to digestion and absorption. By the way, noodles, pancakes and the like can also be made.
By then, ordinary people will be able to eat steamed buns and even corn.
Wheat can be grown in many places where rice and corn cannot be grown, and productivity will be further improved.
After such a long time, Zhao Kuo finally understood that the so-called spiritual energy in this world and the so-called ability to cultivate only increased the upper limit, and the lower limit never changed.
The people still lacked enough to eat, couldn't wear warm clothes, couldn't afford to see a doctor when they got sick, couldn't even marry a wife and couldn't raise children.
All he can do is to change this era little by little through hard work.
ps: The author once saw people plowing fields with plows when he was a child. I don’t know if you have seen them. He was really poor at that time, alas!