The hydraulic machine Li Zhi wants to build is called a dragon-tail car.
This kind of equipment is also called Archimedes spiral tube. According to legend, it was invented by Archimedes. It is a tool that uses the spiral wheel in the cylinder to rise to lift water. The outside of the dragon tail cart is an iron shell, and inside is a long
The long rotating shaft is covered with propeller blades. The rotating shaft keeps rotating, allowing water to roll at the bottom of the rotating shaft blades, gradually raising the water level.
A bearing is installed on the upper joint of the rotating shaft to reduce friction. The lower rotating joint should be extended into the water. Li Zhi made a brass ball and pressed it on a copper sleeve, which can also reduce the friction during rotation. Water
The main parts of the car are made of wrought iron and painted inside and outside to prevent rust.
This kind of water wheel has the characteristics of low effort and high efficiency. The efficiency of one person operating this water wheel is comparable to that of ten people operating a traditional keel wheel. Until modern times, this kind of water wheel has been widely used in industrial fields to lift fluids and powders.
Xu Guangqi in the late Ming Dynasty and Lin Zexu in the late Qing Dynasty both vigorously promoted this kind of waterwheel. However, due to the complexity of manufacturing the dragon-tailed waterwheel and political corruption, this kind of waterwheel was never popularized.
But Li Zhi had a cannon-casting craftsman and casting technology, so he could easily cast this kind of keel car. The cannon-casting craftsman stopped working after casting more than 80 cannons and was in a standby state. It happened to start casting this kind of keel car.
After Li Zhi drew the drawings, he gave them to the gunsmiths to cast the molds. Li Zhi explained on the spot that the gunsmiths worked for a few days before casting the iron molds for the rotating blades and the outer casing, which were successfully assembled. Next, they used the iron molds
Just batch casting.
The first waterwheel was quickly finished. Li Zhi put the waterwheel on the river to experiment with pumping water. As soon as the rotating shaft turned, he saw water flowing out of the waterwheel. Li Zhi kept the waterwheel by the river.
It only took half an hour to pump water until four acres of land were filled. In this way, one person could irrigate forty acres of land in one day, which was much better than other water trucks.
When the people watching saw the shaking water wheel pumping out the rushing water, they immediately became excited. The people cheered and celebrated that the general had invented a new thing. It is estimated that this new thing can bring a lot of new blessings to the people.
The efficiency of the dragon tail truck is very important to agricultural production.
To grow wheat, you need to grasp the season, and you need to irrigate a few days before and after certain seasons. There are bottom water, winter irrigation, head water, second water, and three water. The waterwheel efficiency is not high, so you can only irrigate during the limited irrigation season.
With the limited acres of land by the river, using inefficient water trucks to irrigate more fields will only delay the season and greatly reduce crop yields.
Waterwheels with high efficiency can allow more fields to be irrigated in a timely manner.
Another advantage of this kind of dragon tail car is that it has a very wide range of applications. As long as the water underneath can overflow the blades under the dragon tail car, water can be pumped. It doesn't matter if it is a pond or a small river, as long as there is a little water surface.
It does not require water flow speed like a drum truck, but emphasizes the depth of water entry.
The dragon-tail car made by Li Zhi using the casting method is six meters long and weighs 130 kilograms. It can pump water in the river more than three meters high. The main parts of the waterwheel are cast with wrought iron, and the cost including labor and bearings is twelve
Two and one can be promoted on a large scale. The more troublesome thing is that it requires regular maintenance and painting to prevent rust. The annual maintenance cost is estimated to be one or two silver. If Li Zhi wants to promote it on a large scale, he will probably need to organize a professional team.
Maintain these tail trucks regularly.
But compared to the benefits from converting dry land into farmland, the maintenance fee of one tael is not eye-catching.
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There were 11,083 poor people still stranded outside the Fanjiazhuang city wall who were willing to farm farmland for Li Zhi. Li Zhi had someone make a census and determined that there were 2,311 men among them who could do farm work.
There are 2,178 strong women, totaling 4,489. There are also 4,215 children and 2,379 old and weak.
Based on the agricultural production level of this era, Li Zhi decided to allocate twenty acres of land to each male and able-bodied woman, which would require about 90,000 acres of dry land. For these fields, Li Zhi planned to expand the wasteland within twenty miles from east to west, north and south of Fanjiazhuang.
Request.
There are three small rivers within the scope of Fanjiazhuang's management, namely Liuhe, Yanghe and Liujiagou. These small rivers have little water power and it is impractical to load drum trucks. However, Li Zhi's dragon tail truck can lift water. As long as the dragon tail truck is installed
Coupled with some ditches, the water in the river can flow to dry land one or two miles away from the river, turning those dry lands into dry fields that can be irrigated.
There are some farmlands within a few hundred meters on both sides of the river, which are irrigated by manual labor. Li Zhi does not plan to change the ownership of these farmlands, but will build irrigation canals perpendicular to the river every two hundred meters in these farmlands.
Transfer the river water raised by the waterwheel to farmland farther away from the river.
Li Zhi trained dozens of officials in the government office and told them how to draw atlases. Then he sent them out to explore the terrain near three small rivers, write down the situation of the land, investigate whether there was an owner, and finally gathered them together
Into a book.
What makes Li Zhi happy is that most of these wastelands that cannot be irrigated are ownerless land.
Li Zhi decided to turn these wastelands into his own private land.
Li Zhi's land reclamation for the poor peasants was not for charity, but to collect land rent. He wanted to turn these 10,000 poor people into his own tenant farmers. Therefore, he planned to hold the land that was about to be reclaimed as farmland in the name of private land.
Nominally, the military fields of the guards have no owners. They belong to the state and cannot collect rent. However, in the Ming Dynasty, the military system of the guards gradually declined, and many of the military fields were resold, and the land deeds were written in black and white. Therefore,
Everyone has an owner. In the military fields of the late Ming Dynasty, there were many situations where the owners collected land rent from tenants. Even if the military fields were not resold, they were regarded as their own private land by the cultivators.
The so-called guard officials snatching military land means that they seize the land use rights of military households for guard officers, turn themselves into the owners of the military land, and then rent it to military households to collect rent.
Since everyone does this and it is regarded as routine, then Li Zhi, as the head of Fanjiazhuang, can certainly take these wastelands as private land and lease them to farming tenants. Li Zhi purchases the wasteland according to the price, so there is no problem of robbing military households of military land.
.
The only problem is that the land by the river is currently being cultivated. Li Zhi wants to build irrigation canals in these fields and convince the owners of these lands. Although the people who cultivate the military fields are not necessarily military households, they may also be civilians who rent the military fields.
However, these lands are located within the jurisdiction of Fanjiazhuang, so the persuasion work is relatively simple.
If it doesn't make sense, you can force it. In name, these fields are military fields and can be allocated by the commander.
Li Zhi summoned all the Tunpu chiefs under his command to Fanjiazhuang and loudly announced his reclamation work.
After Li Zhi was promoted to a guerrilla general, He Shishou also asked Li Zhi to defend one place as a guerrilla. He had three disciplines under his command, and these three disciplines were in charge of eight defenses. There were a total of thirty-seven teams under him, all large and small.
There are forty-eight Tunbu. The land with a radius of dozens of miles managed by these Tunbu is now Li Zhi's jurisdiction.
Li Zhi said loudly: "In order to expand the farmland in Fanjiazhuang, I have decided to launch a new reclamation policy and reclaim 90,000 acres of new land."
Hearing the figure of 90,000 acres, the defense and management teams under Li Zhi were stunned. They secretly thought that the guerrillas were so generous. If one dou or two liters of grains for farming were collected per acre, then these 90,000 acres of new land would be
It is necessary to add 10,000 taels of grain to the field of Fanjiazhuang. According to the price of 2 taels and 1 shi in an ordinary year, Fanjiazhuang is equivalent to contributing 20,000 taels of silver to the military and administration of the Ming Dynasty per year.
One of the guards had the courage to ask: "Is your new land just reclaimed wasteland? Doesn't it occupy the existing military land?"
Li Zhi looked at this code of conduct and said: "It is all cultivated on wasteland. In the first year, no grain will be paid to these new fields, and only in the second year will the grain be paid."
Hearing Li Zhi's words, the officers, big and small, were all happy. Reclaiming new fields in the wasteland will not affect the interests of these officers, and from the second year onwards, the amount of grain they can pay for their fields will be increased, which will increase the political achievements of these officers.
They are optimistic.
"I, Li Zhi, bought these wastelands in the health center in my own name at a price of twenty cents per acre. From now on, these wastelands will be my private property. When you go back, prepare the title deeds according to your jurisdiction and send them to you as soon as possible.
I will give the money to your palace."
Hearing that there was money, the guard officer below was even more happy. These wastelands were useless to begin with, so it would be best to buy them for the guerrilla masters.
Li Zhi added: "To open up new fields, we need to build irrigation canals in old fields. This requires you to coordinate with the existing landowners. Based on the area, I will provide a subsidy of 20 taels per mu to the landowners where the irrigation canals pass.
"
The subsidy amount of twenty-two acres is already very high. The harvest of dry land is limited, and the market price is only fifteen-taels one mu.
Li Zhi took out the map of new fields prepared by the officials and sent it to the commanders of each camp, and then said: "The places where irrigation canals are to be built are all drawn and recorded on the map. If you have any questions, you can ask Zheng Zheng, a hundred households.
Hui." After a pause, Li Zhi said: "I will give you ten days to convince these local landowners."
