One day in late February, just after dinner time, horse-drawn carriages drove northward from Jiangling and Ying counties one after another. Their destination was the copper smelting workshop at the foot of Mount Ji.
An's car stopped at the entrance of the workshop, and Tongguan Yangxi immediately came to greet him. Those who came today were all his real immediate superiors, that is, the work officers and work chiefs from Nanjun Gongcao, and a few more
A highly respected craftsman.
However, the work officers and work chiefs who were wearing official uniforms and crowns on their heads took the initiative to move out of the way and let a very slow old ox cart drive at the front. However, they saw an old man with a gray head sitting in the car, sitting peacefully.
Sitting in the car, his clothes were neatly dressed, but his hands were covered with calluses and wrinkles.
"I never thought that Chen Weng would arrive!"
Tongguan Yangxi felt very pleasantly surprised, and hurriedly walked over, and helped the old man down together with a group of workers and workers.
This old man's name is Chen Yi, and he is the oldest engineer in Nanjun. Chen Yi was an ordinary craftsman when he was young, but because of his outstanding skills, he was good at carpentry and stonemasonry. Because he was transferred to Shu County, he was the governor of Shu County.
Li Bing worked under Li Bing. During those years, he and countless craftsmen assisted Li Bing in managing the Minjiang River and built the "拔勋" (treacherous péng), which was later known as Dujiangyan!
That big weir was the pride of Chen Yi's life. Under their whims, the unruly Minjiang River turned from a great harm to a great benefit to Shu County, irrigating thousands of miles of fertile fields. Since then, floods and droughts in the Chengdu Plain have never stopped.
The people were unaware of the famine, so a steady stream of food was sent along the river to Nanjun, and then to the Central Plains to serve as food for the Qin army.
In Chen Yi's view, water flow is already the limit of how people can use the power of flowing water. When Dayu was controlling water, he summed up his experience: Water can be drained, but cannot be blocked. It can only be coaxed to flow toward people who want it.
Wherever the flow goes, as for harnessing the power of water like taming livestock and letting it work for people? It is simply arrogant!
So he leaned on his dove stick and said with a smile: "I heard that there is an Anlu craftsman who wants to make equipment that can be transported by himself without manpower. The old man has been a carpenter and stonemason for decades, and has traveled all over Shu County, Ba County, and Nan County.
, I’ve been to Guanzhong, but I’ve never heard of such a magical weapon, why don’t you come and see it and learn more about it?”
Chen Yi's words made the engineers and officers on the side laugh. Like Chen Yi, they didn't believe that there was such a thing in the world, let alone a small craftsman from the county.
Already.
Admittedly, they have also heard that the little craftsman did make a pestle and mortar, which has now been popularized in Guanzhong and Nanjun, and other counties are gradually replacing the human pestle and mortar with a treadle.
But in the eyes of everyone, it was just luck and a small device with a simple structure. Did that craftsman think he was the reincarnation of Lu Ban?
An engineer stroked his beard as he walked in and said, "I once heard that Gongshu Ban made a flying kite out of wood. It flew in the sky for three days and three nights before falling. This Anlu craftsman also claimed that the kite could move forever."
It’s really arrogant to go down. I heard that it will be tried out today, but we want to see how it will end.”
Tongguan Yangxi hesitated to speak at the side. He originally wanted to defend Citron, an honest man who never rested since he came to the construction site, but he only saw that Citron made a water wheel and made it run. Can it be done?
It was especially unclear how to drive Mu Lei, so he finally shut up and led everyone forward.
Their destination was a stream used to clean ore and wash away soil next to the mine. The water was two feet wide. Due to the terrain, it was relatively fast. A group of people were busy around the stream.
"Who is Citron?"
Chen Yi tilted his head and asked Yang Xi. He couldn't tell who was the citron among the bunch of ministers whose heads were covered with mud and water.
"It's the man wearing a black cloth belt and holding a wooden hammer who is placing the equipment himself."
Chen Yi searched for a while and finally found Citron, only to see that he, like the others, was wearing brown clothes. He was not on the shore to instruct others on what to do, but to do it himself. At this moment, he was barefoot in the water.
Seeing this, Chen Yi's dislike for the citron lessened a little. When he took a closer look at the device installed by the water, he couldn't help but be slightly surprised.
First of all, there is a wooden support more than ten feet high, which is nailed deep into the ground and tightly built with stones. The object on the support looks like a thickened large wheel or a spinning wheel used by women for weaving.
Magnified many times, it is as tall as a person when standing up.
The wheel was equipped with several blades. When the big wheel was successfully placed on the water, everyone at the waterside got out of the way.
Next, an astonishing scene appeared in Chen Yi's eyes: there were no manpower to step on or pull, and there were no livestock to turn around. The huge machine seemed to have a life of its own. It was washed by the stream and began to rotate clockwise and make a roar.
The sound of the gurgling sound became faster and faster, and finally it was the same as the speed of running water.
After everyone got out of the way, the other side of the water wheel was also revealed: it was a rotating shaft driven by a gear, connected to the water wheel. There were four paddles staggered to each other on the shaft. The water stimulated the wheel to rotate, which also drove the paddles.
Rotate, every time the dial moves the tip of the pedal downwards, it is like a person stepping down hard. The four pedals placed under the rotating shaft start to move on their own, and they fall to the ground together and are pounded into the stone mortar.
of ore!
"It's done!"
Citron and the Tongguan craftsmen who followed him to cut the wooden wheel and experimented for several days cheered.
Chen Yi and all the craftsmen and craftsmen who saw this scene on the other side were stunned, as if the wooden bucket driven by the water wheel fell downwards, and what was hit was not the ore, but their hearts!
Their old idea that it was impossible for people to harness water power for work was shattered to pieces by the facts they saw with their own eyes!
"This way we can cleverly utilize the power of flowing water. How come we never thought of it!?"
Chen Yi felt quite guilty. As an old craftsman for decades, he had never thought about this aspect.
When everyone was horrified, Yang Xi had already brought Citron over. Citron was an honest man, no better than his thoughtful brother-in-law. They saw a group of county engineers, engineers, and a white-haired old craftsman standing in front of them.
Immediately and tremblingly, I bowed to them...
"We don't deserve this as a courtesy. We should be saluting you and asking for advice."
Chen Yi quickly lifted up the Citron, looked him up and down, smiled, and praised: "You are indeed a craftsman who can make Anlu Pei. Today we are really refreshed!"
All the craftsmen and officers on the side also praised the citron one after another. They all praised him for his skillful craftsmanship.
Not saying it was okay, Citron immediately blushed and repeatedly gave in.
Chen Yi only thought that he was humble and admired Citron more. Unexpectedly, in Citron's heart, he just thought with a guilty conscience: "It's not me. These are all the ideas of Mr. Hei. I just followed them..."
But Heifu warned him of the consequences of the matter being exposed, so Tron could only bury the matter in his heart.
"Can we give this thing a name?" Chen Yi was very excited. He walked around the device again and again. After carefully observing the cam and connecting rod, he praised it endlessly.
"It's called Shui Lei."
Citron said: "Because it can drive several treadmills to move together, my brother-in-law named it the Lianji Shuijie..."
"Lianji Shui Lei."
Chen Yi praised: "Well, it is said that in ancient times, Shennong made pestles and pounders to help all people. But you made the treadmill two years ago. You can use your body weight to trample the pestle, and it is twice as beneficial.
Today, you have set up a clever mechanism to pound water with a pestle, and the benefit is ten times that of a pestle!"
As an old craftsman, Chen Yi can see the great use of this thing: as long as the water keeps flowing and the water wheel does not stop, the four buckets can keep moving, day and night!
They checked its strength and found that it was no less powerful than an adult lifting a hammer and smashing it. Moreover, people have to rest and sleep, eat and drink water, and may be lazy, but the connected machine and water hammer cannot. In this way, a connected machine and water hammer can't
, equivalent to at least ten adult laborers!
"If fifty can be set up here, wouldn't it be equivalent to giving Tongguan an extra 500 manpower?"
Thinking of this, Chen Yi excitedly pulled the frightened Citron, raised his hand high, and said to everyone:
"Any craftsman who is beneficial to others is called skillful, and when it is not beneficial to others, he is called clumsy."
"Those so-called skilled craftsmen in the princes' palaces cast exquisite ritual vessels and carved jewelry. They tried their best, but they were not beneficial to the people. In my eyes, they are just a group of clumsy craftsmen!"
"At that time, Governor Li of Shu County led us to build the Jiankun Weir, which irrigated thousands of acres of fields and allowed people to control floods and droughts. It was a great coincidence that there was a great harvest in Sichuan."
"And today, one of the connected machine-operated water buckets made by Citron is equivalent to ten more manpower out of thin air. This is quite compact!"
…
In the afternoon, Hei Fu also accompanied Li Youlai to watch the making of the "connected water bucket". Everyone crowded at the waterside and watched the wooden bucket operating on its own driven by the water wheel, and exclaimed. But Hei Fu was behind with him.
Citron whispered, and learned from Citron's mouth the kind words of the old engineer Chen Yi.
"Xiaoqiao?"
Heifu smiled: "I don't agree with this. Chen Yi only saw this small stream in front of him, and only saw that it affected Tongguan. But he forgot that there are thousands of streams in Nanjun, all over the world.
There are tens of thousands of rivers. If this thing can be promoted, the number of people benefiting from it will be tens of millions. How can it be smaller than Dujiangyan... or Jiankun?"
Moreover, the machine-connected water hammer can not only be used to process ores, but can also be used to pound rice and pound medicine. It has a wide range of uses.
Sometimes Heifu laments that ancient inventions and creations do not need to be fancy or complicated. Sometimes, the simpler things are, the easier it is to last forever.
Although the water mortar was invented by our ancestors in the Western Han Dynasty, until the reform, water mortar houses for pounding grain and grinding flour could still be seen everywhere in the south. There was one in Heifu's hometown in his previous life, and his grandfather was young.
When I was working in the grain management office, I was sent to stay in the Shuihui House for a few years. Heifu even played there when I was a child, so I have some impressions...
In Heifu's eyes, the significance of the water dam goes beyond that. This should be the first time in China that people took the initiative to utilize water power and convert water power into power.
When the window paper of "people can use water power" is pierced, it is conceivable that craftsmen from all over the world will spontaneously study and understand its principles. Within a hundred years, water mills, water drainage, water wheels and other things can be created.
With some suggestions from Heifudi, the time can even be shortened to within ten years!
"I just hope that these things can really liberate more people from heavy labor and slowly change this era."
Thinking of this, Hei Fu joked: "Sister-in-law, you are already a great craftsman. You will be promoted and rewarded soon!"
"I don't ask for any rewards or titles, as long as I don't get exposed."
Citron is still feeling uneasy. In his opinion, this is cheating to defraud merit and reward, and he will be punished if exposed!
"I have told the county captain that I realized this thing by the water and told you. Even if someone doubts it, you and I are not guilty."
Heifu comforted Tong in this way, but he still wanted Tong to get this credit. There are specialties in the art. Although Heifu had an idea, it was Tong's technology that turned the idea into reality. In the future, Heifu will have more
How much we need to rely on him.
At this time, Li You had finished his inspection with satisfaction. In this way, the Haikou that Heifu boasted about that day has been fully realized. If dozens of water dams can be added to the surrounding streams and rivers, Tongguan can hand over more
More copper ingots allow the foundry to make more weapons. Before the war begins, the shortfall in the arsenal will definitely be filled!
Li You finally said with emotion: "My father once read me an article by Xunzi, which said that when you climb high and move, your arms will not be lengthened, but the sight will be far away; when you shout with the wind, the sound will not be faster, but the hearing will be louder.
"A false horse can travel a thousand miles if it is not good enough; a false boat can run a thousand miles if it is not capable of running water. A gentleman's life is not different. He is good at false things."
"Today, there are soldiers from the left, Cao Shiheifu, and Anlu County, a skilled craftsman. They used the power of water to make a water-operated machine, which can also achieve several times the effect!"
Everyone responded in unison, including Shi, the governor of the county who came to watch the excitement after hearing the news. He nodded slightly, thoughtfully.
After returning to Jiangling City, Chang Shi went directly to the Sheriff's Mansion and informed Nanjun County Sheriff Teng of the "wonderful sight" he saw today...
