As the saying goes, food is the first priority for the people and grain is the foundation of the country. In the Qin State, Xianyang in Guanzhong specially set up the "Government of Grain" to manage the grain supply in the country's warehouses. It is said that the Xianyang warehouse has a hundred thousand stones of grain, and the Yueyang warehouse has 100,000 stones of grain.
He accumulated 20,000 shi of grain.
Local counties also set up granaries, which were managed by "Cang Shifu". Like engineers, the Cang Shifu had a rank of two hundred stones and was equivalent to the director of the county grain bureau in later generations.
The Anlu County Warehouse is located in Guansi District. These circular grain storage warehouses are tightly protected by walls, and county soldiers are patrolled inside and outside. Without the approval of the county magistrate and the formalities written in black by the county prime minister, no one can even think of passing through the warehouse.
Steal half a grain of food here!
This place is roughly divided into three areas: the cuo warehouse for storing husk, the barn for storing millet, and the rice warehouse for storing shelled rice and millet.
Between the barn and the rice barn is a long room with no walls, just a tile shed on the top, rows of stone mortars under the shed, and wooden pestles next to it.
Every day, Cang Chefu would send Cang Zuo officials to take out hundreds of stones of newly harvested millet after autumn from the barn, transport it into the longhouse, and let the concubines serving their sentences inside pound it into brown rice, polished rice, and then transport it to
Rice warehouse storage.
In spring, summer, autumn and winter, regardless of the cold or heat, these poor female prisoners had to constantly pound the grain with heavy pestles. The salary of the county officials and the rations of the soldiers on the front line were all pounded out by them day after day.
If you cannot complete the work, you will not be allowed to rest. Many people have worked for several years and their arms are almost useless. No wonder "chun" can be the most scandalous prison sentence like the "chengdan" served by men.
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, all the concubines started pounding rice early in the morning under the scolding of the Kurasa officials. As prisoners, their clothes were thin and they could not eat the good rice they pounded, so naturally they could not talk about it.
What kind of enthusiasm for work is just numbly lifting the wooden pestle, putting it down, lifting it, and putting it down again, which is very inefficient. Fortunately, it is winter, and the laws are particularly generous. They only need to do two-thirds of the work in summer every day.
But even so, it still took three or four hours to grind two stones of millet every day. The worst thing was that the concubine who was assigned to grind the polished rice had to work from morning to night before she could finish the work.
Just as hundreds of concubines were silent and working like zombies, a Kurasa official suddenly arrived and ordered two adult concubines of similar stature to come out.
The two disheveled concubines came out uneasily and followed Kurasa out of the shack to the open space outside. They saw something amazing. Kuraso Fu and the county engineer were two senior officials in the county.
It's all here!
The concubines hurriedly bowed their heads. One was guessing whether she had committed another crime, with a worried look on her face, while the other was guessing whether a family member had come to redeem her, and was beaming with joy...
As a result, they were just assigned a new job, which was to pound grain.
But the difference is that Kurasa and the county engineer and others asked two concubines, one to use an ordinary pestle and mortar, and the other to use an instrument placed on the ground to "step on the pestle."
The two girls had no choice but to be ordered to work. One held the wooden pestle high, and the other kept using the weight of his body to step on the wooden pole that stepped on the pestle...
Half an hour later, the engineer called to stop, and then he couldn't wait to walk to the wooden bucket containing rice to see for himself how much grain the two women had pounded.
"The pestle and mortar pounded 3 buckets, and the treadmill pounded... 5 buckets!"
He raised his head in surprise and questioned the two concubines again. Sure enough, the one with the pestle and mortar was as tired as usual. The one with the treadmill also wanted to say he was tired. He took many breaks and was frightened by the officials, so he told the truth.
, in fact, it is not tiring, and you can pound it again.
Heifu's sister-in-law looked at the scene in front of him and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was an honest and honest craftsman. In the past, the biggest official he saw in the village was the rural food official who came to inspect. Now he has to stand between two
In front of Baishi Li, without Hei Fu by his side, he could not even speak, he did not even dare to take a breath...
However, the engineer was cautious, and after discussing with Cang Shifu, the two decided to choose another pair of concubines to try.
Then Qun's heart started to rise again, and he stared at the person who was pounding the rice, for fear that the concubine who was using the treadmill would be lazy and the amount of rice pounded would be less.
Another half an hour has passed, and new results have come out. This time, the person who used the pestle and mortar still only pounded 3 and a half buckets, while the person who used the pestle and hammer pounded 5 buckets and 5 liters!
The county engineer no longer had any doubts in his mind and was immediately overjoyed.
"I've already pounded so much even though I'm unfamiliar with it. If I can master it, just like what the black man recorded, I can pound 6 or 7 buckets in half an hour without any problem!"
The more the county engineer looked at this treadmill, the more he liked it. The structure of this thing is simple, the materials are available everywhere, and the cost is definitely cheap. As for using it, it is even more convenient. Once you learn it, a half-year-old child can sit on it and pound rice.
"This thing is very consistent with the meaning of 'merit is supreme' in our country's "Gong Lv". I should tell the county magistrate immediately!"
If this thing is presented, it will definitely be praised. The county engineer feels that the punishment he suffered last year for making the utensils that did not meet the specifications can be erased, and he can even accumulate some achievements!
The county engineer was thinking about it, and the storekeeper beside him was also smiling.
As an official in charge of grain management, who else knows the magical uses of this thing better than Cang Shifu? The land in Anlu is abundant and there is no shortage of millet. But the trouble is that the number of concubines is limited and the work efficiency is low. There is a lot of millet.
If the rice cannot be pounded into white rice in time, it can only be backlogged in the warehouse. If the grain accidentally becomes moldy, the warehouse stalwart will be held accountable...
Just kidding! Qin's laws are so strict, and they are even more strict with food. He is a barn stingy who not only has to take care of food and people, but also takes care of rats. Just because if there are three mouse holes in a granary,
The clerk in charge of this warehouse will be punished! He, the warehouse stingy man, is also involved!
Besides, when you pay salaries, you can't just give millet to officials directly, right? Then your colleagues must be embarrassed. When sending food to the front line, you can't just transport millet directly. Do you have to ask the soldiers to give them before eating in battle?
Pound the rice for half an hour first?
Nowadays, this problem has been solved by Tudi. If it can be promoted in the county, not only the efficiency of rice pounding by ordinary farmers will be greatly improved, but the public will benefit the most. Hundreds of women in Anlu County have been sentenced to "pounding"
Disciple, if we all use treadmills, how much more millet can be pounded every day? At least one stone!
The storekeeper calculated that twenty bushels of millet can be pounded into ten bushels of corn. Ten bushels of rice can be pounded into six and two-thirds bushels of rice... In this way, on the original basis, at least one bushel of rice can be made every year.
The county warehouse has more than 10,000 kilograms of rice!
"There are tens of thousands more kilograms of rice in the warehouse. This is a great contribution. It will be enough for me to rank first in the county in next year's performance appraisal!"
As Cang Chefu thought this, his eyes met those of the county engineer.
The county engineer smiled brightly: "Thank you very much for your help, Master Cang, for proving the wonderful use of this thing. I will report it to the county magistrate immediately and ask the craftsmen in the wood workshop to rush to make a batch..."
Cang Shifu was not to be outdone: "I should have thanked the county engineer. This thing is related to Cang's property. It is within my authority and is obviously under my control. It is up to me to inform the county magistrate!"
The county engineer's face suddenly stiffened, and he pointed to the citron beside him and said, "This is wrong, Mr. Cang. This thing was sent by a hundred workers. It is under my control. If you want to rob it, you have exceeded your authority."
"The county engineer misunderstood."
Cang Shifu chuckled and put his arm around the county engineer's shoulder: "How about this, since this matter has something to do with you and me, how about we report it together?"
The two of them were talking in a low voice, but Citron was extremely embarrassed. He kept looking back, hoping that Heifu would come back soon. Otherwise, what would he do if two superiors asked him later?
Sure enough, when the county engineer and Cang Shifu finished dividing the spoils, they started to turn around and ask him questions, but this boring gourd was dumbfounded and could not utter a single word.
"You bastard... I can't tell you whether this thing was made by you or not." The county engineer had a headache. Without asking for details, how could they ask for credit for the citron? By the way, he could also count himself a share.
Achievements.
At this moment, in the yard of a government office not far from the county warehouse, there was a burst of exclamation, followed by continuous applause and admiration...
The clerks who were waiting on the side all turned their heads to look in that direction, and the county engineer Cang Shifu, who was sharing the credit, also raised his head and was very surprised.
That courtyard is where the chief officials work. It is unusually quiet on weekdays. What happened today?
Not long after, an excited Kurasa official came over and told them what was going on.
"According to the custom, on the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the chief official held a meeting to examine the officials. Just now there was a public servant who was recruited by the county to be the chief of the pavilion. The chief official asked him to answer questions on twenty laws and orders, and this man actually answered them all correctly!"
…
"All twenty questions are correct? So awesome!"
The county engineer and Cang Shifu looked at each other. The Qin State uses laws as its guideline. Anyone who works as an official must know the laws. When they work as officials, they must first pass the level of chief official and inspect the matters related to their work.
"Gong Lv", "Jun Gong Lv", "Cang Lv", "Shi Chuan Lv", etc.
Generally speaking, you are qualified if you answer twenty or fourteen or five questions. Sixteen or seventeen questions are good, and eighteen or nineteen questions are excellent.
As for whether all twenty questions are correct? Maybe one will appear in one or two years.
"Could that person be a disciple of the school?" Cang Shifu asked. If he is a disciple of the school who has studied law for three years, it is still possible.
"He's just a village official who didn't know the laws a month ago. By the way, he is the man who captured three thieves not long ago and became a official, and is well-known throughout the county!"
"It's him?"
Upon hearing this, the county engineer immediately understood who it was, and Citron, who had been embarrassed for more than an hour without saying a word, also shouted out in surprise.
"Is it Hei Fu?"
"Yes, let's call him Heifu." Kurasa official said, pointing towards the gate of the county warehouse: "Look! He is here!"
When everyone looked around, they saw a burly young man striding towards this side. The soap cloth clothes he had before had been replaced by crimson clothes, and he was wearing a pair of silk ribbons on his feet. His bun was still wrapped in a brown cloth, but his forehead
On top of it, there was a touch of red scarf that was as bright as blood!
As Hei Fu walked along, the fighting assistants on both sides bowed their hands to him, and Hei Fu only responded with a courtesy.
When he came to the county engineer and Cang Shifu, he no longer bowed down and saluted as before, but folded his hands and bowed slightly towards them.
"My subordinates are late. I hope your superiors won't be surprised."
The county engineer did not dare to be as indifferent as when they first met in the morning. Together with Cang Chefu, he slightly bowed his hands to Hei Fu and treated him politely...
The chief of the pavilion in the Qin Dynasty was a food official and did not have a special official uniform. The red and crimson clothing was his symbol.
At this moment, Hei Fu is no longer an ordinary citizen. After passing the official examination, he is the chief of Huyang Pavilion and a "Qin official"!