The origin of the name "ship" originally refers to "a ship with wheels" and "a wheel-driven ship".
Historically, paddle steamers existed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Because of their wheeled characteristics, they were also called "cars and boats."
In the Tang Dynasty, vehicles and ships with two or more wheels on both sides of the hull began to appear. In the Song Dynasty, there were even three-story high-rise ships that could accommodate thousands of people. They were also driven by paddle wheels. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty,
Chen Youliang's naval force 1 also used vehicles and ships to conduct water battles.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the earliest practical steamships that appeared in Europe were driven by paddle wheels.
Later, the "propeller" was improved, a spiral propeller composed of several blades. Compared with a paddle wheel, it is more stable and will not come out of the water in bumps. It is also more difficult to damage and has the advantages of lower cost.
It replaced the paddle wheel.
However, due to customary reasons, later generations still refer to steamships as "ships".
Of course, the current Chu State ship is neither a steam ship nor a true air ship, but... a human ship!
It is similar to the carriages and ships of the Song and Ming Dynasties, mainly relying on pedals. In terms of improvements, it is the windlass, rollers, levers and other technologies of the Chu State, which have unique designs and excellent craftsmanship.
In addition, there are additional animal cages and incoming ports for infuriating energy - there is no storage equipment for large infuriating machines, but the warriors on the ship can input infusing energy into it in real time.
As for the "animal cage", it is a structure similar to a large hamster wheel. Livestock such as cattle, horses, and donkeys can walk or run in it to provide energy.
It cannot be used as the main driving force and is mostly experimental, but it is better than nothing.
After all, whether it is human power or animal power, although the efficiency is much higher than that of a paddle, in the final analysis, the "creatures" that need energy are also on board, and the improvement in efficiency is very limited - it requires the strength of one more cow.
, which means you really have to bear the weight of a cow and its feed.
Only by using a Qi machine that stores a large amount of Qi as power can the efficiency be essentially improved!
However, the Chu State also manufactured some of these types of river boats. After all, the craftsmanship of the craftsmen also needs to be polished, which can be regarded as the "pre-process" of the infuriating ships.
If you really need to use the river trackers, try to lay out tracks and "track bicycles" that fit in with the tracks. Track bicycles can be used for pulling ropes, that is, they can hang ropes and pull boats.
Especially in sections of the river where trackers' calves and even below the waist need to be immersed in water for work, try to build auxiliary bridges to pave the track.
It not only improves fiber pulling efficiency and saves manpower that has to deal with water, but also improves the working environment of trackers.
In essence, it still relies on human power, which is better than nothing1.
In addition, Huang Yueying also designed a "hydraulic fiber drawing" structure that can build waterwheels near the shore, and the power of the waterwheels, through gears and chain transmission, will be used on "mopeds" running on special tracks.
Save more effort when riding.
This further reduces the tracker's burden...
Just because it requires a large piece of flat land, and in areas with such waterfronts, most of the water will not be too strong, and naturally the role of trackers will be relatively small, so... it can only be said to be better than nothing.
All kinds of "better than nothing" add up. Without the application of the essentially innovative technology of "Zhen Qi Machine", the transportation efficiency of the Three Gorges has been nearly doubled.
Although once the Qi Machine appeared, it could be improved several times to cover these "fancy" innovations, but Bai Tu still supported it.
Firstly, it encourages innovation, and secondly... it also accumulates technical experience for craftsmen!
Also in Wudang County, even though there are currently no large-scale Zhenqi machines, human-powered cranes, excavators and other tools have been made on site.
When the "Pan Zhenqi Project" comes to harvest, Chu's productivity will improve by leaps and bounds - because the technological points in machine learning have already been selected.
And at this time, the Three Gorges auxiliary transportation project is more important... I don't know how serious it is!
Looking at the "trackers" riding strange two-wheeled vehicles on the shore, looking at the ships without sails, and looking at the water wheel, Qin Mi fell into "unclear awareness".
Because the Chu army that just passed by and "protected" him would not give him a chance to stop and observe carefully, let alone answer unnecessary questions, so in Qin Mi's heart... even if he was told that the transportation efficiency had increased tenfold
, he is afraid he will believe it!
Although Qin Mi didn't know how effective these projects would be, as a qualified official, Qin Mi could at least estimate the costs of these projects.
There are elevated auxiliary bridges along the coast, cars and boats that look very complicated in workmanship, and huge waterwheels...
If he is allowed to supervise the construction and manufacturing, it will probably be a big project, and these are just to make transportation more convenient, then... the effect will definitely far exceed the construction cost!
Therefore, according to Qin Mi's speculation, the increase should be at least five to seven to eight times, which even increased the anxiety in his heart - after paying such a high price, would the Chu State easily cease the war? Is it really just for Zhang Lu's Han?
Ninghou?
And if the transportation capacity is increased several times, the pressure on logistical supply will be much reduced, right? Maybe... the reason why there is no increase in troops is just to make Yizhou relax its vigilance. In fact, the limit of Chu State is far more than 20,000 people!
In fact, it is not surprising that there is such a misunderstanding, because Qin Mi was referring to Yizhou's construction capabilities and Yizhou's labor costs.
Because of material and technical problems, Yizhou's construction capacity was far lower than that of Chu State, so in Qin Mi's mind, he took a high look at these constructions. In fact, for Chu State, construction was not that difficult.
There are no workshops in Yizhou, and there are fewer wars. The labor cost is so low that it’s a waste of money - especially when the government recruits labor, it’s a waste of money. It doesn’t even have enough money for food!
Therefore, Qin Mi would not understand how important it was for the Chu State to save the manpower of trackers and laborers.
Nowadays, manpower in Chu State is very "expensive". For a tracker in such a bad area, one month's wages can be worth a year's harvest of a hundred acres of land!
It's not that Bai Tu spent more money specifically, but after the rise of workshops, manpower naturally became valuable - after all, the entire Chu country only had a population of more than 12 million. After the farming efficiency improved, and the workshop technology caught up, urbanization
Flying up very quickly.
Although the rapid change means an increase in troubles in all aspects, there are also many additional benefits that Bai Tu had not thought of before...
For example, the part of the population hidden by the wealthy Jingyang family has basically been found out through the census.
After all, if you are farming in the countryside, it is not easy for the court to investigate, and to a certain extent, they are not willing to conduct an investigative investigation. However, if you want to enter a workshop, you must have a Chu household registration!
Firstly, no matter how "trenched" aristocratic families are, they cannot withstand the skyrocketing value of human resources and still have a large number of anonymous households to work inefficiently as servants and coolies. Secondly, many anonymous households are also affiliated with wealthy aristocratic families.
relationship.
It's just that the imperial court, which was far away from Emperor Tiangao, believed more in the wealthy families in the countryside. As their manpower soared, they were naturally willing to take the initiative to leave the wealthy families and return to the position of the Chu people.
At the same time, aristocratic families who gradually regard workshops as an important source of income, or the emerging group of "workshop owners", are very keen on extraditing refugees...
The act of "catching slaves" was strongly suppressed by the Chu State. The prohibition of slaves was one of the foundations of the Chu State. This aspect cannot be changed, but... the Chu State welcomes people from all over the country to immigrate!
On the contrary, the imperial courts in the Central Plains and other places have to suppress the circulation of people - this is completely different from the situation after the productivity has greatly developed and the population has been overflowing.
In the Chu State, as long as they abide by the laws of Chu, anyone will be welcome!
Even if Bai Tu uses trade as a bargaining chip, he can only ask the Wei State and the Han Dynasty to relax the immigration restrictions on imperial examination talents, but cannot directly threaten the other party, lift all immigration restrictions, and let the people migrate south, otherwise the other party will definitely turn their backs in any minute.
.
As a result, ordinary people in the Central Plains are unable to immigrate on their own, but... the wealthy families have their own channels!
Bai Tu only recently discovered why the influx of "refugees from all over the country" has been increasing and has not slowed down at all. An in-depth investigation by the Fengwei found out that some Jingyang nobles are related to the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and even the north.
The wealthy families in Liaodong connected with each other and steadily traded part of the population over...
Some are servants and servants of wealthy families in other places, and some are ordinary people who want to move to Chu State but lack the connections!
The cost of moving these manpower to the Chu State, or the benefits of those noble families, was generally a ten-year contract signed with aristocratic families in the country.
And in order to "absorb refugees", local government offices also provide refugee subsidies and include them in the scope of official inspections. Therefore, if they can "acquire" refugees, local government offices will also support and commend them, so this can be regarded as a joint effort between the government and the people...
These aristocratic families do have their own wisdom, and Bai Tu never thought of this before.
Baitu did not stop this, but focused on supervising the implementation of the "resettlement of refugees", implementing the distribution of land according to households and the protection of people who had become Chu citizens after moving in.
In particular, beware of "isolation" behavior. No matter how you come to Chu State, since you are already a Chu citizen, you will enjoy the treatment of Chu citizens. The legal ten-year contract is valid, but attempts to "isolate and captive" behavior are never allowed.
No matter how much progress it makes, it is still far from being a welfare society. The advantage of Chu State is not welfare, but the opportunity for labor and higher labor value. Any kind of labor force is lacking in Chu State.
As long as it is indeed in line with the ten-year contract of the "Laws of Chu", and there is no forced servitude or restriction of freedom, Bai Tu doesn't care where these people came from - if it is a headache, it is also a headache for the princes with population loss!
Even so, Chu State has always been "crying for support" in terms of manpower. Naturally, for Chu State, it is very cost-effective to build these auxiliary facilities and equipment to reduce manpower consumption by half.
Of course, the disadvantage of more expensive manpower is that the cost of Chu imperial court projects has also increased dramatically.
Bai Tu did not specifically give more wages to the requisitioned trackers and other civilian laborers, but only rejected the suggestion of some officials to reduce the official labor quotation for requisitioning.
And Qin Mi still can't understand this behavior at all...