Therefore, although the development of agriculture cannot eliminate war, it will definitely require the development of agriculture after the elimination of war to become a prosperous age.
After understanding this, Xu Ying became motivated again.
However, he still carefully asked Shen Bing:
"Lieutenant General, there are farmers all over the Central Plains. After we record the rice-pounding waterwheel and the wind-blowing waterwheel... is it appropriate to spread it to the Chu region?"
The Chu land Xu Ying mentioned here refers to the Huainan Chu land controlled by the Chu army.
Shen Bing thought for a while and replied:
"For the time being, we won't spread it to the Chu region, especially the windmills."
Xu Ying nodded in agreement.
The reason why Shen Bing said this is because compared to the rice-pounding waterwheel, the blower waterwheel is still somewhat technical.
The rice-pounding water wheel is too simple and can be learned at a glance. Even if Xu Ying didn't spread it to Chu Di, he would learn it quickly.
The wind-blowing waterwheel is relatively complicated and the production is relatively closed, so it will not be spread so quickly.
This time difference was enough to give Qin's control of the area north of the Huaihe River some technical advantages over the areas south of the Huaihe River, although this advantage was short-lived.
The next thing Shen Bing has to do is to give King Qi of Chu a beating...
On the other side, King Qi Zheng and Xiang Yan of Chu were in a state of sorrow in Dongting.
During this time, they sent out spies everywhere, especially in the Shouchun area where there were many spies from Chu.
This made Chu Wang Qi and Xiang Yan well aware of the situation in Huaibei.
The first thing I know about is the rice pounding waterwheel.
Even King Qi of Chu had a rice-pounding waterwheel made according to the drawings drawn by the spies.
Seeing the rice being pounded up and down automatically without manpower, King Qi of Chu sighed:
"I also said that Huaibei will definitely be in chaos due to lack of food in a while."
"I didn't want to sink the army, but I made this thing and pounded rice in exchange for farming."
"In this way, Huaibei's food shortage problem can be solved."
Xiang Yan had nothing to say, he only secretly wondered who this Shen Bing was, who could know how to make such a thing.
In this way, not only Huaibei, but all the Qin people in the Qin Dynasty can avoid the pain of pounding rice... You must know that everyone has an amount of rice pounded every day.
The so-called rice pounding amount means that everyone has to eat, and the rice eaten must be pounded to remove the husks.
But there are many people who cannot grind rice, such as dignitaries, the military, the elderly and children...
The amount of pounded rice would be concentrated on women and slaves.
For example, the army will have a large number of slaves dedicated to pounding rice, and they will pound rice day and night.
This once occupied a considerable part of the labor distribution.
But now... you just need to set up a few waterwheels, and then use these waterwheels to do the work. It is fast, labor-saving, and good.
Among them, "good" is well deserved.
Because as mentioned before, military ration supply can be divided into "rice" and "rice".
They are all made from grains, but they are different. The reason is that it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to pound rice. It is roughly pounded several times to remove some of the shells and can be eaten, which is called "grilled rice". It is eaten by soldiers with low titles.
On the basis of "粝米", continue to pound until there is no shell at all, which is "粲米", also known as polished rice. This is for the consumption of high-ranking soldiers and dignitaries.
What ordinary people eat is usually "rice".
The reason is that the housework is already heavy and I don’t have much time to pound the rice, so I can only pound it roughly once.
But now...if the pounding of rice can be done by a waterwheel, it will only take longer. Is it necessary to separate "rice" and "rice"?
The fact is exactly as Xiang Yan imagined. Overnight, there is almost no "rice" in the Huaibei area, especially in Shouchun, and everyone can eat fragrant polished rice.
After being silent for a long time, Xiang Yan comforted King Chu and said:
"Your Majesty, don't worry about this."
"It is not difficult to make this thing. The Qin army can use it to pound rice, so why can't we use it?"
King Qi of Chu just sighed and said:
"We have plenty of military rations, so why are we worrying about this rice-pounding water tanker?"
"It's that Shen Bing will have some fantastic and extremely practical ideas every now and then. If things go on like this..."
As he spoke, King Chu Qi sighed again.
Chu Wangqi's worries were justified.
It would be fine if it was just a waterwheel for pounding rice. Chu could just imitate it in large numbers and invest it in the private sector to save labor.
The question is, is this the only thing Shen Bing made?
One comes today and the other comes tomorrow. It won’t take long for the Qin land in Huaibei to be far away from the Chu land in Huainan.
There is a saying that "no comparison means no harm".
If everyone was so miserable and tired in the past, then no one in Huaibei or Huainan would have anything to say.
but now……
If the Qin land in Huaibei can easily obtain more crops with less labor, but the tired dogs in Chu land in Huainan can only harvest much less food, how can this balance the minds of the people?
As the saying goes, "When people go to higher places, water flows to lower places."
Once the people's psychology becomes unbalanced, Chudi will soon face the problem of population loss... This is a bit like illegal immigration, which cannot be stopped, and is like the endless flow of a surging river.
At that time, I am afraid that the Qin army will not be needed to destroy Chu, and Chu itself will perish due to the massive loss of population.
Xiang Yan, who was good at using soldiers, would not consider this. He still said to King Qijian of Chu:
"Your Majesty, my subordinates have contacted several nobles and they have agreed to work together to fight against Qin."
"At this time, you are the first to face the Qin army. I believe that they will fight to the death."
"I think it will not be easy for the Qin army to go south."
Chu Wangqi could only reply with a frown:
"I hope so!"
Having said that, King Qi of Chu was not optimistic about the situation at all.
Sure enough, bad news came one after another:
"Your Majesty, it is said that Shen Bing has improved the quality of ironware."
"New iron is sharper and more durable than old iron."
King Qi of Chu asked anxiously:
"Where's the law?"
The answer I got was:
"It hasn't been found yet."
Then King Qi of Chu realized that what he was worried about had finally come true.
Then came another piece of information:
"Your Majesty, the spies of the Qin Army went deep into our territory to distribute notices."
King Qi of Chu was shocked again:
"What's the notice?"
The personal guard handed over a notice sent by Fei Ge.
King Qi of Chu was shocked to find that the notice was actually written on paper... He had known that this piece of paper could be worth ten coins when he was in Qin State, but it was tripled to thirty coins in Chu State.
But the Qin army used it to write notices?
Looking at the content of the notice again... I was surprised to see that it was written with simple drawings and text.
It goes without saying why it is done in this way: even an uneducated and illiterate person can understand it roughly by looking at the picture.
But after thinking about it, Chu Wangqi secretly breathed a sigh of relief:
There must not be many notices written on such valuable paper.
If there are not many notices, how can they have any impact?
However, when he asked casually "How many such notices are there", the guard replied:
"It is said that there were thousands of them, and the streets were covered with them overnight."