While listening to Xu Ying enumerate the achievements of the farmer over the past century, Shen Bing sighed inwardly:
This peasant family is destined to be a school of thought with no future and no future.
The reason is not only that Shen Bing knew that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would "depose hundreds of schools of thought to only respect Confucianism" a hundred years later, but also because Shen Bing understood what the rise of peasant families meant...
In times of war when agricultural production was underdeveloped, the ruling class indeed needed farmers.
Because farmers can bring them higher yields, more food and even more stable public sentiment.
These are all conducive to the rule of the ruling class, and can even become the basis for their conquests and annexation of princes.
But this is no longer the case when agriculture develops to a certain extent or enters peacetime.
The development of agriculture means that people have learned production techniques.
After learning it, it became widely spread among the people and could not be erased even if they wanted to, so farmers lost their use value.
More importantly, the ruling class's requirements for agricultural technology during peacetime are not that high or urgent.
For example, the situation Qin State faced in the three counties of Handan at this time...
If in peacetime, a drought is a drought, who can blame God if it doesn't rain?
It would be great if we could provide some food relief.
Otherwise, the people in the disaster area should be moved to Qin State, which happens to still have large areas of land that are uncultivated.
However, due to the war, Ying Zheng urgently wanted to use the three counties as a base to launch a war.
In order to start a war, someone must have food.
So we couldn't provide disaster relief, let alone move the people to Qin.
All Ying Zheng could do was transfer Xu Ying to the three counties to control the drought, hoping to increase production through farmers' technical management.
What is even more serious is that in peacetime the ruling class will never allow "party formation for personal gain."
Then Taoism, Zajia, Yin-Yang... all of them may "form themselves into cliques for selfish gain".
Farmers are even more "forming parties for selfish interests".
Why, all the peasants in the world listen to you, but if one day they shout, "The prince, general, Xiang Ning, you have the guts," and rise up, will this king, this emperor still want to be king?
In terms of guarding against "forming parties for selfish interests", Qin is the most powerful among the countries.
Qin's law states that "private fighting is strictly prohibited".
The "private fight" here does not mean a dispute between two people in private. This is something that no one can control or prohibit. The ruling class will not prohibit this when they have nothing to do or are too drunk.
The so-called "private fights" refer to "township fights", which are private fights that form large-scale cliques.
During the Qin Dynasty, due to the twenty military merit title system, many common people had titles, fiefs and servants.
These common people with titles and fiefs have actually been promoted to feudal landlords.
Disputes often arise between landlords over water sources, land fiefs and other issues, and cliques and private fights are commonplace.
It may not matter at first, it's just a gang fight between a few small landowners.
But if it is allowed to develop, big fish will soon appear to eat the small fish.
Afterwards, the small fish will disappear and the big fish will get bigger and bigger... It will be too late to deal with it when the "big fish" can separate itself.
Therefore, the law of "strictly prohibiting private fighting" is ostensibly to maintain local public order, but in fact it is justifiable to kill the "big fish" in the blink of an eye.
It is precisely for this reason that there was a subsequent "depose of hundreds of schools of thought and only respect Confucianism".
In other words, if the farm is not prosperous, it will be fine, but once it is prosperous...
This is a kind of irony, a naked irony.
The farmers headed by Xu Ying believed that developing agriculture could eliminate war.
He did not know that it was precisely because of the war that peasant families were needed, and that they had the reason and necessity for their existence.
If the war is eliminated...it almost means that the peasant family is eliminated.
At this time, Xu Ying's opening speech was coming to an end.
"I am convening here to discuss agriculture to resolve the urgent drought situation in the three counties."
"If we don't want the engineers to build the water tanker first and then overturn it, the drought in the three counties will no longer be a concern."
"After you discuss agriculture, you can bring waterwheels and overturned waterwheels back to various places to benefit the people."
"I am honored to have the engineer here today. If you have any questions, you can take this opportunity to ask them."
…
Shen Bing secretly thought that there was a point in inviting me to participate in the agricultural discussion. Is he here as a free commentator?
However, Shen Bing couldn't refuse at this point, so he had to answer the questions raised by the gods one by one.
Usually Shen Bing can easily answer the questions. The waterwheel is not a complicated thing in the first place. It is just a little thing when taken apart. However, there are still some new questions.
"Master Engineer, if the land does not produce bamboo, how can we use bamboo tubes to scoop water?"
"Replace with barrels?"
This made Shen Bing hesitate.
The lack of bamboo production is indeed a problem. In ancient times, transportation was not as convenient as in modern times. The trains would transport a lot of bamboo.
It is also unrealistic to replace it with wooden barrels.
Because the making of wooden barrels requires filing the wooden boards into concave shapes, splicing them into barrels, and then tying them with hemp rope.
This was quite a lot of work in the era of purely manual production, and the waterwheel required many wooden barrels.
After thinking about it, Shen Bing replied:
"It can be replaced by a square bucket."
As he spoke, he put his right hand on top of his left hand and explained:
"Both ends are closed, and the vertical and horizontal boards are slightly tilted upward, so that water can be stored and poured like a bamboo tube."
This actually requires the ability to "draw inferences from one instance to other cases". Round wooden barrels are needed in life, but waterwheels do not need them. Even if they are not tight enough and some water will leak, it will not matter.
The farm disciples were also knowledgeable people and immediately understood how to operate and nodded in praise.
At this time, Zhang Ge snorted and asked:
"I wonder if the engineer has any idea about the plight of the three counties' farmland and farmland?"
Xu Ying glanced at Zhang Ge in surprise and said:
"Zhang Ge, this is a question about farming. How can I ask the engineer?"
No wonder Xu Ying was surprised.
The issue of farming and resting land was a matter of discussion and negotiation between Xu Ying and Wang Jian. It would be embarrassing to ask Shen Bing about it.
Zhang Ge raised his hands and replied:
"Sir, besides the drought, the most pressing issue for the three counties right now is the planning of resting farmland."
"What's the harm in asking?"
"Maybe we can find a solution after brainstorming."
Although Xu Ying was a little dissatisfied, he nodded after hearing what Zhang Ge said made sense.
Shen Bing was confused. He had no idea what was going on in the farming and resting fields.
Seeing this, Xu Ying explained:
"If we follow common sense, we should only plant half of the field this year."
"We will plant the other half next year. By alternating like this, we can maintain the fertility of the cultivated land."
"But the general ordered all farmland to be cultivated."
"In this case..."
After saying this, Shen Bing understood.
Wang Jian was anxious to produce more next year because of the war next year.
In order to ensure the sustainability of cultivated land and to ensure the yield, cultivated land is required to be cultivated one year and rested one year.
So a conflict arises:
If all the fields are cultivated this year, how should they be cultivated next year?
The year after, the year after, the year after... the fertility gradually decreases, so the yield is not as good as the previous year.