Qin Official

In the 21st year of King Qin's reign, it has been two full years since Citron was honored as a public official by making "Anlu Pei" and was favored by the county engineer, who asked him to work as a craftsman in the county.

In the past two years, Citron and his wife settled down in the county town. From the initial novelty and uneasiness to gradually getting used to it, the life in the county town is much richer than that in Xiaolilu. Zhong has been helping to cultivate the 100 acres of farmland, and the family has no worries about food and clothing. They are so wealthy that they can eat meat every day.

Citron is satisfied and feels that this is what he pursues in his life.

The only trouble is that as a government-run craftsman, you can't build whatever you want. You must receive a slip from the government and a "letter of orders" for production permission before you can start work. Without this, you can't work. Otherwise, you can't start work. Including Citron's superior engineer will be fined the second grade.

Even if Heifu asked Citron to help him make a stone wheel for pressing sugar cane pulp, he could only make time during his break. He had to prepare all the materials by himself and did not dare to take a piece of wood from the workshop. Because not long ago, a craftsman was severely punished for stealing materials from the workshop for private work, and became a slave with no freedom.

In addition to Shiluo, when Heifu was about to leave Anlu in early January, someone sent a message to Citron, asking him to take leave and go back to his hometown for a few days. Citron thought something had happened, and after hurriedly returning to the sunset, he found that Heifu had given him The wood of a tree was prepared, and I hope he made something that has not yet appeared in this era!

The citron skill was excellent. Heifu just described the general appearance of the object, and he had a map in his mind. As the ax danced rapidly, the planer pushed out the rolled wooden flowers, and the copper-nailed wooden citron was placed in the appropriate place. Heifu The required machinery gradually took shape: a small water wheel no more than four feet high...

Heifu asked Citron to place the small water wheel in the ditch beside their field. When the brothers released water into the rice field, the horizontal plate of the small water wheel caused the entire water wheel to roll counterclockwise under the impact of the water flow. As long as the water flow continued, it would It won't stop.

"This thing is quite interesting."

Although Citron found it interesting, he didn't take it seriously. He didn't think this thing could be of any practical use. As Heifu left for the county town, in the next month, Citron continued to devote himself to his daily work and forgot about this incident.

It wasn't until one day in early February, when Tong was teaching two apprentices to make treadmills, that the county engineer called him over with a solemn face and handed him a transfer order from the county. Tong felt that something was wrong...

"The county wants to transfer me to Ying County?"

Citron was a little confused. Although he was reluctant to live a peaceful life at the moment, he did not dare to disobey the county order. After his wife's nagging, he packed his luggage and did not take many things with him. He only brought rulers, squares, planers, saws and other tools for stone and wood craftsmen to eat. Guy.

"As long as I have these, I won't starve to death wherever I go, no worries."

After patting his robe and comforting his wife, Citron embarked on his journey. This was the first time he left Anlu County in the thirty years since he was born.

While tossing and turning in the pavilion on the way, Tong also thought to himself: "Is it possible that the matter of transferring me to the county has something to do with Mr. Hei?"

Because two years ago, it was Heifu who gave him a big gift and allowed him to come to the county seat.

Citron originally thought that he would have to go to the county town to meet Heifu, but he never thought that after they crossed the wide Han River ferry, Heifu was already waiting here.

"Sister-in-law!"

Hei Fu waved to the dusty Citron from afar, and there was a young man beside him who looked honest and good-natured. But the tattoo on the young man's face made Citron a little surprised. Hei Fu was an official now, so why did he talk to him? A tattooed prisoner staying together?

It turned out that Heifu had not been idle these days. He volunteered to go on a business trip to Jingling County, two hundred miles away, to determine the number of soldiers recruited in Jingling County. He also visited Huaimu's widow and two brothers.

He conveyed Huaimu's last words to Huaimu's widow, left twelve taels of gold and left. As for Huaimu's two younger brothers, they have also regained their freedom. The younger uncle was able to inherit the title of "doctor" from Huaimu, but the middle brother Sangmu got nothing and was worried about what to do in the future. Although Sangmu himself did not commit a crime, he had an experience of trying to escape, so his face After being tattooed with ink, it is extremely difficult to make a living in other professions except being a hidden official.

When Heifu saw that he looked very similar to Sophora Mu, he couldn't help but miss his old friend, so he simply asked Sang Mu to go back to Ying County with him.

"I happen to be short of a driver."

Hei Fu did not discriminate against Sang Mu. He patted him and said, "Sang Mu said he can drive an ox cart. He went to school in the county for a few months. He should be able to drive a carriage as well."

Tong couldn't say much, but the ink words on Sang Mu's face still made him feel dazzling, because in Tong's subconscious, those who broke the law were definitely not good people. When he was resting in a pavilion by the Han River, he finally found the opportunity to ask Hei Fu alone.

As a result, Heifu frightened Citron out of his wits with just one word!

"I told the county lieutenant that as long as I give my father-in-law the manpower and money, you can transform the treadmill that still requires manpower into an artifact that can operate automatically without manpower, saving ten times the manpower!"

Citron's eyes widened, and he murmured honestly: "Is there really such a device? Why didn't I know?"

…

Citron couldn't eat again, and the "impossible task" Heifu had taken on for him made him worried.

Hei Fu was not worried, and just asked Citron to follow him to the bank of Han River in the evening.

"The Han Dynasty is so vast that it is impossible to think about it; the river is so long that it is impossible to think about it."

The boatmen who carry boats to and from transporting pedestrians still sing songs that were circulated hundreds of years ago. Under the setting sun, the water dyed red by the sun stretches as far as the eye can see.

"Water flows from the earth, and the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, and Han River are the same." The Han River, together with the Yangtze River, Dahe River, and Huai River, are listed as the four major water systems of this era. Compared with the Ru River that Heifu once crossed, it is more than two or three times wider.

There is a group of young people playing naked by the water. Unlike the landlubbers in the north, they have been in the water since they were young and have become good at water. This group of teenagers swam happily, either down the river or upstream. Those who were in good health would even cross the Han River and back. They would be the main recruits for Nanjun's three thousand "building and boat warriors".

Heifu also saw groups of women washing their clothes, waving their mallets at the water's edge, pounding clothes and washing them, and loudly tugging at their parents and children. There are also some old women washing baskets and earthen pots in the river...

The Han River is the mother river of Nanjun people. Tens of thousands of families live on both sides of the Han River. They rely on the Han River to irrigate their fields and also rely on the inexhaustible aquatic life in the river to supplement their meat diet.

However, in summer and autumn, Hanshui is not as gentle as before, and it is the "Hanshui Tangtang" that everyone fears. Floods occur every year, washing away fields and houses in some low-lying areas, leaving residents near the water in fear. "At that time, the Jingliu will be really big, and there will be no cattle and horses between the two Zhu cliffs."

After walking more than a hundred steps along the Han River and exchanging seemingly unrelated words, Heifu asked Tong: "But sister-in-law, have you ever thought about the Jingliu River that runs faster than the galloping cows and horses? How great it would be if they could be used to work for people like livestock!"

"Control... Jingliu?" Citron couldn't imagine.

"I dare not say control."

Those who are good swimmers are prone to drowning, so they still have to be in awe of nature. Heifu smiled and said: "I just hope that He Bo will share some of this wasted power of flowing water with us, that's all."

Citron still thinks Heifu's idea is whimsical. They can scoop water from rivers for drinking. They can build water conservancy dams to divert the runoff and let it flow into dry fields, but let the water flow directly help people work like cattle and horses?

"Even if it is something that can only be done by water gods such as He Bo and Xiang Jun, how can humans have the power of water gods?" Citron raised doubts. The idea was good, but he didn't think that such a thing could be accomplished with just a few manpower. .

Heifu shook his head and said: "Otherwise, I heard that in ancient times, people thought that fire was a gift from the gods, until a sage named Suiren made fire with his own hands. Nowadays, any child can make fire with flint and a knife. If it can be done, does anyone still think it is a miracle?"

He knows that the history of human energy utilization, that is, the history of human understanding and conquest of nature, the first stage is the discovery and utilization of fire; the second stage is the utilization of natural power such as animal power, water power, and wind power; and the third stage is fossils. Fuel, electricity, atomic energy...

Today's China is still at the beginning of the second stage. It has made full use of the power of livestock, but its use of water power and wind power is still extremely limited. On the land of China, thousands of streams and rivers rush into the sea, and their potential energy is being wasted, and no one thinks of using it. Only countless concubines and common people are still working hard to do the heavy work with their own efforts. They are suffering under such heavy labor. Many people do not live to be thirty or forty years old...

Therefore, Heifu felt that it was time to upgrade technology from 2.1 to 2.2. The time traveler should not only make up for the regrets of history, but also liberate productivity as much as possible and liberate more people from monotonous heavy work. This was also his mission historical mission.

And it all started with this conversation by the Han River.

"Sister-in-law, you still remember the small water wheel you and I made in Anlu, right?" Heifu said.

"Remember." But Citron only regarded it as a game for children.

Heifu pointed out: "That is actually a sharp weapon used to harness the power of water. The water flows against the crossbar on the water wheel, causing the water wheel to rotate day and night. If a wooden shaft is installed on the water wheel, there will be another wooden shaft on the wooden shaft. Putting the wooden bucket... In this way, there is no need for people to step on it with the weight of the body. Doesn't the wooden bucket move by itself under the power of the water wheel?"

Seeing Citron's expression of sudden realization, Heifu knew that he finally understood, and said: "This is what I said about the artifact that can pound ore and grain by itself without manpower."

"This thing moves with water, how about we call it Shui Lei?"