Li Shui and Li Xin were still drinking, and after Cang Fu bowed and thanked them, he took the children out.
At this time, the red sun was turning to the west, and according to the agreement, it was time for the craftsmen to finish work.
Cang Fu took out 10,000 yuan and divided it with fifty craftsmen.
There is no distinction between adults and children, only heads. Two hundred yuan per person and one thousand yuan per household.
For the poor people in Guizhou, this thousand dollars is simply a great wealth.
At the current price, two hundred dollars could buy a live sheep. In other words, after the craftsmen households worked on stone grinding for several days, each household had five more live sheep.
This is more income than what I got after working hard for a year.
The craftsmen were grateful along the way and returned to Xiaotu Village from the No. 1 Stone Mill.
There was no way to hide this news, and soon everyone in Xiaotu Village knew about it, and the craftsmen made a fortune.
Those farmers felt a little uncomfortable. In order to cultivate the fields, they used force to occupy a thousand acres of fertile land, and drove away the sparse villagers to become craftsmen.
Unexpectedly, in just a few days, the situation reversed. They, the farmers, were somehow involved in a bet, and they worked tirelessly every day for fear of being implicated if they lost the bet.
Sometimes farmers will think desperately after work: How can they win against others if they only cultivate half of the farmland?
Their only hope is that when their master is beheaded, the big shots will forget about them. Let yourself continue to cultivate silently, facing the loess and turning your back to the sky.
As for escaping, they had not thought about it. Daqin's laws are very strict, and you need to pass the test wherever you go. If you are caught, your life will be worse than death...
I thought life like this was hopeless enough. What's even more desperate is that the old, weak, sick and disabled who were driven away by them actually received a reward of one thousand Qin half liang.
One thousand yuan, if you live frugally, it can feed the whole family for several years.
Jealousy is like a poisonous snake biting the farmer's internal organs. They wanted to rush out, continue talking with their fists, and force the craftsmen to hand over their money.
But they didn't dare. Erhu had learned from the past. Now he had his toes chopped off and was still working hard on the city wall.
That night, none of the villagers in Xiaotu Village slept.
The craftsmen and their families had a full meal for the first time, chatted all night, and laughed out loud from time to time.
The farmers pretended that nothing happened, but they lay on their beds, tossing and turning, keeping their eyes open until dawn.
After sunrise, the farmer yawned and walked listlessly to the farmland with dark circles under his eyes.
The craftsmen looked excited and arrived at the stone mill in groups.
According to Li Shui's plan, making the millstone was the first step, and training the cattle was the second step.
After all, the craftsmen are not skilled enough to make exquisite small millstones. Now each stone mill has a diameter of more than one foot and is extremely heavy. It is unrealistic to rely on manpower.
It’s just that training cattle is not easy. I was busy for a long time yesterday and got no results at all.
They went to work today mainly to solve this problem.
In fact, Li Shui had already told the craftsmen the purpose of making stone mills. It is for grinding the wheat and eating the essence.
From the perspective of the craftsmen, this is simply a waste of food. But then I thought about it, the owner was a wealthy man and only wanted luxury, which seemed normal. I heard that the nobles in Xianyang City only eat chicken tongues. They would kill hundreds of chickens for one dish.
Last night, after the craftsmen received the reward, they had the idea of repaying the favor. They are at the bottom of society and are bullied by people who are also at the bottom, so they are especially grateful when someone is kind to them.
In order to let the master eat the essence of Sumai as soon as possible, these craftsmen discussed it for a while. It was decided to divide the people into two groups.
One group of people continued to train the cattle, while the other group of people worked together to push the stone mill to grind out part of the essence first.
They selected five strong men, grabbed the long wooden pole together, and then shouted the trumpet and pushed the stone mill.
Aangfu carefully poured the wheat into the eyes.
After a while, they saw snow-white flour exposed.
The craftsmen were all a little amazed, and everyone sighed in their hearts: "It's so beautiful."
They had smashed Sumai with stones before and knew that the inside of Sumai was white. But never before has a large amount of Sumai been ground into flour like today.
The white flour appeared like snow, which shocked the people of Qin who saw flour for the first time.
"Master, you are indeed an alchemist with magical skills." These simple craftsmen were not only grateful to Li Shui, but also a little more in awe.
They didn't dare to stop and worked until they were sweating profusely and grinded out a bushel of flour. Then they happily went to report the good news to Li Shui.
Li Shui had just gotten up at this time. He and Li Xin drank until midnight last night, and now they both have a headache.
After he finished washing and went to look for someone in Li Xin's room, he saw Li Xin holding a jar of wine and pouring himself a glass of wine.
Li Shui was completely convinced.
At this time, Cang Fu came with two craftsmen, holding a bucket of flour. After seeing Li Shui, he said happily: "Master, the villain has made flour."
Li Shui nodded with satisfaction and took a closer look. He found that the flour was a bit coarsely ground, which was different from the finer flour of later generations.
However, this is the first time for these craftsmen to do this kind of work, and it is already commendable that they have been honed to this level.
Li Shui thought for a while and asked Wu Jiao to return to the palace quickly and bring the remaining bandages from last time.
I washed a lot of bandages last time and some of them have never been used. Li Shui used the bandage as a thin basket and carefully sifted it several times.
Soon, half a bushel of extremely fine flour was obtained.
Cang Fu looked dumbfounded at the side: "Is the life of princes, generals, and ministers so luxurious? The best of Su Mai actually has to be selected again."
Li Shui shook the half a bucket of flour in his hand and said with a smile: "You are lucky today, I will show you the delicacies of the gods."
Li Shui originally planned to steam the steamed buns, but after thinking about it, the steamed buns needed to ferment, which would take a long time, so he simply made hand-rolled noodles.
Half an hour later, Cano was holding a bowl of noodles, eating and crying.
He burst into tears and said, "I never thought there was such a thing in the world. I took a taste and it was enough for my wish. Even if I die the next moment, it's worth it."
Li Shui was a little speechless: "It's just a bowl of noodles. As for life or death? The ancients were so ignorant."
When he turned around, he saw Wu Jiao and Li Xin also looking excited.
Wu Jiao suddenly put down the bowl and said anxiously: "Sir, hurry up, make some more and send them to your majesty. After your majesty tastes it, he will definitely be very happy and you will be rewarded with many rewards."
Li Shui looked at the noodles in the bowl: "If you bring this into Lanchi Palace, won't it be lumpy? Or... try steaming a pot of steamed buns? Just say, this is the delicacy of immortals? Look at the reactions of Li Xin and others. , Ying Zheng should be very satisfied, right?"
"Yes, let's do it. Doesn't he always urge me to make alchemy? I just said that this is part of alchemy, and I guess he has no objection."
…………
At the same time, Ji Mingzheng was kneeling in Yingzheng's study and said sadly: "Your Majesty, this Huaiguzi is really bullying you."
"My slave can clearly see that the thousand acres of fertile land he dug has been dug into pits. The Shangjun Courtyard has been made a mess by him. The fine stones have been polished into discs, and he even calls them such euphemistically. It’s refining elixirs.”
"After the courtiers saw it, some of them disapproved of it, and some of them secretly mocked him. There were even some daring people who were afraid that they would secretly criticize whether your majesty was a wise master."
Ying Zheng stood up suddenly and stared at Ji Ming fiercely.
Ji Ming shuddered and said nervously: "Your Majesty is naturally very wise, but this Huaiguzi is so scheming, don't let his reputation be ruined. The slaves recorded the remarks of many courtiers, and they were all very dissatisfied with Huaiguzi. "
Then, Ji Ming took out the bamboo pieces.
The more Ying Zheng looked, the darker his face became.
Ji Ming struck while the iron was hot and said: "My slave saw with her own eyes that this man found a cow and pulled a stone in a circle. He was playful and debauched. He is just ridiculous, but he actually used the banner of refining elixir. This is not... …Isn’t this teasing His Majesty?”
Ji Ming really risked his life and had the courage to throw dirty water on Li Shui.
Finally, Ying Zheng said: "This Huai Guzi really didn't do his best in refining elixirs?"
Ji Ming patted his chest and said: "Absolutely not. Your Majesty, why don't you let him go to the palace and explain carefully how far he has refined the elixir? What does that huge stone have to do with the elixir? If He couldn't explain it, so he punished him severely to let him know how powerful he was."
