"Well..." The First Emperor agreed to Meng Yi's request.
Salt has always been an important asset of the country. The sun-dried salt method has further reduced the cost of salt production and further improved the efficiency of salt production, but its shortcomings have also become obvious.
In the process of drying salt, as long as the weather is bad, all the previous work will become useless.
In ancient times, there were no satellites or weather forecasts, but basically all schools of thought had a certain degree of research on the weather, and the Yin-Yang family was the most profound among them.
Meng Yi nodded and continued to report.
"When you make a plow and bend the shaft, you can get twice the result with half the effort when plowing!"
"Make a ruler and make it precise and efficient!"
Meng Yi thought about it and became a little curious.
Meng Yi's curiosity is not without origin, but because of Meng Yi's ink painting.
He is a Mohist by nature.
A qualified ink artist must know the relevant principles of making certain tools.
Because this thing cannot be circumvented in Mohist classics, it’s just that some are good at it and some are not.
Of course, after Mozi for thousands of years, the Mohist school has been divided into three. There are not many Mohists who do not learn craftsmanship at all and only study the theory of classics and meanings.
Meng Yi can be regarded as a relatively traditional Mohist.
His craftsmanship is at the average level of ink artists of this era, and he has learned most of the techniques and principles.
Therefore, after seeing some practical little inventions made by Zhao Si, Meng Yi became somewhat interested.
The Quyu plow was a milestone in the development of agriculture in the long history of history, but in the current era it can only be regarded as a good little invention.
In fact, this era is relatively primitive, and people generally have little savings. The world generally still uses relatively primitive farming methods. Except for the Guanzhong area, the farming model is generally mature due to the influence of the Qin Dynasty system and generally starts to use oxen and plows. It is difficult to describe the rest of the areas. .
In short, the significance is indeed not that great in this era. If the Quyu plow is to be popularized all over the world, the premise is that most individual farmers can deploy the ox-shaped Quyu plow.
However, the short curved shaft plow can also be pulled by humans, and the production cost is not that high. Compared with the more primitive farming method of Leishu, human-pulled short curved shaft plow cultivation is not impossible to popularize, and the farming efficiency will definitely be improved. .
Zhao Si has never considered treating humans as animals. On the one hand, it is because of the influence of modern people's thinking, and on the other hand, it is also because of his lack of understanding of this era.
Doesn’t using Cui Cui count as treating humans and animals?
Meng Yi was different. When he saw the specific process of Wang Bi's summary and the performance of the large and small curved shaft plows, he immediately noticed that although the efficiency of the small curved shaft plow was relatively low, it was possible for manpower to replace animal power.
Cows are so expensive. It's not a matter of whether humans are animals or not. It's a supplement when you really can't afford farming oxen.
However, because Wang Bi was not a professional, he mainly asked military craftsmen to record the data. Therefore, some of the key points still need to be verified by Meng Yi himself to determine whether his ideas are correct.
Because Wang Ben only recorded that he made the small Qu Yuan plow first, and then the Da Qu Yuan plow.
And Zhao Si did not mention at all whether Xiaoqu Yuanli had the attribute of being able to replace animal power with human power.
As for the other small tools such as vernier calipers, files, and planes, Meng Yi put them aside first.
"What?" Seeing that Meng Yi was thinking about what he said, the First Emperor asked.
"This Quyuan Lichen has some ideas." Meng Yi frowned and said.
"How?" The First Emperor indicated that Meng Yi was inflamed.
"This curved shaft plow was first made into a small plow, and then compared with the straight plow, the efficiency was not as good as the big plow, so a large curved shaft plow was made."
"It's just that the big plow is heavy and difficult to cultivate without animal power. The small plow is light, but I don't know if it can be pulled by human power." Meng Yi said.
The First Emperor took the bamboo slips, read them over and nodded in agreement.
If this small curved shaft plow can be used by manpower, it can really be popularized. Although the cost of small plow will not be low, it will not be as high as that of large plow, which is unacceptable. Manpower can be used, or it can be used. Animal power can also improve farming efficiency, so people have no reason not to use it.
"If this plow can be used, it must be calculated and the assessments in various places must be revised." The First Emperor said.
At present, Daqin has an inspection system for officials all over the country. As a country with a farming system, the amount of local grain production has a great influence on the performance evaluation of officials.
Basically, from the officials down to the common people, Da Qin has a systematic reward and punishment system.
As a farmer, if you farm well, pay more taxes than others, and produce more land than others, you can get a real title reward.
It is real money that is directly transferred to the individual.
As an official, if the local food supply is too low and there is no reason why, he will directly impose penalties and blame.
Qin's taxes are very heavy and the punishments are very severe, but the rewards are also in place. Even the cattle raised have a cattle beauty contest every year. The cattle that take the best care of and are the strongest can get certain rewards.
If your farm cattle become emaciated, the local chief will specifically condemn and inquire.
Of course, these describe the Qin Dynasty before it unified the world.
The maintenance of a complete reward and punishment system requires the support of a large number of officials with sufficient quality, literacy and ability. However, in the Qin Dynasty, which currently dominates the world, the spread of the system is dozens of times larger, and the official system is relatively corrupt.
This degree of corruption is radiated from Xianyang and Guanzhong. In Xianyang and Guanzhong areas, the administration is still clear and the reward and punishment system is still perfect. The further away, the worse the administration situation becomes.
Let's put it this way, if Zhang Liang was a person in Guanzhong and wanted to assassinate Qin Shihuang, he might have been turned away to the government without taking action.
However, Zhang Liang, who was assassinated in Bolangsha, was able to escape.
In general, because the officialdom of Da Qin was too large, many things could only remain on paper when viewed all over the world, and could not be implemented in practice outside Guanzhong.
However, grain output, as one of the core assessment standards, must be universal across the country. If the Quyuan plow can be used manually and spread to thousands of households, the specific assessment performance standards will definitely have to be readjusted.
In this way, even if you don't want to promote it, you must promote it. Without promotion, it is impossible to meet the assessment standards, because the new assessment standards are directly formulated based on the output after the Quyuan plow is promoted.
However, in practical terms, what the First Emperor cared more about was animal power farming and the spread of cattle farming.
A small tool can only slightly increase a certain amount of grain production. The grain production in the Six Kingdoms region is very different from that in the Guanzhong region.
It has nothing to do with geographical factors. The bitter cold in Qin is a recognized fact in the Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period. Guanzhong is now the granary of the world because the Qin people built channels for hundreds of years to stimulate production and reform the official administration and legal system.
Many areas in the Six Nations have a more pleasant climate and better natural conditions than Guanzhong, but their grain output is far behind Guanzhong.
Obviously, the newly conquered land of the Six Nations still has a long way to go.
Human power is definitely not as good as animal power!
Even if there is a curved shaft plow that can be used for manual farming, Da Qin will still follow the path of popularizing cattle farming. You can't put the cart before the horse because of a curved shaft plow that can be used manually.
If oxen and plowing are not popularized, the world will not be like Guanzhong.
(The short curved shaft plow can be cultivated manually. There is literature support, so I won’t post it. It is not suitable for paddy fields, and it is a bit awkward.
The manual farming of the Quyuan Plow will not be highlighted in this book. The protagonists, Meng Yi and the First Emperor, are three levels of thinking.
The protagonist's understanding is that the short curved-column plow is now inferior to the long curved-column plow, and there is no basis for widespread promotion of the curved-column plow, because except for the Guanzhong area, cattle farming in other areas cannot be popularized by the people.
Meng Yi believed that the short curved shaft plow had the possibility of human power replacing animal power.
The First Emperor believed that this was just an episode and that the emergence of Quyuanli would not change Qin's current strategic steps and routes for promoting farming.
In fact, in the feudal era, if manpower widely replaced animal power and became a long-term mainstream phenomenon, there must be something wrong with the court. )
