Since the twenty-first year of King Qin, Lu was named a prince for making "An Lu Jie", and was favored by the county engineer and asked him to work as a craftsman in the county, and two full years have passed.

In the past two years, Lu and his wife have settled down in the county, from the initial novelty and anxiety to gradually get used to it, the life in the county is much richer than Xiaolilu, and there is no need to watch others eat, you can take a fixed annual salary, plus a hundred acres of land that has been helping to cook, the family is also worry-free, and has become rich enough to eat meat every other day.

I was satisfied, and I felt that this was the pursuit of my life.

The only trouble is that if you are a craftsman in the official camp, you can't make whatever you want, you must receive a letter from the government and get a "letter of order" for the production license before you can start work.

Even if Heifu asked the whirlwind to help make the stone reels for squeezing sugarcane pulp, he had to find time to do it when he was resting, and he brought all the materials by himself, and he didn't dare to take a piece of wood from the workshop. Because not long ago, a craftsman was severely punished for stealing workshop materials to do private work, and was reduced to a subordinate minister without freedom.

In addition to the stone wheel, when Heifu was about to leave Anlu in early January, he asked someone to take a message to the whirlpool and asked him to take leave to return to his hometown for a few days, but he thought something had happened, and hurriedly returned to the sunset, only to find that Heifu had prepared the wood for a tree for him, hoping that he would make something - something that had not yet appeared in this era!

As the axe danced rapidly, the planer pushed out the rolled wooden flowers, and the copper nail wooden frieze was placed in the right place, and the machine that Heifu needed gradually revealed its rudimentary form: a small water wheel no more than four feet high......

When the brothers released water into the rice field, the horizontal plate of the small water wheel was hit by the current, which drove the whole wheel to roll counterclockwise, and as long as the water did not stop, it would not stop.

"It's interesting."

Although I thought it was funny, I didn't take it seriously, and I didn't think it could be of any practical use. As Heifu traveled to the county, he continued to devote himself to his daily work for the next month, forgetting about it.

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

"The county wants to transfer me to Yingxian?"

Lu was a little dazed, although he was reluctant to live a peaceful life now, but he didn't dare to disobey the county's order, and packed his bags under his wife's nagging, and didn't bring many things, only a ruler, a moment, a planer, a saw and other stone and wood craftsmen to eat.

"As long as you have these, you won't starve to death anywhere, don't worry."

After patting his coat and comforting his wife like this, Lu embarked on a journey, which was the first time he had left Anlu County in the thirty years since he was born.

When tossing and turning in the pavilion on the way, Lu also secretly thought: "I'm afraid that the matter of transferring me to the county is not related to Heifu, right?" ”

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

Lu thought that he would not be able to meet Heifu until he reached the county town, but he never thought that after they crossed the wide Hanshui crossing, Heifu was already waiting here.

"Sister!"

Heifu waved his hand at the dusty man from afar, and there was a young man who looked honest beside him, but the black character on the young man's face made him a little surprised, Heifu is now an official doctor, why is he staying with a black-faced prisoner?

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 conscripts in Jingling County, and by the way, he visited Huaimu's widow and two brothers.

He conveyed Huaimu's last words to Huaimu's widow, and left ten taels of gold before taking his leave. As for Huaimu's two younger brothers, they have also regained their freedom. The younger uncle was able to inherit the title of "doctor" of 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 was blackened, and it was extremely difficult to make a living in other professions except for hidden officials.

Seeing that his appearance was very similar to Huaimu, Heifu couldn't help but miss the old man, so he simply asked Sangmu to go back to Yingxian with him.

"I'm just short of a driver to drive."

Heifu didn't discriminate against Sang Mu, patted him and said, "Sang Mu said that he can drive an ox cart, and he went to school in the county for a month, so he should be able to drive a carriage." ”

Lu didn't say much, but the ink on Sang Mu's face still made him feel dazzling, because in Lu Lu's subconscious, the one who broke the law was definitely not a good person. It was only when he was resting in the pavilion by the Han River that he finally found an opportunity to ask about Heifu alone.

As a result, Heifu's words scared the whirlpool to the core!

"I told the county lieutenant that as long as you give your sister-in-law manpower and money, you can transform the stepping stone that still needs to be operated by manpower into an artifact that can operate automatically without manpower, which can save ten times more manpower!"

His eyes widened, and he muttered honestly, "Is there really such a device?" How did I not know? ”

……

He couldn't eat anymore, and the "impossible task" that Heifu had taken on for him made him worried.

Heifu was not worried, but in the evening he asked Lu to follow him to the shore of the Han River.

"The breadth of the Han is unthinkable; Jiang Zhiyong is incomprehensible. ”

The boatmen who carry the boats to and fro to transport pedestrians still sing songs that have been passed down for hundreds of years. As far as the eye can see, the water surface dyed red by the sun stretches as far as the eye can see.

"Water travels from the ground, and the Jianghuai River is also." Together with the Yangtze River, the Great River, and the Huai River, the Han River is listed as the four major water systems of this era. Compared with the Rushui that Heifu once crossed, it was two or three times wider.

There is a group of young people by the water, playing and playing by the water's edge, different from the landlubbers in the north, they have been in the water since they were young, and they have practiced a good water nature. This group of teenagers swims happily, or down the river, or upstream, and will cross the Han River for a round trip, and they will be the main recruits of the 3,000 "building boats" in Nanjun.

Heifu also saw a wave of women in raccoon clothes, wielding mallets at the water's edge, pounding and washing clothes, and loudly pulling the parents. There are even some old drifting women washing baskets and clay pots in the river......

Tens of thousands of families live on both sides of the river, rely on the water to irrigate their fields, and rely on the inexhaustible water to supplement their meat.

However, in summer and autumn, Hanshui is not as gentle as it is in front of it, that is, the "Hanshui soup soup" that everyone fears. Floods occur every year, washing away fields and houses in some low-lying areas, and terrifying residents at the water's edge.

"At that time, it will be the real big stream, and there will be no argument between the two cliffs."

After walking more than a hundred steps along the Han River and saying something seemingly unrelated, Heifu asked: "But sister, have you ever thought that this rushing stream, which is faster than cattle and horses, can also be used to work for people like livestock, how good it would be!" ”

"Harnessing ...... Jingliu? "I can't imagine it.

"I don't dare to say that I can control it."

Good swimmers are prone to drowning, and they still have to be in awe of nature, Heifu smiled: "I just hope that Hebo will share a little of this wasted power of flowing water with us, that's all." ”

Lu still thinks that the idea of the black man is whimsical, they will scoop water from the river to drink, they can build a dam, divert the runoff, and let it flow into the dry fields, but let the water flow directly work like cattle and horses?

"Even if it's something that can only be done by water gods such as Hebo and Xiangjun, how can people have the power of water gods?" Lu questioned it, the idea was good, but he didn't think that this kind of thing could be done with just a few manpower.

Heifu shook his head and said, "Otherwise, I heard that in ancient times, people also thought that fire was a gift from the gods, until a sage named Suiren personally shot out the fire. Nowadays, any child can make fire with flint and a knife, and some people still think that this is a miracle. ”

He knew that the first stage of the history of man's use of energy, that is, the history of man's understanding and conquest of nature, was the discovery and use of fire; The second stage is the utilization of natural power such as animal power, water power, and wind power; Then there are fossil fuels, electricity, and atomic energy......

Today's Huaxia is still in the early stage of the second stage, and has made full use of the power of livestock, but the use of water 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 wasted, and no one thinks of using it. Only countless subordinate concubines and common people are still desperately using their own labor to do those heavy work, and they are miserable under such heavy labor, and many people do not live to be thirty or forty years old......

Therefore, Heifu feels that it is time to upgrade technology from 2.1 to 2.2, and the traverser not only wants to make up for those historical regrets, but also to liberate the productive forces as much as he can, and liberate more people from monotonous heavy work, which is also his historical mission.

And all this starts with this conversation by the Han River.

"Sister-in-law, do you remember the little water wheel that you and I made in Anlu?" Hauff said.

"Yes." But the whirlpool only sees it as a game to amuse children.

"That's actually a weapon used to harness the power of water," said Hef, "and the water beats the beams on the water wheel, making the water wheel rotate day and night. If a wooden shaft is installed on the water wheel, a wooden shaft is placed on the wooden shaft...... In this way, there is no need for people to rely on the weight of the body to step on the pressure, and the wooden mill is not driven by the water wheel and moves on its own? ”

Seeing that the whirlpool showed a look of sudden realization, Heifu knew that he finally understood, so he said: "This is what I said about the artifact that can pound ore and grain by itself without manpower." ”

"How about this thing moving with water, so it's called a water mill?"