On May 12, the owner of the "cottage" harvester workshop kneeling on the ground was covered with fine sweat and prostrate on the ground and did not dare to speak. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Zhi, the Duke of Jinguo, came to inspect his cottage harvester workshop, with a lot of officials.

The reason why the owner of the workshop was frightened was because the owner imitated Li Zhi's animal power wheat harvester.

At present, in the market of Liaodong and Tianjin, the supply of animal wheat harvesters exceeds the demand, and a large number of imitators have appeared.

The "mechanized" wheat cultivation in eastern Liaoning is mainly composed of animal seed drills and animal harvesters, supplemented by the construction of irrigation canals, and other small machines, which can hand over several of the heaviest farm work to machines and irrigation facilities. In this way, tenant farmers, who had been able to cultivate only 20 acres of wheat, could cultivate 100 acres of dry land, and the incomes of both landlords and tenant farmers would increase substantially.

Under the propaganda of "Tianjin Daily" and "Shandong Daily", and under the guidance of officials at all levels in Liaodong, the peasants and landlords in Liaodong generally accepted Li Zhi's new machine and ordered a large number from Li Zhi. In February, 95 percent of the fields in Liaodong were planted with seed drills.

The production of seed drills can be said to be methodical. This kind of machine was invented by Li Zhi last year, that is, in March of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen. In April, Li Zhi set up a seed drill factory in Fanjiazhuang and hired 5,000 people to produce seed drills. The output of the seed drill factory is about 3,000 units per month, and it has produced enough machines for market demand before the spring ploughing in Liaodong.

Judging by the use of the situation, the response from farmers has been very good. The seed drill is easy to operate and not easy to be damaged, especially suitable for the Northeast Great Plains of Pingchuan. The landlords were ready to buy Li Zhi's storage harvester.

But the production of the storage harvester has not kept up with the progress. Production of harvesters began in December last year, and by the beginning of May, Mr. Li's factory had produced only 18,000 units. In this way, when the wheat harvest is harvested in July, Li Zhi's harvester can only produce 24,000 units, which is still 6,000 units short of the market demand of 30,000 units.

This is a critical gap.

Theoretically, without a harvester for mechanized harvesting, ripe ears of wheat may fall off the ground and cannot be harvested. Large wheat fields planted in Liaodong in February may be white.

Of course, the reality may be slightly better than theoretical. Because in addition to the more than 100,000 tenant farmers who use agricultural machinery, there are also 200,000 strong laborers of Liao people who are clearing the wasteland, and more than 200,000 adult Jurchen slaves. If the harvester is not in place, Li Zhi can hire and organize these laborers to devote themselves to harvesting wheat.

As a matter of fact, the water conservancy facilities for cultivated land in eastern Liaoning are not perfect today, and the irrigation of more than 10 million mu of dry land in eastern Liaoning was also completed by Zheng Yuan, the governor of eastern Liaoning, who organized these laborers. A highly systematic irrigation system on existing "cooked land" may not be completed until next year.

However, if these wasteland laborers are mobilized to harvest wheat, it will involve the redistribution of people, relocation, and housing resettlement, and the cost is very high. For the meritorious landlords of Liaodong, it is very uneconomical to use these emergency manpower compared to the use of machinery.

If we use these emergency manpower again, we may have to cancel off this year's harvest and expenditure, and we won't have a penny of profit.

Therefore, in the market of Liaodong and Tianjin, there is a batch of unmet harvester needs.

Where there is demand, there is a market. Many businessmen and tycoons saw this demand and began to organize blacksmiths to imitate Li Zhi's harvester. In just a few months, at least six harvester imitation workshops have emerged in Tianjin. The one Li Zhi inspected today is the largest of them.

Li Zhi looked at the imitation workshop and asked the owner on the ground, "How do you produce cut parts?" ”

The workshop owner raised his head and said with sincere fear: "Grandpa Guo, we bought crucible steel from Grandpa Guo's steel mill, and then relied on the blacksmith to forge the cutting parts with a sledgehammer. Then grind with a grinding wheel. ”

Hearing the workshop owner's answer, Li Zhi frowned. The production technology of this workshop is at a very low level, and the so-called "large" is completely due to the large number of people.

Li Zhi asked, "How much does it cost you to produce a harvester?" ”

The owner wiped the fine sweat from his head and said, "Fifty-two taels of silver for one piece." The quality of our machine is not as good as that of the grandfather factory, and it can only be sold at a price of sixty-five taels, and the profit of one machine is thirteen taels of silver. ”

Li Zhi shook his head.

Li Zhi's state-run harvester factory made extensive use of assembly lines and steam engine forging hammers, and the production efficiency was much higher than that of this workshop, and the cost of producing a harvester was only 35 taels of silver. Because of the good quality, the official price of the machine is eighty taels of silver, and the profit is as high as forty-five taels of silver.

This copycat workshop stole Li Zhi's invention, but could only produce low-quality imitations. If such black workshops are proliferated, it will eventually reduce the reputation of the entire harvester machine, and even cause farmers and landlords to abandon mechanized farming because the quality and effect of inferior machines are too poor.

Li Zhi looked at the blacksmiths kneeling on the ground and shook his head again.

The workshop owner looked up at Li Zhi, plucked up the courage to ask, "Grandpa Guo, can we continue to imitate Grandpa Guo's harvester in the future?" ”

Li Zhi said lightly: "You can imitate it, but you have to charge a patent fee!" ”

"What are royalties?"

"The patent fee means that my father invented the harvester and enjoys the right to produce this invention. If others want to produce, they have to buy a production license from this company. The patent fee for this harvester is forty taels of silver. ”

Hearing Li Zhi's words, the workshop owner who knelt on the ground said with a sad face: "Grandpa Guo, Xiaomin can't afford to pay such a high patent fee. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "You really can't afford it, so you're ready to sell the workshop!" ”

"Grandpa Guo, who will buy this workshop?"

Li Zhi ignored the workshop owner's pleas and walked out of this "black workshop".

"Han Jinxin, find a workshop with higher technical content and take a look!"

"There is one, I will take Grandpa Guo to see it."

Li Zhi followed Han Jinxin to the east of the outskirts of Tianjin and saw a workshop that occupied a small area. The workshop was built on a well-drained hillock, connected to the official road leading from the Tianjin Acropolis to Dagu Port, and a loud knocking sound was heard from the workshop.

As soon as Li Zhi walked into the workshop, he saw three huge steam engine forging hammers moving up and down, hammering the steel forgings on the anvils.

Seeing Li Zhi walking in with his personal guards, the workshop owners and craftsmen in the workshop panicked, and Hulala knelt on the ground. However, Li Zhi ignored them, and Li Zhi stood next to the steam engine forging hammer and looked at it carefully.

Steam engine forging hammers are not new, and Li Zhi now sells finished steam engines at high prices. Daming originally had a hydraulic forging hammer, and a blacksmith with a little brains would think of using a steam engine to drive the forging hammer.

But what Li Zhi stopped to take a closer look at was that the levers of the hammer arm of the steam engine forging hammer in this workshop were well designed, and the power of the three small steam engines was slightly amplified by the levers, and it was just right to knock on the cutting knife forging of the harvester.

Seeing these steam engine forging hammers, Li Zhi had a feeling that this workshop could afford to pay his own patent fees.