Next to the wheat fields full of straw after harvesting, as winter approaches, the Zhanghe River is about to enter the dry period, the pebbles in the river can be counted, the fish swimming in the stream can be seen at a glance, and the river water jumps in the sunset with colorful waves. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The wooden bracket that towered over the side of the ditch was as tall and heavy as a siege tower, but on top of the bracket was a huge wheel......

In the center of the spokes is a thick axle with two parallel rows of spokes around the axle, and at the end of each row of spokes is equipped with a scraper, between which a movable bamboo bucket is hung.

"It's like a wheel on a noble car!" So said a child.

"No, it's more like a mother's spinning wheel!" Another argued.

But they soon held their breath like Simon Leopard, because the huge machine, after the craftsmen had installed it, turned on its own!

Yes, there was no human force to trample and pull, no cattle to spin around, and the huge machine seemed to come to life by itself, and it slowly rotated clockwise under the wash of the river, and made a loud noise. The wooden leaves rotate on their own with the bamboo tube on top, and the water is scooped up, and after reaching the highest point, it falls into a small ditch connected to the field, and the water flows like a curtain falling, the whole process is slow, but thrilling!

The children were stunned, they had never seen anything like this, only Ximen Leopard suddenly remembered that just a few years ago, because of his excellent test results, he was able to enter the Linzhang School Palace with many peers. At that time, they not only went to the 10,000-volume library of Shiqu Pavilion, but also saw the "water mill" made by craftsmen and scholars.

Under the impact of the water flow under the mill, the water mill also began to grind the dough on its own without the strength of humans and animals, and the white rice noodles and bean dregs fell into the bucket in an endless stream, making the children who visited cheer......

Is this self-rotating "monster" seen today the same as the water mill?

……

Ximen Leopard guessed correctly, the thing in front of them was indeed another crystallization of the wisdom of the group of literate craftsmen in the Linzhang School Palace, known as the "learning of craftsmanship".

Lu Ban couldn't help but smile with satisfaction as he watched the huge axle in front of him rotate smoothly, and the water in the canal was also continuously brought to the field.

"Choosing things to compete for the sky, survival of the fittest", what Zhao Wuxian said in Longmen, had a great impact on Lu Ban. He also realized that not only people have to make progress, but also things and tools, such as materials: when Shennong was in the time, he used stone as a soldier; At the time of the Yellow Emperor, jade was used as a soldier; When Dayu, copper was used as a soldier; And now, at least in the Zhao and Lu countries, iron farm tools and weapons have been widely used.

Another such as farm tools, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, a person stepped on the plough and ploughed, but ten acres, to the present, after the use of ox ploughing and iron plough technology, a family of five can plough a hundred acres!

Therefore, there should also be some progress in irrigation tools.

He didn't notice the few pairs of eyes behind him who were peeking at this side, but said to Ren Zhang, the official of the Zhao family who came to supervise the construction, with emotion: "A few years ago, Zigong traveled south to Chu State, and when he passed through Hanyin on his way back, he saw an old man of Chu State who was working hard to hold an urn to draw water for irrigation, and he did twice the work and half the work...... This urn to draw water is probably the most primitive irrigation method. ”

So Zigong told the old man that there was a labor-saving appliance between Weng and Luwei, which was called '槔'. It is made by using a horizontal wooden pole on a wooden frame, with a wooden bucket hanging at one end and a heavy object hanging at the other end, like a lever, to save the power to draw water. From holding urns to irrigating the ground to drawing water from oranges, it can be said that it is a kind of progress, but this is far from enough. ”

He pointed behind him, so frightened that Ximen Leopard and the others thought that their whereabouts had been discovered, and ran away with a whoop scream, Lu Ban looked suspiciously for a while, and then continued: "To the keel waterwheel is widely used in Yecheng villages, compared with the orange tree, this is another ...... of progress."

"But today, with the cylinder car, mechanical irrigation will reach its peak!" Looking proudly at the work in front of him, Lu Ban was full of ambition.

The cylinder car is the name of the huge axle machinery in front of him, and it is another masterpiece of Lu Ban after the Shaoliang cannon. The car is more than three feet high, and 24 wooden spokes are supported by an axle with a length of two feet and a diameter of three feet, which spreads out in a radial shape. Each spoke is topped with a scraper and bucket. The scraper scrapes the water, the bucket is filled with water, the river rushes, and the water wheel weighing more than ten tons is slowly rotated by the water potential, and the bucket is filled with river water and is lifted up step by step. At the top, the bucket tilts naturally due to gravity, pumping water into the aqueduct and flowing into the irrigated farmland.

This is the principle of the barrel car, which is basically a combination of a water mill and a keel waterwheel, and it is not complicated. Although its irrigation capacity is very small, because of the non-stop rotation day and night, from March and April every year when the river water rises, to the winter when the water level drops, a water wheel, the large can water 2,000 acres of farmland, the small can also water more than 1,000 acres, and do not need other energy.

Compared with the keel waterwheel, it not only has greater efficacy, but also saves valuable manpower and animal power.

That's why Lu Ban regarded it as the most efficient irrigation tool he could think of.

Ren Zhang was also very interested in this thing, and he smiled: "In this way, many manpower can be liberated from the field and fully rested." “

"Rest?" Lu Ban felt inexplicable, he was very indifferent to Ren Zhang, a disciple of Lao Tzu, who was "ruling by doing nothing", but a radical engineer......

"That's right, the construction of the cylinder cart can indeed make many people not have to soak in the fields all day for irrigation, but people can't be idle, practice battle formations, read and write, open up wasteland and mines to create greater wealth, or, for the Zhao clan to go to the front line with troops!"

"A soldier, an ominous weapon, not a gentleman's weapon. Use it as a last resort! Ren Zhang sneered, "Now that the Zhao family is peaceful and has a vast territory, why bother to make trouble again?" The reason why he offered a plan for the Zhao family to provoke the conflict between Zheng and Han was to let the surrounding countries fall into war and chaos, and the Zhao family would be at peace.

"On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore?" Lu Ban was deeply affected by Zhao Wuxian's words, he was a main battle faction, and he couldn't talk to Ren Zhang at all.

"Because the country is big, the people are the people, and those who want to see the enemy are called proud soldiers, and those who are proud of the soldiers are destroyed!" In the end, the two had already said that they were not talking to each other, and Ren Zhang also finished reading the project, so he said goodbye angrily, and he planned to write a message when he went back, asking Zhao Wuxian to suspend the army next year and not to fight.

And Lu Ban glanced at Ren Zhang's back, only thinking that this person was not good at eating the ancients, why did Shangqing value him so much.

He looked at the huge cylinder car rotating in front of him, and while he was annoyed with Ren Zhang, he was also like a lightning flint, and a thought flashed through his mind.

"Shang Qing said that people can not only rely on their own strength and the strength of livestock, but also find ways to use other forces of nature, such as wind, such as water, such as the sun, and something that cannot be seen or touched, but is real, called 'gravity'. I made a water mill and a cylinder car, which is considered to be the use of water power in farming, and the basis of this is a water wheel that rotates on its own under the washing of the current. ”

"That Ren Zhang's food is not only a reminder to me, the water wheel can not only be installed on the water mill and the cylinder car, but also can be tried and used in iron smelting......"

Time into this year, Zhao's iron-smelting technology, both in terms of output and quality, have entered a bottleneck period, as the furnace is getting bigger and bigger, the blower is getting bigger and bigger, a furnace with several rows, put together, arranged in a row, it is called "row bag" or "row of rows".

It was no longer possible to motivate the furnace by manpower alone, and many animals had to pull the axle together to drive it up and down to make the furnace have a higher temperature and smelt better and more iron.

Lu Ban suddenly thought: What if the force that drives the wheel axle is replaced by livestock into water?

If this can be done, I don't know how many manpower will be liberated from the workshop, and the Zhao family's annual output of iron and iron weapons will also double!

The iron armor and iron helmet that Zhao Shangqing has always dreamed of, or the copper armor of the whole body, may be able to become a reality under the hammer driven by the water force.

For a while, Lu Ban began to dance, and he couldn't wait to start the experiment immediately after he went back, and the rotating water wheel in front of him also changed in his eyes.

This is also the giant wheel of the times, with Yecheng as the center, quietly turning, moistening not only 10,000 acres of farmland, but also the whole world...... (To be continued.) )