After Wang Dou's decision, these craftsmen began to work in full swing, designing drawings and preparing materials.

With this kind of hardwood, it is necessary to start making water wheel blades, which also requires a large number of manpower materials, so Wang Dou mobilized the men and women of Jingbian Fort, and only provided the old craftsman with control.

While making the waterwheel, the old craftsman also sent several young craftsmen to the Baihuqu River to choose the location to install the waterwheel. At the same time, along the waterwheel by the river, it is also necessary to build a deep sink with stones, which can not be done by only a few craftsmen, and Wang Dou is providing manpower to help.

While busy building a large waterwheel in Lanzhou, Wang Dou also asked the old craftsman to draw out the craftsmen and start to build the kind of waterwheel used for irrigation wells for himself, and temporarily build about five of them.

In the last year, Jingbian Fort had drilled the first well "Wanggong Well", the well water was cold and clear, clear and hairy, and everyone cited it as a miracle. In order to protect the well, not only the whole well was built with a brick well, but also a well pavilion was built on it to shelter from the wind and rain, and a roller was set up next to the well to carry water.

At the same time, five irrigation wells were drilled outside the fort last year, also of blue bricks, to supplement the fields outside the canal. It is not as good as the well in Jingbian Fort, of course, this irrigation well cannot be carried by manpower, it is necessary to build a water wheel to divert water, and it also needs to use animal power, and then Wang Dou will have to buy a few mules again.

In fact, when it comes to irrigation, it is best to build canals and ponds. In the Taiping Festival of the Ming Dynasty, some villages in the north, in addition to water canals, almost every village and fort have one to two pools, which are used to solve the daily water use of people and animals, and even domestic water.

However, it takes a lot of money to build a canal and repair a pond, and the project is large, even if a pond for water is dug in a village, sometimes it even takes several years to build, and it costs thousands of taels of silver to complete, and the annual dredging and pond digging is not a small amount.

As soon as he thought of this, Wang Dou had no thoughts, or the investment in well irrigation was small and the income was large, so he slowly dug wells and built water trucks.

……

After hard work, more than ten days later, this Lanzhou big waterwheel was finally built, the size is huge, up to more than ten meters, erected on the side of the river trough looks very spectacular.

When the waterwheel started on this day, the riverside could be said to be crowded with people, not only the military households of Jingbian Fort poured out their nests, but also the soldiers and civilians of nearby Xinzhuang and Dongjiazhuang came to watch the wind.

The difficulty of making an irrigation well waterwheel is much smaller than that of a large waterwheel, and soon, the five irrigation waterwheels were also built.

Wang Dou has seen this kind of irrigation well waterwheel, in fact, it is an improved keel waterwheel, the cost is more than ten taels, and the maximum limit after water diversion can irrigate more than 20 acres.

Wang Dou actually has a higher efficiency water diversion water wheel in his heart, that is, the pipe chain water wheel of later generations, also known as the "liberated water wheel", which is composed of a frame, bevel gear, sprocket, chain, round skin money, water pipe and tow bar, etc., which is also driven by animal power.

However, this kind of waterwheel has a large technical content, and the gears, sprockets, and chains are very difficult to make, and they need a lot of iron materials and consume a lot.

……

At this time, it was the beginning of February in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the solar calendar in later generations was on the twentieth day of March, and spring ploughing began immediately.

Last year, more than 1,000 mu of wasteland was reclaimed by military households in Jingbianbao, and 55 military households in Jingbianbao were temporarily divided into more than 20 mu of land. After the fields were allocated, all the military families were grateful, and from then on they had their own fields and there was hope for their lives. The field was divided, and their roots were deeply rooted in the land.

After discussion, Wang Dou, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Qi Tianliang and other officers did not divide the fields for the time being.

At present, Jingbianbao has dredged 100 canals, built waterwheels, and dug irrigation wells, and there is no problem in diverting water for irrigation.

In terms of seeds, Wang Douji asked Qi Tianliang and Yang Tong to buy a batch of millet and sorghum seeds, and Jingbianbao missed the cultivation of last year's winter wheat, so he had to plant these miscellaneous grains in the spring of this year.

This millet is called millet in the north, and in the south, rice is called millet, but millet is the same as sorghum, both of which have a short growth period, are drought tolerant, barren and thin, and are suitable for sowing in spring and on newly cultivated land.

Looking at their approving looks, Wang Dou and the others were of course also proud.

However, the fort wall of Jingbian Fort has not yet been built, but an opening has been opened in the south direction, and the future Jingbian Fort will only have an entrance and exit from the south gate.

After seeing the fort, Xu Zhongjun and the others went to the Dongfang River to see the famous Jingbian Fort waterwheel, and everyone was very interested, obviously very curious about this big waterwheel.

When they saw this huge waterwheel more than ten meters high for the first time, Xu Zhongjun and the others were taken aback, obviously shocked.

Looking at the rotating waterwheel, constantly leading the water to the canal, Xu Zhongjun kept asking Wang Dou, and when he heard that the irrigation capacity of the waterwheel reached 300 acres, Xu Zhongjun's eyes lit up, but when he heard that the waterwheel cost more than 100 taels, his eyes darkened again.

At last he looked closely at the waterwheel, and from time to time he marveled.

Du Zhen, Du Gong, and Zhang Gui were all by Xu Zhongjun's side, and they also heard the conversation between Xu Zhongjun and Wang Dou, but it was not as good as Xu Zhongjun, they looked at Wang Dou with a strange look in their eyes, obviously thinking: "Such an expensive waterwheel is also built, this Wang Dou is really a loser." Even if he gets some money, rice and goods from the bandits, he can't withstand such a defeat. ”

……

After seeing this waterwheel, Wang Dou accompanied Xu Zhongjun and others to see the cultivated land in Jingbian Fort.

A group of people walked beside the hundred canals, fields, canals, irrigation wells, Xu Zhongjun looked at them one by one, nodded from time to time, this Wang Dou voluntarily asked to come to Tunpu, it is indeed very capable, and he has made so many achievements in a short period of time, which makes Xu Zhongjun appreciate Wang Dou more and more, if other tunbao officials have Wang Dou so concerned, then the situation in the tuntian in the thousand households will get better and better.

He remembered something and asked, "Spring ploughing is coming soon, Wang Dou, the ploughing cattle in your castle are sufficient?" ”