One day in late February, just after the eclipse time, horse-drawn carriages drove north from Jiangling and Yingxian one after another, and their destination was the copper smelting workshop at the foot of Jishan Mountain.

Anche stopped at the door of the workshop, and Tongguan Yangxi immediately greeted him, but those who came today were his real bosses, that is, the officials and workers in Nanjun Gongcao, and a few respected craftsmen.

However, those workers and workers who wore official uniforms and crowns on their heads took the initiative to get out of the way and let a very slow old ox cart drive in front, but they saw a pale old man sitting in the car, sitting peacefully in the car, his robe was neat, but his hands were full of calluses and wrinkles.

"I never thought that it was Chen Weng who arrived!"

Tongguan Yangxi felt very pleasantly surprised, and hurriedly walked over, and together with a group of engineers and officials, he picked up the old man.

This old man's name is Chen Yi, he is the oldest engineer in Nanjun, Chen Yi was an ordinary craftsman when he was young, but because of his outstanding skills, he was good at carpentry and masonry, because he was transferred to Shu County and worked under Li Bing, the shou of Shu County. In those years, together with countless craftsmen, he assisted Li Bing in governing the Minjiang River and built the "湔堋" (jiānpéng), which was later known as Dujiangyan!

The weir is the pride of Chen Yi's life, and under their whimsical ideas, the unruly Minjiang River has changed from a great harm to Shu County, irrigating thousands of miles of fertile fields. Since then, the Chengdu Plain has been flooded and drought, and the people do not know the hunger, and a steady stream of grain is sent along the river to Nanjun, and then sent to the Central Plains to serve as the military rations of the Qin army.

In Chen Yi's view, the water is already the limit of people's use of the power of flowing water, when Dayu summed up the experience: water can be dredged, can not be blocked. Can only coax the water to go where the man wants him to go, as for harnessing the water power like taming an animal, and let it do the work for the people? It's just hubris!

So he leaned on his cane and said with a smile: "I heard that there is an Anlu craftsman who wants to make equipment that can be transported by himself without manpower, and he has been a carpenter and masonry for decades, and has traveled all over Shu County, Ba County, and Nan County, and has also been to Guanzhong, but he has never heard of such an artifact, how can he not come and see, and have a long insight?" ”

Chen Yi's words made the engineers and officials on the side laugh, like Chen Yi, they didn't believe that there was such a thing in the world at all, let alone a small craftsman from the county and township to make it.

It is true that they have also heard that the little craftsman did make a stepping stone, which has now been popularized in Guanzhong and Nanjun, and the rest of the counties are gradually replacing the pestle and mortar of manpower with the stepping stone.

But in the eyes of everyone, it was just luck, just a small device with a simple structure, did that craftsman think he was the reincarnation of Lu Ban?

A engineer stroked his beard and said as he walked inside: "I have heard that the flying kite made of wood in the public transport class flew in the sky for three days and three nights and then fell. “

Tongguan Yangxi wanted to speak and stopped, and wanted to defend the honest and unrested whirlpool when he came to the construction site, but he only saw that the whirlpool made a water wheel and made it run, and it was not known whether it could drive the wooden mill, so he finally shut up and led everyone forward.

Their destination was a creek next to the mine yard that was used to wash ore and wash the dirt, the water was two feet wide, and because of the terrain, it was relatively fast, and a group of people were busy around the stream.

"Who's the Frieze?"

Chen Yi turned his head to ask Yang Xi, he couldn't tell who was the Lu from the pile of subordinates whose heads were covered with mud and water.

"It's the man wrapped in a black cloth belt, holding a wooden hammer, and setting up the equipment himself."

Chen Yi identified it for a while, and finally found the whirlpool, but saw that he, like the rest of the people, was wearing brown clothes and fighting, and did not instruct everyone on the shore to do it, but went down in person, and was dripping in the water barefoot at the moment.

Seeing this situation, Chen Yi's disgust towards the whirlpool was reduced a little, and then he took a closer look at the instrument installed at the water's edge, and couldn't help but be slightly surprised.

First of all, it is a wooden bracket more than a foot high, nailed deep into the earth's surface, and built with stones, and the object on the bracket resembles a thickened wheel, and it looks like a woman's weaving wheel spinning many times magnified, and when it is erected, it is one person high.

The wheel was loaded with a number of blades, and when the big wheel was successfully placed on the water, everyone at the water's edge got out of the way.

Next, there was an astonishing scene in Chen Yi's eyes: there was no manpower to step on and pull, and there was no livestock to turn around, the huge machine seemed to have life of its own, it began to rotate clockwise under the wash of the stream, and made a rattling sound, the speed became faster and faster, and finally it was the same as the speed of flowing water.

And after everyone gets out of the way, the other side of the water wheel is also revealed: it is a rotating shaft driven by a gear, connected to the water wheel, and there are four staggered paddles on the shaft, the water wheel rotates, and also drives the paddle to rotate, whenever the paddle goes down to the tip of the pedal rod, it is like a person stepping down hard, and the four treadmills placed under the shaft move by themselves, and they hit the ground together to pound the ore in the mortar!

"It's done!"

Lu and the bronze craftsmen who had been cutting wooden wheels with him and experimenting for days cheered.

On the other side, Chen Yi and all the craftsmen and craftsmen were dumbfounded, as if the wooden mill driven by the water wheel fell downward, hitting not the ore, but their hearts!

They thought it was impossible to control the old idea that people could work with water power, and they were shattered by the facts they had seen with their own eyes!

"In this way, we can skillfully use the power of flowing water, why did we never think of it!?"

Chen Yi felt quite guilty, as a decades-old craftsman, he had never thought about it.

While everyone was shocked, Yang Xi had already come over with him, and he was an honest man, no more than his thoughtful wife and brother, and when he saw a group of county engineers, engineers, and a white-haired old craftsman standing in front of him, he immediately trembled and wanted to bow down to them......

"We don't deserve this courtesy, we should bow to you and ask for advice."

Chen Yi hurriedly helped him up, and after looking him up and down, he smiled and exclaimed: "It is worthy of being a craftsman who can make An Ludi, and today really makes us refreshed!" ”

The engineers and officials on the side also praised him, and all the skilled and skilled craftsmen piled up on him.

Not to mention that it was okay, the whirlpool immediately blushed and pushed again and again.

Chen Yi only thought that he was humble and admired Lu more, but he didn't expect it to be in Lu Xin's heart, but he just thought weakly: "It's not me, these are all Heifu came up with, I just did it......"

But Hefu had warned him of the consequences of the revelation, so he had to bury it in his heart.

"What is the name of this thing?" Chen Yi was very excited, and circled around the instrument, carefully observing the cam and connecting rod, and praised it.

"It's called Shuidi."

Lu said: "Because it can drive several stepping on the mill linkage, my wife and brother named it a ...... called Lianji Shuiji."

"Connected to the machine."

Chen Yi exclaimed: "Okay, legend has it that in ancient times, the Shennong clan made pestles to help the people. And you made the stepping mill two years ago, and you used the weight of your body to practice it, and its benefits were twice as high as that of the pestle. Today, you have reinstated the dexterity mechanism, and the benefits of it are ten times greater than that of stepping on the water! ”

As an old craftsman, Chen Yi can see the great usefulness of this object: as long as the water does not stop flowing and the water wheel does not stop, the four mills can keep moving, day and night!

They checked its strength and found that it was no less than an adult lifting a hammer and smashing it. Moreover, people have to rest and sleep, eat and drink, and may be lazy, but they can't. In this way, one connected machine is equivalent to at least ten adult laborers!

"If fifty planes can be set up here, wouldn't it be equivalent to giving the bronze officials five hundred more men?"

Thinking of this, Chen Yi excitedly pulled the sincere and frightened spiral, raised his hand high, and said to everyone:

"Those who make craftsmen are conducive to what people call ingenious, and not conducive to being clumsy."

"The so-called skilled craftsmen in the princes' palaces cast exquisite ritual vessels and carved jewels, which can be said to be extremely powerful, but they are not conducive to the people. In my eyes, they are just a bunch of clumsy craftsmen! ”

"At that time, Li Junshou of Shu County led us to build a large weir to irrigate thousands of acres of fields, so that the water and drought were made by people, and the abundance in Shu was a great coincidence."

"And today's water mill made by the machine, one is equivalent to ten more manpower out of thin air, which can be described as small!"

……

In the afternoon, Heifu also accompanied Li Youlai to watch the "Lianji Water Scoop" made, and everyone crowded at the water's edge, watching the wooden mill operate on its own driven by the water wheel, and let out bursts of exclamations. Heifu whispered to the whirlpool in the back, and learned the beautiful words of the old engineer Chen Yi from the whirlpool.

"Small?"

Heifu smiled: "I don't agree with this, Chen Yi only saw the stream in front of him, and only saw that it affected the copper official." But he forgot that there are thousands of streams in this southern county, and there are tens of thousands of rivers in the world...... Less than a sage? ”

Moreover, the machine water mill can not only be used to process ore, but also can be used for rice and medicine, and it is very versatile.

Sometimes Heifu can't help but sigh that ancient inventions and creations don't need to be fancy and complicated, and sometimes, the simpler something, the easier it is to last for a long time.

Water mill, although this is something invented by the ancestors in the Western Han Dynasty, but until the change, in the south, the water mill houses that help people grind noodles can still be seen everywhere. There was one in Heifu's hometown in his previous life, his grandfather worked in the grain management office when he was young, and he was sent to stay in the water mill room for a few years......

In Heifu's eyes, the significance of water is not limited to this, this should be the first time in the land of China that people take the initiative to use water power and convert water power into power.

When the layer of window paper "people can use water power" is pierced, it is conceivable that craftsmen from all over the world will spontaneously study and understand the principle. Within a hundred years, water mills, water drains, water wheels and other things can be created, and with Heif's advice, the time will even be shortened to ten years!

"I just hope that these things can really liberate more people from heavy labor and slowly change this era."

Thinking like this, Heifu quipped: "Sister, you are already a great craftsman, and the promotion and reward are just around the corner!" ”

"I don't ask for any reward, as long as it is not exposed."

Lu is still worried, in his opinion, this is a deception and a deception, once exposed, it will be punished!

"I have already told the county lieutenant that I realized this thing by the water's edge and told you, even if someone doubts it, you and I are not guilty."

Heifu comforted the frieze so much, but he still had to let the friggard get the credit. Although Heifu has an idea, it is the technology of the whirlpool that turns this idea into reality, and in the future, Heifu has more places to rely on him.

At this time, Li You had already finished his inspection with satisfaction, and in this way, the Haikou that Heifu boasted that day was completely realized. If dozens of water mills could be added to the surrounding streams and rivers, the copper officials would be able to hand over more copper ingots and allow the foundry to make more weapons. Before the war starts, the shortage of the arsenal will definitely be filled!

Li You finally sighed: "My father once showed me an article by Xunzi, which said that if you climb high and move, your arms will not be lengthened, but those who see it will be far away; Blowing with the wind, the sound is not a disease, but the hearer is prominent. Those who fake horses are not profitable, but thousands of miles; Those who fake the boat are not able to water, but the rivers. A gentleman is not different, and he is good at fake things! ”

"And today, there are left soldiers Cao Shihefu and Anlu County skillful craftsmen, and the two of them are fake in water power to make a water mill with a machine, which can also get several times the effect!"

Everyone said yes in unison, including the county magistrate Shi who came to see the excitement after hearing the news, he bowed his head slightly, thoughtfully.

After returning to Gangneung City, Changshi went directly to the county shou mansion and informed the southern county shou teng of the "strange scene" he saw today......