Shaofu is one of the important central institutions of the Qin State, in charge of the income of Shanhai Ze and the handicraft manufacturing of the government, among them, the "examination room" in the Shaofu is responsible for leading the officials of the counties and counties of the Qin State, and there are a number of handicraft workshops in Xianyang and various places, and there are countless officials.

At this time, Zhang Han was in his early twenties, and he was just a small official under Ling Cheng of the examination room, and he was promoted to an official as a "Ren Zi", but he only did some small work to usher in.

In fact, his real interest is in the military and the battlefield, and Zhang Han and his colleagues discuss with great interest the battle of Qinyan in the north of Yishui. Now Jicheng, the capital of Yanshang, has been besieged by more than 100,000 troops of Wang Qian's old general for two months, and Yanguo Sheji is in danger. However, the Qin army also had a long journey under the city of Jiudun in the winter, and some of them could not keep up with the lack of food, so there were many people who died of cold and starvation.

And the timely supply of grain and grass in front is also one of the responsibilities of Shaofu and Zhisu Neishi.

On this day, Zhang Han was making a bet with his colleagues to guess how long Yanguo would last, but an urgent letter from Nanjun suddenly came outside, as well as the wooden equipment on the passing car, escorted by a grumpy Nanjun envoy.

Zhang Han guided the envoy into the Shaofu Examination Office, and his knighthood position was not enough, so he was not qualified to enter the room, so he continued to wait outside. After a while, a few more subordinate concubines were summoned, and after another hour, I heard a burst of admiration and exclamation from the craftsmen and craftsmen inside......

Then someone came out and called him, went to the Zhisu Inner Historical Office, and asked them to send a few warehouse officials and agricultural officials over there.

Zhang Han felt that something was wrong, but he didn't ask much, and did it silently, he didn't know that in the next few days, the entire Shaofu examination room, the core officials of Zhisu Neishi and Xianyang Cang were desperately discussing the effect of "stepping on the ground".

As for the usefulness of "stepping on the ground", after listening to the explanation of the envoy of Nanjun and calling a few subordinate concubines on the spot to verify it, the Xianyang officials did not need to doubt it. And this thing is not complicated, just a simple wooden pole trampling, which is a common technology in this era, but people have been going back to ancient times for a long time and have not thought of making a substitute for the pestle mortar.

Once they saw it at this moment, the craftsmen in the examination room were as simple as being pierced through a thin veil, and they immediately understood: it turned out that they could still do this!

So the craftsmen in the examination room said to do it, according to the gourd to draw the scoop, after a few hours of work, successfully copied the exact same stepping on the scoop. Then let people test the rice, the results are almost the same, a stepping machine, can indeed increase the efficiency of the rice by nearly double, and the people are not so tired.

"This thing is a craftsman who can do it at a glance, and the materials required are also simple, compared to the stone mill that has been installed in the Xianyang court from the land of Qilu, it is easier to promote it to the counties and counties of the country......"

The engineers in the examination room think so, the stone mill has appeared in the Central Plains for a period of time, it is said that more than 100 years ago, the ingenious Lu Ban made it, but it is not very widely circulated at present, and it is only used in the homes of some wealthy people. After all, grinding is easier to use to crush food than to hull, and at this moment, wheat has not yet replaced millet as a staple food in the north, and northerners do not have the habit of eating pasta.

"Whether it's north or south, millet, wheat or rice, hulling can be used for this." Si Nongguan, who governed the history of Su Nei, touched his chin and thought.

"If I replace the pestle and mortar with this thing in my warehouse, the rice provided to more than 100,000 people in Xianyang every day will be at least doubled. If the front-line soldiers could have this thing, they wouldn't have to spend an hour every day to come to the valley......" The barn official of Xianyang Cang thought so.

Now that the Qin State is cutting down Yan and besieging Jicheng, the biggest difficulty is not the violent resistance of the Yan people, but the weather in the north, as well as the food supply, the king has repeatedly ordered that more soldiers rush to the front line, not for battle, but for transporting food.

And the grain transported over, a lot of it belongs to this year's new grain, before the soldiers eat, they have to lick it first, the front-line quartermaster has complained many times, but Hengshan, Handan, Hejian area of the warehouse officials are helpless, they originally belonged to the Zhao State, it is a newly conquered territory, the situation is not stable, Ding Zhuang was forcibly requisitioned to the front line to transport grain to besiege the city, only some old and weak women and children are left, now the farm is busy, how can there be time to eat rice?

If the three counties can be equipped with treadmills, doesn't it mean that more rice can be scooped out in less time and sent to the front line with fewer manpower? If the front line is also equipped with a treadmill, then the generals do not have to worry about the problem of food.

As a result, the chief officials of the Shaofu Examination Gongfu and the Xianyang Cang of the Zhisu Neishi Shi, after discussion, submitted the official documents to the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Imperial History Mansion, all of them called the Ta Ji a "militaristic weapon", and suggested that this thing should be sent to all counties and counties immediately, so that the government could produce and promote it.

This suggestion was finally submitted to the king, and the court was ordered to discuss it.

At this time, there was a little discord, and a Sikong who was in charge of managing the prisoners worriedly thought that if the stepping was promoted, wouldn't it be much lighter as the most severe punishment for female prisoners? It will even exist in name only......

This question was widely discussed by the secretaries, and in the end, Li Si, who had just been promoted to court lieutenant, gave a reply that made people speechless.

"Shang Jun said: Punishment is punished, and the country is governed; Punishment leads to punishment, and the country is in turmoil. The purpose of punishment is not to punish people, but to make the people understand that there are some things that cannot be done, and that the slightest sign of doing them should be eradicated with heavy punishment, so that the whole country can understand what should not be done and what can be done. In the end, because no one violates the corresponding provisions, the heavy punishment can become an ornament forever and will no longer be used, which is called punishment by punishment, which is the ideal of our Legalists......"

"Now, since stepping on the grain can make the grain twice as effective with half the effort, for my Qin State, it is like a soldier's sword blade twice as fast and the armor as thick, my country has always emphasized the supreme merit, and it should be implemented without hesitation, how can it be because of the fear of reducing the punishment of the concubine, and because of choking?"

Tingwei is Tingwei, worthy of Xunzi's high disciple, a word made everyone in the court have nothing to say, so the king also approved the matter, and said in the edict: "Ke"!

Shaofu and Zhisu Neishi are fully responsible for this matter, and the officials have said that if this thing can be promoted throughout the country, then this year's county engineer competition, Nanjun will be the first, and in the internal evaluation of Nanjun, Anlu County will also be a well-deserved first, Anlu County Gongcao, Cangcao, can give 30 days of labor.

However, up to this point, the court still had no intention of rewarding the inventor, because the Qin State was indeed much more stingy with the rewards of craftsmen and merchants than with the officials of the soldiers.

There are 100 people in the agricultural war, and there is one skilled person, and the 100 people are all lazy in the agricultural war, in the Qin State, the population ratio of craftsmen and farmers is about one to one hundred.

The Qin State has always believed that if the people see that people who rely on empty talk and lobbying can also make themselves get a noble status, merchants can also make a fortune, and craftsmen can also support their families. When the people saw that these three types of people had a comfortable occupation and could gain financial benefits, they would definitely avoid farming and warfare......

Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages is also human nature.

Therefore, for the craftsmen who perform well, the craftsmen of the county and county can make rewards, and they will be promoted to the next level and get ten thousand dollars, so the craftsmen in the countryside will not be happy to bloom? Do you want the king and the court to commend you? Wouldn't that mess up the law of the Qin State!

At most, it was only the name of the craftsman who made this thing, "橼", which appeared many times in the wooden slabs of Shaofu, so that the young official Zhang Han remembered this person, but he didn't know that behind the whirlpool, there was also a small pavilion chief named Heifu......

……

So, at the end of January, when Ta Gui was named "An Lu Jie" and would be in the Qin Kingdom, its inventor Heifu knew nothing about these things.

At this moment, he is standing barefoot in his field, arguing with his eldest brother about what to plant this year......

"Uncle, of my two hundred acres of land, one hundred and fifty acres can be set aside to grow millet and rice, and the rest can be planted with beans."

Pointing to a large expanse of land that had just been cultivated, Hefu complained heartily: "But you must set aside ten acres of land for me to grow what I want!" “

As he spoke, Heifu also pointed to the ridge of the field, where there was a bundle of plants with thick rhizomes that looked like bamboo, not bamboo......