This year's Nanjing is particularly cold, until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there are some scattered light snow, generally at this time of the year people are still nested at home and do not want to go out, after all, in this era of insufficient food, the more activities the more physical strength is consumed, and the faster the stomach will be hungry.

But this year is different, near the Qianhusuo near the Yangtze River has been surrounded by people at the moment, large and small people have crowded the vicinity, countless adults and children have poked their heads into the river, from time to time there are children because they probe too close to the river and are scolded by adults.

At this time, in the middle of the open space is standing dozens of officers of the Thousand Households, Yang Feng, Geng Bingyi and others are also awe-inspiring, not far from them on the riverside, a more than 20 meters high behemoth is standing on the riverside, in its body is also tied to dozens of thick ropes, these ropes have been extended to the riverside, not only that, there are more than ten small boats on the river, there are also dozens of military households are standing on the boat pulling these ropes, in a burst of sharp whistles, hundreds of military households are rhythmically and slowly pulling the ropes, let this behemoth slowly approach the pillar that has been erected by the river.

This behemoth is the waterwheel that Yang Feng got from modern society, and this waterwheel is actually the Lanzhou waterwheel known as the post-secular world. Although this kind of waterwheel has appeared in the 35th year of Jiajing, because the ancient traffic and news are relatively closed, it is only used in the Yellow River valley and Yinchuan and Shaanxi, and this kind of waterwheel is difficult to be vigorously promoted because of the high cost, ordinary people cannot afford to use it at all.

Yang Feng brought these waterwheels this time are in the modern society to send people to build, and the more primitive waterwheels used in this era are different, Yang Feng brought these waterwheels in terms of workmanship and quality are much more advanced and durable than the Lanzhou waterwheel in this era, some key parts of the waterwheel such as the skeleton are made of lightweight aluminum alloy materials, only some of the external parts that are easier to make such as chain buckets and other parts are used wooden materials, In order to install this big waterwheel, Yang Feng has been busy with dozens of craftsmen from thousands of households for seven or eight days before the waterwheel was installed, and today is the day of official installation.

"Squeak ......"

With the water wheel dozens of meters high and thousands of pounds slowly slid towards the pillar under the pull of hundreds of people, towards the wooden shaft that had already been installed, a heavy and laborious sound continued to sound, until the waterwheel was completely closed with the wooden shaft, making a muffled sound of "boom", and the whole waterwheel was completely stuck into the position.

"Quick...... Hurry up and row the boat over! ”

After seeing the installation of the waterwheel in place, an old craftsman in his fifties who was responsible for directing the installation hurriedly commanded the boatman to row the boat over, and when the boat approached the waterwheel, dozens of craftsmen immediately climbed on the waterwheel to untie the thick rope tied to the waterwheel, and their movements were very quick, and dozens of thick ropes were completely untied in less than a quarter of an hour.

"Get out of the way...... Get out of the way! ”

The old craftsman hurriedly let the boat leave the vicinity of the waterwheel, towards the shore, and when they went ashore, a group of craftsmen swung their sledgehammers and smashed on the two huge logs, for a time the heavy sound of "dong dong" sounded, when the two logs stuck on the waterwheel were knocked off, the waterwheel that lost its restraint "creaked" in the push of the river, with the rotation of the waterwheel, buckets of river water were scooped up, and then fell on the canal that had been laid long ago through the pipe, Soon, the slightly turbid river water slowly flowed through the canal to the distant fields, and for a while, the entire riverside suddenly resounded with an earth-shattering cheer, and countless military households jumped up excitedly.

"There's water, there's water!"

"Your Excellency...... My lord...... We succeeded, we finally have water! ”

Geng Bingyi, Chu Maoguang, Cao Yingmao, these officers also jumped up, and even Qi Yan, who had always had a cold face, also showed a smile on his face, many military households looked at the river that flowed into the canal and shed tears of excitement, looking at these military households who were even more excited than the New Year, Yang Feng seemed to understand something, in this era, water is equal to the root of life for the common people.

Li Ge got out of nowhere, ran to Yang Feng's side and asked, "My lord, how many fields can this waterwheel irrigate?" ”

Yang Feng thought for a while before saying: "If a waterwheel irrigates day and night, it should not be a problem to irrigate a thousand acres of land. ”

Li Ge said thoughtfully: "So it seems that we have to continue to install three water wheels, otherwise it will not be enough." ”

"Three is simply not enough." Yang Feng rejects his words, "Have you seen it, there is still a large area of wasteland in the west of us that has not been cultivated due to lack of water, we can completely reclaim the wasteland in the west, think about it, how much grain we can harvest in this way." ”

"Hiss......"

Li Ge gasped, don't look at Nanjing is the old capital of the Ming Dynasty, surrounded by rivers and lakes, but due to the lack of water conservancy and irrigation conditions, there are also a lot of wasteland around, but in this way, the labor required is large, he carefully reminded: "My lord, there are 50,000 or 60,000 acres of wasteland in the west, and it takes at least tens of thousands to open up the west. ”

"That's why I'm asking you to recruit homeless people to open up the wasteland in a few days!" Yang Feng glanced at him strangely: "There are so many displaced people who have come to Nanjing over the years, it should be easy to recruit 10,000 people, right?" ”

"But ......"

Li Ge still wanted to speak, but he didn't know how to say it, but he always felt a little worried in his heart, it has always been a matter of the government to recruit displaced people, and Qianhusuo, as a half-army and half-civilian location, rarely does this kind of thing, and it is easy to arouse the suspicion of the imperial court.

Seeing Li Ge's expression, Yang Feng knew what he was worried about, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I've already told Gonggong Cao, the eunuch of Nanjing, about this matter, and Gonggong Cao has agreed, so there is no problem at all for us to recruit homeless people." Moreover, we should have 1,200 military households according to the system of 1,000 households, including 7 to 8,000 family members, but now we don't even have half of the population, so I plan to add some of the displaced people to the military households after recruiting them, which is completely reasonable. ”

Listening to Yang Feng's words, Li Ge smiled bitterly, "My lord, what you said is right, but now there are only military households in the Ming Dynasty who have escaped, how can there be people who are willing to join the army." I'm afraid your hard work will be in vain. ”

"Not necessarily." Yang Feng said confidently: "As long as the conditions here are suitable and we can have something to eat, I don't believe that those homeless people will be unwilling to join the army!" ”

As he spoke, Yang Feng didn't notice that a young man in purple clothes was walking in their direction surrounded by more than a dozen followers......