Ang Lee could see the overturned carts in the cracks of the terraced fields from afar. These overturned carts were all advanced carts that were pulled by animals. It was much more effective than using humans to pull them. It was already past the busy season, so there were no people or animals in the area where the overturned carts were being pulled by animals.
There were three types of overturned carts: human-powered, animal-powered, and water-powered. Among them, human-powered overturned carts were split into two types: foot-powered and hand-cranked.
Among them, human overturning was undoubtedly the most backward. After all, human strength was the weakest, and the efficiency of overturning was the lowest. Animal overturning was more advanced. The strength of cows and horses was far greater than that of humans. Using cows and horses to drive overturning was much better than using human power. It was also a kind of overturning that was widely used. The most advanced overturning was a hydraulic overturning. This kind of overturning was driven by the power of flowing water. It did not require additional human and animal power, and it was the most convenient. However, the use of hydraulic overturning was limited. It could not be used everywhere. On a river with a fast flow, it could use hydraulic overturning. In a place where the flow was slow or even the river was still, hydraulic overturning did not exist. Naturally, it was impossible to use hydraulic overturning.
For example, the river below Little Pagoda Hill was very slow, and there was almost no water-powered overturned carts. Even if the most advanced water-powered overturned carts were made, they wouldn't be able to be used. Thus, using animal-powered overturned carts was the best choice. It was more suitable for the situation of Little Pagoda Hill.
This type of overturned carts was called Dragon Bone Water Wheel in ancient times. It was a dragon bone water wheel used by Hua Xia people to irrigate their fields. It was the earliest and oldest type of agricultural water wheel in the world. It was a scraper type continuous water lifting machine, and it was one of the most famous agricultural irrigation machines invented by the working people of ancient China.
During the Three Kingdoms and Wei Dynasty, the overturned carts were used for irrigation. The "Book of the Later Han" recorded that Bi Lan overturned carts, and Ma Jun of the Three Kingdoms perfected it. The keel leaf plates of the overturned carts were used as chains, lying in a long rectangular trough. The body of the overturned carts was tilted to the side of a river or pond. The bottom sprocket and a part of the body of the body were submerged in the water to drive the sprocket. The leaf plates were raised along the trough to send the water out. In such a continuous cycle, the water could be transported to the place where it was needed, and the water could be drawn continuously. The efficiency was greatly improved, and it was easy to operate and transport. It could also shift the water drawing point in time, which could be used for irrigation and drainage.
There were big and small rollovers. The biggest rollover looked like a huge ancient wheel. The diameter of the wheel could reach up to 20 to 30 meters. The smaller the rollover was, the higher it could be raised. If the field was hundreds of meters above the water source, they could only choose to raise it step by step. After all, it was difficult to make a rollover too big, and it was even more difficult to drive it. According to the technology level of ancient times, it was already the limit to raise the river by more than 10 meters. If the water source was too high, they could only use the method of raising the water step by step and make a few more rollovers.
Only a few rollover rollovers could be used. Even the water pumps of later generations were used to raise water step by step. Each level could only raise water up to a height of more than 10 meters. Most of them were more than 10 meters or dozens of meters high. However, the efficiency of the water pumps was very high, far higher than the rollover rollover.
Ang Lee was very interested to see the rollover rollover personally. At the moment when the water pumps had been manufactured in the capital, rollover rollovers were actually outdated. However, due to the limited production capacity, the water pumps could only be popularized near the capital. In most areas of Central Sichuan, they could only rely on these ancient rollover rollovers to transfer water.
When it came to rollover rollovers, there was actually a kind of wind-powered rollover. However, the application of wind-powered rollover was the least because the wind-powered rollover required very high wind power. How could there be so much strong wind? If there was not enough strong wind, the wind-powered rollover would just be a decoration. Under normal circumstances, the water power was relatively stable, but the wind power was difficult to maintain stable. Therefore, the application of wind-powered rollover rollover was too rare. It could not be used effectively at all. It could only be used in areas with strong wind all year round.
"This rollover rollover is really big! It's about 50 to 60 meters. "
Ang Lee said when he saw the overturned car in front of him.
There was also a round plate with a wooden pole for the oxen and horses to pull. There were also some ropes on the side. As long as the oxen and horses were pulled over, they could immediately start flipping.
These overturned cars were placed in the open and exposed to the wind and sun all day long, so they were relatively easy to be weathered. Generally, they would need to be repaired and replaced in a few years, so their service life was a little too short. In order to increase the service life of the overturned cars, small rocs were specially built in some parts to block the parts of the overturned cars from the sun, so as to prevent them from being weathered by the sun. As for the largest disc, there was no way to block it, but they could use better weathering resistant wood and paint on the surface of the wood. In this way, the service life of the overturned cars could be greatly increased.
However, even if the service life of the overturned cars was very short, it did not matter. The material of the overturned cars was wood. The Tang dynasty was rich in resources, so how could there be a shortage of wood? There was no shortage of wood at all. Central Sichuan, which had abundant resources in the mountains, would never lack wood. The wood here was inexhaustible.
Because there was a height difference of 60 meters between the highest point of the terraced fields and the river at the foot of the mountain, there was not only one overturned car. Instead, the river water was transported up step by step. Each step raised the height by 50 to 60 meters, so ten steps of overturned cars could raise the water in the river to the highest point.
In order to reduce the animal force as much as possible, when watering, each step was responsible for the corresponding height of the terraced fields. The water would be watered between the height of the terraced fields and the height of the water at the next level. There was no limit to the amount of water that could be watered. Because the height difference between each step was only 50 to 60 meters, there were only a dozen steps of terraced fields that could be watered.
Because the number of terraced fields here was really too many, when the overturned cars needed to be watered, the water would be continuously transferred 24 hours a day. The lower the level of the overturned car, the greater the pressure it faced. After all, the lower level not only had to be responsible for watering their own area, but also had to supply water to the upper level. Naturally, the pressure was the greatest. In addition, the terraced fields at the lower level were much larger than those at the upper level, so the pressure was not just a little bit.
It was precisely because of this that the number of overturned cars at the lower level was more than those at the upper level. The size of the overturned cars was also larger, so a single overturned car could overturn more water.
For example, there were six overturned cars at the first step, five overturned cars at the second and third step, four overturned cars at the fourth and fifth step, three overturned cars at the sixth and seventh step, two overturned cars at the eighth and ninth step, and only one overturned car at the tenth step. This arrangement could minimize the shortage of water supply to the greatest extent, and prevent the situation of insufficient water supply at the lower level.
In addition, the reservoir at each level was relatively large and could hold a lot of water. This was to prevent the water from overturning the lower level and filling the upper level. This way, the pressure would be too great when adjusting the water supply.
Ang Lee found a few villagers who were digging wild vegetables and asked them. The overturned cars here were used many times a year. When there was a shortage of water at the upper level, these overturned cars were responsible for overturning the water. During the most critical time, all the overturned cars were activated. There were thirty-five overturned cars that kept overturning the water day and night. In order to provide enough driving force, at least one hundred strong cattle were needed.
The bigger overturned cars needed two cattle to pull together, and the smaller ones only needed one. In addition, the cattle would also be tired, so more cattle needed to be prepared to change shifts at any time. There was no such thing as a three-shift holiday here. The best treatment for the cattle was two shifts. Two groups of cattle took turns to work. Basically, they changed shifts every four hours to maintain the cattle's physical strength and avoid slowing down the progress of overturning the water because of the cattle's lack of physical strength.
Naturally, these scalpers were not from ordinary families. They were all scalpers from the Yang family. The Yang family did not provide these scalpers for free. They had to charge for them. However, they did not charge them directly. Instead, they added it to the rent or asked the people to provide the corresponding labor to compensate them.
For example, if the Yang family needed to build a building, these commoners would need to go and work for free. Building a garden, digging a cellar, and so on would require a lot of labor. However, these jobs would be useless no matter how many cattle they had. They had to rely on manpower, and these tenant farmers who used their cattle would naturally have to provide labor to repay them.
In ancient times, the cost of labor for various kinds of construction was not much, but it was still a considerable expense. If this expense could be saved, a lot of money could be saved in a few years. It could be seen that the Yang Family was very shrewd. The large number of cattle raised by the Yang Family were idle. During the busy farming season, they provided the cattle to the tenant farmers to plow the land. When the water was needed, they provided the cattle to the tenant farmers to drive the overturned cars. This way, they could make more money and save money for themselves.
Of course, Ang Lee soon found that there was more than this. On a distant path, there was a cattle transport team. It seemed that there were more than thirty cattle. Behind each cattle was a truck full of goods. The villagers beside him told Ang Lee that these were the Yang Family's cattle. In their free time, they would help the merchants of Yizhou transport goods. This was a direct charge. Although the daily transportation fee for each cattle was very low, a large number of cattle often went to transport goods. This income was not low.
"Who is the head of the Yang Family? How can he be so business-minded? Their cattle were not raised in vain!"
Ang Lee sighed.
According to Ang Lee's memory, when he was young, there were a few villagers in his hometown who raised cattle. However, the cattle raised by the villagers spent most of their time leisurely eating fodder at home. They rarely went out to work. Only during the busy farming season would they go to work in the fields. It was really like raising cattle for a thousand days to use them for one day! They were simply worshipping cattle as if they were their ancestors!
At that time, Ang Lee was still young and did not consider the economic benefits. He did not feel that there was anything wrong with doing this. However, now that he saw that the Yang Family's cattle were not idle, Ang Lee felt that the cattle farmers he met when he was young were too stupid. During the idle farming season, they could use their cattle to make money! At least they could go and transport goods for others! This way, they could make a lot of money.
He remembered that there was a family who raised a donkey. When they had nothing to do, they would pull a donkey cart to deliver goods to others, mainly delivering honeycomb briquettes. After a year, they could make a lot of money because donkeys could not plow the land. The family who raised the donkey mainly used it to transport goods for others. As for the family who raised cattle, because cattle could plow the land, they would usually raise them as if they were their ancestors. They would only be pulled out to work when they were plowing the land. It was really too wasteful. The ability of a cow to pull a cart was not inferior to that of a donkey. In terms of strength, cows were still the strongest. If a donkey could pull goods, so could cows.
According to Ang Lee's experience, when he was young, the cost of raising cattle and donkeys was very low. It could even be said that there was no cost because they raised cattle and donkeys using fodder commonly seen in the countryside. The family would go to the fields to cut the grass and bring it back to feed the animals. Occasionally, they would lead the animals to the roadside to eat the grass. It was that simple and did not need to spend money at all. This might be the main reason why many people did not care about wasting the cattle's strength. Because apart from the hard work of raising cattle, there was really no cost at all.
"Fellow countryman, how many cattle does the Yang family have on earth?"
Ang Lee saw an old farmer who was digging wild vegetables and asked.
"There are about two hundred of them, but you can only see a hundred at most at home. The rest are all hauling goods outside. There are also many calves at home. However, when it comes to plowing and plowing, the Yang Family no longer does the hauling business. All the cattle are used to work in the fields. This is what they have agreed with us tenant farmers long ago. We rent their land, and they have to provide cattle when they need it. However, the land rent is a little more expensive than other places, but as long as there are cattle to use, it's worth it to pay a little more."
The old farmer said.
When Li An heard this, he asked, "These two hundred cattle will eat a lot of fodder every day. Who prepared the fodder? Is it you tenant farmers or the people they hired to prepare it for them?"
The old farmer said, "The fodder can't be finished at all. We usually have to help the boss deal with the weeds in the orchard on the mountain. The weeds can't be left where they are. They have to be taken to feed the boss's cattle. In addition, there are so many straw piled up in the boss's field during the autumn harvest. There are also piles of straw piled up in front of each house. No matter how many cattle there are, they can't finish it! Most of them are kept for the fire. "
Li An also understood the use of straw to feed the cattle. Straw could indeed be used to feed the cattle, but the nutrition of this kind of straw was not high. Feeding the cattle with only dry straw for a long time would cause the cattle to lose weight, and the fattened cattle would inevitably lack strength. Whether it was transporting goods or plowing, they would appear to have no strength. The solution was to not only feed them straw, but also to feed them some other food.
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