The issue of land had always been a very important core issue in feudal society. Its importance was reflected in the fact that it could directly affect the stability and sustainable development of the feudal court.
As the most important means of production for the common people, land supported them and allowed them to live well in this world. Therefore, land was very important to the common people.
For the vast majority of the common people, losing land might mean losing their lives. So, what else would they not dare to do? In the face of survival, the emperor was nothing.
Therefore, although a large number of manpower from agriculture was needed to develop the industry, Ang Lee did not dare to go too far. Otherwise, there would be a lot of trouble.
"Your Majesty, I have three restrictions. First, the area where land sales are allowed should be in the plains, which is convenient for large-scale farming with machinery. Land sales are prohibited in the mountains because machinery is not very useful in the mountains. Second, the common people who sell land must join the ranks of craftsmen, have a craftsman certificate, and be able to use the work of craftsmen to support their family. Otherwise, they are not allowed to sell land. In addition, since they have joined the craftsmen, they are not allowed to own a large amount of land. At most, they can keep three to five mu of vegetable fields for their wives to farm. Third, we must severely crack down on forced sales. The transaction of land must be agreed by both parties. Moreover, the noble who buys the land must know that the common people who sell the land have joined the ranks of craftsmen. Otherwise, they will be severely punished. "
Ang Lee thought for a long time and gave his suggestion.
Li Longji nodded with satisfaction. He felt that Ang Lee's idea was very good. This way, farmers and craftsmen could be switched one-to-one. Of course, as the craftsmen's income gradually surpassed that of farming, many common people would definitely abandon the land and join the ranks of craftsmen.
"Your Majesty, I have another suggestion."
"Assistant Minister Li, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to say them."
Ang Lee thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, as various kinds of machinery are gradually introduced into agriculture, the Tang Dynasty will no longer have a shortage of food and fodder. There will be a lot of surplus food, and it will become more and more abundant. However, there will still be a very small number of common people who will have no food. Some of them will have no food because their husbands died, some of them will have diseases, and some of them will go out on the wrong road, or their money will be stolen. I think that we can set up porridge shops in all the counties to give these people a bowl of porridge to help them tide over the difficulties. This is also a merit. God will see."
"As long as there is no shortage of food, it is best to set up porridge shops in all the counties. I agree. In the future, I will arrange for the officials in all counties."
Li Longji approved of the social security system proposed by Ang Lee very much. Anyway, it was just a few bowls of porridge, which would not waste many resources. As long as the imperial court was rich enough, it could be done to further reduce the occurrence of petty theft and promote the establishment of a better society in the Tang Dynasty.
Later, Ang Lee listed more than a dozen invention plans in one breath. Moreover, they were all good things that could be used in the Tang Dynasty. Li Longji was so shocked that he was stunned. He was even more determined to fully support Ang Lee's inventions so that he could obtain these powerful inventions.
There were mountains and rivers around Luoyang City. The scenery was very beautiful. Taking the opportunity of inspection, Ang Lee enjoyed the beautiful scenery here. Naturally, he felt that the trip was not in vain.
The three-day inspection tour soon ended. That night, Li Longji returned to the capital with his team.
Although it was dangerous to drive the train at night, as long as the speed could be slowed down, there would not be any danger. Moreover, there were soft beds on the train. It felt good to sleep on the way back to the capital.
During the day, the train moved at the speed of 100 miles per hour. But at night, for safety reasons, the speed of the train was set at 30 miles per hour. This was quite slow. Even if one ran faster, he could catch up with the train.
After getting on the train, Li Longji directly hugged Yang Yuhuan and fell asleep. Ang Lee and several ministers sat by the window and chatted while enjoying the hazy snow outside. After an hour, most people were sleepy. They returned to their bunks and slept comfortably.
In the morning, the train slowly accelerated. Most people were awake. At this time, the train had only traveled 200 miles from Luoyang City. It had been a whole night!
Of course, the train had accelerated and quickly returned to its normal speed. In this way, they would definitely reach Chang 'an City before sunset.
On the way back, Ang Lee was not only enjoying the scenery along the way, but he was also called over by Li Longji to talk about some black technology.
And through Ang Lee's constant explanation, Li Longji's curiosity grew bigger and bigger. His ambition also grew bigger and bigger. He even wanted to immediately invest the power of the country and let Ang Lee quickly invent all the things he thought of.
Every time this happened, Ang Lee would always spend time to persuade Li Longji not to be too impatient and not to do things that were beyond the country's ability. Research and development had to be done step by step. First, solve the problem of agricultural machinery and let the surplus manpower enter the industrial field. Gradually, the industrial population could be enriched. Then, the production of machinery could be expanded according to the plan and the development of more things could be accelerated.
Before sunset, the train arrived at Chang 'an City Railway Station. Li Longji returned to the palace, and Ang Lee went to the R&D Center first. He stayed there for more than two hours and only returned to the courtyard after dark.
Winter days were bitterly cold, but the R&D Center was in full swing. All the craftsmen were busy.
In order to reflect the humane management and prevent the craftsmen from getting frostbite, all the dormitories had thickened the walls and even installed a fireplace. And when they were working, they had also prepared warm gloves for the craftsmen.
In terms of food and drink, the craftsmen could not only eat until they were full, but the food was also more reasonable. They could eat slices of meat almost every day. This made many craftsmen very excited and motivated.
As for the research and development talents who were particularly skilled, the treatment was even better. Almost every meal had meat, and the rooms were warmer and more comfortable.
The cost of taking care of the craftsmen was naturally higher, but these costs were ultimately passed on to the nobles who bought the machinery. In the end, the court did not suffer any losses and even made a lot of money.
A large number of steam machine tools were gradually put into production and R&D, which accelerated the progress of R&D and also increased the production efficiency of the machinery, allowing more machinery to enter the market of the Tang dynasty.
In this cold season, the R&D of the harvester made great progress. However, because there were no crops to test, it was impossible to judge the performance of the harvester. They could only wait until the spring plowing, when a small amount of wheat matured, to test the performance of the harvester. But Ang Lee was confident in the results of his research. He believed that the products he had developed would definitely be successful.
In these days, the coke and steelmaking technology had made great breakthroughs. The steel rails built were more and more advanced, and there were more and more of them. In the warehouses of the R&D Center, a large number of forged steel rails were piled up. These were all used to pave the railway. After the spring plowing, they could be used.
As the steam machine tools were put into production and gradually put into use, the production of plowers and water pumps entered an accelerated stage. Originally, it was thought that the second batch of plowers would be produced after the spring plowing. Unexpectedly, it was produced before the spring plowing and was immediately snapped up by the nobles.
Half of the water pumps were sold to the nobles, while the remaining half was invested in the counties of Guanzhong to replace the water wheels in some important areas. Of course, there were also some places that did not have water wheels.
Winter went and spring came. In the season full of the fragrance of flowers, the wheat planted during the autumn harvest had already turned yellow. It was the best time to harvest.
In order to test the performance of the harvester, Ang Lee took a thousand mu of wheat fields near the capital. He did not allow the people to harvest the wheat themselves. Everything was done by the harvester.
In order to better expand his influence, Ang Lee built three harvesters this time. They could be tested at the same time.
When the harvest test was about to begin, in addition to the three harvesters, there were thousands of onlookers at the location of the test.
There were court officials concerned about the efficiency of the harvesters, as well as the younger generation of the nobles, butlers, and servants. Of course, there were even more commoners nearby.
"Assistant Minister Li, the three harvesters are ready. We can begin."
The R&D craftsman reminded.
Ang Lee nodded and ordered, "Begin the harvest!"
"Rumble …"
With a piercing noise, the three harvesters slowly started and immediately began to harvest the wheat.
The onlookers all stared intently at the three steel behemoths. They were very much looking forward to the results of the test. After the uproar caused by the plowers, many people felt that the harvesters would definitely be very formidable. After all, they were invented by the famous Ang Lee.
Ang Lee was very satisfied with the progress of the test. None of the three harvesters malfunctioned. Moreover, the harvesting speed was very pleasing. It was much faster than manual labor. The crops harvested by manual labor could only be placed in bundles by the roadside. However, the harvesters could directly put the fruits into fixed wooden boxes and throw away the wheat straws. This could save the step of removing the wheat straws, further saving manpower and increasing the efficiency of harvesting.
Seeing a large amount of wheat straws being thrown behind the harvesters, the onlookers all widened their eyes in surprise. This was because the wheat straws that were thrown away did not have wheat ears. Where did the wheat ears go? This aroused everyone's curiosity.
In fact, before the test began, the onlookers had always thought that the harvesters would cut the wheat into bundles and place them by the roadside. However, the situation was completely different from what they had imagined. The harvesters directly threw the wheat straws behind them. Moreover, the wheat straws that were thrown away did not have wheat ears.
This was the fixed thinking of people. The onlookers had seen bundles of wheat before. Naturally, they would think that the harvesters also had the same function, but the speed was faster. However, they did not expect that the harvesters' performance was more advanced than they had imagined. They could directly put the wheat into their stomachs.
Of course, there were also some idiots who thought that the harvesters threw the wheat ears into the soil and laughed at the harvesters for being useless.
The onlookers who figured out the truth all praised the harvesters. They felt that the harvesters' performance was better than the plowing machines and argued with those who had misunderstood the harvesters' performance.
Two hours passed and the results of the test were about to come out.
"Assistant Minister Li, the three harvesters harvested a total of eighteen mu of wheat. On average, each harvester harvested six mu."
Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction and said loudly, "Not bad, not bad. Six mu in two hours. Ten hours a day is thirty mu. Very good."
"A person can harvest at most one mu of land a day. The harvesters can harvest thirty mu of land a day. They are dozens of times faster than a person. Amazing!"
"This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the wheat ears have been stripped. This is very rare."
"Wheat ears. Oh right, why don't I see any wheat ears? Could they have been smashed into the soil?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? This is a good thing that Assistant Minister Li took the lead in inventing. How could the wheat ears be smashed into the soil? They must have been kept in the machine. "
The onlookers started to talk about it.
"Assistant Minister Li, where are the wheat ears? Are they really in the machine?"
An official stepped forward and asked loudly.
"Wheat ears? Where did the wheat ears come from?"
Ang Lee shook his head and walked to the harvesters. He ordered, "Open the wooden box and see how much has been collected."
"Yes, Assistant Minister Li."
Several craftsmen pushed the prepared carriage over. This carriage was pulled by a horse. The carriage at the back had a fully enclosed groove that could be used to store grain.
"Hua …"
The moment the small opening at the bottom of the wooden box of the harvester was opened, a large amount of wheat grains shot out and fell steadily into the groove of the carriage.
The onlookers were all stunned when they saw this scene. The performance of this harvester was too advanced. Not only could it harvest the mature wheat, but it could also remove all the wheat grains. It was simply too convenient.
"Look, how many catties does this carriage have?"
Ang Lee looked at one of his subordinates beside him.
"Assistant Minister Li, this carriage has more than a thousand catties, at most one thousand five hundred catties."
The subordinate quickly replied.
"Amazing. He actually managed to remove the wheat directly. Amazing."
"This machine can support at least fifty people. If it harvests thirty mu of land per day, it can harvest three hundred mu of land in ten days. If it were ten or a hundred, it would be even more amazing."
"My family, Alang, has three thousand mu of land and nearly two hundred tenant farmers. When it is time to harvest, it is still too busy. If we use harvesters, we only need ten of them."
The onlookers started to discuss fervently again. Especially the butlers and servants of the noble families, they were very concerned about the harvesters.
Everyone said that businessmen did not rise early if there was no profit. In fact, everyone was like this, and the noble families were no exception.
After obtaining a large amount of land resources, the noble families had to take in a considerable number of tenant farmers. Then, their land would be valuable. Otherwise, it would be a useless wasteland.
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