Nobles and merchants were the same. They would calculate the cost before doing anything, thinking that they could maximize their profits and obtain more wealth.
After obtaining a large amount of land, if they used machinery and a small number of servants to farm the land, they would obtain more profits. They would definitely eliminate the previous tenant farming system and chase out the tenant farmers under them to get rid of the burden of cost.
In this way, the tenant farmers who were fired could only join the ranks of the craftsmen and seek a way out for themselves.
This was the result that Ang Lee wanted to see. It was also something that the nobles had to do. This was the progress of the times. No force could reverse it.
After asking about the price, many of the servants of the nobles hurriedly left. It was obvious that they were going back to report so that Ang Lee could make a decision as soon as possible.
"Who owns these eighteen mu of land?"
Ang Lee asked loudly.
"Assistant Minister Li, it is this lowly one's Yongye Field."
An honest farmer hurriedly ran over, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed.
"Get up, get up."
Ang Lee was not used to having a commoner kneel in front of him. After a pause, he ordered, "Send all the wheat to this commoner's home. Lead the way!"
A total of three carriages of wheat was estimated to be around four thousand catties. Moreover, they were all processed and sent to the homes of the commoners. This shocked many of the onlookers. They felt that they should at least charge a service fee or something. After all, the development and manufacture of such harvesters must have cost a lot. At the same time, they were also amazed at the power of the harvesters. Three harvesters, in just two hours, harvested eighteen mu of wheat. Moreover, they even removed the wheat grains.
"Everyone, the planting of wheat was done by the Imperial Court from the national treasury. However, the Imperial Court has already promised that the production of the wheat will belong to the commoners. These harvested wheat will naturally be given to the commoners. Also, you have seen that the Guanzhong region can plant wheat in winter. This way, we can plant two crops a year and no longer have to worry about a lack of food. In the future, all the fields in Guanzhong will be planted with food in winter."
Ang Lee shouted. In fact, not only could Guanzhong grow wheat in winter, even the cold northeast region could grow wheat in winter. Moreover, the northeast plains of the future were the main production area for winter wheat.
Of course, there was no need for Ang Lee to instigate the planting of wheat. After seeing the harvest of wheat last autumn, the people of Guanzhong would certainly plant it actively. Furthermore, this matter would quickly spread and cause more northern regions to choose to plant wheat in the winter to increase the use of land.
After giving some instructions, Ang Lee returned to the R&D Centre and instructed the R&D staff to operate the three harvesters to continue harvesting wheat in the fields until all of the wheat had been harvested. The harvested wheat grains were all sent to the owners of the fields without charging a single cent of service fee.
After the harvester showed off its skills, it caused a huge sensation in the entire Luoyang City. Many nobles who owned a lot of land all made the decision to buy it. They immediately sent their housekeepers to buy it with a deposit, in case they were a step too late and were ordered by others.
Of course, there were still a few days before the spring plowing began. There was still half a year before the autumn harvest. With the current efficiency of the steam machine, they could definitely build a considerable number of harvesters before the autumn harvest. The construction of plowing machines and water pumps would not stop.
Orders once again flew in like snowflakes. This made Ang Lee overjoyed and caused the entire R&D Centre to boil. As long as there was work, the treatment and remuneration of these craftsmen would increase. Many craftsmen received several times more remuneration than before, and their days were even more comfortable.
The processing and manufacturing of all kinds of machinery was carried out in an orderly manner. Meanwhile, Ang Lee devoted even more time to inspection. When he had nothing to do, he would take a few guards to inspect the outskirts of Luoyang. He wanted to see how the water conservancy facilities were doing, whether a large number of water pumps had been installed, and whether they had already begun to draw water.
"Assistant Minister Li, there's a plowing machine in front. It seems to be digging a ditch."
A guard urged his horse back and loudly reported.
"Let's go and take a look."
Ang Lee was somewhat curious. He had invented the plowing machine to plow the land, so why was it being used to dig ditches?
Urging his horse forward, Ang Lee saw a deep ditch that was five li long. The ditch was the same width as the plowing machine, and its depth was already three feet.
Near the ditch were several hundred sharecroppers with shovels. They were moving the soft soil out of the ditch.
"Haha! So the plowing machine can also be used to dig ditches! These people are rather smart. They actually know how to tap into the potential of the machine and make it dig ditches as well. "
Ang Lee only needed to take a quick glance to understand everything. It turned out that these people were using the plowing machine to break up the soil where the ditch needed to be dug, and then they used manpower to push the broken soil to the sides. Then, they continued to use the plowing machine to break up the hard soil below, and then they used manpower to push the broken soil to the sides. In this cycle, a deep ditch would soon be dug out. Using this method would save a lot of effort and be much faster than using manpower to dig the ditch.
Just think about it. Using a shovel to dig the hard soil would be very difficult, and the speed would be slowed down. On the other hand, directly digging the broken soil would save the process of digging hard. Naturally, it would save physical strength and time, allowing the trench to be dug faster.
"Who came up with this method?"
Ang Lee asked loudly.
"Assistant Minister Li, this lowly one came up with it. Ever since he bought the water pump, Alang felt that this deserted highland could also be reclaimed into farmland. For the convenience of irrigation, Alang asked this lowly one to reclaim a ditch at this location. Moreover, he gave this lowly one five days to finish. This lowly one was anxious and thought of this method."
The steward who was directing the work answered with a smile.
"Not bad, you are quite quick-witted. You are a talent. Machines will always be dead, but people are alive. To be able to tap into the potential of machines is worthy of praise."
Ang Lee was never stingy with his praise and praised loudly.
"Assistant Minister Li, this lowly one has a suggestion, but I don't know if I should say it."
The steward was praised and became bolder.
"No need to be polite. What do you want to say? Boldly say it."
Ang Lee asked.
"Assistant Minister Li, since the plow machine can move forward step by step, why not build a machine for transporting goods? Although the train is very good at transporting goods, it can only take a fixed route. The carriage is flexible, but it is not powerful enough. "
Ang Lee heard this and nodded. "Your proposal is very good. A machine for transporting goods is much easier to study than a plow machine. However, it is far less cost-effective than a plow machine and a harvester. At present, the researchers are short on manpower, so we can only study the important ones first. However, a machine for transporting goods will appear sooner or later. You can rest assured about this."
Ang Lee had already considered the idea of steam trucks. However, at this time, the development of carriages was very mature. It was relatively cheap to use carriages to transport goods. In addition, the roads were not very good, so the practicality of the transport machine was not very good. The main problem was that it was expensive to build, and the transport capacity was not as exaggerated as that of a train.
As for the steam passenger car, Ang Lee had already thought about it. It was even more inappropriate because there was no rubber and tire processing technology. The steam car made would be more bumpy than an ordinary carriage. It would be very uncomfortable to sit in it. Of course, it did not have the value of development.
When the trench was dug to a depth of five feet, it was completed. The pump on one side began to work, pumping a large amount of water from the lower part to the higher part and gradually filling the newly dug trench.
Looking at the thousands of acres of wasteland in front of him become arable fields, Ang Lee was very happy. This was the result of his research. It showed that his scientific research results had begun to slowly change the development of the Tang Empire.
The time for spring plowing soon came. All regions of the Tang Empire were busy with spring plowing. The common people were busy working in the fields, and the imperial court was busy organizing and coordinating to make the spring plowing go on in an orderly manner without being disturbed.
Different from the spring plowing in the past, this spring plowing adopted a certain degree of mechanization. In the entire Guanzhong area, 3,000 plowing machines were put into the operation of plowing. Of course, most of the plowing machines were used in the fields of the nobles. The common people still used cattle to plow the land.
The efficiency of the plowing machines was dozens of times higher than that of cattle. The efficiency of plowing the land was greatly increased. For this reason, many large families took back the land under their control from the tenant farmers to save on labor costs.
These farmers who had lost the qualification of tenant farmers also lost their livelihood. They had to go to the capital to seek a living. Joining the ranks of the craftsmen was undoubtedly the best choice.
Many farmers only knew how to farm and did not know much about craftsmen. However, the workers of the later generations did not know everything as soon as they entered the factory. They just needed to learn slowly.
Skilled craftsmen were treated better. Farmers without skills were naturally treated worse when they first entered, but they had no problem supporting themselves and their families.
During the spring plowing, at least tens of thousands of tenant farmers turned into craftsmen, greatly increasing the manpower of the R&D Center. The R&D Center suddenly had 60,000 manpower, which greatly facilitated the process of developing products and manufacturing machinery.
With more people, the R&D Center's 5,000 mu of land seemed a little crowded. When the imperial court learned of this, it immediately expanded the R&D Center, and it expanded four times, with an area of more than 20,000 mu.
With more land and manpower, Ang Lee's R&D and manufacturing progress became smoother and smoother. More products were produced like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
Many commoners saw that the income they could earn as craftsmen was more than the income of farming thirty to fifty mu of land. Thus, under the suggestions of the nobles, they sold the land, leaving only three to five mu of vegetable fields for the women and children in their families to cultivate.
In this way, the number of craftsmen slowly increased, and the manpower became even greater.
The railway line leading to Jade Gate Pass and the surrendered city in the middle had long been determined. After the spring plowing, Li Longji personally issued an order to recruit all the idle laborers in the middle of the Pass and divide them into two groups to begin laying the railway.
Of course, the commoners along the railway lines were also recruited, and they were responsible for the construction of the railway lines along the way, so that the two strategic railways could be completed faster.
This time, the imperial court recruited more than a million laborers. The scale was far greater than any previous expeditions, and the consumption of manpower was bound to be great. However, these two railways were of great strategic value. Even if it consumed national strength, it had to be completed as soon as possible, especially the railway to Jade Gate Pass, which was very important. It was related to the long-term stability of the Tang Empire. Moreover, after such a long period of development, the Tang Empire was fully capable of carrying out such a big project.
In addition to the enormous manpower, a lot of machinery and explosives were also invested in the railway laying work this time.
When they encountered small hills that needed to be flattened, they directly used gunpowder to blow them up to save manpower. In addition, bulldozers and freight steam trucks were also easily developed, and they were immediately mass-produced and put into use.
Because the million laborers were not very skilled, in addition to the railway bureau investing most of its technical personnel, the research and development center also transferred more than 10,000 technical personnel to join the work of laying the railway lines.
The construction of the railway lines started at the same time to save time to the greatest extent. The work of laying the sleepers and railway lines started from Chang 'an and several important places in the middle. In particular, some sections of the road were flat, so there was no need to deal with the roadbed at all. Only areas with complicated terrain needed to deal with the roadbed, which was also the most labor-intensive part of the whole laying process.
Because the relevant personnel in the railway bureau already had rich experience in laying the railway to Luoyang, the laying of the two railways was completely handed over to them. Ang Lee did not leave the capital, and His Majesty did not personally go to know about the laying work.
Of course, if they encountered difficult problems in the laying process, the people in the railway bureau could return to the capital and ask Ang Lee for advice.
Ang Lee stayed in the capital mainly because there were too many things to research and develop. He wanted to buy time to develop as many products as possible in the shortest time and sell them abroad, making the Tang dynasty more and more prosperous.
In the beginning, every time Ang Lee developed a machine, Li Longji would be excited for a long time. However, as the types of machines developed showed a trend of blowout, Li Longji gradually lost his excitement. Unless there was a particularly surprising machine, he could not find anything to be excited about.
The laying of the two railways would take at most a year to complete. During this time, Ang Lee did not care about the laying of the railways. Anyway, the technology in this area had been handed over to the talents in the railway bureau. These talents were fully responsible for the laying of the railways, and he was only responsible for solving the difficult problems.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
