Qin Official

(Nearly 6,000 words, equivalent to two chapters)

The shipyard is located at the mouth of the Yushui Branch in the south of Panyu City. According to the original history, the earliest shipbuilding site discovered by Chinese archeology will be excavated here more than two thousand years later. It is just that I don’t know if there was a Mohist in that workshop. footprints. novel .

Mohist Azhong has been here for half a month. This workshop is not big compared to the Central Plains. It is a wood processing plant on land. There are many giant trees in Lingnan, such as fir and mushroom trees, which are good materials for shipbuilding. After being cut down by soldiers and corvees holding axes, machetes and machetes, they were thrown into the stagnant water and then flowed down the river, saving time and effort.

There are ten shipbuilding platforms side by side, six small and four large. The small ones can build 300 Dendrobium boats, and the large ones can build 500 Dendrobium boats. The shipbuilders from Jiaodong and Kuaiji are busy working non-stop, starting from building the keel. By the time the decks are nailed, it will take more than a month to build a ship. The built ships sailed upriver as soon as they were launched. Changnanhou's war against Ouyue was in full swing.

Azhong asked that most of the craftsmen were recruited from the "Qingdao Port" in Jiaodong. It was this group of shipwrights who built the sailing ship that could cross the East China Sea and expedition to the east of the sea. Xu Fu, an aide under the Marquis of Changnan, also Come and visit from time to time.

But the ten ships currently built by craftsmen are not sharp-bottomed long-distance sailing ships, but flat-bottomed river ships without tall masts. The main power is oars, but in the rear third of the ship, there are There are no more oar holes, but instead, there are two more things that look like big wheels on the left and right sides...

If you go inside the ship's cabin and take a closer look, you will find that it is not actually a wheel, but rather resembles the "treadmill" of Nanjun, also known as a keel waterwheel. This thing appeared in Anlu County last year. It was often placed in a field. Several people held a wooden pole and stepped on the pedals to drive the axle, and then the water wheel could be used to draw water into the field. When Azhong passed through Nanjun, he saw farmers' wives and daughters treading water. Unlike the large waterwheel, it was turned by human power.

Nowadays, it is just a matter of putting the bicycle on the boat, which is a little easier. The pedals and large and small wheel axles are retained, but the wooden chain scraper is replaced by a wheel paddle, which can enter the water about one foot...

This is why Heifu asked Ah Zhong to help. Although the principle is not difficult, it is by no means as simple as transplantation. Making and debugging a huge wheel axle to make it operate reasonably requires a Mohist to outline and lead.

It was precisely because of the installation of propellers that this new type of vessel was called a "steamboat" by Heifu. It was now a two-wheeler, and there were larger four-wheelers, six-wheelers, and even eight-wheelers next to it.

"The arms can't twist the thighs."

This is the original words of Marquis Changnan, and it is also nonsense. From the difference in strength between the legs and arms, we can know that pedaling must produce more force than hand rowing. From the perspective of physical efficiency, the paddle wheel blades move continuously and are highly efficient, while the wooden paddle moves intermittently and has low efficiency when paddling.

Azhong understood these words. After all, Mozi had long ago proposed that "force is inspired by form." Force is the principle of accelerated motion of objects.

In short, Changnan Hou hopes that after installing the paddle wheel, the ship will be faster than ordinary paddle boats, and it can also go upstream to send soldiers to the upper reaches of Yushui during this rainy and fast season, in order to cooperate with the ongoing "blockhouse" project. "Tactics" to pacify Xiou.

Practice is the only criterion for testing theory. Today, the first "ship" was built, and the Marquis of Changnan came with his entourage to watch the launch. But no one expected that when the Marquis drove to the shipyard, it suddenly rained heavily outside. The water in the river was turbid and fast, so ships could not enter the water for the time being.

"Xu Fu, didn't you say today is an auspicious day?"

Looking at the heavy rain outside, Hei Fu looked at Xu Fu with a gloomy look.

Xu Fu said with a smile: "I am from Qi. I left the East China Sea and went to the South China Sea. The gods I pray to are different. My divination and stargazing are not very effective."

"Oh, you are a Lu people migrating to Yue. So next time, when I go out again, will I find a Yue shaman to kill a chicken for divination?"

Heifu said angrily, it seems that Xu Fu's "stargazing skills" still cannot be used as a weather forecast.

Hei Fu had no choice but to wait patiently for a while, only to find that God was not giving him any favor. The rain was getting heavier and heavier, as if there were gods on the clouds pouring down water, and the big raindrops made the tiles crackle. Not to mention that he is not small at all, let alone the trial voyage of the ship, he can't even return to the handsome tent!

"This is the rain in Lingnan, it's really vicious!"

Heifu lamented that he didn't want him and his bodyguards to be soaked in the rain. The hot summer was an area with high incidence of diseases. Maybe a cold or fever could kill people if it caused complications.

"Forget it, just spend tonight at the shipyard."

Heifu simply let everyone stay in the shipyard. He had the consciousness of sharing the same food and clothing as the soldiers. He squatted on the ground and ate some simple rice with fish soup with the boatmen. He also asked the soldiers to find wine to reward everyone and taught them how to box. , the loser drinks to pass the time...

After it was completely dark, the heavy rain still showed no signs of letting up. Hei Fu accepted his fate and asked Sang Mu to arrange guards. He yawned and was about to go to bed when Azhong came over and bowed to him.

"What's the matter?"

Heifu still admires Azhong. Although these Mohists like BB, they are also action-oriented and clever. The most rare thing is that they sincerely "serve the people".

Azhong said: "I didn't want to disturb you, but I just discovered something and was confused."

"Sit down and let's talk." Heifu didn't need to be particular about the indecent Mo Zhe, and he sat down on the couch with a heavy body.

After Azhong received Hei Fu's permission, he also sat down and said, "When I was helping the craftsmen make the ship, I discovered that the principle of the paddle on this ship came from the treadmill."

"Well, it's the treadmill."

Hei Fu nodded. The two were so similar that ordinary people could tell. He went south last year. During those days at home, his sister-in-law, Citron, also came back. Hei Fu instructed him to build it. It was just a common thing in southern rural areas in later generations. utensils.

"As for the bicycle, I heard that it was made by Junhou's sister Zhangguang in Nanjun last year..."

Azhong stared at Heifu, feeling that he had touched the key.

"Recall again, the water mills, water rollers, water rows, and water wheels that our Mohists have made in the past ten years all originated from the water bucket made by Junhou and Citron... As for the water bucket, it was transformed from the Anlu Tashi . If you think about it carefully, in the past ten years, everything that has made workers and peasants achieve twice the result with half the effort originated from Anlu, and they are all related to the monarch. Junhou, do you actually have the skills of Zimozi and Gongshuban!?"

"Hahaha, what a smart young man."

Hei Fu burst out laughing, and suddenly he remembered that more than ten years ago, there was a smart old fox who also saw through this flaw at a glance. It's a pity that there is no such thing as Shi Teng in the world.

After he stopped laughing, he shook his head and said, "You are wrong, Azhong. In fact, the source of these hydraulic equipment is not me."

"Who is the source?"

Azhong is very smart and likes to get to the bottom of things when doing things. When he installed water mills with his teacher in Guanzhong and developed more imaginative hydraulic equipment, he once thought about the source of this thing and determined that it was the work of Changnan Hou.

"Do you have a pen and paper?"

Heifu didn't answer directly, but sent Ah Zhong to get pen and ink, and started drawing on the desk.

It was still raining outside. Even though the shipyard dormitory was a dry-storied building, the humidity was still very heavy. Several soldiers gathered outside to block the wind and rain that penetrated through the cracks in the door, so that Azhong could keep the lights on.

But what Changnanhou drew on the paper was a tree with a huge trunk, branching upwards into countless branches, and each branch branched into countless small branches.

"Do you know what kind of tree this is?" Heifu asked, lighting the paper.

Azhong didn't know why and shook his head.

But Heifu showed an interesting smile: "I call it 'Technology Tree'!"

…

"May I ask you, Lord, what is technology?" Azhong had never heard of this term.

"It's a new word I made up."

Heifu was not ashamed to speak loudly, but he did have a reasonable explanation, and he started talking:

"The medical skills of Chen Wujiu and other medical officers, the alchemy skills of Xu Fu and other alchemists, the agricultural skills of old farmers, the engineering skills that you and other painters are good at, and even the killing skills of bows, crossbows and flying stones, military arrays, etc.! "

"All the skills mastered by the world can be collectively called 'technology'. In my opinion, their shape is just like the legendary building trees that are as high as the sky!"

"Is that so?"

Azhong opened his eyes wide and looked serious, as if he had returned to Qin Mo's camp in Xianyang, sitting in rows with his brothers and listening to the master's explanation of the "Mo Jing". The master said before sending him to Lingnan, don't look at it The Marquis of Changnan was not of high birth, but his knowledge was no less than that of Zhang Cang!

He had a hunch that Marquis Changnan was going to teach him an extremely important lesson today!

After saying this, Heifu took another piece of paper and wrote the word "worksmanship". Then he began to draw the tips of several small branches and wrote the names of water mill, water grinding, water drainage, water wheel, water mill, etc., but in Where Zhuya begins, the word "water wheel" is written.

"You are right. After the water hammer came into being, the world discovered that in addition to human and animal power, we can also use water power to pound rice, grind flour, blow wind, and draw water. But the most critical part of the water hammer, the water wheel, Where did it originate from?"

Azhong thought for a while: "It should start from the wheel."

"good."

Heifu divided the water wheel into "horizontal water wheel and vertical water wheel". As he continued to draw, they turned into a branch. It turned out that the entire "hydraulic equipment" was just a small branch of engineering technology, and the core part of the water wheel was water. The origin of the wheel is the wheel!

So in a certain game, the front-end technology of the water mill is the wheel...

"Who made the wheel?" Heifu's question came up again. Anyway, it was raining heavily outside and the night was long. He happened to have nothing to do. Seeing that Azhong was more understanding than his husband Cheng Shang, he simply gave some advice.

In terms of specific hands-on skills, Heifu is not worthy of being Azhong's apprentice, but in terms of vision, he is good enough to be his teacher.

Azhong did not stay in the Mo family for more than ten years in vain, and immediately said: "The wheel was made by Xi Zhong, who was the driver of Xia Yu's chariot. Use it firmly and the finished tool will be strong..."

Wait, so Chang Nanhou is saying that all these hydraulic engineering skills must be attributed to the wheels running on the road?

But Heifu was obviously not satisfied with that. He extended the branch of the "wheel" backward and continued to ask: "If you think about it again, where did the wheel originate from?"

Now Azhong was in trouble. After thinking about it for a long time, he suddenly remembered that before the war of reunification destroyed his hometown, his father was a potter who worked with mud all day long. His hands were stained with white clay...

And what drives the clay to rotate rapidly in the workshop is...

"It's the potter's wheel!"

He pretended to be sleepy, rubbed his sore eyes, and then said firmly: "This is the earliest wheel, earlier than the wheel, and the first person to make pottery... is Shennong!"

Yes, Shen Nong farmed and made pottery, which must have been made by hand at first, but in the painted pottery era, most of those beautiful pottery were made on the pottery wheel, which should be the earliest wheel axle that humans learned to use.

Who would have thought? The wheel axle, this small, inconspicuous component, has extended nearly half of human technology over thousands of years.

It is no exaggeration to say that the wheel and axle are one of the most important cornerstones of civilization! Its status is no less than that of writing, metallurgy, and textiles.

Now, in Heifu's writings, from hydraulic equipment to wheels, and then to pottery wheels, this branch has finally been stretched to the end, all the way to the Neolithic Age, and attributed to the legendary Shennong.

Heifu smiled and said: "Now, everything is clear. It was Shen Nong who made the pottery, which made this thick branch sprout. And everything that follows is just logical as long as you know the principle."

He then casually drew a stroke on the branches of the water wheel: "In fact, on this giant tree, the branches can be crossed. If the water wheel is the father of the water wheel, then it also has a mother, the tread wheel, the tread wheel. Where did the pestle originate from?"

"Shijiu and Jujie." Ah Zhong drew inferences and immediately gave the answer.

"Correct answer." Heifu immediately felt that Ruzi was teachable and worthy of being a top student from the school closest to science in ancient times.

The tangerine used to lift water from the well is said to have been made by Mozi. This has yet to be verified, but Mozi did conclude based on the tangerine that "when a weight is put on one side, it must be beaten, and the weights are not the same." , if they are balanced, then the original short and the long will be longer, if the two are added together, and the weights are similar, then the bid will be lowered, and the bid will win the right." The lever law was then applied to a large number of city defense equipment...

As a result, the branches of engineering skills began to intersect with "killing skills".

At this point, Heifu has almost explained the principle of the "technology tree" clearly: all human technologies usually follow a sequence, from simple to complex, from basic to cutting-edge. The new technology that was accidentally opened before will affect the research direction and results of subsequent people.

Anyone who has played "Civilization 6" must be familiar with this: the technology you choose will allow you to create specific products, and the polishing of these products will make it easier for you to discover newer technologies, and the cycle continues. …

Many technologies are largely related to father-son, uncle-nephew, and brother relationships: the pottery wheel is the father of the wheel, and the wheel gave birth to the water wheel, which in turn gave birth to many brothers of hydraulic equipment. They should have slowly developed in the Han and Jin Dynasties. appeared, but suddenly broke out in the past ten years. The reason was precisely the influence of the time traveler Hei Fu.

His arrival triggered countless "eurekas"!

But time travelers are not omniscient and omnipotent. If iron smelting and mining are still in their infancy, they will most likely fail to invent a steam engine. Only when pre-technologies appear and develop to a certain height can follow-up technologies appear. Otherwise, even if there are ideas, there will be no material basis for their realization.

And when this technology tree reaches the point where it can no longer break through, it means that it has come to an end. If it wants to continue to grow, it needs to wait for another technological breakthrough... For example, the paddle steamer that is being beaten by wind and rain outside and trampled by human power, It will take a long time to wait until the supporting technology is perfected before it can evolve into a steamship.

Not many people can understand these principles. The illiterate people surrounded by a circle of guards outside are confused, but Azhong, the poet, looks at the "technology tree" drawn on the picture. , intoxicated.

"The Master once said to me that the wise create things, the skillful describe them and keep them, and the world calls them works."

"There are hundreds of crafts in the world. There are seven kinds of wood-cutting crafts, six kinds of metal-cutting crafts, five kinds of leather-cutting crafts, five kinds of color-painting crafts, and five scraping and polishing crafts (jade craftsmanship). , there are two types of workers (potters) in Bohuan. In the past, we only knew that the division of labor was detailed and people did their best. Now, after listening to the words of the king, we know that each type of work is a branch on the trunk of craftsmanship, and Separate out several small ones!"

For a moment, Azhong felt that his eyes were much clearer, and he bowed to Captain Hei:

"Marquis Changnan, you seem to be a young man who has pointed out the truth in this world!"

"What's the most reasonable thing? It's just a long chat on a rainy night."

Heifu smiled and looked outside the house. The rain seemed to have eased a little. Even so, he secretly thanked Zhao Gao for sending him a good student.

But Azhong was not satisfied with this. He pointed at the entire "technological tree" that Heifu originally drew and broke the casserole to ask the truth.

"I dare to ask you, what will happen if this tree grows to the end!?"

Heifu said calmly: "I said, the technology tree is like Jianmu. Do you know the legend of Jianmu?"

"Know."

Ah Zhong said: "The builder is a hundred Ren tall, with nine (zhu) on top and nine cotoneasters on the bottom. It is actually like hemp, and its leaves are like awns! It was born between heaven and earth, and the gods are connected to the sky..."

Heifu smiled and said: "Of course, if this big tree can be persevered from generation to generation, watering and fertilizing, taking good care of it, and letting it grow, maybe one day it can really soar into the sky, and people can climb to the sky. Woolen cloth!"

"God! It's so desirable! It's just right for the Lord to use this as a metaphor for the tree of all kinds of skills in the world!"

Azhong looked longingly, going to heaven. Except for the yin and yang alchemists who had sex all day long, the Mohist had really tried it. It is said that Mozi spent three years building a wooden kite that could fly into the sky, but it was a pity that it was completed in three years. Fei was defeated in one day and his skills were lost.

But there are still a few Mohists who are still dreaming about flying...

Seeing the light shining in Azhong's eyes, Heifu was afraid that if he also imitated Mozi and studied how to ascend to heaven, he would really be a wise man without any knowledge, so he quickly said:

"Don't aim too high, and look at what's right in front of you. When you first asked me, the pedal wheel on the ship originated from the bicycle for irrigation, and then think about it, what new things can grow from this branch? Technique coming?"

What’s the next technology? Even though Azhong is smart and has a flexible mind, he still can't think of something that only the smartest genius among human beings can invent...

Heifu laughed again. He didn't mention it just now, but there is another characteristic of technology trees, which is that "pear trees bear peaches." The technology was originally developed for requirement a, but in the end it was not used much for requirement a, and finally found real use for requirement b.

Pedal, axle, and wheel, these three technological points will be most useful in later generations, and they are not in bicycles and ships.

After three-in-one, Heifu will think of whatever you think of.

Heifu announced the answer to Azhong: "Since you can step on the water with human power and drive the axle to move forward through the water, why not try it on land?"

…

That night, Heifu and Azhong talked all night long. They planned to sleep in the next round, but...

"How come it's already dawn?"

Looking at the dawn outside the house, Hei Fu felt a little enlightened. The last time he had such a fun chat was with Zhang Cang a few years ago, when he and Zhang Cang were chatting about "applying what they have learned" and the origin of grains and animals in Jiaodong.

But Zhang Cang, that damn fat man, is a theoretical person. Although he is proficient in arts and sciences and can do mathematics and compile books and theories, he has no engineering acumen and his hands-on ability is extremely poor. He also has a black eye on engineering matters.

On the other hand, Azhong, who was born in the Mohist family, not only has a solid foundation in craftsmanship, but also likes to use his brain. This can be seen from the fact that he made "Antis" when he first came to Lingnan.

Seeing that Azhong's eyes were red, he wanted to use wood to try out the "bicycle" that Heifu had mentioned. Heifu quickly asked the craftsman to drag the boy to sleep. It took a whole night of indoctrination to get Azhong to accept the settings of the "Technology Tree", hoping that he could branch out through him. If Azhong was tired and had an accident while starting the construction, and died prematurely, then Heifu would be very distressed. .

When Heifu yawned and walked out of the house, he found that after a night of heavy rain, the water outside had risen by nearly a foot, just shy of flooding the shipyard...

Seeing this situation, Heifu suddenly became serious. At the same time, Xu Fu also hurried over. He left early in the morning.

"The Lord...is here!"

Heifu knew what Xu Fu was talking about and took a deep breath: "After waiting for a long time, it's finally here!"

Without further words, Heifu immediately left the shipbuilding workshop and headed to the Panyu city wall. Along the way, there were nervous Qin soldiers and Yue people.

Climbing to the top of the city, Heifu could hear a huge sound.

"The troops are approaching the city so soon?"

Heifu rubbed his eyes after a sleepless night and stared into the distance...

What came was not Vietnamese or enemy soldiers, but water, a turbid flood!

He saw a flood peak coming out of the river branch and heading straight for Panyu!