Rebirth of Wu Ba Spring and Autumn

Chapter 316 Improved Iron Smelting

After being flattered by Bo Tong, Qingji just smiled lightly and said, "Bo Tong, I dare not compare myself with Yao and Shun in ancient times when it comes to going to the fields and farming by myself."

"Yao and Shun are holy lords. They opened up farmland by themselves. They still have enough food and clothing, and they can also take care of government affairs. What about the widows?"

"The widow sent Qing and others to work in the fields together, but it was to make Qing and others appreciate the difficulty of the farmers, not artificial."

After a pause, Qingji said slowly again: "Through today's farming, I think Laiqing and others have already realized something?"

"My lord, it's really not easy for farmers."

Fan Li, the history of Zhisu Nei, got up and said, "In my country of Wu, there are scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce, and the four peoples are divided into industries. Whether it is agriculture or industry, there is no one industry!"

"However, farm work is real physical work. Even people like me who have been keeping fit all the year round and are skilled in bowing and horses feel exhausted doing farm work."

Hearing this, Qing Ji nodded slightly and said, "That's right. Since farming is not easy, the second and third sons should cherish the hard-earned food!"

"Who knows that every piece of Chinese food is painstaking? I heard recently that my country of Wu has become extravagant, and my own mansion is extremely gorgeous. It can be compared to a palace, and the food and clothing are expensive. There are all delicacies from mountains and seas, such as abalone and bear's paw."

"There are brocades from Ba and Shu, and crafts from Qi. Huyong, I heard that you ate a bear's paw yesterday. It was cooked by a cook from Chu. How did it taste?"

"This……"

Doctor Hu Yong, who was named by Qingji, couldn't help sweating on his forehead.

Hu Yong quickly stood up, bit the bullet, and bowed to Qingji: "Your Majesty, the bear's paw tastes delicious..."

"Beauty is beauty."

Qing Ji glanced at Hu Yong, and said: "Well, what I heard, why is it that you only ate a few mouthfuls of bear's paw, and then asked the servant to feed it to the dog?"

"Your Majesty! Your subject is guilty!"

Hu Yong was startled, and quickly knelt down to plead guilty.

How did Qingji know about this?
Still know so detailed?

Among them, the people from the Black Ice Platform played an important role!
Just like the Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, although the Black Ice Terrace is not pervasive, it can at least keep an eye on ministers who show signs of crime.

Let Qingji prevent problems before they happen!

"Sin? What is your crime?"

Qing Ji shook his head and said, "Your food and clothing are all your own money, so you deserve to enjoy them. However, why are you so extravagant and extravagant?"

"Eating this bear's paw may cost a lot."

"Bear's paw, it's not like I haven't eaten it before. It's just a novelty pursuit. It's really wrong to waste money for the sake of appetite!"

"I hope that the second and third sons can be used as a warning, so that there will be no more extravagance in my country of Wu!"

"The ministers will obey the king's order!"

The ministers said in unison.

In Qingji's opinion, the taste of bear's paws is indeed not good, not even as good as fresh fish!
Bear's paw is one of the eight treasures in ancient times, "Mencius" said: fish, what I want;

King Cheng of Chu liked to eat bear's paw, and he did not forget to eat it before he died. The eldest son, Shang Chen, said, "bear's paw is hard to cook."

He insisted on forcing King Chu Cheng to death!

The ancestor of Chu came from Emperor Zhuanxu Gaoyang.

Gaoyang, the grandson of the Yellow Emperor, the son of Changyi.

The surname of the ancestors of the Chu State was Mi, which was the Xiong family. But because they were far away from the Central Plains, people in the Central Plains at that time thought that the Chu State was a barbarian but powerful country, so they ate bear paws to express contempt. Therefore, eating bear paws became popular in this era.

However, bear's paws are difficult to cook, and once the bear's paws are half-cooked, they are unpalatable.

For example, Jin Linggong wanted to cook bear paws for wine, but Linggong urged him repeatedly, so the cook had to offer the uncooked bear paws.

Duke Ling felt unwell after tasting the bear's paw. In a rage, he ordered the cook to be beheaded secretly!

It can be seen from this that most of what Hu Yong ate was uncooked bear paws!
"General."

"Chen is here!"

The big engineer who was named ordered the general to stand up quickly.

He only thought that he might have violated the taboo in Qingji's heart, so he was a little scared.

"General, you just went to work in the fields and used farm tools. In your opinion, which one is better than gold (iron) farm tools and bronze farm tools?"

"This……"

The general pondered for a moment, then replied: "Your Majesty, I think that whether it is a farm tool made of gold or a tool made of bronze, there is actually no difference between the two."

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the rise of the iron smelting industry, iron farm tools replaced wood, stone and other materials, which made a qualitative leap in agricultural productivity.

Most of the agricultural tools in the Warring States period were made of iron blades set on wooden utensils. After the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the wooden core iron blade agricultural tools began to be replaced by all-iron agricultural tools.

In Qingji's vision, it is natural to expect Wu's iron farm tools to meet the standards of the mid-Western Han Dynasty!

It is worth mentioning that in this era, iron has been widely used in agricultural production.

"At the workshop, I hope to improve the iron smelting technique. Evil gold is full of toughness. There are a lot of copper and iron mines in my Wu country, but most of them are iron mines. If conditions permit, it is possible that all-iron farm tools can be widely used. Agricultural Production."

Qing Ji said meaningfully: "Perhaps, one day, as my country of Wu's iron smelting becomes more and more mature, iron can also replace copper and become the material needed for weapons!"

"Sir, take orders."

For a while, the go-getters also felt a lot of pressure.

Because the goal set by Qingji cannot be ignored!

It's okay to say that iron farm tools replace bronze farm tools, but iron weapons replace bronze weapons?

This probably won't work.

Iron swords can be made very long due to their strong toughness, while bronze is based on copper mixed with other substances.

The difference in material can no longer be made up by craftsmanship!
If the strength is strong enough, the thicker bronze sword can certainly break the lighter iron sword.

Qingji knows that there is a very important reason why iron swords replaced bronze swords in history, that is, iron is more common!
So generally speaking, bronze swords cannot compete with iron swords.

Moreover, the bronze sword should not be too long, so that it has a great advantage in length, and a bronze sword that is too long is easier to break when fighting.

But compared with ironware, it is too brittle and hard, and the toughness is not enough!
In the case of the same specifications, the bronze sword can easily pierce the enemy's excellent armor.

The iron one has less damage. The main difference is that when the army fights, the killing effect is better. If the bronze sword is too long, it will break, but the iron will not.

"Second and third sons, the widow wants to abolish the inherent well field system, open up fields and seal the border, what do you think?"

Hearing that Qingji had this thought, all the ministers couldn't help being stunned, and then their faces changed drastically.

Doctor Hu Yong first said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is inappropriate. In ancient times, a distance of [-] paces was called a well field. A well field is [-] mu, and the public land occupies one!"

"The well-field system has a long history. It has been passed down for more than a thousand years from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and it has never been changed. Wu Chengzhou made tribute based on local affairs, and the king should not change the ancestral system for tax collection!"

"Please think twice, Your Majesty!"

(End of this chapter)