Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 9 Water Diversion Problems
When everyone returned to Wuzhaibao Qianhu House, when they entered the main room, it was bustling with people coming and going, and wine and dishes were placed on the big table, steaming hot.There are several stoves on the side of the hall, burning hot charcoal fire, making the whole hall warm.

Huang Sihao, Yang Shi, Gu Qianhu and others were sitting around the fire, talking while warming up, and a few children were playing around.

Seeing Huang Laifu, Gu Yunniang and others coming in, the sisters who were talking stopped and looked at Huang Laifu and Gu Yunniang with teasing eyes.Yang said with a smile: "I was talking about you, and I came back. Just in time for dinner."

But seeing Gu Yunniang regained her image of a good girl, leaning into Yang Shi's arms, she kept yelling "Auntie, Auntie", her mouth was so sweet that Yang Shi loved her so much, she hugged her in her arms, just loving her .The rapid change in image opened Huang Laifu's eyes.

Yang said softly to Gu Yunniang in her arms: "My Yunniang went out with Laifu, did he bully you? If so, just tell auntie, auntie will teach him a lesson for you!"

Gu Yunniang gave Huang Laifu a sneaky look, with a cunning flash in her eyes, and said, "No, Brother Laifu is very kind to Yunniang, why does he still sing folk songs for others?"

Everyone in the hall immediately laughed, and the eldest sister shouted: "Ah, the sun is coming out in the west. When will my brother sing folk songs again? It's a love song, which one is it?"

Everyone in the hall laughed even more, and a few little dolls even booed: "...Uncle sang a love song, uncle sang a love song..."

Huang Sihao and Gu Qianhu also stroked their beards and smiled.Embarrassed, Huang Laifu glared at Gu Yunniang, Gu Yunniang stared back at Huang Laifu without showing any weakness, and then looked a little complacent, as if Huang Laifu's previous neglect of her had all come back in revenge.

Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu stood behind Huang Laifu, they knew it well, and when they saw this situation, they also opened their mouths to giggle.

Everyone laughed for a while, Huang Sihao said: "Okay, everyone, don't make a fuss. When everyone is here, let's have dinner!"

He stood up and said to Gu Qianhu, "Brother Gu Shi, please!"

Gu Qianhu smiled and said, "Okay, Brother Huang, please!"

After everyone sat down, Gu Qianhu asked Huang Laifu to sit beside him, and Gu Yunniang sat beside Yang Shi.

Huang Sihao and Gu Qianhu had a drink together, and Huang Laifu also toasted Gu Qianhu.

Gu Qianhu smiled and said: "Okay, okay." After drinking, he said to Huang Laifu, "Nephew Laifu went out to check the farmland, did you find anything?"

Everyone looked at Huang Laifu.

Huang Laifu said: "Father, Shibo, Hai'er and Steward Yang went to the field to check in the morning, and found that there is a serious shortage of water everywhere in the farmland, even the water in the river has dried up a lot, and it is extremely difficult to divert water. Without water, these fields are useless. I want to have a good harvest."

Huang Sihao nodded and sighed: "However, the weather is not good and there is no rain, so there is nothing I can do as a father."

Gu Qianhu said: "The whole world is the same now, and the same is true for my fields in Zhenxiwei. Alas, compared with previous years, the harvests of the fields in this year are not as good as one in ten."

Huang Laifu said: "Father, Uncle Shi, the child has traveled all over the country this time, and he has thought of some solutions to the lack of water in the fields."

Gu Qianhu couldn't help being very interested, sat up straight and said: "Oh, what good advice does my nephew have, you might as well tell me."

Everyone was also looking at Huang Laifu, and Gu Yunniang also looked sideways at Huang Laifu with pretty eyes, hoping to hear what good solutions he had.

Huang Laifu said: "Father, Uncle Shi, my son sees that there are two situations in which the fields are short of water. One is that the fields are close to the river. Because the river is dry and the bank is too high, the water truck cannot bring water to the bank, or the amount of water brought in is too high. There are very few, so that the fields cannot be irrigated by the river. The second type is those fields that are not close to the river, and most of them are abandoned. Looking at the situation in this year, the rainfall will also be scarce in the future. Relying on taking groundwater and finding ways to bring water ashore."

Seeing that everyone didn't understand, he explained carefully: "The current keel waterwheel in the fort is too shallow to divert water from the river, and it is no longer useful. The height of six or seven feet is enough to meet the needs of the fields by the river, and it does not require manpower or animal power, it can be driven by water."

Gu Qianhu took a deep breath: "Can the water be diverted to a height of six or seven feet?" He murmured: "In this way, no matter how high the water level is, as long as there is still water in the river, the water can be diverted."

Huang Sihao said urgently: "My son, do you know how to make a waterwheel?"

Huang Laifu smiled and said: "Dad, don't worry, when my son saw this thing, he had already asked the relevant craftsmen carefully, and he had memorized the waterwheel making method!"

The big waterwheel mentioned by Huang Laifu is a kind of bobbin cart, especially with reference to the big waterwheel on the Yellow River.
Everyone was very happy, Huang Sihao said: "That's good, with this water truck, the water diversion is successful, and the fields along the river in the castle will be worry-free."

Most of the fields owned by Huang's family in Wuzhaibao are by the Qinglian River. After the waterwheel is successfully built, water will be diverted to the shore for irrigation. The harvest in the fields next year will of course be very different.

Gu Qianhu also said: "Nephew, after the waterwheel is successfully made, don't forget about Uncle Gu."

Gu Qianhu also has a lot of land in Zhenxiwei. Due to lack of water, he faces the same problem as Huang's family. Now that he has Huang Laifu's big water truck, he will naturally not let it go.

Huang Laifu said: "Of course, how could my nephew forget Gu Shibo?"

Everyone laughed, even Gu Yunniang laughed, looking at Huang Laifu with a different look.

Yang said: "Fu'er, you can use large water trucks by the river, but there are still many fields in our fort that are not close to the river, and most of these fields have no water for irrigation. You just said that you use groundwater, how do you use it? Is it digging a well? As far as my mother knows, there are some wells beside those fields, but most of them are dry, where are you going to get water?"

Huang Laifu said: "Yes, mother, it is to dig a well to divert water, but my well is no better than the previous ones. My well can be five or six feet deep, or even six or seven feet deep. A well this deep can guarantee The well will never run dry, and the boy has a way of drawing it out."

Drilling wells to irrigate fields was relatively common in northern China during the Qin and Han Dynasties, and Wuzhaibao also had irrigation wells.However, most of the wells are traditional "wheels" wells, and the water is lifted up by manually turning the wheels.The depth is generally only a few meters, which belongs to the shallow water well.It takes time and effort to draw water from such wells, the water quality is easily polluted, and the water quality is relatively bitter. The most important thing is that the well water is easy to dry up.

However, some deep-water wells in later generations are as deep as ten meters, and tens of meters are very common, especially those machine-driven wells, which are often as deep as [-] meters.It is the hand press well of later generations, commonly known as foreign well, with a water depth of at least ten meters, which can meet the needs of Wuzhai Fort.

After hearing Huang Laifu's words, Yang smiled and said, "That's good, that's good. It seems that this family will be in the care of the children in the future."

She laughed and said: "My child has gone out for a trip, and his skills have improved."

Huang Laifu smiled and said, "Mother, I'm too proud of you."

He was also very happy to be affirmed by his mother and family members.Gu Yunniang on the opposite side gave him a blank look.

The elder sister curled her lips and said, "Mother, you are not afraid to praise your younger brother. You have praised him many times in the past two days."

Yang smiled and said: "Okay, okay, I know you are also very good, but you are such an old man, and you are still arguing with your brother."

Tapped lightly on her head.

The eldest sister yelled: "Mother, you hit me again in front of so many people."

Everyone enjoyed the meal. After the meal, Huang Sihao summoned Steward Yang and said, "Uncle Yang, what does Fu'er need to make the waterwheel and other things, and the craftsman's money and food, you should cooperate with him as much as possible."

He thought for a while, and said: "How about this, you go to the accounting room and pay 200 taels of silver, thinking that Fu'er will use it for a dry meal."

Steward Yang gave Huang Laifu a strange look, then turned his head and said respectfully to Huang Sihao: "Yes, master."

When the people around heard that Huang Sihao ordered Steward Yang to take 200 taels of silver and use it with Huang Laifu, they also had strange expressions.

At this time, silver was precious, and the purchasing power of one tael of silver was about 800 yuan in later generations.In Wuzhaibao, a poor place, although Huang's family is a hereditary family with thousands of households and has accumulated for hundreds of years, at this time the family only has 200 taels of silver. At this time, giving 12 taels of silver to Huang Laifu at once is equivalent to giving money to future generations. RMB [-] was given to Huang Laifu, accounting for a quarter of the Huang family's usable wealth, which shows Huang Sihao's love for Huang Laifu.

Huang Laifu naturally understood this, and he said gratefully: "Thank you dad, the child will definitely do well."

(End of this chapter)