Qin Official

When he returned home for dinner that day, Jing suddenly stood up and said that he wanted to learn to read. As soon as he said this, the whole family stopped eating chopsticks and looked at Jing in surprise.

In the early years, Zhong and Heifu learned Braille from Yan Zheng in Banli and Lu Ying in Sunset because their families had titles and some savings. When Jing was in his teens, due to various changes, his family became poor again, and his education was delayed. Jing Ye has an out-of-character personality and spends all day bragging and hanging out with the young people in the neighborhood. He has no formal appearance, which makes his mother very distressed. Now he has suddenly changed his gender, and his family is a little surprised.

The mother looked at Hei Fu and asked if he was the one who dissuaded her. Hei Fu smiled and said, "Mom, it's because I have grown up and become sensible."

Next, Heifu told him about his plan to let Jing go to school to become a disciple after he officially became an official. Of course, he only concealed the part that he did this in order for Jing to avoid military service...

After knowing this, the family members were even more happy. The future of the disciples in the school was much better than that of ordinary young people. The mother looked at her three sons with relief and began to wipe her tears again.

"Your father was the most distressed when he was alive. It would be great if he could see that he had a good future."

The three brothers coaxed and persuaded their mother to stop thinking about her old friend.

Then I decided that this winter, I would first learn some basic literacy at home. After the busy work of spring plowing is over, he will go to the countryside and ask Yan Zhang's second son to teach him. Anyway, Hei Fu still has more than 2,000 yuan in savings, which is enough to pay for the repairs.

"By this time next year, I will almost be able to send you to the county school as a disciple."

He agreed with all his heart, and took advantage of the fact that there was no farm work. The next day, he followed Heifu and began the difficult journey of literacy.

Of course, the literacy textbook cannot be the Three-Character Classic that appeared in a Chu-Han costume drama. It was only available in the Song Dynasty. The "Shi Zhou Pian" used by the Central Plains aristocrats to learn Chinese characters was not available in their poor and remote country, so Heifu could only use the eight laws copied from the Yan family's house as teaching materials and teach his younger brother simple characters.

"Father, mother, husband, wife, brother, younger brother, son, daughter, you should first become familiar with these words today..."

He assigned Jing a daily homework and asked him to scratch his head and behind his ears alone. Hei Fu ran to the relatively quiet well at home, sat on the edge of the well, and under the skylight and cloud shadows, began to recite the eight chapters of the poem softly. Chapter regulations.

"The stolen loot is worth more than 660 qian, and if it is tattooed, it will be pounded by Chengdan. If it is worth 660 to 220 qian, it will be pounded by Chengdan. If it is not more than 220 to 110 qian, it will be treated as a concubine. If there is not a surplus of one hundred and ten qian to twenty-two qian, the fine will be 4 taels. If the profit is not between 22 qian and 1 qian, the fine will be one tael..."

After reading this, Heifu put down the bamboo slips and sighed: "It turns out that in the Qin State, stealing one piece of money is considered stealing, and the amount of money stolen also involves the severity of the sentence. Anyone who steals more than one hundred and ten pieces of money will be a prisoner. , slaves, so strict, who dares to do petty theft..."

"Thieves of five or more are called group thieves..."

After a while, when he memorized this section, Heifu couldn't help but patted his thigh in annoyance, and said regretfully: "What a shame, if I had captured a group of thieves that time, my reward would have been several times higher."

For a moment, Heifu seemed to have returned to the situation in his previous life when he was taking the exam for the county police station's staff after graduation. However, at that time, he was taking the exam to be a junior police officer, but now he is the police station chief...

These eight laws and regulations are equivalent to the key points that Yan Zheng helped him draw before the exam. There are no shortcuts, he can only memorize them vigorously. After he had spent the whole morning and almost mastered "The Law of Thieves", a heartfelt shout came from the yard.

"Brother Zhong, your sister-in-law is here and said that the treadmill you wanted to build has been finished!"

…

A moment later, with the busy work of several men, a "stepping pestle" was installed in the backyard of Heifu's house, placed next to the pestle and mortar originally used for pounding rice.

But I saw that it looked almost the same as what Heifu described that day. It was a tool made of wood and stone. Two square plates served as a truss stand, and a cross beam was set in the middle to set up a long truss rod with the head of the truss rod. There is a stone hammer installed at the bottom, and the hammer is facing a newly made stone mortar... At first glance, it looks like a seesaw.

"Brother Zhong, what you asked your sister-in-law to do is just such a thing..."

He came over to look at it curiously, and said disapprovingly: "I thought it was something novel, but it looks ordinary."

"You'll know its benefits later."

Heifu checked it over, stepped on it and tried it, then he picked up the pottery bucket and poured the rice inside into the stone mortar under the bucket. He took another bucket of rice handed over by his sister-in-law and poured it into the mortar. The pestle and mortar used to pound rice.

Then, he picked up the wooden pestle and said to Jing: "Jing, come here and let us compete to see who can pound more rice in the same time."

"Brother Zhong, stop joking."

Shocked, he shook his head repeatedly, raised his thin arms and said, "You are naturally strong, but I am so skinny, I definitely don't have as much rice as you."

But Hei Fu didn't let him go: "You use the treadmill, I use the pestle and mortar, let's compete! Brother, help us count the quantities."

Jing reluctantly came over and stood next to the treadmill. Heifu taught him how to try it a few times, and then the two of them started pounding rice separately...

"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."

In the backyard of their home, the sound of pounding rice could be heard one after another, causing Yang Heyue who was playing in the front yard to run over and curiously watch Zhongfu and uncle competing here.

But I saw Heifu holding the wooden pestle, raising it high, and then dropped it heavily into the stone mortar. From time to time, rice splashed out. At first, he pounded it very quickly, but after repeating this for a quarter of an hour, he started to sweat...

But Jing seemed to be much more relaxed. He only needed to step on the wooden pole at the end of the tiller to drive the tiller head up. He then raised his legs to reduce the force, causing the unbalanced and falling tiller head to hit the stone.

In the mortar, it rises and falls repeatedly.

Zhong was pulling millet for his two younger brothers. Whenever the rice in the mortar slowly shelled and turned white, and it had already been pounded to the level of brown rice, Zhong would scoop it out and put in a batch of dry rice.

At first, the two of them pounded about the same amount of grain, but gradually, the sound of pounding rice on Heifu's side slowed down, and the rhythm became slower and slower. He was a little tired.

As for Jing, although the strength may not be as strong as the wooden pestle at first, it is more durable. If he gets tired, he can change his foot and continue pounding, so the rhythm has not changed much.

So after more than half an hour passed, Hei Fu's hands were soft and could no longer pound, but he was surprised to be able to change his feet and continue...

"How?" Heifu put down the heavy wooden pestle in his hand. He felt as if his hands were no longer his own, and his forehead was covered with sweat. He was surprised that apart from his feet being numb and his waist a little sore, his face was not red and he was not out of breath.

Zhong nodded at the rice the two of them had pounded out in the past half hour and said, "Hei Fu has pounded 4 bushels of millet, and he has pounded 5 bushels of millet..."

"I actually fucked more than Brother Zhong?"

I looked at this result with some disbelief.

But Hei Fu burst out laughing: "Sure enough, compared with the wooden pestle, using a treadmill to pound rice is less tiring. You can keep pounding rice. When I get tired of pounding and can't move anymore, you will naturally get more. The treadmill It is indeed more efficient than a pestle and mortar. There is such a big difference in physique between you and me, but we can still beat Dodo. It will be even more obvious if two women of similar height and strength are doing it."

The biggest difference between humans and animals is that they can use tools and constantly improve them. This is how productivity is improved bit by bit. It's just that Heifu asked farmers to do something that took hundreds of years to achieve in one day. .

A fake horse can travel thousands of miles without benefiting from its feet; a fake boat can run a thousand miles without benefiting from the water. This is the principle that a gentleman is born without being different, and that good and false things are better than things. With a treadmill, a thin young man can chop out rations for more than ten people, and his efficiency is no less than that of an eight-foot-long man.

Heifu threw the wooden pestle aside, patted it and said in surprise: "You believe it now, are you still saying this thing is useless?"

"This thing is really useful!" Jing was completely convinced now.

At this time, my mother and sister-in-law also came over, looking at Tadi in wonder.

My sister-in-law Kui tried the treadmill and showed a rare smile. She said that if she could use this thing to pound rice in the future, it would save a lot of time for her family to pound one day's ration every day! The key is that it’s not easy to get tired. If it’s a busy farming season, even six-year-old Yang can sit on the wooden pole of the mill and grind out brown rice...

The mother sighed and said: "If this thing had been available earlier, the old woman's arms would not have suffered from defects..."

The family members couldn't put it down for a while. Everyone wanted to go up and try it. At the same time, they were full of praise for Heifu's idea.

However, Heifu gave the credit to Citron: "My sister-in-law is so skilled at craftsmanship. He made exactly what I wanted! It's amazing!"

Citron smiled honestly, and Hei Fu took the opportunity to invite him: "I went to serve on the first day of the new year, and my family couldn't get together for the Chinese New Year. Tomorrow is the winter solstice. No matter what, we have to have a meal together. Tomorrow, my sister-in-law, my father-in-law, Come here, sisters."

After Citron agreed, Heifu patted the treadmill again and thought proudly: "Everything is ready, and the east wind is coming. With this pounding tool, I can make that thing."

When he thought about the good food he could eat soon, he was so happy that he hugged his nephew and niece who were watching the fun next to him one by one, and kissed the two little kids again and again on their faces. He smiled and said, "Tomorrow, you can follow Father Zhong and have a great meal!"