The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

The Shaofu was one of the important central institutions of the Qin State, in charge of the income from mountains, seas, land and marshes and the manufacturing of official handicrafts. Among them, the "Kaogongshi" in the Shaofu was responsible for leading the officials of the various counties of the Qin State, and had several handicraft workshops in Xianyang and other places, with countless subordinates.

At this time, Zhang Han was in his early twenties. He was just a minor official under the Lingcheng of the Kaogongshi. Because of his father's merits, he was promoted to an official as a "Renzi", but he only did some small jobs of welcoming and seeing off.

In fact, his real interest was the military and the battlefield. Zhang Han often discussed with his colleagues the fierce battle between Qin and Yan in the north of Yishui. Now the Yan Shangdu Jicheng has been besieged for two months by General Wang Jian with more than 100,000 troops, and the Yan State is in danger. However, because the Qin army had been stationed under the city for a long time in the winter, the journey was long, and the food was not enough, so many people died of starvation.

Timely supply of food and grass to the front was also one of the responsibilities of the Shaofu and Zhisu Neishi.

One day, Zhang Han was betting with his colleagues, guessing how long Yan could hold out, when suddenly an urgent letter from Nanjun arrived, along with the wooden equipment on the carriage, escorted by a bad-tempered Nanjun envoy.

Zhang Han led the envoy into the Shaofu Examination Room. He was not qualified to enter the room because of his lack of title and position, so he continued to wait outside. After a while, he summoned a few servants and concubines in. After another hour or so, he heard the engineers and craftsmen inside exclaiming in admiration and surprise...

Then someone came out and called him to go to Zhisu Neishi's office and ask them to send a few warehouse officials and agricultural officials over.

Zhang Han felt that something was wrong, but he did not ask much and did it silently. He did not know that in the next few days, the Shaofu Examination Room, Zhisu Neishi, and the core officials of Xianyang Warehouse were desperately discussing the effectiveness of the "treading pestle".

After listening to the explanation of the Nanjun envoy and asking several servants to verify it on the spot, the officials in Xianyang had no doubts about the use of the "treading pestle". Moreover, this thing is not complicated, just a simple wooden pole stepping, which is a commonly used technology in this era. It's just that people have been following the ancient times for a long time and have not thought of making a substitute for the pestle and mortar.

Once they saw it at this moment, the craftsmen in the examination room felt as simple as a layer of gauze being pierced through their minds. They immediately understood: It turns out that this can be done!

So the craftsmen in the examination room did it as soon as they said, and after copying the gourd, they successfully copied the exact same treading pestle after working for several hours. When people were asked to pound rice for the test, the results were almost the same. A treading pestle can indeed increase the efficiency of pounding rice by nearly double, and the pounding rice people are not so tired.

"A craftsman can make this after just one look, and the materials required are simple. Compared with the stone mills from Qi and Lu, the Xianyang Palace already has stone mills installed, which is easier to promote to counties across the country..."

The engineers in the examination room thought so. The stone mills have been in the Central Plains for some time. It is said that they were made by the ingenious Lu Ban more than a hundred years ago. However, they are not widely circulated at present and are only used in some wealthy families. After all, it is easier to grind food than to husk it. At this moment, wheat has not replaced millet as the staple food in the north, and northerners do not have the habit of eating pasta.

"Whether it is north or south, whether it is millet, wheat or rice, this thing can be used to husk it." The Si Nong official who was in charge of the grain thought while touching his chin.

"If I use this thing to replace the pestle and mortar in my warehouse, the rice provided to the more than 100,000 people in Xianyang every day will be at least doubled. If the soldiers on the front line can have this thing, they don't have to spend an hour or so every day to pound the grain..." The warehouse clerk in the Xianyang warehouse thought so.

Now Qin is attacking Yan and besieging Jicheng. The biggest difficulty is not the fierce resistance of the Yan people, but the weather in the north and the supply of food. The king has repeatedly ordered more soldiers to rush to the front line, not for fighting, but for transporting food.

And much of the food transported is this year's new grain. The soldiers have to pound it before eating. The quartermasters on the front line have complained many times, but the warehouse officials in Hengshan, Handan, and Hejian areas are helpless. They originally belonged to Zhao and were newly conquered territories. The situation is not stable. The young men were forcibly conscripted to the front line to transport grain and besiege the city. Only the old, weak, women and children are left. Now that the busy farming season is approaching, how can they have time to pound rice carefully?

If the three counties can be equipped with treading pestles, doesn't it mean that more rice can be pounded in a shorter time and with fewer people to send to the front line? If the front line is also equipped with treading pestles, then the generals don't have to worry about the problem of eating.

Therefore, after discussion, the chief officials of the Shaofu Kaogongfu and Zhisu Neishi Xianyang Warehouse submitted documents to the Prime Minister's Office and the Censor's Office, calling the treading pestle a "military weapon" and suggesting that it be immediately sent to all counties and ordered to be produced and promoted by the government.

This suggestion was finally submitted to the king, and the ministers were ordered to discuss it in the court.

At this time, a little bit of discordant voice appeared. A Sikong who was in charge of managing prisoners worried that if the treading pestle was promoted, wouldn't the "pounding" as the most severe punishment for female prisoners be reduced a lot? It might even exist in name only...

This question was widely discussed by the ministers, and in the end, it was Li Si, who had just been promoted to the court, who gave a speechless answer.

"Shang Jun said: If punishment is used to eliminate punishment, the country will be governed; if punishment is used to cause punishment, the country will be in chaos. The purpose of punishment is not to punish people, but to let the people know that there are some things that cannot be done. If there is a slight sign of doing so, such behavior should be eradicated with severe punishment, so that the whole country will understand what things should not be done and what things can be done. In the end, severe punishment can be permanently used because no one violates the corresponding provisions. This is called eliminating punishment with punishment, which is the ideal of us legalists..."

"Now, since treading the pestle can make pounding grain more efficient, for our Qin State, it is like the sword blade of the generals is twice as fast and the armor is twice as thick. Our country has always emphasized merit, and we should implement it without hesitation. Now, how can we stop eating because we are afraid of reducing the punishment of slaves and concubines?"

The court judge is the court judge, worthy of being a disciple of Xunzi. His words left everyone in the court speechless, so the king also approved the matter and said in the edict: "Yes"!

The Shaofu and Zhisu Neishi were fully responsible for this matter. Officials said that if this product could be promoted throughout the country, then Nanjun would win the first place in this year's competition among engineers in various counties, and in the internal competition of Nanjun, Anlu County would also be the well-deserved first place. The Gongcao and Cangcao of Anlu County could all be rewarded for 30 days of hard work.

However, up to this point, the court still had no intention of rewarding the inventor heavily, because the rewards given to craftsmen and merchants by Qin were indeed much more stingy than those given to soldiers and officials.

If there were only one skilled person among a hundred people who farmed and fought, all the other hundred people would be lazy in farming and fighting. In Qin, the ratio of craftsmen to farmers was about one to one hundred.

Qin had always believed that if the people saw that people who relied on empty talk and lobbying to serve the monarch could also gain a noble status, merchants could also make a fortune, and craftsmen could also support their families with this. When the people see that these three kinds of people have comfortable jobs and can make money, they will definitely avoid farming and fighting...

It is human nature to seek benefits and avoid harm.

Therefore, for outstanding craftsmen, the county engineers can reward them. If they are promoted one level, they will get ten thousand coins. Wouldn't the country craftsmen be very happy? Want the king and the court to commend them? Wouldn't that mess up the laws of Qin?

At most, the name of the craftsman who made this thing, "Yuan", appeared many times in the wooden slips of the Shaofu, so that the young clerk Zhang Han remembered this person, but he didn't know that behind Yuan, there was a small pavilion chief named Heifu...

...

So, at the end of January, when the treading pestle was named "Anlu Peel" and was about to be widely used in Qin, its inventor Heifu knew nothing about these things.

At this moment, he was standing barefoot in his own field, arguing with his elder brother Zhong about what crops to plant this year...

"Brother, I can set aside 150 acres of my two hundred acres to plant millet and rice, and the rest can be planted with beans."

Hei Fu pointed to a large piece of land that had just been plowed and complained to Zhong: "But you have to leave me ten acres so that I can plant what I want!"

While speaking, Hei Fu pointed to the ridge of the field, where there was a bundle of plants that looked like bamboo but were not bamboo, with thick roots and stems...

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