"It moved! It moved!"
I don't know who shouted it out excitedly.
Soon, the water mill's trough was filled with water, and it began to slowly run in the river.
At this moment, the person guarding the wooden house ran out and excitedly shouted, "It moved! The wooden stake in the trough inside the house moved!"
Upon hearing this, the village chief immediately ran inside. Sure enough, the wooden stake was working. The stake, which normally required an adult male to move, was now operating on its own.
The village chief knew that this was the result of everyone's joint efforts, and not some supernatural force.
A villager shouted excitedly, "We did it! We did it! We finally did it!"
Many of the onlookers shed tears of emotion.
Old Man Chen quickly sent someone to fetch some cleaned bracken roots, put them in the trough, and let the wooden stakes pound them.
To make them more durable, they used stone troughs, and even the tops of the wooden stakes were tied with stones.
Before long, the bracken root was slowly crushed. Old Chen said happily, "Great! Now we can make more bracken root rice noodles."
Although they don't yet know exactly how many bracken roots a watermill can crush in a day, just one watermill can do the work of dozens of adults, and it can work day and night.
The village chief exclaimed happily, "This stuff is great! It's really great!"
The villagers discussed excitedly for a while before going about their own business. The village chief informed everyone that a celebration banquet would be held at noon, and that they would also discuss the future distribution of the watermills.
With the watermill successfully developed, they can now operate in two shifts, 24 hours a day, without stopping production.
Of course, a few technicians stayed behind to guide everyone in continuing to build watermills, while the others went to research the next thing: waterwheels!
During the celebratory lunch, Old Man Chen saw that everyone had almost finished eating, so he stood up and said happily, "Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. Thanks to our joint efforts, the watermill has finally been successfully developed. Now let's celebrate again."
Then Old Man Chen led the applause, and for a moment, the scene was exceptionally lively.
After everyone stopped clapping, Old Man Chen continued, "Alright, now I'll talk about the distribution of the water mill. My family promised you before that if you all work together to develop the water mill, we'll give you all some benefits."
"Now is the time to fulfill our promise to everyone. In the coming period, my family will provide four water mills to the village free of charge. Then, they will be distributed according to the size of everyone's contribution to the research on water mills. Those who contribute more will each receive one water mill free of charge, while those who contribute less will share one water mill between two households."
"If anyone wants more watermills, they can talk to my family privately later. I'll tell everyone the specifics of the exchange later."
"In addition, the water mill that my family provides to you free of charge has a six-month warranty period. During this period, as long as it is not intentionally damaged by human error, my family can repair it for free."
Everyone happily exclaimed, "Great!"
The villagers were very satisfied with this distribution method and clapped their hands happily.
Old Man Chen drank some water, and after everyone had finished celebrating, he continued, "There's one more thing. Once my family's production line is complete, we'll be hiring again. This time, we'll hire people regardless of gender, but they must be strong."
Upon hearing this, the villagers were immediately thrilled.
"I'll go!"
"I want to go! Uncle Chen, let me go to work!"
...
Everyone shouted excitedly.
Although the villagers' lives are now relatively good, they still live a very frugal life.
And it would be even better if we could do more work and get a watermill back.
Today, a group of special people came to Anping Village: Bai Yu's teacher and some other students.
The reason for this was that Chen Kai wanted to draw up detailed blueprints of the watermill since the watermill had been successfully developed, and to record the research process, the researchers, and the detailed blueprints in a book for future use.
Chen Kai didn't want to do such a troublesome thing himself, so he tricked Bai Yu, the only scholar in the village, into compiling those things into a book so that future generations could learn from them.
When Bai Yu learned of this, he was extremely excited. To him, it was a glorious and sacred thing.
However, knowing that his abilities were limited and he could not complete the task alone, he suggested inviting the scholars who had participated in the research on watermills to help with the editing.
Chen Kai pretended to think for a moment, then immediately agreed. He only cared about the final result and didn't care much about the specific process. Moreover, this way, the heroes who researched watermills would have a greater reputation.
The scholars who had participated in the research on watermills were very happy to learn that the watermills had been successfully made and were functioning properly, and felt that they were also fortunate to be involved.
When they learned that they had been invited to participate in the editing, they were overjoyed and immediately wanted to set off for Anping Village. However, they were stopped and told that they would have to wait a few days before they could go. At that time, the village would send a female warrior to escort them to Anping Village. They were told to pack their things first.
During the time before the Master and his group set off, the news spread throughout the cultural circles of the county.
Upon learning this news, the scholars who had declined the visit were naturally filled with regret and immediately went to the government office to petition, wanting to participate in the editing as well.
Although they didn't contribute to the successful research on watermills, they insisted on having their names included in the editor's name; these cultural figures loved this kind of gimmick.
The county magistrate already had a headache just looking at the blueprints for the watermill, and he didn't know if the higher-ups would understand them or blame him after he submitted them.
Even though he was very learned, he still couldn't understand the blueprints. There were some strange symbols on the blueprints. He initially thought they were symbols used by carpenters, but after asking several carpenters to look at them, they studied and discussed them for a long time before they could understand a little bit of them.
He thought the drawings did need some improvement, so he agreed to let them participate in the editing.
The villagers were completely bewildered to see so many scholars come to their village. They had only invited a few people, but now the whole place was filled with people, and even the county magistrate had come.
The village chief looked at the county magistrate with a puzzled expression.
The magistrate said awkwardly, "It's because there's strength in numbers. They all wanted to come, so I gave them permission."
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