The curved plow appears
Chapter 23: The Curved Plow Appears
In mid-August, Chen Sinong reported back: All the wheat roots in the fields of the military settlement have been cleared. Can the curved plow be taken out and used? Now the land needs to be plowed. Once all 80,000 hectares of land in the military settlement are plowed, it will be time to sow.
Chu Huaibei calculated the time and it was true. After all, it was all human and animal labor, so the land needed to be plowed earlier. It was not like the large-scale mechanized farming in the previous life. As long as there were enough machines, any amount of land could be plowed within three days.
He immediately ordered Chen Sinong: "Start plowing the soil today. I will go with you to the military settlement." He called on his deputy general and took a team of personal soldiers with him, and went to the military settlement with the people from Sinong's office.
Even in the barracks, the objects pushed by the Minister of Agriculture on several carts had already attracted a large number of soldiers to look at them. They were whispering and discussing what they were used for.
When they arrived at the military settlement after being watched all the way, Chen Sinong first asked someone to call the head of the settlement, and at the same time told those who could plow the land today to come to the fields quickly.
The village chief ran over in a hurry. He heard from the messenger that the prince was also coming today, and he didn't know how important the matter was.
When the village chief arrived, he found that Chen Sinong had ordered forty or fifty oxen to be brought in and were waiting in the fields. He quickly stepped forward to greet the prince and wait for his words.
"We are here today to teach you how to use a new plow. It's called a curved plow. One person and one ox can do deep or shallow plowing. You should study hard. Later, when the Ministry of Agriculture is too busy, you will be needed to lead others to teach them how to use it." Chu Huaibei and the headman instructed.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I will do my best," the village chief responded immediately. He was extremely curious about when the Ministry of Agriculture had developed such a convenient plow. He would study it carefully.
Soon, hundreds of people who lived nearby and had free time arrived one after another. After all, as soon as the messenger said that the prince was also there, everyone who could come ran over.
Seeing that it was almost done, Chu Huaibei told Chen Sinong to start now.
Chen Sinong stepped forward and raised his hand for silence. "I've asked you all to come here temporarily today so that you can first learn how to use the plow that the prince has modified. This plow is called the Curved Plow. One person and one ox can easily plow the land, and the depth can be adjusted automatically. Now, ten people will line up and learn how to use it from the people from Sinong Office."
As soon as he finished speaking, ten people stood up in a neat row. They were all well-known figures in the village. Chen Sinong pointed to a junior official from the Sinong Office and told him to listen carefully to their explanation and teaching.
The rest of the people only saw the minor officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, who first put the curved plow on the ox, then inserted the plow into the soil, adjusted the angle, and gently tapped the ox's buttocks with a whip. The ox began to walk slowly forward. The minor official held the plow tip with one hand and the whip with the other, and turned the soil over easily. Another minor official signaled the ox to speed up, and saw that the originally solid black soil was quickly turned over. The efficiency was many times higher than the previous plow that required two oxen to pull at the same time. Everyone watching was fanatical.
Soon, under the guidance of the clerk, the ten people quickly mastered the use of the curved plow and began to control the plow to plow the fields. They also exclaimed from time to time, making the people standing by and watching anxious.
After seeing that the first ten people had learned and could use it skillfully, Chen Sinong called out another twenty people and asked the previous twenty to teach them. After one batch had learned, he called out another forty people. In this way, everyone present soon learned how to use the curved plow.
Chen Sinong told everyone that there were as many curved plows as there were oxen in the military settlement, and during this period everyone could go to the Sinong Office to register and get them for plowing the land.
Then he took out a four-toothed rake. If they couldn't borrow an ox or a curved plow, they could use this new one to plow the soil. It was more convenient to use than the previous farm tools and it would turn the soil faster. Everyone tried it out and nodded in agreement.
Seeing that everyone had learned almost everything, Chu Huaibei took his deputy general back to the military camp first, and his personal soldiers stayed behind to wait for the people from the Ministry of Agriculture to leave together.
The deputy general asked happily, "Your Majesty, can I take one of these curved plows home today?"
"Okay, wait until the people from the Sino-Agricultural Office come back later and you can go get one." Chu Huaibei nodded in agreement.
What happened in the military settlement today had already spread throughout Youzhou before evening. Everyone was so eager that they wanted to rush into the military settlement and grab one to try and get it back.
The next day, each family sent people to the military settlement to inquire, and some of them even sent skilled carpenters to copy it directly after understanding it.
Chu Huaibei asked Xiao Feng to bring twenty palace soldiers to pull a hundred curved plows to the military settlement, put them on a blackboard, and sell them directly on the field. Each plow was priced at twenty taels of silver, and only a hundred were sold on a first-come, first-served basis.
Some noble families sent their stewards directly to investigate. Those stewards would take out their silver, buy something, and immediately head home. They would only tip off acquaintances from other noble families along the way if they were close friends. The first group of buyers, upon returning home, naturally received a reward from their masters. They then immediately called in craftsmen, who disassembled the curved plow for study and worked day and night to produce it.
Word spread like wildfire, and all one hundred curved plows were sold out in a single day. Chu Huaibei gave Xiao Feng one hundred taels of silver, telling him to divide it among the twenty palace soldiers. Later, he sent another five hundred taels of silver to the Ministry of Agriculture, which was divided among the group, representing the wages for the work. He also told them that if a noble family wanted them to make a curved plow in the future, they could name a price and explain that the prince had provided the materials himself. He then let the family decide how much the labor would cost, five taels per person.
Chu Huaibei anticipated that the gang would definitely go to the Sino-Agricultural Office to cause trouble, so he set an example for them in advance. If they didn't follow through, they wouldn't be able to blame anyone else. Even the most shady families valued their reputation. They wanted to get something for nothing, just to see if they could survive the rumors circulating among the people. Moreover, this was still a fact, and a family with a sense of dignity would definitely pay the money quietly.
Chu Huaibei just wants to make sure they can't get anything for free. He wants to get something for nothing. Look how bold he has made them.
The family's farms soon adopted curved plows, and the oxen they had previously employed were no longer sufficient. Previously, two oxen per plow required three people to operate simultaneously, but now only one person per ox was enough. The extra labor force couldn't be wasted; simply buying another ox could double efficiency.
Cattle were a family's fixed asset, bought to last forever, so many families flocked to the cattle market to look for them. However, they arrived too late, and now only calves were available, with few mature cattle for sale.
The buyers from various mansions were extremely anxious. They knew that if they couldn't get the job done by the master, they would be in trouble. The master didn't care whether there were any cattle to sell in the cattle market.
Several familiar buyers began to inquire about the situation. It turned out that the Qin family had suddenly bought up all the cattle for sale at the cattle market, even the calves. Then the Wang Mansion gradually bought up all the cattle.
No one dared to ask about the palace, but the Qin family could. The purchasers reported their findings to their masters, and the noble families, upon hearing this, realized that the King of Zhenbei had already been working on the curved plow, and had managed to keep it hidden for so long. But who would have thought he'd have the Sino-Agricultural Office do it directly? If he'd built a new warehouse in the manor or elsewhere, they would have discovered it long ago.
Now, the only option was to go to the Qin family and negotiate. They had so many cattle at once that they should be able to spare some. The family, which had a lot of land, carefully prepared gifts and brought them to meet the Qin family's mistress, Zhuang.
The moment the deputy general brought the curved plow home, the Qin family knew that this was the reason why they asked them to buy the cow a few months ago. Zhuang first praised the deputy general, and then praised Chu Huaibei again and again. She selected a batch of inexpensive but thoughtful gifts overnight and asked the deputy general to take them to the Zhenbei Palace tomorrow.
General Qin frowned and looked at the deputy general for a long time, but then he let it go and didn't care about his younger son's fault for hiding this matter from him. The deputy general was indeed beaten up by his two brothers, but that was not mentioned for the time being.
Over the next few days, the wives of wealthy families visited Zhuang daily. Unable to find a way around this group, and unable to favor one over the other, Zhuang calculated the total number of cattle he could part with, divided them into ten, and notified all the wealthy families who wanted to buy cattle. They were to come to his house and draw lots. The winners would buy at the current price. It was a fair and just deal, based solely on luck, not connections. This finally put an end to the dispute. Zhuang was exhausted for nearly half a month.
Chu Huaibei took the initiative to write a memorial to the emperor about the curved plow, explaining that he had accidentally seen it in a miscellaneous book and had a craftsman make it to test. The memorial had proven successful, boasting that it was not only simpler to operate but also more efficient than the previous plow. He then praised the emperor, saying that the heavens must have seen the emperor's constant concern for the people, which led him to discover this advantageous farming tool. He went on and on with a slew of other witty remarks. Chu Huaibei got goosebumps from writing this. He hadn't boasted this much in his previous life's annual reports.
However, by the time Chu Huaibei's memorial reached the imperial court, four or five memorials about the curved plow had already been submitted, all praising Chu Huaibei. The memorial from the military inspector Fan Liang praised Chu Huaibei to the highest level, calling him the reincarnation of Shennong.
If Chu Huaibei knew that this group of people would harm her like this, he should have sold the curved plow to them for 200 taels instead of 20 taels. It was really infuriating.
The curved plow soon spread throughout Daxia, but the emperor gave neither silver nor land to Chu Huaibei. He only gave Chu Huaibei the honorary title of Grand Minister of Agriculture, which was just a title without even a salary.
After receiving the imperial edict, Chu Huaibei complained in his heart that the emperor was stingy and was reluctant to give him even a little silver. Now it was confirmed that there was a villain spreading rumors, and he had to be more careful in the future.
This year, tilling the land in the military settlements was progressing rapidly. Even the women, who were already quite strong, began to take over the tilling work. A four-toothed rake was much easier to use than the traditional shovels, hoes, and pickaxes, and it was more efficient. Some half-grown children could also work for half a day. The heavy work in the fields was no longer concentrated on a few people, but with the whole family working together, the process was much faster.
Chu Huaibei instructed Chen Sinong to come to her two weeks before everyone started sowing, as she had other ideas about planting the seeds. Chen Sinong agreed immediately, knowing that Sinong's warehouse still had plows unused. Judging from the current situation, even if the prince really did require everyone to use plows for sowing this year, the people in the military settlement would not object. After all, the prince had already won everyone's trust with the dragon-bone waterwheel and the curved plow.
Chen Sinong would no longer have much objection to the prince's proposal. He used to think that the prince did not know how to farm. Facts have proved that the prince might have more insights into farming than he, who has worked on the land all his life.
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