Chapter 83 The Prince Who Failed to Revolt
The wheat is about to be harvested. Her wheat experimental field is very different from the ordinary one. Looking at the heavy ears of rice, she feels very happy.
Not far away, Zhang Xiaojia was staring intently at He Fei's busy figure. It turned out that He Fei was busy making a harvester! But after watching for a while, Zhang Xiaojia couldn't help herself and she quickly walked towards He Fei.
Walking closer, Zhang Xiaojia picked up a pen and paper and began to sketch quickly. After a while, a clear picture appeared before her eyes. She handed the drawing to He Fei and explained in detail:
"He Fei, this is a horse-drawn harvester. It's powered by horses and equipped with a rotating cutting disc or a horizontal arm with teeth. It cuts the wheat through a reciprocating motion. The harvested wheat is then transported by rotating wings or a conveyor device to a platform behind the harvesting arm for baling.
This harvester achieved mechanized harvesting for the first time, greatly improving harvesting efficiency and reducing farmers' labor intensity. At the same time, it also has an automatic baling function, further facilitating the collection and storage of wheat.
I only know the external pictures, I don’t know what’s going on inside.”
He Fei was even more confused after reading it. Jia Jia said that this was the earliest harvester, which used horses to pull the harvest and automatically baled.
He Fei stared at the blueprint drawn by Zhang Xiaojia, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter. It was too backward.
"Horse? Jia Jia, this little fool, who among the people can afford a horse! They can't even afford a cow," He Fei muttered to himself.
He looked up at the wheat fields in the distance. The golden ears of wheat swayed in the wind, and the heavy ears bent the stalks.
This "horse-drawn harvester" painted by Zhang Xiaojia looks like it can be completed with just one horse, so it should be inherited by someone. Here, people are less valuable than horses.
All gears of the human-pulled harvester must be modified.
He Fei immediately imagined the operation of the gears inside, simplified the steps, and strengthened the design. In this way, the gears would not need iron, as ordinary people could not afford iron.
He is a prince, and as long as he does not rebel, he can directly ask his brother the emperor for the iron ore resources. He can afford the best and the biggest.
What about the tenants? They all rented the land for a living, and they only needed iron at the very least, and the rest used wood.
He immediately sent someone to the Ministry of Works to summon the best carpenters and blacksmiths to the imperial farm.
In less than half a day, hundreds of craftsmen gathered in the Huangzhuang workshop. There was Old Li, who was good at carpentry, Blacksmith Wang, who had been working as a blacksmith for twenty years, and Master Zhang, who was proficient in mechanics.
"Everyone," He Fei unfolded the blueprint, "This is a drawing of a horse-drawn harvester. We need to make it as quickly as possible."
The craftsmen gathered around to examine it carefully, occasionally exclaiming in amazement. Old Li stroked his beard and said, "The design of this cutting disc is very clever, but how do we make it turn?"
"We can use gears," Master Zhang pointed to several components on the blueprint. "Add a set of gears here, and then add a chain, and we can convert the horse's pulling force into the rotational force of the disc."
Blacksmith Wang frowned and said, "But there are so many places that need iron. These gears and chains alone require a lot of iron."
He Fei: "Except for the cutting mechanism and transmission chain, which are made of iron, everything else is made of wood. That's enough iron for about five hoes."
The craftsmen immediately started working together. Old Li led the carpenters to build the main frame and platform, while blacksmith Wang was responsible for creating the cutting discs and gears, and Master Zhang designed the transmission system.
On the first day, they encountered a problem. The cutting disc was spinning too fast, causing the straw to fly away before it was cut; too slow, it couldn't cut through the straw. Master Zhang worked overnight to adjust the gear ratios, finally finding the right speed on the third day.
On the fifth day, the baling mechanism broke down again, and the harvested wheat could not be neatly stacked on the platform.
After seeing this, He Fei suggested installing a movable baffle on the platform so that the wheat could be automatically piled into a pile.
On the tenth day, the first horse-drawn harvester was finally completed. Although it looked a bit crude, it had all the necessary functions. He Fei couldn't wait to pull it out to the wheat field to test it out.
The grown man pulled the harvester slowly forward, the cutting disc spinning rapidly, sending the wheat stalks crashing down. The harvested wheat was swept onto the platform by the rotor blades, where it quickly piled into a bundle. Old Li slapped his thigh excitedly, "It's done! It really is done!"
He Fei looked at this machine made of wood and a small amount of iron, feeling a lot of emotions in his heart.
He Fei also drew a thresher and a windmill, which he was familiar with.
The first one was for experimentation, so the production was slow. But later, with a reference, hundreds of workers worked at full speed to produce more than ten units.
He Fei also made a harvester made of iron and pulled by horses.
The emperor also wanted to know the per-acre wheat yield in the experimental field of the new fertilizer.
He came with three provinces and six ministries.
The wheat yield in the north is only 120 jin per mu, which is one stone.
After seeing the output, Zhang Xiaojia didn’t know what to say for a moment.
There are six experimental fields, each covering ten mu.
Across the vast expanse of fields, the sun shone blazingly, as if covering the earth with a golden veil. Meanwhile, a massive harvester, pulled by eight tall, sturdy horses, rumbled past, leaving golden waves of wheat tumbling to the ground wherever it passed.
After only one hour, this magical machine had successfully harvested ten acres of fertile land!
The emperor, standing on a high platform in the distance and observing, had a calm expression on his face, and seemed not to be moved by the spectacular scene before him.
However, when his eyes turned to another place, he saw a group of hard-working people there. They were using simple human-drawn harvesters to carry out the harvesting work with great difficulty.
Surprisingly, after the same hour of effort, these human-driven harvesters could only barely complete the harvesting task of one acre of land.
Witnessing this scene, the emperor's expressionless face finally showed a ripple and a smile.
He knew very well that although this horse-drawn harvester greatly improved harvesting efficiency, it also brought a series of unexpected problems.
Due to its high efficiency, tenants who rent land may face the dilemma of losing a large number of land rents because they cannot compete with machines.
As a result, the tenants who are already living in poverty will fall into an even more difficult situation and may even die of starvation.
For landowners who own large amounts of land, they only need to hire a small number of workers to operate these advanced harvesters to easily complete farm work, further exacerbating the gap between the rich and the poor and inequality in society.
Thinking of this, the emperor couldn't help but fall into deep thought, but it would be fine if the human-powered harvester was improved five or six times, but the horse-drawn harvester should be banned.
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