Chapter 33: Digging a Hole
Zheng Yannian looked at Gu Feixue in disbelief, and the next second he took out the bamboo and put it back in.
But everyone only saw a lot of bubbles bubbling out of the two buckets, and then nothing happened. There was still the same amount of water in the two buckets.
Seeing Zheng Yannian's bold actions, Gu Feixue couldn't help but hold her forehead.
Duke Zheng is truly a man of action, and she hasn't finished her words yet.
Everyone looked at Gu Feixue with suspicion, so she cleared her throat and said, "If you want water to flow continuously, two conditions must be met."
"Which two conditions?"
"Yes, girl, please tell us about it."
Everyone saw Gu Feixue pointing her finger at the bamboo tube:
"The first condition is that the water outlet must be lower than the water inlet." The next second, everyone saw her struggling to flip the bamboo tube with both hands, revealing the two ends of the bamboo tube in front of everyone.
"The second condition is that the bamboo tube must be filled with water when it is placed in the water."
This phenomenon has a name that is only known to modern people, namely "siphon phenomenon".
However, Gu Feixue believed that she did not have the ability to do so, and could only explain science to this group of ancient people in a simple way.
After all, in modern times, the difficulty of proving that one plus one equals two is daunting for most mathematicians, but everyone knows this fact.
So she believes that when science has not developed to the point where everyone needs to know why one plus one equals two, it is enough for everyone to just know this principle.
The siphon principle involves atmospheric pressure, but in this era, there was no concept of air pressure.
So she could only simply tell everyone that certain phenomena would occur depending on the conditions met.
After hearing Gu Feixue's patient explanation, everyone immediately showed an educated look. Even the illiterate farmer looked very curious.
At this moment, Zheng Yannian suddenly remembered that he had not filled the bamboo tube with water just now. No wonder the water in the bucket did not change at all.
Then Zheng Yannian asked his men to fill the bamboo tube with water from the bends on both sides.
And according to Gu Feixue's method just now, someone had the bamboo tubes on both sides sealed by hand, put them into the water and then released them.
This time, everyone saw that the water in the bucket had changed again.
By the time the bucket at the bottom was completely full and even overflowing, the water in the bucket higher up was still decreasing.
The crowd of onlookers had already gathered in three layers, and everyone was amazed by the phenomenon demonstrated by the few people. For a while, bursts of exclamations were heard from the crowd.
Only Yuchi Shuo looked at the two buckets, one high and one low, with a serious expression, wondering what he was thinking.
"Xue'er, Uncle Zheng, although this thing you made is new, it doesn't seem to be able to solve our problem, right?"
Zheng Yannian scratched his head hard, but couldn't think of how this thing could help.
Gu Feixue shook her finger, but she didn't answer. Instead, she looked at Gu Tingchuan who seemed to have gained something, and grinned:
"Brother, why don't you explain it to Duke Zheng?"
Gu Tingchuan noticed the key point at a glance, so asking him to explain would not make everyone look down on her.
Gu Tingchuan sorted out his words, then looked at Gu Feixue and tried to say, "Xue'er, what you mean is to use this bamboo to divert water from the river to the wasteland."
Zheng Yannian was still completely bewildered. He looked at the bamboo tube, then at the bucket, his brows knitted into knots.
"How do you divert it? The river is a full two miles from here, and it's lower than the wasteland. Doesn't the water in this bucket flow from high to low?"
As he said this, the refugees around him, who were holding hoes and shovels, echoed him: "Yes, the water still flows from high to low. The riverside is lower than the wasteland!"
Gu Tingchuan's expression remained unchanged. He looked over and saw encouragement in Gu Feixue's eyes, so he turned to look at everyone and said:
"We only need to connect the two miles of land with a hundred long bamboos. As for the terrain, we can have people dig a deep pit near the wasteland. As long as it is deep enough, it will meet the requirement of being lower than the riverside."
"Dig a hole?!" Zheng Yannian's eyes widened immediately. Yeah! Digging a hole would lower the ground!
"Tingchuan, you have a really smart brain! How come I didn't think of such a good idea!" Duke Zheng immediately danced with joy.
Of course, when the others heard that the river water could really be diverted to the wasteland and they didn't have to run two miles to fetch water for irrigation, they were even more excited than Zheng Yannian, and they almost knelt down to thank the Gu brothers and sisters.
Although crops can be grown on cultivated land, it is obvious that this wasteland is not suitable for growing crops. The terrain is high and there is no water source nearby, so the water and soil are lost to the low-lying areas in the south.
It is impossible to improve soil quality without water.
But a load of water has to be carried two miles, not to mention that the water consumption for transforming such a large piece of wasteland cannot be low, even if you walk your feet to death it will not be possible.
However, now the Gu brothers and sisters have come up with an idea to let the water flow from the river to the wasteland. How can they not be excited!
Soon, a respected elder among the refugees stood up and bowed to Gu Tingchuan.
"Brother, on behalf of everyone, I want to thank you and your sister. Your idea can save our lives!"
The elder was originally Muramasa, the head of a village in trouble.
For ordinary people, land is life. Moreover, whether they can eat or not depends on these wastelands.
As long as they have water and take good care of the compost, wasteland can be turned into fertile farmland!
Faced with these people's earnest expressions of gratitude, Gu Tingchuan was a little at a loss as to what to do for a moment.
Even before the Gu family met with disaster, he, as the young master of the Gu family, had never received so much sincere gratitude from so many people.
Fortunately, Gu Feixue was an adult at heart. She immediately put on a genuine smile and took over the conversation:
"Grandpa, I'm glad I could help you. We should all thank Duke Zheng and the prefect. My brother and I only spoke, but they've been busy all night long for everyone's benefit."
These words coming from Gu Feixue's childish voice sounded more sincere than the smooth and sophisticated words of an adult.
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Duke Zheng and the prefect with gratitude.
Although they felt a little embarrassed, they felt warmed in their hearts by Gu Feixue's words.
Why is this little girl so popular?!
When will he have such a sensible, well-behaved, clever and warm-hearted daughter! Duke Zheng was moved and very unwilling to accept it.
As for the look on Liangcheng prefect's face when he looked at Gu Feixue, compared to the previous respect, there was also a lot more gratitude in it.
Disaster victims are easy to collect but difficult to manage.
Especially these refugees from other towns. Now that they have disaster relief food, they are relatively obedient, but no one knows what will happen to them in the future.
Now Gu Feixue not only solved the problem of getting water, but also spoke for him in front of everyone.
No matter what happens in the future, these refugees will remember their gratitude today.
Unexpectedly, Yuchi Shuo looked at Gu Feixue with a half-smile, which made Gu Feixue feel uncomfortable.
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