The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

When Jing returned home for dinner that day, he suddenly stood up and said that he wanted to learn to read. When he said this, the whole family stopped eating and looked at Jing in surprise.

In the early years, Zhong and Heifu, because their families had titles and some savings, each learned to read from Yan Zheng in the plaque and Lu Ying in the sunset. When Jing was in his teens, his family became poor again due to various changes, and his education was delayed. Jing also had a lively personality. He boasted and hung out with the young people in the village all day long, and he was not serious, which made his mother very distressed. Now he suddenly changed his personality, and his family was a little surprised.

The mother looked at Heifu and asked if he had persuaded Jing. Heifu smiled and said, "Mother, Jing has grown up and become sensible."

Next, Heifu told her about his plan to let Jing go to the school as a disciple after he officially became an official. Of course, he only concealed the part that he did this to let Jing escape military service...

After knowing this, the family was even happier. The future of the students in the school was much better than that of ordinary soldiers. The mother looked at her three sons with relief and began to wipe her tears again.

"Your father loved Jing the most when he was alive. If he could see Jing have a good future, it would be great."

The three brothers coaxed and persuaded their mother to stop missing her old friend.

Then they decided that Jing would learn some basic literacy at home this winter. After the busy spring farming season was over, they would go to the township and ask Yan Zhang's second son to teach him. Anyway, Heifu still had more than 2,000 yuan in savings, which was enough to pay the tuition.

"By this time next year, I can send you to the county school as a disciple."

Jing agreed without hesitation, and took advantage of the fact that there was no farm work, and followed Heifu the next day to start the difficult journey of learning to read.

Of course, the textbook for learning to read could not be the Three Character Classic that appeared in a certain costume drama about the Chu and Han dynasties, which was only available in the Song Dynasty. The "Shi Zhuan Pian" used by the Central Plains nobles to learn to read was not available in their remote village, so Heifu could only use the eight laws and regulations copied from Yan's house as textbooks and pick simple characters to teach his brother.

"Father, mother, husband, wife, brother, brother, son, daughter, you should first recognize these characters today..."

After arranging daily homework for Jing and letting him scratch his head and ears alone, Heifu ran to the quieter well at home, sat on the edge of the well, and began to recite the eight laws and regulations in a low voice under the light of the sky and the shadows of the clouds.

"If the stolen goods are worth more than 660 coins, the person will be tattooed and forced to work in the city. If the stolen goods are worth between 660 and 220 coins, the person will be forced to work in the city. If the stolen goods are worth less than 220 and 110 coins, the person will be made a slave. If the stolen goods are worth less than 110 and 22 coins, the person will be fined 4 taels. If the stolen goods are worth less than 22 and 1 coin, the person will be fined 1 tael..."

After reading this, Hei Fu put down the bamboo slips and sighed, "It turns out that in Qin, stealing one coin is also considered stealing, and the amount of stolen money is also involved in the severity of the sentence. Those who steal more than 110 coins will become prisoners or slaves. With such strict punishment, who would dare to steal..."

"If five or more thieves attack each other together, they are called gang thieves..."

After a while, when he recited this paragraph, Hei Fu couldn't help but slap his thigh in anger and said regretfully, "It's a pity. If the gang thieves were caught that time, my reward would be several times more."

For a moment, Heifu seemed to have returned to the situation in his previous life when he graduated and took the examination for the county police station. The only difference was that he was going to take the examination for a small police officer at that time, but now he is the chief of the police station...

These eight laws and regulations were equivalent to the key points that Yan Zheng had marked for him before the exam. There was no shortcut, so he could only recite them as much as he could. When he had spent a whole morning and had almost memorized the "Law of Theft", a sincere shout came from the yard.

"Zhongdi, your brother-in-law is here and said that the treading pestle you wanted to make is ready!"

...

A moment later, with the help of several men, the "treading pestle" was installed in the backyard of Heifu's house, and it was placed next to the pestle and mortar that was originally used for pounding rice.

However, it looked almost the same as what Heifu had described that day. It was a tool made of wood and stone. Two square boards were used as pestle frames, with a horizontal beam in the middle, and a long pestle pole was erected. A stone hammer was installed on the head of the pestle pole, and the pestle hammer was facing a newly made stone mortar... At first glance, it looked like a seesaw.

"Brother Zhong, this is what you asked your brother-in-law to make..."

He came over to take a look with curiosity, and said disapprovingly: "I thought it was something new, but it looks ordinary."

"You will know its benefits later."

Heifu checked it once, stepped on it to try it out, then picked up the pottery bucket and poured all the rice in it into the stone mortar under the pestle, and then took another bucket of rice handed over by his brother-in-law and poured it into the pestle and mortar used to pound rice.

Then, he picked up the wooden pestle and said to Jing: "Jing, come here, let's see who can pound more rice in the same amount of time."

"Brother Zhong, stop joking."

Jing shook his head and raised his skinny arm and said: "You are born strong, but I am so skinny, I can't pound as much rice as you."

Heifu didn't let him off: "You use the treadle, I use the pestle, let's compete! Brother Bo, help us count the number."

Jing came over reluctantly and stood next to the treadle. Heifu taught him to try a few times, and then the two of them took one side and started pounding rice...

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..."

In the backyard of their house, the sound of pounding rice came one after another, which attracted Yang and Yue who were playing in the front yard to run over and curiously watched Zhongfu and uncle compete here.

Heifu held the wooden pestle high in his hand and dropped it heavily into the stone mortar. Rice grains splashed out from time to time. He pounded very quickly at first, but after repeating this for a quarter of an hour, he began to sweat...

Jing looked much more relaxed. He only needed to step on the wooden bar at the end of the pestle to drive the pestle head to rise, and then lift his legs to reduce the force, so that the unbalanced and falling pestle head would hit the stone mortar, rising and falling repeatedly.

Zhong was beside him, pounding rice grains for his two younger brothers. Whenever the rice grains in the mortar slowly husked and turned white, and had been pounded to the level of brown rice, Zhong would scoop it out and put in a batch of dry rice grains.

At first, the two pounded about the same amount of grains, but gradually, Heifu's closely knit and orderly pounding sound slowed down, and the rhythm became slower and slower. He was a little tired.

On Jing's side, although his strength may not be as good as the wooden pestle at the beginning, he is better at endurance. If he gets tired, he can change his foot to continue pounding, so the rhythm has not changed much.

So after more than half an hour, when Heifu's hands were already soft and he could no longer pound, Jing could still change his foot to continue...

"How is it?" Heifu put down the heavy wooden pestle in his hand, and felt that his hands were not his own, and his forehead was full of sweat. Jing's face was not red and he was not out of breath except for a little numbness in his feet and a little soreness in his waist.

Zhong pointed at the rice they had pounded in half an hour and said, "Heifu pounded 4 buckets of millet, Jing pounded 5 buckets of millet..."

"I pounded more than Brother Zhong?"

Jing looked at the result in disbelief.

Heifu laughed: "It is true. Compared with a wooden pestle, pounding rice with a treadle is less tiring. You can keep pounding. When I get tired and can't pound anymore, you will naturally pound more. The treadle is indeed more efficient than the pestle. You and I are so different in physique, but we can still compare a lot. If two women of similar height and strength come to pound, it will be more obvious."

The biggest difference between humans and animals is that they can use tools and constantly improve them. Productivity is improved little by little in this way. It's just that Heifu made the farmers explore for a hundred years to achieve it in one day.

Those who use carriages and horses are not good at running, but they can travel a thousand miles; those who use boats and oars are not good at swimming, but they can cross rivers. A gentleman is not born different, but he is good at using things. This is the reason. With a treadle, a thin young man can pound the rations of more than ten people, and his efficiency is not inferior to that of an eight-foot-tall man.

Heifu threw the wooden pestle aside, patted his head and said, "Now you believe it, do you still say it's useless?"

"This thing is so useful!" Jing was completely convinced.

At this time, mother and sister-in-law also came over and looked at the treading pestle in amazement.

Sister-in-law Kui tried the treading pestle and smiled for the first time. She said that if she could use this thing to pound rice in the future, she would save a lot of time to pound the family's daily rations! The key is that it is not easy to get tired. If it is the busy farming season, even six-year-old Yang can sit on the wooden pole of the treading pestle and pound brown rice...

Mother sighed and said, "If there was this thing in the early years, my arms would not have been injured..."

The family members loved the treading pestle for a while, and everyone wanted to try it, and at the same time praised Heifu's idea.

Heifu, however, gave the credit to Yu: "It's still my brother-in-law who has great skills. He made exactly what I wanted! Incredible!"

Yu smiled innocently, and Heifu took the opportunity to invite him, "I went to serve in the army on New Year's Day, and the family couldn't reunite for the New Year. Tomorrow is the winter solstice, so we should have a meal together. My brother-in-law and my sister should come tomorrow."

After Yu agreed to this, Heifu patted the pestle again, thinking proudly: "Everything is ready, and the east wind is coming. With this pounding tool, I can make that thing."

When he thought of the good things he would soon eat, he was so happy that he picked up his nephew and niece who were watching the fun next to him, kissed the two little kids on the face again and again, and said with a smile: "Tomorrow, you can follow Zhongfu and enjoy a feast!"

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