After half a month, the weather gradually became colder, and the defense in the palace finally began to be replaced in an orderly manner. Then Tiancewei headed to Mengjin.

Qin Shaoyou also breathed a sigh of relief. Before leaving, he met in Xuanzheng Hall.

Wu Zetian's instructions were all unkind words, so Qin Shaoyou naturally responded and left the palace immediately.

There were only a dozen guards waiting outside the palace. When Qin Shaoyou thought about returning to Mengjin, he felt particularly cheerful. He turned over and looked back at the horse. The palace wall was particularly dazzling under the afterglow.

It was almost dusk, and there was still a long way to go to Mengjin. Logically, it was time to stay in Luoyang for a night and set off the next day. However, Qin Shaoyou was eager to return home, but he walked straight to the night road and returned to Zhuangzi.

When we arrived in Mengjin, a large-scale construction was underway. The only difficult thing at present is manpower. This era is not like the late Ming Dynasty. There were many people and few lands in the late Ming Dynasty, so there were refugees everywhere. Although it was not as large as the land was sparsely populated, there were very few idle people.

It is precisely because of this that Qin Shaoyou has turned gray for the sake of the population.

Nowadays, a large amount of manpower is needed to build a large amount of manpower, but where does manpower come from? The only way is to hire from other places at a high price. Even so, it is still difficult to do so.

For example, the master craftsman Yang Wulian, who once asked someone to constantly complain to Qin Shaoyou in Luoyang.

When we approached the village, we saw many people digging river canals. Because of the opened canals, some people built a shelf that was ten feet high because of the high wall. The shelf was fixed with ropes and some small machine brackets. Dozens of strong men pulled the ropes on the lower head and hung up the huge stone on the other side.

Qin Shaoyou couldn't help but be amazed when he looked at it. The chief Chen Jie and others came over. Qin Shaoyou asked, "What is that?"

Chen Jie shook his head and said, "I don't know this. They are all the gadgets made by Yang Wulian, and the villain doesn't understand them either. He always makes some weird things, which cost a lot of money."

Chen Jie deliberately took the word "expenditious". Obviously, as the chief secretary, Chen Jie felt that Yang Wulian's expenses were too great and could not stand it anymore. Qin Shaoyou asked Yang Wulian to take charge of civil engineering. He couldn't get involved. Now that he saw that the main person came back, he couldn't help but want to make some small reports.

Qin Shaoyou frowned. He looked at the things on the bracket carefully. He felt that it looked like a pulley structure. Pullways have existed in ancient times and have appeared since the Han Dynasty, but it was not popular on a large scale. The only thing Qin Shaoyou thought was rare was that this guy had made some tricks. Qin Shaoyou originally planned to meet Anima, but now he was not in a hurry and said, "Go and invite Mr. Yang."

Chen Jie only thought that Qin Shaoyou wanted to teach Yang Wulian a lesson. He went there excitedly.

After a while, Yang Wulian came. This guy had no image of the first meeting. His skin became much darker. Perhaps he thought it was inconvenient for big sleeves, so he dressed up in short clothes and his boots were covered with mud. He hurriedly came over to greet Mr. Qin and said, "Captain Qin, the subordinate is polite."

His voice was a little hoarse, and Qin Shaoyou glanced at him. After getting off the horse, he looked at the huge bracket with his hands behind his back. After a long time, Qin Shaoyou said, "Husband Yang, what is that?"

Yang Wulian said: "Captain, this is a hand-slave."

"I heard that the cost is very expensive?" Qin Shaoyou was thinking, which made Yang Wulian unable to see through.

Yang Wulian scratched his head and said, "Captain Qin, it's really a little more. Just one such thing costs more than a hundred trump cards."

Baiguan, this is the expense of an ordinary family for several years, and this is definitely a large amount. Although it is nothing to Qin Shaoyou, it is also a huge amount for ordinary people. However, Yang Wulian actually said it calmly, as if he did not take it seriously.

Chen Jie was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. Just as he was about to say something, Qin Shaoyou's voice sounded and said, "Hmm? This is something that can lift things up to a high place, how many pounds of big stones can be lifted."

Yang Wulian was stunned for a moment. Unexpectedly, Qin Shaoyou was interested in this. He hurriedly said, "About two or three thousand kilograms." He paused, and wanted to speak but stopped.

Qin Shaoyou happened to look at him sideways. Seeing that he still wanted to speak, he couldn't help but say, "Mr. Yang might as well say something bluntly. I don't understand many things, and I want to ask you for advice."

Yang Wulian said: "I guess the captain must have heard people's words, saying that Yang had made many gorgeous and fancy things, which cost a lot of money. Many people were even afraid that they were muttering. This must be Yang taking the opportunity to be greedy for ink. But... Yang also had to do it. Alas... With such a huge palace city, the Tiance Mansion was not a court, and could collect labor service, so it was necessary to build a city. The following officials originally expected that there were no more than 10,000 craftsmen, and they were afraid that they could not complete the work on time. However, although the Tiance Mansion was not stingy with the cost, the manpower was still insufficient. In fact, it was okay to recruit people, but the wages would probably have to be increased several times to attract more craftsmen."

Yang Wulian paused. He was afraid that Qin Shaoyou would not understand his meaning, so he might as well say in detail, and said, "If the wages cost more than doubled, it would not be impossible, but the expenses of more than 10,000 people would be astronomical. So the officials had to find another way. Since this road was not easy, then take the path of saving manpower and let one person do three or five people's work, such as this shelf, which was supposed to hang stones on the city wall. There were so many stone bricks, which would not be completed without dozens of people spending ten days and half months.

How much is the cost of manpower here? The official has calculated the bill, but it is probably not less than a hundred guan. This is fine. More importantly, this is just a section of the city wall. Now the captain is going to build a big city. Is every section of the city wall so that it is like this? But with this shelf, it is much more appropriate. The official only needs to spend a few thousand guan to customize such shelf and put it on various walls. It only takes a few craftsmen to do the same thing within a few days. So the official will ask the captain, is it worth making the shelf or hiring more manpower?"

Most people may not understand his account very much, but Qin Shaoyou suddenly understood it.

This rack actually uses the structure of the pulley, which is nothing more than labor-saving. In fact, our ancestors have invented this thing long ago, but it has not been widely used for two thousand years.

Suddenly... Qin Shaoyou suddenly realized something.

There have been too many innovations in the place where I live. Later generations always describe what our ancestors used and what they first made. However, these things were finally destroyed in the long river of history and have disappeared since then.

Just like that pulley, which has appeared since the Qin and Han Dynasties, has never developed at all. Even now, not only has the production level and design level not only not made any progress, but is not as good as the ancients today. What is the reason?

need……

A noun flashed suddenly on Qin Shaoyou's alarm clock.

Yes, the key to the problem lies here. Because there is no demand, although there are too many "tricks and tricks" and too many "innovations", they have become useless things. This "strong" dynasty has no demand for anything new.

Just like this type of bracket, although it is extremely clever in this era and saves a lot of manpower, don't forget that this kind of thing is only needed during major projects. Ordinary wealthy households or people, at most, they only need tiled houses and several houses. They don't need such brackets at all. It is impossible. In order to build a house with a hundred yuan, you spend hundreds of yuan to get a bracket for use.

The only thing that has demand for major projects is the court and the government. Whether it is building rivers, cities, or palace walls, the cost is huge. So to a certain extent, the court and the government do have this demand, but a hateful thing appears again... corvee service.

The system of corvee labor means that the court and the government have endless manpower. With just one order, countless free laborers will be involved in many large-scale projects.

For example, if you use new tools, a few people can get things done in a few days, but without new tools, you must use dozens of people. If Qin Shaoyou builds a city, because he needs to recruit labor, it will cost a lot of wages. Therefore, for him, using new tools is his choice, otherwise recruiting more people will be too expensive. But for the court and the government? Their choice is just the opposite. Although new tools are convenient, but troublesome, and manpower is endless for them. With just one order, tens of thousands of free labor will be used to carry these bricks and stones. If that is the case, why spend money to make such a bracket?

Such things may be relatively rough now. If they are constantly improved during the use of time, they will be more refined in a short while. However, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, such pulley support has very few uses. The reason is a bit funny, just because of the low human resources.

Qin Shaoyou couldn't help but be shocked. His two-life experience made him suddenly understand something that he could not understand in the past. He couldn't help but look at Yang Wulian with a smile and said, "Husband Yang, is there any use for such an air in the future?"

Yang Wulian smiled and said, "Captain, the most important way of craftsmanship is to be conservative. The use of shelves is to carry stones for the time being. However, even if the city is built, there are still many other labor-intensive things. The wages here are expensive. As long as you modify this shelves, you can still use them as other ways. If the captain needs it, the subordinates can think about it with the craftsmen." (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!