The reason why Guoyuan did not expect to use elephants to cultivate land at first was simply because he first came into contact with the domestication of elephants in Nanzhong, it was only the end of November, and it was not time to need spring plowing.

But after driving elephants to level the terraces and level the road for more than a month, Li Su also discovered that the obedience of the elephants was useful, and more attempts to drive elephants began.

After this idea, Li Su immediately recruited craftsmen in the camp, including carpenters and blacksmiths, and asked them to build plows that could be used by elephants. He tinkered for a month in the twelfth lunar month, and when the spring plowing ended in the first lunar month, he tinkered out.

What Li Su didn't expect was that in this process, he actually optimized the structure of the traditional plow and even fed back the technology of ox plowing.

This is the thing. In the late twelfth lunar month, when Li Sugang ordered this task, the craftsmen only worked hard for three or four days before they made the first version of "Elephant Plow" in their minds.

When Li Su saw the thing, he was shocked because the craftsmen were very simple and crude, and they directly magnified the various sizes and proportions of the cow plows three times.

After all, a large elephant weighs nearly ten times that of a strong cow, so the length, width and height of an elephant are two or three times that of a cow. After visual inspection, the craftsman magnified the length, width and height of the plow three times, and thought it was useful.

The question is whether the oxen used plows or straight plows in the Han Dynasty did not form a perfect curved plow until the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The common usage of straight plows is to have two oxen frame one plow, with only one plowshare in the middle. When farmers drive the oxen plow, it is similar to rushing a cart.

In fact, Li Su has always been very upset about the "two ox frames and one plow" operation method of straight-roof plow, because he had seen farmhouses in later generations and knew that modern farmhouse plows were a cow pulling a plow, and a plow also had several plowshares, which could open several pieces of soil at the same time.

However, because Li Su was not diligent in his previous life, he had never done farm work and lived in the countryside, his understanding of agricultural tools was only at the level of glimpse of farm travel.

So although he always felt that he didn't like it, he didn't feel that he had to improve it, nor did he know the professional term "curved plow". He didn't know how to change it. He still vaguely thought that "two cows pull one plow and may run twice as fast as possible, and it won't be much less efficient."

But on the eve of New Year's Eve, when he saw the craftsman making a straight-shaved ox plow that was directly enlarged three times into an image plow, Li Su was completely unable to bear it because when the craftsman demonstrated, he needed two elephants to carry such a heavy plow, and then he still only ploughed the soil in the middle.

This is too outrageous! How efficient is it! The original purpose of using an elephant plow is to take advantage of the strength of the elephant, and you can drag many rows at once. Even if you drag an enlarged version of the nine-toothed rake, it is better than this broken thing!

Moreover, the legs of the elephant are too thick and the places they have walked have been stepped on long ago. Therefore, the elephant must not retreat or go backwards, otherwise it will be ploughed in vain. The straight-rod elephant plows one row at a time means that when the second row is plowed, the elephant will step on the place where they just ploughed will be stepped on again by the elephant. What's the point of ploughing?

Li Su directly knocked back the simple and crude version of the test piece: "This cannot be used, it's completely remade! Don't limit your imagination by the broken plow you are currently using. Think boldly, I want to make sure that two principles are not allowed to compromise:

First, the elephant plow must be able to pull it with one elephant, so don’t do two elephants to carry a plow. Secondly, the elephant plow must be several rows of land at a time, and the width of the plow is much wider than the body width of the elephant, so that the elephant will not repeatedly walk back when plowing other lands and re-step the place where the soil has been turned over."

When hearing these two specific indicators, the craftsmen's first reaction was to complain, several senior blacksmiths, carpenters and Li Su Chenqing:

"Governor, what you said is impossible. Since ancient times, two oxen plows have been carried by ploughs. There are no oxen plows in several rows of land. Not to mention whether the oxen force is strong enough, at least you have to install all the plowshares on the iron head. Otherwise, the sharpness of the wooden plowshares and the pulling force of the oxen horse cannot break the soil, nor can it be broken deep, unless the plow plow plow is narrower and the soil is less shallow."

The craftsmen first talked about a lot of ready-made difficulties, but Li Su couldn't directly refute it, after all, he was not professional.

So Li Su chose a relatively simple and crude method: "No matter how your plow is used to cover the animal, I will be able to balance it onto a single animal. There is also the plowshare drooping down and the angle of the soil being penetrated. When the animal is tall, it will be lifted up if it is shallower when it is penetrated, and when it is lower when it is penetrated, press down when it is deep.

I can’t do this little thing? I have a total of 30 kilograms of gold and 30 hectares of land to give it to the craftsmen who solve this problem. At that time, you can allocate it according to your contributions. You can also divide the work and cooperate, and dismantle it one by one. For example, solve the value of a single animal hanging plow, solve the value of ten gold that is suitable for the adjustment of the height of the animal, and solve the solution of the adjustment of the depth of the plowshare into the soil and the adjustment of the depth of the plowshare."

Li Su believed that there would be a brave man under heavy rewards. Although he himself did not understand very well, he could help check the quality and split the overall R&D goals into small goals that were easy to achieve. After the craftsmen made the semi-finished products, Li Su could also help check when testing the machine to see if it was roughly the same as what farmers in later generations had seen, or at least the functions were similar.

As expected, after hearing the rewards, all the craftsmen were in a high mood. The key is that everyone has a direction of struggle. After the dismantling is so detailed, many people will choose one of them to specialize in it. Even if one of the groups is made and the other two groups have no results, Li Su also allows a bounty of ten kilograms of gold to be given a small target alone.

In modern scientific and technological research and development, the reason why many large projects are not promoted well has a lot to do with the failure of modern "scientific research management". If a project is too big and the overall goal is not completed because of the pig teammates dragging them down, and everyone cannot pay bonuses, then it will greatly discuss the enthusiasm of R&D personnel.

But Li Su was obviously self-evident and well versed in human nature, and avoided this problem.

So among the three points, the initial problem was to solve the small subdivision goal of "how to put a plow frame on a single elephant". A carpenter quickly developed a set of saddle-shaped things, which were directly placed on the elephant, and then an elephant could pull the plow alone. In fact, this is easy to think of, because the carriage pulled by four horses uses a shaft to hold a horse, and a single horse has to use a saddle directly? It is nothing more than changing the saddle to become an elephant condom.

Without saying a word, Li Su gave the group of craftsmen ten kilograms of gold in public on the day of the invention of this "elephant organization", and gave him ten hectares of fertile paddy fields in his fief in Pi County. He wrote the land deed on the spot and used the seal of the Marquis of Pixiang on the spot.

The other two groups of craftsmen were jealous and were inspired to work overtime. They even developed structures such as "curved plow" and "three-share plow" within half a month. Although they were not exactly the same as the later Tang Dynasty, Li Su, who was definitely not bad in terms of function, did not follow the history textbooks to drum the zither. He didn't know what the curved plow should look like. As long as it is easy to use, even if it is more modern and better.

In addition, after three plowshares are ploughed at the same time, it is very simple to expand to five plowshares or even seven plowshares, which is nothing more than simply copying the horizontal structure. Finally, after running-in experiments, Li Su and Guoyuan decided to create two sizes: five plowshares or seven plowshares, and choose them according to the strength and width of the elephant.

If it is a relatively thin adult elephant of 15,000 Hanjin and a narrower body, then it will plow the five elements. If it is the strongest elephant of 20,000 Hanjin, then it will plow the seven elements, which is basically the same as the power gap between the elephants and the cows, and the elephants will definitely be able to pull.

After Guoyuan successfully plowed, he had an idea and suggested to Li Su happily: "Governor, this thing has been an unexpected harvest. From now on, we can directly apply these "single animal plows" and "curved shaft adjusting the depth of the plowshare into the soil" technology to today's cow plows.

If this is promoted and created tens of thousands of times, it will be equivalent to making the farming and animal power of the entire Shu area increase by several percent out of thin air! Originally, a cow only had five primary and five hundred acres of land for spring plowing. After replacing it with a new plow, it can provide at least eight primary and eight hundred acres of land for arable land! The cattle saves too much! This is much greater than the income in Nanzhong."

Li Su was also quite pleased: "It's a pity that the spring plowing this year is not enough, and there are not so many pig irons to build new plows in haste. Write down this method first. Before we go back this year, we must bring the smokeless peat from the water-coated basin in the northern part of Jianning County to burn the pig iron. After the steel is too much, we can build new plowshares after autumn harvest, and we will use it in spring plowing next year."

What Li Su mentioned was obviously the large anthracite mine between Qujing, Yunnan and Liupanshui, Guizhou in later generations. Some of the coal fields were hidden shallowly and could be mined open-pit. Those that were too far away from Niulan River (water-coated) would not cause any big fuss. Just dig the shallow high-quality coal along Niulan River.

In addition, there is actually a little iron ore between Zhaotong and Qujing, Yunnan. But to be honest, with the "hundred tons per year" steel output of the Han Dynasty, it is enough to squeeze out some iron ore between the teeth. Until the Song Dynasty, the Han people never lacked iron ore, and the iron ore that is easy to mine in Sichuan is enough, so there is no need to ask where to come.

If the amount of anthracite is to strive for the goal of "refining 500 tons of iron per year", no matter how extensive it is, it will waste one or two thousand tons of coal. It is also "as long as you find any high-quality coal field, it will be absolutely enough", and the bottleneck is definitely the scale of furnace and blacksmith. Before, it was nothing more than that Sichuan's coal was bituminous lignite, and the quality was not good.

...

For the cause of farming and naturalization of the Southern Barbarians, Li Su worked hard and did not even go back to Chengdu for the New Year. He spent the New Year in the beach swimming villa and celebrated the Spring Festival. He occasionally asked for some acceptance of the work.

The only benefit is that this winter is as warm as spring, so he regards it as a "vacation on the southern coast in winter". Although he is not facing the real sea but Dianchi Lake and Fuxian Lake.

After the Yuan Dynasty, Xiang Plough and Xiang Crusher (roller for road rolling) finally matured completely. The commercial road from Kunming County to Jiandong County was also crushed into a relatively flat loess road, which allowed the trucks pulled by the cattle and horse to pass smoothly.

On the third day after the Lantern Festival, because the weather in Yunnan was warmer, Li Sukang Guoyuan summoned Mengchang, Meng Xin and others to visit the performance ceremony of "Elephant Plowing Land". At the same time, they had urgently created thousands of iron plowshares and one or two hundred sets of elephant plows for promotion at any time.

Mengchang was also stunned when he saw Han craftsmen working with the tribe's elephant trainers and driving a giant elephant of 20,000 kilograms to pull seven rows of ploughshares to cultivate the land efficiently.

"Governor Li is really a celestial being. Our Meng clan never dares not to accept it from now on! The governor can drive giant beasts to plow the land and build roads. Its wonderful use is not less than driving cattle, and it is really a god's help! In each county of our Meng clan, there are three or four hundred elephants, and at least dozens of elephants, all of which have nearly seven hundred elephants. If it can be promoted all of them, it will be no less than five or six thousand oxen labor!"
Chapter completed!