Qin Official

(Additional update for the leader of the Three Armies Dance, I am an old friend of the three books, thank you)

A tool that can help pound rice with twice the result with half the effort?

Yan Zheng glanced at Hei Fu and then at his half-eaten rice cake, as if he had some realization.

However, he did not ask too many questions. Instead, he pondered deeply and said after a while:

The skills of these tools are all under the jurisdiction of the craftsmen. Gong Lv says that the name of the craftsman is used to test his sincerity. If the work is improper, he will be punished. The affairs of Baigong are supervised by the internal history of Xianyang, and each county , and counties are supervised by the county magistrate. Under the county magistrate, there is a county engineer who is responsible for managing hundreds of workers in the county. Every year, the county engineer must hand over the tools and weapons he made to the county for evaluation. If he is rated as inferior , you will be punished, and if you are rated as inferior for three consecutive years, the punishment will be increased.”

Hei Fu nodded. Qin's farmers and workers had set up a set of official positions from top to bottom to manage them. No wonder they could concentrate all domestic resources on the war. Moreover, the handicraft industry is mainly government-run, and assessments and evaluations are often conducted. There are very few individual craftsmen like his sister-in-law.

After talking about the punishment, Yan Zheng started to talk about the rewards: On the contrary, our Qin State has always disliked things that have no practical magic skills, and advocates the supremacy of merit. If a man of hundreds of craftsmen has an instrument that can increase the effectiveness, and it is really If you can achieve the mentioned results, you should also be rewarded, either with titles or money...

Heifu understood that the so-called function first means focusing on utility, or function first.

This is indeed in line with the character of the Qin people. For example, although iron swords have been tempered and can be sharper and more durable than bronze, since they cannot be manufactured on a large scale and equipped with large-scale troops, they are not favored by the Qin army.

The same is true for iron armor. Although Yan and Chu have begun to have elite troops wearing iron armor, the Qin army still wears leather armor. After all, these things can be fined tens of thousands every year just by fines.

Furthermore, if you want iron soldiers and armor, you can just get them from the corpses of prisoners after defeating the enemy...

In short, low cost, large scale, and ease of use are the factors favored by the Qin government.

Hei Fu was happy now. Isn’t the treadmill in his home such a good thing?

He finally understood why the Qin State did not promote the stone mills that had appeared in the Qilu area in the north like cattle farming. Probably because the cost of stone mills in this era was not low, and it was difficult to make them available to every household. That is to say, wealthy people learned to make one, and the spread was extremely slow.

But the treadmill is different. Its structure is simple, and any craftsman can imitate it at a glance. The materials are easy to find and the cost is low.

This is a great achievement.

Hei Fu was very happy, thinking that if he went back to the county town to take the assessment, he might also be able to offer treasures to the county engineer, and he might be able to get another title and reward. If we can continue to launch similar inventions in the future, it will not be a dream to be promoted and become rich along the way.

However, Yan Zheng poured a basin of cold water on his head.

Yan Zheng's face turned serious, and he said to Hei Fu earnestly:

I still want to remind you that if someone who is not from Baigong's hometown presented this thing, the government might accept it first, but then punish the person who donated it. Hey, don't talk about being the chief of the pavilion by then, Mr. Hei. I’m afraid you won’t even be able to keep this title of Duke!”

…

In the afternoon of this day, Heifu said goodbye to Yan Zheng early and finished his last class. Early tomorrow morning, he would go to the county seat to participate in the official assessment on the first day of the twelfth lunar month.

After leaving Banli and walking home, Heifu's mind was still full of what Yan Zheng had warned him.

Yan Zheng extinguished Hei Fu's dream and told Hei Fu a story that he heard from the judge of the Yu Shi Mansion many years ago when he was checking the laws and regulations in Xianyang Yu Shi Mansion...

Once upon a time, Han Zhaohou fell asleep when he was drunk. The officer in charge was afraid that he would be cold, so he covered him with clothes. After Han Zhaohou woke up and saw the clothes on his body, he asked the attendant: Who is covering the clothes? The attendant replied: The official in charge of the hat. Zhaohou punished the official in charge of the clothes and the official in charge of the hat at the same time.

When Han Zhaohou punished the officer in charge of the coat, he believed that the officer in charge of the coat had neglected his duty; when he punished the officer in charge of the hat, he believed that the officer in charge of the hat had exceeded his authority. It’s not that I don’t worry about the cold, but I think the harm of overstepping my authority outweighs the cold. Therefore, a wise king controls his ministers, and the ministers only need to do their jobs well. They cannot exceed their authority to perform meritorious deeds. If they exceed their authority, they should be punished...

The stuttering Han Fei also summed up the story as follows: If you make a chicken watch the night, make a raccoon watch a rat, use your abilities, nothing will happen.

This is Legalist thinking, and it is true for officials as well as for common people's household registration.

The Qin State followed Shang Yang's reform and divided the place of origin for various types of people in the society. It stipulated that people with certain places of origin should do their own jobs:

The soldiers farmed and fought, the craftsmen made tools, the merchants sold what was available, and the officials managed the place well.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Qin government, if a soldier does not farm and serve well, but spends all his time thinking about cleverness and making money, it is like a cat that does not catch mice well, but tries to imitate the crowing of a rooster.

Even if you really make something good, you can never praise it. If it is just for a small artifact, but it establishes a bad atmosphere and makes people think too much and rush to imitate it, then how can it be okay? Isn’t the order of Qin State in chaos?

Therefore, for such a restless person, the government should first accept what he offers, pat him on the shoulder with a smile and verbally praise him, and then punish the person severely...

The objects are not guilty, but the people are guilty.

Because of this, in the past hundred years, even if Zhang Yi, Gan Mao and other Shandong wanderers entered the Qin Dynasty and suddenly became prominent with just one mouth, the people of Qin just watched silently and learned to be wanderers without thinking. Wealth.

Because they did not set up a tourist status specifically for foreign talents, no matter how envious the Qin people were, they knew that that road would never belong to them.

They could only farm and serve as soldiers from generation to generation, following the rules set by Shang Yang.

People of later generations may not be able to understand that the boundaries of Qin's birthplace cannot be crossed casually. What stands in front of Heifu are mountains, thunder ponds, and natural chasms...

So, unless I become an engineer one day, or an officer in charge of this matter, it will be impossible to create a way to be promoted to a noble title through inventions?

Heifu wanted to cry but had no tears. It turned out that after walking for a long time, there was a dead end ahead. Fortunately, I didn't rush to the county town to offer treasures, otherwise I would have fallen into this big hole, and all the previous efforts would have been in vain.

Although this is the truth, Heifu still feels that something is wrong. How can people's enthusiasm for invention and creation be wiped out because of household registration management?

This must be a problem with the system! He cynically shook his fist at God.

It seems that Heifu has to reconsider about Tashi.

Just as he was thinking about it, he saw a figure running towards this side in a hurry on the road ahead, but it was his younger brother who was shocked!

Jingye saw Heifu and ran even faster. He even fell down halfway and was covered in mud.

What happened? Is it my mother? Heifu felt uneasy in his heart. His first reaction was whether his mother was sick again. He quickly went over to help her up and asked.

no……

His face was full of shock and anxiety: Li Zheng didn't know where he learned that my family had a treadmill that could be more convenient for grinding grain, so he forced his elder sister-in-law to build one for his family. When my elder sister-in-law refused, Li Zheng actually incited everyone in the village to do so. People have surrounded our house!

There are such things! Heifu's expression suddenly changed, but then he reacted: Then how did you get out?

I was out chopping firewood. When I got home and saw something was not going well, I wanted to come look for you. The inner prison door let me out...

That's it. Heifu asked again: Li Zheng incited the people to surround my house. What exactly do you want to do?

He was so frightened that he gritted his teeth: Li Zheng asked my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to hand over the treadmill and share it with everyone in the village for use together! In fact, he wanted it himself! Now more than a dozen families were instigated by him and blocked the door. Here! Brother Zhong, come back with me and take a look!