Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 225 A good son-in-law must be filial to his father-in-law

Wang Laowai and his men acted quickly.

Although the diagram drawn by Magistrate Yang was not very detailed and Wang Laowai and the others could not understand it, the principle of a flush toilet was not complicated. After listening to Magistrate Yang's explanation, Wang Laowai and the others had a general idea.

Then, on the fourth day of the seventh month of the second year of Hongwu, which was the day of the Beginning of Autumn, Wang Laowai and others brought the freshly made flushing toilet to the county government office and, with the help of several carpenters, began to demonstrate it to Magistrate Yang.

Wang Laowai first filled the water tank behind the toilet with water, then grabbed a handful of soil, mixed it with water, and threw it directly into the toilet. Then he pressed a button on the toilet tank.

With a splashing sound, the mud that Wang Laowai had thrown into the toilet was flushed out from under the toilet and into the wooden bucket that Wang Laowai had placed under the toilet, leaving some water in the toilet.

Wang Laowai pointed to the wooden bucket and said, "Sir, this bucket temporarily represents the water pipe. When it is actually installed, the water that comes out will be directly discharged into the latrine."

Magistrate Yang nodded, and Wang Laowai pointed to the water in the toilet and said, "This is the water that the magistrate said should be left to prevent the smell from coming back. There's a bend in the wall, so the water that comes up later can't get through, and it stays there."

Nodding again, and circling around what Wang Laowai had done, Magistrate Yang asked with great curiosity, "What about the water ingress? We can't have people carrying buckets to pour water in every time, can we?"

Old Wang chuckled and said, "Reporting to the master, we have discussed it. When it is actually installed, a hole will be left at the top of this water tank to connect the water pipe, and a larger water tank will be installed at the top of the latrine to store water."

"There's a mechanism in the toilet's water tank. After flushing, a pre-installed small opening opens, allowing water from the upper tank to flow into the toilet's water tank. If the tank is full, the small opening closes, preventing water from flowing down from the upper tank."

At this point, Wang Laowai scratched his head again and said, "But this way, someone has to fill the water tank at the top with water. How many times it can be flushed after it's full depends on how big the water tank at the top of the latrine is."

"If you use it a lot, the water in the tank will be used up quickly. I have to check the water level again before dark, otherwise I might not be able to flush at night."

"But it's nothing, you can just put another bucket of water next to this toilet, scoop out the water and flush it, it'll be about the same."

Immediately afterwards, Wang Laowai said with admiration, "Master is really amazing, to be able to think of such a good thing."

Yang Shaofeng smiled and then instructed Wang Laowai, "Take a look at this latrine. I'm going to tear it down and rebuild a new one. The roof shouldn't be pointed; it should be flat so that we can put a pool on it to store water."

Having a flush toilet doesn't mean Yang Shaofeng can immediately enjoy a toilet environment free of odors and flies.

There was no other way. The original toilet in the backyard of the county government was a small, pointed-roofed hut made of single bricks. It was not strong enough to support the load and was not convenient for storing water. So they had to tear it down and rebuild it with two-eighths bricks, and make the roof flat to facilitate water storage.

Without hesitation, Wang Laowai said, "Don't worry, sir. I'll have someone bring the bricks over as soon as I get back. Tomorrow morning, I'll bring people over to dismantle this outhouse and rebuild a new one that can hold water."

……

With blue bricks and cement, plus a rather unattractive flush toilet, and straw paper made in Ningyang County, Magistrate Yang no longer had to worry about the Jubu region.

Then, Magistrate Yang ordered Wang Laowai and others to make more chamber pots, and adhering to the principle that "a good son-in-law must be filial to his father-in-law," he began writing letters to Emperor Zhu Chongba.

This time it's a real letter.

Because Magistrate Yang suddenly realized that the toilet was not suitable to be given directly to Emperor Zhu Chongba, let alone written as a memorial, since it was not official business. Therefore, he could only write a letter to Master Ma Baoguo.

While Magistrate Yang was writing a letter to "Master Ma" in the Ningyang County government office, Emperor Zhu Chongba, along with the Ming Dynasty's Executive Vice Emperor Zhu Biao, Chancellor Li Shanchang, Censor-in-Chief and Grand Astrologer Liu Bowen, as well as Hu Weiyong, Yang Xian, Minister of Works Shan Anren, Minister of Revenue Yang Siyi, and a host of other officials of all ranks gathered together to look at the harvester improved by the Ministry of Works.

Compared to the harvester that Magistrate Yang had a few carpenters build, the harvester improved by the Ministry of Works was much better. It not only looked better, but its functions were also enhanced.

According to Shan Anren, "When the beans are not dry, they cannot be cut. When the beans are dry, they will crack. Using the harvester originally developed in Ningyang County to harvest the beans, the number of beans harvested in the end may not even be as many as those that fell on the ground."

Therefore, the Ministry of Works added a wooden board to the bottom of the harvester based on the one in Ningyang County. It was not needed for harvesting wheat, but when harvesting beans, a wooden board with slightly raised sides could be attached. Even when the harvester was used to harvest beans, not many beans would fall to the ground, which would greatly reduce waste.

To prove that the Ministry of Works had indeed made improvements to the harvester based on the Ningyang County version and achieved success, Shan Anren even specifically requested Emperor Zhu to conduct an experiment.

Of course, since the grain was not yet ripe, Shan Anren's so-called experiment was not to find a field to test it, but to hope that Emperor Zhu Chongba could arrange for people to take the harvesters made by the Ministry of Works and the harvesters from Ningyang County to several fields of wild grass for comparative testing.

Emperor Zhu Chongba was naturally indifferent. After looking around at the improved harvester produced by the Ministry of Works, he agreed to Shan Anren's request.

It's good to have comparisons.

It would be even better if the tests could be conducted before the harvest.

Once the testing is complete, I can issue an order to mass-produce this thing and then gradually distribute it to the people of the world.

Just thinking about the four words "the people of the world" made Emperor Zhu Chongba pause slightly, and then he sighed softly.

The people of the world, the people of the world.

According to the Ministry of Revenue's estimates, the total population of the Ming Dynasty should be around 50 million, or roughly 10 million households.

Even if we allocate one harvester to every five households, we would still need a total of two million harvesters.

How many machines could the Ministry of Works and the Craftsmen's Camp produce in a day?

Or rather, even if all the prefectures and counties in the world were allowed to copy it at will, how many could they copy in a day?