70: Chapter 70 The Gongshu Family's Unfulfilled Dream of Flight

The land of the Guanzhong Plain is very flat, stretching out as far as the eye can see, a vast expanse of earth.

It is about three hundred and fifty kilometers long from east to west, with an area of approximately 39,000 square kilometers, making it suitable for large-scale agricultural machinery production.

The design blueprints for the steam tractor provided by the system indicate a design height of three meters and a length exceeding six meters.

The iron front wheels are fifty centimeters wide and one meter high.

The iron rear wheels reach a width of one meter and an astounding height of two meters!

This steam tractor has 150 horsepower.

Its horsepower isn't exceptionally large—not even as much as a domestic car—but its gearbox uses a thirty-centimeter diameter gear to drive a one-and-a-half-meter diameter gear, resulting in immense torque. The maximum torque can reach 3,690 Newton-meters!

The system also included plowshares designed to work with this steam tractor.

It can tow a total of twenty-five plowshares.

That is to say, it can pull 25 plowshares simultaneously to work!

If each plowshare is spaced one meter apart, its plowing width exceeds twenty-six meters!

One can only imagine how terrifyingly efficient its plowing would be once this agricultural steam tractor is introduced.

By scaling down the dimensions of this agricultural steam tractor and attaching a carriage, it could be used to haul cargo on dirt roads.

When empty, it can reach a top speed of thirty kilometers per hour.

Even when loaded, as long as it isn't overloaded, it can still travel at twenty kilometers per hour.

As long as supply stations are set up along the route to provide coal and water, it can keep running indefinitely.

Judging by the design dimensions, the blueprints for the steam rotary tiller provided by the system are significantly smaller than the steam tractor; it cultivates the soil using rotating blades.

Since there are already plowshares, why would farmland cultivation still need a rotary tiller?

This is because long-term traditional cultivation easily forms a plow pan, which affects soil aeration, water permeability, and the downward penetration of crop roots.

The rotating blades of the rotary tiller penetrate deep into the soil, breaking up the plow pan and loosening the earth. For instance, in fields farmed for many years, it can effectively improve the soil structure.

The blades can also break up large clumps of earth, making the soil particles fine and uniform, creating a good seedbed for crop growth. This is beneficial for seed germination and root development, much like the fine preparation of land before planting vegetables.

Furthermore, because of the rotary tiller's smaller design size, it can operate anywhere the tractor can reach, whether in plains, hills, or small mountain plots.

Consequently, it can play a vital role in the small terraced fields of the southern hills or the sloping lands of the northern mountains.

The design blueprints for the steam thresher provided by the system are for a drum-type thresher common in agricultural production.

It primarily utilizes mechanical force to separate grain from stalks through impact, rolling, and rubbing. Specifically, when the crop enters the threshing device, high-speed rotating components like drums and rasp bars strike the crop, causing the grain kernels to detach from the rachis due to the impact force.

Zhao Fusu handed the design blueprints for the steam rotary tiller, steam tractor, and steam thresher to Old Mo.

After Zhao Fusu's explanation, Old Mo and his research team quickly realized the massive role the steam tractor, steam rotary tiller, and steam thresher would play in agricultural production.

The advent of the steam tractor, steam rotary tiller, and steam thresher will save a vast amount of labor and increase the efficiency of agricultural production!

The Mohist School and the Gongshu Family have starkly different concepts regarding their attitude toward scientific research.

The Mohist School leans toward practicality.

The Gongshu Family, on the other hand, is imaginative, unrestrained by taboos, curious, and bold.

The reason there is such a huge difference between the two families is just as Li Yunlong said in his graduation speech: the first military commander determines the soul of an army.

The personalities and concepts of the two founding ancestors, Mozi and Gongshu Ban, determined the research paths of the Mohist School and the Gongshu Family.

Gongshu Ban was an aristocrat and a child prodigy.

When he was very young, he designed a machine to help lower coffins for burial.

He recommended its use to Ji Kangzi, who was just about to use the machine to bury his mother.

However, someone named Gong Jianjia stepped forward to oppose it, saying that the Lu State had its own rites and one could not use machines haphazardly.

He also criticized Gongshu Ban, saying he shouldn't use someone else's mother for an experiment to show off his skills; he should use his own mother for the experiment.

Gongshu Ban was left speechless.

Later, he actually did use his own mother for an experiment.

Legend has it that he made an automated horse and carriage and had his mother sit in it, which resulted in her tragic death.

Gongshu Ban's spirit of research was somewhat similar to the 'death-defying' curiosity of Westerners.

He also conducted flight experiments and actually managed to achieve something notable.

In the 'Mozi: Lu Wen', it is recorded that Lu Ban 'carved bamboo and wood to make a magpie; when finished, he flew it, and it did not come down for three days.'

Regarding this wondrous flying machine, Mozi was unimpressed and instead mocked him, saying: 'The magpie you made is not as good as the pin on a wheel axle made by a craftsman. That three-inch piece of wood can support a weight of fifty dan.'

'Therefore, if what is made benefits people, it can be called ingenious. If it does not benefit people, it is called clumsy.'

The implication was that this thing you made is just a trivial, useless trick.

The reason Old Mo was so interested in the Steam Engine was that after hearing it could unleash the power of one hundred and twenty-eight horses and drive a blower to rotate, he felt the Steam Engine was useful; only then did he go to study it.

Now, the reason Old Mo is so interested in the steam rotary tiller, steam tractor, and steam thresher—eagerly wanting to lead his team to develop them—is still because he feels they are useful.

If they were useless, then in Old Mo's eyes, they would be nothing more than trivial tricks.

Because of Mozi's remark about 'trivial tricks,' the Gongshu Family has been marginalized for hundreds of years.

Zhao Fusu decided he still had to dispatch people to find the Gongshu Family.

Even though many of the things the Gongshu Family developed were useless.

But some things are only useless for the moment; they might remain useless for a long time.

However, what if the Gongshu Family actually developed one or two useful things?

Those might be epoch-making products.

For example, 'Handy Geng' was publicly mocked by his mother, who said the products he developed weren't just useless, but completely useless.

But it was precisely because of a genius with such a wild imagination like him that the 'Cheerleading Robot' was developed.

Some gas stations actually purchased the Cheerleading Robots.

Whenever a car owner came to refuel, they could see the Cheerleading Robot there waving flags and shouting, 'Go! Go! Go!'

Many car owners specifically went to gas stations with Cheerleading Robots just to check them out, which improved the gas stations' business quite a bit.

When Gongshu Ban studied flying machines back then, he wanted to use them as reconnaissance aircraft to scout enemy positions, but he just didn't succeed.

Zhao Fusu also had plans to make Hot Air Balloons.

He felt that after finding the Gongshu Family, he could have them engage in research regarding Hot Air Balloons.

The dream of flight that their ancestor Gongshu Ban failed to achieve back then might be fulfilled through them.