Well No. 3
"That scholar, don't boast, we've already dug over a dozen wells and none of them have yielded water. Can you really find a well location that will definitely produce water?" Zheng Chun stepped forward and said to Su Hang.
Zheng Chun spoke with a purpose. Chen Guanyu, after all, was a professional Feng Shui master, and if he himself dug a well according to the location pointed out by Chen and couldn't get water, there would be an explanation for it. Su Huan was just a scholar, and from what Su Zhong meant, Su Huan was simply a bookworm, perhaps only speaking wildly to escape being beaten by the officials, Zheng Chun certainly couldn't lower himself to ask him to point out the location of the well.
However, Su Hao's conversation with Chen Guanyu clearly showed that Chen was at a loss for words, which means that Su still has some skills. In Zheng Chun's heart, he also hopes that Su can solve his current predicament; otherwise, after spending so much money, not even a drop of water has been obtained, and he will be unable to return with a good report.
So Zheng Chun used this trick of "luring in by pretending to retreat" and waited for Su Hao to speak up.
Now Su Hang is no longer the original bookworm, Zheng Chun's little cleverness can't deceive Su Hang. However, Su Hang also doesn't bother to compete with Zheng Chun in terms of cleverness. The county government's clerk, in later generations, is just a small deputy department-level cadre, is it worth Su Hang's effort to think about?
Su Hao didn't answer Zheng Chun's question, but instead pushed through the crowd and came to the well that was being dug. He leaned over and looked inside, asking: "How deep has this well been dug?"
"Forty feet." The well digger replied beside him.
"Give me a torch, I'll go take a look." Su Hao said.
The craftsman looked at Zheng Chun, who was following Su Hang, and Zheng Chun waved his hand to indicate that the craftsman could give Su Hang a torch. The craftsman lit a torch and handed it to Su Hang. Su Hang swung his long gown and stepped into the well-drilling basket with the torch in hand.
"Hao Ge!" Lu Xiuer somewhat anxiously called out.
Su Hao smiled at her and said, "What's there to be afraid of? It's just going down the well to take a look."
"But..." Lu Xiuer didn't know whether she should stop her brother's actions, and seeing the curious expressions of the people around them, she couldn't say anything more, only whispering: "Be careful..."
For the geological expert Su Hao of later generations, this well was simply a piece of cake. He had been down hundreds of meters deep wells and didn't think it was dangerous at all. He made a gesture to the two small workers operating the winch, and they slowly lowered the basket down.
Su Hao sat in the basket, holding a torch to examine the rock layers and sand layers on the well wall. When he couldn't understand something at once, he pulled the rope to let the people above stop for a while. After about ten or twenty minutes, he sent a signal from the bottom of the well, asking people to pull him up. The situation at the bottom of the well was not much different from his previous estimate. This place was indeed an anticline structure. His purpose in going down was to understand the thickness of the rock layers and their possible direction.
"How was it? What did you see?" Zheng Chun asked hastily, leaning forward.
Su Hao shook his head: "The heavenly machine cannot be revealed... Besides, where are those wells? I also want to take a look."
There were more than a dozen wells scattered around the village. They had originally planned to fill them up, in case someone accidentally fell into one. But with everyone busy digging new wells, the task of filling up the old ones was temporarily put on hold. Zheng Chun saw the confidence in Su Hao's eyes and trusted him even more, so he instructed the well-digging craftsmen to bring the pulley frame, ropes, and baskets, and go with Su Hao to inspect the other dry wells.
Su Hao didn't look at all the wells, after drilling out of the fifth well, he looked up at the sky and muttered a few words, then pointed to the southeast direction with his hand and said: "From this direction, 700 steps."
"What did you say? 700 steps and there's water?" Zheng Chun couldn't help but feel a little shaken, he really wanted to believe that Su Hua was telling the truth, because this meant that his political life would be saved.
"Drilling 60 feet deep, water comes out... about 400 dan per hour." Su Hao helplessly converted the ancient unit of measurement. One dan is equal to 100 jin, and 400 dan is equivalent to 40,000 jin or 20 tons of water. According to his estimate, at that well location, a 20-meter deep well would produce about 240 tons of water per day and night, which should be roughly the same, even if there was an error of around 20%, nobody would notice.
"You're talking nonsense!" Chen Guanyu finally lost his temper. Before this, he had seen Su Hao's confident expression and was actually intimidated, thinking that Su Hao might really have some clever trick up his sleeve. Now hearing Su Hao dare to say such a specific amount of water, he felt more at ease, convinced that Su Hao was absolutely talking nonsense. From ancient times to the present, no matter how great a feng shui master is, no one dares to make a statement about how much water will come out at what time. Being able to accurately say whether there is water or not is already defying heaven. This young scholar actually dared to claim that he could determine exactly how much water would come out, which fully shows that he doesn't even understand the basics of examining well locations, and doesn't have even a bit of common sense.
Su Hao looked at Chen Guanyu with a pitiful gaze and said, "Chen, if I were you, I would definitely go find a place to pee first at this time."
"What does it mean?" Chen Guanyu was stunned by Su Hang and didn't know that urinating was a kind of allusion.
Su Hao said: "The well has been drilled, and 400 buckets of water can be drawn in one hour. You have to drink 40 buckets now. If you don't hurry up and urinate, will you be able to drink it later?"
With a snort, Lu Xiuer, who had been following Su Hang all along, couldn't help but burst out laughing. As a girl, it was really not good for her to intervene in such a topic as urination, otherwise she would definitely follow her brother and scold Chen Guanyu together.
"Sir, look..." The leading craftsman Xie Changfa looked at Zheng Chun, seeking his opinion.
"Xiucai, you said that 700 steps would bring out water. If it doesn't come out, what will you do?" Zheng Chun asked Su Huan.
Su Hao said lightly: "Then take me to the authorities, whatever punishment is fine."
"Brother..." Lu Xiuer desperately pulled at Su Hao's collar from behind, she knew that her brother had never learned anything about Feng Shui, how could he possibly know where to find a well? The government had dug so many wells without finding water, and with just a casual point of his hand, he could strike water?
Su Hao ignored Lu Xiuer's reminder and smiled at Zheng Chun, asking: "This official, if I hit the water as I said, what would you say?"
"I will report to County Magistrate and give you credit for this." Zheng Chun said with a pat on his chest.
"Alright, let's get started then." Su Hao said with a wave of his hand. He didn't expect Zheng Chun to make any more promises anyway. In Su Hao's opinion, remembering past favors was secondary; it would be more practical to give some reward instead.
Zheng Chun looked at Chen Guanyu, then at Su Hang, hesitated for a moment, stamped his foot and said: "Alright, I'll trust you this once. If we can't get water out, I'll settle the score with you."
This is what they call a desperate disease makes a desperate man. Chen Guanyu has pointed out so many wells, but none of them have yielded water, and Zheng Chun can't help but pin his hopes on this showy scholar.
Xie Changfa nodded at Zheng Chun, then walked to Su Hao's front and asked: "Sir, you just said from this direction 700 steps, I'm afraid I didn't understand your meaning, can you please point it out for me?"
That's Xie Changfa being cautious, digging a well is not a small matter, if the wrong location is chosen, it would be a waste of effort. Su Hao pointed randomly, what if he doesn't take responsibility later, whose fault would this mistake be?
"Absolutely can." Su Hao replied, this man has always been arrogant and never yielded to officials, he would put on a cold face, but towards ordinary workers, he was extremely respectful. He walked in the direction he had chosen, taking standard strides, and after 700 steps, he stopped, picked up a piece of tile, drew a circle on the ground, and said: "That's it, dig down 60 feet, water will definitely come out."
"This is 700 steps......" Xie Changfa scratched his head, looking at Su Hua in surprise.
"Really? Didn't you just count with me?" Su Hao asked.
"Hmm... Mr. Dài Cái, we country folks count steps by taking one step with each foot, left and right, but you're counting every single footstep..." Xie Changfa muttered to himself.
"Cough, this is the method of measuring wells, and this step is different from what we usually say." Su Hao knew he had made a mistake and quickly covered it up. The "step" referred to by people in the Ming Dynasty was indeed as Xie Changfa said, referring to the length of one step to the left and right, while Su Hao still followed the habit of later generations, with one step being 70 centimeters. No wonder Xie Changfa was puzzled. Fortunately, Xie Changfa did not take matters into his own hands and drill a well according to his understanding of the distance of 700 steps, otherwise, this well would have been drilled to the edge of the structure again, which would be ridiculous.
Su Hao had already determined the well location, Xie Changfa called out and several well-digging workers and laborers came over, picked up their shovels and hoes, and started digging. After finishing the surface soil, they would set up a pulley system, use a basket to lower themselves down into the well to work, these tasks were already very familiar to them.
Li Chang Su walked over and took a look at the craftsmen's work, then said to Zheng Chun: "Sir, you don't need to stay here either. Whether or not it will produce water, we can just let the people below report back to you later. You've had a hard day today, why don't you go back to the village and take a rest?"
"Alright." Zheng Chun nodded and instructed Xie Changfa for a few sentences, then led the yamen runners to follow Su Zhong back to the village. Tonight, it's unknown whose family will be responsible for entertaining these officials, but in any case, they'll definitely have to slaughter chickens and buy meat, bleeding out some money.
"Thanks, Master Xie. I'll trouble you to take care of things here. After the water is released, please have someone let me know." Su Hang instructed Xie Changfa and then turned around to say to Lu Xiuer: "Let's go, Xiuer. We should head back home too."
