Chapter Eight Magic

  The wife of the boatman saw that persuasion was ineffective, she didn't know she was witnessing history, and wailed loudly.

  Song Ji didn't care about them, but shouted loudly. There were some children playing on the riverbank, and reading was still a very distant concept for ordinary people. Many children followed their parents to Bianqu, where they frolicked up and down, and adults only reminded them not to play with water, without caring about anything else. Seeing it, the children gathered together.

  It's nothing, Song Jiu made a similar high platform with several people in the courtyard of his home next to an old locust tree. The height of the platform on the Bian embankment is about 2.5 meters, while the one at home is only 1.5 meters high and does not have an iron axle, but uses a thick branch of the old locust tree to fix the pulley wheel. Various data were measured. This is just the beginning, if it is used on a large scale, further testing and measurement are needed. The weight-bearing capacity was also measured, with 80 stone bags and stones placed in the net pocket, to see if the iron skin wood and iron chain could bear it.

  Everything turned out all right in the end.

  In actual use, Song Jiuxi did not expect 80 tons, but floated up and down at around 50 tons. The maximum load should not exceed 60 tons. After all, how much weight it can bear, Song Jiuxi has not tested for the time being. It can bear 80 tons now, and only loading 50 tons will be very safe.

  But to prevent accidents, absolutely no one can be allowed to stand under it, whether children or adults. In case something happens, five thousand kilograms of goods will fall down together and land on people... just thinking about it is unbearable!

  The children fled together in Song Jiu's shouting voice, or stood not far away watching.

  It's not just them, but also the laborers, pedestrians and boatmen on both sides of the river who put down their work and looked up this way.

  About a hundred paces away, several people were also standing still, staring at the net bag. A tall and majestic man said to the middle-aged scholar beside him: "Zhenping, there are many ceramics in the net bag."

  When Song Jiulang moved it out of his house, it caused a sensation. The installation took a long time and attracted some big shots to come and watch.

  "Yes, it's about 40-50 kilograms heavy."

  "Then flatly, you said this thing can be hung up."

  "I don't know..." The middle-aged scholar shook his head with difficulty.

  The iron chain was slowly tightening, and Qi Ba Lang and Seventh Brother-in-law were still tightly grasping the rope.

  This also has mechanical principles.

  From the embankment to the water surface, there is a very long distance. As a fulcrum, the tree is not that long, even if it were, Song Jiu wouldn't dare. The bigger the arm of force, the greater the bending distance obtained with the same force, and the easier it is to break off. On the contrary, the smaller it is.

  In some performances, two people take out a very long and thick steel bar, face their belly, shout loudly, the steel bar gradually bends, but try changing to a shorter steel bar. As long as you train for a while, ordinary people pay attention to safety, can also do it.

  The problem now is that it cannot be bent, so the wood will inevitably break and cause trouble. Therefore, the force arm cannot be too long. Instead, use a rope to pull the net pocket to the bow of the ship to load cargo, which is equivalent to increasing the vertical distance. Once the iron chain is tightened, the gravitational force will inevitably act vertically downwards, and one vertical collision with the riverbank is inevitable. Not to mention this net ceramic, even ordinary goods, it's best not to collide, thereby causing rebound shock, damaging the entire crane's lifespan.

  But the power required is not too great.

  This is also a principle of mechanics, gravity and weight have no difference in their factors. The weight of fifty stones will have fifty stones of downward force. But now the iron chain and the fulcrum are bearing its weight, which is equivalent to carrying its downward force. The two brothers-in-law don't need to be so tense, just apply a little force upwards, and the goods will remain curved in mid-air until they are gently lowered to the ground with the rope at a vertical distance.

  The same is true of wind chimes.

  Some temples have large bronze bells that weigh as much as a thousand kilograms, but once they are hung up, even if you use only ten kilograms of force, they can still make it swing violently.

  The same principle can also be applied to goods in a river, where hundreds of tons of cargo ships are often easily pulled by a dozen or so trackers. The traction force of the cargo ship has not changed, but the buoyancy of the water offsets its traction force. When trackers pull the rope, their strength is not aimed at the traction force, but rather at changing the inertia force, breaking through the resistance and friction of the boat in the river.

  They are all simple mechanical principles, including the instruments themselves, but if they were to be explained one by one in this era, everyone would feel dizzy. Therefore, as soon as it was born, it made people feel incredibly magical.

  With the help of Qi Ba and He Qie, the net finally rose from the deck of the ship into the air.

  As they saw it rise up, the boatman and his wife did not dare to look at each other, and the boatwoman's crying grew louder. Unrelated people gathered together, staring intently, with some letting out cries of surprise.

  Before long, the net bag and the embankment were in a vertical position. Song Jiu pulled again, and Zhong Dalang and He Erlang pulled the rope on the other side. The wooden axle rotated, and the goods were successfully landed. One person held the net bag steady, and Song Jiu and two others came over to help unload the cargo from the net bag.

  Actually, at the beginning, Song Jiuxing did not think of using a pivot, but instead directly fixed the wood in place. However, after considering that whether on land or underwater, four people would be needed to pull the rope, which would be in a straight line state, and people would be more efficient, once it becomes twisted, it's equivalent to twisting and bending, the goods are heavy, and the inertia will be greater, requiring even more manpower to pull the rope steadily. If that's the case, then the significance of saving labor would be lost, so he came up with the idea of using a pivot and a wavy circular high platform iron surface.

  The four men quickly lowered the goods, and Seventh Brother-in-law pulled the net bag back. Song Jiu put the iron chain back on the shore. They began to prepare for the second round of lifting goods.

  "This will also work?" Old Hu's mouth opened wide.

  They usually unload and load, often using their shoulders to carry goods. They have to put them down carefully, then get off the ship's gangway onto the shore, from the riverbank along the embankment to the top of the embankment, and then walk back down the embankment to the ship. The time it takes for a pulley group to move one set of goods is slightly longer than their round trip.

  However, with six people operating together, one trip is enough for them to carry 20-30 loads, or even 40 loads. Moreover, they won't strain their backs from lifting and carrying. At the same time, it also saves space. One person can only carry one load up and down, which is definitely slower than this. But with fewer people and smaller boats, larger boats are needed, so many people gather together, often squeezing into a crowd, and someone has to wait and yield, wasting time. Outsiders may find it hard to compare, but Hu Lao Da makes a living here and is the leader of the trade. After some calculations, he gets the answer: the time it takes for his boat to carry one load is only equivalent to one and a half times the time it takes for porters to make one round trip. The efficiency has increased by more than double or triple!

  Old Hu looked on in amazement, scratching his ears and cheeks. The second batch of goods was brought up again, and Old Hu finally managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Indeed, bookworms are useful, their knowledge is really handy!"

  "That tall and majestic man in the distance said: 'Let's go back.'"

  It's clear what's going on, no need to look further, but he's smiling, which is strange. What comes next is trouble, and this strangeness uses clever tricks to solve it, but the upcoming trouble is human, and no trick can be used to deal with that. Let's see how this kid handles it!

  On the banks of the canal, people came and went, no one noticed these few strangers.

  Continue in La.

  Old Hu itched in his heart and said: "Little Nine, let me try."

  "Go."

  He took the lead, and several brothers under his command also drove He Erlang and others to one side, running over to take their place.

  The ceramic boat is not big, originally it needs more than a dozen laborers to work hard for half a day to unload the goods, but now only a dozen trips are needed and the cargo on the ship is empty.

  All the coolies stared with wide eyes.

  Old Hu put down the iron chain in his hand and squeezed out a sentence: "Is it medium or fast?"

  With the first ship as a model, several ships quickly followed suit, eager to try something new! Without asking for Qi's husband again, they received the cargo of the second ship.

  Hulao Da pulled Song Jiu's arm on the shore, but Song Jiu pretended not to notice and continued to give orders.

  Old Hu pulled again and said loudly: "Xiao Jiu."

  "What brings you here?"

  "A bet, then." Old Hu said hastily, not that he wanted to share the benefits, but he immediately thought of the competitive power of this thing. If a hundred such things were erected on the river embankment, they could easily defeat the Hebei porters.

  "A bet?"

  "Yes, let's talk about the bet." Hu Lao Da shouted for a younger brother to take over his work and pulled Song Jiu to one side.

  "Go ahead, I'll just say what's on my mind."

  It is actually a shareholding system.

  All the coolies in the river can join the shares, and the shares are allocated according to the number of people. The capital is also allocated according to the number of people. Then select 100 elders to manage the account, prevent corruption, assemble pulleys, patrol and guard, especially to prevent the coolies from Hebei from coming to sabotage. To compensate these elders, each person has two to ten shares, and ten shares are only enjoyed by a few heads, including Hu Lao Da. No one is allowed to disclose this technique.

  As the pioneer, Song Jiuzi was responsible for imparting technology and supervising implementation, but had to have a 1% stake with Qi Jie.

  "Xiao Jiu, you've got too many, haven't you?" Hu Lao Da wasn't stupid and immediately reacted.

  "Hu Xing, let me do the math for you. Currently, this cargo is controlled by the people on both sides of the river, with a slightly larger share in the middle of the river, but the difference isn't huge. With it, can we quickly take over all the business from Hebei? That's two shares, at least half of the business can be taken over. After taking over the unloading business, we still need to transport it to various alleys, so will this business also be taken over? Compared to these extra businesses, what do these two small shares matter? Of course, you don't have to agree, I believe we're all neighbors, you won't bring people to dismantle it, right? With it, we can still make more money. Whatever you say."

  This was the result of Song Jiu's repeated deliberation, and one percent seemed not to be much. However, with the busy water transportation on the Bian River, even in normal times, there were several hundred people working, and during peak periods, it would reach thousands of people. That is, he came up with a technique, which meant that every day, twenty or thirty people would work for him.

  This income is not small, with 60 to 70 taels of silver per month. At that time, the salary of Song Dynasty officials was not high, far from the level of later Bao Zheng's annual salary of 30 million RMB. This income can barely match the income of a prefectural governor, similar to the income of his elder sister's wine shop, and higher than the income of his fifth sister's inn. With this, Song Jiu directly entered a relatively comfortable life.

  But it's not too high, not enough to make people jealous, in short, it's a very subtle number.

  And it has a more beautiful future, now the four canals in the capital of the Song Dynasty, the Bian River is not as prosperous as the Wujiang River, but with the pacification of Huainan and the capture of Southern Tang, the total throughput of the other three canals does not even reach one-tenth of that of the Bian River.

  "Xiao Jiu, are you the leader or am I the leader?" Hu Lao Da changed his words, meaning that he was the leader, but the share was far less than Xiao Jiu's, which was unfair.

  "Has such a thing ever occurred since ancient times?"

  "Hu Lao Da thought for a moment and said: 'No.'"

  "Invite a courtesan to sing, or dine at a top restaurant (there are dozens of famous wine houses in the capital), and it costs at least 40-50 taels of silver, sometimes even hundreds or thousands. But this idea of mine is unparalleled in heaven and earth, unique and unmatched, with no predecessors or successors - how much would it be worth?"

  "This, this..."

  "Or put it another way, if I were to sell it to the Hebei Xing Tou, how much would they pay me?"