The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 746 Shen Le: I transmigrated into the body of my own descendant, and I gave myself a dream!

Having made up his mind to work hard in this era, Shen Le calmed down and began to gather information about this family.

As a young child, his sources of information were quite limited, but fortunately, a good opportunity soon arose:
Ancestor worship!

On the first day of the sixth lunar month, the family reunites. First, they offer incense to their ancestors, then gather for a meal. As a seven-year-old (by the traditional Chinese age reckoning), he was already entitled to stand in line, respectfully bowing his head to each of them.

"My grandfather, Shen Chang... pioneered the family through hardship, migrating from Jizhou to Wu..."

It's a tragedy; in an ordinary farming family, only a few generations can be remembered.

They migrated here from Jizhou only about fifty years ago. Don't they even remember the names of their ancestors before that?
However, as the saying goes, "The emperor has seven temples, the feudal lords have five temples, the high officials have three temples, the scholars have one temple, and the common people have no temples and offer sacrifices in their sleeping quarters." Ordinary people are only worthy of offering sacrifices to these few generations.

No matter how much, illiterate farmers, relying on oral tradition, can't remember much, nor do they have the means to perform rituals. What? You mean after they become wealthy?

After becoming wealthy, naturally literate descendants, tutors hired by the family, scholars or officials, or even concubines would help name their ancestors for seven generations, for use in ancestral worship...

Shen Le respectfully kowtowed along with the others, though given his current height, he was basically lying prone on the prayer mat. After finishing one kowtow, he heard the elderly man at the head of the line continue:

"My late father, Shen Le, led the whole family to move to Songjiang, and chose this auspicious place to settle down... Our clan is what it is today, all thanks to my late father..."

Huh?
Huh?

Shen Lefei immediately perked up her ears. Father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather... so many generations already?
I've transmigrated into the body of... my great-grandson from the previous body?
Listening further, it turns out that after settling his entire family here, Shen Le left again and disappeared without a trace.

"My late uncle, Shen Xiang, settled here and established our family. To this day, our clan has fifty-six male members, all of whom are descendants of my late uncle..."

Shen Le understood more or less. His parents, younger brother and sister-in-law, and the fat Taoist priest who came with them, along with the men and women they had bought along the way, were here to purchase land and build up their family business.

At the same time, it was inevitable that they would have offspring and reproduce. Of course, they also did not forget to give one to their eldest brother so that he would have descendants to carry on the family line.

Shen Le transmigrated into the body of this adopted child's grandson. In theory, he was the great-grandson of the body he had previously inhabited…

There aren't many memorial tablets that require kowtowing. Up to now, the first generation has passed away, the second generation has passed away, and the third generation, which is the generation of Shen Le's younger brother's son, is in charge of managing the family business.

The fourth generation, the grandsons of Shen Le's younger brother, are mostly young and middle-aged adults, the backbone of the family, while some are still children.

As for the fifth generation, the generation in Shen Le's current body, they were basically all young children. So, after kowtowing and performing the sacrificial rites, they were all kicked out of the ancestral hall and sent out to play.

The children cheered and rushed out, leaping over leapfrogs, playing on bamboo horses, digging holes, watering ants, or sneaking under the stove, eagerly waiting for their mothers to cook and reward them with a little something to eat.

Only Shen Le tiptoed carefully to the slightly mottled wooden window of the ancestral hall, straining his ears to listen intently to the discussions inside.

Inside the room, the pillars of the family—his "grandfather" and "father" generation of men—were sitting together.

The atmosphere was far less solemn and dignified than during the ancestral worship ceremony; instead, one could hear the anxiety and heaviness in the air just by listening through the wall.

The household affairs were managed by the third uncle, who was also Shen Le's younger brother from the previous body, Shen Xiang's third son, and the oldest surviving member of the generation. His voice was old and weary:
"...The county clerks have come again, this time not to collect regular taxes, but to collect 'military supplies'! They say that the army is on a campaign against the mountain tribes and is short of provisions, so they want us wealthy households to 'voluntarily contribute'!"

"It's common for the imperial court to wage war... How many does he want?"

"Five hundred bushels of rice right off the bat! This...this is practically tearing our flesh out!"

A collective gasp filled the room. Before Shen Le could even calculate how much 500 shi of rice meant, or what percentage of the family's surplus it represented, he heard a chaotic commotion erupt inside:
"Five hundred stones?!"

"What a joke!"

"How could I possibly produce that!"

A middle-aged man suddenly raised his voice; it was Shen Dun, the "father" of Shen Le's body:
"Last autumn harvest, after deducting food rations and seeds, all the rent from our family's farms and tenants was only a little over a thousand bushels! Now half of that is going to be gone?"
"We only have so much grain stored in our granaries right now, and there are still three months until the autumn harvest. If we give it to them, will our entire clan starve?"

Another uncle sighed:
"What can they do if they don't give it to us? They're government officials! They're armed! They call it 'donation,' but what's the difference between that and outright robbery?"
I heard that the Wang family in neighboring Yuhang County was locked up at the county government office because they were a few days late in raising funds. They eventually had to sell their paddy fields to raise enough money to ransom him!

“The big households, the big households… they’re all big households. The Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang families can avoid paying or pay less, leaving all the burden on us! If they can’t pay enough, we’ll have to sell the land to them!”

"How about we collect a little more from the tenants?"

"What are they going to collect? What can they possibly offer during the lean season? I went to check, and they're already eating rice bran and wild vegetables to stave off hunger! If they drive the tenant farmers away, who will farm the land?"

"What a damned world!" someone muttered a curse.

The gloom in the room deepened. After a moment of silence, another problem was raised. Third Uncle rubbed his temples, his voice hoarse:

"The issue of grain tax hasn't been resolved yet, and the current drought is even more dire. How many days has it been since we've had a proper rain?"
The rice is just beginning to head; if we don't irrigate it soon, let alone five hundred bushels, it's hard to say whether our family will even be able to harvest five hundred bushels this year!"

"Yes, half of our fields are in low-lying areas and it's alright, but the other half is in high-lying areas, and the little water brought in by the irrigation canal isn't enough to go around. The tenant farmers are almost fighting over the water!"

"We need to organize manpower to pump water day and night! But there are only so many people. If all the able-bodied men are busy with the waterwheels, other farm work can't be done... We simply can't manage this!"

"The drought is such a headache..."

"Hire temporary workers? Every household is short of water now, and the price for temporary workers has doubled, but we still can't find anyone!"

"Buy cattle? A good water buffalo is worth ten or more strong laborers, but in the current situation, where would we find the money to buy cattle? Even if we did, feeding them would be a problem..."

The accounts were meticulously calculated, revealing numerous loopholes. The only options were to reluctantly hand over most of the stored grain, plunging the family into immediate hardship, with everyone, young and old, switching from rice to porridge, and from porridge to bran and wild vegetables.
Alternatively, one could withstand pressure from the government and try to negotiate with higher authorities to request tax reductions or exemptions. However, the success rate was highly questionable…

More importantly, if the current drought doesn't end and the situation worsens, next year will be just as bleak. It seems that no matter what choice we make, the future looks bleak.

Shen Le leaned against the window, listening intently to every word of these anxious discussions. He quietly stepped back, frowning, and racked his brains:

The "tax" of 500 shi of grain weighed down like a mountain. Information was scarce; he knew nothing of the government's military operations, and he didn't know anyone in the government... In short, none of this was something he could solve right now. However, the drought and inefficient irrigation... perhaps he could think of a solution to that.

I studied modern times! I spent a whole month frantically cramming knowledge into modern times, I'm sure I can find a way!

"Grandma! Grandma!" He hurried out and found the woman who had taken care of him when he was sick and called him "Young Master":

"How about you take me for a walk? Let's go for a stroll outside?"

The woman was a little worried, but she couldn't dissuade him, so she had no choice but to lead him outside. They left the mansion and walked into the fields.

Shen Le stood on tiptoe and tried to look at him for a while, then begged the woman to pick him up and examine him carefully again, only to sigh:

The waterways are a complicated story. The dikes, embankments, and water conservancy facilities are basically in a state where "they existed in legends hundreds of years ago, but they are long gone now."

People weaved through the crowd, each one desperately carrying water, using various methods—carrying poles, buckets, well sweeps, and scoops…

Where is the promised dragon-bone waterwheel?

They said this thing already existed during the Three Kingdoms period?!

Jiangnan was indeed a remote and desolate place at that time; such wonderful things were not even widely available...

Forget it, you guys can't do it, I'll do it! Building water conservancy projects requires too much investment and the requirements are too high. I don't have the ability to survey or the prestige to organize manpower, but at least I can "invent" a waterwheel!

He avoided the playing children, went into the storage room in the backyard, and found various tools, scrap wood, bamboo strips, and ropes.

Relying on the blueprints from memory and the hands-on skills honed in modern times, they cut, hammered, and bound.

Thanks to Little Inkstone, and thanks to the Level 8 Woodworking Skill Initiation I received while repairing Zheng Mo, even though this body is only five years old, I was able to make it, albeit clumsily.

He shaved thin pieces of wood with a knife to make scrapers, used bamboo strips and hemp rope to make chains, and found two small wooden wheels to make drive shafts, carving out gears little by little.

He was sweating profusely from his work, his hands were pricked by splinters several times, even drawing blood, but he paid no heed.

fast!
be quick!

The sooner the better. It would be troublesome to wait until the family makes a decision before making changes!
As evening fell, when the adults emerged from the ancestral hall with weary, heavy steps and their faces still clouded with worry, Shen Le ran to his father, Shen Dun, holding his "masterpiece."

"Father! Father! Look at this!"

Shen Dun was already annoyed and waved his hand dismissively: "Go play somewhere else, don't cause trouble!"

But Shen Le stubbornly held up the intricately designed wooden model: "Father, this can draw water! It can lift water from a low place to a high place! It's faster than a scoop!"

Shen Dun was taken aback, and then looked closely at the strange object in his son's hand. He saw that the model had a long wooden trough, inside which seemed to be a series of movable scrapers connected together, with axles at both ends.

He took it with a puzzled look, and following Shen Le's instructions, he immersed one end into the wooden basin filled with water next to him and turned the shaft at one end by hand.

Creak, creak—the crudely made model made a teeth-grinding sound, as if it would fall apart at any moment. However, as the axle turned, it managed to move:

The scraper circulated repeatedly in the wooden trough, scraping the water in the basin little by little, continuously, and letting it flow out from the other end!
Although it is just a miniature model, with low efficiency and a small water flow, its function is obvious to anyone at a glance!
Shen Dun's eyes widened instantly, and his breathing became rapid. He stared intently at the model that was constantly leaking a thin stream, and his hand, which was cranking the shaft, trembled slightly.

This is exactly what they need! This is exactly what the family needs! How much manpower can this save? How many more seedlings can it irrigate?
"This...this is..." His voice trembled as he abruptly looked up at his son, "My son, where did you learn this technique?!"

Shen Le had already prepared his explanation, puffed out his chest, and spoke matter-of-factly:

“I just fell asleep outside and dreamed about the old man in the painting. He's the same old man I just kowtowed to who taught me this… He said this can help our family…”

An ancestor appeared to me in a dream!

The ancestor who orchestrated the family's relocation from Jizhou and left behind a large sum of gold and silver was said to be the one who brought the family to prominence, and he was rumored to possess magical powers! He appeared to us in a dream…

Isn't that obvious?!
Overjoyed, Shen Dun didn't bother to investigate further! He picked up Shen Le and his beard trembled with excitement: "Heaven bless my Shen family! Heaven bless my Shen family! My son is an auspicious omen!"

He immediately grabbed the model and practically rushed back to the ancestral hall where the meeting had just ended, excitedly showing it to his third uncle and all his other uncles.

At first, everyone was skeptical, but when the model’s continuous water-lifting function was clearly displayed before their eyes, everyone was shocked and then burst into huge joy!
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! If this were made into a large one, wouldn't one of these be equivalent to the strength of ten men?"

"Quick! Get a carpenter here! Make a scaled-up version of this design!"

"The water from the river can be brought up immediately! The rice seedlings can be saved!"

The atmosphere of despair vanished. Hope and enthusiasm surged forth, and all the family's resources were mobilized.

All the carpenters in the area, whether they were the best or just novice apprentices, were invited to work together to build the dragon-bone waterwheel.

Shen Dun and several uncles personally supervised the construction, while Shen Le stood aside, offering hesitant and clumsy guidance:
“That’s what my great-grandfather said…that’s really what my great-grandfather said…”

Question: What does it feel like to impersonate your past self? I need an answer urgently...

Within three to five days, the first real dragon-bone waterwheel was erected on the canal leading to Shenjiatiandi.

When the strong tenants stepped on the pedals and watched as the water in the lake, which had receded considerably, was pumped into the canals by the dragon-bone waterwheel and gushed into the parched fields, the whole family was overjoyed!
Saved!
Finally there is help!
One, two, three… more than ten waterwheels were lined up on the bank. Not only did they bring precious water to the family, but they also received tax reductions.

The method for manufacturing the dragon-bone waterwheel was immediately presented by the family. The county magistrate, who was overwhelmed with worries about drought relief and next year's harvest and grain taxes, was overjoyed.

With a stroke of his pen, he reduced their family's "enthusiastic donation" from five hundred shi to two hundred shi!
perfect!

(End of this chapter)