Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 60 - 59: Manpowered Stone Mill

Chapter 60: Chapter 59: Manpowered Stone Mill
The Liu Family Village has a mill, built by the villagers together, located on the flatland next to the village shrine.
During harvest season, this place is always the liveliest.
The ground is covered with grain drying in the sun, and the small mill house is filled with people inside and out.
Each family uses the mill, needing to queue up; the principle is that whoever needs it first, uses it first, and those who come late naturally wait at the back.
There are three stone mills inside the mill, running 365 days a year, the mill has never stopped, and there are people using it every day.
Grinding grain is truly hard work; if it weren’t for the urgency to sell grain, everyone would opt to grind slowly a few times, or wait until the stock at home runs out and then grind enough to last one or two months.
Qin Yao is in a hurry to grind because her family’s grain is almost finished.
The last time they bought grain was at the end of October last year, one winter has passed, and now the rice jar is almost empty.
Using a stone mill to grind wheat actually only crushes the outer husk, and later needs to use a special wind sieve to completely separate husk from wheat berries, to get clean, edible wheat grains.
Grinding wheat, Qin Yao doesn’t expect anything from Liu Ji, the useless man; she leaves him at home to cook and carries the newly harvested wheat to the mill.
Farmers are most concerned about the harvest, and in the mill, every family will ask: "How much wheat did your family harvest this year?"
Everyone says it’s okay; the weather is not abnormal, and an average acre yields about two hundred jin.
This yield per acre cannot be compared to the thousand jin per acre in future generations; but within Kaiyang County, with rough tillage and such yield, it’s quite good.
At this moment, Qin Yao looks down at her family’s one hundred and sixty jin of wheat; her free-range method yields an average of eighty jin per acre, which is quite good too.
"Miss Qin! I’m done, come in."
In the mill, someone finished grinding and called Qin Yao who was in line. Qin Yao hurriedly carried her wheat inside.
Finally, it was her turn.
The previous person had already cleaned the husks off the stone mill before leaving, and Qin Yao watched them from the doorway and learned how, so she directly tried doing it herself and felt it was okay.
However, even with her great strength, she found this efficiency disheartening.
Qin Yao ground all one hundred and sixty jin of wheat within one hour.
At her speed, others were dumbfounded; one can imagine how taxing this work is for ordinary people.
Thinking of the modern rice machines finishing within a few minutes, Qin Yao carried her ground wheat on the way home, pondering whether there was a way to improve the stone mill’s efficiency.
Even if it can’t be more efficient, if it saves some effort, it would be good.
Forget about using livestock to pull the mill; those in the village with cattle and mules treat them like ancestors, unwilling to have them pull the mill.
Plus, when cattle and horses move, they consume fodder, increasing costs.
As she crossed the bridge, Qin Yao suddenly paused, looking at the rushing river water, and had a flash of inspiration.
The village’s river has a substantial flow in three out of four seasons, which is a ready source of power!
Qin Yao had participated in water conservancy projects at a base before, so designing a waterwheel tailored to the Liu Family Village river wasn’t difficult.
Moreover, she had been thinking about how to make some money—a hydraulic stone mill would definitely have a market in the countryside.
Thinking of this made Qin Yao a bit excited.
The villagers don’t have much cash; she could take a certain percentage of the grain as payment, and over time, just within Liu Family Village, she could earn quite a bit of grain.
With few people at home, if she also hunted a bit, would farming still be necessary?
Thinking of not having to farm anymore, Qin Yao didn’t want to waste another second and hurried home, carrying the one hundred and sixty jin of wheat at a trot.
Liu Ji had already borrowed the sieve from the old house, just waiting for Qin Yao to bring back the ground wheat to start sifting.
"You’re back!"
Liu Ji greeted her with hot water; his wife hadn’t made him grind today, that was so kind of her.
Qin Yao put down the load, drank a big gulp of hot water, and returned the bowl to Liu Ji.
"The wheat has been ground. You sift it, and I’ll visit Liu the carpenter; save me some lunch, I might be back late."
After instructing him, she turned around and left, heading towards Liu the carpenter’s home.
Liu the carpenter’s house is in the center of the village, very close to Liu Dafu’s house; previously, bandits burned Liu Dafu’s backyard, almost burning Liu the carpenter’s timber.
Luckily, everybody extinguished the fire in time, preserving his timber.
Now that Qin Yao wanted to build a waterwheel, the materials were ready.
When Qin Yao arrived, Liu the carpenter’s family had just finished breakfast; other than himself who was still planing wood, the rest were busy drying and sifting wheat, quite busy.
Last time Qin Yao gave Liu the carpenter sketches for bunk beds, making him very happy. Seeing Qin Yao again, he guessed she might have new ideas and enthusiastically invited her inside, asking what furniture she wanted to make.
Qin Yao stepped over the fluffy planed wood shavings, to Liu the carpenter’s big table, skillfully found his brush and ink, ground ink, and drew a rough design of a waterwheel on a piece of scrap wood.
She gestured for Liu the carpenter to come over, pointing at the drawing and explaining: "I want to make a vertical waterwheel like this to drive the stone mill. I checked the water drop height near my house—it should be about this large..."
She raised her hand to indicate a height similar to hers.
Liu the carpenter had never seen anything like a windmill before; hearing Qin Yao say the waterwheel could utilize the water drop to create power to turn the heavy stone mill, he couldn’t picture it in his mind.
Fortunately, Qin Yao patiently explained the principles over and over again, performed a small-scale experiment using his scrap wood and water to demonstrate the effect. Coupled with Liu the carpenter’s strong comprehension ability, he suddenly understood, exclaiming:
"There’s such a clever device. Miss Qin, where did you see this?"
Qin Yao answered, "When I was young, I saw it in a book about hydraulics."
Liu the carpenter nodded, asking no more.
Skill in any craft tends to be kept secret, and asking too much would breach etiquette.
What Qin Yao liked most about Liu the carpenter was this trait; he didn’t pry endlessly, saving her much trouble in explanations.
Understanding the principles now, Qin Yao explained again using simplified drawings, and Liu the carpenter immediately understood what she wanted.
Besides the waterwheel, a solid piece of wood must be chosen as the main axle to bear the water’s impact, transferring the force to the stone mill’s arm.
Qin Yao said: "It doesn’t need to be very intricate, as long as the entire power system functions."
Liu the carpenter looked at the rough drawing on the scrap wood, reminding her: "To make this, it’ll waste quite a bit of good material; you’ll need to be prepared for the expense, Miss Qin."
Qin Yao wanted to wave her hand, don’t worry about the cost!
Yet her purse was flat, so she had to ask the estimated cost.
Liu the carpenter said, considering she had expanded his horizons, he’d first make it, and waive the labor fee, but the materials alone would cost one tael.
Qin Yao made up her mind, "Do it!"