Transmigrated To Another World: General, I'm Not Your White Moonlight - Chapter 145

Chapter 145: Digging Trenches
Duan Yixin looked at the old man and asked, “May I ask what is your name, Uncle?”

Hearing her question, the oldest worker replied, “My name is Fu Zhifu, but everyone calls me Uncle Fu.”

Duan Yixin nodded, pointed to the drawing on the ground, and asked, “Uncle Fu, can all of you dig a trench like this around the farmland?”

Fu Zhifu and others looked at the drawings on the ground and discovered that the trench Duan Yixin wanted was not to surround the farmland but to pass through the farmland and divide it into smaller areas.

After looking at the drawings, Fu Zhifu said, “We can do it. But Miss Duan, won’t digging trenches like this destroy the farmland?”

Based on his questions, Duan Yixin knew that people in this world did not have any knowledge about irrigation systems, and irrigating the land was still done manually. Since they don’t have any knowledge about irrigation systems, it’s understandable that they had doubts when they first saw the design of the irrigation system.

Duan Yixin smiled slightly at him and explained, “This trench will not damage the farmland. We will use the trench to channel water to the fields for irrigation purposes.”

Hearing this, Ji Hongwei stared at the drawing on the ground seriously. Duan Yixin noticed that he was looking at the irrigation system she drew and asked, “Hongwei, what do you think of this irrigation system?”

When she asked, Ji Hongwei looked away from the drawing. He looked at her and said, “Elder Sister Yixin, the farmland is far away from the river, and the terrain in this area is flat. I think water can’t flow into the farmland naturally. We may need something to control the flow of water.”

When he said this, Duan Yixin looked at him thoughtfully. She did not expect that Ji Hongwei would already think about the flow of water while Fu Zhifu and others were still skeptical about the irrigation system. Since Ji Hongwei had already asked this question, Duan Yixin decided to explain it to him.

She squatted down, pointed to the river in the drawing, and said, “We are going to build a water turbine in this area to divert the water into the trench to the farmland. Then, we will make small bamboo pipes beside the trench to let the water flow into the farmland. As long as the river water is still flowing, we only need to close or open the bamboo pipes to control the amount of water flowing into the farmland.”

After listening to her explanation, Ji Hongwei thought for a while and asked, “Water turbine? Elder Sister Yixin, can you also build a water turbine?”

As soon as he asked, Duan Yixin fell into silence and thought, ‘Don’t they even know about water turbines? If they really didn’t know, then I would have to teach them a lot before I could let them work independently.’

With this in mind, Duan Yixin looked at the five of them and asked, “Is there any of you who have ever seen a water turbine?”

Thinking of this, Duan Yixin looked at the five of them and asked, “Which one of you has ever seen a water turbine?”

After hearing her question, the five people shook their heads at the same time. After receiving their answers, Duan Yixin sighed inwardly and thought, ‘It seems that I really have a lot to teach them now.’

After a few seconds of silence, she picked up the thin branch again and drew a very simple water turbine next to the irrigation system diagram.

After she was done, Duan Yixin looked at them and said, “This is a simple version of a water turbine. When the water flow pushes the turbine, it will move automatically. As the turbine moves, the water will be scooped up and poured into the trench.”

Then she pointed to several areas on the farm map and said, “To keep the water flowing, we will install some smaller water turbines in these areas. With these water turbines and the irrigation system, we no longer need to irrigate the farm manually. When we expand our farm in the future, we can use this extra time and energy to grow more plants.”

Others looked at her in surprise when they heard her explanation. Duan Yixin smiled at them and asked, “Do any of you have more questions?”

Ji Hongwei and others shook their heads in reply. Duan Yixin then stood up, dusted off the dirt on her hands, and said, “Since everyone has no question, then let’s get started.”

Under Duan Yixin’s supervision, Ji Hongwei and others began to dig shallow trenches. Three hours later, Duan Yixin said, “Let’s take a break first. After everyone gets some rest, we will continue digging trenches.”

As soon as she said this, Ji Hongwei and others nodded and walked towards the shed. Looking at the position of the sun, Duan Yixin said, “You can all rest until I come back.”

After leaving these words behind, Duan Yixin hurried home. When she arrived, there was no smell of blood in the air, and she knew Liushiliu hadn’t returned yet. Since it was almost lunchtime, Duan Yixin went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

Just as she was thinking about what to cook, Duan Yixin thought of Ji Hongwei’s thin body. For people to have the strength to work, they need to have enough food. Today, she asked them to dig a long trench, and the heavy work consumed a lot of energy.

Since trenches still needed to be dug around the remaining farmland, Duan Yixin decided to prepare some food for the workers.

After living in this world for two weeks, she already knew that the common people only eat two meals a day. Coupled with attacks by bandits two weeks ago, most villagers only eat once a day right now. Without food, her workers cannot work effectively.

Looking at the clean wild boar meat, offal, and skin on the wooden table, Duan Yixin decided to make braised meat, tea eggs, and stir-fry vegetables with medicinal herbs. As a staple food, she will prepare steamed buns. Once the decision was made, Duan Yixin started working in the kitchen.