Published at 22nd of November 2024 2:16 pm

Chapter 295: Evolution! Ping’an Town Gradually Strengthens 2

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

On Earth, many floodgates utilize high-power water pumps to extract water. Making a simple water pump is not difficult, but the challenge is that this world lacks electricity.

However, human wisdom is infinite.

In this world, there are also some water wheels for irrigation.

Over the years, Wang Shouzhe has been engaged in many works, naturally including discussions with professionals about the improvement plans for water wheels.

Among the three major floodgates, the Fenggu Sluice at the Fenggu Farm was built by Old Ancestor Zhou Xuan.

Over the past eight years, Wang Shouzhe has conducted several renovations and reconstructions on this sluice, making it a major flood outlet.

Now, there is a “Water Dragon Array” on each side of the massive floodgate.

The “Water Dragon Array” sounds fancy, but it is actually a simple large-scale waterwheel.

When the river flows, it propels the Ferris wheel-like waterwheel to rotate. The rotation of the waterwheel, through the bearings and gears crafted by artifact refiners, drives a simple reciprocating cylinder.

This reciprocating cylinder pumps water from the sluice into the Peace River.

Inside the sluice, the water channels connect to all the waterways and lakes within Ping’an Town.

Wang Shouzhe has quite a bit of knowledge about Earth. Although these aren’t his areas of expertise, he knows the general direction, and this world does not lack clever craftsmen and artifact refiners.

Under their joint efforts, the present “Water Dragon Array” was created.

Of course, this large-scale waterwheel is not directly exposed in the river.

Wang Shouzhe has driven piles by the river edge and built a large foundation with concrete, forming an “eight”-shaped water channel at the sluice bank that is wide in the front and narrow at the back.

Therefore, more water can come in through the wider end, and as the water channel narrows towards the back, the water flow will be faster, generating more power for the waterwheel.

At the front of the waterwheel, there is a twenty-feet wide winch floodgate. When the waterwheel operation is not needed, simply lower the gate, and the water flow can be cut off.

Besides, a metal bar grid is installed at the wider end to intercept any large garbage or ferocious aquatic creatures carried down by the water flow, preventing damage to the waterwheel.

The construction of the two Water Dragon Arrays at the Fenggu Sluice Gate, though simple in principle and structure, took Wang Shouzhe five years to communicate with the craftsmen and artifact refiners, making constant attempts and improvements with small-scale structures before officially investing in construction, costing tens of thousands of Qian Gold.

Of course, the results are also very apparent.

The person responsible for managing this floodgate is a capable collateral member of the Wang family. Upon seeing Wang Shouzhe, he eagerly approached him, excitedly saying, “Reporting to the Family Head, the operations of both Water Dragon Arrays are running smoothly.”

The enormous waterwheel spins steadily in the rapid water channel. It seems slow, but its actual speed is not slow at all. It just appears slow because of its large circumference.

Driven by the waterwheel, water constantly sprays out from the pipeline aligned to the Peace River, much like two white, large-scale water dragons.

Such a scene is where the name “Water Dragon Array” came from!

“Monitor the situation around the clock and repair the Water Dragon Array at all costs if there’s a malfunction.”

Upon seeing the “Water Dragon Array,” which took many years and a huge investment of resources to build, playing a positive role, Wang Shouzhe felt proud.

He regards Ping’an Town as his territory and his home, so naturally, he will do everything possible to make it as secure as possible, hoping it can survive various natural disasters.

Previous calculations showed that a large-scale Water Dragon Array, when operating at full speed, can discharge around two hundred thousand cubic meters of water per day.

And there are six of these Water Dragon Arrays at the three floodgates. At full speed, they can discharge about 1.2 million cubic meters of water a day.

It sounds like a large number.

But in fact, take Zhuwei Lake for example, which covers an area of about 10,000 acres. When filled to capacity, it holds approximately twenty-eight million cubic meters of water.

These six large-scale Water Dragon Arrays, operating at full speed, would take more than twenty days to empty Zhuwei Lake!

Not to mention the water content of numerous large and small rivers and canals in Ping’an Town, and the many scattered small lakes.

Because of this, these six Water Dragon Arrays start to operate in advance every year before the rainy season, lowering the water level of the rivers and lakes within Ping’an Town to prevent the awkward situation of not being able to drain the flood in time when the flood season arrives.

And now it’s still raining. Even though most of the rainwater is absorbed by the land or enters the groundwater channels, the small portion that drains into the rivers is not a small amount.

Because of this, even with all six large-scale Water Dragon Arrays operating at full power, the water level in the river is still rising little by little.

Although the rise is slow, it is still rising.

Fortunately, the water level in Ping’an Town was already low because of the pre-drainage started before the rainy season. Otherwise, many wheat fields might have been flooded by now.

Wang Shouzhe looked a bit serious.

Six units of the Water Dragon Array were ultimately still too few.

Even though this year’s flood season was far less severe than the two historical floods, it was already pushing the Water Dragon vehicles to their limit.

The hydraulic engineering project that had been gradually built over eight years was still in its infancy, Wang Shouzhe concluded. After this flood season, investment in infrastructure would need to be further increased.

After all, the entire Ping’an Town now belonged to the Wang family. Any amount of investment was just a long-term commitment, with every prevented flood bringing a return on investment.

In the next six to seven days, the whole Wang family, leading forty thousand people from Ping’an Town, devoted themselves to intense flood resistance.

At such a time, no outsider could help the Wang family.

After all, the flood season was fierce, threatening every part of the town with flood.

During this period, there were three river embankments with breaches, and the situation came close to getting out of control. Wang Shouzhe and his wife personally commanded the frontlines, taking the fight to the flood.

In the face of Nature’s great strength, their Spirit Platform Realm abilities were indeed very limited. However, with their leading presence, everyone had an anchor to follow. The Wang family and the townspeople worked together, successfully blocking the breaches time after time, preventing the occurrence of floods.

Finally.

After two consecutive days of clear skies, the urgent flow of Peace River finally eased somewhat, with the overall water level slowly beginning to decrease, dropping more than half a metre in two days.

This signalled the end of the flood season.

This also meant that Ping’an Town had successfully weathered this tribulation, getting through the most flood-prone season.

However, the people of Ping’an Town remained vigilant, working together to reinforce weak points in the flood defenses, prepared for flood season fluctuations.

So it went for several more days.

The water level of Peace River continued to drop and the waters gradually calmed.

The flood season was finally completely over, triggering pure celebration in Ping’an Town.

The onset of this flood season was fierce. Had it happened a decade or two ago, devastating floods would have been nearly inevitable, causing substantial damage.

But this time, apart from some areas facing reduced output due to waterlogging, the overall grain yield was still maintained at a high level.

Most importantly, only a handful of people lost their lives in this flood season.

This was a great victory!

Despite the Wang family’s already strong reputation in Ping’an Town, this event boosted the people’s esteem for them even further.

While celebrations were held all over Ping’an Town, Mr. and Mrs. Wang Shouzhe stayed home for two whole days, quite exhausted.

It was not until two days later, when Wang Shouzhe’s trusted assistant Wang Mei made a secret report on work matters, that Wang Shouzhe barely stirred into action.

Wang Shouzhe met Wang Mei secretly in his study.

He skimmed through the various intelligence compiled by Wang Mei, a cold smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

After so many years, the puppet master who had been active sixty years ago could no longer contain himself and had showed his weakness!

What followed could be tumultuous.

The entirety of Changning Guard was unlikely to avoid a sudden upheaval.

“Wang Mei, you’ve worked hard,” said Wang Shouzhe, glancing at Wang Mei with a somewhat complicated expression.

The complexity of his expression was due to her outfit for the day.

She was dressed in a style similar to the Purple Abode Academy’s female disciples, a smart school uniform that was both heroic and feminine.

Most importantly of all.

Her makeup skills had reached a new stage of refinement.

With her high ponytail, raised eyebrows, and cool and collected demeanor, she shared a certain kind of charisma with some of the school’s goddess-like senior girls.

If she were in the academy, she would certainly be another booming idol of a senior girl there.

…

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