The project's development was progressing at a fairly good pace. Of the four types of machinery Luo Chong had proposed, two had already been completed, and everything was advancing in an orderly fashion.
The tractor had been built first, and the loader had evolved from it. After that came the road roller and the excavator.
After all, the tractor—the four-wheeled cart—was the foundation. Only after the foundation was properly laid could they build upon it.
Once the two vehicles had been finalized, Luo Chong did not leave immediately. Instead, he assigned them a new research task: the harvester.
If they used machine plowing, they had to use machine harvesting as well. Otherwise, they could plant more with machines but fail to harvest it all, and in the end the crops would still rot in the fields.
Luo Chong had currently divided the harvester project into two types. One was the Grain Harvester, which could harvest all crops with ears at the same time, such as rice, wheat, millet, and foxtail millet. Crops that were about half a person tall, with ears growing at the top and shelled fruit, could all be collectively called grain.
The harvesting principles for grain were basically the same. A single type of machine could harvest them all. Luo Chong had seen such machinery in the countryside when he was young. Although he had forgotten the details, as long as he remembered the operating principles, he could find a way to recreate it.
Its main principles could be divided into three parts. First was cutting the grain stalks. At the very bottom of the harvester's front was a Support Plate fitted with blades, and above it was a horizontal roller made from several iron bars. When operating, the roller would first make contact with the tops