Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 100 0095 [Dean Zhu formally accepts disciples]

It's just a village, what else can we use literati for?
The smug Meng Zhao received the task the next day: to be an accountant!

"Alas, the mountains and rivers are exhausted, so let's keep accounts, and I can only work hard every day." Meng Zhao sighed secretly.

His wife, Yu Sanniang, said: "Why should you be sobbing and sighing? As soon as you arrive in Daming Village, you can take charge of the account books. Is there a better job? If you can manage the account books well, in time, you will become the confidant of Village Chief Zhu. Village Chief Zhu Both civil and military, the future is limitless, so why not recommend one or two?"

"That's right!" Meng Zhao suddenly realized.

Although the Song Dynasty prohibited local officials from privately hiring staff, they retained a great deal of power, that is, recommendation.

For example, in Xiangzhi County, you can recommend a senior official to serve as the head book or county lieutenant of Xixiang County (for such a small place, the head book does not require Jinshi background, and the recommendation of the county magistrate has a great chance of success. But officials with subordinate official background , ascension to the eighth rank is already the limit, and it is basically impossible to climb further).

Another example is Li Tongpan, who can recommend friends with fame and reputation to serve as assistant officials in Yangzhou.

As long as Zhu Ming becomes a local official in the future, he can recommend Meng Zhao to be a small state official!

As soon as his wife reminded him, Meng Zhao immediately became full of energy.

Meng Zhao worked as an accountant, Tian San was assigned as a cashier, and the two were in charge of the entry and exit of money and food.

Zhang Guangdao is still running among the mountains in all directions, continue to work hard, and recruit some fleeing households, and he will be rewarded with that mare.

Bai Sheng also sailed back to the county to recruit people, and he was short of seven people before he could be rewarded with another mu of land.

A few days later, migrant households were organized to dig weir ponds with work relief.The aborigines in the village can also sign up to dig ponds.

Now there is not much public property in the village, and Ju Ming pays for the water conservancy facilities.Since it is an individual investment, the ownership also belongs to the individual, and the villagers have to pay the water fee.

"I'm not here to earn the water money," Ju Ming said to his father. "It's a means to control the village and consolidate the ruling order. After recovering the cost of water conservancy, donate private property as public property. After that, the collected water All fees will be included in the village public account.”

"I know you don't want money," Zhu Guoxiang flipped through the ledger and couldn't help complaining, "It's all running accounts, it makes my head hurt!"

Zhu Ming asked, "Do you know double-entry bookkeeping?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I used to watch it often, but I haven't done the accounting myself."

"Then you can teach." Zhu Ming began to assign tasks.

More than 300 people dug the weir pond together, and the speed was quite fast.

In addition to digging soil and rocks, all the excavated earth had to be transported to the foot of the mountain and piled up.

In particular, the stones have to be moved farther to the river as the cornerstone for building a high-drum car.For a ten-meter-high bobbin, the foundation must be firm.

"Dangdangdang!"

Deng Chun was temporarily appointed as the chief mason, responsible for handling the big stones on the mountain wall.

Zhu Guoxiang divided the workers into five groups, and each group assigned different tasks, and they could leave work after completing the daily workload.You can also work overtime on your own initiative, and overtime pay is required.

This order was communicated, and the efficiency was greatly improved, and everyone started to work hard, and it was estimated that the construction period could be shortened by one third.

"Well, the common people are ignorant, and we can only drive them away for profit." While feeling emotional, Meng Zhao also felt that he had learned useful knowledge.

Zhu Guoxiang arranged today's tasks for each group, and said to Meng Zhao: "The great light comes with me."

Meng Zhao hurriedly followed and followed Zhu Guoxiang to the cottage.

Zhu Guoxiang took out a pen and paper and said: "Today, I will teach you a method that has nothing to do with the scriptures. Are you willing to learn it?"

It has nothing to do with the scriptures, and if it is so solemn, then the secret method must be passed down to the family. Meng Zhao hurriedly bowed: "Please enlighten me, Mr. Zhu!"

Zhu Guoxiang wrote down a string of Arabic numerals, and wrote the Chinese numerals beside it.

After a brief explanation, Meng Zhao understood, and asked in confusion, "There are already characters, so why make another character?"

Zhu Guoxiang said, "For convenience."

After speaking, Zhu Guoxiang wrote down the capital letters of Chinese numbers.

Meng Zhao said, "I understand this, and it is to prevent traitors from altering it."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I saw that in Daguang's account book, the uppercase numbers are not fixed, so I decided to write them in this way."

One, two, three... This capitalized counting method was adopted in the Tang Dynasty, but it was not standardized until Zhu Yuanzhang.

Before the Ming Dynasty, taking "Qian" as an example, it could be written in different forms such as "Qian", "Qian", and "Qian", as long as the homophone is easy to understand.

Zhu Guoxiang looked through the account books yesterday, not only the running account is a headache, but also those various capital numbers are nonsense.

Today's lesson is to let Meng Zhao master Arabic numerals and uppercase numerals.

Meng Zhao thought he was going to learn some secret method, but when he found out that it was just two sets of characters, he lost interest in an instant, and he could remember it after reading it a few times.

Zhu Guoxiang observed the changes in his expression, and already knew what he was thinking, so he wrote a series of numbers: "12345678, how much is this?"

Meng Zhao compared the Chinese characters next to him and read: "One..."

After stopping to count for a while, Meng Zhao said, "One thousand two hundred and thirty forty-five thousand six hundred and seventy-eight."

Zhu Guoxiang wrote down another string of numbers: "88888888, plus the number just now, what is it?"

Meng Zhao was completely dumbfounded: "The number is too big, so we need to use calculations."

The shape of the abacus has been developed and matured in the Northern Song Dynasty, but it has not been popularized in poor and remote areas.Moreover, it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that the advanced methods of using the abacus were theoretically enriched.

Meng Zhao couldn't even make an abacus, he only knew how to use it.

Zhu Guoxiang listed the two strings of Arabic numerals in two rows together, and gave the answer of the addition in more than ten seconds.

Meng Zhao didn't believe it, so he ran to break some small sticks, arranged them and calculated them for a long time, but every time the result was the same as Zhu Guoxiang's.

"This...is this Zhu Xianggong's secret method of arithmetic?" Meng Zhao was dumbfounded.

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said, "This is just the simplest."

Meng Zhao was astonished as a celestial being, and said to his disciples, "Thanks to your kindness, please teach me the secret method of arithmetic."

Zhu Guoxiang had one more student, and he did not teach anything else, but only taught him to use Arabic numerals to perform four arithmetic operations, and then use double-entry bookkeeping as a basis to calculate accounts.

Meng Zhao was quite smart, and Zhu Guoxiang was very relieved to teach him. He memorized the Arabic numerals and standard uppercase numerals that day.

It even speeds up the teaching progress, teaching arithmetic symbols, addition formulas and vertical calculations.

Meng Zhaoru got a treasure, and after repeated practice, he went home happily.

"What's the happy event for Mr. Xiang today?" Yu Sanniang asked.

Meng Zhao said happily: "Today, I have worshiped Zhu Xianggong as my teacher, and I have been given the secret method of arithmetic. I can count tens of millions without counting chips! The lady can give two random numbers, and I can immediately calculate the sum of them."

Yu Sanniang was quite curious, so she came up with an addition problem, which was about adding several thousand to several hundred.

Meng Zhao picked up a pen to list the vertical formulas, and he could get it done in two or three strokes. He said with a smile, "This problem is really easy."

Yu Sanniang hurriedly asked why, and Meng Zhao answered patiently, so the husband and wife studied mathematics together.

After getting a basic understanding, Yu Sanniang asked again: "This is how to add, how about subtracting two by two?"

Meng Zhao said: "Today I only taught addition, and I also taught subtraction symbols. This is how to write a horizontal line."

Yu Sanniang was able to draw inferences from one instance and write out the vertical subtraction formula by herself, which really solved a subtraction problem quickly.

Immediately afterwards, the couple considered multiplication again.

Since the multiplication symbols have not yet been taught, they draw a circle to represent multiplication, and use the nine-nine table to match the multiplication vertical form—the nine-nine multiplication table in the Northern Song Dynasty, which is just the opposite of the later multiplication table. The first thing to memorize is nine nine 81.

In one night, they figured out all the divisions.

The next day, Zhu Guoxiang went to arrange the construction site affairs first, while Meng Zhao still used the running account to work.

In the afternoon, continue teaching.

"Have you mastered addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?" Zhu Guoxiang was a little surprised.

Meng Zhao was rather proud: "I have learned arithmetic before, and your method is very good, and you can apply it. But, please teach me the symbols of multiplication and division. I use circles and circles plus horizontal lines instead."

Terms such as multiplication and division are included in "Nine Chapters on Arithmetic".

Zhu Guoxiang nodded approvingly: "Children can be taught! The multiplication sign is an X, and the division sign is like this. Today we will learn fractions and decimals."

Meng Zhao hesitated for a while, and asked, "Can the students pass on the method taught by the master to Zhuo Jing?"

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "It can be spread, the wider the better. If your wife wants to learn, just come to the class together."

"Thank you sir!" Meng Zhao was even happier.

The next day, the students became two.

Moreover, Zhu Guoxiang discovered that the wife's learning speed was much faster than that of the husband...

After careful questioning, it turns out that Yu Sanniang is the younger sister of Juren Yu Dayuan, and she learned writing and arithmetic from her father since she was a child.If her family hadn't fallen, she wouldn't have married Meng Zhao.

At the end of the lecture, Zhu Guoxiang paced back and saw his son writing furiously: "What are you writing?"

"Journey to the West." Ju Ming didn't lift his head.

Zhu Guoxiang said speechlessly: "I arrange the Yantang project in the morning, teach people mathematics in the afternoon, and inspect the construction site in the evening. I am so busy all day long, you actually hide and write novels?"

Zhu Ming cried out: "Dean Zhu, do you think I am willing? This "Journey to the West" is written for Fatty Zheng, not only to get weapons from him for free, but also to get closer to the Zheng family. It’s richer than Lu Guanren, the richest man in Xixiang, our future development cannot be limited to Xixiang County, we have to pave the way in Yangzhou in advance.”

"You have a legitimate reason." Zhu Guoxiang sat down.

Zhu Ming asked, "How did Meng Zhao learn?"

"It's pretty smart," Zhu Guoxiang said. "His wife is even smarter. She can talk about everything."

Zhu Ming asked curiously, "His wife is also learning?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I have officially become a teacher. This Yu Sanniang's boudoir name is Yu Shanwei, and her grandpa's generation is considered a big family in Yujia'ao. After grandpa's death, several brothers broke up, and I heard that they even went to court. Toss and toss , and there is not much land left for each family.”

Middle and low-class families in the Song Dynasty were far less stable than in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

If no one in the family is an official, there will be thousands of acres of land, which may decline rapidly after one or two generations.

Moreover, family division is also very common, and property is divided more and less.

"You've been here for so long, what about the village school in Shangbai Village?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The old white member found a scholar outside, with a monthly salary of [-] yuan."

Ju Ming joked, "It's higher than your salary."

"If I continue to teach, if he wants face, he has to take the initiative to give me a raise," Zhu Guoxiang said, "I'll go back tomorrow and take a look. You have to keep an eye on the construction site."

Zhu Ming laughed and said, "Missing your wife?"

"Fuck off!"

Dean Zhu blushed, his son poked his heart into his heart, but his mouth was stiff: "I'm going back to bring the wood that has been dried in the shade, and I'll recruit some carpenters to make bobbins!"

"Understood." Ju Ming was still smiling.

At the moment, the father and son handed over work, and it was replaced by Zhu Ming who went to the Yantang construction site to watch.

Looking at the construction scene in full swing, Ju Ming's heart also became hot.After digging the weir pond, we went down the mountain to dig a canal, and then built a high-drum car to divert water into the canal.

After these two water conservancy projects are completed, corn and sweet potatoes will be planted next year, which will quickly solve the food and clothing of the villagers and take a solid step towards the great cause of rebellion.

(End of this chapter)