I

  Chapter 405 403 [calendar and characters]

  The weather in Henan is good this year, and it actually started to rain very early in the spring.

   This is the first normal spring rain in Henan after six consecutive years of severe drought across the province.

   Tragic Henan can finally return to normal this year. Except for Runing Mansion, which is occupied by Zhao Han, there is no drought in other places in Henan.

  It's nonsense, God seems to be against Zhao Han.

  He only occupied two prefectures in Henan, but the prefecture with the most immigrants is about to experience severe drought this year. On the contrary, the territory of the Manchu Qing in Henan will become smooth this year.

  In addition, Shaanxi, which has been in drought for more than ten years, is also experiencing good weather this year, and only some areas of Shanxi are dry.

   "Chongzhen Severe Drought" began to shift to the south in an all-round way.

  However, the Manchu Qing could not please, and hundreds of thousands of Liaodong soldiers and civilians collectively moved to North Zhili. But this year's North Zhili is a drought-stricken area.

   To be more specific, several areas severely affected by drought this year are located in the core ruled areas of Dorgon and Zhao Han.

   Come on, hurt each other!

  …

  When Hu Dinggui plundered the population of Shenyang, and when Huang Yao took the Chengdu Plain, the frontal battlefield also began to act.

  Farmers in northern Hubei, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui, Nanyang, and Runing were mobilized. The grain Zhao Han harvested last autumn had already been continuously transported to the north.

  The Civil War is imminent.

   At this critical moment, the people of Nanjing are not focusing on the upcoming Northern Expedition.

  No one thinks that the Datong Army will be defeated. It seems that sweeping the Central Plains is normal. Their eyes turned to the officially published "Datong Almanac", "Twelve Qi Calendars", "Datong Zhengyin" and "Datong Dictionary".

   "Datong Almanac" is an adaptation of "Chongzhen Almanac", only some obvious mistakes have been deleted, such as the geocentric theory.

  Hou's father and son were under surveillance in Shandong, Zuo Liangyu was still vacillating.

   Just last winter, Hou Fangyu received the news of his mother's death, and he got rid of the surveillance of the Qing Dynasty and returned to Henan for the funeral. Then he entered Anhui from his hometown, wandered around for several months, and finally came to Nanjing.

  As soon as I entered the city, I saw servants carrying burdens and selling "Twelve Qi Calendars" to shops along the street.

   It is not forced to buy and sell, you can not buy it, but the date of collection of store tax in the future will be collected according to the new calendar time.

   "How do you sell the almanac?" Hou Fangyu asked.

  The guard replied with a smile: "The one with color and painting is one yuan, and the one without color and painting is only one dime."

  Hou Fangyu came all the way south and already knew the southern currency system.

  A few years ago, the Datong silver dollar, which was mainly used for merchant trade, has now become a very common currency in circulation. One silver dollar is equal to one tael of silver, commonly known as "one dollar".

   Moreover, Datong copper coins have been added, which can be divided into five corners, two corners, and one corner.

  The traditional copper coins with square holes are still in use, about 800 to 1200 Wen, which can be exchanged for one yuan, that is, ten cents.

  However, only Datong copper coins can be used to pay taxes.

  The rest of Jiajing Tongbao and Chongzhen Tongbao are not recognized by the government and banks. Although it can be exchanged at the bank, those are "waste coins" and basically can only be exchanged for the cost price of copper materials.

   "Let me take a look first." Hou Fangyu said.

  The colorful and painted version belongs to the wall calendar, with simple paintings of flowers, birds and landscapes. Colorless and without painting, it is a desk calendar.

  Hou Fangyu brought not much money, so he bought a desk calendar.

  He found that the old and new calendars corresponded up and down, and beside the numbers in Chinese characters, there were also Tianzhu numbers (Arabic numbers).

  The first year of the first year of the Republic of China, 4339 in the Yellow Emperor calendar.

  The first day of the first month of the new calendar (Lichun) corresponds to the ninth day of the first lunar month (Lichun) of the old calendar.

  Continue to read and find the twenty-four solar terms in the lunar calendar, each solar term is the 1st or 16th of the new calendar. There are 31 days in a big month and 30 days in a small month.

  However, due to the uneven movement of the sun, May has 32 days, November has only 29 days, and the summer solstice is May 17.

  Hou Fangyu smiled and said, "This calendar is easy to remember."

  Hou Fangyu took the newly bought desk calendar, first asked his old friend about the situation, and learned that Fang Yizhi was trusted by Zhao Han, so he asked Fang Yizhi to pass the letter on his behalf.

  Zhao Han is about to go on a personal expedition, so there is really no time, Hou Fangyu is arranged to meet in the morning of the day after tomorrow.

  The founding emperor's personal conquest was not because he was full.

  Due to backward communication technology, military information cannot be passed back and forth quickly. Moreover, the battlefield may involve four provinces. Zhao Han must move the headquarters to the front line, because no one can independently suppress the generals except him.

   There is still a whole day left, and Hou Fangyu wanders around the city of Nanjing.

  He traveled through the three provinces of Beizhi, Shandong, and Henan, and came to the south again. The gap between the north and the south is too great. He likes the fireworks in the world like Nanjing.

   Moreover, it seems that every time you go south, there will be many new gadgets.

   Coming to the street selling cultural goods, Hou Fangyu passed by a watch shop, and suddenly heard the sound of "Dangdang".

  He walked in out of curiosity, and immediately a store clerk greeted him with a smile: "Master, this store has the latest chime clock, as well as pocket watches exclusively sold in Nanjing..."

  Hou Fangyu asked strangely: "I remember that this store used to sell inscriptions, calligraphy and paintings. How come it sells clocks and watches?"

The shopkeeper answered with a smile: "Nanjing Xungui in the former Ming Dynasty collected many inscriptions and paintings, which were stored in the Hanlin Academy. There are too many scholars in the Imperial Academy to take care of them. The previous owner of this store was Buy off the disabled soldiers and the sweeping eunuchs who manage the warehouse, and bring out one or two pieces every day. You are really brave, and you dare to take out the orphaned calligraphy and paintings, so it’s no wonder they don’t get discovered.”

   "Beheaded?" Hou Fangyu asked.

  The shopkeeper shook his head and said, "It's not a bad beheading. The merchants' families confiscated their property, and the disabled soldiers took back their land. They all threw it to some Dongfan Island to reclaim wasteland. I heard that I was next to Zhang Xianzhong and those thieves, and I had to deal with the islanders."

   There are two kinds of people who went to Taiwan to farm. For example, Zheng’s sailors and soldiers were laid off, and they farmed next to Shufan in Taiwan. As long as it can adapt to the climate, this kind is not dangerous, and the land is relatively fertile.

  As for Zhang Xianzhong and the later exiles, they had to face the Shengfan headhunters.

  Nowadays, the death penalty is reduced as much as possible. Unless the crime is extremely heinous, serious offenders can choose to be with Zhang Xianzhong.

  Hou Fangyu walked to a big clock: "Is this the one that was ringing just now?"

The owner of the store personally introduced: "I want my son to know that this is called a self-ringing clock, and it can tell the time on the hour. In this city of Nanjing, there are only two sellers of self-ringing clocks. It is difficult to buy goods. For the time being, only craftsmen in Suzhou and Guangzhou can make them. The watch workshops on both sides are still fighting patent lawsuits, and I don’t know who can win.”

  Hou Fangyu continued to observe the goods and found a small clock the size of a palm: "Is it made so small?"

  The shopkeeper proudly said: "This is a pocket watch, the smaller it is, the more valuable it is. As small as this, only two or three craftsmen in the entire south can make it."

   "How much is it worth?" Hou Fangyu asked.

  The shopkeeper smiled and showed three fingers: "This number."

   "Thirty taels?" Hou Fangyu thought it was very cheap.

  The shopkeeper laughed loudly: "Three hundred silver dollars!"

  Hou Fangyu shook his head, such an expensive price, ordinary people can't afford it.

  Comparing with grain prices alone, grain prices in ancient China have always been relatively stable. From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, only the price of grain in the Yuan Dynasty belonged to the price of the underworld.

  As long as it is not a famine year, and there are no military disasters or natural disasters, the price of rice per catty is between 2 Wen and 8 Wen (copper coins of normal quality).

  After Zhao Han stabilized the value of the currency, although there is a shortage of food, the price of rice in Nanjing is only around 10 renminbi, and the price fluctuation will not exceed 2 renminbi.

  Just this pocket watch can buy 30,000 catties of rice!

  Of course, the north will definitely not be able to exchange so much rice.

  The price of rice in Beijing this spring is 80 yuan a catty, eight times that of Nanjing, and ordinary people continue to starve to death.

  Hou Fangyu visited the watch shop for a while, and then went to the bookstore next door.

   There are all kinds of novels, and there are even many small pornographic novels. Zhao Han has not controlled such novels for the time being.

   "How can there be such phonetic notation?"

   "Excellent to me."

   "Of course you agreed, you are from Anhui!"

   "Anhui is also divided into north and south. My ancestral home is Fengyang. Datong Zhengyin is very different from Fengyang dialect."

   "The difference is not big. I am from Fujian, so the difference is big."

   "..."

  A group of scholars are discussing around the dictionary.

  They have no opinion on certain "simplified characters" in the dictionary, because they are all popular characters that have appeared, and are often used in calligraphy works or letters.

   Only Datong Zhengyin has great opinions!

  Hou Fangyu opened the dictionary curiously, and there was a pinyin table in the appendix of the dictionary. Moreover, the pronunciation and usage of the pinyin symbols and tone symbols are marked in Chinese characters, which can be easily learned by using the traditional Qieyin method.

  At least, for Hou Fangyu, he understood pinyin in a few minutes.

   Based on the spelling of the sentences in pinyin, it was found that this Datong Zhengyin is very similar to "Hongwu Zhengyun", except that the pronunciation of some Chinese characters has changed.

  However, it conforms to the traditional reading pronunciation rules.

  As long as the traditional scholars who have learned the pronunciation of reading, no matter where they are, they will definitely be able to understand the correct pronunciation of Datong.

  Hou Fangyu tried to use a dictionary to look up Chinese characters again. Whether it is pinyin lookup or radical lookup, it is infinitely faster than traditional word search tools.

  Hou Fangyu sighed: "This is a sharp tool for enlightenment, and its merits will last for thousands of years! If I stay in Jiangnan, I will be able to participate in the grand event together. It is a pity that I went back to Henan when I compiled the dictionary."

  Hou Fangyu was also helpless, he first went to Beijing to spend money to get his father out of prison. After returning home, he assisted his father in defending himself against the rogue bandits in Henan. Then the grandfather died again, and then the stockade was breached, and the father and son were forcibly taken away by Li Zicheng to become officials.

  Facing in the direction of Zhao Han's "Imperial Palace", Hou Fangyu felt inexplicable: "Writing, calendar, with this kind of merit, it is already a sign of prosperity. The sage is coming to court, how can we scholars not devote themselves to it?"

   Another day later, under the leadership of Fang Yizhi, Hou Fangyu was received by Zhao Han.

  When the two passed by the yamen of the Ministry of Rites, they saw dozens of scholars kneeling to petition, hoping to abolish Datong Zhengyin.

   "A group of rotten Confucians can only do bad things!" Hou Fangyu said contemptuously.

  Fang Yizhi said with a smile: "It's not bad, there are only a few dozen. There were one or two hundred scholars who petitioned last time."

  (end of this chapter)