Chapter 1229 Postscript 85·The currency of the Mayans can be made into chocolate
Coco Kaba is studying, holding a book "Elementary Mathematics" in his hand.
Of course he couldn't understand it, but Xue Shan was the translator.
As a second-generation American, Xue Shan's cultural level is not very high, but he still knows how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
When he first started learning, Coco Kaba thought the Ming Dynasty's mathematics was funny. It actually used the extremely inconvenient decimal system, which was not as easy to use as the Maya's hexadecimal system.
Two hands and two feet equal twenty. Is Akito so stupid that he can only count on two hands?
Coco Caba is very confident in his mathematical abilities. All Mayan priests are good at mathematics and astronomy. They have four different calendars and calculated that a year is 365.242 days.
Akito's numbers 1, 2, and 3 also made Coco Kabba very uncomfortable, thinking that there were too many changes and it was difficult to remember and read.
The Mayans used "·" to represent 1, and two dots are 2.
Also use " " to represent 5.
If it is 8, it is written as three dots on a horizontal line.
And so on until you reach 19.
0 is a bit like the word "object" in Oracle.
20 means adding a dot above or to the left of the zero sign, that is, one 20. 40 uses the zero sign and adds two dots, that is, two 20s.
For 100, use the symbol of zero plus a horizontal line, that is, five 20s.
400 is the number of two oracle bones, that is, twenty 20.
What a clear and concise expression, Akito's mathematical symbols are really rubbish in comparison!
Even though he has contempt in his heart, Coco Kaba is still studying hard. Because everything about Ming Dynasty is too advanced, he must let go of his contempt.
"Dong dong dong!"
There was a knock on the door, and Coco Kaba's entourage hurriedly ran to open the courtyard door.
Officials from Honglu Temple brought Xie Yan in and introduced them.
Xue Shan translated: "This is the uncle of the Ming Emperor."
Coco Kaba did not dare to neglect and quickly lowered his scepter to salute Xie Yan.
Xie Yan bowed in return and took out his own gifts - two exquisite pipes, two bags of Nanyang cut tobacco, two kerosene lighters, and two bottles of kerosene.
"Thank you very much for your gift!" Coco Kaba was very happy.
Especially lighters.
On his way to Ming Dynasty, he saw how Ming people smoked.
At this moment, I followed the example and put the cut tobacco into the pipe. I flicked the flint to light the lighter, tilted the pipe sideways and lit the cut tobacco quickly.
The old Mayan puffed away the smoke and praised with a smile: "Akito's smoke tastes very good!"
Xue Shan also received one of the gifts and took a sip, choking and coughing repeatedly.
Everyone entered the house and sat down to chat.
Xie Yan asked: "Maya has a food called cocoa?"
Coco Kaba said: "It's not just food, it can be exchanged for anything. Tribes can use cocoa in place of other items to pay tribute to the city-state leaders. City-states can also use cocoa in place of other items to pay tribute to the king of Maya."
After hearing Xue Shan's translation, Xie Yan instantly understood that cocoa already had currency properties among the Mayans.
The Mayans used cocoa as currency, probably starting from the Five Dynasties period.
Until the early colonial era, colonists could still use cocoa as wages and pay it to the Mayans who worked for them.
Xie Yan asked again: "How do you eat cocoa?"
Coco Kaba tells it in detail.
One way is to take it as a potion, and the other way is like unsweetened chocolate.
For the Mayans, this thing can not only communicate with gods, but also cure all diseases.
Xie Yan then asked indirectly about the political system of the Mayans.
I soon got the answer from Coco Kaba, which is probably the three-level system of "kingdom (city-state alliance)-city-state-tribe".
Today's Mayapan, the capital of the Mayan Kingdom, has about 10,000 residents.
This proves that the Mayan civilization did decline.
Chichén Itza, which was occupied and ruled by foreigners for a long time and was recaptured by the Mayans, had a city population of 50,000 at its peak.
Chichen Itza, at the peak of the Mayan civilization, was just a medium-sized city.
Tikal, one of the capitals of the Mayans hundreds of years ago, had a population of more than 100,000 at its peak!
Why do you say one?
Because there were two Mayan kingdoms at that time, and the other kingdom was in southern Mexico.
They fought with each other for hundreds of years, and were eventually wiped out by aliens from central Mexico.
The aliens in central Mexico who believed in Quetzalcoatl also belonged to an agricultural civilization and were conquered by the fishing and hunting people further north.
Xie Yan was very interested in this and asked many questions about the customs of the Mayans.
Then he asked Xue Shan: "How many people are there in your village?"
Xue Shan said: "It's not just a village, there is a market town. There are more than fifty households in the town. Every first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, farmers from around the town come to trade. If we include the children in the countryside, we estimate that we have exceeded
Population 2,500.”
Among the population of 2,500, more than half belong to Mayan women, as well as mixed descendants of Han and Mayan women.
Not just intermarriage with friendly tribes, but also women snatched from hostile tribes!
As for slaves, they are not included in the statistics because they are not counted as human beings.
"So, you also capture slaves for work?" Xie Yan asked.
Xue Shan replied: "Those slaves are stupid and can only do slash-and-burn farming, wasting the fertile soil accumulated by volcanic ash. After capturing a slave, he can only do menial work for the first two years. It will take at least three years to learn how to plow the ground, apply fertilizer, and compost."
etc."
"Are those slaves also Mayans?" Xie Yan asked.
Xue Shan replied: "They come from the Mayan tribe that lost their city-state and country and was enslaved by foreigners for two to three hundred years. Even their beliefs have changed and they are forced to believe in Quetzalcoatl. Every year they have to donate food to the leaders of the foreign tribes.
and human sacrifice.”
"About twenty years ago, the alien country that enslaved them was attacked and destroyed by another alien race. These Mayans who changed their beliefs became free tribes. They formed alliances with each other, fought with each other, and annexed each other."
"We Han people formed an alliance with a few of the tribes and fought against the remaining tribes."
Xie Yan found it very interesting that a group of exiled Han criminals actually started a tribal war in America.
If there is no contact with the Ming Dynasty for a long time, after the first batch of Han people die, it is estimated that their mixed descendants will be completely integrated into Central America.
The mixed-race man in front of me named Xue Shan looks no different from Han Chinese at first glance, but upon closer inspection, he has obvious alien characteristics.
Check out the correct version one by one!
He has extremely long arms, a hooked nose, thick lips, and slightly brown skin.
But he also inherited his paternal characteristics. His father came from Shandong, which made him significantly taller than the Mayans. His head circumference is smaller than the Mayans with big heads. His forehead is not as flat as the Mayans. His cheekbones are more prominent than the Mayans. His face shape
Longer than the Mayans.
This guy is about 1.65 meters tall, while the average height of Mayan men is only 1.55 meters.
After chatting with Xue Shan for a while, Xie Yan asked Coco Kaba: "Did you bring Coco to Ming Dynasty?"
Coco Kabba turned back to his room and brought a small bag: "I only have this much. I also have a big bag of cocoa, which I gave to your emperor as a gift."
Brother Maya kept half of the bag to eat himself, and gave the rest to Xie Yan as a return gift.
Xie Yan asked about the cooking method of cocoa, then stood up and left.
Coco Kaba also returned to the house and continued to study Ming mathematics.
After leaving the courtyard, Xie Yan asked the official of Honglu Temple who accompanied him: "How does the court deal with the cocoa donated by the Mayans?"
To be continued...