Afterwards, Chen Jingke called Xu Shanying and the other five people together and said, "You have all read those books. Now I will give you some questions."
As he spoke, he picked up a branch and wrote three questions on the ground:
What is a soldier?
The meaning of the existence of soldiers is.
What is the purpose of the military?
"These are these three questions. You can discuss them at will, read any information, and ask anyone."
"In short, you can use all available means to find the answer, but I hope that what you give me is the truest answer in your heart."
"There is no need to force everyone to have the same answer. There is no fixed standard for this question for the time being, and every answer may be right."
"Okay, you can think about this question and tell me the answer in two days."
"Here." Xu Shanying and the other five looked at each other, what are they going to do? Besides, is this a question that the five of us are qualified to think about?
But since the order was issued from above, they could only work hard to find the answer.
After handling these trivial matters, Chen Jingke went to Erya Courtyard to look for Wu Shu. This was the meeting place they had just agreed upon, and as expected, he found her here.
At this moment, she and the sisters Yiheilian were showing off with mirrors. It was obvious that this glass mirror had successfully conquered the two sisters.
Zhou Xiang and other senior men were doing hard calculations with their account books.
When they saw Chen Jingke coming over, they just said hello and continued to do their own thing.
Chen Jingke did not join the crowd of three women, but went to Zhou Xiang and others to watch them check the accounts.
Zixiaoguan has completely switched to the new type of account books. Everything has been going well for more than a month without any problems, and this type of account book is particularly convenient when checking accounts.
For small accounts, you only need to look at the numbers at the beginning and end to roughly know if there is any problem. Although the big accounts are troublesome, the calculation speed is also much faster than before.
At this time, they are conducting a monthly audit of the account books. After the accounting is completed, the account books for this month will be temporarily sealed.
At the end of the year, a general accounting will be conducted, and then the accounting books for the year will be completely archived and sealed.
It can only be read with the consent of Sun Simiao, Chen Jingke and Wu Shu.
Calculating bills is very tedious and boring. For example, right now, what Zhou Xiang and the others are doing is simple addition and subtraction, but they can't make mistakes after repeating it hundreds or thousands of times, which tests their patience.
It would be okay if there was a computer, but manual verification would be a torturous task.
Something came to Chen Jingke's mind, which can be called an accounting artifact, the abacus.
He had thought about making this thing before, but was delayed by the glass issue. Now that he had time, he just made it.
So I came to the printing house again to find Mei Laoshi and the others.
This thing really has no technical content for carpenters, so they immediately understood after describing it like this.
Several craftsmen divided the work and collaborated. You made the frame, I made the wooden pole for stringing beads, and he made the beads. It didn't take long for a slightly rough abacus to be made.
The frame is made of light wood, and the beads are made of dark wood, which is clearly visible at a glance.
Chen Jingke held it and shook it a few times, and it made a squeaking sound. The sound was very nice. He plucked it with his hand and it was smooth and smooth.
He immediately said with satisfaction: "Yes, that's it. Just make a hundred of them according to this style, and then each student in the school will have one."
All the craftsmen have children studying in the school, which means they also have children, and their attitudes suddenly change.
They all said they would build it well.
Then Chen Jingke took the abacus back to Erya Courtyard and deliberately threw the abacus rattling.
Wu Shu knew his man's character, so he must have come up with something good to show off.
He felt funny in his heart, but he still cooperated and said: "Master, what are you holding? It's so strange."
Chen Jingke said proudly: "You will never guess, this is a good thing. It comes and goes. If anyone can guess what it does, I will reward you greatly."
Yihe chuckled and said, "Then you have to tell me what the reward is first. If it's too little, we won't bother. It's not worth it."
Chen Jingke said angrily: "I didn't expect you to follow their bad example. Am I such a stingy person? Whoever guesses correctly will give Yihe to him."
"Pfft..." Wu Shu and Yi Lian laughed at the side.
A group of big men on the side immediately started to boo:
"Real people should keep their words."
"I have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time."
"I must guess it right this time."
Yihe was a little dumbfounded. She didn't expect to get burned. But she has been managing Erya Courtyard for so long and she is not easy to deal with. Although her cheeks were red with embarrassment, she still said loudly:
"Let's be fair if we come. What if I guess right?"
Chen Jingke smiled and said: "You have to guess right, you can choose from these dozen or so great men."
"Haha..." Everyone roared with laughter.
"Yihe chooses me, chooses me."
"Why choose you? You have to choose me."
Yihe couldn't stand it anymore. She was the one who suffered the loss. She stamped her feet and said, "You are bullying others. Sister, you have to help me get justice."
Wu Shu blinked his eyes and said, "I think everyone is pretty good. You really don't want to think about it?"
Yihe refused and said, "Sister, why are you bullying me with them?"
Wu Shu smiled and said: "Okay, okay, sister, help you, can't you help me? Stop joking, everyone, come and guess what this is. If you guess it right, the real person will treat everyone to dinner later."
Everyone also knew that the joke should not be taken too far, so they turned over this article and started guessing.
It's just a pity that none of them are specialized in mathematics. Their mathematics knowledge was learned from Chen Jingke later. After guessing for a long time, no one could figure it out.
Seeing that no one could do it right, Chen Jingke felt even more proud and said, "You can't guess it, so now I'll tell you the answer. It's just for math."
What he didn't see was that when Wu Shu made his announcement, he silently said two words: Calculate.
"Does it count?" Zhou Xiang asked doubtfully, "How does this thing count?"
Chen Jingke first briefly explained the rules of the abacus, then read out a few groups of numbers at random, and the results appeared after a dozen clicks.
Everyone checked it and it was undoubtedly correct.
The curious people read out a few more sets of numbers, and calculated all additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions, and they were all accurate.
Now everyone had no doubts anymore, and all marveled at Chen Jingke's fantastic ideas.
Even Wu Shu was surprised. Although she guessed that this was something similar to calculations, she didn't expect it to be so convenient and fast.
With such a useful tool, calculations will no longer have to be so troublesome in the future.
Especially when it comes to settling accounts, it's simply not too convenient.
Settling accounts? She immediately thought of what happened just now when Chen Jingke walked around here and then left again. She still didn't understand what happened.
This little man is really smart.
Compared with simple hand calculation, the abacus is indeed easier to use, but it is no longer useful right now. It takes time to learn and become proficient in the abacus.
It cannot be used to settle accounts before it is mastered, so Zhou Xiang and others still have to settle accounts by hand.
However, there were only one month's accounts, and the amount was not very large, so it didn't take long to complete the calculations.
Chen Jingke asked Tianranju to send a lot of delicious food to reward everyone.
He stopped running around in the afternoon and stayed in his small courtyard to study.
At night, Yi Nu finally found an opportunity to launch a night attack. His fierce movements, like those of a little tiger, made Chen Jingke scream and couldn't bear it.
Early the next morning, he went to the Hongwen Hall to visit Lu Cai. This time he went with the science textbooks he had compiled.
Lu Cai naturally welcomed his arrival very much. After interacting with Chen Jingke, when communicating with other people, he always felt that he was playing the piano to others.
It's a very simple truth, but when he says it once, the listeners will look confused, and then they will either continue to look confused or become impatient.
After all, Confucianism is the superior knowledge in this era. Although other knowledge is not denounced as heresy, it is also an object of discrimination.
But even when talking about Confucian classics with others, he is still an outlier. After all, it is really difficult for a materialist atheist who sympathizes with the people at the bottom to find resonance in this era.
But Chen Jingke is different. He only needs to mention it, and Chen Jingke will understand it immediately and draw inferences from one example.
In terms of thinking, Chen Jingke was even more radical than him... All of this made him feel like a confidant.
He was very disappointed when he learned that Chen Jingke was inconvenient some time ago. How could he not be happy when he suddenly saw the person he was thinking of visiting?
In addition to the above, another point is that he was summoned by Li Shimin because he helped write "Chinese Civilization".
After some questioning, the emperor was satisfied with his knowledge and gave him a task.
He naturally knew what was going on and was very grateful to Chen Jingke. He solemnly expressed his gratitude as soon as they met.
Chen Jingke accepted his thanks generously and then asked about the task.
Lu Caidao said: "The saint ordered me to compile the law of marriage, but you know me and have never believed in the theory of fortune and destiny. Alas, it's just that it's hard to violate the holy order, so I have to work hard to do it."
Chen Jingke said with a smile: "Although you don't believe in the theory of strange power and chaos of gods, in terms of understanding of this Tao, there are few people in the world who can match it. The saint asked you to write it, which is the wisdom of a knowledgeable person."
Lu Cai smiled bitterly and said: "The real person is joking, I would rather write an article that opposes the theory of fortune and destiny."
Chen Jingke thought for a while and said: "Actually, saints are not really superstitious about this. The main reason is that foreigners are proud to marry Tang Dynasty girls and propose marriage."
"The imperial court is too troubled and cannot refuse directly. The main reason for asking you to write a marriage law is to have an excuse to refuse the matter."
"You just need to think along this line of thinking and make the book's logic so smooth and self-consistent that people can't find faults with it."
Lu Cai suddenly realized it and said gratefully: "That's it, thanks to the real person's guidance, otherwise I really don't know where to start."
Chen Jingke smiled and said: "Mr. Lu is too polite. I just happen to know some news."
After chatting for a few more words, he took out the science textbook he had written and said, "Here is a book. Please correct it, Mr. Lu."