"I've been busy all day and you didn't wait for me."
When Chao Yong was having dinner with Hu Sanniang in Ruizhu Hall, he saw Xiao Qing coming in with a dissatisfied look on her face.
Hu Sanniang smiled and said: "It's getting late, I thought you were having dinner in your Yiqing Hall."
Xiaoqing wrinkled her nose and said, "After the prince came back, the lady forgot about me. I was the one who accompanied you to dinner in the past few days."
Chao Yong smiled and said: "Okay, sit down quickly."
Xiaoqing has long been accustomed to three people having dinner, so she is not polite.
The two took the initiative to bring some vegetables to Xiao Qing, which appeased Xiao Qing's dissatisfaction.
While eating, Xiao Qing said: "The three thousand maids given to generals have been given away, but there are very few people willing to marry soldiers, less than a hundred."
The battlefield is cruel. There have been many battles in ancient times. It is easy to become a widow if you marry a soldier. In addition, the person you marry is an ordinary soldier, and the maids are all handsome people selected by the local people. Naturally, there are very few people who are willing to marry ordinary soldiers.
Although the probability of flying up a branch and becoming a phoenix is very small in the palace, life is worry-free. However, if you marry a soldier, you have a high probability of becoming a widow. Once you become a widow, life will be difficult.
Chao Yong also knew that soldiers were not popular, and asked curiously: "Many of them are not in Tokyo. Where have you sent them?"
Xiao Qing smiled and said: "The emperor gave them a house in Tokyo. I sent them to the generals' mansions to take care of the houses for them."
Chao Yong nodded and said, "Have you selected a literate palace maid?"
Xiao Qing smiled and said: "This is easy. I asked some young eunuchs to register separately and selected a thousand people. They can all read common words."
Chao Yong looked at Xiao Qingyun's light and airy look, and she really looked like a strong woman in later generations, and she did things neatly and neatly.
Xiao Qing looked at Chao Yong's surprised look and said with a smile: "I selected some palace maids, and the eunuchs came out to help me. I only had to direct them."
Chao Yong smiled and said: "It's not bad if you can select people and let them complete your tasks."
Hu Sanniang also nodded and said: "I don't have much time to deal with matters in the palace these days, thanks to Xiaoqing."
When Xiao Qing saw that both of them were praising her, she immediately became timid and said shyly: "Miss has to take care of Feng'er, so naturally I have to take care of her. If Miss does it, she will definitely do better than me."
After dinner, Hu Sanniang asked Chao Yong to reward Xiao Qing and pushed Chao Yong to Xiao Qing's Yiqing Hall.
A night of pleasure.
The next day, Chao Yong summoned a thousand literate people. As expected, there were many maids and few eunuchs.
The prince* did not have a large hall that could accommodate a thousand people, so they could only stand outside the hall.
Chao Yong looked at the dark crowd below and shouted: "As you know, I have sent many people out of the palace in the past few days, because the prince* does not need so many people. Because you are literate, you have the opportunity to stay.
I will give you another chance to teach you new arithmetic. If you learn it well, you can work in the royal bank office in the future. The monthly salary is at least three guan, and if you do well, you can continue to work in the palace.
Become a servant here."
Although the people below don't know what the royal ticket number is, their eyes lit up when they heard that the minimum monthly payment is three guan, and if you do well in a month, you can get 100 guan.
Seeing that Chao Yong had mobilized everyone's enthusiasm, he immediately asked people to find ten large pieces of paper, write the Arabic numerals 0-9 and the corresponding Chinese characters, and hang them under the eaves.
"You all know the words above, and the numbers below correspond to the numbers I want to teach you. Let's call them Daliang numbers. I'll give you a cup of tea and remember these numbers. Then I will select some of you to teach them personally.
arithmetic."
Chao Yong believed that Arabic numerals had not yet spread to the whole world, and with the prosperity of Daliang, these numbers would become widely known. By then, it would not be an exaggeration to call them Daliang numerals. Of course, the inventor would become the great Prince of Daliang.
A group of people heard that those who memorized it could be passed down by the crown prince. When Chao Yong ascended the throne, he would be the disciple of the emperor. They all opened their eyes wide and stared at the numbers under the eaves, memorizing them hard.
A cup of tea lasted only five minutes. When the time was up, Chao Yong had people remove the numbers hanging from the eaves.
Taking advantage of this time, Chao Yong had written a bunch of small cards with Arabic numerals on the front and Chinese characters on the back. Then he asked several literate eunuchs and palace maids to choose the person who could accurately tell the numbers.
Five numbers, there can be no mistakes.
Chao Yong originally thought this matter was very simple. After all, these people were all literate and Arabic numerals were also very simple.
But the result disappointed him. Less than a hundred people passed the test. Arabic numerals are very simple, but in the eyes of people who have never seen them before, these ten numbers have nothing to do with each other. They look like random drawings.
Not easy to remember.
For beginners, Arabic numerals are indeed not as easy to remember as Greek numerals, but when it comes to arithmetic, Arabic numerals are neater.
Those who passed the test were very happy because they could become the emperor's disciples in the future, while those who failed the test looked unwilling and stood below looking at Chao Yong longingly, hoping to give them another chance.
Of course Chao Yong would not waste any more time and waved his hand: "The selected people will follow me. The others can copy the numbers and memorize them. Let them teach you more things later."
Chao Yong led the selected people into the hall and began to teach two-digit, three-digit, and four-digit numbers. These people were very smart and had good memories. They were soon able to write multi-digit numbers using beam digits.
Just change the Chinese characters into numbers one by one.
Then he began to teach them arithmetic. Chao Yong originally thought that this would be a very simple thing, because these people could already write numbers, adding single digits to single digits, and adding tens to tens. But he did not expect that there would be
Not many people are arithmetic. Literacy and calculation are irrelevant in this era.
Chao Yong couldn't help but feel dizzy as he watched these adults doing simple addition and subtraction with their fingers.
Another eunuch took out a pile of wooden sticks and placed them there.
Chao Yong walked over and watched curiously as the eunuch played with the stick and then wrote out the correct answer. However, it was obvious that he did not calculate according to the method he taught. He couldn't help but wonder: "What kind of algorithm are you doing?"
The eunuch saw the prince coming and said hurriedly: "This is a plan."
Chao Yong saw how he was doing it horizontally and vertically, and laughed and said, "How do you do this?"
"One to five are arranged vertically, and after five, there is a horizontal one. Use the vertical position for the ones place, the horizontal position for the tens place, the vertical position for the hundreds place, the horizontal position for the thousands place, and the vertical position for the ten thousand place.
.”
Chao Yong saw the eunuch displaying everything one by one. The calculation was very simple and intuitive. He nodded and said, "Did you invent this?"
The eunuch hurriedly said: "No, this method existed a long time ago. I worked as an errand in Sizhen, recording property, so I learned this calculation."
Chao Yong smiled and said: "This method is good, but you can't carry a bunch of sticks with you. Learn the numbers of beams carefully. In the future, the account books in the palace will also use the numbers of beams. Share your sticks with everyone and save them counting on their fingers. It’s over.”
Seeing what the prince said, the eunuch had no choice but to give out the sticks to everyone with a grimace. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!)