Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1229 Epilogue : Mayan currency can be made into chocolate

Coco Kaba is studying, holding a book called "Elementary Mathematics".

Of course he couldn't understand it, but Xue Shan acted as the translator.

As a second-generation American, Xue Shan's educational level is not high, but he still knows addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

At first, Coco Kaba thought Ming mathematics was ridiculous. They used the extremely inconvenient decimal system, which was not as convenient as the Mayan system of vigesimal.

Two hands and two feet equal twenty. Could it be that the people of Ming Dynasty were so stupid that they could only count two hands?

Coco Kaba was very confident in his mathematical ability. All Mayan priests were good at mathematics and astronomy. They had four different calendars and calculated that a year was 365.242 days.

The Ming people's 1, 2, and 3 also made Coco Kaba extremely uncomfortable, as he thought that too many changes made it inconvenient to remember and read.

The Mayans used “·” to represent 1, and two dots represent 2.

“ ” is also used to represent 5.

If it is 8, it is written as a horizontal line with three dots on top.

And so on until you reach number 19.

0 is a bit like the character "目" in oracle bone script.

20 is the number with a dot above or to the left of the zero sign, which is a 20. 40 is the number with two dots above or to the left of the zero sign, which is a 20.

For 100, use the symbol for zero plus a dash, which is five 20s.

400 is two oracle bone characters for "目", which means twenty 20s.

What a clear and concise way of expression! In comparison, the mathematical symbols used by the Ming people are really rubbish!
Even though he had contempt in his heart, Keke Kaba still worked hard to learn, because everything in the Ming Dynasty was too advanced, so he had to let go of his contempt.

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock on the door, and Coco Kaba's followers hurried to open the gate.

An official from the Honglu Temple brought Xie Yan in and introduced him to them.

Xue Shan translated: "This is the uncle of the Ming Emperor."

Coco Kaba did not dare to be negligent 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 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.

Now he followed suit and put the tobacco into his pipe. He flicked the flint to light the lighter, and tilted the pipe to quickly light the tobacco.

The Mayan man puffed out smoke and smiled as he exclaimed: "Ming people's cigarettes taste great!"

Xue Shan also received one of the gifts. He tried to take a sip and choked and coughed.

Everyone went into the house and sat down to chat.

Xie Yan asked: "The Mayans have a food called cocoa?"

"It's not just food, it can be exchanged for anything," Coco Kaba said. "The tribe can use cocoa, instead of other items, to pay tribute to the city-state leader. The city-state can also use cocoa, instead of other items, to pay tribute to the Mayan king."

After hearing Xue Shan's translation, Xie Yan instantly understood that cocoa had already possessed currency attributes among the Mayans.

The Maya used cacao as currency, probably starting in the Fifth Dynasty.

Until the early colonial era, colonists were still able to use cocoa as wages to pay the Maya who worked for them.

Xie Yan asked again: "How do you eat cocoa?"

Coco Kaba tells the story in detail.

One way is to take it as a potion, and the other is like taking chocolate without sugar.

For the Mayans, this thing can not only communicate with gods, but also cure all diseases.

Xie Yan also asked indirectly about the Mayan political system.

The answer was soon obtained from Coco Kaba, which was probably a three-level system of "kingdom (city-state alliance) - city-state - tribe".

Today, the capital of the Mayan Kingdom, "Mayapan", has a population of about 10,000.

This proves that the Mayan civilization did decline.

Chichen Itza was once occupied and ruled by foreign races for a long time, and then reconquered by the Mayans. The city's population was 50,000 at its peak.

Chichen Itza was just a medium-sized city during the heyday of Mayan civilization.

Tikal, one of the Mayan capitals hundreds of years ago, had a population of over 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 each other for hundreds of years, and were finally all destroyed by foreign tribes from central Mexico.

The foreign tribes in central Mexico who believed in Quetzalcoatl also belonged to an agricultural civilization, but they were conquered by the fishing and hunting tribes further north.

Xie Yan was very interested in this and asked many questions about Mayan customs.

Then he asked Xue Shan: "How many people are there in your village?"

Xue Shan said: "It's not just a village, there's already a market town. There are more than 2500 households in the town, and on the first and fifteenth day of every month, there's a market town where farmers from all around the town come to trade. If we include the children in the countryside, we estimate that the population exceeds 2500." Among these people, more than half are Mayan women, and the mixed-race descendants of Han and Mayan women.

Not only did they intermarry with friendly tribes, they also snatched women from hostile tribes!
As for slaves, they are not included in the statistics because they are not considered human beings.

"So, you also capture slaves to 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. When a slave is captured, he can only do rough labor for the first two years. It takes at least three years before he can learn how to plow the soil, apply fertilizer, make compost, etc."

"Are those slaves also Mayans?" Xie Yan asked.

Xue Shan replied: "They are from the Mayan tribe, which lost their city-state and country and was enslaved by foreign races for two or three hundred years. Even their beliefs were changed and they were forced to believe in Quetzalcoatl. Every year they had to offer food and human sacrifices to the foreign leaders."

"About twenty years ago, the alien nation that enslaved them was conquered by another alien nation. The Mayans who changed their beliefs became free tribes. They formed alliances with each other, fought against each other, and annexed each other."

"We, the Han people, have formed alliances with a few of the tribes and are hostile to the rest."

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-race descendants will be completely integrated into Central America.

This mixed-race person named Xue Shan looks no different from a Han Chinese at first glance, but upon closer inspection he has obvious alien features.

He has extremely long arms, a hooked nose, thick lips and slightly brown skin.

But he also inherited paternal characteristics. His father, who was from Shandong, made him significantly taller than the Mayans. His head circumference was smaller than that of the Mayans with large heads. His forehead was not as flat as that of the Mayans. His cheekbones were more prominent than those of the Mayans. His face was longer than that of 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 Daming?"

Coco Kaba turned back to his room and brought out a small bag: "This is all I have. I also have a large bag of cocoa, which I gave to your emperor as a gift."

This Maya brother kept half of the bag for himself and gave the rest to Xie Yan as a return gift.

Xie Yan asked about Coco's cooking method, then stood up and said goodbye.

Coco Kaba also returned to the house and continued to study Ming Dynasty mathematics.

After leaving the courtyard, Xie Yan asked the official from the Honglu Temple who had accompanied him, "How did the court deal with the cocoa presented by the Mayans?"

The official of the Honglu Temple laughed and said, "General Zeng said that it was bitter and not tasty at all, and the royal family would never eat anything carelessly. They were also afraid that it would become moldy and smelly, so they even confiscated it from the inner treasury and threw it in the Honglu Temple for us to deal with it ourselves."

"Can you give it to me?" Xie Yan asked.

The official of the Honglu Temple said, "If the prince consort wants it, just take it. I will send someone to get it right away."

"Thank you!" Xie Yan bowed.

He really likes the princess and wants to make chocolate for her.

Pregnant women can eat chocolate. When Xie Yan’s cousin gave birth, the doctor asked her to buy chocolate to replenish her energy.

Xie Yan remembered it clearly because it was winter vacation at that time. He also went to the hospital to join in the fun, and he was responsible for running errands and buying the chocolate at the small supermarket outside the hospital.

What's the point of studying how to vulcanize rubber?
Researching how to make chocolate for my wife is the big deal!

With that little bit of rubber as experimental material, we can only come up with the most basic vulcanization plan. We have to wait until more rubber is shipped back from America.

If you want to engage in industrial production, you will have to wait longer, preferably until the artificial rubber plantations in Nanyang are ready for tapping.

Officials from the Honglu Temple sent people to the warehouse to get cocoa. Xie Yan was left here with nothing to do, so he simply went to visit the resident envoy of the Kingdom of Dayuan in the next courtyard.

This Dayuan envoy is a typical Han Chinese, and he is also the king's nephew-in-law.

He claimed to be a descendant of Wang De, Marquis of Jingbian, a founding hero.

But who is Wang De?
Xie Yan, however, had no impression of it.

After chatting about the customs and culture of Dayuan for a while, the officials from the Honglu Temple finally brought the cocoa.

He took it home excitedly: "Sister, I will make you something delicious."

"What is this?" Zhu Tangxi asked curiously.

Xie Yan said: "The Mayans brought cocoa. Although the Mayans had gold and silver, they had no currency, so they usually bartered. Only this kind of cocoa can be used as money, and can even be used to pay taxes."

Zhu Tangxi was looking forward to it: "Since the Mayans like it so much, it must be very delicious."

"You can't eat it directly, it's bitter, you need to add sugar," Xie Yan said, "Sister, wait a minute, I'm going to the kitchen first."

Watching Xie Yan leave, Qing Luan said, "Your Highness is so lucky. How many men in the world can love their wives as much as Liu Lang does?"

These words sounded nice, and Zhu Tangxi felt extremely sweet: "You should help Liu Lang go to bed tonight, and don't let him get suffocated."

Qing Luan suppressed her ecstasy and said jokingly, "It's only three days, you won't get hurt if you hold it in."

Zhu Tangxi joked, "I'm afraid you're going to get sick from holding it in."

"I didn't!" Qingluan denied it flatly.

Although these two are master and servant, they grew up together and are closer than sisters. It is common for them to joke about the joys of the boudoir.

"Come here."

Zhu Tangxi muttered something to Qingluan, and soon her cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

Qingluan was daydreaming, but she was still stubborn: "I don't want that!"

(End of this chapter)