People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 719: Teach female workers to use Arabic numerals to keep accounts!
Zhu Youwei chuckled when she heard this: "You even prepared the teaching aids."

She stood up and straightened her sleeves, when she suddenly saw Li Zhen hurriedly stepping into the threshold and whispering something in her ear.

Zhu Youwei raised her eyebrows and said to Chen Han, "As expected, the Xu family sent someone to sneak into the loom workshop of the School of Engineering. Unfortunately, they couldn't even tell the front and back of the gears, and were exposed by the students in public."

She sneered, "In that case, let's just teach it in a big way. Tomorrow at noon, you will take people to escort 20 improved spinning wheels to the Institute of Physics. I will have the women workers in the workshop line up and go around twice more along the way - to slap the Xu family in the face, and also to let the people see the confidence of the Women's Workshop."

Chen Han nodded, and suddenly saw Chen Jin standing on tiptoe to reach the map on the desk, so he lifted him onto his shoulders and said, "Come on, Dad will take you to find out the location of the Physics Institute first."

Amid the cheers of the children, Zhu Youwei watched the father and son walk out of the palace gate, then turned to Li Zhen and said, "Tell Madam Liu to give the female workers an extra night class tonight to teach them 'one two three' and abacus formulas. If anyone asks..." She raised the corners of her lips slightly, "Just say that those who learn quickly will get to touch the spinning wheel adjusted by Master Chen himself tomorrow."

……

As the morning light breaks, Daming Engineering College is already bustling with activity.

Zhu Yunhuan rolled up his sleeves and directed several noble sons to move the improved spinning wheel to the center of the small square. The iron and wood structure of the mechanism shone coldly in the morning light, and the meshing of the gears was still stained with oil stains that had not been wiped off during the debugging last night.

"The gearbox should be half an inch to the left!" Zhu Yunhuan knelt on one knee, squinting his eyes to calibrate the position by comparing it with the sun's shadow. Suddenly, Zhu Gaoxu's loud voice came from behind: "Third brother, is your uncle really willing to come? Last time I asked him to talk about firearms improvement, he said he was busy for half a month!"

Zhu Yunhuan didn't even turn his head, and stroked the copper inscription on the bottom of the spinning wheel with his fingertips: "Today is different. I heard that all the female workers in the workshop will come." He suddenly lowered his voice, "The spies of the Xu family were wandering outside the Physics Institute last night. When they were caught by the Jinyiwei, they were still holding the imitation gear in their arms."

The children of the nobles burst into laughter. The Chang family boy swung a wrench and hit the spinning wheel bracket. The sound of metal collision scared the sparrows under the eaves away: "Let them steal! The quenching process of this linkage bearing is made of Liaodong snowflake iron!"

The crowd suddenly became agitated. Zhu Gaochi squeezed in with a math book in his hand. The newly-worn bronze plaque of "Student of the School of Physics" on his waist dazzled everyone: "Yun Hun, the literacy books for the female workers have been delivered. Why does this spinning wheel have two more sets of gears than the one on the blueprint?"

"My uncle modified it himself last night." Zhu Yunhuan lifted the side panel of the spinning wheel, revealing the interlaced copper connecting rods inside. "It is said that a 'self-tightening device' has been added, so even a novice will not twist the yarn." He suddenly caught a glimpse of the crowd coming in the distance, and his Adam's apple moved, "Here they come!"

The small square suddenly became quiet.

In the morning mist, Zhu Youwei led more than a hundred female workers in a line. Their indigo uniforms formed a lake-like color under the morning sun. Madam Liu in the front row held an abacus, her skinny fingers quickly fiddling with the beads.

"Arrange in formation—" Li Zhen slammed his mace to the ground. The women workers all drew out copper rulers from their waists and formed a semicircle in front of the spinning wheel. Arabic numerals and the formula of the Nine Chapters were engraved on the rulers, which looked like an open silver fan in the sun.

Zhu Gaoxu gasped: "Wow, this is even more orderly than the gun formation of the Fifth Army Battalion!"

When Chen Han's figure appeared at the corner of the corridor, the whole square was boiling.

The sons of nobles were huddled together, and one of them, wearing a lake blue silk shirt, stepped on Zhu Jixi's boots. Zhu Yunhuan had just shouted "Silence" when he saw Chen Han walking to the spinning wheel and tapping the gear box with his fingertips: "No lecture today."

Before he could sigh in disappointment, he suddenly picked up a bundle of cotton yarn and threw it to the line of female workers: "Let's have a competition first! Twenty people from the Engineering College and twenty people from the workshop. In one hour, see which side can weave the longest cloth!"

Zhu Gaochi's abacus beads jumped in shock. Just as he was about to protest, Zhu Yunhuan shouted, "What are you afraid of! We installed the steam engine ourselves!"

Among the women workers, Xiao Tao, the youngest, suddenly stepped out. She untied the pouch at her waist and took out a few ebony beads, then arranged a trigonometric function next to the spinning wheel: "Duke, if you use the 'up three and down five' method, you can save two quarters of an hour."

Chen Han laughed, shook out a roll of indigo blue drawings from his sleeve and spread them on the stone steps - it was the "Key to Speedy Weaving" that he and Zhu Youwei had worked on last night. The female workers gathered around, and the wooden hairpins in their hair cast fine shadows on the drawings, like a group of pecking birds.

"Begin!" Li Zhen's gong caused dewdrops to fall from the treetops.

Forty spinning wheels roared at the same time, and the sound of the gears meshing drowned out the morning bells in the distance. Zhu Gaoxu wielded a wrench to help the nobles adjust the connecting rods, and beads of sweat rolled into his eyes: "Damn it! This pedal is harder to tame than a war horse!"

The spinning wheel in the opposite workshop was working as if it were an arm. The rhythm of Madam Liu's pedaling matched the General's Order, and the woven cloth flew three feet in the blink of an eye. Zhu Yunhuan was so anxious that he pulled Zhu Gaochi's sleeve and said, "Quickly calculate their speed!"

The sounds of abacus and loom interweave into a strange rhythm.

In the shadow of the corridor pillars, several men in shorts took out charcoal pencils furtively and were secretly drawing the gear structure. Suddenly, Zhu Youwei's silver scissors pressed against the back of their necks: "Master of the Xu family?" She picked with the tips of the scissors, and a copy of "Loom Atlas" fell out of the man's arms. The title page was clearly printed with "Songjiang Xu Family Secret Collection".

"Princess, spare my life!" The spy knelt down, "We are also following orders..."

Zhu Youwei picked up the atlas, turned to the latest page and suddenly laughed: "The gears are drawn upside down."

She threw the atlas back and said, "Take a message to your young master - the Physics Institute will hold a public lecture on 'Self-Tightening Device' in three days. You are welcome to come and learn."

Cheers suddenly broke out in the center of the square.

The cloth woven by the sons of noble families was only over 50 meters, but the cloth woven by the women workers had already reached the ground. Xiao Tao was measuring the last section with a copper ruler when she suddenly cried out, "This cloth..."

The sunlight penetrated the fabric, revealing fine "women" patterns between the warp and weft - these were the words Chen Han had written on the warp with tea juice last night, and they would only appear when exposed to water.

Zhu Yunxun stroked the cloth in a daze, and suddenly heard Chen Han say behind him: "Do you understand? The real mechanism is in the human heart." He pointed at the calloused fingers of the female workers, "They are willing to stay up until three o'clock in the morning to calculate a gear ratio. What about you?"

Zhu Gaochi's abacus fell to the ground with a "click".

Zhu Jixi was holding a half-woven piece of cloth in his hand, and was humbly asking Madam Liu for the formula of "three up and five down".

Zhu Yunhuan was directing several sons of nobles to carry the improved spinning wheel to the center. Zhu Gaoxu was hitting the bracket with a wrench, and the sound of metal collision startled the sparrows under the eaves.

"The gearbox should be half an inch to the left!" Zhu Yunhuan knelt on one knee, squinting his eyes to compare with the sun's shadow. Suddenly, Zhu Jixi complained from behind: "Third brother, why is it so difficult to calculate the accounts of this spinning wheel? Just the number of spindles used today has filled three pages!"

Zhu Yunhuan turned around and saw the densely written words "One Hundred and Twenty-Three Ingots" on the account book in his hand. He couldn't help but shook his head: "Who told you to use capital numbers? Can't you just write '123' in Arabic numerals?"

"Nonsense!" Zhu Jixi stiffened his neck. "How can we change the accounting method passed down by our ancestors at will?"

The crowd suddenly became agitated.

Chen Han appeared at the corner of the corridor, followed by several students from the School of Physics carrying wooden boxes.

The nobles' sons were silent immediately, but they saw him walk straight to the accounting desk and tap on Zhu Jixi's account book with his fingertips: "This is where your problem lies."

He suddenly took out an exquisite copper abacus from the wooden box, and the beads were engraved with Arabic numerals from "0" to "9".

"Watch carefully—" With the movement of his fingers, "one hundred and twenty-three" instantly turned into three beads "123", glowing coldly in the morning light.

Zhu Gaochi squeezed over with the "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" in his hand. The bronze medallion of "Student of the School of Physics" on his waist dazzled people. "My Lord, this number is simple, but if the accountants don't recognize it..." "Then let them recognize it!" Chen Han suddenly opened the side panel of the spinning wheel, revealing the interlaced gears inside. "When you improved the spinning machine, you knew to change the straight teeth to helical teeth to save effort. Why do you stick to the old method when it comes to accounting?"

He took Zhu Jixi's brush and quickly wrote two sets of numbers on the bluestone slab: "Seven Hundred and Forty-Five Ingots" on the left and "745" on the right.

"Compare and see which one is more likely to make mistakes?"

The sons of noble families looked at each other in bewilderment.

Zhu Yunhuan suddenly squatted down and drew a slash next to "745" with a charcoal pencil: "If you add the word 'ingot', even a child can understand it."

Chen Han nodded approvingly, then took out a roll of silk cloth from the box and unfolded it - it turned out to be a comparison chart of a loom and numbers.

"Weaving requires warp and weft, and accounting also requires rules." He pointed to the interwoven red and blue lines on the diagram. "The warp is an integer, and the weft is a decimal. Using Arabic numerals to record spindle losses is three times faster than using an abacus."

Zhu Gaoxu squeezed over with a wrench in his hand: "But those old-fashioned people in the Ministry of Revenue..."

"Ministry of Revenue?" Chen Han sneered, and suddenly shook out a document with the seal of the Ministry of Revenue from his sleeve. "Since the land survey last year, the new account book has been tried out for half a year. Do you know how much money has been saved?"

He tapped his fingertips heavily on the words "Save 6,300 sheets of paper" at the end.

The nobles' children were in an uproar. Zhu Yunhuan suddenly remembered something and took out a blue booklet from his pocket: "The 'decimal notation' I learned at the Physics Institute last month is very convenient for adjusting gear ratios..."

"That's exactly the point!" Chen Han took the booklet, turned to a certain page and suddenly raised it up, "When you were improving the spinning wheel, you knew to use a transmission ratio of '3.5 to 1' to save effort; why do you insist on writing 'three and a half minutes' when recording the labor and materials?"

I don't know when the morning mist dissipated.

The sun shone through the clouds, illuminating the numbers on the slate. Zhu Jixi stared at the group of "3.5" and suddenly grabbed a charcoal pencil and wrote "三又鴰分" next to it. The ink smudged because he used too much force.

"Stupid or not?" He wiped his face in self-mockery. "The accountant of my father's farm was beaten with a stick last month for copying 'two hundred' as 'three hundred'."

Students from the School of Physics took the opportunity to bring up a few sand tables.

Chen Han rolled up his sleeves and used a wooden stick to draw numbers from "0" to "9" on the fine sand: "I won't teach you how to spin today. I will first teach you how to calculate the labor and material bills - Xiaotao!"

The young girl in the crowd stepped out in response, took out a few ebony beads from her pouch, and arranged the equation "7.8×2" on the sand table.

"Everyone in the Women's Workshop knows how to do this now." Chen Han's voice spread along with the numbers drawn by the wooden stick. "Do you know why they are better at using the improved spinning wheel than you are?"

He suddenly lifted the bottom plate of the spinning wheel beside him, revealing the words "Warp tension: 3.2", "Weft density: 4.5" marked in white paint on the inside - all in Arabic numerals.

"Because they are willing to learn new things." Chen Han poked the tip of his stick heavily on the sand table, "And you——"

His eyes swept over the jade belts and brocade bags on the waists of the noble children. "If you can't even calculate the harvest accounts of your own farm, how can you talk about managing the country and benefiting the people?"

Zhu Gaochi's abacus fell to the ground with a "click".

When Chen Han's charcoal pencil drew the last number on the bluestone slab, dewdrops were rolling down the pen marks into strings.

He looked up at the female workers who had gathered around him. Their cracked fingers were still stained with cotton wool from last night's spinning.

"Watch carefully—" Chen Han suddenly grabbed Madam Liu's abacus and threw it to the ground. The sandalwood beads bounced and rolled to Xiao Tao's feet.

Amid the exclamations of the crowd, he dipped his finger in the dew and wrote "7" on the slate, and quickly arranged seven abacus beads next to it. "Does this hook look like the way you wind yarn?"

While the female workers were stunned, Zhu Youwei had already squatted down, holding up the hem of her skirt.

She picked up two abacus beads and placed them in the groove of "3". Suddenly, she used the silver scissors to draw a slash on the bluestone: "Remember this clearly. It takes three and a quarter pounds of yarn to weave a piece of top-quality satin. Write it like this -"

The tip of the scissors carved "3.25" in the sand, making it look like an embroidery pattern.

The widow in the last row suddenly cried out "Ah".

She gestured in the air with shaking fingers, the old scar on her wrist turning white in the morning light: "Sir, this crooked handwriting... is it better than writing 'three and two points'?"

Chen Han didn't answer, but just stuffed the half-spent charcoal pencil into her hand.

As the old woman trembled as she drew on the blue bricks, her handwriting was crooked like a spider web, which made Zhu Yunhuan gasp - the "6.5" actually took up half an inch less than the "six pounds and eight ounces" copied by the accountant.

"Come here!" Chen Han suddenly untied the belt of his official uniform, and the black brocade was spread on the ground, turning into an ink board.

He took out a handful of colored thread and arranged the shapes of "0" to "9" between the warp and weft of the cloth. "If you can't remember, just treat it as an embroidery pattern. The red thread is '2', and the blue thread is '5'——"

The female workers gathered around, and the wooden hairpins in their hair cast tiny shadows on the brocade.

Xiao Tao suddenly broke off a piece of her hair tie and tied a knot at the hook of "3": "This is more secure!"

The movement of her writing silently on her palm with saliva on it was like beating the warp.

Zhu Gaoxu tried to squeeze in with a wrench, but was stopped by Li Zhen's mace.

The girl was using the tip of her weapon to draw the shape of an "8" on the sand. The sound of metal rubbing against gravel startled Zhu Jixi so much that he covered his ears and said, "Uncle! They are not learning to keep accounts, they are clearly demolishing the yard!"

Chen Han laughed and shook out a roll of indigo drawings from his sleeve.

When unfolded, it is a "Spindle Consumption Chart of the Women's Workshop", with Arabic numerals and Chinese characters arranged side by side like longitude and latitude.

"Look carefully—" He pointed at the mark "4.75" with his fingertips, "Last month you made mistakes using the old method. If you use the new method..."

The tip of the pen swipes to the red circle on the right that says "zero error"...

(End of this chapter)