People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 720 Why do you have to make disposable things so exquisite?
The sun shone through the clouds, shining the colored threads on the brocade. Aunt Liu suddenly grabbed the charcoal pencil and wrote "9.3" on the blue brick. The veins on the back of her skinny hand popped out: "Although I can't read, this 'dot' is ten times easier to recognize than 'again'!" She spat and smoothed the sand table, then drew a standard "7".

The students of the School of Physics had already crowded to the side of the corridor pillars. As soon as someone muttered "Why should a girl learn mathematics", Zhu Youwei's silver scissors pressed against his Adam's apple. With her other hand, she shook out the sample cloth she had just woven - the equation "3.25×6=19.5" was embroidered in gold thread between the warp and weft.

"Now you understand?" The scissors brushed the student's pale face. "You know to use '5.5 to 1' when adjusting the gear ratio. Why are you so surprised when it's a girl's turn to learn arithmetic?"

The laughter of the nobles' children came to an abrupt end. Zhu Gaochi suddenly grabbed the abacus and turned it hard at the "7" position: "From today on, the material accounts of the Institute of Physics will all be recorded in the new way!" He swung the bronze plate on his waist in front of Zhu Jixi, and the words "Jiansheng" on it were glaring in the sunlight.

Chen Han took the opportunity to throw out a handful of colored stones. The female workers scrambled to arrange the numbers on the sand table. A little boy with a topknot figured out "2+3=5" without any instruction. Zhu Yunhuan was jealous and suddenly took off his jade pendant as a bargaining chip: "Whoever can use the new number to calculate the daily yarn consumption of this spinning wheel will get the mutton-fat jade!"

The sound of beads and the sound of the loom suddenly intertwined into a strange rhythm. While Xiaotao bit the pen and wrote the vertical formula on the back of the sample cloth, Liu Ma had already calculated three sets of data on the blue brick with a charcoal pencil. The old woman suddenly raised the sand table and shouted: "I figured it out! The new method can save 12 kilograms of yarn!"

She spread her rough palm upwards, and sand was slipping through the gaps between the words "14.8".

As the sun gradually set, the colored threads on Chen Han's official uniform had long been removed by the female workers to be used as teaching materials. He looked at the figures squatting on the ground writing equations in the yard, and suddenly felt that those crooked numbers were more moving than any embroidered article. Zhu Youwei stood beside him without knowing when, and the silver bracelet on her wrist touched a piece of pine soot ink.

"Did you see that, my husband?" She pointed at Xiao Tao, who was teaching Zhu Jixi how to draw the number "8". "That girl couldn't tell the difference between '七' and '八' this morning, but now she can do three-digit multiplication."

The last ray of sunlight passed through the treetops, illuminating the "19.5" on the sand table with golden light.

Farther away, the walls of the School of Physics were covered with the crooked exercises of the female workers, which rustled in the night breeze, just like the newly wound warp threads on a loom.

The morning light shone through the lattice windows onto the blue brick floor of the Physics Institute, and tiny dust particles danced in the beams of light. Zhu Yunhuan squatted on the ground, dipped his fingers in tea and drew the curved hook of the Arabic numeral "8" between the brick seams, his brows twisted into knots.

"Uncle, you've got your hands really well hidden!" He suddenly looked up and slammed his charcoal pencil on the brick. "Last month, when I was calculating the pressure ratio of a steam engine, you watched me shuffling the beads on the abacus until midnight?"

Chen Han was helping Xiao Tao adjust the positioning beads on the abacus, and laughed when he heard this. He took out a half-broken piece of chalk from his sleeve and wrote a few lines of equations on the bluestone slab: "If I had taught you then, would you have remembered it as well as you do now?"

Zhu Yunhuan stared at the winding digital symbols, and suddenly grabbed the abacus and threw it to the ground. The sandalwood beads bounced and rolled to the side of the corridor, startling a few sparrows and making them fly up.

"I don't care!" He childishly grabbed Chen Han's sleeve, "You have to teach me everything you know! Last night I secretly looked through your lesson plan and saw something called 'logarithmic table'!"

Students from the School of Physics gathered around. Someone had just picked up a bead that had rolled to his feet, but when he heard the words, his hand shook and the bead rolled away again. Zhu Gaochi squeezed to the front row holding the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and the bronze medal on his waist jingled: "What watch?"

Chen Han was so annoyed that he had to take out a booklet with an indigo cover from his pocket.

The moment the page was turned, Zhu Yunhuan caught a glimpse of the densely packed tables on the paper, with numbers arranged like the warp and weft of a loom.

"This is……"

"Look for yourself." Chen Han stuffed the booklet into his arms. "The left side is the real number, and the right side is the logarithm. When multiplying two numbers, look up the logarithms in the table, add them together, and then look up the real number - it's ten times faster than using an abacus."

Zhu Yunxun's fingertips trembled on the table. He suddenly remembered his red eyes when he was debugging the steam engine last month to calculate the cylinder volume. Those nights of repeated calculations under the oil lamp could have been...

"Uncle!" He grabbed Chen Han's wrist fiercely, "If you had taken this out earlier, our automatic loom would have been ready a month ago..."

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden sound of abacus beads clacking behind him. Everyone turned around and saw Liu Ma's skinny fingers flying on the abacus, and "3.2×4.5=14.4" was written crookedly on the sand table next to her.

"I don't know what 'tree counting' is," the old woman raised her chin proudly, "but this number is much better than 'three and two'!"

The students of the School of Physics looked at each other in bewilderment. Zhu Gaoxu suddenly swung a wrench and smashed the gong beside him: "What are you all standing there for? Learn quickly! Don't let the ladies in the workshop outsmart you!"

Amid the roar of metal, Zhu Yunhuan was already squatting on the ground, using charcoal to frantically copy logarithmic tables on the blue bricks. He wrote so quickly that his handwriting penetrated the cracks in the bricks, as if he wanted to carve all the frustrations of the past few months into them.

"Slow down." Chen Han held down his shaking wrist, "Remember the first number positioning method first..."

"Uncle!" Zhu Yunhuan suddenly looked up, with charcoal ash on the tip of his nose like a black mole, "What other treasures do you have? Can you take them out all at once?"

Chen Han smiled but didn't answer, his eyes sweeping over the figures squatting on the ground checking calculations in the yard. Zhu Gaochi was marking positions on the abacus with a red string, the Chang family boy bit the pen and wrote vertical equations on the sand table, and even the most dull Zhu Jixi had learned to write decimals like "3.5" in the corner of the account book.

Suddenly, the sound of a loom was heard in the distance. Xiaotao and the women workers came back, each holding a sample of freshly woven cloth in their arms. The sunlight penetrated the fabric, and Arabic numerals embroidered with gold thread were faintly visible between the warp and weft - that was the counting method they had just learned this morning.

Zhu Yunhuan looked at the glittering numbers and suddenly put the logarithm table into his arms: "Uncle, I will sleep in your study tonight!"

"You wish." Chen Han lifted him up by the collar, "First learn the positioning method thoroughly."

The morning bell of the Physics Institute rang at this time. The sound of the bell was mixed with the crackling of beads, the clacking of looms, and the sound of young students checking their calculations, which scared away the sparrows in the courtyard.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the stone steps of the academy. Zhu Yunhuan, Zhu Jixi, Zhu Gaochi and several young princes and grandchildren of the emperor surrounded Chen Han, holding a few newly printed vouchers in their hands and looking at them over and over again.

"Uncle, this voucher is printed more delicately than a copper coin, with intricate patterns and thick paper. Even the dark patterns on the corners can only be seen clearly when held up to the light." Zhu Yunhuan frowned, rubbing his fingertips over the raised lines on the voucher. "But since it's only used once, why bother with so much effort? The Ministry of Industry spent half a month just mixing ink and testing the plates. Isn't this just a waste of manpower and resources?"

Zhu Jixi also came over and shook the coupon in his hand: "Yes, ordinary farmers get the coupons and then go to exchange them for farm tools and seeds. Who cares if there is a dragon or a phoenix on it? Isn't it enough to just paste some rough paper and write the amount clearly?"

Chen Han chuckled when he heard this, and pulled out a brand new voucher from his sleeve. He held it up to the setting sun, and between the light and shadow, the inscription "Hongwu Tongbao" appeared faintly on the voucher. He said slowly, "Do you think this is a waste?"

Zhu Gaochi scratched his head. "Minister Wang of the Ministry of Revenue was still muttering this morning that the cost of anti-counterfeiting of this batch of vouchers alone is equivalent to half a year's tax silver of Songjiang Prefecture..."

"You are confused!" Chen Han suddenly interrupted, his eyes solemn, "Do you think the court issued vouchers just to give farmers a few hoes?"

Several young men were stunned. Chen Han slapped the voucher on the stone table and tapped the voucher with his knuckles: "The circulation of silver in the Ming Dynasty is too fast now, and there are not enough copper coins on the market. The wealthy families in Jiangnan are hoarding copper coins, and the people's transactions are hindered. If this continues, there will be trouble sooner or later. The voucher may seem like a piece of paper, but it is actually the credibility of the court and a way to make silver come alive!"

He paused, and seeing that they were thinking about something, he lowered his voice and said, "Besides, do you really think that this bill is printed beautifully just for the sake of appearance? The Ministry of Industry used the new pigment formula developed by the Institute of Physics to mix the ink for the test version; the paper is thick so that the people will think it is valuable and willing to hold it in their hands for circulation; the complex dark patterns are for anti-counterfeiting, and also to prevent merchants from despising it - if they can fool people with just a piece of rough paper, those unscrupulous merchants can easily produce ten carts of fake bills!"

Zhu Yunhuan's eyes lit up: "So, sir, you want to... use the money from the vouchers to force workshops in various places to improve their skills?"

"More than that." Chen Han narrowed his eyes. "Think about it. In order to print this batch of coupons, how many new craftsmen did Yingtian Paper Mill recruit? How much did the monthly salary of the woodblock print master increase? Even the ink mill and silk mill were expanded. These silvers are used to support real craftsmen! If there are any new items to promote in the future, these people will be the ready-made foundation."

Zhu Gaochi suddenly realized: "No wonder the Xu family in Songjiang suddenly sent someone to the Ministry of Industry to inquire about the engraving craftsmanship the day before yesterday..."

"Oh, they are quite clever." Chen Han sneered, "It's a pity that it's too late - the next batch of notes from the Institute of Physics will be made of Ryukyu sea sand mixed with paper pulp. Even if they stole the template, they can't imitate the feel."

The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the blue brick floor of the Physics Institute, making the traces of charcoal-written equations particularly clear.

Zhu Yunhuan held the half-copied "Logarithmic Table" in his hand, but his brows gradually relaxed. He looked up at Chen Han, and the confusion in his eyes was replaced by another light.

"Sir, you mean... the fine craftsmanship of the voucher is actually a 'proofing' for craftsmen all over the world?" He shook the voucher sample in his hand, and the dark patterns on the edge of the paper glowed a fine cyan-gold color under the light.

Chen Han took the sample ticket and rubbed his fingertips along the uneven lines. "Your Highness, do you remember that the Xu family in Songjiang imitated the gears of a loom, but installed them upside down?"

Seeing Zhu Yunhuan nod, he suddenly held the note diagonally towards the light, and the four flat characters "Hongwu Tong Bao" suddenly appeared with a layer of rainbow color.

"This layer of glaze was fired by the Institute of Physics using sea sand. Currently, only three kilns in the entire Ming Dynasty can imitate it. But once the Ministry of Industry makes the technique public, the porcelain industry will be able to add twelve new colors to its paintings next year."

He paused and said, "The court must first pave a way, and then the people will know where to step."

Zhu Gaochi standing by suddenly slammed the table and said, "No wonder you let the women workers from the Women's Workshop set up looms at the night market!"

He counted on his fingers, "They were dismantling and assembling the spindles on the spot, and the young wives who were watching dared to adjust their spinning wheels at home..."

Before he could finish his words, Zhu Jihui came over with an abacus in his hand. The sandalwood beads were still stained with colored threads left by the female workers when they practiced.

"Sir, after the Ministry of Revenue used Arabic numerals in its new account books, the number of clerks who could not match the accounts decreased by 30% - but if the "City Appearance Order" was also printed as a voucher with illustrations..."

"That's exactly it!" Chen Han laughed and shook out a roll of silk cloth from his sleeve.

When it was unfolded, it turned out to be a painting titled "Chronicle of the Hongwu Reform". The drainage ditches, glass lanterns and other objects in the Jinling City in the painting were all marked with size numbers, and there was also a small seal in the corner that read "Supervised by the College of Engineering".

"Minister Wang always complains that the new policies are obscure. If every decree were accompanied by such detailed illustrations..."

Suddenly, the crisp sound of silver scissors opening and closing interrupted the conversation.

Zhu Youwei had stood beside the porch pillar at some point, the scissors in her hand were cutting a piece of wrongly woven brocade into pieces.

"My husband forgot to mention one thing." She lifted up the remnant of brocade, and between the warp and weft were embroidered the calculation of the acreage of land in Arabic numerals. "Nowadays, the women workers even sew a few calculations on the bellybands for their children. Once the people are enlightened, it will be more effective than any vouchers you give out."

As dusk deepened, the threshold of the Institute of Physics was already shining from the trampling of craftsmen who came to copy the "Logarithmic Table".

Chen Han looked at the widows from the northern border wearing headscarves and the sons of noble families wearing jade belts in the crowd, and suddenly pointed to a workshop in the distance with smoke rising from it.

"See that chimney? The Women's Workshop is testing a new dye vat today, using the indigo obtained in exchange for the vouchers. If the test is successful, Yingtian Prefecture will have 30 more printing and dyeing shops next year."

The night wind blew the calculation papers over the corner tower of the imperial city. Zhu Biao stood holding a lamp, and the screen behind him was covered with revised drafts of the vouchers.

On a sketch circled in red pen, next to the four words "one-time redemption", new cinnabar small regular script was added: "It can also be circulated as a model of craftsmanship."

The afterglow of the setting sun shines through the window lattices of the School of Physics and onto the long table covered with abacus paper.

Zhu Yunhuan held the logarithmic table filled with strange symbols and suddenly looked up: "Uncle, you built these new looms and promoted vouchers. Are you trying to set a stage for the people of the world?"

The sound of the copper kettle dripping suddenly became clear.

The six-spindle spinning wheel that Chen Han was adjusting made a light "click" sound, and the shuttle stopped steadily in the center of the warp. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled, "Your Highness is half right - the platform has been there for a long time, but someone hid the ladder."

Zhu Gaochi pulled out a piece of gold-lined paper from the pile of account books, on which the number of spindles consumed that day was recorded in new numerals.

He suddenly pointed out the window and said, "Look!" Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw seven or eight craftsmen squatting under the courtyard wall, copying Arabic numerals on blue bricks with charcoal pencils.

There was an old craftsman holding the "Women's Workshop Spindle Consumption Table" tremblingly, and it took him half a day to compare each number he wrote.

"The other day, these old masters said that the new mathematics was just a bunch of nonsense." Zhu Youwei twisted the silver scissors to cut the thread ends. She had just embroidered the numbers "three, seven, and nine" on the sample cloth. "But this morning, she chased after Madam Liu to ask about the formula for carrying the numbers."

Suddenly, there was the sound of wooden wheels rolling over bluestone outside the courtyard wall...

(End of this chapter)