People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 721 The shock of new numbers
Twenty improved spinning wheels were pushed into the atrium, and in front of each wheel sat a workshop worker wearing a red belt.

Xiao Tao, who was in the front row, held up the shuttle wrapped with blue cloth strips: "Master Chen, we recalculated the length of the thread with the new number, and the yarn saved is enough to weave half a piece of dark-patterned satin!"

"Okay!" Zhu Jihui suddenly stood up and slammed the table, the jade pendant on his waist jingling against the copper abacus, "I will write to Taiyuan right now and ask all the weaving workshops in the Prince of Jin's Mansion to switch to the new accounting method!"

He grabbed the pen and ink to write the memorial, but he wrote "柒" as "染" and was so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks.

Chen Han shook out a small cowhide bag from his sleeve and poured out a dozen copper coins engraved with numbers: "Your Highness, you might as well practice with these first." Amid the sound of the copper coins rolling on the table, there was suddenly a sneer.

Everyone turned around and saw Zhu Gaoxu leaning against the door frame with his arms folded: "Uncle, aren't you afraid of disturbing some people's interests by doing these tricks?"

"Second brother, be careful with your words!" Zhu Gaochi hurriedly stopped him, but saw Chen Han calmly picking up a copper coin.

The sunlight refracted golden lines on the Chinese character "五" on the surface of the coin, and shone on the spinning wheel in the corner of the wall.

"The cheese has to be moved before it can be made into cheese." Zhu Youwei suddenly spoke.

In front of her was a box of milk and food she had bought at the night market. She was tapping the ice jar with a silver spoon. "Just like the ice in Xuanwu Lake, if you take one foot of ice, you have to plant three saplings—"

Before he could finish his words, hurried footsteps were heard outside the yard.

A captain of the Imperial Guards rushed in holding a sandalwood box: "Your Highnesses, urgent news from Hangzhou!" The lid of the box was opened, revealing twenty neatly stacked vouchers, each with indigo-dyed edges.

Zhu Yunxun pulled out a piece and looked at it against the light, and suddenly gasped: "This dark pattern..."

"It's the formula of the experimental dye vat of the Women's Workshop." Chen Han's fingertips touched the raised lines on the coupon, where the warp and weft density written in new numbers were hidden. "The dyer who received the coupons in exchange for indigo last month wove the anti-counterfeiting pattern into the Songjiang cloth."

When the evening drum sounded from the direction of the imperial city, cheers suddenly broke out in the east wing of the Institute of Physics.

Matron Liu rushed out holding an abacus with the numbers "nine eight six" fixed on the beads: "I have figured it out! Using the new loom we can save..." She suddenly got stuck and stamped her feet in anxiety.

"I saved 9.826 pounds of yarn." Xiao Tao looked up from the spinning wheel, with cotton wool still on the ends of her hair. "According to the third method of the 'Key to Speedy Weaving', this yarn is enough to make winter clothes for the children of the widows in the northern border."

Zhu Gaochi suddenly slammed the abacus on the table, shaking the copper coins and saying, "I will submit a memorial tomorrow, asking the emperor to allow the Ministry of Revenue to try out the new account books!"

He grabbed the brush and dipped it in the inkstone again and again, not caring if the ink splashed onto the dragon pattern on his cuffs.

The night breeze swept through the courtyard, carrying with it the unique moisture of the Qinhuai River.

Chen Han walked to the corridor and looked at the digital traces left by the craftsmen on the blue bricks.

Those crooked "五" and "七" were being plated silver by the moonlight.

Zhu Youwei stood beside him at some point, holding half a rose cake in her hand.

"When Empress Ma taught the soldiers to sew winter clothes..." Zhu Yuanzhang's voice suddenly came from outside the moon cave gate.

The old man walked into the yard holding his great-grandson. The little grandson held a paper boat made of a voucher in his hand. "This is how we built up this situation bit by bit."

The paper boat was placed in a copper basin, where it drifted across the starlit water.

As the hull gradually became wet, the word "Jinguo" written in tea juice on the inner layer was revealed.

Zhu Yuanzhang tapped the edge of the basin with his knuckles: "Just now I saw three old craftsmen kneeling at the door of the factory, saying that they wanted to ask for a copy of the "Spindle Consumption Table of the Women's Workshop."

The loom in the corner of the Physics Department suddenly made a "click" sound.

Everyone looked back and saw Madam Liu sitting in front of the loom, her presbyopic eyes almost touching the warp.

Her rough fingers were pressing the numbers on the "Secrets to Speedy Weaving" and slowly pushing the shuttle with the number "three" engraved on it.

The moonlight passed over the palace wall, stretching everyone's shadow very long.

Those shadows intertwined on the blue brick ground, and it gradually became unclear who was the prince and who was the female worker.

Only the paper boat in the copper basin was still floating, carrying the wet numbers, sinking into the starry abyss.

Chapter 286

The morning bell of the Physics Institute had just rung three times, and the blue brick floor was already covered with rough abacus papers. Zhu Yunhuan was holding a charcoal pencil and writing the last equation on the slate when he suddenly heard the sound of abacus beads falling to the ground behind him.

"Nonsense!" Zheng Yan, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, rolled over the scattered sandalwood beads with his official boots. "Since ancient times, accounts must be kept in capital letters. This is a rule set by the emperor!"

He flipped the Hongwu Zhengyun in his hand to the page of "One Two Three", and his skinny fingers almost pierced the paper. "How did the empty seal case come about? Wasn't it just that the clerk added a stroke to the word "one" and changed it to "ten"? Now you guys are so good, you come up with these twisted and complicated scribbles!"

Students from the School of Physics gathered around. The abacus that the Chang family boy had just picked up fell to the ground with a "bang". The scattered beads rolled to Zheng Yan's feet and were kicked away by him.

"Master Zheng," Chen Han slowly shook out a roll of silk cloth from his sleeve, "Please take a look at this."

The unfolded cloth was densely covered with "7" and "1", and each number had a unique hook at the end. Zhu Yunhuan suddenly exclaimed "Ah" - this was exactly the "Anti-Counterfeiting Number Writing Method" he had seen in Chen Han's study last night.

"Capital numerals can be changed by adding a stroke, but these Arabic numerals..." Chen Han pointed at the "7" on the seventh line of the cloth. "Can you try changing the short horizontal stroke into a long horizontal stroke?"

Zheng Yan grabbed the charcoal pencil and slashed it hard, and the "7" turned into a crooked "厂". The people around him burst into laughter, and even the old servant who was passing by with a teacup choked and coughed.

"That's not to say that we should stop eating because of choking!" Xu Lian, a deputy minister of the Ministry of Works, suddenly stood up and slammed the table. The copper protractor hanging on his waist hit the corner of the table, making a crisp "ding" sound. "Yesterday, when I checked the gears of the waterwheel, I wrote half a page of '325 degrees' alone. If we use the new number, three or two symbols will..."

"Master Xu!" Zheng Yan suddenly grabbed the inkstone and smashed it to the ground, splashing ink on Xu Lian's Xiezhi patch. "You are trying to shake the foundation of the country! The bloodshed in the empty seal case was to prevent these tricks!"

The whole room was suddenly silent. A sparrow outside the window fluttered away, startling the copper protractor hanging on the eaves.

Zhu Yunhuan suddenly squatted down and wrote "325" on the blue brick with a charcoal pencil. He turned his wrist and added a wavy line above the number: "Master Zheng, please look, if you put a wavy seal on the number, it will be exposed if you add a stroke." "Fancy!" Zheng Yan's official boots rolled over the numbers, "How many documents does the Ministry of Revenue handle every day? Who has the time to draw these fancy things!"

Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of silver scissors opening and closing in the corner of the Physics Department. Everyone turned around and saw Zhu Youwei standing next to the loom, with the scissors in her hands, cutting a piece of wrongly woven brocade into pieces. The silver bracelet on her wrist swung in front of Zheng Yan, and the three numbers "379" engraved on the inner circle shone coldly in the sun.

"Master Zheng," she picked up a bead from the ground with the tip of her scissors, "the number on the ivory plate hanging around your waist is 'Two Thousand One Hundred and Forty-Seven'?"

Zheng Yan subconsciously covered his waist badge, and the gold-plated "2147" sparkled against the vermilion lacquer background.

"This..." His Adam's apple rolled, "This is specially made by the Ministry of Industry..."

"Specially made?" Zhu Youwei suddenly spread out the sample cloth she had just woven. The Arabic numerals "2147" were embroidered with gold thread between the warp and weft. "Look, how much silk surface can be saved by using the new numerals instead of Chinese characters?"

Xu Lian suddenly grabbed the charcoal pencil and frantically wrote out the equation on the blue brick. He wrote so quickly that the tip of the pencil was rubbed with sparks: "Look! When checking the angle of the gear, using the new formula can save 70% of the paper!"

"Ridiculous!" Zheng Yan's sleeve swept over the teacup. "The Ministry of Revenue's account books have been passed down for thousands of years. How can they be changed just like that?"

Chen Han suddenly pulled out a copper box from his bosom. The moment the mechanism popped open, everyone in the room exclaimed in surprise - inside the box were ten ivory plates neatly stacked, each with the Arabic numerals "2147" engraved on it, but the angle of the hook of each "7" was slightly different.

"Master Zheng, why don't you pick one? Which one is your authentic ivory plaque?"

Zheng Yan's fingertips trembled on the ivory plate. He suddenly discovered that the tail of the "7" on the ivory plate he had worn for five years actually had slight jagged edges.

The sun's shadow outside the window moved quietly, giving the formula on the slate a gilded edge.

"In fact, it's OK to have two sets of numbers in parallel." Zhu Gaochi suddenly said. He turned to a certain page in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art in his hand. On the left was "三佰贰拾５", and on the right was "325". "Aren't the drawings of the Military Equipment Bureau divided into internal and external two types? Chinese characters are used in key places to prevent tampering, and new numbers are used for ordinary markings for simplicity."

Zheng Yan's beard twitched, and he suddenly grabbed Zhu Gaochi's abacus and threw it to the ground: "Your Highness is confused! If you give in and use the new numbers today, someone will dare to tamper with the land register tomorrow!"

The sandalwood beads bounced and rolled to the side of the porch, startling a few sparrows.

"Then let's make it an iron rule." Chen Han's voice suddenly dropped. He shook out a document with the seal of the Ministry of Works from his sleeve, and the words "All matters involving money, grain, land, military equipment, etc. must be based on capital numbers" were not yet dry. "For other engineering mathematics, Arabic numerals shall be used as a supplement."

The students of the Physics Department looked at each other in bewilderment. The Chang family kid suddenly swung a wrench and smashed the gong beside him: "Did you hear that? We can use the new numbers to adjust the gear ratio later!"

Amid the roar of metal, Zhu Yunhuan caught a glimpse of Zheng Yan secretly scratching the numbers on the ivory plate with his fingernails. The action was cautious, as if he was confirming some secret mark.

"Master Zheng," Zhu Youwei suddenly handed over a cup of tea, "is there a scratch on the inside of your ivory plate? Is it stuck on the horizontal stroke of the number '4'?"

Zheng Yan's teacup fell to the ground with a clang. His frantic action of flipping through the cards made Xu Lian crane his neck to look.

"Your subordinate... Your subordinate is just..."

"You see, anti-counterfeiting never uses numbers." Chen Han picked up the broken abacus and pointed at the copper shaft that threaded the beads, "but on these inconspicuous 'scratches'."

The sun suddenly penetrated the clouds, shining the "325" on the slate. Next to the wavy number, the "two thousand one hundred and forty-seven" that Zheng Yan had just scrawled in a panic had already blurred.

Zhu Yunhuan suddenly picked up a charcoal pencil and wrote two lines of words side by side on the blue brick:
"Three hundred and twenty-five degrees - the inclination angle of the waterwheel gear"

"325° - Self-tightening device parameters"

He looked up at Zheng Yan and asked, "What do you think craftsmen would prefer to learn?"

When the sparrows landed back on the eaves, Zheng Yan was bending over to pick up the scattered abacus beads. He held the sandalwood bead with the number "5" in his skinny fingers and stared at the sunlight for a long time.

The threshold of the Institute of Physics was suddenly gleaming with the trampling of craftsmen pouring in. They held all kinds of tools in their hands, and one old master's copper ruler was engraved with the old-fashioned scale of "7 inches and 5 fen".

"Master Chen!" The old craftsman squeezed to the front row, "We have already discussed in our engraving workshop that we will use two sets of numbers for engraving books in the future - big characters for important parts, and your foreign characters for marginal notes!"

He took out a wooden board for trial carving, and on it, next to the words "three shi per mu" from the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration, the Arabic numerals "3.5 shi/mu" were clearly marked.

Zhu Youwei's silver scissors suddenly snapped shut. She cut a piece of gold thread and tied it to the wooden board: "How about adding a wavy print? It's both beautiful and anti-counterfeiting."

The sunlight passed through the golden lines, casting fine shadows on the blue brick floor, just like the tamper-proof seals on the Ministry of Revenue's account books.

Zheng Yan looked at the light and shadows all over the ground, and suddenly took out a wrinkled "Hongwu Account Book Sample" from his sleeve.

He turned to a certain page and carefully added "123" with charcoal next to "one hundred and twenty-three taels".

In the main hall of the Institute of Physics, the objection voice of Zheng Yan, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, was still echoing.

He pointed at the "Anti-Counterfeiting Number Writing Method" in Chen Han's hand, and knocked his knuckles on the table. "Your Majesty has set the capital numbers to prevent tampering by corrupt officials! If this precedent is set today, someone will use ghost talismans to short-circuit the account books tomorrow!"

Chen Han was not in a hurry and spread out the documents in the sunlight.

On the paper, the horizontal stroke of the Arabic numeral "7" was deliberately thickened, with a dark hook at the end. "Master Zheng, please look, if you add one more stroke to the character '七', it will become '捌', but if you want to change the character '7' to '8', you have to redraw the whole stroke - the ink of the Institute of Physics is mixed with iron powder, and the bottom will be exposed if you scrape it off."

"Fancy!" Zheng Yan sneered, "How can everyone in the world afford to use iron powder and ink?"

"We can afford it." Zhu Youwei suddenly opened the curtain and came in, followed by two female workers carrying a wooden box. When the lid of the box was opened, hundreds of pottery jars were neatly stacked inside, with red paper "Supervised by the Women's Workshop" pasted on the jars. She opened a jar of wax seal with her fingertips: "The two hundred dan of indigo that the Xu family of Songjiang paid as an apology was mixed with 30% iron sand powder, and the cost is 20% lower than ordinary ink."

Amid the uproar in the room, Zhu Yunhuan suddenly interrupted, "The day before yesterday, the Ministry of War counted the arrows, and the warehouse clerk changed '3' to '5', precisely because it is easy to add two horizontal lines to the character '三'. If '' was used, the change to '' would require redrawing the lower half of the circle - Director Liu, did you check it at that time?" The director of the Ministry of War, who was named, blushed immediately.

Zheng Yan wanted to argue, but Zhu Gaochi, who had been silent, suddenly coughed and said, "In the dispute between the old and the new, it is better for both sides to take a step back." He unfolded a roll of yellow silk and said, "The Ministry of Revenue will survey the land next year. The key figures will still be written in capital letters, but the detailed accounts can be accompanied by Arabic numerals for comparison. For example, 'one mu and three fen' can be followed by '1.3 mu', which is both rigorous and saves paper."

"Your Highness is wise!" Chen Han took the opportunity to speak, but he caught a glimpse of a clerk in the corner secretly curling his lips. He understood in his heart, turned his head and bowed to Zheng Yan: "This humble official has another request - please ask Lord Zheng to take the lead in drafting the "Number Usage Rules", clearly specifying where new numbers can be used and where old characters must be used. If anyone crosses the line..." He suddenly threw out an account book from his sleeve, with several altered vouchers between the pages, "The person who forged the voucher will be exiled three thousand miles!"

(End of this chapter)