People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 731: A woman without moral integrity is talented?
On the Qinhuai River, lights flickered and pleasure boats slowly approached the shore. Female workers and students from the School of Physics disembarked one after another. The two sides of the river were already crowded with people watching the excitement. Some pointed and talked, some whispered, and some even shouted directly: "It's not proper for a woman to travel with a man!"

Xiao Tao was walking in the front, still holding the glass dice she had won in the competition. When she heard the discussion, she paused, turned around to look at the idlers with contempt on their faces, and suddenly laughed: "If you think we shouldn't go boating, why don't we have a competition to settle the score? Let's see who is a heretic and who is just gossiping?"

The crowd immediately exploded. A scholar came forward holding the "Female Commandments" and said righteously: "Women's virtue lies in their lack of talent! You are showing off in public and imitating men's calculations. This is simply against the will of heaven!"

Ma Liu sneered and took out a piece of broken blue brick from her sleeve, on which were densely engraved formulas: "Justice? I'd like to ask, is it justice to let women starve to death, or to let widows deserve to have their pensions withheld?" Her voice was not loud, but every word was like a knife, stabbing the scholar's face and making it turn red.

Zhu Yunhuan was standing aside, originally just watching the fun, but at this moment he couldn't help but interrupt: "If you all think that women shouldn't learn to do accounting, then why don't you let you do all the accounting at the Ministry of Revenue? Anyway, you look down on women, so you must be able to do the accounting faster than them?"

The crowd suddenly burst into laughter. The scholar was choked and speechless, and could only retreat in dismay.

However, things did not end there.

That night, the Ministry of Rites drafted the "Night Curfew Regulations for Female Workers", stating that women were not allowed to go out at night, let alone go out with men, and those who violated the regulations would be fined. When the news reached the Women's Workshop, the female workers were indignant. Xiao Tao was so angry that she stamped her feet: "They are afraid! Afraid that we will learn better than them!"

Zhu Youwei unfolded a scroll of "Expansion Plan of the Women's Workshop", pointed her finger at the newly added mathematics lecture hall, and said calmly: "If we are afraid, it means we are doing the right thing."

Chen Han stood aside, playing with a copper coin in his hand, and suddenly smiled and said, "Since they are afraid, let's make them more afraid."

The next morning, a piece of news suddenly spread in the streets of Jinling City - the women workers in the Women's Workshop not only knew how to calculate, but also how to use Arabic numerals to record accounts, and they could even calculate faster than the clerks in the Ministry of Revenue. There were also rumors that only the women workers in the Institute of Physics could use the newly made glass abacus, and those self-proclaimed scholars couldn't even figure out how to move the beads.

The rumor spread more and more widely, and finally alarmed the court.

In the Fengtian Hall, Zheng Qingzhuo, the Minister of Rites, held the "Night Curfew Regulations for Female Workers" and righteously requested the emperor to severely punish the female workers: "Your Majesty, it is already beyond the rules for women to learn to count, and now they are hanging out with men. If they are not restrained, it may damage morals!"

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the dragon throne, holding a new account book from the Ministry of Revenue in his hand, which was densely covered with Arabic numerals. He looked up at Zheng Qingzhuo and suddenly asked, "My dear Zheng, can you understand the numbers in this account book?"

Zheng Qingzhuo was stunned, and cold sweat oozed from his forehead: "Your Majesty...Your Majesty is studying."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and threw the account book aside: "You can't even recognize all the numbers, and you have the time to care about women sailing on the lake?"

The hall suddenly fell silent.

Zhu Biao spoke at the right time: "Father, the women workers in the Women's Workshop used the new accounting method to save the Ministry of Revenue 30% of the time for checking accounts. I think they should be rewarded, not punished."

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, and suddenly looked at Chen Han: "Chen Qing, what do you think?"

Chen Han bowed and smiled: "Your Majesty, I think that there is no difference between a woman learning to do accounting and a man learning to farm - if we can harvest an extra bushel of grain, it is a good thing."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and waved his hand, saying, "It's settled then! The women's workshop will continue as usual, and as for the night curfew—" He glanced at Zheng Qingzhuo, "If you are bored, why don't you learn to write the character '7' first."

After the court was dismissed, Zheng Qingzhuo left the Fengtian Hall with a grim face, but the stories of the female workers were spreading more and more widely in the streets and alleys of Jinling City.

Some said that they would recite formulas by lighted oil lamps at night; some said that they used shuttles as counting chips and were faster than the scholars' abacus; some even said that they could even weave hidden patterns with Arabic numerals, and even the head of the Ministry of Revenue could not find the flaw.

For thousands of years, women have never been so "rebellious".

But this time, they stood their ground.

……

The fog on the banks of the Qinhuai River had not yet dissipated, but the Qingmingxuan at the Sanshan Street entrance was already full of officials who had just returned from court. In the private room on the second floor, Zheng Qingzhuo's teacup banged heavily on the huanghuali table, and the splashing water soaked the peacock patch embroidered on his cuffs.

"Did you see that?" He dipped his fingertips in tea and drew a crooked "7" on the table. "Today in the court, those weaver girls dared to use such cryptic talismans to contradict His Majesty!" The water marks shone brightly in the morning light, just like the embarrassing account book in the Fengtian Hall.

There was an almost inaudible sneer from the corner. Xu Mingde, the Right Counselor of the Ministry of Public Administration, twisted the celadon covered bowl, the tea foam on the edge of the bowl swirling with his fingers: "Why is Lord Zheng angry? It's just a few widows making a fuss." He suddenly fell silent. Two female workers wearing blue headscarves were walking outside the window, and the abacus beads on their waists jingled with their steps.

"Lord Xu, that's easy to say." Zhou Rucheng, a doctor in the Ministry of War, suddenly lowered his voice, and the wings of his official hat trembled as he leaned forward. "This morning, the military department in Xicheng reported that the Women's Workshop has installed 20 new six-spindle spinning wheels—" He dipped his tea and wrote down a series of numbers, "The daily spinning output of each spinning wheel is equivalent to that of three strong male workers."

The room was suddenly quiet. Everyone looked out the window at the same time. Thick smoke was billowing out of the chimney of the workshop on the other side of the river, blurring the old inscription "A woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent"

"If you ask me," Zhang Wenhuan, an officer in the Censorate, suddenly slammed the table, startling the sparrows that were stealing food under the eaves. "This is very strange!" He took out an indigo voucher from his pocket with his bony fingers. The cinnabar seal on the voucher was dazzling red in the morning light. "Look at this dark pattern--"

The sound of teacups colliding interrupted the conversation. Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Zheng Qingzhuo's tea lid vibrating violently. The crisp sound of porcelain pieces hitting each other was mixed with his trembling voice: "I saw with my own eyes that day that the female workers in the workshop folded a boat with this coupon paper." He swallowed the second half of the sentence with his Adam's apple rolling, and the water stains left deep marks on his sleeves.

The laughter of the female workers drifted in from the window, and words like "3.14" could be vaguely heard. Xu Mingde suddenly stood up to close the carved window, and his haste overturned the box of snacks. The candied fruit rolled to the ground, and an "8"-shaped candied stain happened to be printed on the tip of Zhou Rucheng's boot.

"Do you remember the Empty Seal Case?" Zhang Wenhuan's voice was like a blunt knife scraping across bluestone. "Those clerks back then simply added notes to the old accounts and dared to embezzle the state treasury." His dry branch-like fingers suddenly poked out the window. "Now these weaver girls have learned the ability to make up numbers out of thin air!"

The tea gurgled in the copper kettle, and the steam blurred everyone's confused faces. Zhou Rucheng unconsciously scratched the "7" water mark on the table with his fingernails, and suddenly shouted: "Listen!"

From the other side of the river came the sound of people reciting, which turned out to be a passage from the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Even more frightening was that those clear female voices were reciting Arabic numerals, with ups and downs like Buddhist chanting.

"Witchcraft!" Zheng Qingzhuo's teacup finally fell out of his hand, and the broken pieces of porcelain splashed on the blue brick floor into strange geometric patterns. He stared at the fragments and vaguely saw the jumping numbers on the account book of the Ministry of Revenue gnawing at the sage book.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard on the stairs. Everyone turned around like startled birds, only to see a waiter wearing a square scarf carrying new tea. When the young man put down the tray, half a piece of abacus slipped out of his sleeve - it was densely covered with textile symbols invented by the female workers.

"Small one." The guy hurriedly tried to pick it up, but Xu Mingde grabbed his wrist.

"What is this?" Xu Mingde's voice suddenly became sharp, his nails almost digging into the clerk's flesh. The twisted lines on the paper kept changing in his eyes, gradually turning into insects that devoured etiquette.

"To answer the master's question," the clerk grimaced in pain, "It's the 'Quick Knitting Formula' issued by the Women's Workshop, and the little girl is working over there." Zhang Wenhuan's cane suddenly hit the ground hard. He snatched the abacus paper and looked at it carefully in the sunlight. His presbyopic eyes reflected countless interlaced lines - it was clearly a miniature 'Voucher Circulation Map', and each vein was marked with strange numbers.

"This is not weaving!" the old man shouted, veins popping out on the back of his skinny hands, "This is weaving a net!"

The teahouse suddenly shook violently. Everyone looked around in panic, only to find that a workshop on the other side of the river was testing a new steam engine. The shock wave came along the stone road, and even the dust on the beams fell down.

Zhou Rucheng suddenly found that his hands were shaking. He stared at the trace of tea stains on his palms, and vaguely saw the Arabic numerals crawling along the blood vessels toward the heart. The recitation sound coming from outside the window became louder and louder, even drowning out the night watchman's clapper.

"Everyone." Xu Mingde's voice suddenly sounded ten years older. "Have you ever thought about why it was the Weaver Girl who learned these things first?" He pointed at the waste vouchers floating outside the window, the pieces of paper fluttering like butterflies in the wind. "Because of their hands." Before he finished speaking, a fishy and sweet taste suddenly surged in his throat.

Zheng Qingzhuo stared blankly at the water marks on his sleeves. The "7" he had repeatedly traced was distorted in the morning light, gradually turning into the outline of a spinning wheel. He suddenly remembered that yesterday in the Ministry of Revenue, the female worker wearing a blue headscarf only took half a quarter of an hour to check the accounts that they had not been able to settle for three days.

"It's too late." Zhang Wenhuan's staff left deep marks on the ground. In the old man's cloudy pupils, countless lotus lanterns carrying formulas on the river were reflected, and they were drifting along the water towards the farther state capital.

Cheers suddenly erupted outside the teahouse. Everyone rushed to the window and saw a huge wooden sign erected in front of the Jinguo Workshop, on which was written in cinnabar the number of spindles produced today - "1534 pieces", and the Arabic numerals were dazzling red in the sun.

What was even more terrifying was that there was a little boy with pigtails standing under the archway, using charcoal pencil to calculate the dye ratio for tomorrow's use on the blue brick floor. When the child looked up, his eyes were surprisingly bright between his hair, and he was holding a paper boat made from half a voucher in his hand.

Zheng Qingzhuo's official hat had become askew at some point. He looked at the shadow cast by the chimney of the workshop on the other side of the river. The shadow was slowly encroaching on the cobblestone pavement of Sanshan Street, like a tightening net.

"Go back home." The old minister suddenly said in a hoarse voice, and turned over the entire table. Tea soup spilled on the straw paper, and the ink spread out, and a huge "∞" symbol was faintly revealed.

When everyone scattered, no one paid attention to the shopkeeper behind the counter.

The skinny old man was fiddling with the abacus using the method taught by the female worker. Amid the clatter of copper beads, there was an almost inaudible sigh: "The world has changed!"

The river wind suddenly changed direction, blowing all the smoke from the workshop towards the teahouse.

At the moment when the thick fog shrouded the room, countless mathematical formulas could be vaguely seen crawling into the private room along the window lattices, like countless tiny golden shuttles, quietly weaving the texture of a new era.

……

The hustle and bustle of the Qinhuai River has not yet dissipated, but the women workers in the Women's Workshop have no time to pay attention to the gossip. The second month's dividend day has arrived, and the excitement inside and outside the workshop is far greater than the turmoil on the river.

Early in the morning, the workshop yard was crowded with people. Madam Liu stood on the steps, holding a brand new account book with dense Arabic numerals on it, and every calculation was clear. Xiao Tao stood on tiptoe and poked her head out of the crowd, holding a cloth bag in her hand, her eyes sparkling. "Madam, how much can I get this time?" Her voice was crisp, causing several young female workers around to laugh.

"What's the hurry?" Aunt Liu deliberately kept a straight face, but she couldn't hide the smile on her lips. "Come one by one later, no one can take more!"

There was laughter in the courtyard, and someone joked, "Mammy, don't be like those officials in the Ministry of Revenue who swallowed up our hard-earned money!"

"Bah!" Madam Liu spat and cursed with a smile, "Our workshop's accounts, every penny is clearly recorded. If anyone dares to tamper with it, I will be the first to tear up his account book!"

The laughter grew louder.

Zhu Youwei walked out of the inner room, followed by two female workers, carrying a heavy wooden box. As soon as the box landed, everyone's eyes were glued to it. Zhu Youwei gently patted the lid of the box and said with a smile: "This month's dividends will be distributed according to work, not a cent less."

The box lid was opened, and neatly stacked stacks of brand new banknotes were found inside. The women workers were immediately excited, and some could not help but reach out to touch them, but then quickly pulled their hands back for fear of wrinkling them.

"Really... can I really get money?" A thin woman murmured, twisting the corner of her clothes unconsciously. She was a widow from the northern border. She didn't even have enough food to eat before, so how could she dare to think that she could earn money?
"Of course!" Xiao Tao grabbed her hand and said with a smile, "We don't cheat in our workshop. The price is what it is!"

Madam Liu began to read out the names, and each time a person was called, he or she came forward to receive the money. Some held the banknotes with trembling hands; some had red eyes and sobbed softly on the spot; and a few young people gathered together and chattered, discussing what to buy - whether to buy a piece of new cloth for clothes, or to buy some oil and salt for the family.

The yard was as lively as if it were New Year's Day.

On the second floor of the restaurant across the street, several officials from the Ministry of Rites were watching this scene coldly. Zheng Qingzhuo held the teacup, his knuckles turning white. "Ridiculous!" he whispered, "It's already beyond the rules for a woman to show her face in public, and now she's openly dividing the money? How can this be allowed!"

Xu Lian, the Tongzhengshi, narrowed his eyes and didn't respond. He stared at the smiling faces of the female workers in the workshop, and his heart was inexplicably shaken. These women... seemed to be really different from before.

"Why is Lord Zheng so angry?" Another official laughed dryly. "It's just a small amount of money. It won't cause any trouble."

"Small money?" Zheng Qingzhuo sneered, "Do you know how much of the brocade they wove this month was sold by the Guanglu Temple? If this continues, I'm afraid they will ride on the men's heads!"

As she was talking, cheers suddenly broke out in the workshop. It turned out that Xiao Tao had received the money. She jumped twice in excitement, holding the banknote high, shining brightly in the sun. "I want to buy medicine for my mother!" She announced loudly, and the female workers around her responded with smiles.

Zheng Qingzhuo's face became even uglier.

Meanwhile, in the backyard of the workshop, several female workers were busy around a newly built steam engine. The boiler was gurgling with white steam, and the gears were turning slowly, driving the shuttle of the loom to fly back and forth. The woman from the northern border touched the machine carefully and murmured, "Can this thing... really save half the manpower?"

"More than half?" The female worker in charge of debugging wiped her sweat and said with a smile, "Once it's completely done, our work will be even easier!"

As he was talking, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside. Zhu Yunhuan and several students from the School of Physics rushed in, holding several rolls of blueprints in their hands. "Quick! Try this new gear!" he said excitedly, "It's just been modified, and the speed can be increased by 30%!"

The female workers rushed forward and helped to debug the machine. Amid the roar of the steam engine, no one noticed that Zheng Qingzhuo's face had turned as black as the bottom of a pot at the window of the teahouse across the street.

"Things have changed..." He gritted his teeth, not knowing whether he was talking about the steam engine or the women who were taking dividends and laughing unscrupulously.

At this moment, a small boat was drifting slowly on the Qinhuai River. The flower girl at the bow of the boat was humming a little tune, holding a banknote issued by the Women's Workshop in her hand. In the sunlight, the numbers on it were clearly visible...

(End of this chapter)