My father Yongle, building a five-good family

Chapter 20 Shumi's Story

Zhu Yuanzhang did not have time to pay attention to the grandson's little thoughts. Instead, contrary to his usual behavior, he waved to Zhu Gaoyu in a friendly manner:
"Gao Yu, come here, come to Grandpa Emperor."

Zhu Gaoyu stepped forward as he was told, and in the process he even boldly looked at Zhu Yuanzhang several times.

The old man in front of him was thin, with straight and dignified eyebrows and eyes. He was not as scary as the shoe-horn face rumored by later generations.

Perhaps it was because of his old age and the daily work, there were faint blue veins on his arms, and even his skin was not as fair and white as it should be.

Somehow, Zhu Gaoyu felt a little uncomfortable.

The first word that came to his mind was - the hero is old.

Zhu Yuanzhang is old.

He was about to reach the end of his life, but at this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head and looked at Zhu Gaoyu with a hint of smile in his eyes:

"I heard from Mr. Yang that you have some experience in mathematics?"

Zhu Gaoyu nodded and then shook his head.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang a little puzzled.

What does this kid mean?
But soon, after hearing the boy's answer, he couldn't help laughing again.

I only heard Zhu Gaoyu speak:
"I don't have any experience, I just have talent."

Correct!
The memory in my mind can be considered a talent!

Thinking about it, Zhu Gaoyu nodded silently, confirming his idea.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he burst into laughter again.

When Wang Shisong, who was below, heard this and saw Lao Zhu's performance, he felt very disappointed.

But he still had some hope in his heart.

What if... What if Zhu Gaoyu was just young and ignorant, and he casually solved a few math problems, and Yang Zhong, that inexperienced guy, regarded him as a genius, and he boasted about it in front of Your Majesty, and even Your Majesty was frightened?

Wang Shisong has only a superficial understanding of mathematics.

He obviously didn't understand one thing.

When it comes to mathematics, if you understand it, you understand it, and if you don’t understand it, you don’t understand it. It is difficult to get lucky and get the correct answer.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Gaoyu and casually said:

"Gao Yu, how about Grandpa Huang play a game of counting meters with you?"

Zhu Gaoyu remained calm and said, "Grandpa Emperor, please tell me what the game is first."

Hey.

This boy is really brave.

Talking to the emperor and bargaining.

Even Zhu Yunwen did not dare to do this.

Zhu Yuanzhang inexplicably thought of Zhu Biao again.

But right now, it’s obviously not a good time to reminisce.

Old Zhu was distracted for a moment, then spoke again quickly:
"Here we have a chessboard. On the first square of the chessboard, put one grain of rice. On the second square, put two grains of rice. On the third square, put four grains of rice. Following this pattern, each square will be twice as large as the previous one."

"Grandpa Emperor will give you ten kilograms of rice. If you can fill the entire chessboard, Grandpa Emperor will give you a jade ruyi. How about it?"

When Zhu Gaoyu heard this, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

Such a familiar routine.

He even began to doubt whether the historical story about Zhu Yuanzhang defeating Shen Wansan by using a penny to generate interest was true.

After all... the mathematical principles involved cannot be said to be exactly the same, but they must be said to be completely the same, right?

When Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting there, looking at Zhu Gaoyu's little eyes, he always felt that something was not right.

Why did he feel that... Zhu Gaoyu's eyes were a little strange? Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself, thinking that it was not right...

You know, even Lao Zhu himself, when he first mentioned this issue, thought about it for a long time before he realized how incredible the numbers behind this issue were.

Of course, this kind of question will confuse those who are new to mathematics. If someone has really studied it, he will naturally see through Zhu Yuanzhang's "sinister intentions" at a glance.

But how old was Zhu Gaoyu?
However, Zhu Yuanzhang could not easily draw conclusions based on a look, and he was waiting for Zhu Gaoyu's answer.

Zhu Gaoyu did not disappoint him.

He just uttered a few words:

"Grandpa Emperor, if you want to fill all the squares on this chessboard with rice grains, I'm afraid even if you use all the corn in the world, it won't be possible!"

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang burst into laughter again.

Zhu Gaochi's chubby face was also full of smiles at this moment.

He was genuinely happy for Zhu Gaoyu.

As for his fourth brother, Zhu Gaochi could be said to have watched him grow up, and he was like both a brother and a father to him.

Now that his younger brother has made progress and won the favor of the emperor, Zhu Gaochi has a sense of accomplishment that his son has been raised.

Look, this is the kid I, Zhu Gaochi, personally trained!

As for Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaosui and their gang...uh, Zhu Gaochi said that those guys were all rebellious, so how could they be compared with Xiao Si?

And the other side.

Zhu Yuanzhang already believed what Yang Zhong said.

Just as Yang Zhong said, Zhu Gaoyu was indeed a rare mathematical prodigy.

Although Lao Zhu does not quite agree with mathematics.

But as the saying goes, the butt determines the head.

Zhu Yuanzhang was sitting on the throne of the emperor. From his perspective, Neo-Confucianism advocated the supremacy of the monarch and emphasized Han culture, and was an extremely useful tool of rule. Therefore, he promoted the Four Books and Five Classics and the Eight-Legged Essay, but did not promote "side doors" such as mathematics.

That was what Zhu Yuanzhang required of his subjects as emperor.

But for my grandson...

This kid Zhu Gaoyu is not going to rebel. If he behaves well in the future he can become a prince, or at most a prince. What's wrong with letting his child learn more mathematics?

Should we still let children be proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics, be able to ride horses and shoot arrows, and have both literary and military strategies?
If this is really the case, I'm afraid that even Old Zhu would be so worried that the crown prince would not be able to sit comfortably on the chair under his butt.

When people get older, sometimes they become less concerned about the things that happened before their death, and think more about the things that will happen after their death.

For example, the old Zhu now is thinking about his grandson Zhu Gaoyu in his mind.

Perhaps the little grandson of the fourth brother will be able to write books and compile documents like the fifth brother in the future, and leave his own mark in history books in another way.

In this way, our Zhu family can be said to have produced many talented people!

While Zhu Yuanzhang was happy, he did not forget to look at Zhu Gaoyu's expression.

To his surprise, Zhu Gaoyu was not as arrogant as he had imagined.

Instead, he stretched his neck and tried hard to observe the silk map.

Zhu Yuanzhang was amused and wanted to tease her:
"You like this? Do you know what this is?"

Zhu Gaoyu knows nothing.

He just had an extra memory inexplicably in his mind, and the owner of the memory was someone who was well versed in Ming history. It was already very difficult for him to know that his father was Zhu Di and would rebel and become emperor in the future, not to mention knowing the name of a silk map.

Seeing Zhu Gaoyu's rare look of confusion, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled faintly, with a slightly pleased look on his face:

"This picture is called "The Great Ming Unified Picture"."

First update today

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(End of this chapter)