fake gentry

"Fengzhi, we need to do something!"

Lu Na clenched his fists, the veins on the back of his hands bulging: "You are the Grand Master of our Heaven and Earth Society, so give the orders."

Xie Hong had laid so much groundwork for this very moment.

"Gentlemen, across this vast land of eight thousand miles, countless people drift aimlessly, their homeland no longer a home, their families no longer homes. In this immense world, where can they find refuge?"

"The people's hard-earned money is your salary and emoluments; the common people are easily oppressed, but Heaven is not easily deceived."

"We, who have inherited our noble status, are here today to be the spark that can start a prairie fire. Gentlemen, the so-called 'heaven and earth' also implies standing tall and upright. We scholars, as long as we share the same ideals, will eventually succeed, no matter how many hardships we face."

"Ten thousand years is too long; seize the day!"

Xie Hong announced loudly, "Our Heaven and Earth Society will set up five relief tents within the territory of Jiangzhou. Along the official roads of Xunyang, Yuzhang, Jian'an, Luling, and Poyang, we will select one near each post station to set up tents and distribute porridge to relieve the refugees."

"Five sheds, providing two meals of porridge daily—this is the first thing our Heaven and Earth Society will do after its establishment."

"A soup kitchen would cost at least 70,000 to 80,000 coins a month to keep it running. Although you gentlemen are not short of money, 70,000 to 80,000 coins is still a considerable sum."

Xie Hong gave them no time to hesitate: "Therefore, we will raise this money through voluntary donations. As the chief leader, I am willing to donate 500,000 coins."

As he spoke, he turned to Xie Shang and said, "Renzu, bring me my gold ingots!"

Even though Xie Shang was calm, he was still a fourteen-year-old boy. He had long been provoked by Xie Hong's words and had nowhere to put his anger. Upon hearing his elder brother's instructions, he turned around and ran away. Soon, he came out carrying four golden ingots on a lacquer tray.

Each of the four gold ingots weighed sixteen taels, which was 160,000 coins, totaling a full 560,000 coins.

"Gentlemen, these gold coins are worth about 560,000, enough for five soup kitchens for a month. After a month, I don't believe the Heaven and Earth Society won't be able to raise the next sum of money."

Lu Na suddenly shouted, "Feng Zhi, I will donate two hundred thousand coins!"

Wang Huzhi followed closely behind: "Huzhi also donated 200,000."

Lu Shi glanced at Lu Na with displeasure, then stood up and said, "The Lu family of Wu County will donate 500,000 coins, and I will personally donate 200,000 coins."

Yang Ben picked up the wine cup and drank it all in one gulp, then loudly proclaimed, "Two hundred thousand coins from the Yang family of Taishan!"

The young nobleman from the Wang family of Taiyuan, who had been making things difficult for Xie Hong, also blushed and shouted, "Two hundred thousand coins from the Wang family of Taiyuan!"

He Xi stood up and bowed to Xie Hong: "Two hundred thousand coins from the He family of Kuaiji."

Collateral descendants of the Zhang family of Wujun, the Shen family of Wuxing, and the Yuan family of Chenjun also stood up to donate, ranging from 100,000 to 80,000 to 50,000.

Xie Shang stood silently behind Xie Hong, his heart surging with emotion.

He also wanted to donate money, but unfortunately the Xie family of Chenjun was extremely poor, and the only thing they had was the three gold ingots that Xie Hong had secretly given him the other day.

"Injo, Injo".

Xie Hong suddenly called out to Xie Shang, who immediately snapped out of his reverie: "Brother, what are your orders?"

Xie Hong reached out and patted his shoulder: "You'll keep the books."

Xie Shang nodded vigorously, instructed Chen San to bring over hemp paper and ink, and then wrote down the number stroke by stroke.

The final tally showed a staggering total of four million one hundred thousand coins.

Even if this money were in Jiankang, it would be enough to build a luxurious manor.

"Gentlemen, you are all so righteous." Xie Hong raised his wine cup to the crowd: "I respectfully greet you all."

Everyone stood up: "Homage to the Grand Master!"

Xie Hong downed his drink in one gulp and then said, "Brother Xiuling, Brother Shiyan, I'll leave the specifics to you two. The Wang family of Langya and the Lu family of Wujun will each provide one clerk, and other families can provide servants, carriages, and horses for their use. Grain can be purchased locally, and some straw sandals and coarse clothing can be purchased and distributed as appropriate. Does anyone have any objections?"

"No!"

The crowd responded in unison.

Next came the revelry. More than twenty aristocratic youths practically stripped naked and ran three laps around Mount Lu, playing games like pitch-pot, chess, playing the zither, and floating wine cups on a winding stream. They had a great time, and it continued until late at night. No one wanted to leave, so Xie Hong had no choice but to stay and keep them company.

Fortunately, we had a good supply of alcohol, so we weren't going to run out.

Those who got drunk lay down in the villa. Since the guest rooms were full, they were stuffed into the large dormitory-style dormitory at the back. At that point, no one cared about anything else.

Xie Hong's bathroom naturally aroused the great interest of Wang Huzhi and others. One by one, the guys stripped naked and crawled in, almost exhausting the refugees who were boiling water.

Xie Hong returned to his study alone, looked down at the amount of donations Xie Shangji had pledged on the hemp paper, and suddenly a thought struck him.

I rely on.

Am I a pig?

Why can't we seize the opportunity to change history when it's right in front of us?

While still slightly tipsy, he immediately ordered Chen San to find him a pheasant feather.

Previously, the refugees had caught quite a few rabbits and pheasants by setting traps. After skinning and plucking their feathers, the pelts were valuable items, and no one was willing to throw them away.

This thing can save your life in winter.

Xie Hong made a feather brush from pheasant feathers, dipped it in ink, and began to write on hemp paper.

Arabic numerals were invented by the ancient Indians and would not appear for more than two hundred years, at which point they were still in the womb.

Xie Shang did not keep accounts by writing, but by using counting rods drawn with a pen. Counting rods are a set of counting tools made of bamboo strips, wooden sticks, or bones.

Zu Chongzhi used this thing to calculate pi, and it is said that he used tens of thousands of pi.

China had a multiplication table called the Nine-Nine Song as early as the pre-Qin period, which was a required subject for nobles and officials.

What Xie Hong needs to do is very simple.

He only needed to master the four basic arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to become an unprecedented master of mathematics.

BitMade became famous much faster by discussing metaphysics and Confucianism.

Xie Hong was engrossed in writing, unaware that Aheng had come in to refill his tea twice.

When she came in for the third time, yawning, she found that her husband had stopped using the strange feather pen and was looking excitedly at the several sheets of paper in front of him covered with densely written small characters.

Mathematics in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not backward.

The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was written in the Han Dynasty. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Liu Hui, a great master of mathematics, wrote a commentary on it and proposed the method of exhaustion, which calculated the value of pi to several decimal places.

These achievements were absolutely top-notch in the world at that time.

But all these calculations rely on counting rods.

Those things are laid out one by one on the ground, with different arrangements representing different numbers. They're fine for addition and subtraction, but for multiplication and division, it takes forever to arrange them.

As for more complex calculations, such as square roots and equations, they often require a room full of counting rods and can take a whole day or even several days to arrive at a result.

That's right, China already had equations and square roots during the Han Dynasty.

Xie Hong's task was to combine the four arithmetic operators and Arabic numerals commonly used in later generations with the existing mathematical system of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to create a set of rapid calculation methods.

Plagiarism?

I'm the real ancestor, you know?

He used numbers from zero to ten to correspond to counting rods and Arabic numerals.

But in the present day, the word "zero" is a verb, representing the falling of rain and dew, the withering of vegetation, and the shedding of tears.

Xie Hong didn't care anymore; without zero, everything was just empty talk.

Then he began to write the arithmetic rules.

The four arithmetic operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division—are taught in the second grade of elementary school and seem completely insignificant to modern people.

However, the Eastern Jin Dynasty did not have vertical calculation method; all addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division had to be done by placing counting rods on a flat surface.

Xie Hong only needs to convert the calculation process of counting rods into vertical calculation, and then write it on paper with Arabic numerals. The carry, borrow, and offset are clear at a glance.

Those who don't understand mathematics naturally won't understand it, but for those who do, it's like a thin sheet of paper; a gentle poke is all it takes to make everything clear.

Then they would slap themselves hard across the face.

How come I didn't know it was so simple?

More than a thousand years later, Xie's calculations have become one of the greatest milestones in modern mathematics.