Dongsheng Rice Shop is a time-honored store, the head office is near Shenghua Gate in the inner side of the capital, and there are branches in many counties.

Here in the capital alone, there are four branches.

In this way, Chi Guanguan became an apprentice in the tent of this Dongsheng rice shop in the west of the city.

Like the other guys, he lived in a small courtyard house rented by the rice shop, and was lucky enough to be assigned a small room of his own.

Eating is with other guys.

An elderly widow in her fifties is responsible for buying and cooking food, and she will divide the food after cooking.

Although the food is not good, there are many vegetables and less meat, but the rice can be filling.

Of course, the rice here does not refer to the best white rice, which is used to sell. Corn is usually mixed with old rice to make rice, but even this is much better than what many farmers eat.

In addition to food and accommodation, the rice shop also issued two sets of work clothes to each guy. Made of fine linen, it is more wear-resistant and durable.

Chi Fei also has two sets, but because he is too young, there is no suitable for him, so he can only order them.

Sure enough, people rely on clothes, and after changing into new clothes, his whole person immediately changed, coupled with his mature and moderate demeanor, no matter how you look at it, he looks like a child from a good family, which is impressive.

After officially starting work, his daily work began with counting.

That is, use the account book to register how many catties of white rice, how many catties of old rice, how many catties of corn, and how much money each item has spent.

Of course, because he is a novice, the guy who was originally responsible for counting also had to keep a separate book to prevent him from making mistakes.

Chi Fei himself has a good memory, coupled with his mental arithmetic, there was no mistake in seven or eight days. And the handwriting is neat and orderly, which makes people very comfortable to read.

"Yes, yes, Su Zhen's account book is well written, and the words are also written very well. Deng Quan, you should study hard, look at your dog crawling words. ”

"Yes, shopkeeper." After Deng Quan, the guy in charge of counting, answered, he couldn't help but glared at Chi Fei with some annoyance.

Chi Fei clasped his fists and saluted: "The shopkeeper has won the award, in fact, it's not that I remember it well, it's that the whole brother taught it well." When I first started counting, I often made mistakes. Fortunately, my brother taught me a lot, so I didn't take a lot of detours. So the person you should praise the shopkeeper is the whole brother, not the kid me. ”

Shopkeeper Liu glanced at Chi Fei deeply, and then smiled: "So that's the case, Deng Quan, I didn't expect you to be quite good at teaching, you did a good job this time, you will continue next time, you know?" ”

"Yes, shopkeeper." Deng Quan's face really improved a lot this time.

Sycophants!

Chen Changdong, who was in charge of greeting guests at the door, scolded in his heart, and then stared at Chi Fei with contempt.

He didn't expect that this little beggar, who made him lose face at that time, really became the guy of the rice shop.

Although he was only an apprentice, the work of the tent was much easier than when he stood at the door to greet customers, which made him find the little beggar an eyesore even more.

In addition to keeping counts, bookkeepers also learn how to make change.

Many people think that there are only three common monetary units in ancient times: how many copper coins are exchanged for how many taels of silver, and then how many taels of silver are exchanged for how many taels of gold.

Although this is true, in actual circulation and use, it is actually still an unwritten unit, that is, "money".

The ancient silver casting technology was immature, and it was impossible to extract 100% pure silver, and some black-hearted private casters would deliberately adulterate and mix tin, lead and other common metals into it. Under the conditions at that time, it was difficult to judge the shortage of silver, and it was not easy to carry.

Later, people came up with a way to cut the whole piece of silver into small pieces with steel scissors so that they could exchange it with copper coins. It is also the broken silver that often appears in many costume TV dramas.

Of course, the broken silver cut out still needs to be weighed, which is another invention of the ancients, that is, 戥 (děng), which is a precision weighing instrument accurate to the centimeter. Later, in addition to weighing silver, it was also used to weigh valuable medicinal herbs, spices, pigments, etc.

And when weighing with a pole, the most used unit is the "money". For example, how much does a broken piece of silver weigh.

The conversion method is probably like this, one tael of silver can be exchanged for a thousand copper coins, that is, consistently.

One tael is equal to ten coins, that is, one silver coin is equal to one hundred copper coins.

With the unit of "money", it became much more convenient to make small transactions with silver, so it became a common practice.

When a person buys seven taels of goods from a merchant with ten taels of silver, the bookkeeper will weigh the ten taels of silver with a tin in front of this person to see if the portion is sufficient.

After making sure that there is no shortage of catties and catties, the merchant will use steel scissors to cut the ten taels of silver.

But it is difficult for human hands to cut it into a piece of seven taels and a piece of three taels. If the piece is cut into more than three taels, it must be cut again, and if it is cut into less than three taels, it must be filled with the broken silver left by the merchant before.

If the merchant does not have the right amount of broken silver to fill in, then the difference is to be exchanged for the equivalent amount of copper coins.

It must be explained that even if someone buys something for ten taels of silver, he cannot leave immediately, and the merchant still has to weigh and cut the silver, in order to confirm that the other party has not added tin, lead and other things to the silver.

Also, don't think that the account office is a pure clerical job, in fact, it takes a certain amount of effort to do the account office, especially when you are an apprentice.

Because the steel scissors used to cut silver have a small clamp and a long clamping arm, it takes a lot of strength to cut silver with this.

Generally, a complete ingot of silver needs to be completed by two people, one person fixes it, and one person cuts it. Sometimes the person who cuts the silver even has to use the whole body as a pressure to successfully cut the silver.

Occasionally, there are cases where someone is injured due to a mistake in the operation.

However, this manual work is generally done by the tent apprentice, and unless there is no apprentice, the tent master will go into battle himself.

Because of his young age and lack of strength, Chi Fei couldn't cut the whole silver, so he could only chop the silver, and then use the pole to weigh and make change.

He knew that no matter what kind of business, it was important to settle the money and silver in person, so he was especially careful every time he made change, lest he make mistakes.

His cautious attitude also made Shopkeeper Liu more satisfied.

………………………………

When everyone returned to the courtyard, Chi Fei took the initiative to walk up to Deng Quan and said, "Brother Quan, I don't know anything I want to ask you, can I go to you to sit there?" ”

Deng Quan asked impatiently, "What can you say?" ”

Although Chi Fei said good things for him today, this could not hide the fact that he was scolded by the shopkeeper because of this kid, so he still had resentment in his heart.

"Actually, it's like this, I heard that Brother Quan, you are learning abacus, and I happen to know a little. Do you want to see how I played, or is there anything wrong? Of course, it would be nice if we could exchange ideas together. ”

Deng Quan was stunned for a moment, and then looked at the young man in front of him seriously.

I saw that he was looking at him with a smile, as if he was very happy.

Deng Quan was not stupid, he could see that the other party intended to befriend him, and what he just said seemed to mean something else.

With a tentative thought, he asked, "You mean, are you willing to teach me how to plan the plate?" ”

"Of course it's no problem, I don't dare to say anything else, I'm quite familiar with abacus. If my brother wants to learn, I will teach until now. ”

"What you say is true?!" Deng Quan was surprised and delighted.

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who tells lies?"

"Not like, not like, not at all. That's it, you teach me to plan the plate. Since when? Tomorrow? Or today? Deng Quan trembled with excitement.

"Do you have an abacus? If there is, we can start learning now. ”

"Yes, yes, the abacus is in my room, I'll bring it right away, you wait for me, I'll be back right away." After Deng Quan finished speaking, he immediately ran to his room.

Sure enough, most people can't escape the word "interest" between people.

Chi Fei smiled faintly, and then found a place to sit down and wait for Deng Quan to come back.

He had long seen that Deng Quan was not willing to be an ordinary guy, and he really wanted to be a bookkeeper.

Don't look at his ugly handwriting, but he does the most serious counting every day.

Chi Fei had also seen him secretly practice how to plan a plate in front of a book that taught arithmetic in his room.

However, arithmetic, if there is no foundation at all, can be understood by reading a book.

What's more, the books in ancient times not only had few pictures, but also the words were difficult to understand, and if no one taught them, they couldn't learn it for a few years.

If you want to find someone to teach, you can only go to a private school.

However, in the imperial examinations, arithmetic is only a trivial and insignificant part.

Therefore, most private school teachers will only teach arithmetic by the way.

And even if he wants to teach, he will wait until the kid has a certain foundation in the four books before he starts teaching arithmetic, so as not to distract the kid.

Deng Quan had only studied in private school for a few years, and before he could learn arithmetic, his father was blown by his stepmother's pillow wind, and asked him to take a leave of absence from school and go home, giving up the opportunity to study to his half-brother.

Even now, he has to pay most of his salary as a buddy and go home every month.

If he doesn't pay it, as long as his stepmother makes trouble, his father will definitely whip him, and others will also point to his backbone and scold him for being unfilial.

Deng Quan was desperate to get out of this situation of being taken by his stepmother, and he wanted to leave the capital to live outside.

However, after a few years of social experience, he knew that it would not be easy.

When people leave their hometowns and want to live outside, they must have a good craft, otherwise they can't even solve the problem of food and clothing.

After many comparisons, he found that the path of being a bookkeeper was the most suitable for him.

Don't look at Mr. Ledger's business is not very glamorous, but the family is stable, the income is not low, and the older you get, the more valuable it is, and it is still very popular for people who have read books for a few years and can read and write.

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