Chapter Seventy-Five: Talent is a Treasure

Li Mao said: "Rice is not so fast. ”

Everyone came out to take a look, and it turned out that Lu Qi was back. He took two men with him, hired a few boats, and more than fifty men. Lu Qi came over and said that the three of them mobilized all the relatives in his family. Collect the fluff from the chests of all the ducks and geese in the surrounding villages. I bought a boatload of pickled duck eggs, and it didn't cost five thousand taels of silver. had to follow Zhang Zhimu's instructions, leave the remaining silver to everyone in the family, and let them continue to help collect duck down and goose down.

Lu Qi couldn't go back this time, because there were many people here and there was little land, and it was difficult to make a living. Lu Qi can also be regarded as returning home. It also brought to the people of his hometown that selling eiderdown can also make money, which is something that people here did not expect, and they are very happy. The villagers also believed in him.

Among the more than 50 people, there were carpenters, masons, painters, letterers, weavers, fortune tellers, and so on.

Zhang Zhimu hurriedly let everyone to the store. Although the renovation work inside is not completely completed, the house is already fine. In the evening, I bought a lot of chicken, duck, fish, meat and old wine, and entertained everyone well. Looking at the capable person Zhang Zhimu found, Li Mao said: "I heard that there is a capable person in Yangzhou, you should go and see it." It is said that when his ancestors were repairing the canal in Guo Shoujing, they once helped to survey the river. Very proficient in arithmetic.,What nine chapters of arithmetic and the like know everything.。 Now there are groups of disciples under his name. When Zhang Zhimu heard this, it was time to meet this master and see how far Chinese mathematics has developed.

Zhang Zhimu and Li Mao were going to see the master, but Chen Yufeng said that he would not go, and Yang Yulin had to follow. This master, surnamed Lu Bingyi, is nearly sixty years old.

However, the arrival of Zhang Zhimu and others was not welcome. Although he didn't eat the closed-door soup, Lu Bingyi didn't come out to see you. Send out an apprentice in his thirties, come out hello, hello, hello, hello, hello Zhang Zhimu thought to himself, if you don't show your point, you really can't see a real person. He said: "I heard that 'Old Lady Lu' is a master in the world, and I came here this time to ask for some questions. The disciple didn't know the depth and said, "If there is any question, I can answer it for the teacher." As a result, Zhang Zhimu said: "I now measure pi as 3.1415926575676." I don't know if it's accurate, so I'm here to ask for advice. The disciple was a little stunned and said, "Zu Chongzhi, I have long measured pi between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927. Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "The number I calculated is between these two numbers, you still help me ask Mrs. Lu to see if the number I calculated is correct?" The disciple hesitated and got up and returned to the back hall. After a while, an old man with a blazing expression came out of the back hall and arched his hand: "Your guests are here, how much neglect, please forgive me." ”

"The old lady is polite." Zhang Zhimu said: "It's a bit presumptuous to come and disturb, and I have to ask the prince for forgiveness." Because I have been too public for a long time, I made this decision just to see the prince. I also hope that the prince will forgive him for being reckless. The greetings made Li Mao, Yang Yulin and the disciples over there a little dumbfounded. Could it be that Zhang Zhimu's few numbers have such a great magic power, so that such an arrogant prince is respectful. In fact, Lu Bingyi studies these things every day, and he is very sensitive to them, not to mention whether the results he just said are right or wrong, and he can accurately move pi backwards by six digits, which is simply a terrible thing, and it is very difficult to add another one. In any case, the person who came must be a master. How dare Lu Bingyi be snubbing.

When the two came out, they didn't stop. At noon, Zhang Zhimu and the others had to be left for a light meal. Lu Bingyi has endless problems, and most of them were solved by Zhang Zhimu in a few words. Let's talk about the problem of prescription in the nine chapters of arithmetic. That's a very complicated solution to be solved with calculations. Zhang Zhimu took out a few fountain pens dipped in water and brought straw paper. Handed over to Lu Bingyi with Arabic numerals, and quickly can be opened out, especially fraction operations, what is the least common divisor, and the general score. Finally, Zhang Zhimu gave a formula for solving the one-dimensional quadratic equation. Lu Bingyi couldn't accept it for a while, but he also recorded it with the pen he had just learned to use. The family came over for tea, and Lu Bingyi motioned for his disciples and him to return to the inner hall. After a while, they all came out again, and Lu Bingyi asked the four disciples in their twenties and thirties to kneel in front of Zhang Zhimu, and Zhang Zhimu couldn't stand this kneeling the most, so he hurriedly wanted to help him up. Lu Bingyi stopped. said: "The old man has lived for decades, and he has always thought very highly of himself, but when we see you today, it is really like looking up to Mount Tai." Compared to you, we are not yet enlightened students, please accept my disciples as apprentices, they are all my disciples with outstanding talents. They're following me, and they're really misleading. Of course, Zhang Zhimu was happy in his heart, and he would need such talents in the future. He said, "Get up, I'll take it." However, we are learning from each other and discussing with each other, the so-called learning is endless, let's improve together. But tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we will go back to Shanxi. Lu Bingyi said: "Just now, we have all agreed in the back, wherever you go in the future, they will follow you wherever you go." Zhang Zhimu said, "Okay, then you're ready to go with me." But life in the north is harder, so you have to be mentally prepared. Several disciples said, "Don't be afraid." Zhang Zhimu was very moved. When parting, Zhang Zhimu asked Yang Yulin to give the fountain pen he brought to Lu Bingyi. Lu Bingyi said: "In the future, when I come to the south, I will bring more pens." This is much more convenient. ”

Back in the store, Liu was in a hurry in the courtyard, and when he saw Zhang Zhimu coming back, he greeted him and said, "Mr. Zhang, I went to find some musicians, and they are willing to go with us." Now there is such a thing, there is a family that originally raised some musicians, and there was a set of chimes at home, and they wanted to make a move. It was a rare good thing, and it cost ten thousand taels of silver. If you want to say that money is nothing in Yangzhou, why doesn't anyone want it, because these things take up too much space, and they need special musicians. So I haven't made a move, I want to ask Mr. Zhang if he wants it? Zhang Zhimu knew that a complete set of chimes could not be bought for 10,000 taels of silver, it must have been a change in the big family, and he was in a hurry to wait for the money to make a move. Asked: "Master Liu, do you want this chime?" "Of course, it's a good thing, but it's too expensive, and I'll keep it if it's any other instrument." This is ten thousand taels of silver. Zhang Zhimu said: "Since Liu Banzhu wants to stay." Now go and bring the money, and lead the people to order and pack the things, and bring back a lot of them. ”

Liu Banzhu happily went to do it, Zhang Zhimu knew that these people's love for musical instruments was the same as the love of martial arts practitioners for weapons.

When the head of the Liu class came back, Zhang Zhimu felt that it was too worthwhile. Large and small mahogany boxes were pulled back and there were dozens. Lu Qi also brought back a few musicians.

Zhang Zhimu saw that there was still silver, so he asked Li Mao to buy some rapeseed oil, there was a shortage of oil in the north, and there were many people here.

Finally, Li Maoding's rice arrived. Zhang Zhimu was about to leave Yangzhou and talk to Li Mao at the dock. Zhang Zhimu said: "The soldiers sent to you have all been transferred away. You're going to have to worry about it yourself. Li Mao said: "If we want to take root here, we must use more people here." Don't worry, I'll get it all in place as soon as possible. This is the turning point from south to north, connecting the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south, and the location is too important. After taking care of each other, wave goodbye.

The flotilla had traveled for half a day, and two fast horses on the shore caught up with the flotilla. It turned out that Lu Bingyi sent someone to tell Zhang Zhimu to wait for them in Huai'an, and then he also went to Huai'an, and he wanted to lead his disciples to Shanxi together. Zhang Zhimu was so happy in his heart. Yang Yulin said: "Look at you like you have a baby, these people can't do their work, and they can't fight." Zhang Zhimu said: "You're right, you have a baby." Talent is a big baby. ”

When he arrived in Huai'an, Zhang Zhimu took a look and knew that this time the movement was too big. In the freight yard next to the wharf, the grain is piled up. Mu Yi had already sent people to set up a cordon, and there were guards all around.

Liu Yun reported the situation first. Because it was the southeast monsoon, the sea ship traveled very fast, and when it reached the mouth of the Huai River, the big ship entered the Huai'an port by taking advantage of the high tide and water depth. Because Li Jing informed Li Mao in time, Li Mao went to Huai'an in advance, rented a dock site, and hired dock workers to help unload grain. Lu Chengxiang said: "The problem now is that we can transport everything away at once, and the boat in Huai'an may not be enough." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Start hiring ships now, and load as many ships as you want." There will be a constant stream of ships coming to this place, and the ships that come will be hired. The 180 boats we came from Yangzhou did not dare to load more in the canal, but now we can load more when we enter the Huai River and the Yellow River. Boatmen can also earn more silver. Lu Qi and the small boats they brought back were all replaced with shallow boats of 400 stones. Both of our warships can carry 5,000 stone of grain. Then the personnel also got on the big ship. It is safe and stable, and easy to manage. If we load 600 stone per ship, we will need more than 400 ships to transport all our goods. Lu Chengxiang said that now the south wind is very good, and the boatman said that it can be loaded with 800 stones, and the boatman is willing to load more, all in order to earn more. So that more than three hundred ships will be enough. In addition, 2,000 Shihuai salt has been bought, and it can be loaded on the ship soon.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Tomorrow I will load a warship first, and I will go to Xuzhou first, there are still some things there." I'm going to arrange it first, and when the boats here are all loaded, we won't have to stop too long when we get to Xuzhou, and we'll leave together. ”

Zhang Zhimu and his entourage arrived in Huai'an at noon, and Lu Bingyi arrived in the evening. It turned out that Lu Bingyi sent Zhang Zhimu and his disciples away, and his heart was not steady. Suddenly, I decided to go to Shanxi to study together. asked those disciples who were willing to follow, and it turned out that more than a dozen disciples had to follow, afraid that Zhang Zhimu would not stop when they arrived in Huai'an, so they left, so they sent someone to catch up with Zhang Zhimu on horseback and told Zhang Zhimu to wait for him. Zhang Zhimu was very moved when he saw these dozen people, these people all came for knowledge.

After the big ship was full, it set off first, along with fifty shallow ships loaded with cargo. Leaving Lu Chengxiang and Liu Yun to press the formation last.

Zhang Zhimu was in a hurry to Xuzhou because he was worried about Lin Xinmin's graphite and zeolite. These two things are very important things that he wants to buy this time.

Now it's going back, things are much better than I expected before I came out, Zhang Zhimu is also in a good mood, and everyone is beaming. Especially with a group of musicians accompanying you, it is even more boring along the way. Zhang Zhimu also began to talk about art with the artists of this era. At this time, the artists still used the pentatonic scale, and Zhang Zhimu began to tell them that the seven-tone scale could record music more accurately. It is better to change the palace, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, and Yu to Palace, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu, Change Palace, Change Sign, etc. And for the convenience of recording, Arabic numerals can be used instead of Chinese characters. This makes the score look more convenient. Then I talked about the tune. These artists, no matter how high their level was, were inferior in the eyes of those rich people. However, Zhang Zhimu not only respected them very much, but also discussed music issues with them, which made them feel cordial and warm. Zhang Zhimu saw that the little red jade had always wanted to come over and chat with Zhang Zhimu, but when he saw Yang Yulin's eyes, he didn't dare to come over. Zhang Zhimu saw that this was not good, so he specially called Xiao Hongyu to come over and sit and chat with everyone, and Xiao Hongyu was also very grateful.

accompanied Lin Xinmin to deal with the affairs of his shop, and then bought goods. It has been back to Xuzhou for many days. Graphite bought a total of 2,000 stones. Zeolite basically didn't cost anything, and it cost a little labor and freight to get 5,000 stones. Lu Qi and Lin Xinmin didn't know, what did Zhang Zhimu want these stones that no one wanted in the mountains, no one wanted this stone wall, how did they know that this was a treasure.

Lin Xinmin has brought his family to Xuzhou.

As soon as Zhang Zhimu arrived in Xuzhou, the first thing he asked was these two things. When Zhang Zhimu heard it, he bought it all, and he was overjoyed, and told Lu Qi to let people buy wine and meat, and have dinner in the evening. Lin Xinmin said that this time with Liu Qin's help, he bought grain everywhere, and bought a total of 100,000 stone wheat, but the money was not enough, Lin Xinmin sold the property of the shop, and some money was advanced. Zhang Zhimu was very happy to hear it.

Zhang Zhimu took the time to meet Lord Zhizhou, and Zhizhou was very happy when he heard that Zhang Zhimu was coming. Because he has supported Kaifeng meritoriously, he has been promoted. Zhizhou said: "If you come a few days later, when the new Zhizhou arrives, I won't be able to see you." The emperor already knows about your dart board merchants to rescue Kaifeng, and has ordered to reward you. When you arrive in Kaifeng, the king of Zhou will send a decree to you. And when you were gone, the thieves withdrew. Zhang Zhimu said: "This time, there is something to ask adults to help." Zhizhou said: "No problem, as long as I am in Xuzhou for one day, I will have the final say." "I want to borrow those two warships, and of course we will pay for the ship." Zhang Zhimu said.

"There is no cost for Zhang Dong's family boat. The ship will escort you home, and you can return. Zhizhou said.

Zhang Zhimu said, "Thank you, sir." Of course, I didn't forget to put down a large ingot of silver as a thank you when I left.