"I've been busy all day, and you don't wait for me."

Chao Yong was having dinner with Hu Sanniang in Ruizhu Palace, but he saw Xiaoqing come in with a dissatisfied face.

Hu Sanniang smiled: "It's not early, I thought you were eating in your Yiqing Palace." ”

Xiaoqing wrinkled her nose and said, "After the prince came back, the young lady forgot about me, I accompanied you to eat a few days ago." ”

Chao Yong smiled: "Okay, sit down." ”

Xiaoqing has long been accustomed to eating for three, and she is not welcome.

The two took the initiative to clip some dishes for Xiaoqing, which soothed Xiaoqing's dissatisfaction.

Xiaoqing said while eating: "The three thousand palace maids given to the generals have all been sent out, but there are very few people who are willing to marry the soldiers, less than a hundred. ”

The battlefield was cruel, and it was easy to become a widow if you married a soldier. In addition, the next marriage is an ordinary soldier, and the palace maids are all handsome people elected by the local government, so there are naturally very few people who are willing to marry ordinary soldiers.

Although the probability of flying on the branch and becoming a phoenix in the palace is very small, but there is also a worry-free life, and marrying a soldier has a high probability of becoming a widow, once widowed, life will be difficult.

Chao Yong also knew that the soldiers were not popular, and said strangely: "Many people are not in Tokyo, where are you going?" ”

Xiaoqing said with a smile: "The emperor gave them all the houses in Tokyo, and I asked them all to be sent to the generals' mansions to take care of the mansions for them." ”

Chao Yong nodded and said, "Did the literate palace maid be selected?" ”

Xiaoqing said with a smile: "This is easy, I asked some little eunuchs to register separately, and selected a thousand people to come out, and they can all read common words." ”

Chao Yong looked at Xiao Qingyun's light and breezy appearance, and she really looked like a strong woman in later generations, and she was also quick and easy to do things.

Xiaoqing looked at Chao Yong's surprised appearance and said with a smile: "I picked some palace maids and eunuchs to come out to help me, I only need to command." ”

Chao Yong smiled: "You can pick someone out." It's not bad to let them do your task too. ”

Hu Sanniang also nodded and said, "I don't have much time to deal with the affairs in the palace these days, thanks to Xiaoqing." ”

When Xiaoqing saw that both of them praised her, she immediately twisted it and said shyly: "Miss wants to take care of Feng'er, so I naturally have to share Miss's worries." If the young lady did it, it would be better than me. ”

After dinner, Hu Sanniang asked Chao Yong to reward Xiaoqing, and pushed Chao Yong to Xiaoqing's Yiqing Palace.

A night of greed.

The next day, Chao Yong summoned a thousand literate people, and sure enough, there were many palace maids. There are few eunuchs.

The Imperial Palace did not have a large hall that could accommodate a thousand people, so they could only stand outside the hall.

Chao Yong looked at the black crowd below and shouted, "You also know, I have sent many people out of the palace in the past few days, because the palace does not need so many people. Because you are literate, you have a chance to stay. I'll give you another chance to teach you new arithmetic, and if you learn it well, you can go to work on the royal ticket number in the future. At least 3 times a month. Well done 100 times. If you can't learn, you will continue to be a subordinate in the palace. ”

Although the people below don't know what the royal ticket number is, they heard that the minimum monthly money is three times, and a good month can get one hundred times. I can't help but shine in my eyes.

Chao Yong saw that he had mobilized the enthusiasm of everyone, and immediately asked people to find ten large pieces of paper, write out the Arabic numerals 0-9 and the corresponding Chinese characters, and hang them under the eaves.

"You all know the words on it. The following corresponds to the numbers I want to teach you, let's call them the girder numbers. Give you a cup of tea and memorize the numbers. Then I will pick some of you out and teach arithmetic personally. ”

Chao Yong believes that Arabic numerals have not yet spread to the world. With the prosperity of the beam, these numbers will be widely known, and it is not an exaggeration to call the number of the beam, of course, the inventor will become the great prince of the beam.

A group of people heard that what they remembered could be passed on by the prince himself, and when Chao Yong ascended the throne, he was the protégé of the Son of Heaven, and suddenly their eyes widened, staring at the numbers under the eaves, and they memorized it vigorously.

A cup of tea is five minutes, and as soon as the time is up, Chao Yong asks people to remove the numbers hanging under the eaves.

Taking advantage of this effort, Chao Yong had already written a bunch of small cards, with Arabic numerals on the front and Chinese characters on the back. Then let a few literate eunuchs and palace maids choose the person who can accurately say how many of these numbers are, and each person recognizes five numbers, and there can be no mistakes.

Chao Yong originally thought that this matter was very simple, after all, these people were literate, and Arabic numerals were also very simple.

But he was disappointed by the results, and less than a hundred people passed the test. Arabic numerals are very simple, but in the eyes of those who have never seen them, these ten numbers have nothing to do with each other, and they look like they are scribbled, and they are not easy to remember.

For beginners, Arabic numerals are indeed not as easy to remember as Greek numerals, but arithmetic, Arabic numerals are a bit neater.

The people who passed the test were very happy, because they could be the future disciples of the Son of Heaven, while the people who did not pass the test looked unwilling, standing below and looking at Chao Yong with their eyes, hoping to give them another chance.

Of course, Chao Yong didn't waste any more time, and waved his hand: "The selected ones will come with me, and the others will copy the numbers and memorize them by themselves, and let them teach you more things when they go back." ”

Chao Yong entered the main hall with the selected people and began to teach two-digit, three-digit, and four-digit numbers, these people were very smart and had a good memory, and soon they would be able to write out multiple digits with the Liang numbers, which was nothing more than changing the Chinese characters into numbers one by one.

Then he began to teach them arithmetic, which Chao Yong thought would be very simple, because these people could already write numbers, single digits plus single digits, tens plus ten digits. But I didn't expect that there were not many people who could do arithmetic, and literacy and arithmetic were inseparable in this era.

Chao Yong couldn't help but feel a little dizzy as he watched these adults wrench their fingers and do simple addition and subtraction.

There was also a eunuch who directly took out a pile of wooden sticks and placed them there.

Chao Yong walked over, watched curiously as the eunuch fiddled with the wooden stick, and then wrote out the correct answer, but it was obviously not calculated according to the method he taught, and he couldn't help but wonder: "What kind of algorithm are you?" ”

The eunuch saw the prince coming over, and hurriedly said, "This is a calculation." ”

Chao Yong saw that he was swinging horizontally and vertically, and said with a smile: "How do you get this thing?" ”

"One to five is vertical, and five is horizontal. The single digit uses the vertical type, the ten digits use the horizontal type, the hundredth digits use the vertical type, the thousand digits use the horizontal type, and the 10,000 digits use the vertical type. ”

Chao Yong saw that the eunuch was displayed one by one, this calculation was very simple and intuitive, and nodded: "You invented this?" ”

The eunuch hurriedly said: "No, there has been this method for a long time, and the villain is on an errand in Si Zhen to record property, so he learned this calculation." ”

Chao Yong smiled: "This method is good, but you can't always carry a bunch of wooden sticks with you, learn the numbers of the girders, and the account books in the harem will also use the numbers of the girders, and give your wooden sticks to everyone, so that they can count their fingers." ”

When the eunuch saw that the prince said this, he had no choice but to give the wooden sticks to everyone with a bitter face. (To be continued......)