This year, the climate in Henan is good, and it rained very early.

This is the first normal spring rain in Henan after six consecutive years of severe drought in the province.

The miserable Henan can finally return to normal this year, except for Runing Mansion, which is occupied by Zhao Han, there is no drought in the rest of Henan.

It's nonsense, God seems to be working against Zhao Han.

He only occupies two prefectures in Henan, but the one with the most immigrants is about to have a severe drought in the whole province this year. On the contrary, the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in Henan will become smooth this year.

In addition, Shaanxi, which has been dry for more than ten years, has also had smooth weather this year, and Shanxi has only local drought.

The "Chongzhen Great Drought" began to move to the south in an all-round way.

However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not pleased, and hundreds of thousands of Liaodong soldiers and civilians collectively moved to Beizhili. This year's Beizhili is a drought-stricken area.

To be more specific, several of the hardest-hit areas this year are located in the core areas of Dolgon and Zhao Han.

Come on, hurt each other!

……

When Hu Dinggui plundered the population of Shenyang, and when Huang Qi took the Chengdu Plain, the frontal battlefield also began to move.

The peasants of northern Hubei, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui, Nanyang Prefecture, and Runing Prefecture have been mobilized, and the grain harvested by Zhao Han last autumn has already been continuously transported to the north.

The Great War of the North and the South was on the verge of breaking out.

At such a critical moment, the focus of the people of Nanjing was not the Northern Expedition that was about to begin.

No one thought that the Datong army would be defeated, and it seemed that it was normal to sweep through the Central Plains. Their eyes were on the officially published "Datong Almanac", "Twelve Qi Calendar", "Datong Zhengyin" and "Datong Dictionary".

The "Datong Almanac" is an adaptation of the "Chongzhen Almanac", and only some obvious errors have been deleted, such as the geocentric theory.

The Hou family and his son were being watched in Shandong, and Zuo Liangyu was still wavering.

Just last winter, Hou Fangyu received the news of his mother's death, and he got rid of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and simply returned to Henan to mourn. Then he entered Anhui from his hometown, and after a few months, he finally came to Nanjing.

As soon as I entered the city, I saw the messenger carrying a burden and selling the "Twelve Qi Calendar" to the shops along the street.

It's not a forced buy, you can buy it if you don't buy it, but the date of collection of store tax in the future will be collected according to the new calendar time.

"How are almanacs sold?" Hou Fangyu asked.

The officer replied with a smile: "A penny for a colored ribbon painting, and a dime for a colorless and unpainted one." ”

Hou Fangyu came all the way south and already knew the southern currency system.

A few years ago, the Datong silver dollar, which was mainly used for merchants' trade, has now become a very common currency in circulation. A silver dollar, equal to one tael of silver, is commonly known as "one dollar".

Moreover, the Datong copper yuan has been added, which is divided into five corners, two corners, and one corner.

The traditional square-hole copper coin is still in use, about 800 to 1200 wen, which can be exchanged for one dollar, that is, ten dimes.

However, only Datong copper coins can be used to pay taxes.

The rest of Jiajing Tongbao and Chongzhen Tongbao are not recognized by the government and banks. Although it can be exchanged at the bank, those are "scrap coins" and can only be exchanged for the cost price of copper.

"I'll take a look first." Hou Fangyu said.

The color with painting version, which belongs to the wall calendar, depicts simple landscapes of flowers and birds. If there is no color and no painting, it is a desk calendar.

Hou Fangyu didn't bring much silver, so he bought a desk calendar.

He found that the old and new calendars corresponded to the top and bottom, and the Chinese characters were also marked with Tianzhu numerals (Arabic numerals) next to the Chinese numbers.

In the first year of the Republic of China, the Yellow Emperor calendar was 4339 years.

The first day of January in the new calendar (Lichun) corresponds to the ninth day of the first month of the old calendar (Lichun).

Continue to flip through and find the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar, each of which is the 1st or 16th of the new calendar. The big month has 31 days and the small month has 30 days.

However, due to the uneven movement of the sun, there are 32 days in May, only 29 days in November, and May 17 on the summer solstice.

Hou Fangyu said with a smile: "This calendar is easy to remember. ”

Hou Fangyu took the newly bought desk calendar, first asked his old friend about the situation, and learned that Fang Yizhi was quite newly appointed by Zhao Han, so he went to ask Fang Yizhi to pass on the letter.

Zhao Han is about to go on a personal expedition, and there is really no time, Hou Fangyu is scheduled for the morning after tomorrow.

The founding emperor drove the expedition in person, not to be full.

Due to backward communication technology, military information cannot be quickly transmitted back and forth. Moreover, the battlefield may involve four provinces, and Zhao Han must move his headquarters to the front line, because no one can independently suppress the generals except him.

There was still a whole day to wander around the city of Nanjing.

He traveled to the three provinces of Beizhi, Shandong, and Henan, and came to the south again, the gap between the north and the south is too big, and he likes the fireworks in Nanjing.

And, it seems, every time you go south, a lot of new things come up.

Coming to the street where stationery was sold, Hou Fangyu passed by a watch shop and suddenly heard the sound of "Dang Dang Dang".

He walked in curiously, and immediately greeted him with a smile from the shopkeeper: "This son, our store has the latest self-striking clock, as well as pocket watches exclusively sold in Nanjing......

Hou Fangyu said strangely: "I remember that this store used to sell gold and stone calligraphy and paintings, how did it change to sell clocks and watches?" ”

The shopkeeper answered with a smile: "The Nanjing nobles of the former Ming Dynasty collected many gold and stone calligraphy and paintings, which were stored in the Hanlin Academy. There are too many of them, and the bachelors of the Hallym Academy can't take care of them. The former owner of this shop bought off the disabled soldiers and sweeping eunuchs who managed the warehouse, and brought one or two pieces out every day. The courage is also really big, and the unique calligraphy and paintings dare to be taken out, and it is strange not to be discovered. ”

"Killed?" Hou Fangyu asked.

The shopkeeper shook his head and said: "It's not a matter of killing the head, the whole family of the merchant confiscated the property, the disabled soldier took back the property, and threw it away to reclaim the land." I heard that if you are next to Zhang Xianzhong's thieves, you have to deal with the island. ”

There are two kinds of people who went to Taiwan to farm, such as the sailors and soldiers of the Zheng family, who were cut in half and farmed next to each other in Taiwan. As long as it can adapt to the climate, this is not dangerous, and the land is relatively fertile.

As for Zhang Xianzhong and the later exiles, they had to face the Shengfan headhunters.

Nowadays, the death penalty is minimized, and unless the crime is extremely heinous, repeat offenders can choose to be with Zhang Xianzhong.

Hou Fangyu walked to a big bell: "This is ringing just now?" ”

The shopkeeper personally introduced: "So that the son knows, this is called a self-striking bell, and the time can be told on the hour." In this Nanjing city, there are only two that sell from the bell to the bell, and the purchase is not easy to enter, and only the craftsmen of Suzhou and Guangzhou can make it for the time being. The watch workshops on both sides are still fighting patent lawsuits, and they don't know who can win. ”

Hou Fangyu continued to observe the goods and found a small bell the size of a palm: "Made so small?" ”

The shopkeeper said proudly: "This is a pocket watch, the smaller it is, the more valuable it is." It's so small, and in the whole south, only two or three craftsmen can make it. ”

"How much is it worth?" Hou Fangyu asked.

The shopkeeper smiled and gestured three fingers: "This number." ”

"Thirty taels?" Hou Fangyu felt that it was very cheap.

The shopkeeper laughed: "Three hundred silver dollars!" ”

Hou Fangyu shook his head when he heard this, such an expensive price, ordinary people can't afford it at all.

Taking the price of grain as a comparison, grain prices in ancient China have always been relatively stable. From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, only the price of grain in the Yuan Dynasty belonged to the price of the underworld, the price of grain in the Qing Dynasty was slightly expensive, and the rest of the dynasties were similar.

As long as it is not a famine year and there are no military disasters and natural disasters, the price per catty of rice is about 2 to 8 wen (copper coins of normal quality).

After Zhao Han stabilized the currency value, although there is a shortage of grain, the price of rice in Nanjing is only about 10 Wen, and the price fluctuation will not exceed 2 Wen.

This pocket watch alone can buy 30,000 catties of rice!

Of course, the north will definitely not be able to exchange so many meters.

The price of rice in Beijing is 80 wen a pound this spring, which is eight times that of Nanjing, and ordinary people continue to starve to death.

Hou Fangyu walked around the watch shop for a while, and then went to the bookstore next door.

There are all kinds of things, and there are even many little yellow texts, and Zhao Han has no control over them for the time being.

"How can there be such a phonetic?"

"I think it's excellent."

"Of course you say yes, you are from Anhui!"

"Anhui is also divided into north and south, my ancestral home is Fengyang, and Datong Zhengyin is very different from Fengyang dialect."

"The difference is not big, I am from Fujian, so the difference is big."

“……”

A group of readers, discussing around the dictionary.

They have no problem with some of the "simplified characters" in the dictionary, because they are all vulgar characters that have appeared, and are often used in calligraphy or when writing letters.

Only for Datong Zhengyin, there are great opinions!

Hou Fangyu opened the dictionary curiously, and there was a pinyin table in the appendix of the dictionary. Moreover, pinyin symbols and tone symbols are marked with Chinese characters to mark the reading and usage, and the traditional phonetic cutting method can be learned.

At least, for Hou Fangyu, he understood pinyin in a few minutes.

According to the pinyin spelling sentences, it is found that this kind of Datong Zhengyin is very similar to "Hongwu Zhengyun", but the pronunciation of some Chinese characters has changed.

However, it conforms to the traditional rules of reading pronunciation.

As long as the traditional scholars who have learned to read the pronunciation, no matter where they are, they will definitely be able to understand the Datong pronunciation.

Hou Fangyu also tried to use a dictionary to find Chinese characters, whether it was pinyin search or sideways search, which was countless times faster than traditional word search tools.

Hou Fangyu sighed: "This weapon of education is also a great achievement!" If I had stayed in Jiangnan, I would have been able to participate in the grand event, but unfortunately I returned to Henan when I compiled the dictionary. ”

Hou Fangyu was also helpless, he first went to Beijing to spend money and get his father out of the edict. After returning home, he assisted his father to form a village to defend himself against the bandits in Henan. Then the grandfather died, and then the village was breached, and the father and son were forcibly taken away by Li Zicheng to become officials.

Towards the direction of Zhao Han's "Imperial Palace", Hou Fangyu sighed inexplicably: "Words, calendars, with this merit, it is already a sign of prosperity." The Holy Monarch is in the court, how can my generation of scholars not devote themselves to it? ”

Another day, under the leadership of Fang Yizhi, Hou Fangyu was received by Zhao Han.

When the two passed by the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites, they saw dozens of scholars kneeling on the ground to petition, hoping to abolish Datong Zhengyin.

"A bunch of rotten people will only do bad things!" Hou Fangyu said with disdain.

Fang Yizhi said with a smile: "It's already good, there are only a few dozen." The last petition had one or two hundred scholars. ”