Chapter 424 Question 1
Mr. Zhuang smiled slightly and said, "Look carefully and see if you can understand it in the end."
Mr. Bai narrowed his eyes and smiled.
Using a bucket, you can not only check the status of each seed, but also do it without shaking the bucket. One bucket will be used to check the tip of the seed. It can be twelve pounds or twelve and a half pounds. Experienced people, such as the tax collectors in the county government, can use thirteen pounds in one bucket.
Mr. Bai decided to use a bucket when he went to Old Zhou's house.
However, the Zhou family can be completely business-oriented, and there is no need to be so strict with the three children, so let's be half and half, just enough to let them learn a lesson.
Mr. Bai felt that he had won the game and felt refreshed.
The wheat was put on the ground, and the farmhand stepped forward to untie the bag. Mr. Bai's housekeeper was prepared and stepped forward with a bucket, followed by a servant holding a bag.
The two men cooperated with each other, and the butler fought without any pause, and poured it directly into the empty bag. He and Bai Zhuangtou said "one" together, and then continued.
A number was read out for every dou. After a bag was filled, any remaining amount that was less than a dou would be kept and counted together with the next bag. Then Mr. Bai's accountant and Bai Erlang would write down a number in their respective account books.
Manbao and Bai Shanbao, who were sitting nearby, were counting on the abacus together.
Bai Erlang has also been learning to use the abacus recently, but Mr. Zhuang is not very strict with him. If he likes to learn, he can learn, and if he doesn’t like to learn, then forget it.
Because in Mr. Zhuang's opinion, his arithmetic is not yet good enough for him to learn to use an abacus, but because he bought an abacus, Mr. Zhuang has been paying more attention to his arithmetic recently.
Bai Erlang had no idea that he had been tricked by his senior sisters and brothers. He even thought that the teacher had been particularly tolerant of him recently. Every time he learned the abacus, he would smile at him and never make things difficult for him.
So recently he has been quite enthusiastic about things like bookkeeping.
They went to measure the second bag. Manbao was a little bored. After looking around, he simply calculated the price of the fourteen dou he had measured.
In order to save space, they used the largest sacks to pack wheat, each sack weighing almost one stone, or about 160 to 170 kilograms.
In comparison, the sacks generally used by farmers are much smaller. Manbao often helped count the wheat for his family when paying taxes, and knew that a bag of wheat weighed only about 100 pounds.
One dou is 150 wen, and fourteen dou is...
Manbao stumbled over the abacus and looked at the calculated numbers.
She blinked, a little skeptical, "So many?"
Bai Shanbao leaned over to take a look, and then calculated it himself. The two were surprised to find that the numbers they calculated were the same.
Does that mean they were right?
The two looked at each other and couldn't help but exclaimed.
Bai Erlang immediately lost his focus and came up to ask, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Manbao immediately asked him to write down the amount of money at the back, "Just write it down as 2,100 wen. We can add it up directly using an abacus later. That way we don't have to multiply it again."
"Yes, yes, this is faster." Bai Shanbao picked up the pen and demonstrated on Bai Erlang's notebook, writing "two thousand one hundred coins" after the first bag totaling fourteen dou.
Master Bai and Mr. Zhuang exchanged a glance, and Master Bai immediately looked at the servant behind him and ordered, "Go get another measuring stick. One person is too slow to measure, so we need two people to do it together."
With one more group of people, the three children became a little flustered. They had just measured a bag when Bai Zhuangtou reported the number. Bai Erlang hadn't finished writing yet when the group next to them finished measuring.
The farmhand in charge of supervision on their side also reported the number, and then moved on to the next bag.
Bai Erlang couldn't help but tremble his hands, muttering to himself. After he finished writing the number reported by Bai Zhuangtou, he immediately went to write the number of the farmhand, for fear that he would forget after finishing it.
Then Bai Shanbao and Manbao on the side used an abacus to calculate the amount of money. Sometimes if the two of them agreed, they would ask Bai Erlang to write it down. If they were different, they would calculate it again.
So you have to count two sets of numbers at least once each time.
Unfortunately, they had only learned to use the abacus for a few days. Although they were familiar with the Jiujiu song, they were still clumsy and slow when using the abacus.
Every time Bai Erlang hadn't finished remembering their numbers, the person measuring the bucket nearby would report a new number.
Bai Erlang was so busy that he couldn't even wipe the sweat off his forehead. Bai Shanbao and Manbao had to take out paper and pen to help. Each of them was responsible for a group of numbers. They would write them down first and then copy them over to Bai Erlang after he finished the previous ones.
The two of them were distracted while memorizing and calculating, while they kept complaining to Bai Erlang, "You write too slowly, you need to speed up."
Manbao said, "I told you not to practice regularly. You never take notes during the teacher's class. Otherwise, how could your speed be so slow?"
Mr. Bai on the side glared at his son, snorted and said nothing.
However, Bai Erlang had no time to pay attention to his father at the moment, and did not hear the hum at all.
Seeing the three children busying around, Mr. Bai curled his lips in pleasure. After they got used to the speed, he signaled the butler and others to speed up.
The three children were very busy again, but fortunately it was not as chaotic as at the beginning. At least there was order in the busyness.
Mr. Bai looked at this with mixed feelings.
As an outsider, he naturally knew that the calmness in such a busy situation was largely due to Shanbao and Manbao who were in control. Each of them was responsible for one side, and after recording the data, they would calculate the accounts together. Only when they agreed would they write down the numbers, so in the end his son only had to copy the numbers given by both sides.
Mr. Bai asked the servants to bring two chairs, and sat under the eaves with Mr. Zhuang, holding a cup of hot tea in his hands, watching with great interest and sighing at the same time.
Mr. Zhuang drank his tea with a smile. He felt that Bai Er had made great progress compared to last year. This was naturally due to the development of the small class, which gave him more energy to keep an eye on him.
Also because Manbao and Shanbao always take him out to play now.
There were many students in the school before. Bai Er had his own good friends, and Manbao and Bai Shanbao also had classmates they got along well with.
They have their own circles after class and after school.
But the school is gone, and the circle of three people, no, it should be said that the circles of the two parties are forced to overlap.
Manbao and Shanbao would follow Bai Er to the fields to catch loaches after it rained, and Bai Er would also stay in the study with the two of them to read and write when it rained.
Bai Er's academic performance improved, and Shanbao and Manbao became more integrated into the group of children of the same age in Qili Village. The effect was mutual.
Bag after bag of wheat was opened and measured into another bag, and the booklet in front of Bai Er was turned page after page.
After estimating that half of the wheat had been measured, Mr. Bai asked his servants to tie the grain bags to a large scale to weigh the rest.
This number is completely different from the previous one. It is calculated as twelve and a half cents per catty. This half cent gave Bai Shanbao and Manbao a headache.
(End of this chapter)
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