Chapter 433 Problem Discovered
Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang had obviously not given out the money from Longzhou yet, so the money in the house was exactly 1,910 taels. There was even a handful of copper coins scattered next to the pile of silver. It was obvious that they had taken out the 119 coins to play with.
Manbao happily counted the silver ingots twice. Actually, there were not many. Ten taels each, only one hundred and ninety-one in total.
Manbao counted happily, but even if the money was good, it would have been enough to count it twice.
She had just woken up and didn't want to sleep anymore. She looked around and saw the account book thrown aside. She crawled over and picked it up to have a look.
Manbao vaguely understood a truth: if grain was sold simply as grain, it would not be profitable. However, if it was sold as seeds, it could earn four times more than selling grain alone, or even more.
She felt that in the future their small farm, or even their family, could select more plants that were particularly strong, with particularly long and full ears, to use as seeds.
Even if we can't sell grain as seeds in large quantities in the future, we can still make a lot of money, at least much more than simply selling grain.
Manbao thought happily as he flipped through the account book.
Then as she flipped through the pages, she felt something was wrong.
Manbao turned to the front to look at the total amount of money measured, and then turned to the back to look at the total amount of money weighed.
Manbao was stunned, and simply turned to the first page and started counting how many bags of wheat were measured, and then counted the number of bags weighed.
Then I found that the amount of wheat measured in the bucket was one bag more than what was weighed.
It was not until this moment that Manbao realized that they seemed to have been cheated by Mr. Bai.
Manbao calculated the difference in money and was shocked, then felt extremely heartbroken.
Not to mention that the amount measured in buckets is one bag more than what is weighed. Even if the amount is the same, there will be some difference in the wheat in each bag, but the difference will not be that big.
There was a difference of nine thousand two hundred and five coins!
Manbao rushed to the next room to find Bai Shanbao with the account book.
Bai Shanbao just woke up and was drinking water. When he saw Manbao, he pouted and said, "Why are you here just now? You said you would come in the afternoon, but we waited for you for so long and you didn't come."
Manbao directly shoved the account book in front of him, his eyes wide open and he said, "Look!"
"What's wrong?" Bai Shanbao took the account book.
Bai Erlang quickly dropped his toys and rushed over, asking excitedly, "Did the account get wrong?"
"It can't be wrong," Bai Shanbao said first. "Manbao and I calculated separately. Since our numbers are the same, there can't be any mistakes. And the master didn't say it was wrong. I also saw the calculation done by your accountant, and ours are the same."
Bai Erlang calmed down and asked, "Then what do you want us to see?"
Manbao told them her discovery and asked in surprise, "How could there be such a big difference?"
Bai Shanbao recalled what the teacher had said when his uncle had said they should measure half by the bucket and the other half by the weight. He thought for a moment, "The teacher said this is our first assignment."
Bai Shanbao looked up and exchanged glances with Manbao, then took great pains to find a measuring cup from Zheng.
Zheng was almost worried to death.
When her mother-in-law is not at home, she has no control over her son.
Yesterday, a batch of wheat was suddenly delivered to her home, which scared her. Today, before she could come to her senses, the three children exchanged the wheat for money.
Now they are asking for a measure. Where can she find one for them?
In the end, the housekeeper found one for them from somewhere.
Bai Shanbao held the bowl in his arms and asked the steward seriously, "Is this an official order?"
"Don't worry, young master. They were all made by craftsmen appointed by the county government and are made according to the imperial court's standards."
The three children ran back to the front yard.
There was still some wheat in a room in the front yard. It was the wheat left over from exchanging with the villagers. It wasn't much, only nine bags.
With Daji's help, they untied a bag and Bai Shanbao put the measuring cup in to scoop the wheat. However, due to his lack of strength, he only filled half of it.
Daji didn't help either, but stepped aside and watched with his arms folded.
Bai Erlang helped Bai Shanbao move the measuring bucket filled with wheat to the ground. Manbao took out a blue and white plate from somewhere and poured the wheat into the measuring bucket directly using the plate.
When Daji saw the blue and white plate, he couldn't help but move a little, but in the end he didn't say anything. He just turned his head away, thinking out of sight, out of mind.
The three of them worked together and used a plate to fill the measuring bucket with wheat from the bag, making it just level. Bai Erlang then pulled over the bag he had brought and filled it up.
Bai Shanbao thought about it, but stopped him, then took a plate and filled it with wheat and added some more on top until it started to pop out.
Manbao looked thoughtful and reached out to shake the measuring bucket. Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang just exclaimed "Oh" to stop her, lest she spill the wheat on the ground. As a result, the wheat that was originally sticking out suddenly collapsed, and soon it was level with the measuring bucket again. It even sank a little bit to the naked eye.
Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang were both stunned. They couldn't help but glance at the bottom of the measuring cup and asked, "Is it leaking?"
Manbao finally found a similar scene in his memory and shouted, "It's not that I missed it, it's, it's..."
Manbao thought hard and said, "It must be because the sacks are not packed tightly. Every year when my family harvests wheat and millet, my brothers always shake them vigorously, lift them up, and then slam them down. This way, the sacks, which were originally full, become much emptier, and then we can fill them with wheat and millet again."
Both boys were stunned. This was obviously beyond their understanding.
However, Bai Shanbao quickly came to his senses and used a plate to put wheat into the measuring bucket. Bai Erlang and Manbao were responsible for shaking it. After a while, the pointed measuring bucket would no longer collapse. Then they poured the wheat in the measuring bucket into the bag and began to weigh it.
Of course, a child could not lift something weighing twelve pounds or more with one hand, so Manbao found a stick and worked with Bai Erlang to lift the bag and the scale bar together, while Bai Shanbao was responsible for moving the weight.
The three children had learned how to use a scale when they harvested wheat. They gathered together to look at it, counted it, and soon they had figured it out.
Bai Erlang was shocked and asked uncertainly, "Is it twelve pounds and eight ounces?"
Bai Shanbao nodded heavily.
Bai Erlang was stunned. "Isn't it said that one dou is twelve jin? Even if there is an upper and lower limit, this is too much."
Manbao sighed, "It's also our fault that the paperwork wasn't clear. If it had been clearly stated that we had to weigh it and not use a measuring bucket, it would have been fine."
Bai Erlang was stunned, "So my father took advantage of me?"
Bai Shanbao said, "This is the homework the teacher has assigned us. Should we rewrite the document so that our cousin won't take advantage of us?"
(End of this chapter)
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