After the Spring Festival, because of the snowy weather, some outdoor projects were suspended, Zheng Yuming is now relatively free. In addition to a trip to Nambu during the day, stay a few hours to deal with some matters, the other time in the valley is either tutoring Huo siblings and Fan Jin, or writing textbooks.
Zheng Yuming did not intend to turn the Nambu villagers and valley slaves into thinkers, and wrote a practical curriculum. In addition to teaching writing, he also taught math. The counting code used in the Daqin continent is chips, while the numbers taught by Zheng Yuming here are Arabic numerals.
Arabic numerals are actually not invented by Arabs, it first originated in India, in 500 BC, the Indians have begun to use it, around the 8th century AD before it was transmitted to Arabia, the Arabs began to use Arabic numerals in the 9th century AD, and it was introduced to China after the 13th century AD, and it was only in 1892 that it was formally used in China.
In addition to the Arabic numerals written into the textbook, Zheng Yuming also let the carpenter to create an abacus, no calculator, just rely on the chip counting is too much trouble, the old abacus even in the twenty-first century, the computer has been widely used, not only has not been discarded, but because of its convenience, accuracy, and other advantages, in many countries in the ascendant. It can be said that the most advanced modern electronic calculator can not completely replace the role of the abacus.
The one who learns the abacus the best is Huo Sihua, followed by Wu Da's wife, Fan Jin is only in the third place, and as for Wu Da, he does not plan to use the abacus as much as he uses the abacus chip to be smart. However, after his wife learns the abacus, Wu Da uses the abacus to compete with his wife in counting and loses time and time again. In front of reality, Wu Da can only throw away the abacus and focus on practicing bead counting.
At the end of the year, because of his hard work, Fanjin received a big red packet from the main family, which was half a year's salary for Fanjin. Fanjin used the money to pay off all the arrears on the house, and he was the first person in the valley to own a complete property.
But in a year's time, Fan Zin went from being an exiled sinner to a teacher, from living without a home to owning real estate, from not being able to marry a wife to marrying a beautiful woman. This change of life was earth-shattering, and Fan Zin put in a lot of effort. After the wedding, Fan Zin did not with the bride more love, but more buried in hard learning. Everything he has is because of culture, culture is his foundation.
During the day Fanjin has to be a teacher in the valley, and at night he has to drive a mule train to Nambu to teach, and on the nights when he doesn't go to Nambu, Fanjin has to teach the adult slaves in the valley, and only at the end of the night school at night is he free to go to Zheng Yuming's place to replenish his energy, and fortunately Zheng Yuming goes to bed late, and usually doesn't go up to bed until the midnight hour, and Fanjin's late visit isn't considered as a disturbing one.
It had been almost a month since Chu Chao Hui had left the valley, Zheng Yuming went to bed later and later at night, and the lights in the worker's kitchen always went out only in the middle of the night.
The workers' kitchen was the warmest place in the villa, and once evening came, a fire charcoal pot was raised in the kitchen and two oil lamps were lit. The Huo siblings were all in the kitchen reading and practicing their calligraphy. Zheng Yuming also writes his textbooks here. The little dog Woody sleeps on his master's knee. The cook, Su, sits on a small bench next to her to knit the soles of her shoes.
Woody grew for almost a year, only to grow to the size of three or four months old, after repeated failures in the fight with the small animals around the villa, Woody became even more adhesive to his master, in his consciousness, everything has changed, only the master's love for him has not changed, only by relying on his master, Woody felt at ease, a German shepherd wolfhound began to become like a teddy.
At about eight o'clock, Mu Tou suddenly raised his little doggy head and his ears perked up. Then Su heard a rattling at the villa's courtyard door and hurriedly stood up to open the door, the only people who would come at this time were Fan Jin and his wife.
As soon as the kitchen door opened, Fan Zin and his wife walked in, catching a cold wind, and the last Su woman to enter hurriedly closed the door behind her, the cold then being shut out.
Seeing Fan Jin came in, Huo siblings quickly stood up and saluted him, this is Zheng Yuming regulations, students see the teacher must salute. Of course, Fanjin see Zheng Yuming in addition to the main family of the salute, but also have to perform the teacher salute, this night to teach, Fanjin line is the teacher salute, see Zheng Yuming in the daytime, the line is to see the master of the house of the salute. Zheng Yuming stipulates that the teacher's salute is very simple, is a bow.
"Quickly go to the fire coals to bake your hands." Zheng Yuming put down his brush and raised his hand to greet Fan Jin and Ge Danyou.
"Aye! Sir!" Fan Jin came to the villa too many times and was familiar with Zheng Yuming, so he was not polite when he got along and sat beside Zheng Yuming baking his hands, while Ge Dainou sat with Su Woman, and the two of them whispered.
"Let's teach you multiplication abacus tonight." Zheng Yuming had already taught abacus for a month, and Fan Jin was very skillful at adding and subtracting.
"Okay! My lord!" Fanjin took his abacus out of his backpack. This book bag style backpack was favored by the valley slaves, and most of the slaves used burlap to make one for themselves to use.
Seeing Zheng Yuming about to teach a new course, the Huo siblings hurriedly got up and gathered around.
Zheng Yuming explained nearly an hour, Huo Sihua comprehended the fastest, Fan Jin is listening while taking notes, note-taking is Zheng Yuming told him a method of learning, with notes, Fan Jin can slowly digest after.
Zheng Yuming looked at the flexible fingers of Huo Sihua, serious note-taking Fan Jin, and then took a look at the clumsy Huo Sizhong, could not help but sigh slightly, the same parents, Huo Sizhong's IQ is not half as high as her sister's, and she does not learn anything as fast as her sister. Huo Sizhong's biggest advantage is probably that he is more down-to-earth.
"Woof! Woof!" Woody, who had been lying on Zheng Yuming's lap, suddenly straightened up and jumped to the ground, barking furiously at the kitchen door. A cacophony of noises also came from outside the villa compound.
Zheng Yuming stood up suddenly, he was ecstatic in his heart, he felt that it was Chu Chao Hui who had returned with the slave soldiers. But when he went to open the door with one strong step, he calmed down again, because Woody barked too much. Although the wood is small, but its hearing and sense of smell is more sensitive than when the big dog, Chu Chao Hui's voice and smell has long been familiar with, today such a big reaction is not like to hear a familiar person back.
"Fan Jin, Si Zhong, you guys and I will go out, Si Hua, none of you guys should go outside the kitchen." Zheng Yuming holds the wood to Huo Sihua's care.
"My lord, let's go take a look, you stay inside." Huo Si Zhong copied a steel rod next to the kitchen and blocked in front of Zheng Yuming with one strong step.
"Open the door, let's go together." Zheng Yuming's hand pressed on his waist, the mini-pistol he had been carrying around since Chu Chao Hui left the valley.
Not knowing what was happening in the valley, Zheng Yuming went out of the kitchen and walked to the courtyard wall where the Grand Cherokee car was parked and climbed up on the roof of the car to check outside the courtyard wall. Only to see a few torches flickering not far from the courtyard wall, a dozen or so silhouettes swaying there, the silhouettes' mouths emitting yells.
"My lord! What happened?" Unlike Zheng Yuming, who was tall enough to leap onto the roof of the car covered with a car cover, Fan Jin and Huo Si Zhong could only stand next to the car and ask.
"Some beast broke in and was discovered by the guards on duty, and called out that they were catching and killing it." Zheng Yuming listened carefully and relaxed his guard all over.
Zheng Yuming had just finished speaking when cheers came from the distance. A torch came towards the villa.
"My lord! A wild boar broke through just now, we've already caught and killed this guy!" The slave holding the torch had come to the villa to report the situation, and when he saw Zheng Yuming standing on the fence, he hurriedly bowed and returned the favor.
After Chu Chao Hui led the soldiers to hunt frantically against the large beasts in the valley, the beasts in the valley either stayed away from migrating or fell under traps or arrows and bows. Wild boars around the valley have been rarely seen, and this wild boar that intruded into the living area this evening should have run over from the northern Azure Mountain because of hunger. After running into the living area, it was found by the patrolling slaves, and this poor food-seeking animal, instead of finding food, became a delicacy in the mouths of humans.
Zheng Yuming jumped down from the car, opened the courtyard door and walked to the place where the wild boar was beaten and killed, looked at the wild boar that was clubbed to death by the slaves, praised the patrolling slave guards, and then asked the kitchen people to drag the wild boar away, and instructed the slaves to clean up the blood on the ground. This boar would not be the only wild beast desperate out of hunger during the winter season, and the blood would attract them to come. The slaves in the valley had been eating meat regularly for nearly a year, and with richer nutrition, the phenomenon of night blindness among the slaves was disappearing, but when they met the ferocious beasts that specialized in coming out at night, their eyesight was still not as good as these animals. It was still important to avoid fighting the ferocious beasts at night to avoid casualties.
The commotion caused by the beast intruding in quickly subsided, except for the slaves on patrol duty, everyone else went back to the house to rest. Zheng Yuming carried a kerosene lamp up the stairs, after going up the stairs he had no sleep at all, touched Chu Chao Hui's room, and touched a pack of cigarettes from Chu Chao Hui's bedside table. There are not many cigarettes in the villa, and there are only two cigarettes in the nightstand, so it is estimated that after spring, Chu Chao Hui will be forced to quit smoking.
Zheng Yuming came close to the kerosene lamp to light the cigarette, then extinguished the kerosene lamp, opened the balcony door, lying on the balcony to smoke this bedtime cigarette. It was so quiet in the valley that the snow falling to the ground from the big trees around the villa could be heard clearly.
Half a month after Chu Chao Hui and the slave soldiers left, there was a heavy snowfall in the Dacheng area, a snowfall that made Zheng Yuming's heart anxious. He didn't know if the simple tents that Chu Chao Hui and the slave soldiers brought with them could carry the cold temperature of minus five or six degrees by night.
The closer to the planned return date of one month, Zheng Yuming more uneasy. There is no telephone cell phone, no telegraph radar, even the most primitive carrier pigeon, Zheng Yuming Chu Chao Hui's whereabouts can only look at the simple map guess.
Zheng Yuming against the guess of this map is drawn by Chu Chao Hui. Only the terrain around Dacheng is more accurate, out of the Dacheng area, the terrain is based on merchants and residents around the oral depiction, there are bandits in the mountains terrain only roughly.
The places marked with red dots on the map are places infested with bandits. Zheng Yuming calculates how many days Chu Chao Hui can arrive with his troops and how many days it will take to eliminate the red dots. Then calculate the time to reach the next red dot and the time to eliminate the bandits. In this way, Zheng Yuming every day before going to bed, in front of the map to calculate half an hour before going to bed. Today because of the wild boar intrusion, let Zheng Yuming thought it was Chu Chao Hui back, empty joy, but also because of empty joy after a kind of loss, no smoking addiction Zheng Yuming smoked cigarettes.
Zheng Yuming finished smoking, extinguished the butt of the cigarette, and looked at the east with his hands clasped on his chest out of his mind, where it was the direction of Chu Chaohui's bandit suppression.
"Wooo! Wooo!" A small furry thing was burrowing around Zheng Yuming's feet. Woody ran upstairs after his master; he didn't sleep in the downstairs storage room.
"Wood, why aren't you sleeping, you little thing?" Zheng Yuming bent down and took Woody into his arms.
"Wood, Chaohui has already made his way back, hasn't he?" Zheng Yuming didn't want to talk to anyone about his worries, so he could only talk towards Wood.
Woody arched toward his master's arms and found a comfortable position to lie down.
"Woody, nothing will happen to Chaohui, will it?" Zheng Yuming stroked Woody's dog hair.
"In two more days, we will see him, won't we?" It had been a whole month to the day since Chu Chao Hui departed.
"Woody," Jung Yoo Ming looked down and realized that Woody had huffed and puffed. "Ugh! Seeing as you're eating and sleeping well, Chaohui must be okay too."
From the second day onwards, Zheng Yuming every day feel is Chu Chao Hui's return, but every day to bedtime are disappointed, so after half a month, in Zheng Yuming fast can not suppress the worry in the heart, Chu Chao Hui back.
The day Chu Chao Hui returned to the valley was in the evening, Zheng Yuming was in the kitchen preparing for dinner, and was holding up his chopsticks and baring the first mouthful of rice, when he looked up to find Chu Chao Hui standing in the doorway of the kitchen baring a mouthful of white teeth towards him. Zheng Yuming was stunned at that time, and for some reason, he didn't feel anything, but just looked down towards the wood, wondering why the wood didn't react, still lazily lying beside his feet.
"What, not happy to see me?" Chu Chao Hui cocked his head.
"No, I was looking at the wood."
"I know you are looking at the wood, why are you only looking at the wood?" Chu Chao Hui was a little sad, Zheng Yuming did not have the joy of reunion after a long time, only a little silly look.
"The original wood called I thought it was you who came back, today you really came back, this guy even did not move a muscle!" Zheng Yuming reacted a bit, with a look on his face that condemned Woody's dereliction of duty.
"You often think it's me coming back." Chu Chao Hui sat in front of Zheng Yuming and faced him with a soft gaze.
"Ah! Uh, yes." Zheng Yuming could feel Chu Chao Hui's breathing. Chu Chao Hui's straight gaze made his mind suddenly deserted. "You're hungry, right? This is for you to eat." Zheng Yuming sent the bowl and chopsticks he was eating to Chu Chao Hui.
"I'm still really hungry." Chu Chao Hui's eyes were full of smiles as he took the rice bowl and chopsticks handed over by Zheng Yuming and barfed it up. While eating, he smiled towards Zheng Yuming.
"Why did you come back late?" When Chu Chao Hui was half full, Zheng Yuming's demeanor returned to normal and began to ask about the reason for Chu Chao Hui's delayed return.
"Would have been back on time, but it took a while to bring those prisoners back."
"Captive?"
"These mountain bandits are good candidates to be soldiers, it's a pity to kill them all."
"Can you control them?" Zheng Yuming frowned.
"Being a mountain bandit is also to have a meal, the valley can feed them, of course they can sell their lives for you." Chu Chao Hui didn't have these worries of Zheng Yuming, the captives brought back, had long been screened by him, ferocious and stubborn mountain bandits with human lives in their hands, were executed on the spot.
"Are there any casualties among our men? Where is Wei Qing, where are the soldiers?" Zheng Yuming was a bit of an afterthought, only now did he realize that Wei Qing did not follow Chu Chao Hui in, nor did he hear anyone outside the villa's courtyard walls.
"I came back first, Wei Qing and the soldiers escorting the captives are walking slowly behind." Chu Chaohui was also eager to return, and when he entered the range of Nambu Village, he let Wei Qing lead the team to walk, and he himself returned to the valley first on a fast horse. "This time out, a total of six mountain bandit dens were swept, our men suffered four minor injuries and sacrificed one."
The slave soldier who died didn't die as a direct result of his injuries, but rather the wound became infected leading to tetanus, and he died because there were no antibiotics to save him.
Chu Chao Hui trained these slaves for half a year, is when the seed training, these people later is the army officer, South Port later armed framework will be built by them, this time the loss of one of the bandits, so that Chu Chao Hui heartache, but then heartache, but also had to let these slave soldiers to accept the baptism of blood and fire.
"To be buried properly." Zheng Yuming's face darkened, this was just the beginning, peace and stability always needed lives to be exchanged.
"Well, let the soldiers rest for a day, and the funeral will be held the day after tomorrow." The body of this fallen slave soldier was brought back with the troops.
"With such a sweep, there are no bandits in the Eastern Mountain Range, right?"
"Not now, but there will be again." As long as there are starving people, there will be no shortage of those who fall into the grass.
Zheng Yuming fell silent after hearing Chu Chao Hui's words.
"The results of this strike were good." Seeing Zheng Yuming's sullen appearance, Chu Chao Hui changed the subject. "In addition to capturing more than seventy mountain bandits and coming back, we also collected ten thousand gold worth of belongings from the mountain bandits' nest."
"Oh, the bandits are pretty rich too."
"It's just that the bandit leader has money." Chu Chao Hui shook his head, even if it was a group of bandits who were forced to fall into the grass, when the money was grabbed, these bandits were immediately divided into ranks, the ferocious and capable mountain bandits dominated the vast majority of the money and goods. The mountain bandit minions were still yellow and thin, and their clothes did not cover their bodies.
Chu Chao Hui had just finished his dinner when a burst of cheers rang out in the valley, Wei Qing came back with a string of captives escorted by slave soldiers, the number of these captives was not seventy or so as Chu Chao Hui had said, but more than one hundred and twenty people.