"Your Majesty, there are many kinds of rulers, and each length is different. The length of rulers has changed throughout the dynasties.
Even in the Ming Dynasty, there are three types of building rulers, tailoring rulers, and floor measuring rulers. The difference between these three is... so big! "
Chongzhen looked at the size of Xu Guangqi's fingers and roughly estimated it to be at least two centimeters.
After the gesture, Xu Guangqi continued: "Your Majesty, the measurements used by the people are also extremely confusing. The rulers of the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties are all in use.
This is why the buckets and liters used to measure rice vary greatly from place to place, and the size of acres also has this reason.
Even if there is a unified ruler in the firearms manufacturing factory, manufacturing involves multiple departments, and the craftsmen's habits are difficult to change, so it has always been such a mess.
I don’t know whether it’s because the officials didn’t report it or because they just didn’t pay attention to it. In short, the issue of scale has always been chaotic. "
Listening to Xu Guangqi say this, Chongzhen really realized where the problem was.
And this problem must be solved immediately and the whole country must be unified.
Only by unifying them first can we thoroughly promote streamlined and standardized module processes.
For private use, the accurate land area can be found out, which greatly promotes taxation and agricultural planning.
For craftsmen and the military, being able to achieve national unification will lay the foundation for future modularization and assembly line promotion.
In military terms, if the artillery is raised one inch, the calculations calculated by several rulers are different, and the shooting distance is also different.
This is fatal on a battlefield where the difference is thousands of miles.
"Daban, arrange for someone to go to the Ministry of Works to get three kinds of rulers, and then get several different sizes of royal kiln gold bricks!"
"In addition, go to the Baoyuan Bureau, the Banking Bureau, and the Ministry of Industry to send one of the most skilled craftsmen to wait!"
After Wang Chengen left Wuying Hall, Chongzhen looked at the confused people: "Now that we have said this, let's simply unify the sizes."
Everyone was shocked and their eyes were full of surprise.
Books share the same text, cars run on the same track, and weights and measures are unified. This is an unparalleled achievement.
But everyone still looked puzzled. If they could figure it out with a ruler, what could they do with gold bricks?
"Everyone, I think the size issue is too confusing. The attack distances of bows, arrows, and firearms are all calculated in steps and feet, which is very unintuitive.
Moreover, after ten feet, there are only feet. The span is too large and it is not convenient to record.
I thought about it and followed Taizu's example to redefine some units of measurement. First, I added a meter between zhang and chi. "
"rice?"
"What a strange name?"
"Your Majesty, do you have an explanation for this?"
Listening to everyone's inquiries, Chongzhen was startled: "Mi is the most common, it's just a name, don't take it too seriously."
When he said this, Chongzhen was also complaining in his heart, damn, how did he know why the people of the International Conference on Weights and Measures in later generations defined it as meters?
However, he does know how the unit of meter is measured.
He remembered that the French Academy of Sciences in later generations called the distance one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole on the meridian a meter.
He couldn't figure out exactly how it was measured.
Although he couldn't use the method of later generations, he had his own way to do it.
"Secondly, add another unit of decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter between the ruler and the inch."
"I remember the source of these points, centimeters and millimeters. I remember it was mentioned in "Wucao Suan Jing", "Han Yan Shu Shu" and "Nine Chapters of the Book of Numbers". There are two units at the end: silk and hu. Your Majesty also adopted this term!"
"Xu Aiqing is indeed a master of magic!"
Chongzhen was very satisfied with Xu Guangqi's response. He just copied it from later generations, but now it saves him a lot of trouble.
Judging from Xu Guangqi's statement, the wisdom of our ancestors is overwhelming and is hundreds of years ahead of the West.
While he was talking, the people Wang Chengen arranged to get the ruler and Beijing bricks entered Wuying Hall.
Chongzhen compared the three rulers and found that there was a huge gap.
After looking at the ruler, Chongzhen looked at the three gold bricks on the table on one side, and then knocked them with his hands, making a sound of gold and stone.
Sure enough, it was as recorded, with his face and back facing all sides, upright and perfect, his color was pure green, as bright as a mirror, his voice was like a rock, and his voice was as clear as a thunder.
One tael of gold per brick, and it takes two years to bake one brick.
When it comes to luxury goods, compared with those in China, those foreign gadgets are not even worthy of carrying shoes.
It’s not that there are no luxury goods in China, but most people don’t know that luxury goods exist.
It is said that the gold bricks were laid very skillfully in the Huangji Palace. Some of the gold bricks were suspended in the air when they were laid. In order to show their loyalty, the ministers would make a sound when kowtowing.
The eunuchs took advantage of the empty bricks to collect money from the ministers. If they were empty, they could make a sound, but if they were real, they would break their scalps and if they were full, they would not make a sound.
"Your Majesty, these three gold bricks are one foot seven inches, two feet, and two feet two inches!"
"Um!"
Chongzhen straightened up: "Three craftsmen came in and asked them to divide the length of the one-foot-seven gold bricks into fifty-seven equal lengths, the width of the two-foot-long gold bricks into sixty-seven equal parts, and the two-foot-two gold bricks into seven equal lengths. Thirteen equal lengths!
Then take a section from each section and put them together, then divide them into thirds. Do this process several times!
Finally, use the obtained segment to measure the lengths of the three rulers, that is, how many segments there are! "
"My slave obeys the order!"
"You guys should try it too!"
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he stepped aside and started drinking tea. Everyone gathered around Jinzhuan to discuss it.
The sizes of these three gold bricks were clearly recorded in later generations as 56.6 centimeters, 66.6 centimeters, and 73.3 centimeters. As long as they are divided into equal parts, they will be one centimeter in later generations.
With Xu Guangqi, Bi Maokang and others present, as well as craftsmen from Baoyuan Bureau and Yinzuo Bureau doing fine work, after waiting for less than half an hour, the results were finally obtained.
"This this……"
"How is this possible? How can these three gold bricks be the same length if they are divided equally?"
"How did your Majesty do it? How do you know it's just right?"
"Amazing!"
…
Everyone looked at the evenly divided sections of golden wire and were filled with disbelief.
After a while, Xu Guangqi came to Chongzhen with a plate: "Your Majesty, it's done! Use the last section to measure three rulers, thirty-two for the construction ruler, thirty-two and a half sections for the floor ruler, and cut the clothes. Thirty-four feet."
Looking at the sections of gold thread on the tray, Chongzhen nodded. According to the measurement data, the Ming Dynasty's ruler was very close to the length of later generations' rulers.
In this way, there is no big obstacle to unifying the size, after all, the gap is not big.
After looking at it, he randomly picked out a section: "This section is the one centimeter I just mentioned. From now on, one centimeter is equal to ten millimeters, one decimeter is equal to ten centimeters, one meter is equal to ten meters, which is equal to three feet, and one foot is equal to three meters. Three, what do you think?"
Everyone looked at Xu Guangqi, he was the one with the most say here.
