"Can the county magistrate understand our Mandarin?"

Pang Yu felt incredible about this, but Professor Li just nodded and smiled:

"We are lucky. Magistrate Cheng happens to be a northerner, his ancestral home is the Liaoning area in Northeast China. Their language happens to be somewhat similar to the Beijing dialect of later generations. Everyone can basically understand each other if they speak slower - I really can't figure it out.

Can you write?"

"No wonder, weren't the children of the Eight Banners bringing Beijing films into the country?"

Jie Xizuo suddenly realized, but Tang Jian's face next to him was not pretty:

"Hey, this guy is cunning. I interrogated him before, but he acted like he didn't understand the language and got away with it."

"Of course I was scared at that time. If we could have pretended, we would have done it."

Professor Li actually defended him a few words, and it seemed that he had a good impression of the county magistrate. The actual situation is similar. County Magistrate Cheng Yegao is over fifty this year. People in ancient times age quickly. From the appearance, he is older than sixty-two years old.

The 20-year-old Professor Li Mingyuan is much older. There are few scholars in Hainan. The number of literate people in Lingao County can be counted on two hands. The people the county magistrate usually deals with in the yamen are rough people.

, I guess it’s also quite depressing.

It is rare to meet an old scholar like Professor Li who seems to be about the same age but can read and write. Both sides feel that they have a common language. Professor Li wants to explore the cultural customs of the Ming Dynasty through Cheng County Magistrate, a living ancient scholar, and

Magistrate Cheng didn't want to know the details about "short hair" through Lao Li. Both parties had their own needs, and each was extremely interested in the other's experience, so the two parties felt very happy after several conversations.

During the conversation, Cheng Yegao was beating around the bush, trying to find out the origins of the Travelers and what they wanted to do. However, although Lao Li was a university professor, he was by no means a nerd. The life experience of an old professor from the History Department of Peking University was used to deal with a county in the Ming Dynasty.

The Grand Master was more than enough. Magistrate Cheng had inquired several times openly and secretly, but he could only find out that these people were all Chinese people, coming from the sea, and he still had no idea of ​​their specific country or place.

"Hey, Professor, you still said too much. Why do you have to admit that we are Chinese? It's great to say that we are foreigners. Maybe we can enjoy some special treatment."

The little brat Ye Mengyan interrupted without knowing the truth, but was stared at for a long time by a large number of adults including the judge Pang Yu Lingning. This kid was finally trained by the military team and finally became less stupid than before, but he didn't know it yet.

What did I say wrong?

"What? Did I say something wrong?"

Wang Haiyang, who had been responsible for educating the new recruits, was not polite and slapped Xiaoye's scalp.

"If you say one more thing that you don't want to be Chinese, I will beat you to death!"

"Stupid remarks, do you think people in the Ming Dynasty worshiped foreigners as much as they did in the late Qing Dynasty? At this time, foreign devils were second-class citizens in their eyes!"

Pang Yu also scolded the little guy very rudely, and then turned back to say hello to Jack:

"Sorry, Jack, I didn't pay attention just now. We completely treat you as one of our own."

The old American doctor laughed and waved his hands to indicate that it was okay. Everyone patiently continued to listen to the old professor introducing what he had gained from Cheng Zhixian.

Every time Cheng Yegao wanted to get to the bottom of the matter, Professor Li Mingyuan would casually mention one or two novel political, cultural, or academic issues and distract him from the topic. Professor Li was the one in the Department of History at Peking University.

He specializes in the study of ancient Chinese culture and has published several related works, especially on Confucian academic research.

He could make County Magistrate Cheng feel like a confidant by casually citing a few views of later generations, or he could talk about the historical criticism of the Donglin Party - Cheng Yegao, who was born in the corner of the Northeast, certainly had nothing to do with the Donglin Party.

If they have good connections, otherwise they would not be sent to Hainan as a county magistrate at such a young age. So often a few words can make Lao Cheng sigh, and then his emotions will be aroused and he can't control himself. In the end, Lao Li will trick him out of his mouth.

A lot of information.

For this magistrate of the Ming Dynasty, several conversations with the old professor only added countless doubts. The most incredible thing was that all of these more than 100 people could read and write, even women.

They can easily read official proclamations - Professor Li did not specifically show off this to him, but after many days of observation, it is an undoubted fact that this group of "short-haired" people are highly educated.

In addition, such as the women in this group of short-haired women never bind their feet, but the men often wrap their calves tightly with strips of cloth. Of course, Magistrate Cheng cannot understand the importance of leggings, but these appearances

The difference is the most noticeable.

"What? That's all he cares about?"

Hearing what Professor Li said, everyone felt a bit dumbfounded.

"We collect nitrate soil, build electric motors and fans, and build saltworks... and recently there has been a lot of construction work at Baiyantan. What are the reactions of the locals here?"

Xie Xi seemed to be very concerned about the image of the traveler in the minds of the locals, but Professor Li always smiled leisurely:

"They don't care about this. As long as it doesn't interfere with their vital interests, they don't care what we do. Oh, when we collected saltpeter, they thought there was something wrong with our brains. There were rumors in the streets that we were born with 'short hair'

The five elements lack soil, so they often have to eat some dung to stay alive..."

"Depend on!"

Xie Xi sighed in a funny and angry tone, while Pang Yu next to him smiled and nodded:

"We come from the sea, so we really lack soil... The logic here is pretty good."

"News about the salt farm has spread quite a lot recently. It is said that we have a piece of fairy cloth in our hands. Just shake it in the sea water and it can filter out a large amount of snow salt. It is very strange."

"Ah, I asked the captive laborers to spread this news. It should be a bit mysterious, lest those Ming Dynasty people pirate our salt-drying method."

Adelaide smiled and raised his hand to admit, making everyone laugh.

"Did you write in front of him? How did he react to the simplified Chinese characters we used?"

Ling Ning suddenly asked. Professor Li seemed to have expected that someone would ask this question, and smiled calmly:

"No reaction at all. He has written in both simplified and traditional Chinese. He has no difficulty understanding simplified characters. He just feels that our characters lack a few strokes. We must have a lot of taboos."

"He doesn't think our simplified Chinese characters are deviant?"

Seeing Ling Ning's surprised look, Professor Li laughed instead:

"You have to know that there were many taboos in writing in ancient times. For example, if you need to write some characters in your parents' names, you must deliberately omit one or two strokes when writing this character, which is considered filial piety. Ancient people also liked to use allusions when writing articles.

, whenever I have the opportunity, I deliberately find some uncommon words to replace the original words to show that my articles have other meanings... Over the years, the first reaction of most ancient people when they saw typos in books was not that they thought the other person had written it wrong.

, but I felt that I was not knowledgeable enough and did not know the source of this typo. Later, I used it as a model... Finally, it was included in the Yongle Dadian, Kangxi Dictionary and so on... the word "Hui"

That’s how the four ways of writing came out.”

"So, in ancient times, except for official documents written to the emperor or superiors, typos were not allowed. In many cases, typos were not necessarily a bad thing, and could even be regarded as elegant... Many of our simplified characters were adapted from ancient cursive scripts, and the ancients themselves used them

There are also a lot of them.”

…………

"As for the Ming Dynasty government's attitude towards our group of people, will they send troops to attack? Do you have any relevant information?"

Tang Jian had been standing by for a long time, but he only heard these people talking nonsense and not getting any vital military information. He finally couldn't help but stand up and ask directly.

Professor Li was stunned for a moment, and after thinking for a moment, he finally nodded:

"Oh, I asked some questions too."

Everyone immediately fell silent and listened carefully to the important information Professor Li had obtained through chatting.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty seemed to have no sense of confidentiality. After the more speculative talks with Lao Li, even the military intelligence related to the Chuangzhong itself was used as a joke - but the news itself was circulated around Qiongzhou City.

It seems that there is no confidentiality at all.

At first, the news that Qiongzhou Prefecture received was that Japanese pirates had broken into the city. Magistrate Cheng personally sent his family to deliver the news. After seeing the ghost car break through the city gate that night, Magistrate Cheng was indeed ready to serve the Ming Dynasty loyally.

The preparations were made. However, everything that happened later left the county magistrate at a loss as to how to write a report to the superiors.

Moreover, the county magistrate did not even know whether he was considered a formal employee in the Ming Dynasty's bureaucracy - according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, local officials were responsible for guarding the land. If a certain place fell into the hands of thieves, even if the officials escaped, they would

If you are held accountable, at least you won't be able to keep your official title.

But does the current situation in Lingao County count as falling to the enemy? The city gate was broken down, the warehouses were robbed, and the few defenders in the city were also killed.

Even an inner bodyguard hired by the county magistrate himself at his own expense lost his life--luckily, he boasted of being proficient in bows and arrows.

However, if it is judged that the county has "fallen into the hands of thieves", Magistrate Cheng would feel very unwilling. After all, he is still sitting in the Yamen in the high hall! And it is not a show, and civil affairs affairs are handled as usual.

, a taxable handyman is also collected as usual... This place is obviously still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty!

"Is it possible to discuss with the county magistrate and ask him to send a message to his superiors, saying that pirates tried to rob the county before, but were expelled by a group of merchants from the sea. Now everything is safe in the county?"

Pang Yu immediately realized that Magistrate Cheng's embarrassment was worth taking advantage of. Indeed, for Magistrate Lingao, he also needed to downplay the matter as much as possible in order to keep his official position. "The sky is high and the emperor is far away."

"Hide something from the top, never conceal it from the bottom" - these famous proverbs shouldn't be groundless, right?
Chapter completed!