Elder brother's garrison

Page 357

"Learning characters also includes Tang poetry!" The children eagerly raised their hands in response. "And math too!"

"Big sister, can you teach us?" The children fiddled around for a while before looking at Xiaobai with some hope and asking.

Looking into the bright eyes of the children, Xiaobai had a sudden inspiration and found something she could do.

As Lily of the Valley once said, the only goal of humanity in its current state is to survive and pass on its heritage.

—It's just Tang poetry. Xiaobai can recite at least 800 or 1000 Tang poems. Math is a piece of cake. If he could, Xiaobai could even repeat everything his math teachers said in class from childhood to adulthood.

"Of course you can." Xiaobai nodded to the children in front of him, his heart filled with fighting spirit.

The children were overjoyed to see Xiaobai nod.

"Big sister, what will you teach us first?"

"The bright moonlight shines before my bed," Xiao Bai said with a smile, looking at the children in front of her.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After Linglan and the others who had been with her had finished dismantling all the wooden houses in the center of the village that had been bombed to pieces, and brought out and put away most of the usable items, they slowly walked back towards the open space.

Although the deep-sea amphibious ships are powerful, they are indeed not very intelligent. After an attack, they will not attack again, at least for a short period of time. So, ironically, the villagers are most at ease when they are cleaning up the ruins of the village.

Linglan walked back to the open space with the villagers.

Then she saw a rather peculiar sight in the open space.

Xiao Bai stood in the middle of the open space, drawing something on the ground with a twig. The uninjured children from the village were gathered around her, carefully watching what Xiao Bai was drawing on the ground.

Even the adults who were idling in the open space gathered around Xiaobai, squatting down to listen carefully, as if they had heard something quite interesting.

"There are several chickens and rabbits in a cage. Counting from the top, there are 35 heads; counting from the bottom, there are 94 feet. How many chickens and rabbits are there in the cage? To solve this problem, we need to use the assumption method, setting the number of chickens to X..."

Xiao Bai stood in the middle, enjoying the unreserved respect of everyone else, a radiance of knowledge and wisdom constantly shining from her.

Chapter 456 Science and Technology are the Primary Productive Force

Because of the devastation caused by the iron hooves of the deep sea, cultural transmission was extremely neglected during this turbulent era. Knowledge that should have been properly passed down was disrupted by the effects of gunfire and death, resulting in a low level of civilization for most of humanity during the middle and later periods of the period.

However, this does not diminish humanity's thirst for knowledge. In the midst of this discontinuity, what Xiaobai is saying now may seem simple and ordinary, but it is all precious knowledge that our ancestors experimented with, summarized, simplified, and refined, taking the essence and discarding the dross, painstakingly passing down from generation to generation. Every sentence interprets humanity's understanding of the laws of the world and is a glimmer of human wisdom.

"Lu Lin, what are you talking about?" Linglan came in halfway and couldn't understand any of the nonsense Xiaobai was spouting, including all the "x" stuff, "settings," and all the leg and head stuff. But she subtly felt that what Xiaobai was saying was amazing and impressive.

"Sister Linglan, you're back!" Xiaobai, who was telling the story of the chicken and rabbit problem on the ground, heard Linglan's call. He paused slightly, turned to look at Linglan, and smiled shyly. "I was talking about linear equations in two variables."

"Two...two what?" Linglan was full of questions.

"A little math trick."

"oh oh……"

Deputy Village Chief Linglan still held some authority in the village. Upon seeing her return, the children and adults surrounding Xiaobai obediently moved aside, making way for her.

Linglan walked up to Xiaobai and looked at the ground in front of Xiaobai's feet.

That was the calculation process that Xiaobai wrote on the ground with a twig.

x + y = 35

2x + 4y = 94

The strange symbols and numbers, some from the East and some from the West, left Lily of the Valley completely bewildered.

"What's this?" Lily of the Valley asked.

"This is a linear equation in two variables."

"..." Linglan squatted down on the ground, carefully examining the formula on the ground. "What's the use of writing this?"

"This is a solution to a problem, the one I just mentioned about the chicken and the rabbit..."

"Oh, I heard that part. It was about how many heads and how many feet there are, and then they asked you how many rabbits and chickens there are," Lily of the Valley said.

"Yes, that's the question. Sister Linglan, do you know how many rabbits and how many chickens there are?"

"Uh...why not just pick them up and count them?" Linglan asked.

"Hahahaha." Xiaobai covered her mouth and laughed, then took the calculation formula on the ground and solved it simply, finally finding the values ​​of x and y. "You see, this way you don't have to count them one by one, you can directly find the answer."

Watching Xiaobai effortlessly and easily calculate the number of rabbits and chickens, Linglan and the people observing her widened their eyes in astonishment.

"Is this the result?"

"Yes."

"Oh, oh..." Lily of the Valley was speechless with admiration. "You're amazing."

"It's nothing special, just a very simple arithmetic skill," Xiaobai muttered, looking down at the equation on the ground.

This kind of simple thing would probably be considered elementary school level in Xiaobai's time. It's unbelievable that human civilization, after this period of decline, has regressed to this extent.

Could such a backward civilization really build ship girls...?

Xiao Bai sighed, expressing deep doubt about this.

There is no calendar in the periodization, and people just get through each day as it comes, so Xiaobai doesn't even know whether he is in the early, middle or late stages of the periodization.

—No, judging by the extent of this disconnect between civilizations, it's probably not in its early stages anymore.

After thinking for a while, Xiaobai had a better understanding of his own timeline.

Compared to the complex information swirling in Xiaobai's head, Linglan, who was squatting beside her with gleaming eyes, was thinking very simply.

Lily of the Valley's rosy lips curved into a smile, her eyes filled with a strange emotion, as if she had seen a rare species.

Xiaobai felt quite embarrassed by Linglan's strange gaze.

"Hey, Sister Linglan, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're so cute," Lily of the Valley chuckled.

Linglan is incredibly proud now. When she went to the beach to collect some seafood, she accidentally picked up a grown woman. She initially thought she was just a pretty but pitiful girl, but it turns out she's a teacher.

A sense of pride and triumph instantly swelled up in Lily of the Valley's heart.

"This is incredibly useful knowledge!" Miss Lily of the Valley encouraged Little White.

Xiao Bai smiled subtly.

"This arithmetic method is impressive, but if we just want to know the number of rabbits and chickens, wouldn't it be simpler to just count them?" Just then, one of the men who had gone to the village center with Suzuran to collect resources asked his question with a puzzled look on his face.

"Didn't you see how easy Lu Lin's calculation was?" Linglan's eyebrows immediately shot up. She turned around and glared at the man's face, making him quickly shrink back.

Indeed, compared to life skills, the methods for calculating data that Xiaobai talked about, while ingenious and interesting, lacked a sense of reality, making it difficult to imagine how these things could be used in daily life.

This is why the transmission of knowledge is interrupted several times during periods of discontinuity. After all, more people are more inclined to learn how to evade attacks from deep-sea amphibious ships, how to make daily necessities, and how to hunt, rather than how to calculate data.

Although Suzuran glared at the man who asked the question, she actually thought the same thing herself.

Although Xiaobai didn't think knowledge was useless, she really didn't know how to answer the man's question for a moment.

"If you have tens of thousands of rabbits and chickens in front of you, and you happen to know from someone that they have a total of 30,000 legs and 10,000 heads, would you still count them one by one?"

Just as Xiaobai was wondering how to answer, an elderly voice rang out from behind the crowd.

Everyone turned around and looked behind them.

The village chief, who had been lying on the bamboo frame, was now looking at everyone with a kind expression.

"village head??"

Grandpa, you're awake!

"village head!"

Upon seeing the village chief wake up, everyone around Xiaobai stood up excitedly, especially Linglan, whose face lit up like a blooming flower. She quickly moved closer to the village chief and reached out to grasp his calloused hand.

"Grandpa, are you alright? Are you feeling okay?" Linglan asked anxiously.

"It's alright, it's alright. Actually, I woke up a while ago. What that little girl was saying was very interesting, but I didn't say anything because I was afraid of disturbing you." The village chief laughed and then reached behind him to touch something.

"Why aren't you saying anything now that you're awake? Everyone was so worried!" Linglan was furious when she heard that the village chief was pretending to be asleep.

"It's alright, it's alright. Although I'm old, I'm thick-skinned. I won't die anytime soon. I'll have to trouble you all again." With Linglan's help, the village chief slowly sat up from the ground. He reached out and touched his back, then looked at Xiaobai.

"Hello, Grandpa." Xiaobai quickly stood up and greeted the village chief.

"Hello, little girl." The village chief beckoned to Xiaobai. "Come here for a moment."

The village chief was an elderly man. Although he was the head of the village, he did not have the air of someone in a "high position". On the contrary, he was very approachable.

Seeing that he was greeting her, Xiaobai slowly walked up to the village chief and stood next to Linglan.

After Xiaobai and Linglan stood together, the village chief looked at them with satisfaction and then slowly said to the crowd behind him, "Mathematics may not have much practical significance, but it is indeed a sign of a level of civilization from another perspective."

As the village chief spoke, he turned his gaze to the man who had just asked the question.

The man felt ashamed when the village chief looked at him like that.

"Don't be embarrassed. The fact that you have this idea proves that you have thought about it. I'm just answering your question with my personal perspective." The village chief smiled gently at the man's ashamed look and waved his hand to tell him not to take it too seriously. "Our ancestors, well, the humans of the era before deep-sea ships existed, lived in houses that could reach high into the sky. When they moved, they rode in steel shells that could move quickly and tirelessly. We had thousands of tools and tens of thousands of resources. With a wave of our hand, we could make a mountain collapse, and with a stomp of our foot, we could change the course of a river."

The village chief spoke as if telling a story, and his words quickly captured everyone's attention, making them listen with fascination.

"Was it because we were strong? Was it because we could fly? Of course not. Humans back then were almost the same as us, and in fact, due to long-term training, our physical abilities were much stronger than those humans." The village chief said, pointing to the formula that Xiaobai had written on the ground earlier. "The reason why humans back then could be as great as gods is precisely because of what this little girl just wrote. That is wisdom, that is tools. It was what she just wrote that built a spire that would never collapse, no matter how tall, and a steel warhorse that could gallop thousands of miles without stopping. It was because of what she just wrote that weak humans were able to blast down mountains and block rivers."

"Science and technology are the primary productive forces." The village chief paused here, and then emphasized to the villagers in front of him.

Xiao Bai looked on in bewilderment as the village chief finished speaking.

—What the village chief said is indeed true in a sense. Mathematics, as the mother of all sciences, is indeed the source of science and technology. And it is indeed because of the existence of technology that humans, who do not have claws, thick skin, or sharp teeth, were able to reach the top of the world, until the appearance of the unreasonable deep-sea amphibious ships.

—But what Xiaobai wrote was just a simple linear equation in two variables. That thing is really useless except for calculating rabbits and chickens. It's really nothing special.

Xiao Bai looked around awkwardly at the villagers who had become instantly enthusiastic after hearing the village chief's explanation, feeling as if things were starting to spiral out of control.

Chapter 457 He's got a screw loose.

The villagers all looked up, their eyes filled with longing, as if they were worshipping a deity.

Xiaobai is used to being watched. After all, he has been an admiral for so long, and he has also become quite popular on the internet. No amount of stares can sway Xiaobai anymore.

But despite the eye contact, being stared at by so many fervent gazes doesn't feel good at all.

"Huh?!" Little White jumped, dropping the branch in his hand in fright.

"Village chief, are you saying that we can use this knowledge to build houses that reach straight to the sky and iron horses that run at top speed?" After hearing the village chief's words, someone excitedly asked him.

"No." However, to everyone's surprise, the village chief simply shook his head and denied the villagers' question. "To reach that level, the knowledge required is far beyond what can be drawn on the ground. Without hundreds of years of accumulation, even if we can find traces of our ancestors in some ruins, we will absolutely not be able to reach their level."

As the village chief spoke, he smiled rather helplessly: "Knowledge is like that. It's a magical power that seems to have no effect in the short term, but its influence will continue to expand and expand over time."

The village chief's words were like a bucket of cold water poured on the villagers' fervent enthusiasm, bringing them to a calm. Only then did the fanatical, believer-like look in their eyes slowly fade.

Even so, they no longer viewed Xiaobai as a burden as before, but instead showed him a calm respect.

Xiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief.

"Everyone, disperse. Let's rebuild our homes first," Linglan said, clapping her hands as she addressed the villagers gathered around her.

The villagers could tell that the village chief and Linglan had something to say to Xiaobai, so they left the open space to the three of them and each took their own children and left.

Watching the villagers leave somewhat reluctantly, Linglan, her face beaming, hugged Xiaobai tightly and pressed her against her soft chest: "Lu Lin, you're really something!"

"Hmm?" Xiaobai felt something warm, soft, and sweet directly onto her face. The smooth, snowy flesh enveloped her mouth and nose, immersing her completely in it, leaving her speechless.

"You actually know how to do this! That's amazing!" Linglan's face was full of a proud smile.

"Well, it's not anything that amazing..." Xiaobai finally managed to pull her head out of Linglan's chest, and said somewhat embarrassedly to Linglan, "I can't build houses, and I can't make cars..."

"It's okay." Linglan didn't seem to expect Xiaobai to be able to make these things anyway. "It doesn't matter if he can't make them. They're not important. Our ancestors had those things, but they were all blown up by the Deep Sea."

"..." Lily of the Valley's fresh and unconventional thought process was so impeccable that Xiaobai didn't know how to respond.

"Lily of the Valley, release the girl first. I have something to tell you." The village chief sat on the ground, watching the interaction between the two young girls in front of him, his eyes filled with a look of satisfaction.

"Oh, okay, Grandpa, what do you want to ask?" Linglan let go of Xiaobai's hand and released him.

"Little girl, is your name Lu Lin?" the village chief asked Xiao Bai.

"Hmm." Xiaobai finally managed to break free from Linglan's embrace. She took a few breaths and then nodded to the village chief.

"Where did you originally live?" the village chief asked.

"Grandpa!" Linglan interrupted the village chief immediately upon hearing his words, her beautiful features squeezing together on her face.

In Suzuran's understanding, Shiro must be the kind of person whose village was destroyed by the Abyssal Fleet, and who survived alone, drifting at sea and being rescued by her when she was on the verge of starvation. As the one who found and rescued her, she must take on the responsibility of raising her and helping her emerge from the shadow of her family's destruction by the Abyssal Fleet.

How could my own grandfather start by poking at someone's wounds? That's unacceptable.