The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 117

Everyone looked at Prime Minister Liu, who then bowed to Li Er and said, "I know someone who studied arithmetic in an enemy country. Whether it is indeed an enemy country's arithmetic can be determined with a test."

The other ministers did not react much to the exchanges between the two countries, since it is normal for people from both countries to exchange academic ideas from time to time.

Li Er originally wanted to skip these things to save some time, but seeing that Prime Minister Liu said so, he wanted to let Xu Tian show off and also to find out his true abilities and whether he was a spy from the enemy country.

After thinking about it, he nodded.

When Prime Minister Liu saw that he nodded in agreement, he ordered someone to bring the man up.

The man was dressed in Han Chinese clothing, with an abacus hanging from his waist.

Some officials knew him.

It is said that this man can calculate extremely complex equations with perfect accuracy in just a few breaths.

Xu Tian frowned slightly when he saw that Xu Tian was coming at him with a somewhat aggressive look.

The man then knelt before Li Er and shouted, "Long live the Emperor! I am Shen Changzhi."

Li Er nodded. "I've heard you have exceptional math skills, is that true?"

"Yes," Shen Changzhi replied.

"Then please have a match with that Master Xu, so we can broaden our horizons, how about it?" Li Er said.

“Of course it is,” Shen Changzhi said.

After saying that, he turned his head and looked at Xu Tian on the other side, saying, "May I ask for your guidance?"

"How would you calculate it?" Xu Tian simply asked.

“Give me a few blocks, and I can easily calculate the result by stacking rice grains from the beginning to the end.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Tian felt somewhat uneasy.

This is clearly a square problem.

Could this person also be a time traveler?

He was pondering when he heard a cold snort.

Prime Minister Liu asked, "You dare not?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Xu Tian said, coming back to his senses.

Seeing this, Li Er indeed had ten plates brought up, and the rice grains were stacked one by one. To ensure fairness, Shen Changzhi and Xu Tian were not allowed to watch.

After a long while, the two turned their heads away. Xu Tian quickly went through the equation in his mind and easily came up with the result, which he then wrote down on the paper.

On the other side, Shen Changzhi was a bit slower. He took out his abacus and started calculating rapidly, arriving at the result in a short while.

In the end, both were correct.

The two looked at each other.

At this moment, Xu Tian became even more curious about whether Shen Changzhi was a time traveler.

Li Er immediately realized that Shen Changzhi had clearly been deliberately trained in calculation skills, while Xu Tian relied entirely on his own brain to perform calculations.

So he said, "Brother Shen's calculation ability is indeed amazing. I wonder if you can answer my question?"

“Okay.” Shen Changzhi appeared somewhat arrogant at this moment.

Seeing his confidence, Xu Tian wrote down an equation on a piece of paper and handed it to Shen Changzhi.