Seeing Li Shimin's unfriendly gaze, Meton quickly changed his words and rebutted righteously, "No, this is definitely slander!"
"Slander? The gunpowder from the engineering camp was used to open up the mountain, and the rumbling sounds were incessant. The mountain god was enraged, and the calamity star hung high in the night sky as a warning to the heavens. This is irrefutable evidence. How can this be slander? "Ma Jiayun said angrily.
"The mountain god was enraged, and the calamity star had appeared! Your Confucian school doesn't cultivate the arts of the gods. How do you know that this is a warning from the heavens? "Meton retorted.
Ma Jiayun suddenly raised his head and looked toward Li Chunfeng, wanting the Daoist school to explain the Heaven's Perception of the Confucian school. However, Li Chunfeng turned his head slightly, avoiding Ma Jiayun's gaze. Ma Jiayun couldn't help but let out a sigh. In the past, when only Confucianism was revered, the Daoist school followed the Confucian school's lead. Right now, even the Daoist school was starting to have its own plans.
"Jinx is a calamity star. It is recorded in the history books. You can't deny it." Ma Jiayun turned his gaze toward Yan Shigu.
Yan Shigu stood up helplessly and said, "There are indeed records of jinx being a calamity star in the history books. Moreover, every time something big happens, it's accompanied by it."
The Shi Clan's existence depended on the Confucian school. Moreover, Yan Shigu's ancestor had a master-disciple relationship with Confucius. Therefore, the Shi Clan could only stand up and endorse the Confucian school.
"What if I say that the appearance of jinx isn't a warning from the heavens, but that it appears periodically, just like the rising and setting of the sun. It doesn't disappear because of a calamity?" Meton said calmly.
"The Jinx will appear periodically," Wang Chong said. All the officials were in an uproar. If jinx weren't a calamity star, then their previous actions would be laughable.
Li Chunfeng couldn't help but sigh. The main reason why he was unwilling to endorse the Confucian school was because of Mo Jiazi. He had been able to observe jinx many days ago, and he believed that the Mo Clan could do the same. The Mo Clan couldn't do anything about it, so he had to be careful. Right now, his thoughts had been verified. Moreover, Mo Jiazi had created miracles time and time again, so he must have thought of a countermeasure.
Ma Jiayun sneered, "Periodic occurrences? Don't tell me Mo Jiu took out the history books again and asked us to find the pattern! To tell you the truth, Mo Jiu, I've been flipping through history books all night and found that there's no pattern to the Jinx. "
The historian Yan Shigu also nodded. Ever since Mo Jiazi had used the history books to calculate the solar and lunar eclipses, he had thoroughly studied the history books and discovered that he could not conclude the pattern of the Jinx.
Meton sneered, "Just because you Confucians and Historians can't figure it out doesn't mean that the other schools can't!"
Yu Zhining interrupted, "Mo Jiu wouldn't have made such a far-fetched conclusion just to get himself off the hook, would he?"
Meton shook his head and said, "I'm not talking about the school of Mohism, but the school of Mathematics. Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and other schools of thought will all be biased towards things because of their own theories, but the school of Mathematics is absolutely rational."
"Everyone can lie to you, but the school of Mathematics can't."
The officials couldn't help but think of Meton's famous words. At this moment, these words had already received everyone's approval. Mathematics was like cold numbers that could never be wrong. If the school of Mathematics was able to calculate the pattern of the Jinx's appearance, they would immediately be able to clear Mo Jiazi's name.
Meton smiled and said, "This subject has heard that the Zu family's Zu Mingjun is currently researching a new type of mathematics called the sequence of numbers. Would Your Majesty be willing to take a look? "
Li Shimin glared at Meton and waved his hand, saying, "Zu Mingjun is summoned to His Majesty's Hall."
Zu Mingjun was currently entering the court as an official, but he had yet to meet the requirements to attend court. Now, because of Meton, he was repeatedly summoned to Taiji Palace. It was unknown whether he was fortunate or unlucky.
Soon, the confused Zu Mingjun hurried over. When he saw all the officials gathered, he couldn't help but jump in fright. When he learned of the reason for summoning him to His Majesty's Hall, he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
This was truly the best opportunity to make a name for himself in the school of Mathematics, but if he really did prove the pattern of the Jinx's appearance, he might end up offending the Confucians. However, he had no choice but to do this. After all, this was the destiny of every school of thought. If he wanted the school of thought to contend for supremacy, he had to be unafraid of offending the other schools. Moreover, he was doing this to clear the name of his good friend Mo Jiazi.
"This subject obeys the decree!"
Zu Mingjun immediately began to record the time of the Jinx's appearance on a piece of paper, calculating the time of each Jinx's appearance in batches.
But the more Zu Mingjun calculated, the more his brow furrowed. He realized that the numbers he had calculated simply didn't form a sequence. In other words, the Jinx's appearance has no pattern, so I naturally can't calculate the approximate time of the next Jinx's appearance. "
"This subject didn't calculate the pattern of the Jinx's appearance," Zu Mingjun dejectedly said.
Many of the officials sneered. Didn't Mo Jiazi say that mathematics couldn't deceive people? Since even mathematics couldn't calculate the pattern, then Mo Jiazi was naturally a Jinx.
"Mo Jiazi, what else do you have to say?!" Ma Jiayun pressed on, determined to put Mo Jiazi to death.
Meton was speechless. "The Tang dynasty's calendar is too inaccurate!"
"The calendar is inaccurate? Mo Jiu, don't try to shirk responsibility. The Jinx's appearance is a warning from the heavens. How can it be predicted by mere mortals? "Yu Zhining added insult to injury.
"The Tang dynasty's calendar is accurate? That's probably the biggest joke I've ever heard, "Meton coldly snorted.
"Mo Jiu, don't try to change the topic! We're talking about the Jinx's problem. "Even Xu Jingzong, who was famous for being a bootlicker, felt that Mo Jiazi wouldn't be able to make a comeback, so he also stepped on Mo Jiazi.
Meton coldly glanced at Xu Jingzong and proudly said, "The calendar that this chancellor said is inaccurate is precisely the main culprit for not being able to calculate the pattern of the Jinx's appearance."
"That's impossible. The calendar is passed down from generation to generation, and has been reformed by generations. How can it be refuted by Mo Jiazi?" Ma Jiayun retorted.
This time, even the court officials shook their heads, thinking that the Mohists were at their wit's end and were pestering endlessly.
Meton coldly said, "If that's the case, then I'll ask everyone a simple question. How many months and days are there in a year?"
"How many days are there in a year?" The officials looked at Mo Jiazi as if they were looking at an idiot. This was probably a question that even a child would know.
"There are 12 months in a year, so it's naturally 360 days!" Ma Jiayun suddenly blurted out.
"No, there's also a leap month!"
After Ma Jiayun finished speaking, he saw the officials' expressions and immediately frowned. He thought of the leap month problem. If it was a normal year, it would naturally be 360 days, but if there was a leap month, it would be 390 days. The difference between the two was huge.
"Your question is absurd. There's a leap month in a year, and there's also the 29th and 30th of the twelfth lunar month during Chinese New Year. There's no exact number of days in a year," Yu Zhining said with a wave of his sleeve.
Meton turned to Li Chunfeng and asked, "Of course there's a fixed number of days in a year. A year represents the cycle of the four seasons, and it's the cycle of the sun. Every year on the winter solstice, the sun's shadow is the longest, and every year on the summer solstice, the sun's shadow is the shortest. This is a cycle, and it's the same every year. Do you agree with me?"
Li Chunfeng nodded and said, "That's right. Whether it's a leap month or not, the interval between the winter solstice and the summer solstice is the same. Even if it's a leap month, it will be adjusted accordingly."
The officials' faces darkened. Li Chunfeng was an expert in calendar. If he admitted that the interval between the winter solstice and the summer solstice was fixed, then wouldn't it mean that the duration of a year was fixed? But the calendar used by the Tang dynasty was different.
"Brother Zu, please calculate how many days there are in a year," Meton said with a smile.
Zu Mingjun's heart skipped a beat. He began to calculate in his mind. After combining the number of days and years, he quickly said, "A year's duration is 365 and a quarter days."
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