Chapter 307: Longing for a Printed Book

After breakfast in the morning, Su Boyan took the officials back to Wu County, and the men returned to the construction site to work.

After all, we still have to live in a small village and have to work from sunrise to sunset.

The rice leaves in the paddy fields began to turn yellow, and the rice grains on the rice ears were full of juice, emitting a faint rice fragrance.

The soybeans and mung beans in the dry land are about two feet tall, providing a green shade.

Su Ying took the children to the edge of the field, in groups of several, carrying baskets on their backs, picking mulberry leaves and chattering.

Other women were also picking mulberry leaves on the edge of the field. Every household raised silkworms, and this time the whole village was full of colorful silkworms.

Lu Zhaoshi, Wang Yannian and County Magistrate Hu stood with their hands behind their backs, leisurely inspecting the fields. Seeing the lush crops, they nodded continuously.

"Well, not bad, not bad! The harvest will be at the end of the month, and it will definitely be a good harvest!" Lu Zhaoshi said with a smile, stroking his beautiful beard.

Looking at the rice ears in these fields, the yield must have increased. Lu Zhaoshi really wanted to know how much more it had increased compared to previous years.

After two rice seasons, this year's grain production will more than double. Taking into account the yield increase, it will increase by at least 30% to 40%!

Looking across the entire Tang Dynasty, which prefecture has achieved this? Wuzhou! Only Wuzhou has done it!

Pick mulberry leaves and carry them back to the silkworm room to feed the silkworms.

The children became quiet and stopped playing. After feeding the children mulberry leaves, they took notes seriously.

Lu Zhaoshi and his companions were curious about how the colorful silkworms were raised, so they came in to watch.

Seeing that the silkworms were no different from the usual ones except that they were fatter than usual, he looked at Su Ying in confusion.

"These silkworms are no different except they're a little bigger. How do they spin colorful silk?"

Su Ying smiled and said, "My lord, it's not time yet. I have to wait until the third sleep before it starts to change."

"Oh, how did you feed your silkworms so big?" Lu Zhaoshi asked curiously.

This girl's crops are more fertile than others', and her silkworms are bigger than others'. There must be some trick.

"There's not much difference. It's just that they eat better than other people's silkworms. We feed them sugar water." Su Ying replied.

"Feed, feed me sugar water?" Lu Zhaoshi was shocked. It was not easy for ordinary people to eat sugar, but Su Ying actually used it to feed the silkworms!

"This technology can be promoted. Spraying brown sugar and garlic water on mulberry leaves and feeding them to silkworms can enhance their immunity and increase their nutrition, just like how eating well makes a person stronger."

Su Ying explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

"So that's it!" Lu Zhaoshi suddenly realized.

After finishing all this, class started and Lu Zhaoshi and others sat in the back.

"Today we are learning about addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers..."

Su Ying wrote a two-digit addition and subtraction horizontal problem using Arabic numerals on the blackboard.

Lu Zhaoshi looked at the strange symbols on the blackboard and felt like he was in another world, unable to understand or hear anything.

"Heling, what is Aying talking about? I don't understand." Lu Zhaoshi nudged Wang Yannian with his elbow.

"I guess it's new mathematics!" Wang Yannian whispered.

"Now, which two students will come up and solve the problem using the vertical method?" Su Ying asked.

The children raised their hands.

"Okay, Pei Yuyao and Zheng Zishan, come here!" Su Ying called the two children to the stage.

Pei Yuyao does addition and Zheng Zishan does subtraction.

Addition uses vertical carry, and subtraction uses vertical borrow.

The two children quickly wrote down the calculation process and the answer, and then returned to their seats.

"Are their answers correct?" Su Ying asked the children.

"Correct!" the children said in unison.

"Hmm, that's good. It seems everyone understands the meaning of carry and borrow! Then let's do something more complicated, addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers..."

Su Ying was talking on the blackboard, and the three officials in the last row were like confused fruits on the confused tree, and you and me were under the confused tree.

"Okay, that's all for today's class. Here's today's homework. Everyone, copy it and practice it after school. get out of class dismissed!"

Su Ying wrote twenty questions on the blackboard, ten each of addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers.

"Thank you for your hard work, sir!" the children stood up and bowed.

"Aying, Aying!" Lu Zhaoshi, who had been holding back for the entire class, finally had the chance to speak. "What does this symbol mean?"

"This is Arabic numerals, a new method of arithmetic that is easy to learn and use..."

Su Ying then popularized the basic knowledge mentioned above to the three college students.

"Oh, that's it!" After learning the meaning of 0 to 9 as well as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, equal sign, horizontal form and vertical form, Lu Zhaoshi understood most of it.

"So, it has its own merits compared to the abacus?" Lu Zhaoshi asked.

"Well, that's about right! But it's not just for calculations, it can also be used for bookkeeping and so on..."

Su Ying also gave a detailed explanation of other uses of Arabic numerals.

"Good, this symbol is so useful!" Lu Zhaoshi exclaimed.

“If used for accounting, the accounts are clear and easy to understand at a glance, and combined with the use of text, the risk of account changes can be avoided!

Well, that's a good idea! Heling, this is a good idea, how about we send a few people to learn it?"

"Very good!" Wang Yannian was also attracted by the course. "Aying, do you have any teaching materials?"

"Uh, not yet!" Su Ying said embarrassedly.

"This won't do. We need a textbook for such a good new type of mathematics. How can we promote it without a textbook? You already have a book on abacus, so you should also have one on Arabic mathematics!" Lu Zhaoshi suggested.

"This new math is useful for all departments, especially the Household Department, where accounting is complex. If this method is adopted, combined with abacus, it will greatly reduce the workload!

The provincial government's official school should also add this course, which will be very useful for future officials and clerks!"

"Yes, I'll find time to get a teaching material!" Su Ying also felt it was necessary.

The teaching materials are systematic and organized, which makes it easy for students to review what they have learned and also allows more people with self-study ability to study on their own.

"Um, sir, can you print it out? Send some to our village to learn?" Su Ying asked.

Handwritten textbooks are always non-standard, and Su Ying longs for a printed book.

"Printing?" Lu Zhaoshi mused. "Printing is not easy. Just carving the plates would take several months. I'm afraid no one would be willing to print just a few hundred copies."

The total number of students in the prefecture, county offices, and official schools does not exceed a few hundred.

There were few printed books in ancient times, not only because paper was expensive but also because carving wood blocks was troublesome.

Each page of paper was carved on a plate, and the font was very small. If there was a mistake in one word, the entire plate would have to be scrapped and re-engraved.

A book can have dozens of pages or even hundreds of pages, so carving is a huge project.

After printing, if it is not copied again, the set of woodblocks will lose its value.

This is why there are so many printed versions of the ancient Four Books and Five Classics. In addition to being designated textbooks, they are also designated question banks. They are in great demand, and the carved plates are reused repeatedly.

This new set of mathematics textbooks is currently only used in Wuzhou. Woodblock printing is costly and time-consuming, and is not as practical as handwritten copies.

"How about this, you write the textbooks and I'll ask someone to copy dozens of copies for you?" Lu Zhaoshi said.

"Sir, the manuscript is not standardized..." Su Ying was very sorry.

"No, the government can find a few students who are good at copying. The books they copy will be no worse than the printed ones, with the same font as the printed ones, neat and beautiful!"

In their early years, students from poor families mostly earned a meager living by copying books.

This kind of handwritten copy sold in bookstores is not copied casually, but has regulations.

The handwriting must be neat and copied stroke by stroke according to the printed version, including the font size, etc., which should be comparable to the printed version.