In the fourth year of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, Chang'an.

"No, I'm going to be late."

At dawn, Jiang Cang hurried out of the house and ran towards the Chang'an Gemological Garden.

I ran past a teahouse in a street and saw that it was crowded with people inside and outside.

"Listen to the newspaper, the Datang Times we picked up from Kaifeng overnight has arrived, half an hour faster than the Chang'an newspaper office!" Dr. Youcha stood on the second floor and shouted: "Those who want to hear the newspaper have paid the tea fee.

, wait for me to read the newspaper."

"Breaking news!"

Jiang Cang shouted at the top of his lungs, spoiling today's big news in advance.

"Master Wang has taken Baozhou, and the restoration of the Central Plains is just around the corner!"

He just couldn't stand the fact that this teahouse didn't even have enough seats, yet he still had to buy tea and listen to the newspaper. Why not drink tea standing up?

"This little kid!"

Sure enough, the teahouse owner was so angry that he immediately chased him out.

Now that Wang's army was on the Northern Expedition, the same news came out and was published by various sources. There must be a time difference, and many businessmen took advantage of it to make money. He also spent a little money to buy the news, but he didn't want to be disturbed by this kid.

Fortunately, most tea drinkers did not leave because of this.

Jiang Cang looked back, feeling proud.

He was twenty years old this year, a time when he was in high spirits.

His family is full of high-ranking officials, his father is Jing Zhaoyin, his eldest sister has just been promoted to the deputy envoy of the Third Division, and his brother-in-law is the minister of the Ministry of Works. He also has a step-sister who is a virtuous concubine. As for the step-brother-in-law, he is naturally the emperor.

.

With such a family background, at this moment he was wearing a green shirt and had no entourage behind him.

Not long after walking, there was a travel-worn woman standing on the street ahead with a bag on her back, looking around. Because she caught Jiang Cang's eyes, she stepped forward and asked, "This gentleman, what are you doing over there?

"

"Listen to the report."

The woman didn't understand and asked again: "What is that?"

Jiang Cang was in a hurry and wanted to walk away after a hasty answer. But when he turned around, he found that her dusty face... was actually very pretty.

It is a beauty rarely seen in the north.

Jiang Cang was no longer as frivolous as before and asked: "From your accent, do you think you are from Sichuan?"

"Yes, my little girl's ancestral home is Jingyan, Sichuan."

"What a coincidence. My mother is also from Jingyan, but I grew up in Syria."

"My little girl grew up in Jiangzhou. Due to the famine, she fled back to Sichuan. Later, she heard that her only relative had come to Chang'an, so she came to look for her relatives. She was running out of money and wanted to find something to do. I don't know where they are.

do what?"

"That's a business that has emerged in the past two years, newspaper readers. Without any other skills, as long as you are literate, you can make a lot of money by reading newspapers to people every day. Oh, I also collect newspapers from past years and give them to those who are not informed or who are not familiar with the news.

When people go to Guanzhong to read, some people will come to them for the serialized stories above, buy a pot of tea and pay twenty coins, and then they can listen to it for an hour."

"As long as you can read, you can do it?" The woman's eyes lit up.

Jiang Cang said: "If you were literate, you would have plenty of things to do. It's strange, a talented girl comes here, she should be hired away at the gate of the city."

"Maybe I entered the city too early?"

Jiang Cang looked over and saw that her eyes were slightly curved when she smiled, and she was very beautiful.

He also laughed, raised his hand and pointed, and said: "If you go west from this street, you can see the sheds for recruiting civil servants, sir, accounting houses, government offices, and other shops."

"Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Lang."

Jiang Cang continued walking towards Chang'an Gemological Garden, suddenly feeling a little annoyed.

I don't know whether he was annoyed that he wasted time by talking to this woman, or whether he was annoyed that he didn't ask her where she lived.

But he had something important to do today, so he patted his head and continued to move forward.

"Boom."

The bell rang, and everyone in the public room of Gewuyuan began to do what they were doing.

Nowadays, the Ordnance Factory, Wuhan Institute and other yamen have been separated from the Gewu Institute, and the academic skills studied here are mostly for civilian use.

Jiang Cang has little qualifications and can only serve in the third outer courtyard of Gewuyuan.

When he walked into the public room, he saw a two-wheeled bicycle on a large table, and two young men were busy adjusting the chain on it.

"Have you all read the newspaper?"

"Looking at it, it's obvious that Master Wang will defeat Meng Yuan before we can build the two-wheeled vehicle."

Jiang Cang said: "You really expect the soldiers to ride across the Yanshan Mountains on this thing you built that kills people without paying for their lives. It's not like there is no fodder for the horses."

"The strange thing is that we never found the rubber."

The Institute of Gewu Yuan published a booklet that records many inventions, principles, materials, and some wild ideas. It is said that His Majesty convened the wise men from all over the world to discuss the book and wrote it, called "Illustrated Guide to the Direction of Gewu in the Future."

It is a thick book with text and pictures inside.

Over the years, Gewuyuan has implemented a small part of it, proving that some of the above content can be achieved, and therefore can often serve as their guidance.

Jiang Cang took a look and said: "On page 10 of the material chapter, rubber is taken from a certain tree somewhere overseas. It is soft and tough."

It's not that he doesn't remember, but that's what it says.

"You can carry it all."

"Yeah." Jiang Cang asked again, "Have you all read the newspaper?"

"I told you, I've seen it."

"Ha, don't you only read the front page of the newspaper?"

"Is there anything more worthy of discussion than the investigation of things?"

"Haha." Jiang Cang took off the newspaper hanging on the wall, turned to the back page, clicked on it, and placed it in front of them.

A colleague looked over and said something.

"'The way of learning lies in the daily use of the people, not just the sages'? The Times really publishes a page every day with some boring discussions."

Jiang Cang said angrily: "You didn't even watch it, how do you know it's boring?"

“If you can’t apply what you’ve learned and just scold and fight all the time, it’s certainly boring.”

"You see clearly, it was the fake Taoist scholar who published their article first the day before yesterday, and this... Leshan lay scholar published an article to refute their article. You see, the fake Taoist scholar claims to be a saint and wants to set the standards for stupid men and women in the world. Leshan

It is no different for the lay people to descend from heaven to the people, and everyone can read the holy scriptures to refute them."

"Okay, let me take a look."

Jiang Cang pointed and said: "Look, fake Taoism said before that women are short-sighted and cannot tolerate Taoism. If they can't leave the boudoir for three steps, Leshan lay people asked them, if they don't leave the boudoir for three steps, how can they know that they are not worthy of Taoism? Look again.

These few sentences, 'For example, the rivers, Huaihe, lakes and Han are all water, and all the purples and reds are all spring, then A, B, B, D and D are all human beings.' Don't they sound inspiring?"

"You voted for it?"

"What?"

"The article you submitted?"

Jiang Cang was stunned and asked: "Isn't it bad?"

"My literary talent is really poor. How do I publish an article in this newspaper? Let's see tomorrow when I criticize those false Taoists..."

"you."

An older colleague turned around and said, "Do you want to do something useful? In the current Northern Expedition, who wants to watch you argue? Jiang Cang, bring me the drawings for improving the grain truck."

"oh……"

~~

half year later.

"'There is no high or low status in learning. Medicine, agriculture, calculation, and investigation are all top of the world. How can there be miscellaneous studies?'"

Jiang Cang read the newspaper carefully and said "Okay" secretly.

Over the past year, he often wrote articles to various newspapers in Chang'an and argued with those false Taoists. Gradually, he met many people with similar views, especially the man named "Mr. Chushan" who criticized Fang Qiu and could often say

to his heart.

Of course, now that the Northern Expedition is in full swing, most people in the world do not pay attention to some academic disputes on the back pages of newspapers.

Someone knocked on the door outside the house. Jiang Cang put away the newspaper, picked up an official document, and went to Quchi Academy to find Li Ye.

Because Li Ye is giving lectures at Quchi Academy today.

On this day, there were many students in the school, but most of them were younger. Because many young people from Guanzhong had rushed to the northern battlefield.
To be continued...