With his beloved telescope beside him, the air is rare and clear, and on the night of Tanabata, Han Gang is in front of the window.

At least half of the time since the beginning of summer, the sun seems to be as dim as a veil - although the temperature is still hot enough to melt the asphalt, the roads paved with asphalt mixed cinder near the iron yard in the north of Kaifeng have been run into black ravines by passing cars and horses.

But Han Gang didn't take a telescope to take a look at the two bright stars separated by the Milky Way at the right time, or to see if he could find the Andromeda Nebula that he had been looking for. The zodiac signs were introduced to China very early, and they are very common in astrology, and they also appear in Buddhist scriptures. But the difficulty of the other constellations is too high, especially for Han Gang, a so-called astronomer who is not even a half-tone.

Han Gang is reviewing a sample for the new issue of Nature.

Nature is the core journal of the Society of Nature, and it is also the propaganda front of the Qi Science and Gewu School, and it is also the authoritative book and periodical on all natural issues in the minds of scholars today.

Since three years ago, Nature has published a set of bound volumes every year, which will collect the papers in the five sub-disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and geography in the journal in the past year, according to different disciplines, into a volume for sale.

"Nature", including bound editions, can be received free of charge as long as it is a core member of the Nature Society, and ordinary members can also get it as long as they pay membership dues - the membership fee has included the cost of the periodicals, and ordinary people who do not belong to the Society can also buy and subscribe at the post office in most cities, as for those who have no money to buy, they can also borrow and transcribe through the public libraries in various state and county schools - in the libraries of various places, the Natural Society has donated a large number of books, as long as it is a book published by the Society, can be found in these libraries.

With the bound volume, it is much easier to conduct research in the future and search for the corresponding papers. In addition, in the planning of the society, the list of papers will be revised every five years, and the title, author and main content of the papers will be published so that scholars can search for them.

In the big cities of Zhulu in the south of the Yangtze River, Nature and its spin-off publications are selling a huge amount, and they are also the largest customers of today's start-up postal system, with more than 80,000 copies sold every month, and it is expected to reach 100,000 copies this year.

In the face of such a large sales volume, engraving printing has been unable to support the demand for printing. The wooden printing plate can not withstand more than 10,000 times of printing, often thousands of times, the handwriting on the printing plate will be polished, and it is impossible to engrave dozens of nearly 100 engraving plates for a page.

Therefore, there was Han Gang's strong improvement of movable type printing technology, but before the results of movable type printing appeared that he expected, it was unexpected, and in another direction, there were results that surprised Han Gang.

Nowadays, the lowest cost and the best printing effect are not the lead movable type printing that Han Gang asked people to study, but the lithographic technique.

The sample in Han Gang's hand is the best display of the lithographic technique.

Lithographing mainly uses the principle of affinity between water and oil, brushes a layer of acidic glue on the stone, and then uses ink to print.

This was an unexpected success, and it was also one of the best results of Han Gang's diffusion of techniques through various channels at this stage.

Ink, from Hangang, after the joke about petroleum ink, real ink soon came out. And the chemicals used to deal with printing stones, without the emergence of triacids and the manufacture of large-scale, could not have been invented. If no one had studied the composition of limestone through acid, naturally there would not even be a printed baseplate. If there were no journals such as Nature to spread knowledge, who would have been able to combine these techniques and invent lithographs?

Since the lithographic technique was introduced, under the strong leadership of Han Gang, it quickly spread.

In only two years, not to mention the Beijing Division, there are already five or six lithographing workshops in Hangzhou, while Jianyang in Fujian, which is the production area of the Fujian version that is famous for its shoddy production and more famous for its printing quantity, has suddenly sprung up with nearly 20 lithograph workshops.

Even Guozijian's bookstore began to use lithographic techniques. The printing workshop under the name of the Natural Society is already experimenting with color overprinting.

At the same time, due to Han Gang's agitation under the pseudonym of "Nature", I don't know how many people in the world now use coal tar and then treat it with acid and alkali. Although I don't expect immediate results, after a long time, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years, chemistry will continue to progress, and sooner or later chemical dyes will appear, and Han Gang will continue to push as long as he lives. And how many discoveries and inventions will there be in the process?

Now that there is a delicate lithograph, when there is a breakthrough in watermarking technology, Han Gangji's long-planned treasury bonds can be sold.

After turning over the samples in this issue, there are no earth-shattering discoveries and inventions, only more in-depth discussion and research on existing knowledge.

Han Gang has always felt that this is a good phenomenon, the breakthrough of knowledge depends on accumulation, without giants, how can there be shoulders to stand?

Because of Han Gang, the natural sciences of this era were too narrow and too fast. This requires more people to fill the void and lay a solid foundation.

Seeing a record of the breeding observation of the scarab's life, Han Gang couldn't help but pick up the cup on the table and take a big sip.

This paper should be a big deal.

Han Gang felt that if someone could write "The Book of Insects", they would even be worthy of putting the lights on for three days.

Holding the cup, Han Gang took another sip, and the cool and sweet feeling made him feel even more comfortable.

The large glass was filled with a red and warm liquid, not wine, but watermelon juice. Han Gang doesn't like to eat watermelon with juice, but he likes watermelon, so he treats it like this at home.

Crystal dew drops hang on the outer walls of the glass, which is the result of ice cubes mixed inside. The edible ice cubes stored by the Han family are frozen after boiling water from deep wells, because they are relatively clean. River ice is used to cool down, but not to the stomach. Large households, including the palace, treat ice cubes in this way.

Put down the cup, put away the sample, and there is a print book that is very similar in size and thickness, even on paper.

But it's not a sample, it's a print that has already been paid. Although it is not lithographic, the level of printing is already the highest grade in engraving printing.

The title on the title page, perhaps influenced by Nature, also has only two words-

Science.

Quite different from later generations, the meaning of the word science is the study of the imperial examination, and it is relatively rare, and it does not appear much in the classics.

This is a new journal that has just been launched. In the name of "Science", the content is also a matter of course.

Han Gang picked up the book and flipped through it quickly.

It is full of Confucian and certain scholars commenting on the test papers of each high school, as well as the questions that appear in the examination solutions in various places, as well as the comments on the test papers of Bagong Gongsheng. At the same time, there are also questions from the Guozi Prison High School, daily exams, and the content of the lectures given by the professors in the prison.

It is conceivable that as soon as this book comes out, Luoyang paper will be expensive, and the popularity is not under "Nature", and after a few issues, most of the sales will surpass "Nature". Even in the future, there will not be many books that will be able to sell teaching materials.

There are still capable people in the country's prison.

"Lu Dian really has some ability." Han Gang sighed lightly.

"Official, do you want to eat something?"

Yan Suxin happened to enter the door, and he didn't know what he heard Han Gang's self-talk.

Han Gang turned his head and asked with a smile, "It's over?" ”

"It's over, sister, they're cleaning up."

The annual begging ceremony is the only festival that belongs exclusively to women in this era, and as soon as the moon rises, the female relatives of the family will go to the back garden to worship and pray, and make some ceremonies for no reason.

Han Gang stretched, got up and moved his hands and feet in the room, and said, "It's really fast today." ”

"It's the second watch, where is it fast." Yan Suxin came up to help clean up.

"Science" was thrown aside, and Han Gang didn't care about it, just like that, except for taking this name to make Han Gang feel a pity, there was nothing to worry about.

In Jinling Academy, Wang Anshi is exerting his spare energy and striving to educate the next generation of new students. In Guozijian, Lu Dian's "Science" was created, and more scholars were asked to study the new learning.

In the reform of the imperial examination, Han Gang did not do too much, although the examination was added, the scholars only needed to read through the "Kindergarten Qionglin", and the content in it also had empirical natural common sense and arithmetic knowledge. At that time, Wang Anshi took his own new meaning of the Three Classics as the definition of the King James Interpretation, no matter which school you are a disciple of, or even if you are already full of Confucianism, if you want to be admitted to the Jinshi, you must bow your head and give up your original knowledge.

But after the imperial examination, who else cares about Xinxue, not to participate in the imperial examination, and how many scholars will study the "Three Classics and New Meanings"? And the hobby of natural science can not only be carried out for life, but also popularized by the public.

Han Gang didn't mind, the future was on his side, whether it was Lu Dian's "Science" or Wang Anshi's Jinling Academy, they were just dying.

It's like a prisoner on the execution ground, no matter how hard he struggles, he can't escape the knife.

Just thinking so, an urgent military report arrived at the Prime Minister's Mansion, and it was soon presented to Han Gang.

"Official, the slave family went out first."

Yan Suxin hurriedly wanted to quit, not daring to disturb Han Gang to deal with business.

After Han Gang saw it, he raised his hand and said, "It's okay, it's good news, the southwest camp has won again...... If nothing else, in another month and a half, Dali will be attached. ”

"Really?!" Yan Suxin said happily.

"Look at the development of the war over there, there will be no problem."

I wonder what kind of reaction the idiots in Yushi Tai will make when Lu Dao hears the news? Han Gang thought.