Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 238 232. Checking for deficiencies and filling gaps
Feng Xi followed the group of children for a few steps and came to an open space, which seemed to be a place specially cleared by these children for them to play.

Led by the leading child, the other children quickly picked up some firewood from the surroundings, and then found a fire from somewhere, lit their own small fire made of branches and hay, and then picked up the brown-yellow sphere that was split in half, and slightly passed the temperature next to the outer flame. Sure enough, as the temperature rose, the middle section began to melt.

The cuts on the two hemispheres became sticky, so the child pressed hard and rubbed them a few times to make sure they were aligned, then put them on a stone platform nearby. Other children were already holding them up to prevent the reassembled ball from falling apart because it had not cooled down yet. The remaining children had no concept of clean and dirty, and they dug sand from the ground to put out the fire.

"How about it, I didn't lie to you."

The leading child looked very proud. Feng Xi's eyes flashed with surprise, but he didn't say anything else. Instead, he waited for the sphere to cool down.

After an incense stick of time had passed, the leading child touched the sphere, tossed it twice, and confirmed that the sphere was repaired. He ignored Feng Xi and shared the few copper coins that Feng Xi had given him with his friends, preparing to go buy some candy.

"Grand Commander, isn't this just something like wax?"

Bao Yi looked at it for a long time and thought that this is the effect of wax, but these kids are treating it like a treasure.

"Not quite. If it was a wax ball, they would normally throw or kick it, so it would definitely wear out. But this ball seems to be quite durable."

Bao Feng noticed something was wrong. If it was made of wax, the wax itself could not be as wear-resistant as this ball. The wax would be worn down by one circle after rolling on the ground twice.

"Little friend, where did you get this magical thing from?"

Feng Xi grabbed the leading child who wanted to leave and asked him with a smile.

"It's a secret. I won't tell you. Lululu."

The child made a face at him, as if in revenge for Feng Xi's suspicion of him just now.

"Big brother, please have more candy. You see, the money is not enough to share, right?"

Feng Xi took out a dozen copper coins from his pocket, which was extremely tempting for the child.

"This……"

The leading child hesitated for a moment, as if considering whether he should tell Feng Xi his secret.

"Oh, what a pity. If someone could tell me, all these copper coins would be his."

Feng Xi pretended to feel sorry and glanced at the other children casually. Sure enough, one child couldn't help but jumped out immediately.

"I know, I know. We peeled this ball off the bark before. We boiled it by mixing the bark with water!"

Although what the child said didn't make any sense, Feng Xi understood it. He smiled and handed the ten copper coins to the child, which made the leading child very upset.

Feng Xi no longer paid attention to what might happen to these kids due to the uneven distribution of the spoils, and instead walked back with the Bao brothers.

"I see...how could I have forgotten about this?"

Feng Xi slapped his forehead and knew what the child was talking about.

Eucommia ulmoides is a plant that is only found in China. Its sap is quite similar to rubber, but due to the scale of cultivation and the difficulty of extraction, it cannot be mass-produced like rubber. However, when used on a small scale, this thing can be considered a substitute for rubber.

As luck would have it, the main production area of ​​Eucommia ulmoides is in Zhangjiakou, Hubei Province in the future, which is now Wuling County in Jingzhou. Eucommia ulmoides is distributed almost throughout Jingzhou, but it is estimated that few people can realize its value now, so it is just regarded as ordinary sap.

After Feng Xi returned to his lodgings, he took out a pen and paper and wrote down the second item, Eucommia ulmoides, in a small notebook he had prepared. The first item was "doctor", which was Feng Xi's memo.

Nowadays, Jingzhou as a whole has made qualitative progress in all walks of life, and all sectors of society, including scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, are developing. However, there are always some things that need to be checked and filled, and this is the role of Feng Xi's little memorandum.

The journey after that was unremarkable, it was just going north from the Xiang River back to Jiangling. After returning to Jiangling, Feng Xi put some of his ideas into practice.

First, Fu Zixun had started to increase the scale of production of new paper made from bamboo and tree pulp, and then the woodblock printing technology was officially put into use.

The whole skill of woodblock printing lies in engraving, and if a word is engraved wrongly, the template will be scrapped. However, as mentioned before, woodblock printing is not far behind in mass printing of the same content.

The Three Character Classic, which Feng Xi had memorized when he had nothing to do, quickly became popular as an enlightenment reading material. Compared with the Analects of Confucius and the Great Learning, the Three Character Classic not only had fewer words, but also had a lower tolerance for errors in woodblock printing and consumed less paper, so it was very easy to produce. However, those more advanced books had to wait for movable type printing.

After Feng Xi returned, he sent people to various places to investigate the growth of Eucommia ulmoides in Jingzhou, and at the same time ordered people to post a notice to recruit talents and specifically look for doctors.

Being a doctor in this era was still a craft that required the guidance of a master, and it was difficult to summarize it systematically. However, for Feng Xi, who had been exposed to both Western and traditional Chinese medicine, it seemed that integrating the theories was not difficult.

Although Feng Xi's future memory is only that of a soldier, he has never eaten pork but has never seen a pig run? He still knows the basic classifications of internal medicine, surgery, and otolaryngology, and he will slowly classify them according to this in the future.

At first, everyone thought that Feng Xi was sick, so there were many people trying to take advantage of the situation.

"Meet the Grand Commander."

A man with a pointed chin and monkey-like features, dressed in Taoist clothes, was brought in by the soldiers and saluted Feng Xi.

"Tell me how I am doing."

Feng Xi took a sip of tea and glanced at the man, and he had an idea in his mind.

"The Grand Commander looks healthy and dignified, how could he be ill?"

The man grinned like a monkey on Mount Emei.

"Huh? Are you sure?!"

Feng Xi suddenly slammed the teacup on the table, glared, pursed his lips, and looked extremely angry.

"This, this, this... The Grand Commander must have worked hard for the people of Jingzhou. He must have worn out his body and needs some recuperation..."

The Taoist priest was frightened and quickly changed his words, but Feng Xi knew at a glance that this kind of person who came in and did nothing but flatter others would not have any skills, so he ordered his men to kick him out and leave it at that.

In the past few days, ever since Feng Xi ordered to seek medical treatment, there have been too many people like this who are not genuine. However, the matter is of great importance, so Feng Xi still has to check it personally. Fortunately, most of the political affairs have been distributed by Feng Xi to Ma Liang, Huang Quan and others, and he does not need to do everything himself after he has set the framework for military affairs, so there is still plenty of time.

"Someone, take the next one."

Feng Xi picked up the teacup that he had just slapped on the table and took two sips.

(End of this chapter)