Those who could read looked at the characters, those who couldn’t read looked at the pictures, then listened carefully with perked ears to the township chief’s teaching, memorizing it and then working hard to compare it with the handbook.

Besides this, those with children at home would also show the handbook to them, having them teach character recognition or hold the book and read to them, striving to memorize it even if they couldn’t read the characters, to completely remember the knowledge in the book.

Among the common people was the ‘Common Physician’s Handbook,’ and in the military was the ‘Military Medical Handbook,’ with study organized by squad units.

Military study was much more convenient than among civilians, and also more refined. Besides squad leaders teaching them, every ten days there was also a major class where the entire army sat together listening to military physicians teach personally.

Actually it was battlefield emergency aid knowledge. Having learned this, on the battlefield, even if military physicians couldn’t arrive immediately, comrades could rescue each other.

Zhao Hanzhang had already decided the entire army would be equipped with medical kits. In future battles, soldiers going on campaign would all carry a simple medical kit on them, able to both save themselves and save others.

The materials were ready—now it was just a matter of learning the knowledge.

The entire populace stirred up a wave of studying medicine. And soon, the court issued another new handbook—this time the ‘Agricultural Bureau Handbook.’ This handbook had the Emperor personally participating in its compilation, edited together with officials from the Agricultural Bureau.

It detailed the seed selection, seedling cultivation, planting, weeding, and pest control methods for various crops.

It was divided into three sections: the upper section covered crops like the five grains, the middle section was on animal husbandry—cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, fish and such, the lower section was miscellaneous—various composting methods, fruit tree cultivation, vegetable planting, and planting considerations for various common timber trees, as well as seedling cultivation…

Township chiefs and village heads discovered they had more and more to learn. Every ten days they actually had to spend two days going to school to study, yet they still received meager salaries.

But were they people who cared about money?

For Her Majesty, for the Hua nation, for the children’s future, even if their hair fell out completely they would work hard!

But it really was so difficult!

The township chiefs’ and village heads’ faces showed stern expressions, while tears flowed in their hearts.

For Zhao Hanzhang, printing books was as simple as drinking water, and distributing books even more so—a matter of casually waving her hand. This caught the aristocratic families who had been secretly discussing perfecting the recruitment examinations off guard.

They could only delete the memorial they had discussed and rewrite it. They believed the court’s requirements for teachers were too low now. As long as one had attended school for five years and graduated with a “satisfactory” grade, they could teach at elementary schools, which in their view was misleading students.

So they hoped to strictly screen candidates and increase the difficulty of recruitment examinations.

They believed not only were school recruitment exams too simple, but county exams, provincial exams, and national exams also had problems—the questions set were all too simple, resulting in selected talents being of uneven quality.

Zhao Hanzhang thought what they said made sense, but only adopted their viewpoint without agreeing to the conditions they added.

More aristocratic families keenly perceived the changes of the era. They conformed to these changes because from this they saw a prosperity different from the millennium before. Combined with the warfare of the past century, they urgently hoped this world would be stable and peaceful, with no more strife.

Thus they offered up the books stored in their families one after another.

Zhao Hanzhang was greatly pleased, especially wielding her brush to write calligraphy for each person who献书.

The Emperor’s calligraphy was naturally very precious. Everyone who received it was very happy, then discovered that their neighbor on the left had some, the neighbor on the right also had some…

Throughout the nation, no fewer than a thousand households received such calligraphy.

The scholars couldn’t help but wonder: Was this really the Emperor’s calligraphy?

Of course it was. For this reason, every day at work, during midday breaks Zhao Hanzhang had to write two pieces of calligraphy. After work she also had to work overtime for half a period writing. Morning calligraphy practice time after exercise was also spent writing these…

Diligent Zhao Hanzhang could write fifty to eighty pieces daily. The completed calligraphy was sent out through the postal system, absolutely guaranteed for delivery.

Also because of this, too much of Zhao Hanzhang’s calligraphy survived to later generations. Despite her tremendous achievements, her calligraphy just wasn’t very valuable because there was too much of it.

Obtaining many collected books, these aristocratic families’ collections were quite rich in content, with much knowledge not circulated outside.

Fu Tinghan even found in one book an analysis of the Mohist wooden ox and flowing horse, with detailed diagrams inside.

There was also a thin handwritten copy, still incomplete pages, left behind by Hua Tuo. When sent to the Imperial Medical Bureau, the physicians nearly went mad. Inside were specific processes for treating brain diseases and performing cesarean sections, as well as prescriptions for treating three different epidemics, one called typhoid, one called plague.

The imperial physicians truly were going mad. They turned each page with extreme care. After finishing reading and copying this volume, they went to petition the Emperor, hoping to participate in organizing the donated books. They wanted to personally search for other medical texts.

Zhao Hanzhang agreed. The imperial physicians then took turns plunging into this work.

Like them were officials from several other departments. Even Ji Yuan and Ming Yu couldn’t resist becoming absorbed in this, wanting to enter the palace after work each day to volunteer for her.

Some properly organized books could be handed to publishing houses for printing and sale outside, or sent to schools for children to read.

Some were printed in a few copies, then stored in the Hanlin Academy and the palace.

These basically belonged to technical categories, or some schools of thought with rather dangerous ideas—such books weren’t suitable for outside circulation.

But Zhao Hanzhang was different from emperors of past dynasties. She wouldn’t hide books away, placing them only in the imperial family. Rather, what the palace had, she would allow the Hanlin Academy to have a copy.

However, she ordered Zhao Ming, He Xun, and Xun Fan and others to classify the books by level. Dangerous books were placed on the highest level, important books on the next level, ordinary books on the lower levels. Different officials with different purposes could borrow different books.

The realm, because of these collected books, had richer knowledge. The world students could see became richer, the knowledge they could learn became broader. Zhao Hanzhang felt more satisfied in her heart, though her purse became emptier.

Half the publishing houses in the realm belonged to Zhao Hanzhang, half belonged to the court and local government offices.

Most paper workshops throughout the realm also belonged to Zhao Hanzhang. However, because papermaking was simple, initially no one could make paper as cheaply and varied as the imperial paper workshops.

But as time passed and the production process slowly leaked out, people outside also obtained the formula. Thus some people tentatively and secretly made paper in private. Discovering the imperial family and government offices didn’t interfere, they openly opened workshops.

Later when Zhao Hanzhang learned of this, she even specially announced through the newspaper that she thought they possessed a spirit of research and did very well, and publicly released several paper production formulas.

Those newly opened paper workshops were greatly pleased and openly copied them.

Zhao Hanzhang knew that more and more people throughout the realm would read. Relying solely on the imperial publishing houses and imperial paper workshops wasn’t enough. She didn’t restrict people entering this industry.

Especially for paper workshops, she only wanted to control the main publishing houses, while naturally yielding profits to the people for the rest.

But in the short term, at least within five years, the vast majority of paper and books on the market would come from her publishing houses and workshops. So printing large quantities of books like the ‘Common Physician’s Handbook’ and ‘Agricultural Bureau Handbook’ had costs borne by Zhao Hanzhang and the court.

Even the ‘Military Medical Handbook,’ though paid for by the Ministry of War, ultimately circled back to Zhao Hanzhang and the court.

So she truly suffered while being happy.