There are countless types of plants, trees, grasses, vines and thorns in the north of the Han Dynasty.

After the order was issued, the cavalry were busy running around, and various plants were kept being sent back. Anyway, Li Mengxi had been watching for a whole day, and new species were still being sent over.

This is only the first day, and according to statistics, there are already 187 species of various plants and trees.

Among them, most of Li Mengxi cannot be named.

His younger brother Xiao Zhuan saw a lot of grass, so many types of grass at once. Xiao Zhuan was extremely curious and asked this and that, and Li Mengxi could only say he didn't know repeatedly.

Li Mengxi refused more and more, and Xiao Zhuan asked, "Brother, why don't you know anything?"

Li Mengxi could not help but be speechless.

Then, Li Mengxi was thinking, does it matter if he doesn't know the types of plants?

When you think about it, it’s really important.

Papermaking requires testing the properties of various plants. After testing, you must naturally record the names of plants and the like. Simply remembering the names is not enough. It is best to draw pictures. Otherwise, if you ask people with the names, the common people will know them.

, but some don’t know it.

Although the peasants may not know the name, if they hold the grass in front of them and show it to them, they will probably recognize it.

Therefore, the names of plants must be memorized, and the pictures must be drawn and noted. Since the names of the pictures have been noted, wouldn’t it be better to also write down the area where they grow and their distribution environment?

Improving papermaking requires a lot of testing, and a variety of different plant fibers need to be tested. It is relatively simple to only test plant fibers. If you want to test drugs, the stems, flowers, leaves, fruits, roots, bark, core, and dryness of each plant must be tested.

Testing is more complex.

Draw a picture of a plant, label its name, record its growth habits, distribution area, and seasonal blooms, and then record in detail the medicinal effects of each part of its stems, flowers, leaves, and fruits. Li Mengxi suddenly realized that recording it in this way was not what it meant.

Compendium of Materia Medica?

For papermaking, compiling plant catalogs is very helpful for recording and collecting data. For testing medicines, it is very helpful for discovering and extracting medicinal materials. Even if it is not beneficial for papermaking and pharmaceuticals, simply studying plants is still an important natural science.

.

Others in the Han Dynasty may not care about the vegetation, plants or science, but Mr. Li has the obligation to take care of it.

After thinking about it, in order to facilitate subsequent records and to try to start the compilation of the plant atlas, Li Mengxi took a pen and paper. He took his younger brother to the top of the city and lifted up all the straw seedlings hanging on the battlements.

Draw the next pattern one by one.

Li Mengxi rarely did drawing work. In the past, there was no need and no conditions. There was no paper before, and it was inconvenient to draw on bamboo slips and cloth. Now that we have paper, the conditions for drawing are mature.

Li Mengxi was an excellent painter. He used his pen to draw realistic and vivid patterns of vegetation by comparing them with the vegetation. His younger brother, standing aside, kept wowing in amazement.

Li Mengxi finished drawing a foxtail plant, "Brother, can you give this to me?" his younger brother asked expectantly.

Li Mengxi finished drawing another small yellow flower, "Brother, can you give it to me?" The younger brother took it away again.

…

After Li Mengxi drew more than a dozen sketches, his younger brother took all the sketches away and looked at them preciously.

Seeing that his brother liked it very much, Li Mengxi asked, "Xiao Bian, do you want to draw? Brother, let me teach you."

"Okay!" Xiao Bian agreed happily.

Xiao Bian wanted to learn to draw, so Li Mengxi stopped. He spread the paper on the city bricks and started with simple paintings of grass and houses.

After teaching for a while, Xiao Bian was so excited that he lay down on the ground and started scribbling.

Li Mengxi looked at the messy graffiti drawn by his younger brother and the way his little hand clumsily held the brush. Li Mengxi remembered that the brush was too difficult to use. Whether it was writing or drawing, a hard pen was much simpler and more convenient.

Hard pens, fountain pens, ballpoint pens, pencils, whatever.

It seems that pencils are easier to draw. In sketching, carbon rods are sometimes used to draw. So, is this carbon rod charcoal?

Li Mengxi thought, now that we have paper, we need to make hard pens quickly. Hard pens are very conducive to popularizing education. It takes a school-age child one year to master the brush and two months to master the pencil. Also, in terms of writing speed,

The brush can write one character, while the pencil can write three. This alone can triple the efficiency of all writing and recording work. All readers in the world will spend three times less time writing in their lifetime, which is equal to working time.

It has been extended three times, which means there are three times more scholars.

With just one pencil, there can be three times as many scholars in the world. This is a revolutionary reform.

Also, the hard pen can write very small characters, but the characters written with the brush are still very large when you write them smaller. The space occupied by one character with the brush can be written with five characters, which directly equals to saving

Five times more paper is directly equivalent to five times more paper production.

——

Xiao Bian finished drawing on the paper in a short time. After finishing the last piece of paper, Xiao Bian excitedly raised the paper and said, "Brother, look!"

Li Mengxi looked at the paper. He saw many funny little people of different sizes drawn on the paper. From Li Mengxi's point of view, he felt that the things his brother had drawn were ugly, clumsy and cute. He asked with a smile.

, "Brother, what are you drawing?"

"Brother, look," Xiao Bian stretched out his hand and pointed at the little man on the paper, "this is me."

"Is this you, second brother?"

"This is the eldest brother."

"This is dad, and our mother..."

…

Li Mengxi was moved, and his heart suddenly became heavy.

"Brother," Xiao Zhuan raised his head and looked at the dark painting in his hand. No matter how young Xiao Zhuan was, he still had aesthetic ability and could tell the difference between good and bad. "Brother, you can draw a picture of our family."

middle?"

Xiao Bian turned the paper over, put the pen into Li Mengxi's hand, and looked at Li Mengxi expectantly.

Xiao Bian must have thought that if his brother could draw flowers and plants as if they were real, he would be able to draw his parents and family members.

Li Mengxi took over the pen. He looked at his younger brother's expectant look. Li Mengxi sighed in his heart. He really wanted to draw, but when others traveled through time, they brought the memories of the original body with them, but when he traveled back through time, he had no memory whatsoever.

Li Mengxi didn't know how his parents died. He didn't even know how many members of his family there were, let alone what they looked like.

Li Mengxi could only put down his pen and cruelly rejected his brother's request.

Seeing the disappointment on his brother's face, Li Mengxi couldn't bear it and could only give a duplicitous explanation. He said that flowers and plants are easy to draw, but people are difficult to draw, so he can't draw people.

Li Mengxi told his younger brother that he should learn to draw well, and that one day he would be able to draw his father and mother after he learned it.

Xiao Bian nodded seriously.
Chapter completed!