I will make Qin Shi Huang immortal in the Great Qin Dynasty.

The constable cleared his throat and began to read the headline of this issue of the newspaper.

"Da Qin Daily, Issue 37. Front Page—His Majesty and the Imperial Advisor personally traveled overseas to find high-yield grain seeds, resulting in a bumper harvest this year. Corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and rice are all growing well, with astonishing yields. According to the agricultural officials' measurements, sweet potatoes yielded 33 shi per mu, potatoes 31 shi per mu, corn 14 shi per mu, and rice 8 shi per mu…"

The crowd was silent for a moment, then erupted in chaos.

Thirty-three bushels?! Did I hear that right?

"Sweet potatoes yield 33 shi per mu?!"

"Oh my god! My family grows millet, and even in a good year we only have a little over three bushels! Thirty-three bushels!"

"Does that mean we won't have to go hungry anymore?"

The bailiff gestured for silence and continued reading: "...Trial planting results from various regions show that these crops are highly adaptable, have low soil requirements, and can be grown in a variety of climatic conditions. Once sufficient seed reserves are available, they will be gradually promoted throughout the Qin Dynasty. At that time, the people of Qin will not only be able to eat their fill, but also eat well. In addition to grain seeds, His Majesty has also brought back various seasoning crops such as pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, and chili from overseas, which have been successfully trialed around Xianyang. In the near future, the tables of the people of Qin will no longer be limited to salt and soy sauce, but will also have many more flavors."

Another round of discussion broke out among the crowd. Some people swallowed hard, while others whispered among themselves about what "pepper" and "chili" actually tasted like.

Those who saw the newspaper in more distant counties and more remote villages also felt the same surprise and excitement, listening to literate teachers read the contents of the newspaper sentence by sentence to the crowd sitting in a circle outside their own doors or in the open space at the entrance of the village.

Some people listened intently, resting their chins on their hands; some clenched their fists and cheered softly; and some had tears welling up in their eyes when they heard the phrase "no more hunger in the future."

The content of the Daqin Daily extends far beyond agriculture.

Each issue of the newspaper has different sections, ranging from imperial policies to local development, from military activities to school education, from the popularization and progress of Yuanli Guiding Techniques to the novel things that craftsmen from various regions create after completing their studies in the industrial sector.

The price of paper was set at an extremely low level, almost only covering the cost of raw materials and printing, making it affordable for ordinary families who saved money.

Meanwhile, the newspaper's distribution area gradually expanded, spreading from Xianyang to the capitals of various prefectures, from prefectures to counties, and from counties to townships, layer by layer, like a huge net that wove together the information and voices of the entire Qin Dynasty.

In regions that had once been ruled by the six states, the Daqin Daily was given special attention and promotion.

The imperial court set up more newspaper kiosks and reading points in these places. Whenever a new issue of the newspaper was delivered, there were special personnel to distribute and read it to the people passing by in the market or at the entrance of the village.

At first, the local people were somewhat wary and held a wait-and-see attitude towards this newspaper from Xianyang. However, after reading a few issues, their doubts gradually turned into curiosity, and their curiosity gradually turned into trust.

They saw the imperial court's policies in the newspapers: reducing corvée labor, distributing grain seeds, building schools, and teaching the art of guiding primordial energy.

They heard news from the newspapers that new grain varieties had been successfully planted in the fields of East County and were growing well.

Students from Nanjun were admitted to colleges in Xianyang.

New blast furnaces have been built in the mines in the west, and steel is being produced day and night.

Those messages made them feel that the emperor in Xianyang, the emperor they had once feared and hated, was gradually changing the way their lives were being lived.

At the same time, cultural education within the military is also progressing steadily.

With a million troops scattered across various regions, it was impossible for them all to gather in Xianyang for training.

Qin Tian and Ying Zheng devised a plan to send literate individuals who had learned simplified Chinese characters and pinyin to conduct cultural classes in the camp. The curriculum was simple: first, learn Qin language pinyin, then simplified Chinese characters, and then basic arithmetic and basic military regulations.

The first batch of textbooks has been printed.

They were thin booklets with the words "Great Qin Soldiers' Literacy Textbook" printed on the cover. The inner pages contained pinyin, simplified Chinese characters, and simple short sentences, with corresponding pictures on each page to aid understanding.

The textbook is ingeniously and practically designed. Its small size makes it easy to carry, and it fits perfectly into the lining of the armor.

The soldiers initially resisted the idea of ​​"reading and writing." Most of them were from farming families and had never touched a book since childhood. Many felt that "that's not something we should touch."

But when the instructors told them that learning every word in the textbook would enable them to better understand military orders, maps, and the reports about themselves in the Daqin Daily, their attitudes gradually changed.

Once a person learns pinyin, they can read the entire military order.

If you know a few simplified Chinese characters, you can get together during your break and read through the national news in the newspaper.

Holding the booklets, they sat at the entrance of the barracks or by the campfire, some with accents and some stumbling, but eventually they learned to recognize and spell the words one by one.

Some people learned the name of their county, some learned how to write the words "Great Wall," "Xiongnu," and "guardian," and some, when they saw the words "defend the border for the country" and "protect the homeland" in the newspaper, suddenly realized that they knew those words and could read them by themselves, and couldn't help but grin for a long time.

When Qin Tian was compiling teaching materials for his soldiers, he deliberately left a blank page at the end of each volume with a line of text printed on it: "After learning this lesson, how many characters have you learned? Will you remember the ones you learned today tomorrow? Write them down so you can review them next year."

The kind of military spirit he hoped for could not be established by a single decree from the court. Rather, it required daily infiltration and word-by-word permeation to gradually teach those who held weapons to also hold books and hope.

Schools in various regions are also under construction simultaneously.

Qin Tian's textbook compilation work is also underway simultaneously.

He combined the actual situation of the Qin Dynasty with the mature education system of later generations to compile a set of basic textbooks covering basic subjects such as literacy, arithmetic, history, geography, and natural sciences.

The textbooks are written entirely in simplified Chinese characters, supplemented with Qin language pinyin and numerous illustrations, striving to make them understandable and learnable even for ordinary people with no prior knowledge.

Instead of rigidly applying later systems to the existing framework of the Qin Dynasty, he first compiled a 300-character literacy textbook and a simple arithmetic introduction, printing them into thin booklets as unified national primers.

These teaching materials were first piloted in several schools around Xianyang.

The instructors were educated officials or literate retired soldiers who taught children and young people to read, write, do arithmetic, keep accounts, and learn about the geography and history of the Qin Dynasty.

They knew which river their own fields were on, where the borders of the Qin Dynasty were, what lay north of the Great Wall, and what kind of road the Grand Preceptor and His Majesty were paving for the people of the world.

As for those students who know more characters and understand faster, the later volumes of the textbook have been prepared to gradually teach them more in-depth knowledge, so as to cultivate talents for the future of the Qin Dynasty in the fields of industry, agriculture, astronomy, geography, and navigation.

The farmers' expectations in the fields are gradually being transformed into messages written on paper, and then transmitted to increasingly distant places via the Daqin Daily's carts and post stations.

The Daqin Daily was posted on the bulletin boards of county and prefectural government offices, read aloud by literate people at the entrances of teahouses and restaurants, and passed around by those who couldn't afford newspapers.

Some people pointed to each word on the paper with their rough fingers and read it aloud to others. After listening, others relayed the content to their family members who had not come to the market.

News about grain seeds, schools, and reduced corvée labor flowed from the city streets to the villages, from the post stations along the official roads to the more remote mountain valleys, seeping down layer by layer, into the soil, and into those long-parched hearts.