Chapter 99 Uses of Glycerin

After the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty, there was no rigidly stipulated time for the announcement of the results, but there was an implicit rule that the results must be announced within fifteen days of the end of the examination.

The reason why the results were announced within fifteen days was also due to the influence of the time of the palace examination during the Ming Dynasty.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, all customization was still in the exploratory stage, so changes in time were relatively arbitrary.

For example, the first palace examination held in the Ming Dynasty was held on February 29th of the fourth year of Hongwu.

However, in the later development of the system, the time of the palace examination was roughly standardized. It was usually held two or three days after the announcement of the results of the joint examination, usually around the first day of March.

However, in the eighth year of Chenghua, the date of the palace examination was changed to March 15th, and it was presided over by the emperor himself.

From then on, the time of the palace examination in the Ming Dynasty was set on March 15th.

March is not only the season when flowers bloom, but also a season full of vitality and hope.

One day at the beginning of the month, after more than ten days of preparation, the Ministry of Rites finally released the list of 320 "tribute scholars" admitted in the Gengxu year examination.

For a moment, no matter whether it was the candidates taking the imperial examinations in Beijing or other common people in Beijing, their eyes were involuntarily attracted by the list of "tribute scholars" released by the Ministry of Rites.

Because they all knew that this list of "tribute scholars" was the list of candidates for the palace examination on March 15th.

As long as you can make it onto the list, at the very least you can get into the top three and become a Jinshi, and rapid advancement in your career will be no problem.

On this day, Hai Rui also came to the place where the results were announced in the Ministry of Rites with great excitement. He squeezed through the crowd, raised his head and looked at the huge list, hoping that his name would appear on it.

Hai Rui started from the first name and looked at them one by one. Every time he saw an unfamiliar name, he couldn't help but feel a little more anxious.

At the same time, people around him would scream in surprise and shout excitedly: "I won!"

These excited voices sound like beautiful music to those who have found their names on the list.

But for those who have not found their names on the list, it is a torture of anxiety.

Hai Rui held his breath, suppressed his excitement, and continued searching according to the ranking.

After Hai Rui looked at the names of nearly three hundred lucky people, he finally saw his own name in the corner of the "tribute" list.

No. 297 Hai Rui

When Hai Rui saw his name, he became excited instantly. His accelerated heartbeat made his face turn red. The corners of his mouth trembled a few times, and he wanted to shout out that beautiful celestial sound "I won."

But when the words came to his lips, he couldn't say them out. In the end, all his strength was used to restrain his excited emotions and trembling body.

Although Hai Rui was very much looking forward to being on the list, he was also very aware of how fierce the competition was.

So even though he had great aspirations and hopes, he was still very nervous before he saw his name on the list of "Tribute Scholars". Now when he saw his name appear at the 297th place, the one he was most grateful for was the nobleman he met in the Liulichang alley.

If it weren't for the nobleman's enthusiasm and righteousness, Hai Rui could be very sure that with his previous writing style and accumulation of eight-part essay skills, he would never have been on the list.

Because more than a month before the imperial examination, Hai Rui had seen many previous Jinshi papers through Gao Gong. After reading these Jinshi essays, Hai Rui was already very clear about how big the gap was between himself and the Jinshi.

Therefore, during Gao Gong's intensive training for nearly a month, Hai Rui also deeply felt the importance of that noble young man.

If it weren't for the nobleman's special regard for him, Gao Gong would never have spent so much time and effort to improve his eight-legged essay skills, so that he could successfully stand out in this imperial examination and continue to participate in the palace examination on March 15th as the 297th "tribute scholar".

Just when Hai Rui was excited about having passed the provincial examination and having the qualification to enter the palace examination, Zhu Zaigui was also busy with something new.

Over the past few months, Zhu Zaigui has saved up a lot of glycerin from the production of soap.

In the past, these glycerols might have been ordinary industrial raw materials, and the kind that had not been developed for any use.

Therefore, in order to make these glycerols have their own effects, Zhu Zaigui is now trying to get people to study the effects of glycerol.

Among them, the most fruitful research was on Li Shizhen.

Zhu Zaigui gave Li Shizhen some glycerin and asked him to study the pharmacology of glycerin.

After several months of research, Li Shizhen lived up to Zhu Zaigui's expectations and discovered some medicinal values of glycerin.

Li Shizhen discovered that glycerin had amazing effects on the treatment of wounds and burns. Wounds and burns treated with glycerin would scab much faster than those treated with ordinary medicines, and it also miraculously reduced the occurrence of "inflammation".

So after discovering this characteristic, Li Shizhen immediately fed back the result to Zhu Zaigui.

Although Zhu Zaigui did not understand pharmacology, when he heard Li Shizhen say that glycerin could treat general wounds and burns and reduce inflammation, Zhu Zaigui suddenly realized that glycerin should have antibacterial and antiviral properties.

After learning about this magical effect, Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but sigh. He originally thought that glycerin was the raw material for making bombs, but he didn't expect it to have medicinal effects.

However, from Li Shizhen's discovery, Zhu Zaigui could also guess that these discoveries of Li Shizhen were also based on general observations.

If Li Shizhen could have a more powerful microscope, allowing him to observe the reaction between glycerol and other drugs or minerals in more depth, perhaps he could have discovered even more magical uses.

Therefore, during this period of time, Zhu Zaigui was also recruiting craftsmen who could polish crystal lenses, hoping that these craftsmen could polish and manufacture transparent lenses with better precision based on the existing foundation, and then combine some Western natural science and natural technology research progress to see if they could make a simple microscope.

After all, things like "clairvoyance" are now gradually becoming popular at sea and in the military, which means that both Ming Dynasty scientists and Western scientists have already mastered the basic optical applications.

If they were given Zhu Zaigui's far-sighted guidance and some new ideas to allow them to continue experimenting in the right direction, they might be able to invent some basic optical instruments in a very short period of time.

(End of this chapter)

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