The weather in Luzhou soon cooled down day by day.

By the end of October, that is, at the end of November and the beginning of December after the future use of the Gregorian calendar, the first heavy snow had fallen in Luzhou, and the small city was suddenly covered with a layer of silver, and the dirty and dilapidated dirt roads seemed to have become beautiful in Li Yuanjia's eyes on weekdays.

Almost no one goes out, isn't it beautiful?

This is not the modern society more than 1,000 years later, let alone just half a foot of deep snow, or the kind of heavy rain that can see the sea, you should come out to work or go to work as usual, and even students who should go to school have to carry school bags to school. In these years, not to mention the ordinary people who shiver in the heavy snow, even those nobles who are wrapped in a batch of furs, have carriages in and out, and have people to help with umbrellas when walking, they can not go out without going out, for fear of contracting the wind and cold.

However, as officials and staff members in the palace of the king, Chen Qian and Huang Licheng are not so good.

Although I really wanted to hide in my own room and sit around the sacred object given by the king all day, when a small servant ran over and said that the king had an invitation, neither of them dared to refuse, so they could only quickly freshen up and clean up, and walked to the so-called "lounge" where the king stayed every day - although they all knew that the king was easy-going, but the etiquette was also a matter that could not be ignored.

On tiptoe all the way, the two of them arrived at the lounge one after another.

Although it was only a short journey, the cold air outside that could almost penetrate into the bone marrow still made Chen Qian slander Li Yuanjia in his heart - can't people stay in their own house in this kind of weather?

However, the moment the maids lifted the thick curtain and opened the door, Chen Qian's thoughts immediately disappeared.

It's so warm!

It smells so good!

Twitched his nose twice, and Chen Qian's eyes lit up instantly.

When he walked into the house, after Chunyan, the beautiful maid of the king behind him, lowered the thick curtain, Chen Qian had the opportunity to take a closer look at the situation in the house: Huang Licheng had already arrived, and he was sitting next to a coal stove with the king at the moment—the coal stove that was exactly the same as the artifact in his house had been placed in the king's room!

"Alas, extravagant!"

His spirit was in a trance for a moment, and then Chen Qian's attention quickly focused on the iron pot on the coal stove.

There is no need to look at the contents of the pot at all, just from the tangy fragrance, Chen Qian can recognize the taste of green onions, ginger and dogwood, and there is also this meat smell, it should be a soup base made of chicken! As for the things on the table next to me, I couldn't see it clearly for a while.

"Haha, Mr. Chen is here!"

After seeing Chen Qian, Li Yuanjia clapped his hands and smiled: "Quick, come and sit down, I'll wait for you!" ”

"I've seen the king!"

Hurriedly walked over to give a salute, Chen Qian was not too pretentious, he simply sat down on the edge of the stove, and said with a smile: "Eat hot pot?" That's a blessing today! ”

In a few months, Chen Qian has already got to know this king of Yu.

Although this young prince is stubborn, once he believes that it will not work for anyone to persuade him, but at the same time he is also very easy-going, and even if the subordinates of the palace make mistakes, he will rarely punish them. As for Huang Licheng and Chen Qian, the two palace officials who are equivalent to staff, King Yu is usually quite approachable, and he hates those red tapes. So after more contact, Chen Qian and Huang Lixing didn't "annoy" the king so much.

And the sumptuous hot pot in front of him also made Chen Qian a little uncontrollable.

He had eaten with the king twice before, and although he didn't particularly like it, he didn't hate it. But today's cold weather, this hot pot is too tempting.

"Alright, let's get started!"

After seeing Chen Qian sit down, Li Yuanjia immediately beckoned everyone to start putting meat in the pot. Although the frozen semi-hard mutton is difficult to cut, under Yu Niang's exquisite knife work, it is only a little thicker than the machine cut out in Li Yuanjia's memory. So after putting it in the pot and soaking it a few times, he immediately took it out and stuffed it into his mouth......

It smells so good!

Sighing with satisfaction, Li Yuanjia was once again satisfied that he had finished the coal stove and hot pot before the arrival of winter, so he rewarded himself with a slice of mutton with chopsticks.

On the boundary of Luzhou, how can you live without a stove in winter?

Although there are so many good skins in the house, it is absolutely impossible for him to let a prince be frozen, but who wants to let himself be wrapped in at least a dozen catties of things all the time? It's the cotton ...... of this era That is, the white cloth is so precious, even he, the prince, can't get much, and in the end he just saved up a quilt.

Therefore, the coal stove is absolutely indispensable.

Of course, in fact, Li Yuanjia also knows another kind of winter killer for traversers, that is, the big kang! It's just a pity that he's only heard of it, and has never lived in it, let alone how to build it.

And in his opinion, the principle of the big kang should be the same as the electric blanket.

It's all hot under his body, and this feeling is exactly what he hates the most, so from the very beginning Li Yuanjia vetoed the idea of making a big kang, and took advantage of the winter to come up with a briquette stove - this thing can be used for heating, and you can eat a hot pot or something, and when it is the driest time in winter, you can boil hot water on it, and it can also play the role of a humidifier, anyway, it is much more practical for Li Yuanjia than a big kang.

So nearly a month later, when Shi Sheng and the others tried dozens of times to find the best ratio and made hundreds of briquettes, Li Yuanjia couldn't wait to use them in his study and bedroom. In view of his current status as the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, both the study and the bedroom area are very large, so he simply asked people to put a few in each room, and even the pipes that act as chimneys are ugly or not.

Then according to Li Yuanjia's idea, good things naturally need to be built more, and then they will be matched with one for these people in the house. Otherwise, in such a cold winter, is there any cotton or something this year, how difficult it is?

It's a pity that as soon as this idea was born, it was killed by Han Shan mercilessly.

The reason is simple, no iron!

Before joining the army, Sicang sent 500 catties of iron materials, and it was an iron pot for stir-frying, and it was to build a hot pot, and there were a lot of them, and even if the rest was all used to make coal stoves, how many could he make?

And......

This thing, give one to each of the subordinates in the house?

Don't say that you are just a prince, even His Majesty the Emperor who is far away in Chang'an City, he can't be so arrogant! You must know that a coal stove is at least a dozen catties of iron, and if you sell most of the people in the house, how much can the cost of selling your body be so worth?

Anyway, in Han Shan's eyes, they are not worth it!

Therefore, in addition to Li Yuanjia's necessary guarantee, the coal stove can be used in the entire Luzhou Government Office, except for Han Shan himself, that is, Mr. Huang Licheng and Mr. Chen Qian......

After eating hot and half-full, Li Yuanjia's movements slowed down.

The two gentlemen, who were good at observing words and feelings, naturally restrained their speed and began to pay frequent attention to the king's expressions and movements. They knew that Li Yuanjia would definitely not call them in this weather because he wanted to find someone to eat hot pot with, so he must have something to say.

Sure enough, after a while, Li Yuanjia put down the chopsticks in his hand, and said with a smile that seemed to be very casual: "Two gentlemen, this king suddenly had an idea recently and wanted to discuss it with you......"