The nobles of the Tang Dynasty are so rich that there are many people who have thousands of dollars in their pockets, but the tempered medicinal jade can only be produced by Li An's processing workshop, which is a unique business, and the price is outrageously high, almost dozens of times the cost, which makes many nobles shy away from the tempered medicinal jade, and can only choose relatively cheap semi-transparent silk. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

A very small number of particularly wealthy aristocrats will also choose to buy some tempered medicinal jade to build greenhouses, but due to cost constraints, it is enough to build an area of one acre of land at most to meet their own needs for winter vegetables.

Of course, if these nobles knew that the cost of tempered medicinal jade was ridiculously low, and the only materials used to make it were sand and soda ash, they might vomit blood in anger!

The only people in Chang'an City who know the inside story of Yaoyu, except for Li Longji, are only those Hu merchants from the Western Regions, but they will definitely not pick on it, because they have been doing Yaoyu business for so many years, and the price is about the same as what Li An sells.

In addition, once the truth is revealed, it is not only Li An who will suffer, but also those Hu merchants who will lose their money-making medicine and jade business, after all, at present, although Li An also sells medicine and jade products, the types of products are completely different from those sold by Hu merchants in the Western Regions.

Li An sells all practical goods, which can improve the living standards of the people of the Tang Dynasty, while most of the Hu merchants in the Western Regions sell decorations, which can only be appreciated, just like the merchants who sell iron pots and the traders who sell iron guns do not compete with each other for business, and they can get along peacefully.

Moreover, although the Western Regions had already invented medicinal jade, the technology was surpassed by Li An, especially the small medicinal jade mirror, which has not yet been produced in the Western Regions, for this reason, many Hu merchants proposed to purchase a large number of medicinal jade mirrors to be shipped to the countries of the Western Regions to sell and make profits, Li An is of course happy to do this very lucrative business, and in order not to reveal the fact that the medicinal jade is cheap, Hu merchants in the Western Regions did not bargain with Li An, and directly bought a large number of medicinal jade mirrors at wholesale prices and shipped them back to the Western Regions.

With the unique business of Yaoyu, the more wealth Ang Lee gathered, the more money he could not spend in ten lifetimes, and moreover, there would be more and more.

Of course, wealth is not Ang Lee's highest pursuit, what Ang Lee pursues is to make all the people of the Tang Dynasty live a good life, to completely change the existing fate of the Tang Empire, and to make the Tang Empire become more and more powerful, richer and richer, and the territory is getting bigger and bigger.

The research and development of ploughing machinery and pumping machinery require funds and various resources, and the demand is not ordinarily large, but after the autumn harvest, due to the implementation of the two tax laws and the sale of explosives, the treasury is extremely well funded and fully capable of supporting these large projects.

Since the invention of the steam engine, the first practical machinery ever built was a steam locomotive, and steamships were also being developed, and now ploughing machinery and pumping machinery have also been developed, and soon a steam power family will be formed.

In this case, the demand for coal will continue to increase in the future, so the imperial court issued a timely ban on the purchase of coal mines, not only coal mines, but all ownerless mineral resources belong to the Tang Dynasty, which has prevented the loss of national assets.

Li An took a step ahead and bought the carboniferous mine near the capital before the policy was promulgated, which is really a big advantage, but this is a large asset? It was bought at the price of cabbage, and the rest of the nobles did not realize the huge role of the charcoal, and the remaining coal mines all belonged to the Tang Dynasty.

The research and development of various steam machinery is relatively boring and difficult, for this reason, Li Ang has to stay in the R&D center for at least three hours a day to help R&D personnel break through their ideas and succeed step by step.

Li An believes that the extremely complex steam locomotive can be made, and it is impossible for the steam cultivating machinery and pumping machinery to be unmade, and the speed of making it will definitely be much faster.

In order to make these steam machines, Li Ang had to find time to go to the R&D center every day, and for this reason, the task of inspecting the routes of the two railways leading to Zhongshou Chengcheng and Yumen Pass fell completely on the relevant personnel of the Railway Bureau.

These employees of the railway bureau were originally technicians of the Ministry of Industry, but it was because the emperor wanted to set up the railway bureau that they were transferred from the Ministry of Industry and enriched to the railway bureau.

These people participated in the inspection and laying of the Luoyang-Chang'an railway, and accumulated a lot of experience, and it is no exaggeration to say that their current ability is not weaker than that of Li An, and they are fully capable of carrying out the inspection tasks assigned by the emperor, and they will definitely be able to complete them with quality and quantity.

"Li Shilang, King Guangping, they are here again."

Li An was thinking about how to improve several core components of the ploughing machinery, and Li Yu and Li Li came again.

"The two of them, but they haven't been here in a long time."

Ang Lee put down his work and walked out of the laboratory.

"Li Shilang, eat a cucumber to quench your thirst."

Li Yu and Li Li, one cucumber each, and handed one to Li An.

Because the tempered glass greenhouse has been done, more fireplaces have been added to it, for this reason, even in the coldest weather, it can completely simulate the environmental temperature that cucumber growth needs most, and the cucumbers planted by Li Ang are stubble, after one stubble wilts, the next stubble is ripe, so no matter when, there are fresh and tender cucumbers produced.

Li Yu and Li Li were also unceremonious, every time they came over, they had to pick a few more, in addition to the freshly eaten, they also had to bring back a few, which really made Li An lose a lot.

"King Guangping, Shiro, you haven't been here for a long time."

Li An took the cucumber and ate it, he was tired for more than an hour, and he was indeed a little thirsty.

"Li Shilang, we have been busy with our homework recently, and we have only found time to come over after completing a batch of homework today."

"Oh, what do you usually do, is it hard?"

"It's difficult, of course it's difficult, there are many books to study, such as the Left Turn, the Historical Records, the Analects, Mencius, and moreover, all of them have to be memorized.

Li Li opened his mouth and shouted.

"Wow, I need to learn so many things, it's really too hard, anyway, I don't know the same, and I won't learn, it's too boring."

Thinking of those obscure ancient texts, Ang Lee's whole head is big, although the knowledge related to mechanical manufacturing is also very boring, but after all, many useful things can be invented, and it can be seen and touched.

And those ancient texts are different, but also, reading is awkward, and it is even worse to memorize, Li An would rather reduce his life span by ten years, rather than learn those ancient texts of the cheating father, fortunately, he is not the prince and grandson, otherwise, he must be tortured to death.

Looking at Li Yu and Li Yu in front of him, Li An was suddenly full of sympathy, it may not be a good thing to be born in the emperor's family, at least, those who are also knowledgeable can torture people to death, and there is no use in learning these things at all.

Li Yu and Li Li, seeing that Li An didn't need to study homework, but was able to invent all kinds of strange things, they were suddenly full of envy, jealousy and hatred, they also hoped that they could be like Li An, they didn't have to study homework, besides, they were already adults, and they were still bothered by these useless things, which was really painful.

"By the way, Li Shilang, have you invented anything interesting recently, let's see it."

Li Yu and Li Yu really didn't come to learn mechanical knowledge, but came to hunt for curiosities, they didn't dare to be interested in boring mechanical principles, Li An told them about reflection and refraction, but they didn't listen to it at all, they only cared about burning ants with a magnifying glass, so Li An didn't give them a lecture, besides, they are emperors' grandsons, and they only need to learn the ability to control people, and they don't need to learn these physical science knowledge at all.

"There is nothing interesting either, since accompanying His Majesty back to the capital, I have been developing machinery for cultivating land and pumping water, and I have not invented anything else, let alone anything fun, which has disappointed you."

Ang Lee was speechless, he was not a god, how could he have been inventing interesting things? Li Yu and Li Li also expected too much from themselves.

Sure enough, the two of them were slightly disappointed when they heard that Ang Lee hadn't invented anything interesting, but they quickly returned to normal.

"Li Shilang, what are the cultivated land and pumping machinery you are talking about, and what is the purpose?"

Li Yu opened his mouth to ask, since he came here, of course he couldn't return in vain, even if he didn't get anything interesting, but as long as he knew what Li An was inventing, it could be regarded as a slight gain, so that when he returned to Baisun Academy, he could tell what he knew and become the capital to show off in front of others.

"The king of Guangping should know that the people of my Tang Dynasty plough the land, using oxen and ploughs, a cow, a plough and one or two people, a maximum of five acres of land a day, and it is necessary to be a strong and good cow, but the cultivator I want to invent only needs one person to operate, and can plough 200 mu a day, which is forty times the efficiency of ploughing cattle, which saves both ploughing cattle and manpower, and will greatly affect spring ploughing and autumn harvest."

Ang Lee proudly introduced.

"One machine, 500 acres of arable land a day, only one person, is so powerful?"

Li Yu and Li Yu were both shocked, and it is estimated that others will be extremely surprised when they hear it.

"This is still a conservative estimate, if two people take turns to operate, day and night to plough the land, three or four hundred acres is also possible, so, Your Majesty also attaches great importance to this machine, let me hurry up research and development, next year when the spring ploughing, it can be used."

Ang Lee explained with a smile.

"Li Shilang, what about the pumping machinery? How much water can be pumped? ”

Li An smiled and said: "Within a few days, you can drain all the water in the Taiye Pool, amazing!" ”

"Wow, it's so powerful that it can drain the water of the Taiye Pool?"

Li Yu and Li Yu were even more shocked, and admired Ang Lee's skills very much, of course, since the train was put into operation, the people of the whole Tang Dynasty, and even all the envoys and businessmen of various countries who knew about it, all threw themselves on the five bodies that Ang Li admired, and felt that Ang Lee was a god.

"Li Shilang, what a happy event! The steamship test was successful, and the test has been successful. ”

At this moment, the news came that the steamship had been successfully developed.

"What? Is it true that the development of a steamship was successful? It's just wonderful. ”

Ang Lee was ecstatic when he heard this, and walked back and forth in place to suppress the ecstasy in his heart.

"Li Shilang, the pool of the R&D center is too small, should we send the steamship to a larger place in the water, so that we can better carry out the test."

Li An stopped, nodded and said, "Qujiangchi, immediately transport the steam ship into Qujiang Pool, and this official will test the performance of the steam ship in Qujiang Pool." ”

"Yes, Li Shilang."

"Li Shilang, the steamship must be very interesting, let's go and see it too."

Li Yu and Li Li are full of interest in steamboats.

The size of the newly built steamship is not very large, and it can be transported into the Qujiang Pond by certain means.

The reason why Li An chose Qujiang Pool is because near the capital, only Qujiang Pond has the largest water area, and it is relatively convenient to transport the newly developed steam ship over, and before the development of the steam ship, Li An has already created a mobile platform with a wheelchair at the bottom, which can realize the land movement of the ship.

After spending more than an hour, the successful steam boat was successfully transported into the Qujiang Pond, and Li An, Li Yu, Li Li and others have also entered the Qujiang Pond, ready to sit on the steam boat and experience the feeling.

"King Guangping, Shiro, let's get on the boat."

Li An took the lead into the steam boat, Li Yu and Li Li followed, and several R&D personnel also walked up.

Although it is a small boat, it is actually not small, it can only be said that it is very small among steam ships, but it is still much larger than a small fishing boat.

The length of this steamship is 10 zhang, the width is 3 zhang, and the cabin is divided into two floors, accommodating more than 30 people, and there is no pressure.

And to start a steamship of these, it takes at least seven or eight people to work together, some are responsible for adding coal, some are responsible for helming, and some are responsible for observing the water conditions.

In addition, there are a lot of boats in Qujiang Pond, but most of them are painting boats for play, which are specially used for nobles and wealthy people to play, and the speed is mainly driven by manpower, which is not only very difficult, but also very slow, and the steam ship has steam as the drive, and the speed is of course much faster.

"Alright, let's sail."

Ang Lee gave the order to sail.

"Filthy ......"

As thick black smoke suddenly rose from the top of the ship, the steamer began to move forward, and the speed was really impressive, much faster than the boats.

"Li Shilang, this steamship is really windy! Look at the painting boat next to it, it's all left behind, it's enjoyable, it's really enjoyable. ”

Li Yu laughed happily.

"King Guangping, do you know what I invented this steamship for?"

Ang Lee asked with a smile.