After Li Shimin left with Fang Xuanling and others with embarrassed faces, Li Zhi also followed Pei Kuanshu to the Shaofu Prison.

There are still many refractory precision parts to be made in the steelmaking furnace, which need to be done by the craftsmen of the Shaofu Supervisor.

Li Zhi didn't have time to fight with the ministers in the court now.

As the days passed, the construction work in several places began to come to an end.

The first to be completed was the construction of the swimming pool.

It's like a swimming pool, you just need to build a big palace and dig a big hole.

The main body of the palace is also made of brick and concrete, which is easier to keep warm.

The walls are surrounded by murals made of tiles.

The pool and grounds are paved with simple white tiles.

The water inlet and drainage pipes are connected to a boiler room next to it, and of course one is missing.

There is also a room in the palace for changing clothes and a temporary rest.

The second completed project was Li Zhi's Inn.

After several months of construction and renovation, it is finally open to the public.

On the day of the opening, Li Zhi placed several flower baskets on each side of the door.

It's the time of day when the flowers are in full bloom, so collecting them is not a hassle at all.

In order to attract customers, Li Zhi deliberately made some firecrackers.

As soon as this thing was ignited, it immediately attracted a large number of people to come and see the excitement.

No one had ever seen anything so novel, and after a brief moment of panic, everyone was quick to get into the talk.

The shopkeeper hired by Pei Mingli was dug by him from another inn with a high salary, and at this time he was accompanying Li Zhi to visit the inn with Pei Mingli.

This is the first time that Li Zhi has had time to go around his inn, and he has always entrusted Yan Lide to help supervise because he was too busy.

The entire inn makes extensive use of high-quality materials.

The walls are tiles newly invented by Li Zhi, the floors are smooth marble, and the furniture of the Linde brand is used in each room.

Even the toilets in the inn are used separately for men and women, and they are still porcelain toilets.

Pei Mingli is worthy of being a shrewd businessman.

After discovering that the inn needed a lot of porcelain, he simply built his own kiln.

In this way, the construction cost of the inn is not only greatly reduced, but also has an additional earning income.

The inn soon welcomed the first wave of guests, and they were immediately shocked by the luxury of the place as soon as they entered.

The shopkeeper Fuber received them cordially and personally showed them how to use the various facilities.

Li Zhi was very satisfied when he saw this, and he said to Pei Mingli: "Shopkeeper Pei, in the future, all the business of this king will be taken care of by you, and there is no need to report to me on the appointment of all personnel." ”

Seeing that Li Zhi trusted him so much, Pei Mingli hurriedly said gratefully: "The villain must live up to His Highness's trust." ”

Li Zhi waved his hand and said: "Shopkeeper Pei is so talented, this king can't be wasted, otherwise this king is likely to have one more powerful competitor." ”

Pei Mingli said embarrassedly: "Your Highness is joking, the villain doesn't dare to compete with His Highness in business." ”

Li Zhi smiled and said: "Shopkeeper Pei doesn't need to be modest, when it comes to business, this king may not be as good as you." ”

After saying this, he didn't wait for Pei Mingli to open his mouth and continued: "Now that there is a model of the inn, I believe that soon these new building materials will be sought after, and the shopkeeper Pei is probably busy." ”

Pei Mingli said: "Your Highness, please rest assured, the villain will definitely take care of the business." ”

Li Zhi chatted with Pei Mingli for a few more words and left the place, and he suddenly remembered that the production of firecrackers might bring some additional income to the imperial court.

Li Zhi found Li Shimin in a hurry and told him his thoughts directly.

After listening to Li Zhi's proposal, Li Shimin frowned and said: "At present, the imperial court is studying the military use of gunpowder, and rushing to the market at this time may attract the attention of the enemy." ”

Li Zhidao: "Father, please forgive the son, the gunpowder originally came from the people, and the formula is not too small, and the son thinks that it is too late to fortify at this time." ”

After listening to Li Zhi's words, Li Shimin said: "After all, it has never been widely circulated before, and even if someone finds it occasionally, it is difficult to summarize the formula. ”

Speaking of this, he strengthened his eyes and continued: "Let this matter go for the time being, and it will not be too late to do it when the time is ripe." ”

After listening to Li Shimin's words, Li Zhi felt that there was indeed some truth.

Before the precise formula of gunpowder was mastered by more people, it was indeed not a good thing for the imperial court to take the initiative to promote the popularization of gunpowder.

Li Zhi figured this out, so he said goodbye to Li Shimin and prepared to leave the Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin nodded in agreement, and said casually: "The transformation of the iron workshop has come to an end, and you should pay more attention to your father." ”

After Li Zhi agreed, Li Shimin said: "It's nearly June now, and the bookkeeping of all the divisions and places is about to begin!" The Emperor needs to pay more attention to this. ”

After listening to Li Shimin's words, Li Zhi's heart moved.

He just remembered that this season of the year is the time when various departments of Datang and other provinces gather together to count the income and expenditure of the previous year.

This is quite tedious in the current way of calculation, and it will not be completed until the end of September at the earliest.

Thinking of this, he was immediately ready to open his mouth to take the matter down.

But he suddenly realized that he had just come into contact with mathematics at this time, and he should not have such an ability at all.

So he quickly closed his mouth and bowed to take his leave.

After leaving the Taiji Palace, Li Zhi took Liu An to a few acres of land that he had contracted at a high price.

He hired some cotton to grow there, and he heard that it was growing well.

Li Zhi sat in the carriage in a quiet daze all the way, and he wanted to find a way to help Li Shimin solve the problem of accounting statistics.

After some hard thinking, he finally came up with a very good solution.

This method is actually not new, but it is just an improvement of the abacus currently used by Datang into the abacus of later generations.

The abacus used now is just to mark some grooves on a piece of wood and divide the upper, middle and lower layers.

The top and bottom layers of the group place some beads of different colors.

A bead in the upper layer is counted as five, and a bead in the lower layer is counted as one.

When using it, you need to take the abacus back and forth with your hands and put it into the corresponding groove in the middle.

The method of counting the middle groove is the same as it is now, but it is too cumbersome to use and not much faster than oral arithmetic.

Li Zhi is sure that if the abacus is replaced by an abacus, the speed of calculation will definitely be much faster.

So he hurriedly observed the growth of the cotton, and then briefly explained some precautions to the tenants in charge of planting.

Then he rushed back to Chang'an City and directly told Pei Kuanshu how to make the abacus.