In the eyes of the craftsmen of the young superintendent, the abacus is not too simple to make.

So the next day, Pei Bandshu personally handed over an abacus to Li Zhi's hands.

After Li Zhi took the abacus, a familiar feeling immediately rose.

Since he has been interested in mathematics since he was a child, he didn't use it less when he was young.

He held the abacus in his left hand, and his right hand quickly moved on the abacus, and soon the abacus on the abacus was moved from beginning to end.

Then he smiled and said to Pei Kuanshu: "With this, this year's bookkeeping should be much faster." ”

When Li Zhi presented a delicate abacus to Li Shimin, he didn't think of the purpose of this thing for a while.

It wasn't until Li Zhi explained it to him that he asked Li Zhi with some surprise: "Father only told you about bookkeeping yesterday, and you did this today?" ”

Li Zhi said: "Erchen just put forward an idea, and the things were made by the craftsmen of the Shaofu Eunuch. ”

Li Shimin held the abacus and observed it repeatedly for a long time, but he really couldn't associate the things in his hand with the abacus.

So he asked Li Zhi with a strange face: "Tell my father how did you come up with such an improvement?" ”

Li Zhidao: "Erchen is also learning arithmetic, and he has long found that the abacus board is not very easy to use, so he has always wanted to improve. ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, and then continued: "Yesterday, the retainer heard that his father was worried about bookkeeping, so he thought of this in a hurry. ”

After listening to Li Zhi's words, Li Shimin touched his head with satisfaction.

Then he spoke: "You just thought of this thing to help your father solve his troubles?" ”

Li Zhi explained: "Erchen was also thinking about it before, but he was suddenly anxious yesterday so he could think of it. ”

After listening to Li Zhi's words, Li Shimin happily hugged him.

He smiled at Zhang Ananda, who was standing aside, and said, "Ananda, you see, the pheasant slave is so smart on weekdays, but at this time, he doesn't know how to tell a little lie to make me happy." ”

Zhang Ananda said with a smile: "Your Majesty doesn't know, His Royal Highness King Jin has never told a lie before. ”

After listening to Zhang Ananda's words, Li Zhi couldn't help but look at him in surprise, thinking: I can't imagine that this Zhang Gonggong actually knows me so well.

After listening to Zhang Ananda's words, Li Shimin asked suspiciously: "Don't lie to me, how can a child not lie?" ”

Zhang Ananda glanced at Li Zhi with a smile, and then said: "Your Majesty, the slave is in charge of so many palace maids and eunuchs in the palace, and no one has ever mentioned to the slave that King Jin lied. ”

After hearing this, Li Shimin asked Li Zhi: "Pheasant slave, what Ananda said is true?" ”

Li Zhi asked, "Father, the son really doesn't like to lie. ”

Li Shimin said with a smile: "My son is good, and my father likes honest children." ”

Li Zhi saw that Li Shimin was happy and laughed.

The reason why he doesn't lie about other things is because what he's doing now is inherently deceitful.

He was afraid that he would tell so many lies that in the end he would not be able to believe that all this was true.

With Li Zhi's improved abacus, this year's bookkeeping is indeed much faster than in previous years.

What would have taken at least the end of August in previous years to be completed was completed this year in early August.

This also made the officials in charge of statistics all thank Li Zhi silently in their hearts.

Almost at the same time, the first blast furnace in the ironworks was renovated.

Li Shimin decided to personally bring officials from various ministries to see the production of blast furnaces.

The new building is 30 meters high, and most of the buildings are made of steel, except for the surrounding walls, which are made of bricks and cement.

Such a project can be considered a miracle in itself with current technology.

What is even more shocking is the blast furnace that is 20 meters above the ground.

The huge furnace looks like a piece of artefacts, with several pipes connected to it for unknown purposes.

The roof of the furnace is now open, and workers are adding materials to it.

After a period of intense busyness, the roof was finally slowly closed.

After asking Li Shimin, Bakken shouted loudly: "Ignition!" ”

With his command, a pipe at the bottom of the blast furnace suddenly erupted into flames, quickly igniting the charcoal powder in the furnace.

This fire-breathing device was designed by Li Zhi, and it was tung oil that lit the flame.

As the fire is lit, a huge bellows driven by two water rows begin to blow air into the furnace from both ends of the furnace.

Li Zhi said to Li Shimin at this time: "Father, the refining process is probably less than three hours, you can go back to the palace to rest first." ”

After listening to Li Zhi's words, Li Shimin shook his head without hesitation and said, "I came here today to see iron smelting, so just take a rest here at will." ”

After hearing this, Li Zhi nodded, and hurriedly invited everyone out of the increasingly hot factory and organized people to prepare tables, chairs and tea for everyone.

It's the hottest time of the year, and things can only be placed under the shade of trees.

Even so, everyone was already sweating after a while.

At this time, Bakken found a few pampas fans and distributed them to everyone present.

Everyone including Li Shimin was not pretentious, and after taking the fan, they quickly fanned it.

Li Zhi himself was also a little too hot to stand, and he kept fanning the fan while thinking about how nice it would be if there was an air-conditioned room and another popsicle!

Thinking of the popsicle, his eyes suddenly lit up, and then he suddenly slapped his thigh and shouted unconsciously: "There is!" ”

Everyone was taken aback by Li Zhi's sudden move.

Li Shimin asked suspiciously: "Pheasant slave, what are you doing?" ”

Li Zhi replied happily: "Father, the son has thought of a good thing, which is definitely the best thing to clear away heat and relieve heat. ”

After hearing this, Li Shimin said, "What do you think of? Come on, my father will let people take it. ”

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "Father, this thing is not available for the time being, but the sons can make it quickly." ”

Li Shimin said: "Since this is the case, then hurry up." ”

After Li Zhi heard Li Shimin's words, he immediately called Liu An over and whispered in his ear for a while.

Then I saw Liu An riding a horse and running quickly in the direction of the palace.

Li Zhi asked Bakken to prepare two water tanks filled with more than half a tank of water and found three clean copper basins under the puzzled eyes of everyone.

Next, he asked Bakken to prepare some boiling hot water to dry.

He then asked Bakken to find a thick bamboo pole and split the thinnest part into a bamboo stick.

The remaining bamboo poles, Li Zhi, made two sets of molds according to the size of the copper basin for later use.

Liu An's speed was not slow, and it didn't take long for him to return here with two cloth bags, one large and one small, and a wine bag.

Li Zhi laboriously took the wine bag from Liu An's hand, poured the milk contained in it into a copper basin and handed it to Bakken to heat up.

Then he took out some white sugar from the small cloth bag and put it into two copper basins.

After the milk was heated, Li Zhi asked Liu An to pour them evenly into two copper basins with white sugar, and added some boiling water that had been drying for a long time...