After the morning court, Duan Lun, the Minister of Works, found him. Li Yan, the cement supervisor, temporarily belonged to the Ministry of Works, and was also under the jurisdiction of Duan Lun. The identity of this Minister of Works is not simple, and Li Yan had to call him uncle. His wife is Li Shimin's fourth sister Princess Gaomi. Li Yan also met him at the last banquet, but the Princess Gaomi was very low-key and quiet, not as happy and active as Princess Danyang.

"Liu Lang met my uncle. From now on, my nephew will make a living under my uncle. I hope you don't make things difficult for me!" Li Yan didn't have a deep impression of Duan Lun, but he only remembered that he was a civil servant. Last time, he had a drink with the veterans at the Five Kings Banquet, but he was not inferior.

"Haha~ Liulang, you are too modest. You are really sorry for your arrival in the small temple of the Ministry of Works!" Duan Lun smiled and praised Li Yan a few words, and then said: "Liulang, please go to the Ministry of Works. Yesterday I chose some capable personnel for you, and I asked someone to clean up the office. I will wait for you, the general envoy to take office." Although the imperial edict was issued today, Duan Lun received a notice from the palace yesterday and had prepared everything.

"Haha, then I'll be fine with my uncle!" Li Yan hurriedly thanked. The two left the palace and got on the same carriage. Duan Lun was very enthusiastic and asked Li Yan about everything. Li Yan was also very respectful and answered one by one, which greatly increased Duan Lun's favor for him.

After entering the Ministry of Works, Li Yan found that this place was very different from what he imagined. In his imagination, the Ministry of Works should be a comprehensive workshop, with all kinds of craftsmen working vigorously in their workshops. But after coming in, he found that the Ministry of Works was actually a very ordinary government department, with ordinary officials at all levels working, and he could not see craftsmen at all, which made Li Yan very puzzled.

If you don’t understand, you have to ask. After Li Yan spoke out his doubts, Duan Lun made him laugh. After a while, he joked: “Liu Lang, according to your opinion, then I, the Minister of Works, have become the leader of a big craftsman? But I don’t have the skills of craftsmen!”

Duan Lun was also funny. Seeing Li Yan's depressed expression, he made him laugh again. However, after laughing, he still explained to Li Yan in detail the situation of the Ministry of Works. Of course, the highest official of the Ministry of Works was him, the Minister of the Secretariat, and there was also a minister, who was his deputy. There were four departments under the Ministry of Works, each with a doctor and a minister. In addition, each department had several officials in charge of all aspects of affairs.

As for the craftsmen mentioned by Li Yan, of course, there are some in the Ministry of Works, but most of them are in the major workshops under the Ministry of Works. A few craftsmen were promoted to officials because of their superb skills. However, these technical officials were not here, but worked in a large workshop behind the Ministry of Works. Their work was different from ordinary officials. Their main purpose was to use their superb skills to improve the existing technology, which was equivalent to a R&D institution in later generations. Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality, even Prince Li Yan could not enter easily, which disappointed him very much.

The operation of cement is very important, and Duan Lun also attaches great importance to it, so he specially sent a famous chief as Li Yan's deputy, and there were more than a dozen experienced officials to assist. As for Li Yan's office, it was next to the Ministry of Works, and there were a maximum yard with an area of ​​nearly 30 acres and many houses. Not only did he have a normal office space, but he even had a room for temporary rest.

Duan Lun took Li Yan around the yard and finally arrived at the reception hall. All the personnel assigned by the Ministry of Works were waiting in the hall for a long time. The head was a ninth-rank chief in green robe. When these people saw Li Yan and Duan Lun come in, they immediately bowed and bowed and said, "See Your Highness Liang, Lord Shangshu!"

"Well, get up!" Duan Lun turned his head and said to Li Yan, "Liu Huang, let me introduce you to you. This is the head of the Ministry of Works Li Yifu. Although he is young, he is very talented. He is one of the few young heroes in my Ministry of Works!"

In fact, without Duan Lun's emphasis, Li Yan had already noticed the head of the Ministry of Works. This was not only because he was the only official in the crowd, but more importantly, this person was too young. He looked at at most about twenty years old, with red lips and white teeth and very handsome. Since Li Yan came in, he was very respectful and had a harmless smile on his face, which made people feel good at seeing him.

"My minister, Li Yi Mansion, join Your Highness!" Hearing Duan Lun introduce himself, Li Yi Mansion hurriedly took two steps forward and bowed to the tunnel.

Li Yifu? Li Yan always feels that this name is a bit familiar. Could it be another historical celebrity? But now is not the time to think about it carefully, so he smiled and said, "Haha, I didn't expect that Master Li was so young and had already received the attention of Lord Shangshu. It's really my blessing to the Tang Dynasty!"

"Thank you, Your Highness, praises you. You are actually not capable, but you are just serious about doing things. All of these are thanks to Lord Shangshu's good teachings, which gives the villain the opportunity to follow Your Highness." Although Li Yifu was young, he spoke without any hesitation. Not only did he praise Li Yan and Duan Lun, but he also praised him himself.

"Haha~, Yifu is still so good at talking. My favorite thing is a young man like you." Duan Lun obviously likes others to flatter him the most, and he was so happy that he couldn't find Bei. No wonder he handed over such an important thing as cement to Li Yifu?

Li Yi Mansion? Wait! Li Yan suddenly remembered that this Li Yi Mansion was not the Li Yi Mansion in history, right? The one who claimed to be one of Wu Zetian's two thugs, and was best at smiling in front of his face and stabbing in the back, so he was also called "human cat". When Li Linfu, who was called "sweet-mouthed sword", met him, he had to call him "senior". If it was him, then Li Yan would meet an amazing guy today.

"I heard from Master Li's accent that he didn't seem to be from Chang'an. I don't know why he came to Chang'an to work?" Li Yan was not sure, so he could only test it first.

"Your Highness, your ancestral home is Raoyang County. Later, he moved to Yongtai. It was recommended to work in Chang'an in eight years of Zhenguan." Li Yifu still looked the same smiling and answered honestly.

Li Yan was shocked. He didn't know where Li Yi Mansion was from, but he knew that Li Yi Mansion did come to Chang'an in the eighth year of Zhenguan, and he had served as many low-level officials at the beginning. It was not until after Li Zhi was named the crown prince that Li Yi Mansion climbed up to Li Zhi's high branches and began to become famous. Now his name and time matched, it seems that he is the human cat who is known in history as one of the two major thugs under Wu Zetian.

"Liuhuang, I still have some things to deal with. You can get to know Master Li and others more. Let Master Li take you to see the newly built cement workshop outside the city, where all the allocated craftsmen are." Duan Lun saw that he had nothing to do, so he stood up and said goodbye. After all, he, the Secretary of State, had no time to accompany Li Yan all the time.

"Oh, that nephew gave me my uncle!" Duan Lun's words interrupted Li Yan, who was stunned. He hurriedly stood up and sent Duan Lun out. Of course, Li Yi Mansion and others followed. Except for Li Yi Mansion, the ninth-rank chief, the others were all minor officials of any grade, and there was no need for Li Yan to know him. Just ask Li Yi Mansion if you have any questions.

Although he was shocked by the historical celebrity Li Yifu, Li Yan didn't think much about it. He still had to use what he should do. The first thing he did was to instruct Li Yifu to customize a plaque of "Cement Supervisor" and then hang it at the door of the yard. This is the official name of his cement supervisor.

Then Li Yan had a conversation with everyone again, and it was noon at this time, so Li Yan invited her and everyone went to the restaurant run by Wang Zihao for a big meal. In the afternoon, Li Yifu led the way, and Li Yan left the city and went to the place marked out by the Ministry of Works to be a cement workshop.

After passing Li Yifu's introduction on the way, Li Yan learned that this new workshop was also a lime workshop of the Ministry of Works. Duan Lun heard that Li Yan used a lime workshop to refine cement in the prison, so in order to facilitate Li Yan, he marked out this large-scale lime workshop, which provided Li Yan with some convenience. This made Li Yan sigh, it was still possible to be an official in the court!

The new workshop is located on the northwest corner outside Chang'an City, next to the Wei River. The workshop covers a huge area. According to Li Yifu, it can accommodate up to thousands of people to work together. After all, the Ministry of Works sometimes has to do some extremely large-scale projects and has a great demand for lime. There are several lime workshops of this scale in other parts of the country.

As soon as Li Yan entered the door of the new workshop, he saw Bai Qingzheng, wearing eighth-rank official uniforms, directed craftsmen to transform cement kilns. Although lime kilns can also boil cement, they have been invented after research and improvement by Bai Qing and the craftsmen who will serve as supervisors, which can invent a new cement kiln that can improve the calcination efficiency of cement.

"Your Highness, you are here. The lime workshop of this department is different. There are even large water trucks specially used for crushing." Bai Qing saw that Li Yan was coming and hurried over and said excitedly. Because of his contribution to assisting Li Yan in firing cement, Bai Qing, a ninth-rank official, was finally promoted to the level. Now he is the eighth-rank official, but he has been transferred from the supervisor to Li Yan to serve.

"Oh, there is a water truck? Take me to see!" Li Yan was also very excited when he heard this. The ingredients of cement had to be crushed before calcining, but when he was about to be in charge, he had always used manpower to crush it, and the efficiency was very low. For this reason, Li Yan had discussed this issue with Bai Qing. Bai Qing mentioned that some large lime workshops use water to crush limestone. Unfortunately, Li Yan had never seen it before, and he didn't expect that there was a new workshop here.

"Yes, Your Highness, please follow me!" Bai Qing agreed, turned around and left in a hurry. He was too excited and didn't even notice that there was someone standing beside Li Jing.

"Bai Qing, this is the head of the Ministry of Works, Li Yifu. You have to work hard to cooperate in many aspects in the future. Let's get to know each other!" However, Li Yan did not forget to introduce Li Yifu to Bai Qing. Later, Bai Qing was in charge of the internal operations of the new workshop, and Li Yifu assisted Li Yan in managing the cement supervision and construction of the courtyard.

"Uh~, Master Li is really young and promising. I was so excited just now that I was a little bit neglected. I hope you don't blame me." Bai Qing was stunned when he saw Li Yi's mansion and said hurriedly. Although his rank was one level higher than Li Yi's mansion, he was a craftsman and was originally difficult to get promoted. Otherwise, he would not have been a ninth-rank small official who had been almost his whole life. Even if he was promoted, his room for promotion was very small. It was already considered to be the top of the sixth-seventh-rank. But the Li Yi's mansion was different. The head of the Ministry of Works was a serious scholar. Although he was only a ninth-rank now, as long as he was capable of doing things, no matter how good the court had to help him, it would be impossible to be a marquis and a prime minister in the future.

"Haha, Mr. Bai is so polite. You are dedicated to the public. You are a model for our generation to learn. Moreover, I have just come into contact with this cement thing, so I have to learn more from my seniors in the future." Li Yifu still looked like a smile, and his words were still so beautiful.

Bai Qing was not so complimented, and immediately regarded Li Yifu as his nephew, and told him everything he asked. Li Yan was also moved. It seemed that there was no simple person who could leave a single mark in history. Not to mention the reputation of Li Yifu in history, but from his current perspective, this guy is definitely a rare talent.

After turning a few rows of lime kilns, Li Yan saw a row of tall water wheels standing by the Weishui River, slowly rotating under the impact of the water flow. The sound of heavy objects hitting "bang ~" constantly came from the water wheel.

Li Yan quickly walked under the water truck. The scene in front of him surprised him. Each water truck used a simple machinery to drive five metal heavy hammers. When the heavy hammer reached the highest point, it would suddenly fall down and use its own weight to smash the material in the groove below. Two craftsmen stood on both sides of the groove. One was responsible for stir-frying the materials in the groove, so that the heavy hammer would smash the materials more evenly, and the other was responsible for shoveling the smashed materials to the car next to it. When the car was full, a special force pushed it to the front and mixed and calcined. Although dust was flying on the scene, the craftsmen seemed to have clear division of labor.

When Jiangtou, who was in charge of the water wheel, saw Li Yan and the others coming, he hurriedly stepped forward to salute. Although he did not know Li Yan, he knew Bai Qing and Bai Qingxin's immediate boss, so he worked very hard to introduce the working principle and work flow of the water wheel to them.

After all, Li Yan was a person with a general education in later generations. His theoretical knowledge was better than anyone else. So after looking at it for a while, he found that some places were not very reasonable in the application of mechanics. Unfortunately, there is no time to improve now, so I can only wait for it to talk about it later.

After visiting the water truck, Li Yan, led by Bai Qing, probably looked at the entire workshop again. Most of them were very satisfied. Bai Qing was also rectifying some unsatisfactory areas, so Li Yan didn't need to worry about it at all.

When he left, Li Yan ordered Bai Qing to prepare the previous cement inventory and try to speed up the cement production as much as possible. He will use it tomorrow. Bai Qing promised that it would not make any mistakes. Li Yan left with Li Yi Mansion. However, before he arrived at his cement supervision institute, Li Yan sent Li Yi Mansion to the Ministry of Works and asked him to ask a group of road construction craftsmen to come back. It will be done today, and Li Yi Mansion also took the order to do it.

It's getting late now. Seeing the setting sun, Li Yan rode on his horse and was proud. The construction of cement was just a small matter. How to maximize its function is a big matter. Now everything is ready, and we will wait for tomorrow to start action. At that time, he will build several long "billboards" with cement so that everyone can first figure out what cement is for, and then announce his plan. At that time...

"Hahahaha~" Thinking of the proud part, Li Yan couldn't help laughing, which attracted the attention of pedestrians around him. If it weren't for the gorgeous clothes and the fact that Li Yan was surrounded by many guards, someone would have rushed up and arrested him as a mental illness.
Chapter completed!