Chapter 137 The final test for Li Xiang! (asking for monthly tickets)
Li Xiang didn't even look at Li Shimin's expression, but moved closer to him and peeled an orange and ate it.

Seeing Li Xiang's relaxed look, Li Shimin looked at him and shook his head with a smile.

This grandson probably didn't think so much about it. He just wanted to recommend a few talents he discovered.

It’s just that people change, and sometimes they can’t help themselves.

If he is allowed to get involved in military power now, will he go astray in the future under the instigation of his subordinates?
Just as Li Xiang had said to him before, "No one would refuse to follow the dragon."

But a qualified superior is one who can suppress his own desires while also being able to control the desire of his subordinates to progress.

Thinking of this, Lao Li decided to give him a chance.

Perhaps it is the last test.

As a cavalry emperor, Li Shimin had absolute confidence. Even if he gave Li Xiang the military power, he, Li, had the final say on the Xuanwu Gate issue.

I want to see what Xiang'er wants to do after he has the military power!
If we can maintain our original intention, then... it will not be a dream for the Tang Dynasty to prosper for another three generations.

Although he agreed, Lao Li wanted to scare him first, so he asked with a fierce face: "Do you know what it means for you to recommend two people to join the navy?"

"I know. Isn't it just recommending two people?" Li Xiang picked up a slice of orange and stuffed it into Lao Li's mouth.

Li Shimin's words were blocked by Juzi, and he took a deep breath.

Damn, this grandson is really not polite to me.

"If a court official reports you, saying that you are starting to recruit supporters, what will you do?" Li Shimin chewed an orange.

"I'm only twelve years old. Isn't it a little early to accuse me of this crime?" Li Xiang laughed. This old man is less than fifty years old, and he is already suffering from Alzheimer's disease?
Li Shimin thought about it and it made sense.

In fact, he was also blinded by Li Xiang's maturity. Sometimes he thought he was not facing a twelve-year-old child, but an adult in his thirties or forties.

"The Censor doesn't care how old you are. You once said that an old man should not underestimate your youth." Li Shimin put his arms on the table.

"Yes." Li Xiang slurped his oranges and said, "The mouths are on other people's bodies. Can I control their mouths?"

Li Shimin tapped the table with his fingers and snorted, "I'll think about the candidate you recommended. You can go back first."

"Okay." Li Xiang stood up without any hesitation and said with a smile: "Then I'll go back first, Aung. I'll make you something delicious in a couple of days."

"Go." Li Shimin waved his hand.

Seeing his grandson slipping away quickly, Old Li also became confused.

Looking at his heartless appearance, could he be the kind of person who is born to give up?
Or, should we add more burden to him?
No, prepare something delicious for me in two days? !

Li Shimin slammed the table and said, "What the hell is this delicious food? I've been eating chicken breast and boiled eggs for several days..."

When Li Lizhi came to the palace to find Li Mingda in the afternoon, Li Shimin was still thinking about the delicious food that Li Xiang was going to prepare for him.

What is it exactly……

After eating vegetarian food for several days, it is human instinct to crave for meat and fish, and even the emperor is no exception.

However, because of his grandfather's status as an elder, Li Shimin was embarrassed to send someone to ask.

When Li Lizhi and Li Mingda came together, Li Shimin was still supporting his cheek with his hand, his mind full of the delicious food that Li Xiang was going to prepare for him.

Old Li listened to Li Lizhi telling him about the Chamber of Commerce, and seeing how high spirits his beloved eldest daughter looked now, he felt happy for her.

When Li Shimin heard Li Lizhi say that Li Xiang had thrown all the work to her and Li Shu, he became furious.

Oh, so you like to be a hands-off boss?! Let your aunt suffer!

This bastard boy really deserves to be punished!

Li Mingda was sharp-eyed. Seeing the piece of paper written by Li Xiang on the table, he asked curiously, "Yeah, is this written by Xiang'er?"

"Haha, this kid just recommended two people to me and asked them to join the navy." Li Shimin had a laughing expression on his face.

"Ye Ye, did you agree?" Li Mingda asked with his head tilted.

"No." Li Shimin snorted, "You're so young, and you're already thinking about these things. Humph."

"Xiang'er is only a twelve-year-old boy, and he is just recommending talents for the country. How could he have so many thoughts?" Li Mingda began to speak up for Li Xiang: "Such a direct recommendation shows that Xiang'er has no ulterior motives towards you, and even does not avoid it. He really treats you like an ordinary grandfather. Isn't such filial piety worthy of your happiness, but instead you are suspicious of Xiang'er?"

"Who said I was suspicious of Xiang'er?" Li Shimin retorted quickly. The little girl couldn't stand being put on such a big hat.

Li Mingda didn't say anything, but together with Li Lizhi, they looked at Lao Li with a common hatred.

Li Shimin felt a little suffocated and couldn't breathe...

Why are the two little kids' elbows not pointing towards me, but instead towards that little bastard Xiang'er?

However, what they said did make sense, and coupled with Li Xiang's "bad behavior" of being a hands-off manager, Li Shimin decided to add more responsibilities to Li Xiang.

How can we just arrange Su Dingfang and Pei Xingjian? Hmm... How about we follow the old rules of the Wude Dynasty and let Xiang'er take charge of the navy?

This idea is really good, and Lao Li was immediately attracted by it.

The next day, Li Xiang went to find Cheng Chubi and others with great interest.

Xue Rengui had just arrived at the restaurant and had not yet settled his wife Liu down when Li Xiang arrived.

"Hey, Old Xue." Li Xiang greeted with a smile: "Are you back?"

"Just got back." Xue Rengui didn't dare to neglect him, and immediately called his wife over to introduce her to Li Xiang: "This is my wife..."

"Greetings, Prince." Liu bowed deeply.

Li Xiang nodded slightly and said to Xue Rengui, "You've already brought your wife here, why would you stay in a restaurant? I happen to have a house in Yongchangfang, you can take your wife there to settle down first, and then come to the restaurant to find me."

"Prince, this..." Xue Rengui was somewhat moved.

"Li Wei, you take him there." Li Xiang asked Fubao to hand the key to Li Wei and asked him to take Xue Rengui to the house in Yongchangfang.

Old Xue bowed and then walked out of the restaurant with his wife.

Li Xiang turned around and looked at Cheng Chubi and asked, "Chubi, what about those jars behind the restaurant?"

"Still there." Cheng Chubi replied immediately.

"Let's go and take a look." Li Xiang said, and led everyone to the place where the jars were placed.

These jars contain the brown sugar that Li Xiang made using the "yellow mud decolorization method" some time ago.

The yellow mud decolorization method was first seen in The Exploitation of the Works of Nature, and Li Xiang had also seen this method when he was free.

I originally thought that yellow mud would absorb impurities in sugar water like activated carbon.

As it turns out, this method is nonsense.

In fact, Song Yingxing also heard it from others and added the so-called yellow mud flushing method to Tiangong Kaiwu without any experiment.

What he meant in his book is that this method is widely used in "Fujian and southern Guangdong", but in fact, if you look up the local chronicles of Guangdong and Guangxi, you will find that although many places are similar to the records in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", the details of decolorization are very different from the methods in "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature". According to the method in the local chronicles, it is very complicated. It is necessary to seal the mouth with mud, change it every half a month, and repeat it for half a year before the jar can be "white on top and black on the bottom". In the process of multiple rounds of decolorization, eggs are needed to stir and clarify. In short, it is basically impossible to complete it without half a year.

As you can imagine, the result was that Lao Song certainly didn't work. But it wasn't without results, it just turned the black sugar into sugar that wasn't so black, so it still had a little effect.

"Tsk." Li Xiang smacked his lips and decided to try a different approach.

"Have you failed, brother?" Cheng Chubi asked cautiously.

To be honest, this is the first time I see Li Xiang fail.

"Of course." Li Xiang smiled and put the jar of syrup aside, thinking about a good idea.

Cheng Chubi comforted him: "Brother, don't be discouraged. After all, you always say that failure is the beginning of success. Without failure, there would be no success."

"Hahaha, I just thought of another way." Li Xiang said with a smile: "Go get some quicklime and call a few craftsmen. There are things that need them to make."

Cheng Chubi took a few people and left with orders. Not long after, several craftsmen and dozens of kilograms of quicklime came to Li Xiang.

There is actually no shortage of quicklime in this era. After all, archaeological discoveries have shown that we have been using quicklime since more than 7,000 years BC.

Although Li Xiang had never learned how to build a centrifuge and could not draw such a blueprint, he still understood some basic principles.

When he shared the description with the craftsmen, some of them understood the principle.

Not long after, a hand-cranked centrifuge was knocked out.

After all, in this era, we can only rely on primitive methods such as hand cranking.

But don’t underestimate the hand-cranked centrifuge. In the 19th century, biologists relied on their powerful arms to separate various components from cells using the method of “cell crushing + centrifuge separation”, which greatly promoted the development of biology.

The maximum speed of the hand-cranked centrifuge at that time could reach fifty revolutions per second.

This kind of job that requires strong arms is obviously the job of Xue Rengui.

While the centrifuge was being struck, the others were also busy. Following Li Xiang's instructions, they added lime milk - slaked lime produced by the reaction of quicklime and water - into the syrup, heated it to boiling, and set it aside to precipitate.

When the sedimentation is almost complete, take the clearer liquid from the top, boil it to a certain concentration, and then set it aside to cool naturally.

At this time, Xue Rengui also came back from outside. Seeing Li Xiang playing with the centrifuge, he smiled and asked, "Da Lang, what is this?"

Li Xiang looked up and saw that it was the tool man who came back, so he smiled and said, "It's for you to play with."

"Ah?" Xue Rengui was obviously stunned. "For me? Prince, don't joke..."

"It's really for you." Li Xiang waved at Lao Xue and said, "Come here, Lao Xue, sit here. I'll let you rock it later."

Xue Rengui then walked over doubtfully and sat down in his original position. He placed his hand on the handle of the hand crank and asked curiously, "Is this the right way to crank it?"

"I'll let you shake it again and again." Li Xiang said.

He added: "Use force."

As he spoke, Li Xiang directed the playboys to pour the sugar solution, which had begun to cool and crystallize naturally, into the distribution tank of the centrifuge.

"shake!"

Following Li Xiang's order, Xue Rengui gritted his teeth and shook the handle violently, leaving an afterimage.

When Xue Rengui shook the centrifuge, it spun much faster than a gyroscope.

"Wow, this guy is really good at turning!" Cheng Chubi muttered subconsciously.

"This thing is indeed very profitable..." Li Xiang smacked his lips: "Actually, Old Xue doesn't have to work so hard."

Xue Rengui took the time to look up at Li Xiang with resentment, "Prince, you should have said so earlier..."

"Xunyu, go to the opposite side of Lao Xue and pull that thing." Li Xiang instructed Yuchi Xunyu.

Yuchi Xunyu walked to the opposite side of Xue Rengui, holding the thing that looked like a bellows lever, and he felt that it looked very familiar.

"Isn't this the bellows pull rod?" Yuchi Xunyu said loudly.

His grandfather Yuchi Gong was a blacksmith, so... it can be considered a professional match.

"Pull that thing and send it back, and repeat this over and over again!" Li Xiang said loudly and gestured to him.

Upon hearing this, Yuchi Xunyu immediately pulled the lever.

With a squeaking sound, the sugar scraper started to work driven by the pull rod, scraping off the white sugar thrown onto the screen in the centrifuge and sending it out through the outlet below.

When the snow-white sugar came out of the centrifuge, Cheng Chubi was startled at first, and then jumped up suddenly.

"What the hell? This is candy?!"

"It's candy." Li Xiang put his hands behind his back, said nothing, and pretended to be an expert.

This is the power of industrial sugar production!

Li Xiang smiled and asked people to collect the white sugar and put it into jars.

He took out another can of sugar and asked the children to share it.

Without saying a word, Cheng Chubi reached into the candy, scooped up a handful, and stuffed it into his mouth.

My nose was sniffling from the sugar, but I was reluctant to drink some water to wash away the sweet feeling.

The same was true for the others. Even though he was a playboy, this was the first time in his life that he had eaten such pure white sugar.

Li Xiang was laughing on the sidelines, seeing Xue Rengui shaking his arms, taking out a handful of sugar and putting it into his mouth, with a look of happiness on his face.

Among these people, the happiest person after eating the candy is none other than Xue Rengui...

After all, he made all this stuff by himself!

Li Xiang also took a small jar. Just as he opened it and was about to scoop out a little to taste it with a spoon, he saw Li Su walking in from outside with a snow-white scarf around his neck.

"What are you doing?" Li Shu looked very proud and arrogant.

"Aunt." Li Xiang greeted her and handed the spoon to Li Shu: "Would you like to try this?"

"Salt? You guys are not?" Li Shu said with a look of disgust, "Aren't you afraid of turning into a bat and flying away if you eat too much? Really."

As she spoke, she shook the scarf around her neck at Li Xiang.

"Look, what is this?"

Li Xiang always felt that this material looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

After a while, he finally understood: "This is... This is made of wool?!"

(Second update sent)

(End of this chapter)