After the deputy director muttered those words, he suddenly saw Yan Lide snap his head up, his gaze locking tightly onto him.
"Director, I was just saying it casually…"
"No. It may truly be that we are missing the beams."
Yan Lide shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Before cement fully set, it behaved like soft mud. Because of that, all their previous attempts had followed the methods of rammed earth construction. Walls and foundations had been built the same way one would treat packed loess.
But cement was not loess after all.
If the material itself was different, then the construction method naturally might not apply.
Once the thought formed, Yan Lide did not hesitate. He immediately gathered the craftsmen again and shared his reasoning.
The group of artisans exchanged glances once more, but this time none hesitated. They moved at once.
After all, this was the Directorate of Works, the place that governed all crafts. Anyone working here was either a craftsman by origin or someone who understood technical methods.
They all knew one simple truth.
Whether something worked or not could only be known after testing it.
Everyone worked together, discussing as they went, and quickly assembled a simple beam framework for what would have been a rammed earth wall.
Wooden piles were driven down as a base. Once the expected thickness of the cement wall was estimated, planks were erected on both sides. Inside, rafters and purlins were interwoven to form the skeleton of a wall.
While one group constructed the wooden framework, another group on the side had already mixed a new batch of iron slag cement slurry. Once the framework was confirmed complete, they poured it in together.
Watching the work conclude, Yan Lide let out a long breath.
"Whether it succeeds or fails, we will know tomorrow."
Cement still needed time to set. The people of the Directorate of Works clocked out smoothly. Before leaving, they even washed their hands and brushed off the dust.
Yan Lide watched with a mixture of amusement and helplessness as a group of craftsmen, average age no less than thirty five, rushed en masse toward the corner of the courtyard.
That was where the water channel of the Directorate of Works was located.
Beside the channel stood an iron cylinder already set into the ground. On top was a handle meant to be pressed, and from the middle of the cylinder extended a small spout aimed toward the courtyard.
In the craftsmen's race, only the one who reached it first seized the iron handle. His face immediately filled with pride.
"Line up. Come draw water."
With that, he pumped vigorously.
This was, of course, a hand water pump.
With blueprints, manpower, and materials available, Yan Lide had recreated it with little difficulty. That very night he had even made one for Li Shimin. The princes and princesses had treated it like a new toy and played with it endlessly.
As for what use it truly had, neither Li Shimin nor Yan Lide had figured that out yet.
Strictly speaking, a hand pump was not fundamentally different from drawing water with a bucket. It could not conjure water from nothing. Most of its parts were cast iron, and the cost was not low.
Without the convenience of the Directorate of Works, for a wealthy household to commission one would cost more than buying a Turkic slave.
It was praised in later generations, and they knew it was a good thing, yet how to put it to real use remained an unresolved question.
Thus, aside from the single pump inside the palace, Yan Lide used the leftover materials to build one within the Directorate of Works itself, hoping collective brainstorming might uncover its true value.
Unfortunately, judging by the present scene, it served only as a toy here as well.
Shaking his head with a smile, Yan Lide remained relaxed. Useless was useless. After all, the Directorate of Works was already burdened with maritime affairs, the supervision of gunpowder formulation for the Five Thunder Office, glass production, and recently, Fang Xuanling had privately suggested selecting a group of young craftsmen to study mathematics.
There was already more than enough to stay busy with.
Yan Lide queued up to wash his hands with the pump water, then clocked out peacefully and headed home.
Leaving the imperial city through Hanguang Gate, heading south along the road, passing two streets, going through Taiping Ward and Tongyi Ward, the Xinghua Ward came into view. That was where the Yan family residence stood.
To the west lay Yankang Ward. During the former Sui, it had been Yang Su's old estate. Now the largest mansion there had been bestowed by His Majesty upon his own son, Prince Yue Li Tai.
Farther west lay the West Market.
By any measure, Yan Lide's home sat on prime land.
Being able to live here was entirely due to the two brothers having held official posts back in the Sui. They had known Chang'an's property prices inside and out, and during the dynastic transition, they had poured all their family wealth into buying a modest residence in Xinghua Ward.
Because of this, whenever he passed by, Yan Lide would always glance toward Prince Yue's vast estate in the distance. It was said that Prince Yue was deeply favored and often stayed in the palace, rarely using that residence.
The sight always stirred envy.
The Yan residence in Xinghua Ward was convenient, but it was truly small.
Yan Lide suddenly thought of the towering buildings of later generations. With such methods, perhaps future capitals would not suffer under crushing housing prices.
Could there be ten thousand spacious homes, so that all under heaven might smile?
Shaking off the sudden thought, Yan Lide quickened his pace. His younger brother was probably waiting to eat dinner together.
Now the two brothers served in different offices. Yan Lide had become increasingly at ease in the Directorate of Works and was almost always the last to leave each day.
Yan Liben was different. He fled work at the first possible moment every day, so he always waited for his elder brother to return before dining.
After washing his hands again, Yan Lide took his seat and immediately sighed.
"Vegetarian again?"
"If this keeps up every day, I might as well shave my head and become a monk in Chongde Ward."
South of Xinghua Ward lay Chongde Ward, home to Chongyan Temple, first built during the Jin dynasties and fairly well known in Chang'an.
Hearing his brother say this, Yan Liben set down his bowl and chopsticks and stared at his own hands, looking as though he were holding back tears.
That made Yan Lide feel guilty. He hurried to comfort his brother, saying things about light food being good for the body and spirit.
He had heard how strict Physician Sun was. From what his brother said, the physician even demanded that painters hold blades during dissections and personally touch the internal organs to understand their positions.
Yan Lide knew he could not endure that himself.
The mood at the dinner table was, as usual, somewhat subdued. After the children were led away by the servants and the dishes were cleared and replaced with tea, Yan Lide finally asked,
"When will the anatomy drawings be finished?"
Seeing his brother like this pained him. Once the drawings were complete, he planned to ask His Majesty to transfer Yan Liben to the Directorate of Works.
Yan Liben understood his brother's intentions. Hearing the question, he hesitated, then finally clenched his teeth and quietly pulled out a stack of papers from beneath the table.
"Brother, these are things I drew in my spare moments recently."
Yan Lide did not understand, but he took the drawings anyway.
They were clearly quick pen sketches. The paper was small, the figures simple. The content was plain. Sitting, lying down, running, jumping. Ordinary human figures.
Seven or eight sheets in total.
Yan Lide flipped through them quickly, then let out a soft sound of surprise. He flipped back to the beginning and examined each one again.
Yan Lide was also skilled in fine brushwork. At once, he noticed the difference, and his face lit with joy for his brother.
"The way of painting has advanced again."
Previously, when imitating later generation artworks, they had only been copying by brute force. They did not know the process behind those paintings, so they could only replicate exactly what they saw.
The flaw was that when painting ordinary subjects, they could not reach the same level of spirit or refinement.
But these were different.
Yan Lide could vaguely sense that these simple sketches were beginning to approach the style of those later generation artworks shown on the light screen.
Facing his brother's probing gaze, Yan Liben's expression grew complex.
"This improvement in painting all comes from Physician Sun."