royal robes

Chapter 226 Sun-Salt Method

Zong Xin stretched out his finger and whispered something to Lei Hong, Lei Hong immediately frowned.

"Is...is this possible?" Lei Hong said, "Although you are a contemporary eminent monk, I still can't believe it. If it's really that simple, then what have we been doing all these years?"

Zong Dao said, "Who knows, that's how business is done anyway. If you want...send Lei Tianxiao or Lei Tianxin to help me look after this business, and I guarantee you a share."

Lei Hong pondered for a while and said: "I don't know what's going on with this kid, Tianxiao. He has a very close relationship with Liu Chengyou and has been doing things for him. It may not be easy for him to spare time to help. Although Lei Tianxin is a little clever , but he is too arrogant and domineering, and he has never left my side, so it is inevitable that I will be worried if I send him."

"There is no need to worry about this. The child has to experience it, otherwise how will he be independent in the future? If he can't even be independent, I'm afraid he will always be a useless person."

Lei Hong nodded, what his son said made sense.It's also time for Tianxin to experience it. It's not an option to stay by his side all the time. He is already a waste now, and we can't let him be a waste for the rest of his life.It's not the fault of his godfather, Lei Hong also has some doubts about his own education plan.

But Lei Hong still felt a little strange. Why did this child have to hide his identity?Except for Zong Xin's apprentice, everyone present knew that he was his father. Zong Xin also said that it was to deceive his apprentice Tian Ya, so they concealed their identities from each other.Although Lei Hong didn't want to think too much, he felt it was a bit awkward to speak like this.

"Forget it, let this trash practice for a while. When I have time, I will personally send Tianxin to join the master. Then you have to take this unworthy son in."

Zong Xin clasped his hands together and said: "Of course, I will take care of him a lot. After Lei Tianxin becomes the shopkeeper of this business, the world will know his name, because this business will definitely make everyone rich."

Everyone was curious about what kind of business Zong Xin wanted to start, but Zong Xin kept this matter secret, and he had to return to Southern Tang to start this business.Although they don't know what's going on, everyone is happy, at least there is no danger in doing business, Zong Xin will not commit suicide, and this matter is good for everyone.

Zong Xin said that this business would eventually be left to Zhao Kuangyin, making him as rich as the country.As for what Zhao Kuangyin will do with the money, it is entirely out of his own wishes, and Zong Xin will not care about it.However, Zhao Kuangyin has long made up his mind that he will definitely develop a valve that is more powerful than the current Zhao valve.

If you want to be stronger than the current Zhao Clan, you need a lot of money first, and only after you have money can you raise soldiers. Now the Zhao Clan has six gold veins and [-] soldiers, but this is all the Zhao Clan’s family property. Zhao Kuangyin knew this very well.As long as they can raise enough troops, it is not difficult to surpass the Zhao Clan.

A soldier consumes at least 60 taels of silver a year, and a general with [-] soldiers must prepare at least [-] taels of silver, because there are not only ordinary soldiers but also many generals, and their consumption is more than that of soldiers, and that's just A year's consumption.Not counting the consumption of weapons, armor, and horses, it would take so many years just to feed these soldiers. If other consumption is included, I am afraid that I would have to earn at least one million taels of silver a year to support one hundred thousand soldiers.These soldiers also need to be trained before they can go to the battlefield, all of which requires a lot of money.

As the saying goes, a thousand armies are easy to get but a general is hard to find. Zhao Kuangyin not only wanted soldiers, but also generals who really knew how to lead troops in war.As long as he has enough troops, he will definitely ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, and then unify the country.However, without Zong Xin's help, it would probably be difficult to achieve.

Zhao Kuangyin was still worried, what if Zong Xin really lived in seclusion?Without the assistance of Zong Xin, it is absolutely impossible for him to dominate the country.Although Zong Xin is still paving the way for himself, Zhao Kuangyin now feels that Zong Xin is like a life mentor. Without him, he really doesn't know what to do.

Early the next morning, Lei Hong went north to Cangzhou, and Zong Xin and his party rushed to Weinan.After connecting with the weak scholar Zhao Pu, he took Zhao Pu, Youyun Shibaqi and 3000 people from Weinan and left together. The entire business in Weinan was handed over to Zhao Kuangyin's further Zhao Hongde to take care of it.

Zhao Hongde liked to do this kind of thing in the first place, and the Zhao Clan had enough manpower, so he naturally had no objection to accepting other people's business, and it could also add some income to the Zhao Clan.

The frail scholar's martial arts are actually not low, but compared to Zong Xin and his party, they are not worth mentioning. They are resourceful and ambitious, so Zong Xin hopes that Zhao Pu will manage another business.For this reason, they are even willing to give up all the business in Weinan, and relocate all the Ao Gang.

Zong Xin was not in a hurry, and went to Xuzhou to visit his sister and brother-in-law first. At this time, Lei Fang's stomach was already bulging, and everyone looked happy. Zong Xin would be an uncle soon.

Stopped in Xuzhou for a while, went directly to the Dugu Clan, and after discussing with Bai Yunfei and Gu Guozhang, they respectively took their troops and followed Zongxin and his party to the south.

The border of the Tang Dynasty is almost unobstructed. It took a whole month to go south from Jinling. This is just the previous troops. The 3000 people raised by Zong Xin have mounts, but not everyone in the troops of Bai Yunfei and Gu Guozhang has horses, so the follow-up troops are still on the way .

The group of people traveled continuously for more than a month and finally arrived at an island.This was originally the border of Fujian. Because of the chaos in Fujian, Li Jing took advantage of the situation and took advantage of the situation to seize the country. Although it is difficult to manage, the seaside is full of backwaters. Although Li Jing made a lot of money by conquering Fujian, it is actually unpopular. Here The people are not happy either.

It was the end of spring and the beginning of summer, the weather was hot, Bai Yunfei and Gu Guozhang had begun to regret this trip with Zong Xin, wondering what the hell Zong Xin was going to do.However, these two people's admiration for Zong Xin surpassed their own abilities. Everyone in the world now knows that Zong Xin planned to kill Yelu Deguang. Make such a joke.

Zong Xin rode on the back of the white wolf and said excitedly: "This is the place where we made our fortune. I will turn this place into the richest land in the whole world, but you must keep this secret, otherwise the poor monk will never forgive you for revealing the secret." people."

Gu Guozhang said: "Master Zongxin, what kind of business is this? You said that you can make us all rich, but this is just an island, and there are not many trees and arable land. Can money be made here?"

"The poor monk can really turn out money, Wen Ruo, I will let you distribute all the tools you bought to the soldiers, let them dig holes, dig a few huge holes above the high tide level, and dig a few more behind these holes A small hole, and then dig a few smaller holes. Try it first, I don't know the size."

"Of course." Zhao Pu didn't have any doubts, and Zong Xin's soldiers didn't have any doubts either, and immediately started digging holes.

"Master Zong Xin, what are you going to do?" Bai Yunfei couldn't help asking, everyone was curious about this question, what exactly Zong Xin was going to do.

Zong said: "I want salt."

Hearing this, everyone felt at ease. It turned out to be salt.No wonder Zong Xin found Bai Yunfei, because Bai Yunfei has been doing private salt business all year round.However... although this island is not small, it is not too big either.There are not many trees on the island. Even if they are all cut down and used for cooking salt, the profit will only be a little.There's no point in having so many people make the trip.

So far, most of the salt is boiled from seawater. In some places, rock salt is eaten. There is brine in the territory of Shu, and the salt is obtained by boiling water with fire.Not to mention the consumption of wood, the labor is even more incalculable, so the price of salt remains high.

Dugu Xingyue said: "Husband, even if we cut down all the trees here, the boiled salt won't make much money."

"Who said I'm going to cut down a tree?" Zong Xin said with a light smile, "I'm going to turn salt into it, just wait and see. There is no need to boil seawater with fire. There are many ways to produce salt, but no one has thought about it." .”

No one raised an argument, but they were all very depressed. They didn't expect that the business Zong Xin said was salt. If I had known that, I wouldn't have come.Gu Guozhang and Bai Yunfei felt a little regretful, while Zhao Kuangyin and Tianya waited to watch the fun. Although they didn't know what Zong Xin was going to do, they were full of confidence in him, and Zong Xin would definitely be able to produce salt.At that time, Gu Guozhang and Bai Yunfei must have funny expressions on their expressions.

Naturally, Zhao Pu would not doubt Zong Xin, and immediately ordered people to handle the matter. 3000 people are not enough, and only a few hundred people are enough.The remaining people, Zong Xin, asked them to build houses here, and even asked some of them to leave the island to buy stone materials. Zong Xin planned to build a fortress here that no one could attack.

It took hundreds of people a day to dig the few holes that Zong Xin requested, and then Zong Xin ordered people to dig a road in front of the pits and lead the seawater into the big pit. No one doubted that the work should be done immediately.

It was early summer, and in the extremely hot place in the south, the sea breeze and sunshine were very abundant. The next day, part of the sea water was evaporated. Zongxin ordered people to guide the water into the next pool, and then had people fill the first pool. Full.

On the third day, the pool had already begun to crystallize, and Zong Xin asked people to introduce the seawater into the third pool, and the water from the first pool into the second pool, and then fill up the first pool.

On the fourth day, the smallest pool only had a layer of semi-turbid seawater above, and the bottom of the seawater was full of white salt and some impurities.

Zongxin immediately ordered people to pour out the semi-turbid seawater, and then ordered people to collect all the remaining salt.Although there are still a lot of impurities in it, most of them can be removed by hand, and the rest needs to be slightly purified.

Everyone was stupefied. These pools could be open all day long, and the last pool could receive so much salt every day.This is just Zongxin's experiment. If the size is calculated and these salt fields are expanded countlessly, how much salt can be harvested every day?Even if it is sold at a low price, the profit in a day can be counted to death.

(PS: Before the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, salt was boiled with fire. It was not until after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that the sun-dried salt method was invented. This does not violate history. The person who actually invented the sun-dried salt method was called Chen Yinggong, who died in 982. The uprising was only 38 years old, known as Yan Gong.)
(End of this chapter)