LIGHTNOVELONLINE v2 Chapter 98
After cultivating all the fields planned at the beginning, Beisi finally got out and prepared to study the salt drying method given by Cao Mi.
Originally, in his plan, he should have arranged this matter with Changsun Ling, but recently, for some unknown reason, Changsun Ling suddenly became interested in shipbuilding. During this time, he left Zhuangzi with someone again, saying that he was going to prepare matters for the shipyard.
Bei Si thought about it for a while, and felt that it was indeed more efficient to act separately, so he went with him.
On this day, he brought his subordinates to a place that he had long been optimistic about.
This sandy area, which is designated as a salt drying field, is close to the sea. The terrain is very flat, and there are no tall hills and trees around. It can receive sufficient sunlight all day long.
Beisi took people to demarcate several places, and then ordered people to start digging holes.
The method of drying salt is not complicated. First, an evaporation pond is dug out on the seashore to store water. When the sun has evaporated the seawater to a certain extent, the water in the pit is transferred to the crystallizing pond and continued to be exposed to the sun. After doing this twice, the coarse salt precipitated in the water can be obtained.
After a simple purification, the coarse salt is ready for use.
During this period of the Sheng Dynasty, most of the people in the coastal areas mainly made salt by cooking. Efficiency of the salt.
But at this time, because he had not seen the magic of the salt drying method, even Beisi, who was loyal to Cao Mi, felt a little drum in his heart.
He was not suspicious of Cao Mi, but worried that now that Cao Mi was in Liaozhou, he would not be able to fully understand the meaning of the letter. If you do it wrong, it will be a small matter if you take a detour, and it will be a big deal if you delay Cao Mi’s plan.
Therefore, he is very concerned about everything from the site selection to the digging of the salt field. Even if he didn’t go to work in person, he was always on the sidelines.
The people who can be assigned to the salt drying field are carefully selected by Beisi.
Today, there are more slaves in Zhuangzi than he brought from Liaozhou before, so most of these people in the salt drying farm are local people in Lizhou.
Between work, a man asked curiously, “Beijing Temple Steward, what are we doing with so many pits?”
Beisi also does not intend to hide them. After all, all the subsequent processes are also participated by this group of people.
So he said, “Dry the salt.”
“Ah?” The man was a little surprised, “Salt?”
Beiji nodded.
He smiled and explained: “You are all natives of Lizhou, you should know how to cook the sea for salt, right?
“My master gave me a way to dig a hole and ‘sun’ the sea for salt, what do you think?”
When the man heard what he said, he laughed bluntly.
“Sun?” The man said frankly: “The steward is from the north, so he may not know. We boil seawater for salt, consume a lot of hay and firewood, and the rate of salt production is very slow.
“You… drying the salt? Oh, this is going to be the year of the monkey and the month of the horse?”
A flash of worry flashed across Beisi’s eyebrows.
But he quickly concealed his emotions, and added: “I’ve thought about this too, but…
“The area of the pit we dug is huge, and it can hold more than a thousand salt pans. Although the speed of drying salt in the sun is a bit slower, it can still be effective.”
The man scratched his head and said, “Well… this villain doesn’t know. But…
“The villain is indeed a native of the coastal fishing village of Lizhou. The village has made and eaten salt by himself for generations, but no one has thought of such a method.”
When Beisi heard the words, he was even more worried.
Seeing this, the man comforted a little embarrassedly, saying, “But… but your master in the North Temple is definitely not an ordinary person. The method that the lord came up with is definitely not comparable to those of us.”
Beisi nodded: “Yes.
“My master has come up with a method, and there is no way that can’t be done!”
To understand this, he no longer hesitated.
Facing the man, he warned: “In short, you can follow the previous arrangement. Whether you can really make salt, it will naturally be known after a while.”
The man nodded vigorously: “Okay! Don’t worry!”
Saying that, he waved the **** in his hand again and started to get busy.
A few days later, Chang Sun Ling came back with someone.
He didn’t go back to the house to rest, and went directly to the salt drying field where the North Temple is located.
Seeing a pond with pits and pits, Changsun Ling asked with some doubts: “This is the salt drying field you made.”
Beisi nodded, briefly introduced the process of drying salt to him, and said: “But…because I don’t know if there will be any gaps, this time I didn’t dare to arrange more, and only asked them to dig out a few acres of evaporation ponds. Thinking about seeing the effect first.”
Changsun Ling nodded.
Beisi asked again, “Where’s General Changsun? Is there any news from the shipyard?”
The eldest Sun Ling raised his eyebrows, and his whole face glowed with a proud look.
“That’s natural, otherwise why would I come back at this time?” He said: “I went to Haining and spent a little money to buy the news of all the shipyards in the east of Lizhou.
“Within eighty miles to the north, there is a small shipyard.
“This shipyard was built more than 20 years ago. Because of the losses every year, it can no longer be run.”
Beisi already understood, he asked, “Have you seen it? How?”
Changsun Ling put his hands on his arms and stretched his waist before saying, “Well, I think it’s good.
“I contacted the people in the government, and I went over in a few days to get the place down.”
As he spoke, he discussed with Beisi: “I thought that the shipyard is not too far from Zhuangzi, so there is really no need to relocate to the vicinity of Zhuangzi.
“But we can build a cement road directly from Zhuangzitong to the shipyard, what do you think?”
Beisi agreed: “That’s naturally good.”
There is also a small cement factory in Zhuangzi of Lizhou.
Now that the technology of firing cement is very mature, and the North Temple and the others only use it for their own use, they arranged for two simple firing kilns to produce the cement needed in Zhuangzi.
“If you want to build a road, you must first expand the scale of the cement workshop.” Beisi reminded.
The eldest grandson Ling nodded: “Well, you can arrange it.
“It will take some time to get off the shipyard, and there is no need to hurry until the concubine sends Liu Ge’s craftsmen.”
Kitaji nodded clearly.
“In that case, I will write to the princess in a few days, and tell her that things have been arranged, and ask her to send Liu Ge’s people here.” The eldest Sun Ling planned.
Beisi looked at the half-constructed salt drying field and replied softly “Yes”.
After a period of cooperation between the two, the cooperation has been extremely tacit.
Half a month later, the letter was delivered to Cao Mi.
After Cao Mi finished reading the letter, he thought for a while, and then said to Dong Li, “Dong Li, find someone to run to Rongguang Villa and call Liu Ge and Yu Liang back.”
Dong Li bowed to Cao Mi and said, “Yes.”
Three children are painting on the desk beside them.
Before that, Di Zhe, a painter whom Qi You found, also started teaching.
He is very patient with several children, and occasionally teaches some simple painting skills, which is also very useful.
After several times, even Qi Ran, who was very resistant to extra classes at first, liked him very much.
On this day, they had just returned from Di Zhe’s side, so they found a pen and paper from Cao Mi’s side and began to show Cao Mi their painting skills.
Seeing that she had read the letter, Qi Rui was concerned as usual: “Mother is going to send Liu Ge and Yu Liang to Lizhou?”
“Yeah.” Cao Mi nodded.
She simply told the three of them about the situation in Lizhou.
Changsun Ling and Beisi also mentioned the Japanese pirates in the letter. Today, the Japanese pirates in Zhuangzi are one of the important labors, and Cao Mi told this incident as an interesting story to the three of them.
The three children were a little stunned after hearing this.
Qi An pouted and suddenly asked, “Is it a little risky for General Changsun to do this?”
He put down the pen: “What if those Japanese pirates know about this and come to take revenge?”
Without Cao Mi’s answer, Qi Rui said, “If Japanese pirates really come in groups to take revenge, General Changsun will surely be very happy. As long as they get ashore, the combat effectiveness of Japanese pirates is not worth mentioning in front of General Changsun.”
He raised his head slightly and reminded: “General Changsun is a general under his father’s personal soldiers.”
Qi Ran echoed his applause: “Yes! Father is the best!”
Qi An heard the words and nodded.
“General Changsun is worried now that his soldiers are not good enough to go to sea to arrest people.” Qi Rui laughed again: “That’s probably why he is so anxious to want Liu Ge and the others to go there. Help him build a boat.”
Hearing this, Cao Mi was a little surprised.
In fact, she knew what Qi Rui said. But it was because she had read all the contents of the letter that she knew what Zhang Sun Ling really thought.
Just now, she mentioned the Japanese pirates with a few children, but only a few words, and chose interesting points to say.
But Qi Rui could already infer so much from this information.
Thinking of this, she touched the top of Qi Rui’s hair: “Well, Rui’er is smart, you guessed it well.”
Seeing the eldest brother being praised, Qi An felt a little envious, so he pointed at the rice paper in front of him and said to Cao Mi, “Mother, I’ve finished the painting, come and see!”
“I’ve drawn it too!” Qi Ran shouted.
Hearing this, Cao Mi got up and walked to the two of them.
The drawing skills of the twins were originally comparable.
After all, the lantern that was still treasured by Cao Mi was completed by the two of them.
But after this period of lessons, Qi An’s painting has obviously improved, at least he will no longer directly pull out two heads when painting figures.
And Qi Ranming also followed the same master and learned the same course, but the style of painting still did not improve much compared to half a year ago.
Cao Mi once asked him jokingly, and he said that he thought his paintings would look better this way.
Poor Cao Mi struggled for a long time in front of his ghost-like paintings, but finally could not bear to undermine Xiao Pangdun’s self-confidence and creativity, and nodded affirming his “creative ideas”.
At this time, when she saw the paintings of the two, she still closed her eyes and praised: “Well! It’s so beautiful! Compared with the last time, it is obviously a lot of progress.
“It seems that Qi An and Qi Ran have not been lazy during this time!”
The twins were complimented and both grinned.
Cao Mi had no doubt that if the two of them had tails, they would have been raised to the sky at this moment.
She settled down and asked Qi Ran, “What is Qi Ran painting?”
The reason why she only asked the third child was because she really couldn’t see what the lines on Qi Ran’s paper meant.
Qi Ran didn’t understand this at all. He only felt that Cao Mi was interested in his works, so he said, “This is the last time we and father were painting lanterns under the corridor!”
Then, he introduced the four characters who occupy the vast majority of the screen one by one: “This is the father, this is the mother, the elder brother, I…”
After the introduction, he pulled out a black spot from the corner: “This is Qi An!”
Cao Mizheng was a little confused, and Qi An had already started to attack.
He was too lazy to argue with Qi Ran about the height difference between the two, so he just gave Qi Ran a stern look, then pulled Cao Mi and said, “Look, mother, I drew this.”
Although Qi An’s paintings are also very “childlike”, Cao Mi can probably recognize them.
She confirmed: “This is the five people in our family… um, it looks like riding a horse outside the Great Wall?”
In this comparison, Cao Mi can see it. Qi Ran still misses the reunion of a family of five years ago, but Qi Anxin is looking forward to going to the grassland outside the Great Wall.
Qi An nodded, looking for approval with bright eyes: “Does it look good?”
Cao Mi nodded and affirmed: “Of course!”
The conversation between the two attracted Qi Ran to come together.
He squeezed his head between the two of them and commented with a pouting mouth: “It’s so ugly! And we won’t go outside the fortress, there are soldiers outside the fortress!”
Qi An snorted coldly, glanced at him and said, “You are ugly! Why don’t you go outside the Great Wall? We will definitely attack the Rong family in the future!”
He looked at his work with satisfaction and said proudly: “When the time comes, my mother can go with us.”
Hearing this, Qi Rui nodded and said, “Yes!”
“In your hearts, you only remember the battle!” Cao Mi was a little helpless.
The mother and son were chatting happily when Dong Li suddenly entered the door and said, “Princess, Zhang, the manager of Sifang Bookstore, asks to see you.”
“Manager Zhang?” Cao Mi was taken aback for a moment, and then he smiled: “But this year’s ‘Qiu Jian’ has been made?”
Printing has been moved from the palace to the paper mill, and the corresponding work has also been handed over to the Sifang Bookstore.
Generally, when there is something new in Sifang Bookstore, the shopkeeper will give it priority to the palace.
Qi Rui was also interested when he heard the words: “This year’s ‘Xiajian’ is of good quality, and ‘Qiujian’ should take it to the next level.”
Cao Mi nodded.
She was accompanying a few people and didn’t want to leave, so she said to Dong Li: “You can help me entertain him, and it’s enough for someone to bring those papers.”
Hearing this, Dong Li’s face was embarrassed.
“What’s wrong?” Cao Mi was a little surprised.
“Return to Princess.” Dong Li’s brows were tightly knit together, “The shopkeeper… looks nervous, it seems that he has something important to report to you, please come over in person.
“In addition, the slaves have made up their own minds and sent people to invite the housekeeper and Qi Liu.”
As soon as she said these words, Cao Mi was stunned.
If Dong Li didn’t mention the housekeeper and Qi Liu, Cao Mi knew that the manager Zhang’s situation was wrong, and would only think that there was some difficulty in the bookstore’s operation.
But Dongli is not someone who makes a fuss.
This time, she said that she hired the housekeeper and Qi Liu “on her own accord”, which must mean that she believes that this matter cannot be solved by Cao Mi alone!
Cao Mi took a deep breath and said, “Well, I’ll go with you now.”
“Mother!” Qi Ran felt the abnormal atmosphere and took her hand worriedly.
Cao Mi patted his shoulder soothingly, and said to the two eldest children, “Qi Rui, Qi An, take care of your brother.
“My mother will come back when she’s done.”
Qi Rui nodded: “Mother, don’t worry, you can go.”
Cao Mi smiled and nodded.
Knowing that the situation was urgent, Cao Mi did not dare to delay.
When she and Dong Li came to the conference hall in three steps and two steps, she saw that the steward and Qi Liu were already sitting in their seats and waiting.
But the two of them were also puzzled, apparently not knowing what was going on.
Manager Zhang was sitting in a chair in a daze, when he saw Cao Mi coming, he knelt down and gave a big gift.
Cao Mi hurriedly helped the person up, and then asked the salute steward and Qi Liu to get up.
She didn’t talk nonsense, and asked straight to the point: “Manager Zhang…is there something wrong over there in the bookstore?”
Shopkeeper Zhang nodded.
Tremblingly, he took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it to Cao Mi.
Without waiting for Cao Mi to open it and read it carefully, he directly said: “Princess, a student who received the favor of the bookstore before wrote, saying that in order to contain the prince, the capital had appointed him and another military officer to come to Cannes to prepare Please ‘invite’ the princess and the three sons to Beijing to take care of them!”
Cao Mi’s actions of opening the letter immediately stopped.
Qi Liu had already slapped the table, and said angrily, “What?!”
He frowned: “Where did the news come from? Is it credible?”
Cao Mi held on to the bookcase beside him, settled down, and took out the letter in his hand first.
Shopkeeper Zhang has explained to Qi Liu: “The person who wrote the letter is named Ji You, and he stayed in the bookstore last year to study.
“Later, his family took advantage of the previous relationship to find him an official position in the capital. Ji You left Liaozhou after the Lantern Festival and went to the capital.
“It was a servant in his family who came to report the letter… This, this… Little old man doesn’t know if the matter is true or not. After reading the letter, I went directly to the palace.”
Qi Liu quieted down, frowning in thought.
Seeing that Cao Mi and Qi Liu were silent, the butler got up and sent Manager Zhang to the door: “Master, you don’t need to panic.
“You know the importance of today’s incident, so you must not talk about it outside! Go back to the bookstore, just pretend that this incident has never happened, and don’t show any abnormality. Everything will be resolved by the palace!”
Shopkeeper Zhang nodded hurriedly: “Little old man knows, little old man knows.”
The housekeeper smiled at him, reached out to summon a servant, and sent him out.
Then, he returned to the hall.
Cao Mi had already read the letter and handed the letter to Qi Liu.
Qi Liu hastily read it, and when he saw the housekeeper come in, he said, “…It’s not a trivial matter to bring the princess and the three young sons into the capital. But the prince also has chess pieces in the capital, but we haven’t received any news at all.”
The butler’s already wrinkled face suddenly became more serious.
He said: “Yes, but it is not impossible.
“I remember that the prince asked for soldiers from the imperial court, and the matter should have been completed. The prime minister and the minister of military affairs failed to successfully obstruct this matter, and they will definitely make a fuss about other matters and stumble the prince.
“If it was done more secretly, Qi Yi didn’t find out… it’s not impossible.”
“They did hide it.” Cao Mi said, “I have an impression of this Ji You… He has only been in Beijing for a few months, and it stands to reason that such an important matter will not be his turn at all.
“It must be the prince’s political enemy who wants to hide from the sky and cross the sea, and really needs a guide who is familiar with Liaozhou, so he is picked out.”
The housekeeper and Qi Liu looked at her.
Qi Liudao: “Princess…believes what the letter says is true.”
“Whether it’s true or not, the children and I can’t afford to take this risk!” Cao Mi said through gritted teeth.
“Yes!” The housekeeper also nodded firmly: “Regardless of whether the news is true or false, the government must do a good job of dealing with it!”
Hearing him agree with him, Cao Mi breathed a sigh of relief, but he was a little worried: “Housekeeper, you assist the prince and understand the situation in the DPRK better than I do.
“If… this time the emperor fails to catch me and Qi Rui as he wished, but, what impact will it have on the palace?”
Of course Cao Mi understood the emperor’s intentions.
So “please come to the capital to take care of them” is just to take their mother and son as hostages to the capital to restrain Qiyou.
But in fact, there is another layer of causality, that is, as long as Qi You’s attack on the army goes smoothly, then the safety of their mother and son will not be threatened.
What Cao Mi was afraid of was that if he resisted the decree this time, the palace and the imperial court would be torn apart. At that time, the emperor turned from darkness to light, and a hat of “resisting the decree and disrespecting” was buckled, and things would be even worse.
Before the housekeeper could answer, Qi Liu said sharply, “In short, the princess and the three young masters must not go to the capital.”
Seeing the old steward staring at him in disapproval, Qi Liu didn’t flinch, and added, “I know the prince better than you, and the prince will never watch his wife and children be sent to the capital city in danger at such a time. .”
After speaking, he clenched his fists and emphasized: “No matter how much security the capital has, it can’t be done!”
Seeing this, the butler let out a sigh.
He glanced at Cao Mi and said, “If that’s the case… maybe, there is only one way.”
“What way?” Cao Mi asked.
The housekeeper thought about it and asked, “Does the princess really want to know? That place may not be much better than the capital…”
“You said.” Cao Mi nodded.
The housekeeper said: “The old slave’s idea is that the princess will directly take the three young sons to the prince’s side!
“When those people arrive, the old slave can refuse them and say that the princess and the young masters have vowed to live and die together with the prince because they care about the prince, so they set off to go to the front line with the prince!”
Cao Mi was stunned: “You mean… let me take Ruier and the others to Changling?”
“Yes!” The butler nodded and confirmed.
If it was easy to say before, but now Qi You has taken the initiative to attack the Rong tribe, places like Changling and Fengping will enter a state of emergency, always on guard against enemy attacks.
Since ancient times, only powerful and powerful people have taken refuge in safe cities, and there is no reason for a person like a princess to run to the border.
Cao Mi thought about it for a while, but found that this seems to be the only way now.
She exhaled and said, “Well.”
Qi Liu frowned worriedly: “Princess…”
“Needless to say.” Cao Mi raised his hand to interrupt him, “I just thought about the housekeeper’s idea.
“Thinking about it now, if you don’t want to oppose the decree, this is the only way. In fact, there are many good soldiers and generals around the prince. If there are dangers around him, what difference does it make to stay in Cannes or go to the capital?
“I took Qi Rui and the others to Changling to find the prince!”
Seeing that her mind was made up, the housekeeper and Qi Liu looked at each other.
They also wanted to understand the key points, so they stopped persuading, and just bowed their hands and said: “Yes, princess. The villain will go down and arrange.”
Cao Mi rubbed his brows and said, “Well, let’s go.”
After the two left, Cao Mi came to the window. She felt a little breathless, so she wanted to follow the breeze by the window to clear her mind.
After a while, she patted her face and forced herself to show a gentle smile. While thinking about what to say in her heart, she walked towards the children who were still waiting for her to go back.
The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angel who threw the mine: Mu Yue 3;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 40 bottles of the moon laughing into a bay; 20 bottles of kangaroos who stole gold; Pingyi, 2307697810 bottles; Cha Hemu and Hanqi 5 bottles; Longmen 3 bottles; 322112512 bottles;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!