On the Huai River, a new wheeled ship with sails is sailing. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Gong Cao, don't look at this waterway so calm now, half a year ago, there were bandits rampant here!" On the boat, Taoqiu businessman Yi Wei explained to Dai Yan, who was curious about the river, with a smile on his face.

"Oh, it looks like you're pretty good! In just two months, you have swept away all the Dongyi bandits along the coast! Dai Yan looked at the calm river and praised.

It is now two months after Huangfu Yong asked Dai Yan for help. Since Huangfu Yong explained to Dai Yan the predicament faced by the land of the East China Sea two months ago, Dai Yan has actively stepped forward and began to help these nobles of the East China Sea solve the predicament.

He first gathered a group of big businessmen through the Heze Club, talked to them about the plight of the East China Sea, and also told them that if they helped the East China Sea to tide over this difficulty, they would have the opportunity to dry salt in the East China Sea.

How profitable the salt industry is, there is no one present who is not clear! Because among the merchants present there was a big salt merchant: Yi Wei! Everyone hardly needs to ask, just look at Yiwei, which is almost comparable to Tao Qiujun's family background, you can know how profitable the salt industry is!

Therefore, there was almost no need for Dai Yan to say anything, as soon as these merchants heard about the conditions of the nobles of the East China Sea, everyone immediately paid to purchase a large number of weapons from Taoqiu, and handed them over to the nobles of the East China Sea through Dai Yan.

After the nobles of the East China Sea obtained these well-equipped weapons, the situation of the Song people who were slightly weaker in actual combat was immediately improved, and the status of these nobles in the land of the East China Sea immediately became as stable as Mount Tai.

With these things it doesn't count. When the nobles of the Song Kingdom established themselves in the East China Sea, the merchants of Taoqiu raised a large amount of money according to the proportion of the last time they raised funds to buy weapons, and began to go to the center of the East China Sea, the mouth of the Huai River, a small city called Hailing, and began to dry salt.

Among these businessmen, there is a large businessman with rich experience in the salt industry. With the family business left by the ancestor Yiwei in Hedong Yanchi, Yiwei also has a wide range of salt sales in his hands. However, in his opinion, Hedong Yanchi has natural problems that are difficult to solve, which limits its production and continued development.

First of all, Hedong Yanchi is located in the mountains, even though the former salt tycoon Yiwei built a canal at his own expense, thus solving the transportation of salt, Yi's share in the salt market has not continued to rise, but is declining!

All this is naturally because the cost of sea salt is much lower than that of pool salt. Yiwei once sent people to the Qi country to inquire, and the Qi people obtained salt directly with seawater, and the output was much larger than that of the pond salt in the east of the river. The salt obtained by the Qi people is directly transported through the river and Jishui, which makes its transportation cost extremely low. As for the sale of salt, Qi is not allowed to be done by private individuals, and it is all made and sold by the government and monopoly!

In the era of Yidun, he could rely on his superb management skills and unique cost control methods to break the bureaucratic salt industry of Qi in terms of price and squeeze the salt industry of Qi out of the market of Sanjin. However, once Qi Guo turned around and found a way to start controlling costs, Chiyan in Hedong was not the opponent of Qi Haiyan at all.

Therefore, Yi Wei knew very well that if he wanted to break Qi's monopoly on the salt industry, he had to obtain a convenient outlet to the sea. However, most of the coastal zone was occupied by the Qi State. A small number of coasts that nominally belong to the Yan Kingdom and the Yue Kingdom are actually barbarian areas, which are not suitable for salt production at all!

However, when Dai Yan had already obtained the authorization of the nobles of the East China Sea Land to allow them to dry salt on a large scale on their land, Yi Wei knew that this was definitely a lucrative business! He was immediately very interested in such a business, and invested a lot of money to support the nobles of the East China Sea. Out of trust in this big salt merchant, Dai Yan and the Taoqiu merchants also handed over the management of the salt industry to this big merchant, and the major trading houses only sent financial supervisors to supervise it.

The method of drying salt in seawater is not actually a complicated technology, it is just the precipitation of different salts through the different solubility of various salts. The method of boiling can control the concentration of brine well, so as to control the precipitated salt. However, when Dai Yan ordered the disciples of the Mo family to explain the exact knowledge of the solution to the craftsmen of Yiwei, and explained to them the concentration of saltwater, the saturation of the solution, the crystallization of salt, etc., Yiwei cooperated with his family's secrets and built a diversion pond, an evaporation pond and a crystallization pond respectively, and soon solved the problem of drying salt in seawater, thus obtaining a large amount of salt!

In Yi Wei's heart, the only regret is that this salt farm is not a private monopoly by him, but is controlled by the pottery king, the pottery mound merchants, and the nobles of the East China Sea, which greatly dilutes his profits.

However, there are also benefits to joint stock management! Since there is a salt industry for merchants in the East China Sea, those merchants who hope to make a profit from selling salt have traveled back and forth between Taoqiu and Hailing, sweeping away all the bandits along the way, which also makes the cost of salt in the East China Sea lower than that of Qi State, so that they can really compete with Qi salt in the world!

And this small city in the East China Sea also has a new name with the coming and going of Taoqiu merchants: Yancheng.

When Dai Yan heard that this small city in the East China Sea had become more and more prosperous with the expansion of Taoqiu merchants, he was very interested in it, and he must go to the city to take a closer look.

Therefore, he chose Yi Wei, the most influential businessman in Yancheng, as an escort to visit this Yancheng in person.

"Lord, in front of you is Hailingyi, which is commonly known as Yancheng." Not far from the mouth of the Huaishui Sea, Yi Wei pointed to a small city on the shore and said to Dai Yan.

As far as Dai Yan could see, this city was indeed a small city. Its walls are so simple that they are not even made of stone, but are enclosed by a wooden fence. Not to mention such a city, not to mention Tao Qiubi, even if it is with Fengyi, it is completely incomparable!

However, when Dai Yan got off the boat and walked into this salt city in person, he found that this place was not simple.

It's a small town, but it's full of merchants! Even Fengyi, as a wholesale place for tea, does not have as many merchants as this new city!

And although this place may seem rudimentary, its defenses are extremely tight! When Dai Yan walked into this city under the greeting of the nobles in Yancheng, he not only found the Song clan soldiers full of elite weapons, but also many strong and burly merchant guards, and even Dai Yan saw a lot of clan soldiers composed of Dongyi people from them!

Dai Yan then asked the noble Emperor Fu Yong here, "Aren't you still at war with Dongyi?" How can there still be Dongyi people wearing weapons in this salt city? ”

"Cao Gong doesn't know anything! Although these people are the same Dongyi people, they are different from those Dongyi barbarians who act fiercely and do not know etiquette. These Dongyi people have also heard of the wealth of the Central Plains, and they are willing to pay allegiance to us and help us fight against the Dongyi barbarians, and they are the biggest helpers who can establish themselves here! Huangfu Yong explained to Dai Yan.

Dai Yan wanted to persuade them to be wary of the threat that these aliens posed to them. However, when the words came to his lips, he took them back into his mouth. I also persuaded these East China Sea nobles to make good use of Dongyi talents, aren't these talents who are willing to defect to them? Chinese civilization is essentially a tolerant civilization, these little nobles of the Song Kingdom have endured many years of etiquette and righteousness, but they are not stupid, of course, they also know that they can't accept some white-eyed wolves!

The city of Yancheng may be more appropriate to call it a walled city. It was not built for a long time, but only a few years. However, although it was built for a short time, it is clear that it is different from the inland cities, and it is a city that is constantly expanding.

At least Dai Yan has found three fences in a circle in this city. If it weren't for the continuous expansion of the city, how could there be so many walled cities?

And what is particularly striking about this city is the salt pans that are nearly ten miles long by the sea. From afar, the entire beach is covered in white salt mountains, which is spectacular!

And outside the beach, the blue sky and the blue sea are endless, giving people the feeling of the vastness of heaven and earth!

Dai Yan climbed a lookout platform in this salt city and looked into the distance, he suddenly had an impulse to conquer the sea, who currently had a large family business!

When he looked carefully from this high platform, he suddenly noticed that on the nearby sea, fountains were gushing up endlessly!

He immediately went down from the high platform of Yancheng and walked into the seashore to carefully observe the "fountains".

"It's a whale!" Dai Yan's mind flashed with such a thought, looking at the sudden appearance of several behemoths on the sea, Dai Yan suddenly had a thought in his heart, this thought was extremely strong, and he couldn't suppress it!

He immediately beckoned the guards to re-board the steamer and continue to sail out of the Huaishui to the sea near here!

When the ship appeared on the surface, the whales were still breathing, not paying attention to the big ship that appeared.

When Dai Yan saw this, he was very excited, and immediately instructed the sailor on the ship to control the bed crossbow: "Fire crossbow arrows at the whales around here and catch them!" ”

For crossbow arrows that can "catch fish", these sailors have long been too familiar to be cooked. Because they have encountered countless water bandits in the course of driving on the water over the years, and they have also captured countless water bandit boats! Now the lord has asked them to catch these "big fish", and they don't have the slightest sense of rustiness!

So a heavily armed crossbow bolt was ready to go straight to the nearest whale charge!

With such a close distance, and so many whales around, the crossbowmen naturally had no chance of missing, and the heavy crossbow bolts shot directly into the body of a smaller whale, and the bright red blood immediately gushed out, quickly dyeing the nearby sea water red!

The smell of blood spread, and immediately the whales that were ventilating around quickly dispersed!

Then, Dai Yan felt a shock to the hull of this advanced wheel ship, and began to shake uncontrollably, heading towards the depths of the sea!

Such a scene terrified the sailors on board, who had only sailed on inland rivers before, but had never sailed on the sea! And now on the ship, there is still the noble Taoqiu Jun, if the lord has any mistakes, they will really be doomed!