Time flies so fast, and in a blink of an eye, winter has gone to spring. The leaves of the www.biquge.info trees began to climb the branches, the river began to flow, and Zhang Kai returned with the sailboat. After Zhang Kai got off the boat, he first came to Jiang Hexing to tell him what happened.

It turned out that in the autumn of last year, Jiang Xing ordered Zhang Kai to take a galleon to find Phoenix Island, they followed the general route of Jiang Hexing, first from the Liao River to the sea, and then to Qingzhou, after Qingzhou rested, from the Bohai Sea along the seaside all the way to the east, until there was no direction except for the sun, fortunately, there were many sunny days in winter, all the way to the east, to Lelang County. Then rest for a few days, continue to go south along the seaside, and then come to the boundary of Mahan, continue to go south, you can't see the land, but there are many small islands in front, there are no people, and then in less than half a day to the south of Mahan, you will arrive at a very big island, probably Phoenix Island.

The whole island is very large, and Zhang Kai estimates that it is about the same size as the entire Yangyuan County. There are many rocks in the island, the wind is strong, and you can see cliffs in some places, many stones are weird, black, and there are many holes in it. There are mountains and plains on the island, and there are some small islands around, and there are some natives living in the caves, fishing in the sea, hunting on the island for a living, there are only a few hundred people, and there are few people on the surrounding islands. Zhang Kai gave them some things and food produced here, and they were very happy, and they did not hinder Zhang Kai from doing anything.

Zhang Kai has made a simple port on the northwest coast of Phoenix Island, although it is not large, but it is not a problem to berth about 10 sailing ships. There are many stones on the island, and the farming is not very good, but in order to trade with the Han land in the future, especially the transaction in the south of the Yangtze River, there is a safe transit station, and Phoenix Island is a good choice.

What Jiang Hexing is troubled about now is that there is no access to the sea, which is inconvenient many times, and it is not bad to use this island temporarily. Jiang Hexing knew that it was not bad to be a horse farm here, so he thought about it and made a decision. Phoenix City is set up on this island, which is fully responsible for Zhang Kai, mainly for commercial and trade freight transit, military horse breeding training, and sea salt production concentration. The Phoenix garrison was in charge of Zhang Kai's old partner Chen Ganglai, and the Phoenix garrison division was set up, consisting of cavalry, infantry, and sailors, and the division commander was Chen Gang.

Jiang Hexing had a brief conversation with the people from the Chamber of Commerce, and they were extremely enthusiastic, saying that they would invest in setting up warehouses and even factories. Jiang Hexing also talked to Chen Gang, Chen Gang was a soldier, so he had to obey orders, Jiang Hexing thought that he might be stationed there for a long time, so he simply arranged for his family members who were willing to go with the army. When Chen Gang heard this, he was full of joy, having his family by his side was much better than being alone on a desert island.

Jiang Hexing, who was making arrangements for Phoenix City, suddenly received an edict from the imperial court, asking him to go to Chang'an City as soon as possible and accept the edict. Jiang Hexing said that he would leave as soon as possible and send away the envoys of the imperial court. began to explain various matters, Zhang Jie led the troops to reorganize the training, mainly aimed at the Xianbei people, and when Jiang Hexing came back, he would avenge the unprovoked violation of the boundary last year. The responsible persons of the rest of the cities, especially the former Fuyu and other places, should vigorously absorb immigrants, vigorously open up wasteland, carry out spring ploughing, and try to grow as much rice as possible. After the river walked, Li Xiaowen was entrusted with full responsibility.

On this day, on the Liao River, a long procession of sailboats began to move south, Jiang Hexing and Zhang Kai sat on the boat in the middle, waving goodbye to the people on the shore to say goodbye. Among the sailboats, there were Chen Gang's military horses, family members, merchants' goods, various builders, craftsmen, furniture merchants, clothing merchants, and many grain merchants. Many important people are trying to squeeze into the same boat with Jiang Hexing, Jiang Hexing is also willing to chat with everyone, walk along the original route, go to sea in the morning, dock on the shore when it is almost dark, along the way, stop and go, about 10 days, they finally saw Phoenix Island. The fleet was very long, and the original small port was not enough, so two places were found around the island to serve as improvised ports for mooring ships. Everyone went ashore one after another, and the soldiers, the horse team, the foals, the wranglers, the merchants, and the craftsmen were all busy for two days.

Although it was spring when I set off, it was still very cold, and when I arrived at Phoenix Island, it was summer. After coming ashore, the people cheered and the warm summer came. The weather is comfortable, and the work is not hard. According to the previous arrangement, everyone was busy with their own affairs, Jiang Hexing took a look, and explained to Zhang Kai about the port and warehousing. Then he led a group of craftsmen to a beach in the northeast of Phoenix Island.

The focus of Jiang Hexing's visit this time is to find a salt making point and test the method of drying sea salt, so that cheap salt will be available in Beihai County in the future

Use it. As for the future, there will be more of them, so I will make new plans.

The drying of sea salt is to lead the seawater to a large area of tidal flats, where it is gradually dried under the wind and sun.

Sea salt drying can be carried out in the following steps.

Step 1: Absorb the tide

In the morning when the weather is fine, the sea water from the early tide is brought into the salt pans.

Step 2: Halogen

Seawater evaporates in the first salt pond for one day, the second salt pond is introduced into the second salt pond to continue evaporation, and the third salt pond is introduced on the third day, and so on. On the 9th day, when the seawater enters the 9th salt pond, the evaporated seawater reaches a certain concentration, and this process is called brine production.

Step 3: Crystallization

The brine crystallization occurs in the 10th salt pond, and unlike the first 9 salt ponds, the bottom of the 10th salt pond is covered with a layer of broken pottery shards, which is conducive to both brine crystallization and keeping the salt clean. At this time, the brine concentration reaches the standard of salt production.

Step 4: Collect the salt and return it to the lump

When the brine enters the last salt pool, white salt appears, and when the salt reaches a certain thickness in the crystallization pool, the salt can be collected. From the introduction of seawater to the crystallization of salt, the drying cycle of sea salt is about 12 days. A salt pond can produce 10,000 catties of salt, and if there are hundreds of salt ponds, it is a great wealth.

Jiang Hexing drew drawings, surveyed the address, instructed the craftsmen to operate, and after five busy days, a large salt pond was built.

After completion, the affairs will be handed over to Zhang Kai. Jiang Hexing took Liu Qing and Ma Yuan, escorted by 50 cavalry, and boarded two galleons.

When the road was familiar, the sailboat was really fast, and after three days, it arrived in Qingzhou, and after two days, it actually arrived in Bohai County, entered the Yellow River from Bohai County, and traveled all the way to the west.

At first, it was fine, but later it was found that the fast boat in the Yellow River was extremely unsafe, and the speed slowed down, but it was also much faster than the average boat. The Yellow River, like that of later generations, has a section that is also a river on the ground, looking at the verdant farmland on both sides, the river line shook his head, this seems to be the problem of the century. The water of the Yellow River is much larger than the impression of the river, but there is still a lot of sediment.

After walking on the Yellow River for about 10 days, on this day, they came to Luoyang. They abandoned the ship and changed horses, let the sailing ship wait for their orders here, and beat the horses into the city of Luoyang.

When they arrived at the Taishou Mansion in Henan County, they reported their intentions, and the Taishou did not dare to slack off, so they immediately arranged for them to live and rest, and Pegasus reported to Chang'an. Five days later, under the protection of the authorities, the group began to leave Luoyang and headed for Chang'an.

There was nothing to say all the way, and 8 days later, Jiang Hexing and others came to the east gate of Chang'an City, which is the Qingming Gate. The high city wall is about three zhang high and less than four zhang, but it looks extremely grand, perhaps too grand.

There are already people waiting for Jiang Hexing here, Jiang Hexing takes a look, old acquaintance, Yan You. Jiang Hexing thought it would be Da Honglu, and it should be Da Honglu to receive it. Da Honglu is similar to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of the negotiation and sealing of the Barbarians of Fanbang. At this time, it is said that Da Honglu will arrange hotel accommodation, and then arrange the etiquette of meeting the emperor. turned out that Yan You had arrived, and after listening to Liu Qing and others, Yan You was really a military general, and more of Wang Mang's personal friend. It seems that Wang Mang has something to do, he needs to see Jiang Hexing first, or arrange for Jiang Hexing first.

Yan You stepped forward, took the river line, and went all the way to the hotel. The two rode side by side, talking and laughing, like old friends who hadn't seen each other for many years. In summer, the street is lined with green trees, covering the clouds and the sun, and along the way, passing through the shops, people come and go, rubbing shoulders, extremely prosperous. The hotel is called the Barbarian Mansion, in the northwest corner of Chang'an, the team went west through the spacious Shangguan Front Street, north at Zhangtai Street, and then walked a few unknown small streets before coming to the Barbarian Mansion.

After the hotel was settled, Jiang Hexing retreated left and right, and the two knelt opposite each other, here they still knelt and sit, Jiang Hexing was very unaccustomed, but they had to follow the local customs.

Jiang Hexing first asked: "Mr. Yan, why didn't you see Da Honglu come to pick it up, but you did it for you?" ”

Yan You smiled slightly, and said slowly: "Mr. Jiang, you don't know, many of the negotiations with Wuhuan and the Xiongnu are directly negotiated by the generals, and Da Honglu basically doesn't care, I am also a member of the army, and I came to pick you up in the past, hehe." Besides, Da Honglu has no power, and many things can't be discussed, don't you say? ”

Jiang Hexing nodded, and then asked, "What General Yan said can involve military affairs?" ”

"It has nothing to do with military affairs, but it has to do with government affairs."

"Oh, let's talk about it."

"Last winter, Zhonglang went to Xihai to induce the leader of Beiheqiang to donate his subordinates with money. He lured with money on the one hand and threatened with force on the other. Na Liangyuan liked and feared it, but in the end he agreed, dedicated his territory to the Han Dynasty, and led his clan to the west, so Xihai County was established. And Mr. is very different, although Mr. is a foreigner, but he also longs for the righteousness of my Han Dynasty, and in order to save the Han people, he raised troops to fight Wuhuan and recruited husbands. And took the initiative to belong to my Han Dynasty, thinking that the domain of the Han Dynasty was blocking the Xiongnu in the west and Xianbei in the north. Sir, am I right? ”

Jiang He Xingxin said, you are too shameless, although I agree, but you are also looking for ****. Jiang Hexing thought about it, this Yan You seems to want to compare that Pingxian. It's the same as Shun, I'm taking the initiative, and don't spend money, so Pingxian estimates that it will cost a lot of money. Now it seems that everything in Xihai County is a private transaction, and there will be people who will not accept it in the future, and there will be a lot of troubles in the future. But on his side, he hit it off, and he was immediately willing to submit, which seemed that the court really "cultivated virtue to serve the distance", and the four Yi guests obeyed. How to look at this, it seems that the court has more face, and the credit of An Hangong is great.

Jiang Hexing thought for a long time, looked at Yan You and said: "It's not that I took the initiative to belong to the Han Dynasty, but that General Yan said that the Han Dynasty is the real state of etiquette, so I am willing to obey it." ”

Jiang Hexing is equivalent to giving a big credit to Yan You, but Yan You frowned and didn't speak much.

Jiang Hexing asked, "General Yan, I gave you credit, why don't you want it?" Isn't that the most credit to you? ”

Yan You hesitated for a long time and said: "This remark originally wanted Mr. to say to the Queen Mother, and my credit An Han Gong knows it." ”

"Oh, I see."

It turned out that he wanted to fool the Queen Mother, showing that the court was far away from virtue and that foreign countries were subservient.

Later, after chatting again, I learned that the imperial court now has Donghai County, Nanhai County, Beihai County, and one more Xihai County, which is already a Siyi Binfu. But Jiang Hexing's side conquered Wuhuan, Fuyu, and the area was larger, so someone suggested to Wang Mang and let Jiang Hexing find a way to return to obedience. East, west, north and south, the land of the four seas, are all the land of the Han Dynasty, and if there is more land of Wuhai, even if it is nominally. Who knows, they all succeeded. That's why I want to let Jiang Hexing come to the court and show the Queen Mother, our Han Dynasty's current court governance is far better than that of the Han Wuhan Xuanshi.

Jiang Hexing doesn't care too much about the name, he cares more about interests, especially the interests of commerce. Only by having a good relationship with this side can we better develop commerce and trade, consolidate ourselves, and the people can live a good life.

In the end, Jiang Hexing asked if he could see Wang Mang, and asked Yan You if he could arrange it.

Yan You nodded, agreed to Jiang Hexing's request, and asked him to wait in the hotel.

Liu Qing and Ma Yuan went out to visit Chang'an City, and Jiang Hexing had to think about how to deal with Wang Mang and stayed in the hotel and waited.