In March of the 15th year of Xiantong, the spring ploughing work on the three arable islands in Shamen Town was completed. More than 20,000 acres of land have been sown with spring wheat, a deep well for every 100 acres of cultivated land has been completed, and the waterwheels made by the carpenter workshop have also been made in place.

However, the minds of the people on the islands are not much on these lands, and after the seeds are planted, each family will not need much time to work on these two and a half acres of land. Since the spring ploughing, the forts have begun to put several new projects that Li Jing has taken out.

The flint mines of Fort Great Black Mountain, the lighter shell blacksmith's workshop, the flint grinding yard, and the lighter assembly workshop. The big and small black mountain forts and even the town of Shamen each organized a huge fishing team to go out to sea to fish, and set up their own slaughterhouses, canning yards, and even built and expanded a clay pot factory and porcelain factory.

The salt drying factories on Nantangzi Island have also officially transferred manpower into it, officially opening up a large area of salt pans. The entire Nantangzi Island was officially closed, claiming to be a military stronghold, and idlers were not allowed to enter, but in fact, Zhang Chengye, the prison army, was afraid that Li Jing's salt drying method would be known to others.

The whole Nantongzi has opened up 1,000 acres of salt pans, and every year from March to May is the peak season for drying salt, which can be called the flood season. From the end of October to January of the following year, it can be called the small flood season. This new salt drying method in the salt pan can complete the procedure of drying all salt every 12 days, and the salt can be officially harvested. The yield of this salt drying method is extremely high, and the salt yield rate reaches 3 percent of the seawater, and one mu of salt field can produce 4,000 catties of salt. According to the output and the manual calculation required, Zhang Chengye and Zhang Hong were surprised to find that a salt factory worker can produce an average of 40,000 catties of salt a year, which is only the output of drying salt for 108 days a year in two large and small flood seasons.

12-day period. The salt farm produces more than 30,000 stones. And only 1,000 workers were employed. You can dry ten salts a year. Reaching more than 300,000 stone salts. The salt produced is white, large and dry, and the quality is much better than that of ordinary sea salt. Even the world-famous Huai salt, the general salt is not as good as the salt, only some multi-filtered high-quality can be compared.

When the first batch of salt came out of the salt pan, and a white flower of salt like snow in the salt field lay quietly in the field, Zhang Chengye and Zhang Hong were so excited that even Lin Wei, who came to watch, was shocked and speechless. Over the years, everyone has long been accustomed to boiling the sea for salt. I've never seen salt out of the sea like this.

"The quality of this salt is better than Huai salt, comparable to green salt, good salt, good salt." Zhang Chengye shouted with joy.

Green salt is not sea salt, but a special lake salt of Qinghai, also known as stone salt. The price of salt has always been high, three or four hundred yuan for salt, or even twice the price of rice. Now the salt bucket of the imperial court is 100 yuan, and at this price, Nantangzi Island produces more than 300,000 stones a year. Then the annual output of this salt pan is worth more than 700,000 yuan. Even if it is only calculated by half, it is still a huge profit of three or four hundred thousand. And this. There is no need to make any effort at all, the cost is only the wages of a thousand salt factory workers, and the labor cost is less than 5,000 a year. It's a lucrative deal!

"It is strictly forbidden for everyone to enter and leave Nantangzi, and it must be strictly guarded, and the families of those salt factory workers had better all move to Nantangzi Island to prevent them from going out and leaking secrets." Zhang Chengye was even more concerned than Li Jing, and immediately saw the huge profits of this salt factory.

By the end of March, the salt factory had officially released two phases of salt, and there were nearly 70,000 stones of salt in the salt warehouse on Nantangzi Island. Looking at these warehouses of salt, Zhang Hong, the big housekeeper, couldn't close his mouth when he smiled. After the first effect of salt production, the first batch of lighters for the Great Black Mountain Fort was finally officially produced. According to Li Jing's guidance, the positioning of this first batch of lighters is luxury, and the target is also those rich and noble officials, so the chassis are extremely luxurious, with four styles of steel, brass, silver, and gold, and they are all inlaid with jewelry. These lighters are a collector's item, made of kerosene, and each lighter is sold in a small porcelain bottle.

"How much does it cost?" Lin Wei sent a few lighters to Li Jing and asked nervously. Now almost half of the tens of thousands of people on the entire island of Great Black Mountain have joined the project.

Li Jing looked at a few naked lighters, and said with some dissatisfaction: "Your lighters are not bad, beautiful and luxurious." But as I said earlier, our positioning is luxury, and since this is the case, then we don't just make good products. This packaging is even more important, you have to take the silk packaging, and then put it in a nanmu box. There must be patterns on the back box, in short, just a box has to be a rare luxury. In addition, your kerosene bottle, you must use a celadon bottle, don't worry about the cost, all this can be added to the price, and even add more, you must make it luxurious. ”

"As for the price, steel, bronze, silver, and gold, it is better to price it at four price points: ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred. When selling, according to the sales method of liquor, it is sold by distributors in large regions, and it must be hungry for marketing and get the price up. Not only does it have to be sold at a high price, but it also has to be made into a rare and priceless situation. In this way, there is no need to worry about not making money. ”

"Is anyone buying it if it's so expensive?" Lin Wei asked worriedly, this small lighter is now related to half of the people of Black Mountain Fort. The lighter looked mysterious, but the cost was not high, and he couldn't imagine that Li Jing would actually offer such a high price.

"The people who are willing to spend money on lighters are the children of those wealthy businessmen and high-ranking officials, do you think they are willing to spend money on such luxury goods, how can they care about the price?" Li Jing replied with a smile.

Recently, Li Jing has been in a very good mood, and since March, all battalions in Shamen Town, except for the logistics battalion, the other six battalions have taken turns to attack, and every time they go out of the town, they will attack one or two or three. With Gongsun Lan of Meihuamen providing information on the pirates and bandits, and the reconnaissance battalion reconnoitering and verifying the information in advance to find out the detailed route and the enemy's reality and reality, and then Li Jing and the officers of the battalions discussing in detail and planning for the battle, Li Jing gave the commanders who attacked each time the right to make temporary decisions on the battlefield.

In the past month, all six battalions have taken turns to attack, and the battle situation is also very gratifying. More than 30 people in the six battalions were divided into more than a dozen batches. Nearly 20 groups of pirates and bandits on the sea near Shamen Town and on the coast of Dengzhou were wiped out successively. There were three to five thousand pirate bandits who were exterminated. The less is eight or nine hundred. None of them were able to escape under the attack of the Salmen Army, and all of them were destroyed.

The bandit capital was executed, and the remaining bandits and their families, as well as money, food, weapons and other goods in the cottages were all transported back to Shamen Town. During these sorties, Li Jing also mobilized the prisoner of war camp and the barracks battalion, and even specially recruited a battalion of civilian men to accompany the army every time to train them in cooperative combat ability, and by the way, to transport all the lair property. From the other side. It is also to solve a lot of surplus labor and give the people a chance to make money. The people who participated in the transportation with the army received a very rich reward, and in the end, Li Jing had to take turns to recruit the people, which calmed the envy of the other people.

More than 20 thieves' dens were exterminated, and while training the troops, it brought Li Jing more than 100,000 yuan of extra money income, and obtained thousands of pairs of knives, guns, bows and arrows. It was piled up in the arsenal of weapons sold in foreign trade.

In addition to the seizure of money and weapons, exterminate these cottages. Li Jing also received more than 30,000 stone of grain, and more than 20,000 pirates and bandits and their families, all of whom became Li Jing's prisoners. Li Jing had no intention of taking these people in, so he directly put them in a prisoner of war camp, ready to take them to Liaodong to sell, or exchange them for some young and strong prisoners of war and slaves or war horses and other materials.

In this round of combat training, each battalion also suffered some injuries, adding up to nearly 100 casualties, all of which were caused by inexperience when they first went to the battlefield. Although there seemed to be such a large casualty, Li Jing thought it was definitely worth it. It has only been a month, and after the baptism of war and swords and guns, when these Shamen town troops walked in front of Li Jing again, they had completely changed a lot, and there was a real killing atmosphere in the action.

"Yanei, the canned food in these new supply armies is really good, and every time they attack on the march, they have to go back and forth for more than two days. When marching, there is very little cooking time, with these cans, there is no need to regenerate the fire to cook, directly distribute a few cans per group, and then fry rice and fried noodles or the pot helmet cakes made by logistics, which is simple and convenient, and delicious. Especially the canned braised beef, it's the first time I've eaten so much beef when I'm older, it's so delicious. Liu Shouqian said loudly.

Beef was a precious thing in the Tang Dynasty, the people were not allowed to commit suicide cows, cattle died of old age, and they had to report to the officials before killing, and the officials sent people to kill. After killing, horns, cow tendons, cowhides and other things had to be requisitioned by the officials. It is normal for the average person to have never eaten beef in their life.

These canned beef were slaughtered by a large number of old cattle that Li Jing transported from Qingnipu, and the soldiers below who ate them at once had a great aftertaste.

At present, the canned food produced on several islands is divided into five categories, meat, poultry, aquatic products, fruits, and vegetables.

Specifically, it is also divided into canned steamed meat, canned seasoned meat, canned cured meat, smoked meat, canned sausage meat, and canned offal meat. and canned braised poultry, canned boneless poultry, and canned seasoned poultry. Canned oil-soaked aquatic products, canned seasoning aquatic products, canned steamed aquatic products. Canned fruits in syrup, canned fruits in syrup, jams. Canned vegetables, canned vinegared vegetables, canned seasoning vegetables, canned salted vegetables.

So many varieties can be said to be very rich, now the production is a clay pot of picnic packs, each jar is a few pounds, a can can be used by a group of sergeants on the march. According to Li Jing's request, next, the canning workshops on each island will also produce family packs for sale. According to the price, it is divided into ordinary family versions, which are packed in bamboo tubes and gourds and even small clay pots, with about one pound per jar. The other is a luxury model, which is in a fine porcelain bottle and sells for a higher price.

Since the canned food was supplied in the army, it has attracted a warm response, and the soldiers are very fond of this canned food.

Li Jing is discussing with Cangcao and Han Zhongwu to increase orders for various canning workshops, and the warehouse will store more canned food of all kinds. Suddenly, Zhao Jiang, the head of the guard, came in and reported: "Yanei, there is a person who claims to be the chief of Puzhou Shangjun who has come to ask to see Yanei. ”

"Shang Junchang?" Li Jing's expression moved when he heard this, and he immediately thought of a person, a figure who was rampant in the late Tang Dynasty and rampant in the world. (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )