Loyalty! Loyalty! Loyalty! Shen Zhiwei: Huh? Who's going to...

This batch of salt was made by Shen Zhiwei using the existing bitter salt in the palace, and she didn't even touch the loose salt.

Because she was not sure whether she could succeed immediately before she started, the frugal virtue of the flower-growing family, which was afraid of waste, made Shen Zhiwei not touch the loose salt.

If Shen Zhiwei knew that Tai Buyang thought she was "extravagant and wasteful", she would be moved to tears.

After so many days of traveling through time, one day, people around her saw her behavior and made negative comments!

How difficult it was! It was so difficult, it was a milestone. She should have written it down and engraved it on the bamboo slips of her memoirs of a fallen king.

The production process is very simple. It involves boiling it, filtering it multiple times with objects such as yellow mud and charcoal cloth, and finally using a distillation apparatus to distill and purify it. The most time-consuming part is the repeated filtering, and the most laborious part is explaining to the blacksmith apprentice what kind of distillation apparatus she wants.

"Your Majesty, this salt is very rare. Could you please give me some?"

Shen Zhiwei was still lamenting that if raising pigs and farming could be as easy as making salt, she would have been able to eat the delicious stir-fried dishes she had dreamed of long ago!

Then she heard Taibuyang trying to snatch salt from her pig.

That pitiful look made Shen Zhiwei feel a little embarrassed.

"I have a detailed method for drying salt, as well as the process of boiling and filtering salt. If you want, take it and make it yourself."

Shen Zhiwei was not stingy at all, but rather too generous. She felt that her country would be destroyed and she would die sooner or later, returning to the modern era. Things like these could not be brought with her when she was born and could not be taken away when she died, so it would be better to leave them to those who needed them and let them make good use of them to survive.

These days, Taibu Yang has been loyal to her, and Shen Zhiwei doesn't want such a loyal minister to be buried with her and Zhou Chao.

The idea was too beautiful, but it was in line with Shen Zhiwei's background. Until now, she had never considered herself a part of this era. She was just a passerby, a passerby who came with a mission.

But Taibu Yang didn't know that Shen Zhiwei was just a passerby. When he heard this, cold sweat broke out on his face.

"I, your humble servant, would never dare covet anything that belongs to the king! I will personally feed this salt to the pigs and will not allow anyone else to take a single cent!"

Gui Yang thought that Shen Zhiwei was dissatisfied with his test. That's right, what he said just now was not because he really wanted salt, but to test whether the king could produce more salt.

If this snow-white salt is so precious, and the king feeds it to pigs, it would be a complete act of a spendthrift.

Fortunately, the king is still the same king, with a heart full of gullies and unfathomable depths. He pretends to be trying to make something to eat, which makes the princes feel relieved, thinking that the king is just a fool who only cares about food and drink.

Those princes were all wrong. They thought the king was stupid, but they didn't know that they were the biggest fools in the world, especially the King of Anguo. Not only did he personally send excellent craftsmen, but he also used the king as a stepping stone to establish his authority.

He is the only one in the world who understands the king's ambition and cruelty hidden beneath his foolish appearance!

Taibu Yang's body trembled with excitement at the thought. He said, "Your Majesty, please entrust this matter to the person you trust most. Once the snow-white salt can be produced in large quantities, everyone will understand that the world is still the Zhou Emperor's world! The people are still the king's people!"

His startled look really made Shen Zhiwei dumbfounded.

Weren't we just talking about salt? How did it involve the whole world?

Shen Zhiwei thought about it and understood Taibu Yang's train of thought. Since ancient times, salt and iron have been the foundation of a country. Those who control these two things are equivalent to controlling the world.

Shen Zhiwei was not stupid, she just wasn't very good at politics. At this moment, she had vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but under Tai Buyang's overly excited shouting, that sense of wrongness could not be made clear.

Instead, there was embarrassment.

Stop it, stop it, I'm about to get embarrassed again!

"Your Majesty, I will not reveal a single word of this matter to anyone else. I will definitely give those princes a surprise in the future. Then I will humiliate the Northern King. He dared to covet the things of the Son of Heaven. He will pay the price!"

Taibu Yang had a sinister look on his face. This guy really didn't do things in an upright manner. He often came up with vicious schemes and his style of doing things was rather shameless.

Shen Zhiwei felt that he couldn't let Tai Buyang ponder it any further, otherwise someone's head would be moved again, especially in public.

"Haha, Yang, you're the person I trust the most. I'll leave this matter to you. Yang, when you come back, I'll give you a promotion!"

Don't come back. Just stay by the sea until her country is destroyed. Then you can use your salt-drying technology to become a high-ranking official in the next dynasty!

Shen Zhiwei felt that he was a genius and decided to send this Ran Ge to the beach to get some fresh air.

Pig farming obviously cannot occupy all of Taibu Yang's energy. In this case, he should be given more things to do to prevent him from daydreaming about making a king of a fallen country a wise and benevolent ruler.

It's really mean of Taibu Yang to let the salted fish turn over and become the king of the volume.

As expected, Taibu Yang once again took advantage of Shen Zhiwei's offer, and felt that his bright future of promotion was about to arrive.

He accepted the task without hesitation, and kept thinking about how many people to bring to the beach and how to block the news.

When he went out, he ran into Hu Youan.

Hu Youan went to the Hundred Craftsmen's Workshop to test his sword. These days, An Jin was obsessed with forging various weapons. Hu Youan was skilled in martial arts and was also a trusted guard of the king. Of course, he was the best candidate to test his sword.

In addition to swords, there are also knives, spears, halberds, and forged armor.

I haven't found a particularly satisfactory style of armor yet, but I have already decided on several versions of swords and other items.

"Has the fortune teller just met the king?"

"Well, the king has another urgent matter. I may have to go to the shores of the East China Sea for a while and won't be back anytime soon. I'd like to ask Doctor Hu to take good care of the pigs in my household. They're all raised by the king."

Gui Yang had no one to take care of the household. He was unmarried and had only an old mother at home. His mother was of humble origin and was in poor health, and he didn't want to worry his mother.

So this pig can only be handed over to others.

Tai Buyang still has some friends in the court, but those people are not trustworthy. Tai Buyang feels that he is the only one in the court who understands the king's vision. Those mediocre people will never see the king's greatness in their lifetime, so how can they be worthy of working for the king.

So entrusting things to Hu Youan is the best choice.

"Okay, this isn't difficult, don't worry, Master." Hu Youan agreed immediately, then asked curiously, "Master's trip to the beach, is it related to that snow-white thing?"

Gui Yang nodded without saying another word.

Hu Youan carefully looked around, and after making sure that no one was around, he stepped forward and whispered to Taibu Yang, "Taibu, you must bring more people with you when you go out this time. The seaside is not safe."

Gui Yang raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, then asked humbly, "Doctor, could you elaborate?"

"The territory under Jingchang's control has been shrinking in recent years. The seaside is too far from Jingchang, and I'm afraid it will fall into the hands of others soon. Besides, the profits from boiling salt are huge, and there are many people there."

The reason why Hu Youan knew this was because she had checked in the past few days. If even the emperor's exclusive malt salt could be tampered with, could the other loose salts and bitter salts be spared?

Sure enough, the result was no.

Loose salt and bitter salt can still be supplied normally because these two are involved in sacrifices and are cheap. If they are not available at the seaside, the royal family can also go to salt lakes and other places to make them themselves.

People living by the sea obviously know that what they do is shameful to the world, so they have always kept a low profile.

Now that Taibuyang has gone to the beach, they can no longer keep a low profile even if they want to.

Taibu Yang was shocked when he heard this. He thought about his own troops and said with a little distress, "To be honest with Doctor Hu, I only have a hundred or so troops at home. I can't take them all with me. I'm afraid it will be difficult to win with such a small number of people."

"If you don't mind, You'an is willing to give it a try. However, the palace is short of manpower, so I'm afraid I'll have to recruit some civilians."

Hu Youan meant that she was willing to lead the troops to investigate, and if there were really people who were so bold as to occupy the emperor's land without authorization, she would lead the troops to wipe them out.

But she didn't have that many soldiers under her command, and recruiting civilians required the king's consent, and the recruited soldiers also needed money and food to support them.

He just said that there was a shortage of staff in the palace, and almost asked Taibu Yang to pay for the food.

He provided money and food, and in the end all the people he recruited belonged to Hu Youan.

Tai Buyang almost cursed out loud. He didn't say anything, but the expression in his eyes showed how much he was cursing in his heart at the moment.

Hu Youan shamelessly pretended not to see it, laughed heartily, and advised: "Don't worry, Taibu. Youan is devoted to the king, and these soldiers naturally belong to the king."

Taibu Yang then withdrew his cold gaze. He lowered his head in thought and simply said that he would invite Hu Youan to his house for a chat tomorrow.

Hu Youan naturally agreed without hesitation, because she knew that Tai Buyang would agree.

The king has salt and iron in his hands. He only needs to expand them and train a group of people to slowly recover the royal territory that has been encroached upon.

Tai Buyang was a man of considerable ability. He had neither talent nor money or connections. He just lacked a little determination.

On the surface, Taibu Yang has surrendered to the king, but he may not be loyal to the king. He killed Hui'an Jun before, probably to repay the king for sending his mother back.

Later, he harmed the King of Anguo because of some personal grudges. In his early years in Anguo, Taibu Yang had wanted to serve the King of Anguo, but was insulted, scolded and humiliated.

He was determined to settle down in Jingchang. In addition to his mother's reasons, he also wanted to prove to the world that he, Gui Yang, was no less capable than others.

Hu Youan wanted to take this opportunity to force Taibu Yang to formally return to the king.

Turning around, Hu Youan went to find Wen Tao again.

The money and food needed to recruit soldiers certainly cannot come from Taibu Yang alone. Otherwise, all the recruited soldiers will become Taibu Yang's personal property. Only by adding another force can the balance be maintained and the military power be firmly controlled in the hands of the king.

While Shen Zhiwei was secretly congratulating herself for finally taking the first step towards defeating the country, her "loyal" subordinates had already begun paving the way for her journey to conquer the world.