Chapter 456 Coming to Mind
When the three counties of Pingzhou were busy building the city gates and walls, Lu Songli asked her father to give an order to secretly summon the Qin brothers back.
In fact, the Qin brothers are currently making preparations for the war and are very busy. They haven't been home for a long time.
While giving the secret order, Lu Desheng casually asked his daughter the reason.
Lu Songli said casually, "I need them to come back and focus on the control and defense of Longcheng, especially around the Longcheng Pharmacy." If nothing unexpected happens, this should be an excellent place to strike a heavy blow to the Xianbei.
Longcheng surveillance? Why Longcheng? And near the Longcheng Pharmacy?
At this time, Lu Desheng also felt something was wrong. "My daughter, what exactly is in this Dragon City Pharmacy?"
It should be said that his daughter had insisted on taking the Xie family's land as compensation. There seemed to be some special reason. But after they arrived in Liaodong County, his daughter didn't seem to care much about the 100 hectares of land. She only built a medicine workshop there and didn't pay much attention to it.
"It's nothing, there's just a salt lake inside." Lu Songli said lightly.
Salt Lake? Lü Desheng seemed to understand.
Lv Songli explained, "The bottom of the salt lake is brine. It is different from well salt. Well salt needs to be fished out of the brine, but the brine in the salt lake will precipitate salt crystals on its own."
"What is salt crystallization?" Lu Desheng asked. He knew about well salt, which was one of the ways the imperial court produced salt.
"After we get these salt crystals back, we only need to filter them to turn them into clean table salt," Lu Songli explained simply.
Lu Desheng's eyes lit up. "So simple? Isn't that better than well salt?"
"Yes, well salt will dry up. But the salt lake won't. It's like a living thing, producing a certain amount of salt crystals every year, and then it stops."
"Next spring, it will start producing again. Day after day, year after year, as long as the salt lake exists and is not polluted, there will be no possibility of it drying up."
Lu Desheng stood up suddenly and said, "This is good!" It sounds like this salt lake is really a good place to produce salt.
Lu Songli smiled and drank some tea to moisten her throat.
This salt lake is indeed a good thing, it usually exists in barren areas.
Lu Songli guessed that the reason this place had never been discovered was because there was a branch of an underground river passing through the salt lake.
In spring, as the salt crystals in the salt lake begin to precipitate and the snow on the snow-capped mountains gradually melts, the water from the underground river branches will flow into the salt lake. When the lake water rises, the precipitated salt crystals will be absorbed back into the lake.
She felt that this was the truth, and similar scenes had occurred in later generations.
When they came to Liaodong County last year, spring had already passed, and the Qin family had just arrived at the Xiangping military settlement and did not dare to do anything big, so she did not investigate the matter.
This year she asked Xiao Kun, the head of Longcheng Pharmacy, to pay attention to the situation of the salt lake, and it turned out to be just as she expected.
This matter is of great importance, so Lu Songli asked Xiao Kun to keep it secret.
Xiao Kun also understood the seriousness of the matter and kept his mouth shut.
Lu Desheng suddenly realized, and he said, last autumn, his daughter insisted on buying a large number of salted fish, where did the salt come from? It turned out that all the salt they used came from here.
He thought it was smuggled salt brought back by the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce. He turned a blind eye to the matter.
In fact, he was still wrong. The salt used for drying salted fish was borrowed by Lu Songli from a salt merchant he was familiar with through Ji Wuyin's relationship, and they agreed to return it in the summer of the following year with a 10% interest.
Just as he was about to sit down, Lu Desheng suddenly straightened his back, put his hands on his hips, and started laughing. "Girl, have we really screwed Xie Zhan over?"
At this moment, Lu Desheng had only one thought, that is, Xie Zhan had suffered a great loss.
"Dad, I think Xie Zhan has come to his senses." At the beginning of this year, people kept trying to sneak in and gather information.
"Let him come to his senses. After all, the 100 hectares are ours now." The land is theirs, and the salt lake is theirs too. Humph. It's just right for him to come to his senses now. Let him regret it to death.
"I guess he leaked this news to the Xianbei."
Lü Desheng: ...
Xie Zhan, this despicable, shameless and vulgar bitch!
"No wonder you want Prince Qin and the others to come back." Lu Desheng said. The salt lake is very important, and Longcheng is so close to the Xianbei grassland.
"Right now, the Xianbei think we're unaware that they've learned of the existence of Dragon City Salt Lake. Let's use this to our advantage and deploy our defenses."
What was the Xianbei's reason for traveling south? Wasn't it for supplies? Food, salt, and tea were their most coveted items. This time, they could exploit the information gap and secretly establish control over Dragon City.
Lu Desheng waved his hand and said, "Yes, that's what we should do! Let's wait for him to tire himself out, wait for the rabbit to come to us by the tree, and catch the turtle in the jar." It doesn't matter, that's what I mean.
"Let them all come and never return."
Lu Songli laughed and said, "Well, when Ah Sheng and the others come back, you, as his father-in-law, can make a request to him."
"Remember, must mention!"
…
When the vast fields of rice in Pingzhou were about to be harvested, Prince Gong arrived.
Guests are welcome, and Prince Gong was a good man in the past, and had a good relationship with Lu Desheng, so Lu Desheng went to pick him up in person.
Lu Desheng picked up the person at Wuliting outside the city. For the last short stretch of the journey, he couldn't sit in the carriage anymore, so he got off to rest.
When Lu Desheng picked up the person, Prince Gong refused to get in the car and said he wanted to walk. He had been sitting in the carriage for too long and his old bones were almost broken.
Want to go for a walk? Sure! Lu Desheng walked him back. He'd been running around a lot lately, so he'd been keeping fit.
Prince Gong looked at the endless fields and the waves of green and yellow rice and said with a smile, "Your harvest in Pingzhou is quite good this year."
Lu Desheng smiled and said, "It's okay."
After walking four or five miles, Prince Gong's legs ached and he could no longer walk. "I'm getting old."
Lu Desheng stepped forward to support him, saying with disdain, "You said you were so old and frail, and the emperor still had the heart to send you all the way to Pingzhou?"
Lu Desheng asked him, "Do you want to take the carriage?" If not, let's leave.
Now Prince Gong no longer mind the bumpy ride of the carriage.
After returning, Lu Desheng arranged a place for them to stay.
The next day, when Lu Desheng met Prince Gong again, his spirits had recovered.
He couldn't help but ask, "I wonder what important matter has Prince Gong come here for?"
Prince Gong paused while drinking tea, then looked at him, cleared his throat and said, "It's like this..." What he meant was that your Pingzhou has a good harvest this year, so you should pay more taxes.
These words immediately irritated Lu Desheng's sensitive nerve, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared.
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