The fence in front of Guru encloses Wu Lai's salt workshop, which is 120 steps long and 100 steps wide, which is 6,750 square meters when converted into the measurement unit that Wu Lai is familiar with.

After Wu Lai knocked on the door, a face suddenly popped out from the left fence of the wooden gate. After taking a quick glance and seeing that it was Wu Lai, he hurriedly greeted him with a smile and then quickly opened the door.

When you enter the salt workshop, the first thing that catches your eye is the curved wooden roof. It is not very high, much higher than the fence, and it does not cover the left and right sides, so there is no problem with lighting.

But Guru's attention was not here, but attracted by the row of black guys on the left side of the salt shop - they looked like big black balls connected by several rows of copper pipes, and under the first and largest black ball in the row, there were two copper pipes as thick as a child's arm that were "whooshing" with flames, and the flames kept licking the lower part of the big black ball...

There were only a dozen people busy in the huge salt shop at this time. After Guru withdrew his gaze from the "big black ball", he saw a thin and short man who looked to be no more than thirty years old running towards him.

"He is the salt maker of my salt factory, Jiaduo." Wu Lai pointed at the man and smiled, "Everything here is under his control."

The guru nodded, and Gaddo ran towards the two of them, bowing before he could even catch his breath, showing great respect.

After the greetings, Jiaduo quickly reported a few more sentences and then asked, "Master, is there anything else you need Jiaduo to do?"

Master? This salt maker is actually a slave? Guru was stunned, thinking that Wu Lai's subordinates are really talented.

"Let's go for a walk and take a look. You can do your own thing." After Wu Lai waved away Gaduo, he turned around and smiled slightly, saying to Guru, "Come on, I'll take you to broaden your horizons."

“It’s my honor.” Guru smiled and nodded.

After Wu Lai's explanation, Guru realized that the row of "big black balls" were actually called "vacuum tanks".

With the current level of technology, Wu Lai naturally cannot achieve a complete vacuum condition, but the vacuum tank evaporation method he uses does not necessarily require a complete vacuum - the evaporation method is a way of making salt by utilizing "different vacuum levels and different boiling points". Its main method is to use the steam generated when steaming the first tank to heat the second tank, and the steam from the second tank to heat the third tank, so that the steam generated in the vessel can be effectively utilized, thereby achieving the effect of saving fuel.

Of course, this vacuum tank evaporation method also has the advantages of rapid salt production and high product purity. In the world of Woolley's previous memory, this method was designed by an Englishman named Hall in 1812. It was originally used in sugar production. It was not until 1887 that another Englishman used this method in salt production. By 1910, it had been widely used in Europe and the United States.

The raw material for making salt by the vacuum tank evaporation method is brine. The purer the brine, the higher the quality of the salt produced. The purity of the natural brine in Yanhuan Town is far from meeting Wu Lai's requirements. This is why the salt makers in the Yanhuan Town salt field are so skilled, but the salt powder they produce is still white with a hint of dull gray.

The brine used by Wu Lai Salt Works is definitely the purest in the world right now, but the method of obtaining it is quite complicated, as it is equivalent to going through the salt-making process in the salt field again.

The salt that Tours provided to Woolley was actually of high quality, but it was far from Woolley's standard, so the first step in processing the salt powder in the salt workshop was to crush it - using a copper crusher to repeatedly roll the salt powder like raw salt until it was ground into a finer powder.

After the rolling process is completed, the obtained powder will be manually screened, the coarse particles will be returned for crushing and rolling, and the qualified fine powder will be transported to the salt washing machine and washed with saturated brine, so that the two are mixed into a salt slurry state, and then rinsed to remove impurities.

However, the impurities discharged here are not all the impurities in the salt slurry, so the salt slurry needs to be dehydrated by a centrifuge and become new salt powder after filtering and drying, which is the so-called washing salt.

At this point, the quality of the salt in Wulai Salt Workshop has surpassed that of the salt field, but this is of course not enough. If you want the salt powder to be finer, whiter, and more crystal clear, it still needs to enter the final stage, which is the vacuum tank evaporation method...

"Let's go and see my finished salt." Wu Lai said with a smile, pointing to the long table where the packaging was done.

"This is what I'm most looking forward to." Guru nodded and followed Wu Lai.

Seeing Wu Lai and Guru coming, the three workers who were busy at the long table stopped and stood up.

"Keep going, don't stop." Wu Lai waved his hand, picked up a wooden spoon from the table, scooped out half a spoonful of salt powder from the large copper plate containing salt powder, turned the spoon handle and handed it to Guru, "Take a look."

Guru took it and looked at it. A hint of surprise flashed across his eyes. The salt powder in the spoon was really as fine as flour and as white as snowflakes as Baker said. No, snow could not be as crystal clear as it was. The salt powder in front of him was like a spotless crystal. Under the refraction of light, it scattered tiny fragments of light...

“Oh, Wulai, Wulai Glindo, when I first heard High Priest Mikoyan praise you as the one favored by God, I thought it was just flattery. Now I feel ashamed when I think about it. You may be more than just the one favored by God. I think you can understand what I mean.” Guru said sincerely.

"I understand. You have always been timid. How dare you say the following words?" Wu Lai laughed and waved his hand across the long table. "I have a total of 18 people here, one salt maker, three guards, one cook, and the remaining 13 people, two crushers, one salt slurry mixer, one dehydrator, two screeners, two vacuum cleaners, two transporters, and three packagers. We can produce more than 30,000 shekels a day. How about that? Not bad, right?"

It's no wonder that Wu Lai was so happy to show off to Guru. Without electricity and advanced machinery, the daily production capacity of thirteen people basically reached two thousand kilograms, which was many times higher than the efficiency of the salt field. You know, the process of the salt workshop is more complicated than that of the salt field, and the technological requirements are also higher.

"More than 30,000 shekels? One day?" Guru couldn't believe his ears.

"Is it strange? Isn't it strange?" Wu Lai was even more arrogant. "Guru, my good Guru, if I were as ruthless as the salt field and made these men work day and night, let alone more than 30,000, even 70,000 would not be a problem."

Wu Lai was telling the truth. If the salt workers in the salt workshop also worked according to the working hours of the salt field, there would be no problem in doubling the output. However, Wu Lai was not willing to order people around like this. Besides, he did not need the output to be too high. If it was too high, he would lower the price.

"Well, I really believe you. How much do you plan to sell such good salt for per shekel?" asked the guru.

"One silver coin." Wu Lai smiled slightly.

Guru was stunned and the smile on his face froze. The price of one shekel for private salt shops in Assyria was one silver coin. Wulai's salt was so good that it was only sold for one silver coin. Wasn't it a waste of good money?

"Wu Lai, are you right? I just saw that you are using salt from the salt field to produce these good salts. Isn't there any loss?" Guru asked.

"Of course, for every hundred shekels of salt from the salt field, you can get about ninety-four shekels of this salt after processing," Woolley replied with a smile, "but I just like to sell it for one silver coin per shekel."

"Wulai, you..." Guru pondered for a moment and said, "How about you sell all the salt you produce to my Kochi family."

"Look at your brain, you're going to take advantage of it as soon as you see the benefit, right?" Wu Lai was amused, and couldn't help but patted Guru on the shoulder and took him aside, "Well, it's not that I don't want to make money, nor that I don't want to take care of the Kochi family, but because the price of salt of one silver coin per shekel is set to suppress the Assyrian salt price."

"Suppress the price of salt?" Guru's eyes flashed with surprise.

"Yes, the price of salt in the Assyrian territory has reached a level that has caused public resentment. Although the Assyrian Salt Shop has limited the supply, the supply is insufficient. In addition, wealthy citizens are rushing to buy and hoard the salt, forcing ordinary families to buy it at high prices. The Supreme Council is the leader of the Assyrian Salt Shop, and the pressure is huge. I told you that one of my missions here is to solve this problem as quickly as possible." Wu Lai said.

"So what are you going to do?" Guru nodded.

"I've got an idea. I'll tell you tonight. Now, I guess you have a lot of questions to ask, so I'll give you a chance." Wu Lai said with a smile.

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"Wulai, I think you want to show off again?" Guru rolled his eyes at Wu Lai, pointed at the copper pipe under the vacuum tank that was spewing fire, and asked seriously, "What's going on? I think it's amazing."

Wu Lai smiled and replied, "Well, it's a long story. You only see the fire outlet now. There is a large section of the pipe that you can't see. Of course, there is also a valve, and this fire is not an ordinary fire..."

Of course it was not an ordinary fire, because Wu Lai was burning natural gas, and the other section of the fire pipeline led to a natural gas well.

Just like salt and saltpeter go hand in hand, where there are salt wells, there are usually natural gas wells. In a book that Wu Lai remembered from the last time, it was recorded like this: There is a fire well in Xichuan. It is very strange. The water in the well is actually cold and there is no fire. But a bamboo is split open and the nodes are removed. A lacquer cloth is sewn together and one end is inserted into the bottom of the well. The top is curved and the mouth is tightly against the navel of the cauldron. The brine is poured into the cauldron. The fire is burning and the water is boiling.

The name of this book is "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature".

The fire wells recorded in the book are natural gas wells, and the "cold water" refers to liquid natural gas. Of course, with Wu Lai's current conditions, there is no need to use "split bamboo to remove joints and seams and paint cloth".

The reason why Wu Lai knew that there was a natural gas well at this location was because of a report submitted by a salt field in the official residence. Judging from the parchment material, this report was at least decades ago. It recorded an explosion in concise strokes, and then allowed Wu Lai to see the cause of the explosion at a glance.

According to the record, the salt field "ran into bad luck" when drilling the second salt well, that is, there was not only a natural gas well but also a salt well at the location of the explosion.

What excited Woolley the most was that the then governor of Saltmarsh Town gave the instruction "give up" after this report.

So the next day after reading the report, Wu Lai hired two old salt workers who could no longer make a living in the salt field at a high salary, and conducted a secret exploration of the place. They soon came to a conclusion, and Wu Lai immediately hired someone to clean up and repair the site. At the same time, the refined salt plan gradually took shape.

Using natural gas instead of firewood to make salt was not Wu Lai's innovation. In "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", there are many chapters mentioning the use of fire wells to boil salt - "Minshan is full of auspiciousness, the wells are shining, the fire wells are full of spirits, and they are full of vitality." "Boiling the waves of the sea to reach the people, replacing pine resin to support textile production."

"The fire is controlled by a valve. The wellhead is completely closed, so the gas in the well can only come up through this pipeline..." Wu Lai explained patiently, "If the fire is strong enough, the heating speed will be fast, and the salt formation time will be short. When we stop working, we just close the valve."

"These black ones... are they made of iron?" Gulu pointed at the temperature of the vacuum tank. There are mining areas for iron ore in the Assyrian territory, but the output is low and the quality is average. In addition, iron is more difficult to process than copper. The weapons made from it are not as tough as copper, so they break easily and are also prone to rust. Therefore, the use of iron is very limited.

"It's made of iron." Wu Lai nodded. Just because others were not happy to use iron didn't mean he was not happy to.

“Why not copper? Wouldn’t iron be better?” the guru asked.

"Of course, there is a word called 'heat capacity'. I won't explain it in detail. Just know that there is such a word." Wu Lai chuckled. "The heat capacity of iron is greater than that of copper because iron has a stronger ability to absorb and release heat than copper. In other words, under the same weight, area and temperature change conditions, iron absorbs or releases more heat than copper. Using it to make a vessel for boiling salt is much better than copper."

“So that’s how it is.” Guru nodded, then nodded again and said, “Wooley, I know there’s something else I can do.”

"What?" Wu Lai asked curiously, thinking that you look so serious, could you still be bad? "I decided to record all your deeds. When you become a big shot one day, I will print tens of thousands of copies of this book. It will definitely make a lot of money, and of course, it will also be meaningful." Guru said with a smile.

"I think this is a good idea. Yeah, I agree, but you have to write me as more majestic, wiser and more handsome." Wu Lai laughed and said.

“Well, I agree with that.” Guru said, and he couldn’t help laughing.

Many years later, Guru realized today's "joke" - the memoir he wrote became a classic book that was popular in the mainland, because it recorded a lot of secrets related to Wu Lai, and used a relaxed and realistic brushstroke to outline the warmth, wisdom, rationality and courage of this iron-blooded lord for the world. Guru named this book "Walking with the King"...