Time passed quickly, and three days before the Winter Festival, Wu Lai's simple human-powered water pump was finally assembled. Don't think that it is nothing special just because its name contains the words "simple" and "human-powered". In fact, Wu Lai and his ordnance craftsmen put a lot of effort into making it. This simple human-powered water pump has many parts, including a pump body, water inlet joint, one-way valve plate, piston, connecting rod, push-pull rod and bracket, gear set, etc. There are no ready-made parts for reference, and Wu Lai has never even seen the real thing. Fortunately, he knew the working principle of this object very well, so it only took some time for the drawings to come out.

Of course, his drawings were not passed in one go because there were deviations in two of the components, but that’s okay. Many things are improved through experimentation.

Jiaduo assisted Wu Lai in completing the installation, which was another laborious job. However, after four days of hard work, this simple water-lifting tool was firmly fixed on the mouth of the salt well of Wu Lai Salt Workshop. It was also extremely easy to operate - one only needed to continuously turn the thing connected to the gear set that was infinitely similar to a ship's rudder, and the water-lifting machine would be able to continuously pump out the brine from the salt well.

After flowing out from the outlet, the brine will flow along a large copper trough to the brine pool that has just been dug in the salt workshop. According to Wu Lai's calculations, if this pool, which is forty steps long and wide and ten cubits high, is filled, it will be enough for the salt workshop to produce for eight days. To fill this brine pool with a volume of 2,250 cubic meters, it only takes six days for the pump to work. The efficiency is nearly a hundred times that of the salt field. After all, the brine there still relies on a lot of manpower.

The successful installation of the water pump was of symbolic significance - if the refined salt process was an important foundation for Wu Lai to fight the "Assyrian Salt War", then the water pump was equivalent to sounding the charge.

Of course, Wulai Salt Works also added four more people because the salt workers were becoming more and more skilled. In more than a month, they would be able to turn all the salt sent by Tours into refined salt. Then, they would use their own brine to produce salt...

Except for Wu Lai, Gulu and the members of the Salt Workshop, no one knows the secrets of the Salt Workshop yet. Although he knows that these will be known to others sooner or later, Wu Lai still wants to hide them for as long as possible. After all, the matter is of great importance. Before the "attack" is officially launched, the fewer people who know about it, the better.

…

The day before the Winter Festival, a convoy of twenty large trucks appeared outside the east gate of Yanhuan Town. Because Wu Lai stipulated that all vehicles entering and leaving the town must be checked, the captain of the East Gate guard team walked onto the wooden bridge and raised the horn as soon as he saw the convoy stop.

"Who are you? Do you have a pass issued by Lord Wu Lai?" the team leader asked loudly. Recently, there have been a lot of caravans traveling to and from Salt Marsh Town, some transporting grain and materials, with two or three groups almost every day. There are even more construction teams coming to Salt Marsh Town to "pan for gold". On average, hundreds of young and strong people rush here by car every day. Because the wage set by Wu Lai is two and a half times the average level in Lunvington, some small nobles in Lunvington simply united and gathered the idle slaves in their homes to form construction teams and sent them here.

According to Baker's statistics, as of yesterday, the number of outsiders participating in the construction of Salt Marsh Town had reached 9,165, including 8,406 males. Among these more than 9,000 people, slaves accounted for about 40%.

Among these slaves, those who were digging ditches and quarrying were treated slightly better. After all, these were heavy physical work, and they needed to eat well, dress warmly and rest well to avoid wasting work. It was different for those who stayed in the town. They worked during the day and squeezed into a designated area to rest at night - those were tents temporarily built by their masters on a large open space, where they ate, drank, defecated and urinated together. It was not so bad in previous years, but this year's winter in Salt Marsh Town seemed to be colder than in previous years, and the thinly clothed slaves suffered a lot.

After the team leader shouted for the second time, a girl in a pink dress jumped out of the leading carriage. She had a scarf made of a whole piece of gray fox fur around her neck. After getting off the carriage, she casually glanced at the team leader on the wooden bridge. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and two naughty dimples appeared on her cheeks.

When the team leader saw the girl's outfit clearly, he was stunned and wondered why such a delicate girl was wearing a sword?

The girl put her hands to her mouth, tilted her head back slightly, and raised her voice: "Notify your Archon Wulai immediately! Tell him that his teacher is here! Ask him to come and greet him right away!"

Master Wu Lai's teacher is here? Is this true? The captain was stunned. Just as he was wondering if he should ask more clarification, the girl's voice came again: "Go on!"

The team leader quickly looked up and saw a yellow object flying towards him. He subconsciously reached out to grab it and caught it. When he looked closely, he found that it was a citizen ID card.

"Go quickly! Your Governor Wu Lai will know as soon as he sees it!" The girl said loudly, rubbed her hands, turned around and got on the car.

"This Salt Marsh Town is much colder than Lovington, and it's not snowing. It's really uncomfortable to be freezing here." After the girl got into the carriage, she sat down and covered herself with a leopard skin mattress.

"Ye Jianwu, you are so naughty. When Wu Lai comes over later, I will see how you end it."

"Helen, you don't have to worry about this. I've thought about it. When Wu Lai comes, I'll say that you ordered me to do it. Wu Lai loves you so much, he will definitely not blame you, right?"

…

Wu Lai came on horseback. As soon as the east gate opened, his horse jumped out. He had been away from Assyrian city for such a long time and he was really eager to see these old friends. Besides, the captain on duty at the gate said that his teacher had come.

Of course, the only person Wu Lai can call teacher now is Rini.

Wu Lai was happy when he saw Ye Renwu's naughty face. After all, they had been busy with the "Complete Assyrian Book" in the Green Building for so long. In Wu Lai's mind, he had long regarded Ye Renwu as a good friend. Naturally, he was in a good mood to meet her again after such a long separation.

However, when Ye Jianwu pursed her lips and told him pitifully that the so-called teacher was just a lie, Wu Lai couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head. He reached out and gently touched the tip of Ye Jianwu's nose: "You, how can you be so naughty?"

Ye Jianwu stuck out her tongue playfully, and then Wu Lai heard a haunting call: "Wu Lai."

Seeing Wu Lai running towards Helen like a little child, Ye Renwu laughed so hard that she doubled over...

There were eyes everywhere, so Wu Lai didn't dare to be presumptuous. He let go of Helen after a brief hug: "Why didn't you tell me in advance that you were coming so that I could send someone to pick you up? It's so far away, it's not safe."

"How can it be unsafe? Isn't Night Blade Dancer here? She said that if you can't win, just run away. What's more, we have the crossbow you gave us." Helen smiled and looked at Wu Lai carefully, then said, "You must have suffered a lot here. Your beard has grown back and it's darker."

"I don't have time to take care of it. Since you dislike it, I'll fix it up later." Wu Lai laughed and pointed at Helen's fleet of cars. "Why are there so many cars? Did you move the academy here?"

"Most of them were asked by Wright after he knew I was coming to your place. He said they were all wine. A Temple Knight named Sares also came to the Green Building with him. He asked me to pass on the four carts at the back loaded with 500 pieces of cotton cloth to you, saying it was a token of his appreciation to Salt Marsh Town. Wright also assigned two guards to each car. Ask your men to arrange them later." He replied.

Wu Lai nodded. When Sares was about to leave Salt Marsh Town and return to Assyrian City a few days ago, he asked Wu Lai if there was anything he could do for Salt Marsh Town. At that time, Wu Lai was thinking about making uniforms - there were more and more people doing business in the official residence, especially the town management. It would be a good idea to get some cloth to make a set of uniforms for everyone, so he casually mentioned it. Unexpectedly, Sares not only took it to heart, but also got him so much at once. According to the market price in Assyria, five hundred pieces of cotton cloth were worth more than two thousand gold coins.

But why did Wright send the wine? Wu Lai was a little confused, but he was relieved when he thought about how Wright's actions were always difficult to understand.

"Just move them all to the official residence." Wu Lai waved his hand and said, "The guesthouse in Salt Marsh Town is half built and half staffed. The guards can go there to rest. Now the merchants who come and go with my official residence are all staying there."

"A reception hall? Wu Lai, your place is of quite high standard. I'm afraid you're the only one with a reception hall besides the city of Lunvington, right?" Ye Renwu, who had already come closer, asked in surprise.

"Of course. If Lovington has it, why can't Saltmarsh have it? What Lovington doesn't have, I have here, such as "The Round Shield Warrior." Wu Lai laughed and said.

Helen laughed too.

"Just be so proud of yourself. How can a town like you compare with a city?" Ye Renwu curled her lips. However, she did not say that she looked down on Wu Lai, but because she was used to bickering with him since they were in Assyria.

Wu Lai smiled and said nothing.

Soon, Ye Renwu realized that he had spoken too early.

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"The main street of Salt Marsh Town is designed to accommodate four large carts at the same time, two in the vertical and two in the horizontal, dividing the town into nine districts. According to the design, the temple will be located in the most central area of ​​the town..."

"The residential area and the commercial and trade area are separated, but there are convenient straight roads connecting the areas. The width of the straight road is enough to accommodate two large vehicles running side by side..."

"This is a residential neighborhood. Each neighborhood will have its own shrine, altar, activity center and landmark sculpture. The streets will be managed by the town, but the neighborhood's public security and fire prevention will be collectively selected by the residents of the neighborhood. I call these people 'property management'..."

"...This is a commercial trade area. Due to the limited area, in order to accommodate more merchants, the design adopts a townhouse tower..."

"Wow, Wu Lai, you are amazing. It's only been a short time." Ye Renwu said with emotion, pointing to the stone troughs that appeared at intervals on the roadside and asked, "What are they used for? Are they used to store water?"

She had noticed these stone troughs a long time ago. Although they were made of stones of different lengths, sizes and colors, upon closer inspection you would find that apart from the fact that they were all of the same size, they were empty inside.

"This is a flower bed. According to the standard, there must be one every thirty steps. It is eight cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and high. However, only the main streets have this rectangular shape. In the residential area, there are round flower beds on both sides of the gate of each building. They are about the size of a hug and more than half a person's height." Wu Lai gestured with a smile. With Helen around, he was in high spirits as a tour guide. "On the sidewalk, there is a square flower bed like this every twenty steps. It is the same in width and height, but slightly shorter, only five cubits long."

"Wulai, do you want to turn Salt Marsh Town into a world of flowers?" Ye Renwu was startled and asked, "But even grass can hardly grow here, how can flowers survive?"

"Of course, but it's winter now and it's not suitable for planting. Otherwise, I would have asked them to fetch soil from the mountains thirty miles away." Wu Lai said with a smile.

"When these flowers are in full bloom, they will surely embellish Salt Marsh Town beautifully..." Helen seemed to be talking to herself, or to Wu Lai, but after she finished speaking, she gently took Wu Lai's arm.

…

Before the dinner began, Woolley sat alone in his office reading a letter. The letter was written by Rini, which contained three things in summary. The first was that the Hurrits and Kimos suddenly withdrew for no reason. The second was that Rini would no longer serve as the vice president of the Civic Academy from next year, but would re-armor and form and train an army that truly belonged to the Supreme Council, numbered the "Ninth Legion". The third was to remind Woolley to be vigilant, because Assyria had had small-scale conflicts with the Hurrits and Kimos during this period, and it was discovered in the conflicts that the Hurrits and Kimos actually had crossbows that were almost identical to the ones Woolley sold. Now the Senate and the Supreme Council are conducting a thorough investigation, so Woolley should not bring trouble to himself.

After reading the letter, Wu Lai frowned. Although a single-soldier crossbow machine may not be suitable for large-scale wars, it is definitely a powerful weapon if used in assassinations, assaults, sneak attacks, and small-scale defense. Knowing this, Wu Lai took precautions at the beginning of the design, and even reduced the lethality without fear of trouble, and changed some parts that could be assembled into anti-disassembly one-time molding.

But judging from Lini's letter, someone must have secretly sent the crossbow into Hulett's territory.

"We should start from the source." Wu Lai thought. This source does not refer to him, but his buyers. If the crossbows that were sold were kept in their original places, then the blame should be directed at him, Wu Lai Green.

Therefore, Lini's worries are not unfounded.

"Are you challenging my ability by doing this at this critical moment?" Wu Lai smiled slightly and stuffed the refolded letter into his desk. After the Winter Festival, his "Salt War" would begin. He was too lazy to pay attention to these things at the moment. At worst, he could wait until it really happened to him.

Just as I was thinking about it, there was a knock on the door.

"Master Wu Lai, the dinner is ready. Miss Helen and the others have already gone. Are you done with your work?" El asked outside the door.

"I'll be right there."