The woman that Plansy chose was Nivea. She had come to Salt Marsh Town once a month ago, but Wu Lai happened to be away on vacation, so she missed the visit. Fortunately, she knew Gulu and asked about the time of Wu Lai's return. Knowing that Wu Lai would be back in a few days, she brought more than 20 men and 26 carts here.

These carts were loaded with dried tobacco leaves, weighing about 300,000 shekels in total, which was equivalent to more than 17,000 kilograms according to the measurement that Wu Lai was familiar with. However, this was less than one-third of this year's harvest.

Nivea was quite worried. She had not expected that tobacco leaves would grow so "crazily" after being cared for according to Wu Lai's method. The harvest had already exceeded expectations. If Wu Lai did not want so much, she really did not know what to do with it.

The Salt Marsh Town is different now than it used to be. All bulk goods must be inspected before entering the city. Nivea asked her brothers to park the car outside the city gate and wait, while she went into the town to find Wu Lai first. She also told him the news of the good harvest, just to test his attitude first.

What Nivea didn't expect was that after listening to her words, Wu Lai burst into laughter and said, "Nivea, Nivea, I told you, I want as much as you have."

"Really?!" Nivea almost jumped up with joy.

"Of course it's true. I, Wu Laigelin, may not have a good memory for other things, but I remember to keep my word very well. I will pay you the price you deserve, not a single silver coin less." Wu Lai pointed to a chair and said, "Sit down. I have something to discuss with you."

After Nivea sat down as she was told, Wu Lai stood up and walked to the Salt Marsh Town planning map on the wall, pointing to the workshop area and saying, "This is the temporary workshop area of ​​Salt Marsh Town. Although it is temporary, it cannot be moved within two or three years. The workshop area is naturally for opening workshops. But as you know, Salt Marsh Town is short of resources, and it is really hard to create any decent business. After much thought, I plan to set aside an area here to open a tobacco factory, and you will manage it for me."

"Cigarette factory?" Nivea was stunned and wondered what on earth this cigarette factory was.

Of course Wu Lai knew that Nivea didn't understand. After sitting back at his desk with a smile, he opened the drawer, took out an exquisite wooden box and handed it to Nivea: "Take a look at this first."

When Nivea opened it, she saw some "white paper sticks" about the thickness of her little finger neatly stacked inside, emitting a faint aroma of tobacco leaves.

"Sir, what is this?" Nivea asked curiously.

"This is what the tobacco factory is going to produce. I call it cigarettes. Of course, we need to give it a special name." Wu Lai said with a smile.

"Incense... Cigarettes?" Nivea frowned and asked, "Sir, is it a convenient medicine for wounds?"

"No, of course, in some cases, it can still be used as medicine for injuries in case of emergency." Wu Lai laughed, took out another box from the drawer, took out a cigarette, lit it and took a puff, gently blowing out a large cloud of smoke, and then said, "Look, it is an absolute consumable."

Wu Lai immediately told his plan: "Nivea, you have been running Crow Valley for some years now. Women, children, the sick and the disabled should account for a large proportion of the population. And since the business has been interrupted for so long, people are more eager for peace of mind. Therefore, you should also consider letting the people of Crow Valley come to my Salt Marsh Town in batches to settle down. Of course, people still have to grow tobacco in Crow Valley. In addition, I don't keep idle people here. I can always arrange a suitable place for the suitable people to work in the tobacco factory and for the children to go to school."

After hesitating for a long time, Nivea sighed softly and said, "I understand your good intentions, but this..."

"If you have any difficulties, you can tell me directly. If you have any doubts, you can ask directly. I like to be honest," said Wu Lai.

Nivea nodded: "Sir, many brothers from Crow Valley have disturbed Salt Marsh Town before. I'm afraid..."

"As long as you sincerely adhere to Salt Marsh Town, all your past sins will be forgiven. You know, Salt Marsh Town has its own temple, which is very convenient for washing away the sins of sinners." Wu Lai said. According to Assyrian custom, whether it is citizens granting freedom to slaves or archons pardoning sinners, it must be witnessed by high priest-level clergy. Especially for the pardon of sins, a ceremony must be held in the temple, so it cannot be rushed.

Nivea was delighted, because this was her biggest worry...

After arranging matters with Nivea, Wu Lai went to the mirror workshop. According to the original plan, the first batch of mirrors would be handed over to members of the Tongji Alliance in two months, and they would then sell these mirrors with gilded frames, pure silver back panels, and handles inlaid with rubies and emeralds to various city-states.

But Wu Lai was not here to deal with the mirrors. Although the final price of this kind of mirror was ridiculously high, it was rare and valuable, so he had no worries about not being able to sell it. He didn't need to worry about the quality either. In addition to the experts in making the mirrors and decorating them, there were also people responsible for supervision, inspection, and registration, to absolutely ensure that every link was as close to perfection as possible.

Wu Lai came to ask about glass powder. The production of mirrors naturally involves cutting and polishing, and over time, there will naturally be a lot of glass powder. If this glass powder is in the hands of others, it will only be thrown away as garbage, but Wu Lai can put it to good use - because glass powder is an important raw material for the production of matches.

The main way to make fire in the Assyrian territory and even the entire continent is still to use a fire stick - soak potato vines in water to make it thick, take them out and flatten them, soak them again, add cotton and reed tassels and beat them again, dry them, add saltpeter, sulfur, rosin, camphor and other flammable substances and a variety of spices, and finally fold them into long flat tubes or twist them into ropes, light them and stuff them into bamboo tubes. Although there is no flame at this time, you can see the red bright spots burning faintly, just like the remaining fire in the ashes. When used, take them out and shake them and they will burn.

Due to the great demand, every town in the Assyrian territory had workshops and shops specializing in the production and sale of tinderboxes, but Wu Lai still found it very inconvenient because if he brought a tinderbox he had to bring a flint and a steel stone, and using the flint and steel to strike the steel stone to light the tinderbox was a technical job.

For a smoking addict like Wu Lai, matches are undoubtedly hundreds of times more convenient than tinderboxes. Moreover, with the promotion of cigarettes, things like matches will naturally become necessities. The surrounding areas of Salt Marsh Town have wood, gum, sulfur, and saltpeter needed to produce matches. A small phosphate mine was discovered near the quarry two months ago, and paraffin can be easily purchased.

These things, plus the cardboard brought in by the Seneca Paper Mill, can be used to produce the matches that Woolley needs. Most importantly, Salt Marsh Town has no shortage of space and manpower.

Of course, there is still a small problem to be solved. Although phosphate ore needs to be mixed with coal and silica and heated and sintered to obtain a substance called yellow phosphorus, yellow phosphorus is extremely toxic and very unstable. If you are not careful, it will naturally decompose. Therefore, it must be further processed into safe red phosphorus - this is not a difficult task. Place the yellow phosphorus in an air-tight container and continuously heat it up. Keep the temperature at around 250 degrees for three consecutive days. After three days, the yellow phosphorus will turn into red phosphorus.

Red phosphorus, glass powder and gum are coated on the edge of the matchbox. As for the medicine for the match head, sulfur, saltpeter, glass powder and some additives are mixed and ground into powder, then mixed with glue made from bone glue to make a thin paste, which can then be dipped on the matchsticks soaked in paraffin. The rest, of course, is packaged for sale.

Wu Lai made a rough estimate that the match factory could provide at least 150 jobs to the town in the initial stage. If sales were good, it would not be impossible for the number of jobs to double or triple.

While weighing and estimating, Wu Lai received another good news. Several old salt workers who were in charge of mining brought back some ore samples and excitedly told Wu Lai that they had found a quartz mine. Preliminary estimates showed that the reserves were very rich, but it was a little far from the town, about fifty miles away.

Wu Lai was overjoyed. With the quartz mine, it meant that glass could be produced continuously. Not only would the mirror workshop and match factory have no worries about raw materials, but he could also add another glass factory to Yanhuan Town.

"It's only fifty miles. At worst, we can build a shortcut to get there." Wu Lai said with a laugh.

…

While Wu Lai was working at full speed, Plancy was moving even faster. In less than ten days, he had recruited more than 1,250 people and started training them. Of course, he also spent a lot of money. Just think about it, the armor, weapons, clothes, boots, and food for more than a thousand people were all paid for by him. Any one of them would be a huge sum of money.

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But Plansi didn't care at all. For him, money was just a small matter. Leading troops to fight was the greatest joy in life. However, after reading the list of soldiers and the report he handed in, Wu Lai couldn't help but smile and shook his head, because Plansi obviously didn't abide by the agreement. Among the more than 1,200 people, nearly 20% were residents of Salt Marsh Town.

"This bastard." Wu Lai couldn't help but curse, but he didn't go to trouble Plansy, because apart from this small flaw, there was nothing wrong with Plansy. Besides, even if he went to Plansy, he would definitely have an excuse. It was because he couldn't stop his impassioned speech the night he just came back, and said something like "The men of Salt Marsh Town went to war in their own name and fought bloody battles to defend the dignity of Assyria and the dignity of Salt Marsh Town."

Five days later, the Bandit-Suppressing Army, which had completed its formation training, held a flag-raising ceremony. Although the armor, weapons, clothing, etc. had not yet arrived, the appearance of the Bandit-Suppressing Army still lifted the spirits of all those who visited the flag-raising ceremony.

"...The role of the Bandit Suppression Army is not only to wipe out bandits and guard the territory, you also need to help maintain the stability of Salt Marsh Town, such as combating crime and ensuring the smooth flow of trade routes, and become an iron-blooded army loved and respected by the people of Salt Marsh Town!" Wu Lai said loudly, took the Bandit Suppression Army flag handed over by Bailey and unfurled it, "The Bandit Suppression Army's commander, Plancy Duncan!"

"Yes!" Plancy answered loudly.

"Take the flag!"

"yes!"

Applause and cheers immediately rang out...

…

Time always slips away unknowingly in the busyness, and it seems like in the blink of an eye, the Winter Festival is coming again.

Compared with previous years, this year's Winter Festival in Salt Marsh Town will be particularly lively - Wu Lai not only arranged a five-day garden party, invited a circus and opera class from Lovington to entertain, but also arranged a three-night lantern festival. On the first day of the Winter Festival, he organized the townspeople to set up a long dragon banquet to entertain outsiders and vendors who participated in the construction of Salt Marsh Town.

After the news was posted publicly, many outsiders who had originally planned to go home to celebrate the Winter Festival chose to stay. Who would want to miss such a fresh and fun Winter Festival?

At noon on the day before the Winter Festival, Wu Lai was walking with his cute baby on the lawn in front of the municipal building when a horse-drawn carriage slowly appeared on the path in front of the lawn.

Immediately, a familiar voice came from the carriage: "Wulai!"