However, the current method of making salt is basically boiling salt.
It requires firewood, a pot, and labor.
Of course, in ancient times, the last item was worthless.
However, save money if you can.
Just like Gu Qingcheng, the only reliable manpower she can use now is about a dozen Buqu and twenty guest girls.
Although those rangers also settled in the fishing village with the Gu family, they were still in the inspection period.
Whether it is reliable or not is yet to be determined.
After all, boiling salt is not without technical content.
The last step of filtering is a technical difficulty that requires "confidentiality".
But now, Gu Qingcheng thought of a more convenient and effective method of making salt - the sun-dried salt method!
Compared with boiled salt, sun-dried salt is simply a costless business.
Demarcate salt fields on the seashore, wait until the southeast wind blows in spring, and the sea water will complete the work on its own.
After collection, filtration and other procedures, it becomes high-quality sea salt.
Guarding a huge beach is like guarding an endless cornucopia.
And with money, Gu Qingcheng has the foundation for what he wants to plan!
"Still need more manpower?"
Gu Heng walks around every day.
In addition to personally experiencing the customs and customs of southern Xinjiang, I am also looking for old friends.
Ahem, don’t forget, this is Lingnan, the “holy land” of exile in ancient times.
Anyone who can come to this place is either a great treacherous person or a great virtuous person.
Especially in the past hundred years or so, dynasties have changed frequently.
Not to mention the usual factional disputes in the court, every time there was a change of dynasty, many loyal or treacherous ministers would be exiled here.
This dynasty only has a history of more than 40 years. When the founding emperor of this dynasty stole the country, he exiled a large number of people.
Gu Heng is already in his sixties. After two dynasties, many of the exiled ministers have old friends!
What's more, there are also branches or in-laws of the Gu family.
Since Gu Heng has come to Luozhou, he should pay a visit to his old friends or their descendants.
"Well! Aweng, I want to do something, and I need a lot of reliable people."
Gu Qingcheng lamented again that she was still too young.
Six years old!
Let alone a little girl, even a young man has no prestige.
If they want to recruit troops, people may be willing to place a bet because of her surname "Gu".
However, it is not easy to win the loyalty of the other party.
To put it bluntly, it is a question of whether a six-year-old girl can grow up.
The mortality rate these days is too high.
A cold wind can kill an adult, let alone a child.
Gu Qingcheng can only wait for herself to grow up slowly.
For now, she can only ask her elders for help first.
"Okay! I'll figure it out!"
Seeing Gu Qingcheng's serious face, Gu Heng knew that his granddaughter probably had a new plan.
After experiencing the incidents of purifying rock salt and horseshoes, Gu Heng no longer regarded his granddaughter as a child.
He placed Gu Qingcheng on an equal footing, even as the "head of the family".
Gu Heng had great trust in his little granddaughter. He didn't even ask Gu Qingcheng what his plan was, and he started thinking of ways to help recruit people.
Exiled prisoners, their families, and descendants;
In-laws and old friends of the Gu family;
There are also orphans who have lost their families due to various reasons.
Gu Heng began to recruit people aggressively.
Gu Heng's energy as his predecessor Zhongshu Ling began to be brought into full play.
In less than two months, many people gathered around the Gu family's newly built Sanjin house.
Among them, there were seventy or eighty young men.
In addition, Gu Heng wrote another letter to Jiankang, and selected two heads of the clan from the dozen or so clan members who stayed in the capital, and asked them to take Qingzhuang, Buqu and others to Lingnan.
Gu Heng was like a martial arts leader who had returned to the martial arts world. With a single order, talents from all directions gathered.
Gu Qingcheng:...That’s amazing, my Aweng!
And those knight-errants seemed to feel something, and each one of them showed positive performance, striving to join the Gu family like Nie Chengfeng.
By the time it was about to enter the twelfth lunar month, Gu Heng had already helped Gu Qingcheng select 200 people who could be reused.
These people have joined the Gu family and are their slaves.
If they want to become a subordinate, or even a higher-level retainer, they need to continue to work hard.
The project Gu Qingcheng is about to start is an opportunity for them to perform.
Huoshui: ...Dear, don’t be busy with infrastructure construction, it’s more interesting to do tasks.
Gu Qingcheng ignored Huoshui's nonsense and continued to advance step by step according to his plan.
Once you have the manpower, you need to arrange it.
I didn’t say anything, just keep building a house.
Then, there is land enclosure and land purchase.
Gu Qingcheng bought a large area of tidal flats around it.
In addition, she also expanded the Gu family's "base camp" more than ten miles outward.
The tentacles almost touched the county seat before they stopped.
After such "expansion", the territory under the Gu family's name covers several villages and several hills.
When connected, it is not much smaller than the county seat.
Of course, most of the Gu family's territory is wasteland and mountainous land.
Some are even the domain of local slang people.
It's just that these slangs hide in the mountains and forests and are unwilling to accept the "enlightenment" of the government, so they are regarded as savages and barbarians.
Their interests (such as territory) are not protected by the government.
The governor of Luozhou rudely gave this piece of land to Gu Qingcheng.
Gu Qingcheng has the "common sense" of working in the small world, and he also agrees with the idea of national unification.
We don't treat slang people as they were in the past, as they were aliens.
We are all a family!
However, for now, Gu Qingcheng does not have the strength to educate.
She must first run the Gu family's base camp well!
For the time being, the slang's territory was drawn separately, and Gu Qingcheng did not take the initiative to provoke him.
She continued to develop other locations.
Build houses, repair forts, and reclaim wasteland.
In addition, she dug a cave based on local conditions——
If a hurricane hits next year, you will have one more place to avoid natural disasters!
Gu Heng:......
He is not really old and decrepit, but an old fox in the court who has experienced two dynasties and holds a high position in the imperial court.
His little granddaughter's various behaviors made him feel more and more frightened (or excited?).
What does this kid want to do?
This is no longer precocious, but almost evil.
If the gender were changed, Gu Heng would think that this child wanted to——
Uh, well, it’s nothing even if you’re a little girl!
Women in this era are still very tough.
Not to mention those royal princesses, even the noble ladies of aristocratic families are not always stuck at the front door.
When they are quiet, they read, drink tea, make tea and burn incense;
Once they get moving, they can mount their horses to play ball or dismount to kill others!
Really kill people!
If there is news about "domestic violence" in any house, it may not necessarily be about a man beating a woman.
It is most likely that a woman with both civil and military skills beat up the unsatisfactory man in the family!
It's not just young couples who do this, but also the big guys in the court who occasionally set up a grape trellis or get scratched in the face by the family cat or lynx!
There were also some fierce women in the capital, holding machetes and riding whips, chasing their husbands out of several streets!
It is also not uncommon for unmarried girls to get together, climb over walls, smash doors, and beat up the couple in order to vent their anger on their sisters or aunts.
This was still a relatively "elegant" Southern Dynasty.
The Northern Dynasty is said to be more powerful.
For example, the deeds of the Dugu clan, Qiu Muling clan, and those noble ladies of Xianbei, tsk tsk, even from afar, the noble ladies of the Southern Dynasties heard about them.
Compared to those tough women, my own Aqing is just more ambitious!
This, actually, is nothing!
Right!
Gu Heng comforted himself in this way. He did not stop his granddaughter, but instead tried his best to help.
He wanted to see how far their Gu family's daughter could go.
Is it that women should not give way to men, or -
Gu Heng "connived", and Gu Qingcheng became more and more arrogant.
She completely followed the standards for building a city and built this seaside area into Gu's "Wubao".
In the busy time, various talents have been put in place one after another.
It's the twelfth lunar month.
"It doesn't even snow here?"
Although Gu Qingcheng is from the Southern Dynasties, it still snows in Jiankang in winter.
But in Lingnan, it’s the twelfth lunar month of winter, but the sun is still shining brightly.
If you wear something thicker, you will sweat profusely.
"Using the temperature of later generations, it would probably be more than 20 degrees at noon."
Gu Qingcheng has "common sense" and knows that the temperature difference between the north and the south is huge.
However, being in this area in person still felt strange to her.
If it doesn’t snow in winter, how can we enjoy the lanterns in the first month?
Flower viewing lanterns?
Subsequent facts proved that even if Gu Qingcheng stayed in Jiankang, he would not be able to enjoy the lanterns this year.
Because, on the first day of the new year, the powerful official Chen Jing forced the current "Zen" to become the emperor of the new dynasty.
The Southern Dynasties changed dynasties again!
The fate of the current emperor is the same as that of the last emperor of the previous dynasty. Even if he abdicated obediently, he was killed by Jiu.
There was no way, the Sima family made a very bad start at the beginning, and the subsequent rebellious officials and traitors also followed the same example.
The emperor of the Xiao family died, and the Xiao family was also purged.
Only a few people fled to the Northern Dynasty in haste.
"..."
The eldest princess of Jiangling, who had already established a foothold in the Northern Dynasty, met her nephew and grandnephew who described themselves as miserable. Although she had known that such a day would come, she still couldn't help but burst into tears.
"Aweng! Father! Brother!"
Our Xiao family has lost its empire!
I am so ashamed of my ancestors~~
The eldest princess of Jiangling almost fainted from crying.
However, she didn't mention anything about revenge.
It's just a change of dynasties. Even the Xiao family stole the world from the previous emperor.
This is just a cycle of cause and effect.
"Princess!"
Gu Yi felt very distressed when he saw his wife, but he couldn't do anything to persuade her.
The grief caused by the destruction of a country and a family cannot be calmed down by a few words.
"...I'm fine!"
Slowly, the eldest princess of Jiangling calmed down.
She wiped her tears and said mockingly, "I won't be a princess anymore! Mr. Lang, you should call me Xiao."