C53 Throw out the Bait to Lure the God of Wealth

Le Hedang was very rich, but he didn't even know how much money he had. The title "Youzhou's God of Fortune" wasn't something that could be casually called. The large house he lived in was more than ten acres wide. If ranking the entire Youzhou, his house would only be second to the Marquis' household, and he would be ranked second in the Youzhou in terms of scale.

This was the first time Gongsun Xu walked into the living room of the Le Mansion after his rebirth. Originally, he thought he would see a magnificent living room, where a bunch of maids and servants bowed to serve him. The living room was large, but the decorations were simple. The desks and cushions were not old, the walls were empty, and the paintings were not as elegant as those of the merchants.

Le Hedang walked to the main seat and extended a hand to invite him, "Nephew Ku Le, please take a seat."

"Thank you, Uncle (Master Le)." The two of them thanked each other. Gongsun Xu sat on the lower left side of Le Hedang, while Ku Le sat on the lower right side.

Le Hedang nodded to the butler who was standing at the door of the living room. The butler walked to the door and clapped.

Not long after, a dozen or so maidservants came in with a black lacquered tray. They placed a plate of delicacies on the table in front of the three and left the three of them to wait upon them. As usual, there were many dishes in the Le Mansion's dishes. Compared to those steamed vegetables in bowls or cauldrons, the appearance of these dishes was clearly much better.

Ku Le immediately opened his eyes wide as he looked at the plates of delicious dishes in front of him. It was rumored that the most delicious dishes in Youzhou were the dishes that came from Wu Steel Manor, but unfortunately, he had never had a chance to taste them. Now that the legendary dish, Stir-Fried Vegetables, was right in front of him, how could he not salivate?

"Please!"

"Please!"

After being courteous, Ku Le picked up his chopsticks and swept across the dishes on the table like a whirlwind. His violent eating made the three maidservants who served him snicker.

After three rounds of drinking and five courses of food, Le Hedang sighed and said, "My son, Le Liu, is fourteen years old this year, but he's very mischievous. He likes to fight with chickens and dogs and even steps into brothels, which gives me a headache. It was said that Zhao Zirou was good at altering the situation. Is it true that you're teaching your disciples? "

When Hua Tuo came to Ji County, Hua Chan and Zhao Yun's marriage had already been set. Of course, Godly Doctor Hua had to do his best to diagnose and treat Zhao Feng's illness, and very soon, Zhao Feng's condition was greatly relieved. Not long after that, Gongsun Xu proposed to Gongsun Zan that a Hou Mansion University should be established, and that they should accept young men of appropriate age from wealthy families from the officials of Youzhou. All expenses should be borne by the Hou Mansion, and Zhao Feng should be appointed as its master. This move could not only win over the hearts of others, but also make them hostage. Gongsun Zan immediately agreed and set up a courtyard to be used as a school. On the day of the official lecture, the school was also present.

Back then, at the Liaodong's Wu Huan's Residence at the southern foot of the Great Freshness and Subtlety Mountain, Gongsun Xu had requested Kurna to send his son, Ku Si, to the Hou Mansion's university hall. The next day, Ku Si was sent to the Ji County and handed over to Zhao Feng. In just three or five days, Kus had progressed from being an illiterate man to being able to recite a few passages from the Classics of Analects. It was said that the other children had also improved significantly.

The purpose of this was to convey a sense of intimacy and respect to Gongsun Xu — — It was impossible for the matters of the White Horse Camp University to be hidden from everyone. When Le Hedang found out about what had happened on the school field, he was so regretful that his intestines turned green. If he had known earlier that Gongsun Xu was someone who belonged to Heaven, he would have paid more money when Liu Weitai came looking for him. Currently, Li Yizi, who paid the most, was grinning from ear to ear. Le Hedang could not find an excuse to pay again, but his daughter Cui'er had promised someone else and could not imitate Li Yizi and Liu Weitai.

Faced with Le Hedang's initiative to express his goodwill, Gongsun Xu bowed and said with a smile, "Don't worry, Uncle. This nephew will definitely take the matter of Brother Le Liu to heart."

"Hehe, then thank you, nephew." Le Hedang nodded. After persuading him with a glass of wine, he casually asked, "I heard that nephew is going to move White Horse Camp to the east side. I heard that nephew is going to move it to the wasteland named Tianjin, right?"

Gongsun Xu put down his wine cup and nodded, "Indeed, what can I do for you, Uncle?"

"Hehe, your thoughts are quite dexterous. The number of new things that you can produce cannot meet the demand. This old man has often told people that if this nephew were to act in such a lowly manner, then he would definitely be the next Master Tao Zhu. " Le Hedang flattered before getting down to business, "Ji County City can completely accommodate White Horse Camp, it wouldn't be a problem for Nephew to expand White Horse Camp to thirty to forty thousand people. Since that was the case, my nephew still insisted on moving to the wasteland and Tianjin. I dare to ask, aside from trying to train our troops in secret, does nephew have any other intentions? "

"Haha, uncle really has good taste!" Gongsun Xu laughed and gave a thumbs up, thinking that Shang was indeed a person with keen sense of smell. Le Hedang could guess from this little bit of evidence that he had other intentions for moving to the military camp, no wonder he could amass such a huge family fortune.

"There really is one!" Le Hedang was overjoyed. He came over with the wine jug and pretended to toast Gongsun Xu, but then whispered in his ear, "Can my nephew reveal some information in advance?"

Gongsun Xu looked at Ku Le, who was busy eating, then dipped his finger into the glass and wrote the word 'Salt' on the table.

A hint of greed flashed across Le Hedang's eyes. Salt!

Gongsun Xu moved the White Horse Camp to Tianjin for salt! Everyone knew that there was salt in the sea, but it was very difficult to extract. The salt that was extracted from the sea was also very bitter and astringent, and it was often poisonous. People often heard of people dying from eating sea salt.

Could Gongsun Zimin refine a lot of salt from the sea? That seemed to be the only explanation. Otherwise, how could this brat do such a useless deed? If Gongsun Xu could refine a large amount of salt, he would be able to become one of the richest men in the world as long as he didn't poison anyone to death!

In the early days of this dynasty, the people of Xixi (Dongtai, Jiangsu Province) began to boil salt from the sea water and gradually grasped a way to produce sea salt that could be eaten without worry. Gao Zu, Liu Bangfeng's favorite nephew, Liu Yuanwang, was King Wu, and his background included Xixi. Liu Yuanshan relied on the sea salt produced by Xixi, and quickly became one of the richest princes in the world. In the end, too much money caused his ambition to expand, causing his rebellion, and he was defeated by the famous general Zhou Yafu and lost his life in the Yellow Springs.

After the death of Liu Fei, Wu quickly abolished. For the next few hundred years, the method of cooking salt in the West Stream was firmly grasped in the hands of the imperial government. Anyone who wanted to covet it would be dealt a powerful blow. It wasn't until the chaos of the yellow cloth that many of the people who had been abducted were killed, and only then did the method of cooking sea salt fall into the hands of a few people. Chen Yuanlong, the former Eastern Sun County Lieutenant (Jinhu, Jiangsu Province), was one of those people.

Salt could bring sudden profits. Regardless of whether it was Chen Deng or the other nobles or tyrants who knew how to cook salt, they all guarded against this secret strictly. If outsiders wanted to get close to the salt field, they would have to command the army to kill them. Even though they didn't have to worry about food or drinks and their families were with them, only their corpses could be carried away after they died.

Because of the strict protection of the owner, the key trick of seawater cooking salt did not spread. This was also one of the main reasons why the price of salt remained high. The northern lands were vast, but not a single duke could boil salt in the sea. They could only buy salt from the south and bitterly endure their opponent's high price.

After Le Hedang was slightly shocked, he whispered, "What is the best quality of the goods?"

"Qing!" Gongsun Xu spat out one word softly.

It was actually comparable to Qing Yan! Le Hedang almost couldn't believe his ears, a thousand taels of green salt! How was this salt? It was clearly a pile of copper coins!

"Really?" Le Hedang asked in a trembling voice.

"Seriously!"

"As expected?" Le Hedang took a deep breath and held his chest to confirm.

"As expected!" Gongsun Xu nodded, and toasted Le Hedang with the bottle of wine.

In Gongsun Xu's previous life, he had cooked salt with seawater before. The method was to first let the seawater evaporate and crystallize, separating out the crude salt and the liquid containing many kinds of toxic metals, then adding some alkali to remove the impurities. Finally, after filtering and purifying the crude salt multiple times, it became usable salt. Gongsun Xu wasn't worried about the question of whether or not there was enough alkali. "Zhou Li Yang Doctor" had a cloud: using salt to nourish the meridians actually referred to the alkali, which was a very common soda powder in the later generation. From this, it could be seen that the Chinese people often used alkali during the Zhou Dynasty.

The sea salt is much easier to dry than the sea salt. All you have to do is pile up the salt field, and then 'those who bring the sea water directly into the pond to dry. At this stage, by filtering and purifying again and again, one would be able to obtain decent quality salt.

Le Hedang finished the cup in one gulp. He then refilled the cup for Gongsun Xu.

Gongsun Xu hid the bottle of wine by his side and smiled modestly: "How dare I ask uncle to pour some wine? This nephew will do it himself. "

"Hehe." Le Hedang's expression froze slightly as he forced a smile and said, "Does nephew think that this old man is not qualified to drink this toast?"

Gongsun Xu said indifferently, "This nephew does not dare! However, I wonder if uncle's cup of wine is too heavy? "

Le Hedang knew what was good about it. He promised without hesitation, "This old man's glass of wine will be twice as heavy as Li Yizi's glass of wine!"

"Haha, since that's the case, this nephew will thank uncle very much!" Gongsun Xu laughed as he extended his bottle of wine. After Le Hedang finished pouring the bottle of wine full, he raised it and solemnly said: "Uncle, please be at ease. In the future, this nephew will definitely return a glass of wine to you."

Bringing out the high quality sea salt was not a problem. The key point was how to sell it to the men quickly. Le Hedang was undoubtedly the most suitable person to do so. Moreover, Le Hedang and Gongsun Zan had been friends for decades. Thus, they were still trustworthy. Last time, although Le Hedang only spent a hundred thousand points, this was human nature as well. After all, Le Cui Er wasn't with him, so it was already considered a big favor to be able to pay one hundred thousand points. Gongsun Xu definitely wouldn't be a random weirdo, and he was more willing to let Le Hedang use his own money to 'sponsor'.

Le Hedang was relieved and immediately beamed a smile, "Haha, of course I believe in you! I am also really looking forward to drinking that goblet of wine which my nephew has toasted to me! "

Ku Le looked up and stared blankly at Le Hedang and Gongsun Xu, who had been walking around and toasting each other for a long time. Le Hedang and Gongsun Xu were silently cursing in their hearts: Chinese people just aren't straightforward enough.