I support the army through farming and business.

Chapter 272 Sun Salt
Bai Wei closed his eyes, his heart filled with regret.

If he had known that the Flying Dragon Guards were so useless, why would he have joined forces with them?

Now that he has fallen into the state of being imprisoned as a Manchu, how will he face his ancestors in the afterlife?
Wan Qian was extremely unwilling. He, the commander of the Flying Dragon Guard, had actually been defeated by a mere gatekeeper. It was a great disgrace!
King Xuan glanced one last time at Bai Wei, who was sitting in prison, before turning back to his royal tent.

Inside the royal tent, the generals, who had just experienced a rebellion, looked grim. They still couldn't believe that their brothers, who had risked their lives together, had betrayed the prince and them!
"Your Highness, we've captured the Flying Dragon Guard Commander and Lao Bai," General Chen said regretfully, changing his words, "and Bai Wei. Emperor Pingyuan probably won't let us off the hook."

King Xuan didn't care. "So what if we don't let him go? When has he ever let him go?"

"What is the meaning of Your Majesty's actions?" General Chen continued to ask. "Why would you harm the Prince for no reason?"

Jiang Yiming uttered two words calmly, "Reduce the power of the regional military governors."

Cutting off vassalage? !
General Chen could hardly believe his ears. "The prince's first-rank title was personally bestowed by the Emperor Gaozu and conferred by the late Emperor. Has Emperor Pingyuan gone mad? How dare he reduce the power of the princes?"

"Now, the only prince in Dayu is the Prince, who controls 300,000 Northwest troops and holds the fiefdoms of Gansu and Ningzhou. Some people in the court have long jokingly called the Prince the 'Northwest Emperor,' and Emperor Pingyuan naturally regards the Prince as a thorn in his side."

Jiang Yiming put down his feather fan. “Your Highness, you can no longer be indecisive. Emperor Pingyuan’s intention to weaken the power of the princes is so blatant. The guillotine is already placed on your and the Northwest Army’s necks. If Emperor Pingyuan continues like this, the Northwest will surely descend into chaos.”

Before Jiang Yiming could finish speaking, General Chen slammed his hand on the table and stood up, "Why don't we just rebel against the whole thing and enthrone the Prince as Emperor!"

King Xuan glanced at him, and General Chen sat down awkwardly.

"Does the strategist think so too?"

“That’s right. Now, Your Highness has only two paths before you: one is to surrender and hand over the Northwest and the Northwest Army, and the other is to overthrow Emperor Pingyuan, so that Your Highness can sit on the supreme throne and fight for a way out for the Northwest Army.”

The generals below unanimously agreed.

King Xuan remained noncommittal.

Gu Liu shook his head. "With the current strength of Gansu and Ningxia prefectures, how can they supply the food and expenses for an army of 300,000?"

Most critically, Tibet and the Turks are eyeing the area covetously, waiting for an opportunity to take a bite out of Dayu.

If Da Yu falls into chaos first, it will give them an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

“There’s no rush. Now that the thousands are in our hands, Luoyang should be peaceful for a while,” King Xuan said, stopping the generals who were about to offer further advice. “If you have nothing else to do, go out and train your troops.”

The generals quickly made their way out.

Jiang Yiming waved his feather fan, "Does Your Highness still cherish the bond between the Great Ancestor and the late Emperor?"

Prince Xuan shook his head. "I promised my father that I would guard the Northwest well and not allow the Tibetans and Turks to set foot on the Northwest border."

"The tragedy of the thirty years of the Kangzhi reign must not be repeated."

Jiang Yiming sighed, "It's a pity we don't have a good excuse to start a fight."

King Xuan suddenly remembered, "How is the Duke of Wei?"

Jiang Yiming calmly replied, "He's still recuperating at Renxintang Hospital. He fell off his horse a couple of days ago."

King Xuan: . . . . . .

Is Tang Zheng incompatible with horses or something?

This time, it's really no one's fault. It was all because Tang Zheng couldn't stand the loneliness and insisted on exercising his right to supervise the Northwest Army, thinking that he was in good health. As a result, he was thrown off his horse as soon as he mounted it and was stepped on in an indescribable position by the horse's hoof.

Prince Xuan's shoulders trembled slightly. "The old doctor Pei from Renxintang and the imperial physicians who came with him are both skilled in men's health. The Duke of Wei has already sent someone back to the capital, and I suppose there will be an imperial decree summoning the Duke of Wei back to the capital soon," Jiang Yiming guessed. "However, this time, His Majesty probably won't send a new military governor."

Jiang Yiming guessed correctly. After receiving the news, Emperor Pingyuan was so angry that he smashed his palace. However, due to the fact that the Flying Dragon Guard had colluded with Bai Wei to assassinate Prince Xuan but was captured instead, he dared not anger Prince Xuan again. Therefore, he only ordered the recall of Duke Wei, and all matters in the Northwest were still handled by Prince Xuan.

Tang Zhao sighed, wondering what Emperor Pingyuan was trying to achieve by playing such a trick. Not only did he lose the Flying Dragon Guard and Tang Zheng, but he also got himself into a lot of trouble.

Why bother?

"Princess!" The prefect of Zhangye Prefecture rushed in to report, "The saltworks have been built as instructed by the princess. Please come and take a look."

Tang Zhao followed Zhang Xing to Gaotai Salt Lake, where a huge salt field was built along the vast salt lake, complete with evaporation ponds, crystallization ponds, and so on.

Tang Zhao was very satisfied.

"I have a question, and I would like to ask the princess to enlighten me," Zhang Xing asked, "Why do we need to dig ten evaporation ponds, and why are they all connected to each other?"

Tang Zhao succinctly stated, "Increase the salt concentration."

Zhang Xing felt like he understood, but also like he didn't.

“We’ll demonstrate it for you, and the adults will understand.”

Tang Zhao stopped explaining and directly ordered, "Start work!"

Hundreds of strong men simultaneously carried iron buckets, drawing water from the salt lake and pouring it into the first-stage evaporation pool, which was soon filled with lake water.

At the edge of the evaporation pond, half of the men were stirring the water with wooden sticks as thick as an adult man's forearm, while the other half were filtering impurities from the pond with baskets.

Under the blazing sun, the men kept wiping the sweat from their faces and bodies, and the water in the evaporation pond visibly decreased.

Noon the next day.

"Remove the iron plate blocking the ditch."

Upon hearing the command, the men pushed together the heavy iron plate separating the two evaporation pools. The lake water from the first evaporation pool flowed into the second evaporation pool along the ditch, and the men guarding the second evaporation pool continued to stir and filter the lake water.

After all the water from the first-stage evaporation pond had entered the second-stage evaporation pond, the water carriers resumed work to fill the first-stage evaporation pond.

The process is repeated from the third to the ninth stage of evaporation ponds until lake water is introduced into the tenth stage evaporation pond, at which point the lake water salinity is already very high.

Zhang Xing couldn't wait to take a bite, and almost stuck his tongue out.

It was both salty and bitter.

The men worked together to push open the iron plate between the tenth-stage evaporation tank and the crystallization tank. Under the scorching sun, salt continuously precipitated out of the crystallization tank.

The men with wooden sticks kept stirring the crystals to make them crystallize evenly.

Looking at the pure white salt in the crystallization pool, Zhang Xing asked excitedly, "Is this all there is to it?"

Tang Zhao shook his head, "It's not that easy. Salt made this way is too bitter and doesn't taste pure. It needs to be crystallized and precipitated again."

Zhang Xing was still not satisfied. He clicked his tongue in amazement, feeling that this salt was the best he had ever seen in his life, even surpassing the quality of official salt.

The men shoveled the salt out of the crystallization pool and put it into the second crystallization pool filled with water, stirring it again to precipitate the salt. They then shoveled the salt out again and put it into the third crystallization pool, stirring it repeatedly until finally the salt was precipitated.

(End of this chapter)