Late Tang

Wu Qian understood what Li Jing said, but he didn't quite understand it.

"What the yamen said in a few words is immediately enlightening, but our Daheishan Island has a lot of snakes and flints, and there are really no other specialties."

Li Jing shook his head and sighed: "Added value, what we want to do is what others don't have. Or reprocess what others already have, and add special value, so that we can make money when others have nothing. I will show the way to Daheishan Island today, if you have flint here, then you can organize a mining factory to mine ore. Then, process the flint into special commodities."

"What kind of goods can flint be made of?" Not only Wu Qian didn't quite understand, but the officers of Daheishanbao such as Lin Wei and Zhang Chengzong also didn't quite understand.

Li Jing fumbled around his body, took out a shiny object, and showed it to everyone, then opened the inch-sized object, rolled his thumb on it a few times, wiped it a few times, sparks sputtered , There was actually a flame burning in front of everyone.

Seeing the swaying orange flame, everyone was amazed, they had never seen such a tool for making fire.Huozhezi, Huo coal, and even Huo Dao Huo Lian are not so convenient and quick.

"What is this?" Wu Qian swallowed, he felt that this thing seemed to be the business that Li Jing wanted to hand over to them, but he couldn't believe it.

"I just asked a craftsman to make this price. It looks magical, but it's just an iron shell outside. Of course, you can also make this shell into steel, jade, or even gold, silver, or copper. Guan Jian's is actually two things, one is the one I rubbed just now, a familiar thing, flint, and the other is a small oil bottle inside, which is soaked in kerosene with cotton from the Western Regions and added a small A small fire wick is enough."

The lighter is also a new product that Li Jing came up with considering the flint resources on Daheishan Island.There are two key things that a lighter needs, flint and kerosene. There are plenty of flints on Daheishan Island, and there are even a lot on Plow Rake Island and Mantis Island.As for kerosene, when making Shenhuo, distillate gasoline is needed, and kerosene can be made together just by hand.It is even possible to use gasoline directly. If you want to save trouble, you can even use vegetable oil.

Compared with Huozhezi, lighters are a huge leap forward.Li Jing believed that there would be no market for this thing.

After carefully introducing the entire production process of the lighter, Wu Qian and the others had their eyes bubbling and their faces flushed with excitement.With such a rare product, it is not inferior to something like liquor.

Seeing their excitement, Li Jing said from behind: "This lighter workshop can be made by Daheishanbao, but it is stated in advance that this workshop belongs to the town general's mansion and is managed by Daheishanbao. For this commodity, you can build a flint mining team on Black Mountain Island, Mantis Island, and Rake Island. You can also build a machine shell blacksmith team, and even the last assembly can be recruited The women in the fort assemble it. In short, this product needs a lot of people, which can just solve a large part of the common people’s labor and give everyone a chance to make money.”

With the lighter, Li Jing can also sell the lighter fluid directly by the way, so he can make another fortune.

Of course, it is impossible for the tens of thousands of people on the island to come to get lighters, and it is not possible to use so many people.For the rest, Li Jing simply took out some of the ideas he had come up with during this time.

They are all on the island, and the biggest resource can be said to be the fish in the sea.But fish is not easy to preserve.In addition to eating it now, it can only be dried or smoked.There is no other way.

People who have been sailing at sea for a long time fell ill because they could not eat fresh vegetables, fruits and other foods, and some even suffered from scurvy, which threatened their lives.This is a very helpless thing for the crew. Li Jing found that the Dengzhou crew of Datang didn't have much to do about it. Generally, beans and bean sprouts are necessary on board.This is a rare vegetable that can be commonly seen on board. In addition, some grapefruit or some other seasonal fruits are brought along, but it is also difficult to preserve for a long time.

Considering that his Samana army now also has two fleets, which often float on the sea.Other soldiers and horses have also recently begun to suppress bandits and train troops everywhere, and they often spend time away. Many soldiers complained that it is inconvenient to carry food for logistics. They can only bring some dry steamed buns or pancakes.The weather is hot, but it is easy to break. Everyone is marching outside and has no time. Sometimes they can't even have a decent meal.

Thinking that the Samana army might march and fight in a farther range in the future, Li Jing couldn't help but be troubled by this problem.After thinking about it for a long time, he finally thought of canned food.Canned food is a good way to store food for a long time, which was finally collected by the Napoleon government with a huge bonus of [-] francs.

In fact, it is simple and easy to say, and it is difficult to say that it is difficult.The method of canning is just to process the food, put it into a jar, put it all in a boiling water pot, heat it for 10 to [-] minutes, plug it with a cork while it is hot, and then reinforce it with a thread or seal it with wax. die.In this way, food can be preserved for a long time without rot and deterioration.And if you use sealed clay pots or porcelain bottles, or even gourds, or bamboo tubes as containers, they are all acceptable.

In fact, the method of canning food in our country was applied to the folk as early as 3000 years ago.The earliest agricultural book "Qi Min Yao Shu" has such a record: "First cut the livestock meat into pieces, add salt and wheat flour, mix well, and finish, and seal the head with dense mud in the inner porcelain." difference, but also approximation.

"Is this really feasible?" Lin Wei was a little dubious.If this method is really feasible and can be maintained for a year or even a year and a half or two, then it will be very useful. "Isn't that all the fish we catch can be treated in this way and canned?"

"Of course, not only fish can be canned, pork, beef, mutton, even chickens, ducks, geese, and even wild animals can be used. Even our vegetables and fruits can be canned in this way. With these cans, our fleet crew can Eat vegetables. Soldiers don’t have to bother to light a fire to cook when they are marching and fighting, and there are ready-made cans. Not only are they easy to transport, but they are also easy to preserve, delicious and delicious.”

The new Town General of Xiaoheishan Fort accompanying him hurriedly said loudly: "Leave this project to our fort. They all have lighters. It is impossible that our Xiaoheishan Fort was raised by a stepmother."

Seeing Wang Zhong's eagerness, Li Jing smiled and said: "Don't worry, this canned food is consumable food, and it's not easy to make. I bet that the whole of Shamen Town is now making this product together, There will definitely be a market. Think about it, if there are fresh canned fruits and vegetables, all the merchant ships in Dengzhou will have to come to buy a batch. We can make more varieties of other canned food, and there are sure to be some people who are willing to buy them. .”

Hearing Li Jing's description of such a good prospect, Wang Zhong grinned and laughed.The current situation of Xiaoheishanbao is similar to that of Daheishanbao. So many people have been relocated to the island at once, and the land on the island is insufficient. He is worried about how to feed so many people. Now he is very satisfied with this canned product.In particular, Li Jing promised him that as long as the canned food in Xiaoheishanbao was of good quality, then the Salmonella Town Army would order the canned food produced by them.

According to Li Jing's grasp of the situation, Wang Xianzhi is about to revolt. According to the development of this situation, the Shamen Town Army, which has already registered in front of Jieshuai Song Wei and Supervising Army Envoy Yu Wanrong, may be transferred at any time Go to the front of Qingzhou and Qizhou to prevent the uprising army.It is difficult to guarantee logistics when sending troops abroad.Li Jing doesn't quite believe how good the logistics will be for them in various places.It's better to get more cans and prepare them. When the time comes, they will directly use the pack horses to pull the cans to the front line, so that they can have enough food and clothing.

"Organize more young adults to go fishing in the sea. Pigs, sheep, and cattle are hard-won, but there are all kinds of fish in the sea. Everyone can catch them, and if they are caught, they can be processed into canned food. After all, fish is also a meat dish. , it is more than ten times better than the wild vegetables and pancakes on the battlefield." Li Jing said with a smile.

Wang Zhong, Wu Qian, Lin Wei and a group of military officers all expressed that they would soon form a fishing team and catch as many as they could.In the past, if you catch them, you can’t sell them all and eat them, but now you don’t have to worry about spoiling them. You can really catch as many as you can.

"In addition to making lighters and canned food, we can also dry salt." Li Jing simply told the generals around him about the method of drying salt in salt fields in later generations.Today's salt is extremely expensive because of the imperial court's monopoly law, and a bucket of salt costs more than a hundred dollars.The price of this salt almost catches up with the price of rice, even compared to grains such as sorghum and millet, there is almost no difference.People who live by the sea can't afford to eat salt, which is really a cruel and inhumane practice.

There are now 10,000+ people in Shamen Town, and Li Jing doesn't plan to spend that unreasonable money to buy salt with the price of rice.

"This method of drying salt in salt fields does not require many people, and the output is countless times higher than the current method of boiling salt. Nantuozi Island has a very good beach. I think we can build a salt field on Nantuozi Island. It doesn’t need to be too big, so it’s enough to meet our needs.” The Salt Court has always been strict, and selling more than one stone of private salt is a death penalty.

Although it is said that Li Jing only intends to supply the Shamen town army and not to sell private salt, this is after all a violation of the court law, especially now that there is a supervising army by his side, it is not easy to go too far.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Chengye was very happy to hear that there is such a good method of producing salt.He didn't care that Li Jing was making private salt, but squinted his eyes and said: "I think if the salt produced here can really be compared with green salt, then it's better to get more salt fields to dry out more salt. In this way Not only can it be used by the soldiers and civilians of this town, but the surplus can also be used as a gift to the emperor."

Li Jing didn't forget to buy these things to offer to the emperor's loyal supervisor, and couldn't help but be a little bit dumbfounded, but since the supervisor said so, Li Jing didn't care much.Anyway, a little sun exposure is also sun exposure, and a little more sun exposure is also sun exposure.No capital, only a little manpower business, if it can really be used to please the emperor, it is very worthwhile.

"Okay, according to Zhang Jianjun's intention, let's expose more. Except for the use of the soldiers and civilians in this town, the rest can be used as a gift to the emperor." Li Jing would not be the first to send salt to the emperor.In history, many Jiedu envoys and local officials in the Tang Dynasty sent salt to the emperor, and once sent tens of thousands of shi 10,000+ shi, who said that salt was so expensive in the Tang Dynasty.

(To be continued)