Zhang Jiu and the others had already transported the supplies. The first thing they did was to set up tents and sort them into categories in the open space. Then Zhang Jiu sent people to dig two large pits on both sides of the official road, and then erected two large pits. Put up a wooden stake, order a wooden board on it, and write in big characters: Datang Royal Xiaohe Service Area. There are small words next to it: Meals, drinking water, horse feed, and parking spaces are provided.
Wang Tie and the others set up several tents as a family unit, and then also built stoves and so on.
After spending a whole day to complete all these tasks, Zhang Jiu and others were about to leave.
"Wang Tie." Zhang Jiu greeted again as he left.
"Mr. Sir, please speak."
"You once had the highest military position in this Xiaohe service area and served as a commander. Therefore, according to His Highness's order, you will be managing this place for the time being. In fact, what you do every day is what I told you before. In addition, if you When you have time, you can bring some saplings to encircle the entire service area. Just do this slowly."
"We will gradually send some bricks, stones, building materials, etc., and then you will build your own houses. The money will be deducted from the profits you earn. After the final deduction, these buildings will be your own. , do you think it’s feasible?” Zhang Jiu said.
"Of course...it's okay, but...His Highness is too kind to us." Wang Tie was a little embarrassed. He really felt that he had taken too much.
"It's okay, His Highness said, if you sweat and bleed for the country, the country will ensure that you don't have any problems in the rest of your life." Zhang Jiu said with a smile.
"Well, I remember it. Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will definitely make this place run well." Wang Tie said seriously.
"Then I'll leave first, and I'll send you the materials to build the house tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." Zhang Jiu said with a smile.
Things like this are happening in different places in the official road of Datang. In fact, it seems that the service area was established by Li Ke, but in fact, Li Ke is really not prepared to make much money from the service area. To put it bluntly, what Li Ke wants What they do is to artificially build settlements one by one.
The post stations of the Tang Dynasty, or to be precise, the post stations of all dynasties were absolutely not allowed to be used by ordinary people. Only officials could use the post stations. However, the service area was built based on the post stations. No one said anything about this, and no service was seen. That sign in front of the area? Tang Dynasty Royal Family, who has any opinions?
After these soldiers can take care of their own profits and losses, buy their own food supplies, etc., Li Ke will not care about it. I think they will all make some money. Moreover, another advantage of using old soldiers to station in these service areas is that they can be equipped with weapons later. The combat effectiveness of these soldiers is really not weak.
Because in the later period, Li Ke will continue to add newly retired soldiers to form a good circulation here. Each service area is like an artery for blood transfusion, activating the commercial operation of the giant Tang Dynasty. During the Zhenguan period, Business activities are actually very sluggish.
The old soldiers are the white blood cells in these arteries, ensuring the safety along the official road, and some bandits will not dare to plunder along the way.
If the commercial activities of the Tang Dynasty could reach the level of the Song Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty's military strength could be maintained, it would be uncertain whether they would be called Tang people or Han people more than a thousand years later.
The construction of the entire Xizhou is in full swing. With the continuous implementation of Li Ke's decrees, the order of the entire Xizhou has become smoother and smoother, and alfalfa has also been sown successfully. According to the relevant sowing instructions obtained by Li Ke, Datang One mu of alfalfa requires 5 kilograms of seeds, and the alfalfa seeds that Li Ke harvested from the seed warehouse totaled 15 tons, or 30,000 kilograms, and a total of 6,000 acres of alfalfa seeds were sown.
According to official information, one acre of alfalfa can raise about 15 sheep. Datang's acre is smaller. Li Ke calculated based on 10 sheep, 6,000 acres can also feed 60,000 sheep.
This is not a small number. It seems to be just a drop in the bucket compared to the huge number of sheep in Xizhou, but it is absolutely impossible for Xizhou's original pasture to support 15 sheep per acre of pasture.
Next year will be the time for the big explosion of these alfalfa. After large-scale seed reservation in all lands next year, the entire alfalfa planting area may be expanded dozens of times. Anyway, there is no harm in planting this thing, so just plant it on a large scale.
It can be planted anywhere near a water source, and it can also fertilize the fields. Even if the land is poorer and may not grow well, there will always be much more grass than the original pasture.
While Xizhou continued to prosper, and in the words of later generations, the gross national product increased crazily, various places such as Longyou Road in the Tang Dynasty finally received the first wave of baptism of Red Sea salt.
In Chang'an, the first person to receive the gift was naturally Li Shimin.
Li Shimin was a little excited after receiving Chang Lin's report, because he knew what it meant that the salt started to be sold, so Li Shimin immediately asked Chang Lin to get a jar of salt sent by Li Ke.
When Li Shimin saw the extremely exquisite and fine-grained fine salt in the glass jar, Li Shimin almost widened his eyes. Is this the finished product? In fact, Li Shimin was not the kind of emperor who didn't know anything about grains. When he was young, he led troops to fight and even made his own meals.
So he naturally knows something about salt.
"How much does this salt cost?" Li Shimin suddenly asked a key question.
"Back to Your Majesty, the prices vary. One mall said that for His Majesty's health, His Highness King Qin specially developed a new technology for filtering impurities. The total filtration process for this refined salt is fifteen. This Just one-finger filtration removes almost all impurities harmful to the human body. The cost is 500 Wen per catty, the selling price is 550 Wen, the profit is 40 Wen, and the shipping fee is 10 Wen per catty. There is a shopping mall with clearly marked prices, and all costs are marked. Make it clear, and if you sell to members, you can get free shipping.”
"And His Highness the King of Qin stipulated that because of the difficulty of making this salt, you can only buy 2 kilograms at a time."
Chang Lin spoke quickly.
Li Shimin was stunned for a moment. When he first heard that the cost was 500 cents per pound, Li Shimin sneered. What this bastard told him at the beginning was that the salt could be directly regarded as profit, which meant that the cost was equivalent to nothing except labor. Used as prisoners.
At this time, after hearing what Chang Lin said about the fifteen filtration processes and the purchase restrictions, Li Shimin was not so sure.
Did this bastard really develop fifteen filtration processes for himself?
"Let me have a taste." Li Shimin came over, pinched a little with his fingers and sprinkled it into his mouth. A salty taste was introduced into his mouth. Apart from that, there was no bitter taste, and there seemed to be some faint fragrance, although It's very light, but it's definitely different from ordinary salt.
"What else?" Li Shimin asked again.
"There are also 300 Wen porcelain bottles with twelve filtration procedures, 200 Wen ceramic bottles with 10 filtration procedures, 50 Wen wooden boxes with 5 filtration procedures, and 1.5 Wen per kilogram of salt without filtration procedures, but His Highness King Qin said Even if it is 1.5 cents per kilogram of table salt that has not been specially filtered, it uses a brand-new process when making it to remove most of the most harmful impurities to the human body that cannot be removed by other table salts on the market. It is sold at cost price. ."
"His Highness said that it is for the health of the people of the Tang Dynasty. When the filtration costs drop in the future, His Highness will gradually reduce the price of salt with higher filtration procedures." Chang Lin introduced to Li Shimin.
