Ministers Begging Me to Ascend the Throne

Chapter 831: Chapter 7: Producing the New Sea Salt (3)

"Bright arrows are easy to dodge, but dark ones are hard to guard against."

"Uncle, nothing will happen to me." Zhao Yao was confident that he wouldn’t be harmed by hidden arrows, not because he had Dragon Guards with him, but because he had many animal spies around him.

He Lianfang could only sigh inwardly as he saw Zhao Yao disregard the salt merchants. It seemed he had to worry more about this young man.

"There’s no worry about grain in Lingnan; the main thing now is to produce the new sea salt." Lingnan had planted double-season rice many years ago, and its grain production was the highest in Great Zhou. "Once I produce the new sea salt, I will produce white sugar."

"What is white sugar?"

"It’s sugar. When I make it, you’ll know, Uncle." Zhao Yao smiled mysteriously, "Uncle, this white sugar is a treasure too. When I make it, it will be just like salt."

He Lianfang looked surprised, "Is it really that impressive?"

Zhao Yao nodded, "Yes, it’s really that impressive."

He Lianfang wasn’t very interested in sugar and asked no further questions.

"By the way, a letter came from Japan. They’ve already dug up quite a bit of gold and silver and are asking when you will bring it back."

"If we bring it back now, Swamp Prefecture has no place to store this gold and silver." Zhao Yao had forgotten about this matter. "Let’s bring it back next spring. I’ll find a place soon, then dig a cellar to store this gold and silver."

"Then you’ll have to dig it deep enough, or it won’t be able to fit."

"I know."

"You’re not going to tell your father?" He Lianfang said, "This matter can’t be hidden from your father."

"I can’t tell Father now; I’ll tell him next year." Zhao Yao thought of his father’s shameless and rogue nature and said annoyedly, "If I tell Father now that I’ve sent people to Japan to dig up gold and silver, he’ll definitely send people to dig immediately, and then we won’t have any left for ourselves."

"Zhao Zheng is capable of doing such a thing."

"So it’s better to hide it from him for now." There were many things he hadn’t done yet, and they required a lot of money. The money he earned now was far from enough, so he desperately needed the gold and silver from Japan. "Uncle, do you have anything else?"

"Why, are you going out to be busy again?"

"I have to go out and find people, otherwise I won’t be able to make the new sea salt." Zhao Yao was troubled by his current lack of manpower. "Uncle, I’m now very much in favor of your idea of maintaining a private army of 100,000."

He Lianfang raised an eyebrow at Zhao Yao, "You’re going to start buying people now?"

"Uncle, don’t you see I’m extremely short of people right now?" Zhao Yao started complaining to He Lianfang, "Making new sea salt requires people, and building farms, factories, and dense military bases require people. Then there’s digging a cellar, building city walls, and manufacturing new agricultural tools and weapons..."

After listening for a while, He Lianfang got a headache and quickly interrupted Zhao Yao, "Alright, just tell me how many people you need."

"Uncle, what do you think?"

He Lianfang glanced sarcastically at the troubled Zhao Yao, "If you want to complete all the things you just mentioned quickly, only 100,000 people will suffice."

"Not quite 100,000, two or three thousand would suffice." Zhao Yao asked He Lianfang, "Uncle, do you think it’s viable to bring those exiled to Lingnan, who are still serving sentences, to work for us?"

"You have the authority to mobilize those people for work." All of Lingnan belonged to Zhao Yao, so he could do as he pleased. "However, I remember those exiled to Lingnan are not all in one place."

"I know, I plan to first bring the exiles near Swamp Prefecture to work." Zhao Yao had already decided, "First bring the exiles from Baiyan Prefecture, Biyue Prefecture, and Yinshuang Prefecture, the total from these three places is at least four to five thousand people, which will suffice for now." These four to five thousand people were not exiled by Great Zhou, but by the previous dynasty.

"Are you bringing so many people to Swamp Prefecture? Do you have a place for them to live?"

Zhao Yao was stumped by the question, and after a moment of stiffness, he said, "...no place to live." This idea could only be temporarily abandoned. "Alas, we’ll have to take things one step at a time. However, the new sea salt must be produced as soon as possible; I’ll get our people to help for now." Fortunately, he had cultivated quite a few of his own people in Lingnan before.

"Then let’s have our people do it."

"Tong Xi," Zhao Yao called towards the door.

Soon, Tong Xi walked in, "Your Highness, what are your orders?"

"Go and call the Guard Commander; I have something to instruct him."

"This servant will go at once."

Soon after, a tall, rugged-looking man walked in.

"Your Highness, is there something you need to instruct us to do?"

"I have something for you to do..." Zhao Yao gave the instructions. Tomorrow, he would personally lead the people to do it. The production of the new sea salt must be overseen by him personally.