After learning about the navy and shipbuilding, Lu Bu and his wife temporarily settled in Yangxin City.

It was cold in winter. As soon as it got dark at night, Lu Bu would send his son back to his room and go to bed early with his wife in his arms.

"I've been traveling these past few days and I'm so tired. Tomorrow..."

Going to bed so early, Zhang Mo thought that this guy was too pent up on the road, and held his hand that was unbuttoning his belt and said.

"I know you're tired, so I need to rest early!" Lu Bu took off her coat and sweater, then his own clothes. He hugged his wife and said with a smile, "Do you think I'm so unsatisfied?"

Zhang Mo muttered, "That's right, I think about that whenever I have some free time..."

"That's because you're so attractive to me. As long as I stop thinking about other things, smell your scent, and hug your delicate body, I can't help myself..."

As he was talking, he felt that he had another idea, so he quickly changed the subject, "By the way, who are you planning to recruit in Jingzhou?"

Zhang Mo leaned comfortably in his broad, warm embrace, squinting her eyes in contentment. "Historically, famous naval commanders were all from Eastern Wu and Jingzhou. I actually thought about recruiting someone when I first formed the navy, but after searching, I found that there wasn't anyone I could recruit. Now I really have no choice but to try and see if I can lure Gan Ning over."

"Is he great?"

"When he was young, this fellow was a complete scoundrel, not doing his job. He relied on his strength to gather a group of frivolous young men. They wore feathers in their hair, carried bows and arrows, and bells, and wandered around like wild men. When the people heard the bells, they knew that Gan Ning and his gang had arrived. People at the time often called them the 'Jinfan Thieves'."

"Jinfan thief? What do you mean?"

"He was very rich and very proud. He used brocade for sails, and even his attendants wore brocade clothes. He even used brocade to tie the boats, and then cut and threw it away when he left to show his wealth and luxury. In modern terms, it's called pretense."

Lu Bu was shocked after hearing this, "It's really luxurious!"

Zhang Mo continued, "When he was young, this guy was definitely out of his mind. When he visited someone's home, if they treated him well, he would go through fire and water for them. But if they didn't treat him with respect, he would bring his men to kill and confiscate their property, even local officials."

"How can a man who kills people for pleasure be the commander of an army?"

"These were all the bad things he did as a teenager. Then one day, for some reason, he suddenly came to his senses and began to study the various schools of thought and stopped robbery. Judging from his military achievements after joining the Eastern Wu, this guy is brave and resourceful, and can be of great use. However, his character still has major flaws. He is cruel and bloodthirsty, often breaking his promises and even disobeying Sun Quan's orders. But it may also be that Sun Quan is not dignified enough to control him."

After all, Sun Quan built his foundation by standing on the shoulders of his father and brothers. In addition, he was not very good at fighting. It was normal that Gan Ning, a tough guy who used to be a bandit, did not listen to him!

"So how old is he now and where does he play?"

"I don't know his exact age, but he should be in his twenties, maybe close to thirty. If his life trajectory hadn't been affected by our butterfly effect, he would now be with either Liu Biao or Huang Zu, the governor of Jiangxia."

She sighed as she spoke, "Alas... our territory isn't connected to the south by water. If he wants to lead his people to surrender, his fleet must sail down the Yangtze River into the East China Sea. Only by taking the sea route can he reach our Tang Kingdom. That means he'll have to pass through the territory of Eastern Wu, and Sun Ce might intercept him."

This is also the reason why she didn't want to recruit him at the beginning. Sun Ce, the little overlord of Jiangdong, is still very attractive. At least to Gan Ning, he is definitely more attractive than Sun Quan.

Lu Bu said, "You said he often breaks his promises. That's indeed possible!"

This person's personality sounds even more unruly than Qu Yi's. He does things based entirely on his own preferences. If it weren't for Amo's introduction, Lu Bu might not have spent the time and energy to go to the south to recruit him.

Zhang Mo said, "Let's give it a try. It would be best if we can recruit him! Judging from the current situation, we can only capture Gongsun Du first, strengthen the navy, then eliminate Cao Mengde, then go to Hanzhong to fight my senior brother, then capture Liu Fan of Yizhou, and finally fight Dongwu. With more time, we can eventually complete the unification."

"Well, that's what I think. We should completely resolve the worries in the north before heading south. It will be more stable. Then who should we send to find Gan Ning?"

"Well... let Xun Chen go. He's good at speaking and can fool people. I'll sort out Gan Ning's information and send it back to Yecheng tomorrow for him to review."

She yawned loudly and said, "I'm sleepy, go to sleep..."

After chatting for such a long time, Lu Bu's feelings disappeared. He hugged his wife for a while and then fell asleep.

The next morning, at Lu Qian's request, the couple took their son on a boat trip to the sea. Fearing that the wind and waves would be too strong and cause an accident, the boat did not go too far, but sailed north along the coast. Lu Qian danced with joy, sometimes taking the fishing net to catch fish, sometimes taking the bow and arrow to shoot seabirds, but after shooting several arrows, he didn't even hit a bird feather.

"Don't waste your arrows. Even if you shoot them, they will fall into the sea and give the big fish a free gift!" Zhang Mo looked at her son, who was out of breath from playing, speechlessly.

Lu Bu said, "He's just a kid, just having fun!"

He walked over to his son, squatted down, and took hold of his left and right hands holding the bow and arrow. He spotted a seabird that happened to be flying overhead, and shot an arrow straight into the blue sky, hitting the seabird right in the neck. The bird screamed and fell directly to the deck. Lu Qian dropped his bow and arrow and ran over to pick up the bird, looking at Lu Bu with excitement and admiration, "Daddy is so awesome, so awesome!"

Lu Bu smiled and said it was just a small matter!

Lu Qian pulled the arrow out of the bird and put the body into a bamboo basket beside him. Then he ran to the boat to watch the fisherman fishing. After a while, when the fishing net was pulled up, he saw many strange things in it, all of which he had never seen before.

In this era, logistics and transportation were backward, and seafood could not be transported inland at all. Occasionally, eating some dried sea fish was an extremely luxurious thing. Zhang Mo had only eaten it a few times in all the time she had been here. Today, seeing so many crabs, octopuses, large shrimps, and even lobsters, she was drooling with greed. She walked over, squatted beside the wooden barrel, and announced, "We're having a seafood feast tonight!"

"Make it barbecue!" Lu Qian said happily.

"There's no seasoning for the barbecue. Steamed king crabs are best! Braised king prawns! Stir-fried octopus! Let's go to the beach later and get some oysters, shells, and other things..."

"Then the fish can be grilled, right?"

Lu Qian has always been thinking about the beach barbecue.

"Okay, take it home and marinate it with ginger and white wine for a while to remove the fishy smell!"

The mother and son were facing a bucket of seafood, talking excitedly about the evening's delicacies. Lu Bu was sitting on the deck, looking at them with a doting look on his face. He couldn't help but think of the two little ones who were left in Yecheng. This trip from Bohai to Qingzhou would take at least half a year. If Zhen'er and Xuan'er were not too young and he was afraid that they would not be able to adapt to the climate here, he would never have been willing to leave them alone.

The boat sailed forward a bit, and Lu Bu saw thick smoke rising from a distant coast. He asked curiously, "What's going on over there?"

A fisherman replied, "That's the government's salt field. Are they boiling salt right now?"

"Boil salt? How do you boil it?"

"It's just boiling seawater in a stove to make salt!"

Hearing this, Zhang Mo returned to reality from her foodie days and walked over to ask, "Do you still cook salt in a pot these days?"

The fisherman asked curiously, "Aside from boiling, are there other ways to make salt? Ever since I can remember, the government has always used firewood for boiling. My great-grandfather, my father, and I all worked in the salt fields as labor service, chopping wood or carrying water and making firewood. It doesn't look as hard as building walls or roads, but it's incredibly hot. It's okay in the winter, but it's unbearable in the summer. The heat and the smoke from the stoves make us wet all day long."

Zhang Mo was stunned after hearing this. She couldn't remember in which dynasty in China the technology of drying salt in salt fields appeared, but it now seemed that this technology had not yet been adopted in the Han Dynasty. Everything relied on manual labor. No wonder the price of salt was so high.

She immediately ordered, "Go check out the salt fields!"

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