Crossing the wilderness to survive, starting with a broken kitchen knife.

Zhang Shi nodded, and after thinking for a moment, he felt that he could use these three people, so he took off his mask and showed his true face.

"Ah, it's Boss Zhang Shi!"

Cheng Xiaobai recognized Zhang Shi at once and almost shouted with excitement. Zhu Dachang's heart was finally at ease. After all, in their minds, Zhang Shi's image has always been humble and friendly.

Wang Wu also let out a long sigh and joked.

"Boss Zhang Shi, you were making fun of us. If we had known it was you, we wouldn't have panicked so much."

Zhang Shi smiled and looked at the three people who were completely relaxed. He took out some food and water from his backpack and handed them to them.

"We're old acquaintances, it was just a joke. From now on, you can use my port as a place to rest. There's nothing missing on the island, and if you need supplies, you can directly contact the person in charge."

Wang Wu also had an idea and looked at the island again, then made a suggestion to Zhang Shi.

"To be honest, our freight business has only just started, but it's incredibly popular, with countless people coming and going every day. Boss Zhang Shi, if you set up a maritime station here, you should be able to make a killing."

Before Wang Wu could finish, Zhu Dachang interrupted him in a deep voice.

"There are some risks. The people we're hosting are a mixed bag. We might end up running into a hostile force against Boss Zhang Shi one day. If the coordinates of the island are exposed, it would be a real problem."

Zhang Shi smiled silently, glanced at the fleet around him, then waved his hand and said.

"The post station is a good idea. I will speed up the implementation. When the time comes, please help me promote it. You will definitely benefit from it. As for Brother Zhu's concerns, you can relax. No one dares to act wildly here."

The three of them looked at each other, and seeing that the main person had no objection, they nodded in agreement, thus reaching a verbal cooperation.

At this time, Zhao Feng also boarded the boat and listened to the conversation. He looked at Wang Wu and the other two and asked in confusion, "You guys are doing pretty good business, but I have a question. With only three of you, aren't you afraid of being hijacked by someone with bad intentions?"

Zhu Dachang pointed at Wang Wu and smiled slightly.

"Hehe, it's not like I haven't encountered some clueless people before, but they were all dealt with by Brother Wang. If you want to eat this bowl of rice, how can you not have some boxing skills?"

Cheng Xiaobai also added.

"Our team actually consists of more than three people. The rest of the team is busy with other things at the base camp. Today we've taken on a cargo transport job, so that's why we're the only ones dispatched."

Zhang Shi added the three people as friends and then sent them away.

Zhang Shi had actually been thinking about the post station idea for a while, but he'd put it on hold due to concerns about the current level of survivors' lack of purchasing power and the lack of transportation. Unexpectedly, he'd run into Wang Wu's team today, so Zhang Shi took advantage of the situation and partnered with them to start a travel agency. After all, no one wants too little money.

"Brother Feng, I'll leave the post station to you. It will be located next to the port."

Zhao Feng raised a thumbs up and responded decisively.

"Don't worry, leave it to me!"

After that, he went to the research center, gathered a team of craftsmen, and mobilized a batch of resources, preparing to survey the terrain first and draw up the design drawings.

It would take some time for the news from the post station to spread, and they still had a lot of time to make preparations. Zhang Shi was not in a hurry, but was anxious about another thing: their salt reserves were running out.

The number of people on the island has exceeded one thousand. After Zhang Shi controlled the number to this number, he stopped recruiting. On the one hand, there were too many people and some supplies were consumed. On the other hand, management was also a hassle.

Zhang Shi received a sea salt extractor during yesterday's sign-in. It can steadily extract a small amount of table salt every day, but the amount of salt is only enough to meet the needs of a small number of people.

Zhang Shi remembered that a person's daily salt intake requirement was about 6g, which meant 6 people needed kg. The current market price of salt was exorbitant, and even a wealthy survivor like Zhang Shi didn't want to be taken advantage of. So, Zhang Shi began to think about making salt.

Zhang Shi recalled his knowledge of salt extraction, finding it mostly from short videos and literary works, and he wondered if it was reliable. He first led his men to dig a large pit on the shore, then covered it with linen cloth and introduced seawater. The water was then evaporated by sun exposure and heating, and white crystals naturally precipitated, forming the crude salt consumed by ancient people.

Zhang Shi took out a small piece of crystal and tasted it. It was indeed salt, but it was a bit bitter, probably because there were a lot of impurities in it.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Shi added several screens and linen at the water inlet of the salt pit, and added some charcoal to it, effectively filtering out most of the impurities.

The salt produced this time was obviously whiter and the particles were smaller. Zhang Shi tasted it and although it still had a slight bitter taste, it did not affect the consumption.

Ge Dalong was attracted by the movement on his side. Seeing that he was making salt, he also started to offer advice.

Zhang Shi was originally quite satisfied with the salt production results after the initial improvement, but after listening to Ge Dalong's explanation, he realized that this was far from the best solution.

To obtain salt with higher purity and better taste, further purification processes are needed. Therefore, the two decided to use the existing resources on the island to try to build a more complete salt production system.

First, they organized craftsmen to construct a series of small evaporation ponds along the seashore. These ponds were divided into primary, secondary, and refining ponds according to size and function. The primary evaporation ponds were used to initially evaporate the seawater, reducing its water content; the secondary evaporation ponds further concentrated the salt and increased its saturation; and the refining ponds, through more precise control, allowed the brine to slowly crystallize under specific conditions, resulting in higher-quality salt.

In order to improve the purity of the salt, Ge Dalong also instructed the craftsmen to lay a thin layer of fine sand and gypsum in the refining pool. These substances are by-products of the mining area. They can absorb some impurities and promote the orderly growth of salt crystals, making the final salt particles more uniform and fine.

As for deeper filtration and optimization, it is impossible to carry out under the current conditions. However, with just these few steps, the purity of the salt is significantly improved. At least in terms of taste, it is not much different from the salt produced by the sea salt extractor.

Having solved the major salt problem, Zhang Shi was in high spirits. With the steady development of the salt production industry, the island had another economic development path, and the subsequent sale of salt was also a way to make money.