If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

"Yuanliang, can you buy slaves in the Moon Man Kingdom?"

What Zhou Wu was about to do next required a high degree of secrecy. Even the people of Niujia Town were not entirely trustworthy to him, since many of them had only joined during the recent famine.

"Of course, not to mention the Moon Man Kingdom, even our Great Dragon Kingdom can buy slaves."

"No, not dragons. Any country will do, except for dragon slaves. Arrange it immediately."

"Okay, I'll go right away."

Deng Yuanliang knew that the matter of the slaves must be related to salt, so he immediately went to give orders. Nowadays, with maritime trade, he no longer needed to personally go to sea with the ships every time, but this time the matter of the slaves was of great importance, so Deng Yuanliang still personally led the team to set off.

Zhou Wu didn't stay idle at home either. He spent every day surveying the coastline of Niujia Town, trying to find a suitable place.

Indeed, Zhou Wu decided to use the seawater salt production method. Besides a suitable location, the most important factor was secrecy. This is also why Zhou Wu used foreign slaves. The language barrier, the foreign land, and the slaves' status would maximize secrecy.

Zhou Wu was not a saint, nor did he fantasize about changing the slave society system. He did not believe he had the ability to do so. At most, he could only grant his slaves some of the most basic rights to survival.

In the end, Zhou Wu chose a good location. The southeast side was bordered by the sea, and the west side was the border. It was a place with cliffs and precipices, and rarely visited by people. Only in a forest to the north lived a group of people who had moved out of Medicine King Valley and were obsessed with medical research. Therefore, the seclusion of this location was definitely not a problem.

Zhou Wu immediately summoned Niu Er and ordered him to lead the Qingyang Army to renovate the area. Building houses for the master was a given. Then, they would open up beach areas on the coast, build dikes to control the tides near the sea, construct sluice gates, and dig ditches and build embankments to form square beach areas.

That way, once the slaves arrive, they can start working right away.

As for Hu Sai, Zhou Wu also replied to him after receiving the letter from the capital, telling him to wait patiently.

Actually, seawater salt production is not as simple as people think. It's not as simple as just drying seawater. If it were that easy, the ancients wouldn't have been so foolish; they would have discovered it long ago. Zhou Wu just happened to be reading some miscellaneous books that introduced the method of seawater salt production. However, Zhou Wu wasn't sure if it would work, but after a few repeated experiments, he figured it shouldn't be a big problem.

The process of sea salt production involves several steps, including storing seawater, drying salt mud, collecting sand, filtering, drying salt, and collecting salt.

Each step involves countless procedures and precautions.

Seawater is stored up, and during high tide, the seawater submerges the salt mud on the coast. The salt mud has the effect of absorbing the salt from the seawater. Salt workers dig irrigation ditches from the coast to the salt flats. When the tide rises at night, the seawater flows along these ditches to the salt flats and is fully absorbed and enriched by the mud in the salt flats.

During the day, after the tide recedes, salt workers use short wooden handles to turn over the soil in the salt fields, just like loosening soil and raking a field. The soil is then exposed to the sun to dry. When the water evaporates and the soil is half-dry, the salt from the seawater remains in the soil.

The process of collecting sand involves two main parts: a drying pond and a filtration pond. After the salt mud is exposed to the sun, it is transported to the filtration pond, where it is then compacted.

The filtration process involves a square brine storage tank built with volcanic rock in each filtration pool. Salt mud is poured into the salt tank, then stirred. People jump into the salt tank and stomp on it thoroughly with their feet. Seawater is then poured in. The bottom of the salt tank is a filter made of mats. Seawater is poured in on top of the mud for further filtration. The filtered water flows from the salt tank into another pool on the other side, which becomes the brine.

Salt workers transported the brine, which had reached a sufficient concentration, in wooden barrels and poured it into salt pans, where it was exposed to the scorching sun. They then used a bent iron sheet to collect the salt crystals that showed signs of crystallization, a slightly white bloom, or a liquid crystal state.

This is the entire process of salt production by sun-drying. Now everything is ready, and we are just waiting for the slaves to arrive.

Zhou Wu had also made up his mind. From now on, this salt field would be classified as a top secret in Niujia Town, and the salt produced would only be used as aid to the Kingdom of Stan. However, once the salt was successfully produced, he would still need to report to the Emperor and the Crown Prince in the capital.

“Niu Er, from now on, the salt field is to be classified as a top secret in Niujia Town. No one except me is allowed to set foot in it.”

"Brother, don't worry."

When Zhou Wu sent Niu Er to lead the construction team, Zhou Wu told Niu Er about the whole matter. Although Niu Er was reckless, he knew the importance of this matter. After all, powerful families sometimes had more deterrent power than saints in the Great Dragon, at least that was the case now. So Niu Er was very careful and sent the Qingyang Army, which was the first batch of soldiers to arrive.

. . . . . . .

Moon Man Country.

"My old friend, why are there only a few ships this time?"

Although Li Bing is still the dock manager of the Moon Man Kingdom, he has become popular with many people in the country because he has gotten in touch with Zhou Wu. After all, everyone wants to do business with Zhou Wu.

"I've come here on behalf of Lord Zhou to buy some slaves."

"Oh."

Slavery is also a highly profitable industry; it's basically a business with no initial investment.

There are only a few sources of slaves: either someone in their family committed a serious crime and was demoted to slavery, someone was captured and enslaved by the losing side in a war, or someone whose family could not make ends meet sold themselves into slavery.

However, in general, the sources of slaves are mainly the first two: one is being demoted to slavery, and the other is being enslaved in war. Neither of these has much capital involved. Slave owners are not even willing to give slaves a full meal, since that also requires an investment.

"Are there any channels?"

Yes, yes, of course.

Li Bing couldn't let this money-making opportunity slip away; he actually knew a few of the slave owners.

"Then let's hurry, sir, you're in a bit of a rush this time."

"I wonder what your purpose is in buying these slaves, sir?"

"The main job is to do the work, so you need to be in good health. It doesn't matter whether you're male or female."

When Deng Yuanliang came, he had already thought it through. Although men are much better than women at physical labor, he still needed to hire some women, since a combination of men and women is necessary to create a virtuous cycle.

"Okay, I'll contact them right away."

Li Bing was already calculating in his mind how much he could gain from this deal.

The slave trade in Yuenan's country is actually not very large, so Zhou Wu's business deal is already quite big.

Deng Yuanliang waited for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, and then Li Bing brought in several bloated and smug slave owners.

"My lord, these are some of the more powerful slave owners in the Moon Man Kingdom. This is Lord Deng from the Great Dragon Kingdom."

"Greetings, Lord Deng."

Despite their glamorous appearances, these people are nothing more than fattened livestock in the face of power. So, as soon as they heard that Deng Yuanliang was an official of the Great Dragon Empire, they immediately groveled at his feet.