"When you go back to Your Highness, Cao Min's father was a craftsman in a shipyard. Cao Min followed his father when he was a child. At that time, he decided to be a shipbuilder. He usually made a living by fishing, but he kept thinking about building ships and made many small boats." Yun Shou returned respectfully.

"Small boat?" Li Yan asked in confusion.

Du Zhiping explained: "Your Highness, it's actually the kind of ship model you brought. This is because of the model of this ship, so I asked him to try it. I didn't expect that he really has some skills."

"Let me see!" Li Yan became interested. There is really no shortage of talents among the people, and he can even make models.

Du Zhiping called a boatman over and said a few words to him. The boatman ran back to the shipyard and came out with a few small boat models after a while. Obviously, this was the model made by Yun Shou himself.

"It's not simple!" Li Yan took the model and played with it in his hand for a while. The ship model made by Yun Shou was also a large ship, which was somewhat similar to the tower ship of the Tang Dynasty. Although it was not as exquisite as the modern ship model, it was also quite stylish. It was sailed. What surprised Li Yan was that there were paddle wheels on both sides of the ship. Historical records of this new type of wood pulp tool were only invented during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. This is what made Li Yan feel incredible.

Li Yan praised him, and Yun Shou also smiled. It was because he was unwilling to be with his destiny that he took the risk of finding Du Zhiping with his ship model, hoping to join the shipyard to realize his dream since childhood.

"What is this thing for?" Li Yan pointed to Pinglun and deliberately pretended not to know.

Yun Shou said a little embarrassedly: "Your Highness, this is something that the grass people think about randomly, because I saw people in the village treading water with this kind of thing, so I thought that if I load this kind of thing on the boat, I could paddle the water, and that like wooden pulp, the boat could be left."

Li Yan nodded, saying that invention comes from life, Yunshou is really smart, and this paddle wheel is the same as the water wheel that takes in water.

"Zhiping. Bring him to Taoyuan to learn shipbuilding technology!" Such talents are hard to come by, and Li Yan plans to focus on training.

Du Zhiping is an expert in steam engines, but not a shipbuilding expert. Although there are many craftsmen in the shipyard, there are not many outstanding craftsmen. After taking over the production of the treasure ship, he was one of the top two. Fortunately, with Yunshou's help, otherwise he would not have confidence that he could complete the work on time. Although he learned some shipbuilding knowledge in Taoyuan, he always felt that the steam engine was much simpler than shipbuilding. This time, Li Yan asked Yunshou to go to Taoyuan to learn shipbuilding technology, and he could finally get rid of it.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Du Zhiping said excitedly.

Li Hui never said a word since then. Li Yan saw that he looked like Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden and was frightened by these five giants built.

Although he was surprised that Yunshou invented the paddlewheel, Li Yan did not intend to use this old driving technology. Since he had an advanced steam engine, he simply used a driving equipment such as a propeller. Moreover, large ships such as treasure ships are also very suitable for carrying propellers. However, he did not intend to give up the paddlewheel. He did not use it, but he could produce it and sell it to other merchants.

After inspecting the shipyard, Li Wei took Li Hui back to Yizhou City. Li Hui was silent all the way. Halfway through the way, he said to Li Wei: "Liu Lang, I'll go to the college to report today."

All kinds of things in Yizhou have stimulated him so much in the past two days. He deeply felt that he was a frog in the well. At first, he was dissatisfied with Li Xiaogong sending him to Yizhou. But now he finally understood his father's vision. Li Xiaogong has many old friends in Yizhou. It was these old friends who told Li Xiaogong about the changes in Yizhou when they visited him in Chang'an.

Li Yan glanced at him sideways. This was not Li Hui's personality. If it were the case in the past, he would have played enough in those fireworks before he would do some serious business. He really surprised Li Yan when he said this.

"You took the wrong medicine!" Li Yan stared at Li Hui and said.

Li Hui said seriously: "Liu Lang can turn around, so can I!"

Li Yan was speechless.

Li Hui and Li Yan sued and went directly to the Military Academy. Li Yan showed a smug smile on his face. These places were deliberately taken by Li Jing. Although Li Hui was a playboy, he was a very strong person. Li Jing deliberately stimulated him. Since Li Hui was his retainer, Li Jing did not want a second-generation ancestor to cause trouble for him all day long. Even if he agreed, the people under his command would probably not agree, and it would be difficult to tolerate him. The Chengdu Palace does not need idle people in mobile games.

When he returned to the palace, Li Yan sent someone to call Tong Nian over. I don’t know how he was discussing Jing Yan’s affairs with the wealthy families.

Tong Nianlai still had fatigue on his face when he came to the scene, and it was obvious that he didn't sleep well last night.

"How is it? Did they agree?" Li Yan asked.

Tong Nian handed over a pile of contracts to Li Yan and said, "At the beginning, they were a little hesitant, and they all wanted to sell themselves, but they were just thinking about speculation and counter-trading. But how could they be more than able to resist the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce? After all, the salt well is in our hands, and selling the well salt directly to the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce also saved them from finding sales opportunities themselves.

Li Yan nodded. He played the Yanjing card. These salt wells basically cost Li Yan, but they definitely need to spend a lot of time and money to make them. Now that Li Yan sells ready-made salt wells to them at almost half of the price, it means that it has reduced the time for them to recover funds and allows them to see benefits immediately. Why don’t they do it?

Li Yan is now equivalent to a developer, but the developer provides land, and what he provides is salt well. These wealthy families are equivalent to construction teams. Li Yan does a business that makes money by making money. The hardest and most tiring work is for the wealthy families to do. They find ways to work, transportation, and workshops themselves. Li Yan only cares about acquisition and sales and earns the biggest profit in the middle. It is simply a huge profit. As for sales and transportation, does the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce need to worry about? This steam ship is not a decoration.

Tong Nian had to admire Li Yan. If the Chamber of Commerce of the Shengtang Dynasty mined the salt well alone, the labor, transportation and construction would require a lot of costs, and now all these costs have been saved.

After the wealthy family participated, the output of the well salt must increase in multiples. If Li Yan's mining capacity was one, then the overall mining capacity was one hundred. As a total salesperson, Li Yan earned more money than he earned for mining, and at the same time saved a lot of management expenses, which allowed the wealthy families to follow the leader of the Chamber of Commerce of the Tang Dynasty.

Of course, these wealthy families are not stupid. No matter how hard or tired the construction team is, it is profitable. Although the profit is not as good as that of the developers, it is enough to make a fortune.

Li Yan also considered that he could regulate the price of salt. Like specialty stores, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce sets retail prices of goods to avoid merchants raising prices or lowering prices at will, causing malicious competition.

After looking through the contracts for a while, these contracts are all requirements of both parties for their respective rights and obligations, but in fact they are just Li Yan’s overbearing clauses: “You discuss with Shangguan Yi and include these salt wells in the supervision of salt wells. You must accurately grasp the salt production of each salt well, eliminate smuggling, and handle the rich families who smuggled the salt of the well in accordance with the law and take back their salt wells.”

Tong Nian nodded heavily. This salt industry is no joke. For this reason, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce also set up a salt industry department specifically responsible for the sale of well salt.

He also discussed some details with Tong Nian. Tong Nian stood up to find Shangguan Yi. Although these things were operated by the Chamber of Commerce of the Shengtang, they were called Guan Yan after all, and some things had to be cooperated with Shangguan Yi.

After several discussions, the well salt industry finally came up with a general policy. The vigorous salt industry movement officially began in Chengdu Prefecture. Some capital-friendly merchants began to buy salt wells from the Chamber of Commerce of the Tang Dynasty, and workshops stood around the salt wells.

After inspecting the demand for well salt, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce was preparing to sell 1,000 salt wells in the first batch, and then continue to develop according to market demand. After all, the Shengtang Chamber of Commerce took the sales risks, and the sale of these thousand salt wells has made Li Yan make a fortune.

At the same time, the exhibition of sweet potatoes officially began in Yizhou. Merchants from all over the Tang Dynasty tasted this new style of food for the first time. The popularity of the day was beyond Li Yan's imagination, and the low price of sweet potatoes of ten cents per bucket also allowed large-scale transactions to be realized.

As for peanuts and plums, they were not sold directly, but built an oil-pressing workshop to use these peanuts to produce vegetable oil. Once this batch of vegetable oil is produced, the catering industry in Yizhou will undergo a revolutionary change. Now, Li Jing is becoming more and more keen to popularize various new things in Yizhou, which gives him the pleasure of playing a strategy game. Seeing Yizhou changing little by little in his hands, this mood is really indescribable.

Just as Li Yan was complacent about his achievements, the entire Tang Dynasty's eyes were once again focused on Chengdu Prefecture. However, this time it was not for the potatoes in Yizhou, nor for the sweet potatoes in Yizhou, but in Songzhou, another place in Chengdu Prefecture.

In October of the eighth year of Zhenguan, Tuyuhun attacked Songzhou. At this time in history, Tuyuhun attacked Shanzhou in Qinghai region. Tuyuhun's harassment of the Tang Dynasty has never stopped during the period of Wude of Li Yuan. The peace between the two sides has never exceeded half a year. Although this harassment has decreased after Li Shimin ascended the throne, it is still continuing.

"Tuyuhun chose to attack Songzhou because his highness just took over the Chengdu Prefecture's unstable foundation, and the Chengdu Prefecture's major general, are still very rich. These barbarians are all robber-minded, and they are just paying attention to robbing and running away." Zhu Youzhi said in contemplation.

"Don't talk about this for now. Tuyuhun is too shameless. His Majesty agreed to marry the princess to his son. His Majesty pretended to be sick and unwilling to do so. His Majesty canceled the marriage. They now say that we don't keep our word. How can such a scoundrel can teach a lesson?" Qin Huaiyu shouted.

As soon as he finished speaking, a scout on a horse stopped in front of the palace and rushed into the main hall, "Your Highness, Tuyuhun, known as an army of 80,000, has set up camp outside Songzhou City."
Chapter completed!