Zhao Kuan stood silently.

Fu Tinghan understood immediately. “You can’t find craftsmen?”

Zhao Kuan sighed. “Minister, this isn’t me making excuses – I really can’t find them.”

Right now, every single matter in Qingzhou was more urgent than researching salt-making methods. The Great Jin wasn’t without salt – it was just a bit more expensive. He felt this could start later.

However, since Fu Tinghan had come in person, given the Great General’s regard for him, the salt administration probably had other implications.

Zhao Kuan mentally reviewed all the people he could currently use and said, “I’ll have people search the prefectures and counties for craftsmen who know how to boil salt.”

Currently, salt procurement everywhere was still mainly through fuel-boiling methods.

However, boiling salt also required technique – it wasn’t just pouring water into a pot and mindlessly burning fuel. So they needed to find technical personnel.

Of course, boiling salt wasn’t difficult for Fu Tinghan, but with time so tight now, he really didn’t want to find new people and teach them one by one.

However, with people from all provinces wandering everywhere due to war, most craftsmen registered in records weren’t at their original homes, making them truly difficult to find.

After thinking it over, Fu Tinghan said, “Find craftsmen for now, and also get me a hundred trustworthy, strong young men. I’ll teach them to boil and sun-dry salt.”

Zhao Kuan agreed but expressed doubt about Fu Tinghan’s written method. “Minister, can seawater really produce salt through sun-drying?”

Soon, the two salt-boiling craftsmen Zhao Kuan found gave him an answer. “Sun-drying seawater can indeed produce salt, but that salt is inedible – eating it will kill people.”

Of course, not immediately, but they had lived by the sea for generations, and their ancestors had occasionally discovered that under intense sun exposure, white crystals would appear on the beach, which they recognized as salt upon touching.

So their ancestors had secretly tried sun-drying seawater for salt. However, the salt produced was very bitter – difficult for people to swallow – and after eating it for a period, people would die of poisoning.

Therefore, they refused to sun-dry salt.

However, Fu Tinghan insisted on sun-drying salt.

Between the craftsmen and Fu Tinghan, Zhao Kuan naturally trusted Fu Tinghan. So he directly handed over these two craftsmen he’d worked so hard to find to Fu Tinghan, along with the hundred selected strong young men.

Fu Tinghan led them to live in an abandoned small fishing village by the sea. This location was very convenient – not only was the tidal flat smooth and open, but Guangzhou was right next door.

When Sun Linghui heard Fu Tinghan had arrived, she immediately selected a hundred strong young men and brought them over to him.

Regardless of whether the sun-drying method worked, handing people over to Fu Tinghan to learn skills was never wrong.

Whatever Qingzhou had, Guangzhou must have too.

Watching Sun Linghui directly cross the border into Qingzhou and demand that Fu Tinghan also open several salt fields on the adjacent tidal flat for experimentation, Zhao Kuan couldn’t help saying, “Governor Sun, why such haste? The sun-drying method hasn’t even begun yet.”

Sun Linghui smiled. “I never doubt Minister Fu’s abilities.”

Zhao Kuan glanced at Fu Tinghan, whose lips were slightly upturned, and silently cursed “flatterer,” then immediately said, “Third Brother-in-law, I also believe in you.”

Fu Tinghan’s lip curve rose higher, and even his eyes and brows showed smiles. “I still need some things. I’ll have to trouble both governors to help find them.”

He was quite fair, giving each of them a piece of paper. The content on both papers was the same – identical to the formula they’d received when leaving Chen County. It listed various strange items, such as barite, which wasn’t rare by the sea and could be found in abundance among the rocks in shallow coastal areas.

Fu Tinghan said, “These things aren’t precious, and we’ll need many later, so the more the better.”

Zhao Kuan and Sun Linghui exchanged glances and nodded in agreement.

So busy! Not only did Fu Tinghan’s arrival here not reduce their workload, it actually increased it.

The two went down to make arrangements with heavy hearts.

Fu Tinghan then began leading people to construct salt fields.

He led people to walk all over this stretch of riverbank. To increase the contact area between brine and air, expand the evaporation surface, and enhance evaporation, Fu Tinghan also made some arrangements in each salt field.

To prevent future disputes between Qingzhou and Guangzhou, he was especially impartial – the hundred people each sent worked on their own province’s tidal flats, and even the number of developed tidal flats was the same.

Actually, this time wasn’t very suitable for sun-drying salt, as the weather was turning cold. Fu Tinghan knew this – his work here was mainly research.

Fu Tinghan led the strong young men to dig out sea trenches. Every high tide, seawater would flow back into the sea trenches. Opening the salt field gates, the seawater from the trenches would surge into the salt fields.

Qingzhou and Guangzhou had little rain and much sunshine, with strong winds. So even though temperatures were slightly lower now, under the sun’s illumination and wind’s blowing, seawater still evaporated quickly, especially since Fu Tinghan had people periodically stir it to increase the contact area between brine and air, making evaporation even faster.

The brine from Zone One was transferred to Zone Two. While Zone Two sun-dried, Zone One was leveled again and filled with new brine. When Zone Two’s brine evaporated to a more concentrated state, it was transferred to Zone Three, then the second batch of seawater entered Zone Two…

This way, the hundred people from both sides had no idle time. Very quickly, gray-white and gray-yellow crystals separated out in the salt fields.

When Zhao Kuan heard about this, he rushed over to look. After twenty-some days apart, he’d lost more weight, and his beard covered half his face, making him look even darker.

Although Fu Tinghan had also darkened, at least he hadn’t made himself look so unrecognizable.

Zhao Kuan squatted by the field edge, grabbed a handful of sea salt piled into a small mountain, and asked, “Is this ready?”

Fu Tinghan glanced at him. “Not yet. This is crude salt. I need to dissolve it again to filter out impurities.”

Fu Tinghan used two methods to filter crude salt: one was to dissolve the crude salt with prepared materials, then filter and sun-dry it again; the other was to dissolve it with water, stir, filter, then crystallize the sea salt again.

He wanted to see which method was faster and better – perhaps the two could be combined later.

Zhao Kuan looked at the crude salt piled like small mountains in each salt field, utterly amazed. “If salt sun-dried this way can truly be eaten, in the future the price of salt…” Won’t it plummet?

Zhao Kuan’s heart trembled with the feeling that the world was about to change drastically.

And Qingzhou and Guangzhou might be at the center of this whirlpool.

Zhao Kuan brushed the salt from his hands, his expression serious as he told Fu Tinghan, “Minister, from now on, whatever you need, just tell me. Whatever I can find, I’ll definitely find for you.”

“Should I send you another two hundred people? I see the salt fields are a bit short-staffed. That huge area over there – the seawater is all the same and should also be able to produce salt.”

If Fu Tinghan could even make glass, wasn’t sun-drying salt simpler than making glass?

Zhao Kuan felt his previous confidence in him hadn’t been great enough – he could have even more faith.

“If two hundred people aren’t enough, I’ll recruit more for you. Just say how many you want.”

Fu Tinghan asked, “Our provisions have been delayed for two days. If you add another two hundred people, can you afford to feed them?”

Zhao Kuan wiped his face. “I’ll have someone send the provisions to you right away and make up what’s owed. The additional people’s provisions will also be covered.”

He gritted his teeth. At worst, he’d sell some things and buy grain from passing merchants.