From the fusion of Tongbei Quan to the Longevity Martial Saint

When Fang Qing returned to the Jinsha Saltworks, he had a vague feeling that this incident of stealing brine was not so simple.

"Uncle Yang, help me select 100 strong men from the estate."

In addition, select all the timber from the salt-boiling room that is used to boil salt; timber longer than two meters and about the thickness of an arm should be removed.

Although Yang Zhi didn't know what Fang Qing was up to, the entire Jinsha Saltworks now trusted Fang Qing completely.

The elderly, women, and children of the salt farmers sprang into action, and according to Fang Qing's instructions, they inventoried all the various types of timber stored in the seawater boiling room.

The wood used for cooking in the sea is not just any old branches and leaves; it is specially felled from the deep forests of the north, and most of it is pine wood that burns very vigorously.

Pine wood contains pine resin, and combined with its grain, it is very hard and heat-resistant.

After selecting all the pine logs that were over two meters long and as thick as an arm, he instructed the salt farmers to sharpen one end of the pine logs.

"The tip of the pine wood must be sharpened to such an extent that when thrown from a distance, it should impale a person on the ground like a string of candied hawthorns."

Nowadays, Zhujiazhuang uses the method of stealing brine instead of directly stealing salt, a way to fish in troubled waters.

With neither the government nor the Fang family willing to intervene, Fang Qing had no choice but to save himself.

Fang Qing and Yang Zhi were the primary persons in charge of the entire saltworks.

They must also save themselves.

Yang Zhi was tasked with overseeing the salt farmers to sharpen all the thick pine logs to a point. Meanwhile, Fang Qing approached 100 strong and capable men selected from among the salt farmers.

"I won't give you much time to train your accuracy in throwing pine javelins."

"Now you just need to practice your javelin throwing skills as much as you can."

Several hours later, night fell.

Fang Qing already knew that the tenants of Zhujiazhuang, as well as the martial arts practitioners who were pretending to be tenants, would come to steal their brine again.

It's simply impossible to train everyone to be a master javelin thrower in such a short time.

Fang Qing didn't need to do that.

He intends to directly exchange quantity for accuracy.

When poor, use tactical infiltration; when rich, use overwhelming firepower!

Now, Fang Qing must provide full firepower.

After arranging for these able-bodied men to find an open space, they trained their javelin throwing accuracy.

Fang Qing immediately began inspecting the locations of the several brine pools throughout the salt field.

These brine pools were all built around the ash-spreading and pressing ash field.

After all, the brine produced by sprinkling salt and extracting brine after spreading ash and pressing the grid would flow down the ditch into the brine pool for filtration.

Only after the brine has been filtered will it be carried directly to the salt-boiling room in buckets for further boiling and crystallization.

Fang Qing did a quick mental calculation, then pointed to a spot in the center of the ash-spreading and pressing area behind him and said:

"Build a watchtower here."

These grassroots salt farmers at Jinsha Saltworks, although they had not received modern scientific education.

They are very proactive.

These people work from dawn till dusk year-round, braving the sea breeze, with each of them carrying a 200-pound bucket on their shoulders without rest.

The heavy seawater bent many people's shoulders.

Such harsh conditions turned almost everyone into a skilled craftsman.

A scoop used to carry seawater in the salt fields.

The stove used for burning firewood inside the cooking room, and even the mud wall structure surrounding the entire cooking room.

The thatched huts and shacks where each person lived were all built bit by bit by these salt farmers with their own hands.

So after Fang Qing gave the order, in almost the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the basic structure of a watchtower was taken shape.

Yang Zhi oversaw the construction of the watchtower, while Fang Qing summoned the 100 strong men who were training in javelin throwing at the salt field to the front of the watchtower.

"From where I stand now, I will teach you a tactical method of using time to represent direction."

Fang Qing was actually going to teach these young men the clock-based orientation method commonly used in modern military applications.

Just like in movies and TV dramas these days, the enemy is in front of me at the 11 o'clock position, the 1 o'clock position...

However, the salt farmers in the Great Qian Dynasty did not have the concept of a clock.

Fang Qing needs to switch to the ancient method of timekeeping.

"I am facing this braised pool in front of me, which, according to its orientation, corresponds to your midnight direction."

Fang Qing stood still, stretched out his arm, and pointed straight ahead at a brine pool about several tens of meters away.

"The brine pool in the corner next to the brine pool directly in front of me."

I can say that it is in the direction of your midnight hour (3:45 AM).

The people from Zhujiazhuang would come at night to steal their brine.

Therefore, Fang Qing always used the time of night as a marker.

Zi Shi, which is midnight.

The hour of Chou (丑时) is 1 a.m.

"To our right, diagonally opposite, is this brine pool, which I'll call the direction of the third quarter of the hour of Chou (1-3 AM)."

A quarter of an hour is roughly 15 minutes.

The third quarter of the hour of Chou (丑时三刻) is roughly 1:45 AM.

Fang Qing then marked the locations of the other several brine pools using the time system.

For example, the 3 o'clock position is the direction of Yin time.

Eight o'clock in the evening is the direction of Xu (戌).

The reservoir at 8:15 is in the direction of the beginning of the Xu hour.

And so on...

The young and middle-aged people were all working hard to absorb and digest the knowledge that Fang Qing had imparted to them.

After all, these young adults are mostly young people, and they are capable of accepting new things.

At that time, Yang Zhi will give unified command to them to throw the sharpened round pine logs in which direction.

The main tactical strategies adopted by Fang Qing this time were as follows:

First, locate the enemy.

That is, to locate the enemy's position.

Second, once the enemy is located, how do we eliminate them?

In other words, the tactics and methods to defeat the enemy.

In fact, the reason why the people of Zhujiazhuang were so unscrupulous in this operation was because, in the era of the Daqian Dynasty, those who guarded the salt fields were practically blind at night.

Fang Qing and his group were in the open, while the tenants of Zhu Family Village were in the shadows.

Under the cover of darkness, they could easily break into the brine pool and steal the brine directly.

Given that the salt farmers' fighting strength was generally weaker than that of the tenant farmers of Zhujiazhuang.

Moreover, many of the tenant farmers in Zhujiazhuang are martial arts practitioners hired from outside.

If it comes down to a real fight, these salt farmers at Jinsha Saltworks are no match for them.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to protect high-concentration brine with manpower.

This time, with the enemy in the dark and him in the light, Fang Qing directly abandoned the defensive strategy.

The plan is to adopt a strategy of waiting and seeing.

It is true that the tenants of Zhujiazhuang operated in the dark.

This is moving!

However, the brine pools at Jinsha Saltworks are fixed.

This is stillness!

Fang Qing and his team only need to locate the positions of these dozen or so brine pools.

They could then directly control the tenant farmers of Zhujiazhuang.

There are large quantities of round pine logs transported from the north at the Zhuhaifang.

At this moment, more than 200 elderly, weak, women and children in the entire salt field were still working diligently to sharpen one side of the round pine wood in the sea boiling room and transport it to Fang Qing and his group.

With this ample ammunition, these 100-plus strong men can exert the power of a thousand troops.

The strategy of using stillness to control movement has been devised; the tactics for counterattacking the enemy have already been formulated.

Most importantly, the first point is, how do we find where the enemy is?

This means pinpointing the enemy's location, which is the most crucial aspect.

To achieve this, they relied on the simple watchtower behind Fang Qing, which was almost completely completed.

Fang Qing's choice of the location to build the watchtower was also very wise.

He observed the terrain of the salt field; the dozen or so brine pools basically formed a semi-circular battle line.

At this moment, Fang Qing was standing at the center of this semicircle.

By simply standing in this position, these able-bodied men could cover more than a dozen brine pools with the round pine logs they threw.

"Uncle Yang, bring all those iron discs that we discarded last time."

Last time, someone put mercury in their iron plate, which caused it to develop into an aluminum amalgam with long hairs.

The edges of the iron plate were almost entirely consumed by mercury.

However, because some salt water at the bottom of the iron pan prevented the mercury from contacting the aluminum iron pan, most of the iron pan base was preserved.

For salt farmers, how could they bear to throw away such a precious aluminum pot?

They are all stored in the warehouse.

Yang Zhi immediately arranged for people to bring over all those iron plates.

At this time, these iron discs were probably all in a disc-shaped form.

It's about two meters in diameter!

Fang Qing picked up a salt block directly from the ground, which was on an aluminum disc.

Draw a line directly from the center of the circle to the circumference, along the direction of the radius.

"Cut it open here with scissors."

"Make this iron disc into the shape of a straw hat."

"After cutting, the entire iron disc is polished with a coarse cloth."

"My requirement is that the surface of this aluminum disc must be as smooth as a mirror. Even an ant would have to do the splits if it stood on it, understand?!"

What Fang Qing actually needed to make was a reflector similar to the back of a flashlight or searchlight.

This is how the earliest flashlight reflectors were made...

Even in summer, the salt farmers at Jinsha Saltworks only eat pickled vegetables and rarely get any fresh greens, resulting in a lack of vitamin intake.

Insufficient vitamin intake can lead to night blindness.

Therefore, most salt producers at Jinsha Saltworks suffer from night blindness.

Not to mention the martial arts practitioners hired from outside, even the able-bodied tenant farmers in Zhujiazhuang had wild vegetables to eat in the summer.

These tenant farmers generally do not suffer from night blindness.

For the salt farmers at Jinsha Saltworks, who suffer from night blindness, the only way to find the people from Zhujiazhuang hiding in the darkness was to provide them with a bright light source.

This discarded iron disc is made of aluminum. It can be made very shiny by constantly polishing the surface with a cloth.

While it may not be able to be used as a mirror, it at least has some reflective properties.

Fang Qing wanted to make a giant flashlight for the entire salt field!

Help the saltworks hunt down enemies who dare to steal brine!

……