Cut off my army's food supplies? I'll open a portal between the two worlds and max out my

The official establishment of the trading post meant that all of Princess Ariel's promises had come into effect.

Looking at the map, Li Wen could almost see a dotted line connecting Tongcheng to Anxi Town.

The entire Western Regions is sandwiched between three mountain ranges, forming a unique terrain of two basins.

The Tum River, which is adjacent to Anxi Town, is known as the mother river of the Western Regions. It is an inland river that originates from the snow-capped mountains and meanders all the way to the desert.

The terrain near the Tum River is mainly alluvial fan plains, and beyond that lies desertified land.

It looks like oases stretching across the entire Western Regions.

Most civilizations in the Western Regions were established around relatively rich oases, which connected the civilizations around the desert.

The White Elephant Kingdom is a typical oasis civilization.

The area between Tongcheng and Anxi Town is a very flat stretch of land.

Once trade matures, this area will inevitably develop into a 'highway'.

Li Wen has now begun arranging for the surplus manpower at the shelter to repair the roads connecting the outskirts of Anxi Town. If Anxi Town hadn't yet established its own cement plant, and if the workload of transporting supplies weren't so large, Li Wen would have wanted to build a highway directly to Tongcheng.

The saying "To get rich, build roads first" still holds true in ancient times.

Traffic efficiency and economic development are inextricably linked, and Li Wen, being in logistics, naturally understands these things.

After looking at the map, Li Wen arrived at the soap workshop.

The buildings in the workshop area are very spacious, and the design was based on the style of the production workshop.

The current division by region is quite reasonable.

"General, you've arrived?"

The person on duty today was Huaihua's assistant, and she saw Li Wenwen with a look of reverence on her face.

To the women here, Li Wen was an envoy sent by the gods, who personally rescued them from hell and allowed them to kill the demons to vent their hatred.

"How's it going? Are you all settling into your new jobs?"

Li asked with concern.

The deputy replied, "General, everyone has adapted well to the current way of working. Except for some initial coordination issues, everyone is now fully adapted."

Li Wen nodded in satisfaction: "You'll adapt well. If you have any needs, just let me know. The same goes for the children."

These women also cared for the homeless children. Li Wen took extra care of them, not only preventing them from participating in herding cattle and sheep as they did at home, but also allowing them to focus on their studies instead of engaging in production.

Although Anxi Town does not yet have the conditions to establish a school, Li Wen still prioritized selecting a few literate people from among the refugees to teach the children to recognize and write characters.

Of course, it was taught according to the methods of Anxi Town.

Apart from those who were assigned specific tasks, most of the women worked in the workshops, producing goods in an assembly line fashion.

Assembly lines can not only increase production speed, but also reduce the learning costs for workers.

Inside the workshop, the production process is divided into three stages.

Each stage was further divided into different groups, and Li Wen inspected them one by one.

The first production step is oil processing, which is also the most basic part of soap production.

To meet sustainable development standards, the oils and fats purchased are beef tallow and mutton tallow, which are the most abundant animal fats in the Gobi Desert.

Once the piglets in Anxi Town grow up, the cost of grease will decrease further, making it even more convenient for Li Wen to buy grease in modern times.

We arrived at another workshop, which was the alkali production workshop.

Following Li Wenjiao's method, the employees here collected the wood ash water, stirred it thoroughly, and let it stand. Then, they collected this weakly alkaline water. Other groups then calcined and crushed the dried seashells at high temperatures to obtain quicklime. The quicklime then reacted with water to produce strongly alkaline lime water. Finally, a displacement reaction was used to obtain a more concentrated alkaline solution.

These are all very easy-to-understand concepts in modern chemistry, but the principles behind them were completely incomprehensible to the ancients.

They didn't understand the principles behind chemical reactions.

But the operators here don't need to know any of this, nor do they think about why they have to do it this way; they simply carry out Li Wen's instructions word for word.

This is precisely why the workshop's efficiency became incredibly high.

However, the concentration of the alkali solution obtained from the displacement reaction is not enough. Finally, it is necessary to continue to concentrate the alkali solution by heating and evaporation. When the solution can be dissolved by chicken feathers, a concentrated alkali solution that meets the specifications is obtained.

The design of the second workshop is also very distinctive. The ventilation design here is particularly good, and they even installed traditional ventilation ducts. In addition, Li Wen purchased modern protective measures to ensure the safe operation of all workers.

After obtaining the concentrated alkali solution, it is sent to the third workshop, which is the production workshop, for saponification reaction.

The key to the popularity of soap in the Western Regions lies in the final step of mixing concentrated alkali with oils, heating it, and stirring it continuously.

Before pouring the mixture into the mold for shaping, add some artificial flavoring. This not only reduces costs but also enhances the taste.

If we refine the final model, will those Western Region nobles be able to resist such temptation?

Even if Li Wen doesn't provide artificial fragrances in the future, the workshop can use spices to replace the flavor of artificial fragrances.

It just costs more and doesn't taste as good as artificial flavoring.

Several boxes of soap have already been produced in the production workshop.

"What is the finished product pass rate?"

Li asked as a final question.

"General, please rest assured that all our production lines are strictly manufactured according to your requirements, resulting in a product qualification rate of over 95%."

The deputy answered from the side.

Li Wen was very satisfied: "Very good. However, although production is important, we cannot neglect personal rest. We must strictly adhere to the four-hour workday every day, and everyone must be able to memorize the work safety manual."

"Yes, General!"

After leaving the workshop, Li Wen felt a little relieved.

After planning for so long, the development of Anxi Town has now taken a truly significant step forward.

Back in his office, Li Wen began to improve the workshop's safety regulations. During his inspection earlier, he had discovered two more safety hazards.

After finishing writing the safety regulations, Li Wen stretched and went outside to practice boxing to loosen up his muscles.

I must say, Jiang Tian's family-inherited boxing style is really something; practicing it for half an hour every day ensures that one's energy and spirit are at their peak.

I can also feel my mental strength subtly increasing.

-

The next day, a cartload of goods loaded with goods from Anxi Town hurriedly headed towards Tongcheng.

The work in Tongcheng is also proceeding at a rapid pace.

Even before the trading station was completed, Ariel couldn't help but come out to inspect it two or three times.

The Prime Minister of the White Elephant Kingdom stood to the side and smiled helplessly, "Your Highness, the remaining construction work will not be completed until at least tomorrow."

Ariels stuck out her tongue shyly: "Grandpa Prime Minister, I'm just looking forward to it! I believe that the General wouldn't lie to me!"

Ariel was filled with anticipation, but the Prime Minister sighed, shook his head, and said nothing more.

Although he withstood all the pressure and helped Ariel complete this capricious collaboration.

But things are not that simple.

The history of the White Elephant Kingdom is longer than that of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the longer its history means that the noble forces within the White Elephant Kingdom are complex and intertwined.

Why did the White Elephant Kingdom encounter a financial crisis when there were no external threats? The root cause lies with these nobles.

The White Elephant Kingdom is similar to a feudal system, where high-ranking nobles not only have titles but also their own armies.

Because of its favorable geographical location, the White Elephant Kingdom has a particularly developed commerce and trade industry.

However, local noble lords have been allowing their troops to engage in business. They not only have power but also military force. If this continues, ordinary merchants in the White Elephant Kingdom will naturally have no room to survive.

Those who didn't want to die could only rely on the powerful nobles... This was extremely similar to the land annexation system in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Just like the city lord of Tongcheng, he was respectful to Ariel on the surface, but he never really handed over his power. Otherwise, Ariel wouldn't have been able to run to Anxi Town with only her personal guard.

If the Prime Minister hadn't come in person this time, Ariel's idea would never have been realized in Tongcheng.

The prime minister was also quite surprised as he watched the herdsman merchant coming from Anxi Town.

His preconceived notion of herdsmen was that they were barbaric and unruly.

The guy in front of me, who spoke kindly and seemed worldly-wise, didn't resemble a herdsman at all, except for his appearance.

As for the powerful General Li Wen, who exactly is he?

The Prime Minister recalled a legend that had recently been circulating in the Gobi Desert, about Li Wen…