Tang Dynasty: Feeding Chang Le, Emperor Li Er exclaimed that she was a true immortal!

Chang Le sat on the edge of the bed, curled up into a ball.

Tears fell drop by drop.

This feeling of powerlessness is even more suffocating than a sudden attack of an illness.

She is a princess.

But she couldn't even protect her own people.

She sat there in a daze for a long time until a crisp metallic clang came from the other side of the light screen.

Clatter.

Chang Le raised her head.

Lu Ming was sitting at the computer desk opposite the light screen, holding a can of cola in his right hand, and took a big gulp.

His Adam's apple bobbed, making a gurgling sound.

Then he burped.

Chang Le stared at him for three seconds, then suddenly felt a little dazed.

On her side, the sky collapsed and the earth caved in, the people suffered, and the imperial power was driven to the brink of collapse.

He was sitting there, legs crossed, drinking soda, looking completely relaxed.

"Lu Ming..."

"Um?"

"The salt supply to Chang'an has been cut off. The Changsun family, in alliance with five other prominent families and seven powerful clans, has blocked all salt mines and distribution channels, causing salt prices to rise tenfold. The people can't afford salt, and they're all cursing me..."

Her voice grew softer and softer.

"Father was forced to smash things in the imperial study. The national treasury only has fifteen days' worth of salt left..."

At this point, her voice was already trembling with tears.

Lu Ming listened to the whole thing.

He took the Coke can away from his mouth and looked at Chang Le's tear-streaked face.

There was a silence of about two seconds.

"The salt supply has been cut off?"

His tone was so calm, as if he were asking what we were having for dinner.

"this one?"

Chang Le was stunned for a moment.

Lu Ming crushed the Coke can in his hand and casually threw it into the trash can.

Then he turned around and opened a shopping website on his computer.

I typed four words into the search bar: iodized salt.

Press Enter.

The page refreshed, and a dense list of products popped up.

Two yuan fifty a bag, 500 grams.

Lu Ming clicked on the wholesale option.

Minimum order is 200 jin (100 kg), price is 1.2 yuan per jin.

Without even looking up, he clicked away with his mouse, placing an order casually.

Two hundred catties.

Two hundred and forty yuan.

payment.

carry out.

Then he opened another page and searched for something—"a flowchart of crude salt purification process".

I found the simplest version, which uses only the most basic filtering and steaming methods, a level that any ancient craftsman could understand.

download.

print.

The printer hummed for about ten seconds and then spat out two sheets of A4 paper.

Lu Ming picked it up, looked at it, and nodded in satisfaction.

Then he turned his chair around to face the light screen.

Chang Le was still completely bewildered.

"Tomorrow, I'll teach your dad how to use physics to bankrupt the powerful families."

The package arrived the next afternoon.

Lu Ming took four large cardboard boxes from the deliveryman, each weighing fifty pounds.

He was exhausted when he moved the items into the house.

Two hundred catties of refined salt.

In modern times, this stuff is worthless; you can easily buy a bag for two and a half yuan at the supermarket.

But in the Tang Dynasty, this was a strategic resource that could hold an empire by the throat.

Lu Ming opened a box and poured out dozens of bags of salt.

Each bag is a standard white plastic package, with the seal neatly arranged.

Tearing open a bag, pure white refined salt poured out from the opening.

The particles are uniform, fine, and dry.

It has no impurities, no bitterness, and none of the nauseating astringency of coarse salt from the Tang Dynasty.

This is because it is iodized table salt that has undergone modern industrial-grade purification.

The iodine content, sodium chloride purity, and moisture content are all accurate to two decimal places.

Even the best salt merchants of the Tang Dynasty, who devoted their entire lives to producing salt of this quality, could not do so.

Lu Ming lined up ten bags of salt and pushed them one by one across the light screen.

The white plastic bag passed through the invisible barrier and floated lightly onto the mahogany floor of the Tang Dynasty's sleeping quarters.

Chang Le squatted down and opened a bag.

Salt grains fell into her palm.

She instinctively pinched it.

thin.

It was finer than any salt she had ever seen.

It's as fine as ground white frost.

She brought it close to her nose and smelled it again.

It has no taste.

It was unbelievably clean.

Finally, after a moment's hesitation, she stuck out the tip of her tongue and licked a little.

salty.

Purely salty and savory.

It has no bitterness, no earthy smell, and none of the rough, throat-scratching sensation of Tang Dynasty coarse salt.

Only the ultimate, purest saltiness.

Chang Le's pupils dilated.

The best salt she ate in the palace was well salt transported from Sichuan, a thousand miles away, which was considered a top-tier tribute to the Tang Dynasty.

But compared to the handful of snow in my hand, that well salt is like inferior goods mixed with sand.

"This...this is also from your side?"

"Yes." Lu Ming leaned back in his chair, holding the two printed purification process diagrams in his hand. "Here, this kind of salt is everywhere. Every household can afford it."

Every household can afford it.

These words exploded in Chang Le's mind.

Her father was so anxious about the salt issue that he smashed the table, and the national treasury's salt reserves wouldn't last even half a month.

The entire court was powerless against the blockade imposed by powerful clans.

On Lu Ming's side, this product was of a quality far surpassing that of the Tang Dynasty's tribute salt—

Buy whatever you want.

Chang Le took a deep breath.

"But...you can't keep sending salt here. How much can you buy all by yourself?"

"You're quite sharp."

Lu Ming stood up and handed the two A4 sheets of paper over the light screen.

"So I'm not just giving you salt. I'm also giving you the method of making salt."

Chang Le took the paper.

The feel of the paper in her hand made her pause for a moment—it was blindingly white, thin yet tough, and its surface was as smooth as silk.

But she couldn't bother studying the paper anymore.

Her attention was completely drawn to the drawing on the paper.

It was an extremely concise flowchart.

Lu Ming specifically chose the most basic version and even used a brush to annotate the side with characters that the Tang Dynasty could understand—he spent half an hour on this step, specifically re-annotating it in traditional Chinese characters.

Step 1: Crush the toxic mineral salt and pour it into a large amount of water, stirring thoroughly to dissolve it.

Step 2: Filter repeatedly with multiple layers of fine linen cloth to remove sand and impurities.

Step 3: Pour the filtered salt water into an iron pot and bring it to a boil over high heat.

Step 4: Boil until all the water has evaporated, and the white crystals that precipitate at the bottom of the pot are refined salt.

Step 5: Repeat the process two to three times to achieve near-perfect purity of the refined salt.

The process is that simple.

It's so simple that any blacksmith or cook in the Tang Dynasty could do it.

The key point is that the people of the Tang Dynasty never imagined that those ubiquitous, poisonous, and bitter mineral salts could be transformed into snow salt, which is even purer than the well salt of Sichuan, through such a simple physical method.

It's not that they can't do it.

They had no idea they could do that.

This is the information gap.

Information gap spanning 1,400 years.

Chang Le finished looking at the blueprints, her fingers trembling slightly.

"You mean... all those unwanted poisonous ores in the Tang Dynasty can be turned into—" She looked down at the refined salt in her palm.

"Can all of these be turned into this kind of snow salt?"

"That's right." Lu Ming nodded. "Besides, the Tang Dynasty has plenty of toxic salt mines everywhere, so there's no need to import them from powerful clans. Your father can mine them himself."

Chang Le gasped.

She is not a simple princess.

She grew up by the emperor's side, and was exposed to power struggles and interests from a young age.

She instantly understood the gravity of the matter—

The reason why the gate valves were able to control the salt supply was because they monopolized the production process and mineral resources of refined salt.

But if the royal family could produce better salt themselves, and the raw materials were readily available abandoned mines throughout the Tang Dynasty…

The salt mines held by those powerful clans were transformed from nuclear weapons into piles of scrap metal.

Chang Le, clutching the refined salt and blueprints, suddenly stood up.

"I'll go find my father right now!"

"etc."

Lu Ming called out to her.

"First, divide this salt into two portions. One portion is for your father to see the results, and the other is for you to keep. Also, after your father has seen the blueprints, have him burn them himself. The salt-making method must remain in the hands of the royal family and must never be revealed to outsiders."

"clear."

Chang Le didn't have time to say more, and hurriedly left the palace with her things in her arms.