C317 Gift

When Xiao Wen fell asleep, the Luoyang City's street drum had already been rung.

As the lights of the myriad families went out, the Luoyang City, which had been noisy for an entire day, finally fell into silence.

There were still lights on in Taiji Palace. palace maid stood under the long porch silently and listened to the anxious footsteps in the hall as they transmitted confused looks to each other.

His Majesty was usually wise and calm, but today, he was extremely agitated. He paced back and forth, as if trying to convey the displeasure of the world's lord.

His Majesty was unhappy, the servants, the palace maid stood even more solemn, the sound of her breathing was also much softer than before.

A streak of light snaked over, and a smile appeared on the face of the yellow clothed servant in front of the palace gate. The foul air that was restrained in her chest immediately dissipated without a trace, as she took two steps forward, bent down, and shouted with a shrill voice: "Welcome, Empress Dowager."

In the lamplight, a beautiful lady in a palace dress lightly waved her sleeves while the attendant stood up and stood to one side.

"Has His Majesty gone to bed yet?" she asked.

"Reporting to the Empress, His Majesty has been within the palace ever since he received the report from the Duke of Lu, and has yet to go to bed." The attendant replied.

The Empress nodded and dismissed them.

Then, the beautiful lady dressed in the imperial costume entered the hall by herself. She was about to speak when she heard the emperor speak. "Kuan Yin, do you think there is really a method to extract salt from saline soil?"

Although Li Shimin came from a noble family, he was not a reckless hero like Liu Bang. However, he wasn't some existence that wouldn't touch the Yang Spring Water.

The joke about why he didn't eat minced meat was definitely something he couldn't say.

In fact, he was well aware that the salt in the saline soil was poisonous and could not be eaten.

After eating that salt, one's stomach would be bloated to death, not to mention the fact that it would turn purple all over, making them look extremely strange.

If Xiao Wen was standing here right now, perhaps he would explain the same reason as Li Shimin.

In fact, the salt in the alkaline soil can't be eaten because it's not only green … Pui! Sodium chloride, but also nitrate, phosphorus potassium and other impurities.

If he ate these impurities together, he would be courting death.

It would be strange if he ate too much phosphorus and potassium, and his whole body wouldn't turn purple.

In the future generations, Xiao Wen had seen people who could replenish calcium and iron. He had never seen anyone who could replenish nitrogen or phosphorus or potassium. At most, it would be used as an agricultural fertilizer and sprinkled on the crops.

However, Empress Changsun smiled and said, "I have already heard of the method that the Han Emperor gave us. I heard that the salt in this alkaline land cannot be eaten directly, and needs to be refined, dissolved, filtered, and analysed. In the end, the salt crystallized is the salt that humans eat, just like some medicinal herbs that are obviously poisonous, but after some special processing, become non-toxic and can even treat illnesses."

"This salt should be the same. Everything in this world is prepared for humans. As long as the correct method is found, all living things in this world can be used. It's just a path to making salt."

"Although I don't know if this method of refining salt is correct or not, I believe that there must be a method that can extract the best quality salt from the saline soil."

Empress Sister-in-Law knew that the Tang Kingdom had a huge geopolitical flaw. That was the lack of salt.

Although Song Ming, who was at the coast of China, had never sold salt to the mainland, and the food far to the west was willing to exchange the salt for the Tang Kingdom's silk spices.

But the Qin and Han dynasties had Bashu, Song and Ming dynasties had beaches, and these great Chinese countries all had their own land for the production of salt. Only the Great Tang Dynasty could only rely on other nations in this regard.

In the east, south and north of Great Tang Dynasty, there were three mountain ranges. Although there was an opening in the northeast, allowing them to travel from Guandong, the Han Kingdom, to Song Ming, the road was inconvenient and easy to defend and attack.

On one hand, this could allow the Tang Kingdom to focus most of his attention on the western development. But on the other hand, the Tang Kingdom also lacked the communication with other Chinese countries.

It could be said that the current Tang Kingdom did not have a much greater understanding of the other Chinese countries than he did of the Arab Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire.

"This can only be blamed on the Dianke of the big sized man as well as their strange foreign policy. If it's not the Han, what else can we do? " Li Shimin complained in his heart.

However, he also knew that the location of the Great Tang Dynasty would easily threaten the big man's, Guan Dong. If he was Liu Bang, he would also tacitly seal the Great Tang Dynasty under his command.

Although it had been sealed for many years, not only did the Great Tang Dynasty not become weaker, it had instead concentrated on managing the Western Region and becoming stronger.

"Maybe Liu Bang sent him here just to resolve the conflict between us!" Li Shimin secretly guessed Liu Bang's intentions.

He never would have thought that changing the big sized man's foreign policy was only Xiao Wen's own doing.

In any case, the burly man's understanding of diplomacy was only that much. Even if he changed the big man's foreign policy, it would still take them a long time to find out whether the change affected their interests or not.

Just as Li Shimin was thinking about what Xiao Wen meant by this, a long and urgent report woke the entire palace up.

All of a sudden, the palace's door that had been locked was wide open. A yellow door was holding a package, and on the package was a mysterious symbol.

Most people did not know what this symbol represented. Only the emperor's most loyal bodyguards and intelligence officials knew clearly that this was an emergency intelligence report from the Great Tang Dynasty's spy agency. It had to be submitted to the emperor immediately, even if it was late at night.

Behind the yellow door was a battered man in black. He was supported by the imperial guards and hastily rushed to Taiji Palace.

His Majesty Li Er was already seated on the throne. When he heard that it was an intelligence officer's question, he felt somewhat puzzled.

Since the Great Tang Dynasty and the rest of the countries did not engage in war, it must have nothing to do with the war situation. That means it must be a domestic matter, so His Majesty Li Er could not help but clench his fists, anxiously waiting for news of the arrival.

The little yellow girls handed the bundle to the servants at the front of the hall. The servants untied the bundle and opened the wooden box, revealing a strange crossbow lying inside.

Under the light of the candle, this crossbow did not reflect the slightest bit of light.

However, anyone with experience would be able to tell that it was a killing weapon.

Just as the inner court servant was hesitating about whether he should present it to the emperor, he saw that the emperor had already stepped down from his throne and walked quickly to the front of the hall.

Just by feeling it, he had already nocked a crossbow next to the crossbow.

The sound of the mechanism's transmission rang out, and the crossbow arrow had already been loaded onto the mechanism. The emperor aimed at a pillar at the side of Taiji Palace and pulled his blade. With a chi sound, half of the crossbow arrow had already sunk in.

His Majesty Li Shimin exclaimed in shock and ran all the way to the door to pull out the crossbow arrow.

"This humble subject is here!" The intelligence officer immediately ran over and bowed towards Li Shimin.

Li Shimin asked: "Where did you get this crossbow? "What's his name?"

"It is said that this crossbow is called the lever crossbow. It is one of the gifts given to His Majesty by the ambassadors of the Han Empire tomorrow. As usual, we found it when we were doing our routine inspections. Because I have never seen this lever crossbow before, I brought it for your majesty to take a look first. "

Li Shimin squinted his eyes, looking at the lever crossbow. After some thought, he ordered the attendants to bring some court masters.

An hour later, the master craftsmen arrived. Li Shimin passed the lever crossbow to them, and asked a little nervously: "Everyone, we have just obtained a mystical weapon called the lever crossbow. The material of this crossbow was simple, and it didn't need any gem steel. However, the mechanisms in here were a bit special. I wonder if everyone can imitate and produce it? "

Hearing this, the master craftsmen took the lever crossbow and observed it carefully. Then they said: "Your Majesty, if you take the crossbow apart and study it a little, it will be easy to copy it. However, we are very curious as to who exactly did this heaven defying technique come from. "