Over the next few days, Shen Jing studied military treatises while preparing for the refined salt production.

He used to think military treatises were some high-minded, profound things, but in reality, they were just so-so.

In terms of strategy alone, the tactics mentioned in Great Zhou's military treatises were truly not as good as the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

However, the content in the military treatises regarding marching, encampment, and personnel allocation did teach him a lot.

On the afternoon street, Emperor Zhou, in disguise, strolled casually with Ye Li and Consort Xian.

Emperor Zhou's mood had indeed been good recently.

The gold lost by the Ministry of Justice had already been returned.

Ever since Yao Jian and the others were severely punished, they had become much more well-behaved.

Recently, no one in the imperial court had been causing him trouble.

This allowed Emperor Zhou to experience a long-lost sense of ease, and he decided to go out of the palace for a walk.

Looking at the bustling crowd on the street, Emperor Zhou's face involuntarily broke into a smile.

Having stayed in the palace for so long, it was nice to go out and see the vibrancy of the common people!

After strolling for a while, Emperor Zhou felt a bit tired, so they found a clean tea stall to sit down and drink tea.

Seeing a vendor selling sugar figures not far away, Ye Li quickly ran over and bought three lifelike sugar figures.

"Dad, Mom, here!"

Ye Li ran over with the sugar figures, handing one each to Emperor Zhou and Consort Xian.

Because she was out of the palace in disguise, it was inconvenient for her to call him "Imperial Father" and "Imperial Concubine."

However, she actually preferred the address "Dad" and "Mom."

No other reason, just intimacy!

Consort Xian playfully glared at her daughter, "How old are we, still eating sugar figures?"

"Just take it, since the child gave it to you!"

Emperor Zhou smiled as he took the sugar figure, then put it in his mouth, a warm memory suddenly flooding his mind.

When he was young, he secretly snuck out of the palace with Prince Ji, and Prince Ji even bought him sugar figures to eat.

Unfortunately, as they grew up, that childhood warmth was gone.

Confining him for life was his last act of mercy.

Consort Xian noticed Emperor Zhou's unusual behavior and quickly asked, "My lord, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Emperor Zhou came back to his senses, shook his head, and smiled to himself, "It's just that I feel this sugar figure tastes different from when we were children."

"Dad, do you know why?"

Ye Li, unaware of Emperor Zhou's thoughts, asked with a smile.

"Why?"

Emperor Zhou smiled at his daughter.

"Because most sugar figures nowadays are made with malt sugar."

Ye Li winked at Emperor Zhou with a smile and lowered her voice, "Because the imperial court is buying a large amount of sugar, the price of sugar has risen quite a bit. These vendors selling sugar figures are running small businesses, and if they continue to use cane sugar, they'll lose money! So now they all use a small amount of cane sugar mixed with malt sugar to make sugar figures..."

"Oh! So that's how it is!"

Emperor Zhou smiled as if enlightened, but inwardly, he sighed with emotion.

After sitting for a while, Emperor Zhou saw that it was getting late, so he prepared to find a place to eat something before returning to the palace.

Always eating imperial meals was getting tiresome!

Soon after they got into the carriage and started moving, they saw people recruiting soldiers on the street under the banner of the Dragon Martial Army.

Emperor Zhou watched for a moment, then quietly asked Yu Rang, "How is the Dragon Martial Army coming along?"

He was still very concerned about the Dragon Martial Army's affairs.

Although he wasn't personally overseeing it, he had still assigned Yu Rang to have a dedicated person monitor it.

Yu Rang replied, "There are over four thousand soldiers now, and they have already started building temporary camps."

"The progress is quite good."

Emperor Zhou smiled with satisfaction, then asked, "Can Shen Jing keep those audacious rascals in line?"

"This..."

Yu Rang paused slightly, "Marquis Shen is busy studying military treatises behind closed doors and has handed all the front-end matters over to Ning Ji."

Yu Rang was still relatively tactful, not directly saying that Shen Jing was ignoring the Dragon Martial Army's affairs.

"Oh?"

Emperor Zhou lowered his gaze and pondered for a moment, then ordered, "Let's not look for a place to eat, let's go directly to the Su Family! It'll be a good chance to see if this kid Shen Jing is really studying military treatises or slacking off! No need to notify them, we'll just conduct a surprise inspection!"

"Yes!"

Yu Rang acknowledged the order.

...

Su Manor.

Shen Jing had been leading a few servants in the manor to make refined salt since the afternoon.

The purity certainly couldn't reach the level of modern refined salt from his previous life.

But in Great Zhou, as long as it could be produced, it would definitely be considered excellent refined salt.

Wood ash adsorption, egg white flocculation, multi-layer filtration, evaporation and crystallization...

To minimize impurities as much as possible, he even performed an extra purification step.

By the time it was almost dusk, Shen Jing finally produced the snow-white refined salt.

Looking at the refined salt before them, the few people who had helped with the salt making immediately cheered with excitement.

Shen Jing dipped a bit of refined salt to taste it, nodding with a wide smile.

Hmm, not bad, not bad!

It felt pretty much the same as the salt from his previous life.

Anyway, besides the salty taste, he didn't taste anything else.

"Alright, alright!"

Shen Jing stopped the still cheering individuals, "From now on, you will focus on making salt. I'll talk to the madam later, and each of your monthly wages will increase to three... no, five taels! As long as you work hard, I'll give you another raise next year!"

"Thank you, young master!"

Hearing Shen Jing's words, the few people were even happier.

"You guys clean this place up. I'll take this refined salt to show the madam!"

Shen Jing instructed the few people, holding the jar of refined salt in one hand and opening the tightly shut door with the other.

The moment he opened the door, a sharp gaze shot directly at him.

What the heck?

That was...

His Majesty?

Impossible!

How could he be here?

My eyes are playing tricks on me!

Hmm, I must have been smoked by the kitchen fumes for too long, a bit blurry-eyed.

Shen Jing thought so, then raised his hand to rub his eyes.

However, that face hadn't changed at all.

Behind Emperor Zhou, that Xiao Ba Po, Ye Li, even revealed a gloating smile, looking like she was enjoying a good show.

Damn it!

Not blurry-eyed?

No...

Are all the people in the manor dead?

Although he told them not to disturb him, His Majesty ran to Su Manor, and they didn't even know to come and inform him?

Do they have to be so rigid?

Shen Jing furiously complained in his heart, quickly put down the jar in his hand, and respectfully bowed, "Your humble subject... greets His Majesty."

Emperor Zhou slowly took two steps forward, staring at Shen Jing with a half-smile, "Is this how you study military treatises? This is the first time I've heard of someone studying military treatises while hiding in the kitchen!"

"This..."

Shen Jing felt a bitter taste in his mouth and said with a forced smile, "Your humble subject was just too tired from studying military treatises, so I did something else to relax..."

"Is that so?"

Emperor Zhou's eyebrow twitched slightly. He walked directly to the jar and squatted down, "Did you make something delicious?"

Shen Jing shook his head, "This is... salt."

Since Emperor Zhou had caught him, there was no hiding it.

Moreover, they were going to sell salt, and Emperor Zhou would find out sooner or later.

"Salt?"

Emperor Zhou picked up a bit of salt and snorted lightly, "Do you think I don't even recognize salt? The salt in the palace isn't this fine or this white, is it?"

"This really is salt!"

Shen Jing helplessly said, "Your Majesty can try it and you'll know."

"Is that so?"

As Emperor Zhou spoke, he was about to put the salt in his mouth.

Yu Rang quickly stepped forward, "Let this old servant try it for His Majesty!"

Saying that, Yu Rang picked up a bit of salt and put it in his mouth.

"Salt! Your Majesty, this... this really is salt!"

Yu Rang said excitedly, trembling slightly.

Seeing Yu Rang's reaction, Emperor Zhou couldn't help but feel curious.

As the Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, what good things hadn't Yu Rang seen?

It was just a bit of salt, wasn't it?

Was it necessary to act like this?

With a heart full of curiosity, Emperor Zhou also put a small pinch of salt into his mouth.

The next moment, Emperor Zhou's pupils suddenly constricted...