Three days later, the first batch of immigrants was ready. They had only rested briefly in Tohai Commandery and had not stayed long before being arranged to board ships bound for Qiongzhou Island.
Although only six hundred households were heading to Qiongzhou Island this time, the Boat Fleet was even larger than the one that had come before. Besides the immigrants, a large number of livestock would be traveling with them. Once they arrived, the livestock could be distributed among the local people.
Six Three-Masted Sailboats and more than a dozen Two-Masted Sailboats formed a massive fleet sailing toward Qiongzhou Island.
At the mouth of the sea where the Liuyang River ended, several immigrants stood on deck, gazing out at the boundless ocean ahead. Their hearts were deeply shaken.
A sailor who handled the sails had some free time and introduced the place to them. "The salty sea breeze you smelled in Tohai Commandery came blowing from here. See the blue seawater beneath the ship? Heh, this water isn't like the Liuyang River. All the water here is salty. Don't be fooled by how much there is—it can't be drunk. So whenever the people aboard our ships want water, they can only drink the fresh water we brought along."
"Huh? Salty? For real? How big is this ocean, anyway? If it's all salty, how much salt must there be in it!" one of the immigrants, a half-grown boy named Ren Zuo, asked in astonishment.
"You really don't understand, do you? The salt in here wasn't put in by anyone. It was born with the sea. The Chieftain said that the salt in the ocean was naturally formed by Heaven and Earth. This is an inexhaustible treasure mine. Just refining salt from seawater can earn a great deal of money.
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