Xiaoyao Nongjiazi

"It's that simple." Zhong Qingran said with certainty, "It just costs too much firewood and labor. A small amount is fine, but a large amount is not worth it."

"Isn't that worthwhile?" Zhong Qingshu disagreed, "I guess that's how sea salt and well salt were boiled in the Great Zhou Dynasty, but even if it's an unacceptable method in your eyes, those salt merchants still made a lot of money and got rich. Oil!"

Zhong Qingran did not deny this point, but things had to be compared, there was a more convenient way, and the time-consuming and labor-intensive method would naturally be eliminated.

"Then how do you do the large-scale salt production you mentioned?" There seemed to be a cluster of flames beating in Zhong Qingshu's eyes, and there was a trace of eagerness in his words.

Jian Mingyu also turned his attention to Zhong Qingran. In the past, his family was poor, and he had to calculate how much he needed to eat. The past two years have been better, and he will not need to do so in the future.With a treasure as big as Hanhai, even Jian Mingyu, who has never had much emotional fluctuations, couldn't hide the passion in his heart.

"Construct the salt fields." Zhong Qingran said concisely, knowing that the two of them could not understand, he added, "These days, you have also seen that the sea water will rise in tide. A large shallow pool is built to store seawater. A dam is set up at the entrance of the salt pond to stop it. When seawater needs to be introduced, the gate is opened. When it is not needed, the gate is closed to block the seawater. Dried up, you can harvest a lot of salt."

The more they listened, the brighter the eyes of Jian Mingyu and Zhong Qingshu became.Just like what Zhong Qingran said, apart from the fact that a lot of manpower and material resources were required to build the salt field initially, after the completion, it will be beneficial for a long time. With only a small amount of labor to take care of it, the energy and salt will continue to flow into the account. How can such a good thing not be expected?

The Great Zhou Dynasty is adjacent to Haran in the north. It is a grassland country where a large number of herdsmen live. Not to mention tea, even salt is in short supply.In order to control Haran and prevent them from multiplying wantonly, salt and tea are traded in limited quantities.It’s just that the benefits are too great. There are merchants who want money but not life. They will trade these with herdsmen in private because of the huge profits. To be honest, they are the sinners of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Harlan has repeatedly committed crimes. A credit to them.

The territory of Hanhai Prefecture is larger than that of Haran. From what we can see, it is estimated that the grassland covers a large area, and the importance of salt and tea cannot be ignored.At the beginning, many people who followed Zhong's family were worried that there was no salt to eat, so they could only wander, taking salt from their prey temporarily until they found salt.

The life of this period of migration is probably not very good. The people of the Great Zhou Dynasty lived a settled life, and lived a life of no fixed place like the herdsmen, which was a disaster for them.

Before, some people wondered why Zhong Qingran found a place to stay so quickly. Only now did Jian Mingyu and Zhong Qingshu understand that there is no need to bother looking for salt with the vast sea, an inexhaustible great salt lake?

"Now there are not many people to do this. You can first build a small salt pond in a place where the tide cannot rise. Whether it is carrying water or using a bucket to fetch water, the labor is not much less than boiling salt. What do you have more? A good idea?" Zhong Qingran decided to brainstorm.

His words interrupted Jian Mingyu and Zhong Qingshu's imagination of a better life in the future, but they were not annoyed at all.

"Can a waterwheel be built here?" Jian Mingyu asked with some uncertainty.

Zhong Qingran didn't answer right away. He pondered for a while, first frowned slightly, then smiled lightly on his face, and said in a cheerful tone: "Mingyu, not to mention the ebb and flow of the sea, the direction of the current is also changeable. The waterwheel probably Doesn't work very well. But the windmill should do."

Fucun is not far from the sea, and here is a grassland. The wind is indispensable all year round. Wouldn't it be too wasteful not to use this ready-made resource?

"Windmill? Get water?" Zhong Qingshu closed his eyes and thought about it, he seemed to have seen it in some book.

"Windmills have many uses, and fetching water is just one of them." Zhong Qingran's imagination floodgate was opened, and the smile on his face gradually grew, "Okay, let's not talk about this, what do you think about salt?"

"Salt must be controlled by the village, no matter how simple the drying method is." Zhong Qingshu put away his smile and said solemnly.

Jian Mingyu agreed, and Zhong Qingran also agreed.

As the saying goes, there is no rule without rules, unless each family manages its own, otherwise, even if they have always been like this, they must have a unified system.Obviously, such a situation will not happen. Fucun has a village head, a village guard, and various craftsmen and shops, which already have the prototype of a town.

Otherwise, Fu Village would be a mess, not to mention what would happen to the aborigines of Hanhai Prefecture, even the beasts in the grasslands and forests could bully them.None of the villagers are stupid, besides, they are used to being controlled by others, so how can they live in such a life when they suddenly plan on their own?

Several people were discussing vigorously, when Zhong Qingran saw the figure of the stove, hurriedly stopped talking, stepped forward, lifted the lid of the pot, took a look with his head, and beckoned to the two of them: "Come and have a look, you can see salt."

Upon hearing this, Jian Mingyu and Zhong Qingshu took a few quick steps, and seeing a thin layer of salt spread out on the bottom of the pot, their eyes sparkled with dazzling light.Saying a thousand words and ten thousand words is nothing compared to seeing it with one's own eyes. Only when the salt really appeared in front of them, the effect was the most shocking.

"The color of this salt is different from what we usually eat." After the initial excitement, Jian Mingyu noticed something unusual.

"It's okay. This is coarse salt. There are a lot of impurities in it. It's okay to eat, but the taste is not very good. If you want to get better salt, dissolve the salt with water, and then use a filter cloth to filter out the impurities. Cook it again, and the texture and color of the salt that comes out will be better, and it should be better than what we usually use." Zhong Qingran said clearly, but in fact, he has never been in contact with the sea salt drying process at all, and this is just a patchwork of knowledge he learned in his previous life. out of the program.But even so, they are far better than the natives of the Great Zhou Dynasty. This shows how important knowledge is.

This further strengthened Zhong Qingran's mind. He must set up a school here to pass on all his knowledge, so that it would not be in vain for him to come to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

As the water in the pot gradually boiled dry, the three of them lost interest in talking and focused all their attention on it.

Jian Mingyu had quick eyesight and quick hands. When the pot was about to boil dry, he wrapped his hands in a rag and took it away from the stove.Waiting for a while, waiting for the residual heat in the pot to dry up the last bit of seawater, and when the salt was no longer hot, the three of them each grabbed a handful and rubbed them in their hands.

Zhong Qingran was also cooking salt for the first time, so he was a little less curious about the process of salt formation than the other two.Although it is coarse salt, it is not sticky at all, and it is very delicate. This is presumably related to the way the salt is made. Sun-dried salt must not have such a comfortable feel.

"Let's go, I didn't bring the filter cloth, I'll do the rest of the process when I go back." After Zhong Qingran finished speaking, the three of them began to pack their things.

Back home, the three gathered in the kitchen.Jian Mingyu reset the pot and pulled out a few pieces of filter cloth for later use.Zhong Qingran and Zhong Qingshu worked together to dissolve all the coarse salt, filtered it several times with a double-layer filter cloth, poured the salt water into the pot and cooked it for the second time.

Since it is nearly saturated salt water, salt crystals precipitated out shortly after the water was boiled. This time, the color looked much more comfortable, and the cooking time was also short. The three of them finally finished the salt before noon.

"How is it?" Zhong Qingran picked up a small handful of fine salt and let it slip from his fingertips.

"It seems to be better than what we eat now. The specific result can only be known after using it." Jian Mingyu did not directly draw conclusions. Zhong Qingran strongly agrees with this attitude.It is better to seek truth from facts in doing things like this, and it is not easy to make mistakes.

Zhong Qingshu didn't even pay attention to the salt before, and he only had the opportunity to get in touch with it now that he was in charge of all the supplies in Fucun. He didn't have much say in this matter, so he didn't express his opinion. He only said that the salt they cooked was very good.

"Yo, what are you three doing crowded in the kitchen?" Tong's face looked surprised, she didn't smell the smell of food, and it didn't look like the three of them were cooking.

Zhong Qingran moved to the side to make room for Tong Shi: "Grandma, come and have a look."

Tong looked at it curiously, and said with a puzzled face, "Isn't this just salt? Why are you pouring so much into the pot?"

"Auntie Tong, look carefully, this is not your salt, it was boiled by Qingran Mingyu and I." Zhong Qingshu spoke out to explain Tong's doubts, the color on his face was undisguised.

"Huh?" Tong Shi was surprised, and after she realized it, she beamed with joy, "Really?"

Zhong Qingran affirmed it several times in succession before Tong suppressed his ecstatic expression, and muttered to himself: "Okay, okay, Qingran is capable. If things go on like this, the days to come will only get better and better!"

Zhong Qingran handed over the sea salt drying to his fourth uncle. His father was in charge of the [-] acres of village land that had been reclaimed recently. As for the second uncle, after establishing trade routes with other villages, he would send a caravan to him Responsible.

Seeing that Fucun Village is gradually getting on the right track, Zhong Qingran temporarily entrusts the affairs of the village to Mr. Zhong to take care of it, while he concentrates on glass making.Zhong Qingran was also forced to do nothing. If he wanted to live a comfortable life in Hanhai Prefecture, he thought it over and found that no matter what, he couldn't do without glass.

The climate in Hanhai Prefecture is extremely cold, and many crops cannot be grown, including rice, tea trees, and many herbs.Hanhai Prefecture is almost isolated from the outside world. If they cannot be self-sufficient, they will live a life of lack of things. Not to mention rice, at least there are other staple foods that can be replaced. If even wheat and corn grow No, I can't live through that day.

After all, they are not grassland herdsmen. Changing the diet structure is a very painful thing. The first generation will suffer a lot, and eat too much meat. For the villagers who are used to food as the staple food, their bodies will not adapt, and they are likely to live. Not for long.

Zhong Qingran still wanted Mr. and Mrs. Zhong to live a long life, so he had to develop glass.With glass, it is possible to build greenhouses or even greenhouses. As long as the land here is not too barren, many crops that cannot grow in Hanhai Prefecture due to insufficient heating can also grow well.In this way, he doesn't have to take the risk of taking boats into and out of the Yunwu Strait all the time in exchange for supplies that are in short supply in Fukumura.You know, Da Zhou Pilgrimage issued an arrest warrant for the Zhong family, so it's better for him not to go out.