When Bai Susu and Xiaotong came to Su Chen's mansion, the sun had just gone down, and the sky was getting dark.

Su Mansion has not yet held the lamp, and Su Chen's cappella voice came from the courtyard: "The plain embryo outlines the blue and white brushstrokes, the peony depicted on the bottle body is just like your first makeup, and the sandalwood through the window is clear to me, and the pen on the rice paper is half set aside so far......"

Bai Susu paused, stood at the door, a faint smile overflowed from the corner of his mouth, recently, for some reason, Su Chen would sing this song every time he fired blue and white porcelain.

In her opinion, the lyrics of this song are weird, the tune is also different, and it is very stumbling to sing, as if she can't bite the words, and she doesn't know why Su Chen likes to sing this rural poll very much.

"The glaze renders the charm of the lady's picture is privately hidden, and your smile is like a bud waiting to be released, and your beauty is scattered, going to a place I can't go......"

Su Chen was humming a song in the courtyard while sitting at the table, tinkering with his new set of equipment, a device that can dissolve and filter coarse salt, because these days eating coarse salt blocks and coarse salt crumbs tastes bitter and astringent, and it contains too many impurities of mineral salt.

Since the salt making technology of the ancients has not yet reached the level of purification, edible salt is still a mineral salt full of impurities.

He remembered that he used to read a certain history, in which there was a protagonist, who went back to ancient times to refine fine salt first, and was appreciated by the general and the emperor, so that his life counterattacked and made steady progress, he thought it was nonsense, but today Su Chen has nothing to do at home, and after having a material foundation, he is no longer limited to the state of eating and drinking enough to die, but also intends to improve the quality of life, so he also plans to study and try, how to purify edible fine salt.

Before the Song Dynasty, the manufacture of sea salt was all out of the method of frying, that is, to fry salt in a pot, first find a relatively salty seawater area, extract brine as raw materials and put it into an iron pot to steam and cook, so that the salt crystals precipitate, so that the salt prepared contains more impurities, called coarse salt.

At present, the official salt supervision department will carry out secondary processing and simple filtration of these coarse salts, so that the quality of coarse salt is slightly better, and it is used as fine salt, which is specially used by the royal family and powerful families, and ordinary people still use bitter coarse salt.

Su Chen spent a lot of money and bought a little fine salt back, and found that this "fine salt" was still much worse than the refined salt of his later life, and the degree of fineness, taste, mineral content, etc., were not comparable.

Therefore, Su Chen tinkered with it in the yard, and vaguely remembered that in the chemistry textbook of high school, it was mentioned that coarse salt needs to be dissolved, precipitated, filtered, evaporated and other steps to make refined salt, but how to operate it requires him to think about it himself and try it out repeatedly.

"Su Chen, what are you doing?" Bai Susu walked in with Xiao Tong Yingbu, and saw Su Chen there tinkering with those bottles and cans.

"Gewu!" Su Chen talked about chemistry, but the other party couldn't understand it, so he could only say that the ancients could understand the word "Gewu".

Bai Susu nodded slightly, she has gradually understood that this Su Da talent, in addition to being good at poetry, good at writing operas and legends, etc., is also very concerned about the skillful skills of things, etc., and tinkers with some tools when there is nothing to do, and because of this, soap soap, mosquito repellent flower water, high-purity spirits, green and white porcelain, etc., have been developed.

In the past, she didn't have any feelings about Gewu, she didn't care about it, she only felt that it was the work of a craftsman, but now Bai Susu also attaches importance to it, especially for Su Chen's Gewu research, she is full of curiosity.

Bai Susu approached him, stared at the distillation flasks and filters, pointed at them and asked, "What exactly is this for, and what are your ideas?" ”

"Make refined salt!" Su Chen replied as a matter of course.

Bai Suhu asked, "What refined salt?" ”

Su Chen explained: "On the basis of coarse salt, after a series of processing, better fine salt is made!" ”

Bai Susu was a little puzzled: "Isn't there fine salt on the market?" ”

Su Chen complained: "What kind of fine salt is that, it's just that the volume has become smaller, but the mineral composition has not changed much!" ”

Bai Susu didn't understand what the meaning of "mineral ingredients" was, and looked at Su Chen with strange eyes, but thinking of his name, he would never be untargeted, and asked patiently: "The fine salt you make is finer than the fine salt on the market?" ”

Su Chen nodded and said, "Of course, otherwise what would I do with all this effort!" You just wait and see, once it is successfully made, after the comparison, the so-called fine salt stored in your house will have to be thrown away. ”

Bai Susu didn't believe it, but when he saw Su Ji's convincing appearance, he had to believe it.

If he could really refine fine salt of better quality, then the Bai family could also run a salt merchant business by the way.

From the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan, the salt and iron envoy of Yangzhou, changed the original mode of purchasing, transporting, and selling salt by the imperial court to the imperial court purchasing and reselling it to merchants, who transported and sold it; Since then, the group of "salt merchants" has officially appeared on the stage of history.

The Jianghuai area is a treasure land of feng shui for salt production, the coast has the world's greatest and most vast coastal mudflats, the climate conditions of the four seasons are distinct, suitable for the production of sea salt, known as "the benefit of boiling salt since ancient times, heavier than the southeast, and the two Huai are the most" and "the two Huai salt tax is the world" said. In the Western Han Dynasty, "Wu Wang Feng Guangling (now Yangzhou), boiled the sea for salt" this is the beginning of the two Huai salt industry in the historical records.

The reason for the rapid rise and economic prosperity of the Southern Tang Dynasty was related to the imperial court's control of Yangzhou, Yancheng, Taizhou, Haizhou and other salt lands. But six or seven years ago, the Northern Zhou conquered Jiangbei, and the land of the two Huai was occupied by the Northern Zhou, and after Zhao Kuangyin seized the Zhou and Song Dynasty, he controlled the two Huai salt fields and supplied the economy of the Yellow River in the Central Plains, making the Song State continue to enrich and strengthen the people.

After Li Yu ascended the throne, he took over the Jiangnan Tang Dynasty from his father, in fact, it was already a mess, no matter in terms of economy, military strength, talents, comprehensive national strength and other aspects, it was not at the same level as Zhao and Song at all, and even the gap was very large.

Nowadays, there is a shortage of salt in the south of the Yangtze River, and most of them have to spend huge sums of money to buy from Jiangbei or from Qianyue, and the financial situation is becoming increasingly embarrassed, so that the Southern Tang Dynasty regime has to increase taxes, so that the people in the later period are full of complaints and deviate from morality.

Bai Susu thought for a moment, and suddenly said: "It's a pity that there is no salt field in Jiangnan, and coarse salt cannot be provided in large quantities, and the people in the market even have to save coarse salt, even if you can really make fine salt, the price is much higher, and it can only be sold to the powerful and the court." ”

Su Chen nodded and said: "Yes, the people of Li are not on it for the time being, but we can privately buy more coarse salt from Jiangbei and Qianyue in large quantities, and then make it into 'Su Ji Refined Salt', and then sell it back to Jiangbei and Qianyue, so that we can get huge profits." ”

When Bai Susu heard this, his eyes lit up, but thinking of the salt and iron business, the imperial court has control, but it is not something that businessmen can operate if they want to, they need to apply to the imperial court for the "salt introduction" document, and the household department of the imperial court allows the Bai family to operate, so that it can be done justifiably, and it is still urgent for the time being.

Su Chen put down the utensils in his hand and asked, "Didn't you go to the Pinggong meeting today, and it went smoothly?" ”

Bai Susu heard that he cared about the Bai family's affairs, and suddenly a smile appeared on his face and said: "Well, in front of the envoy and the father-in-law in the palace, the Bai family successfully counterattacked with the help of Qingbai porcelain and soap, so that Ding Yuexi's conspiracy did not succeed and left in defeat." Brother Chen, all of this is thanks to your help, so as soon as the Pinggong Festival ended, people rushed over to thank you! ”

Su Chen was also relieved for her, this turmoil finally passed, and the crisis of the Bai family was lifted.

"Susu, these days, I've helped you and the Bai family enough, right?"

After Bai Susu heard this, seeing what he said solemnly, he nodded slightly and said, "Yes, if there is no Brother Chen, the Bai family will definitely be in danger, I really don't know how to thank you!" ”

Su Chen thought about it and felt that there was one thing that had been pressed in his heart for a long time, and it was time to solve it.