A sunny afternoon... A flock of falcons hovered high above the Chaka Salt Lake, their sharp eyes staring at the vast and calm surface of the lake, as if they were looking for food in the salt lake, they spread their wings, skimming over mountains and rivers, nothing could hinder them, just because they were the overlords of the sky, as long as the fat prey appeared, it would become their belly meal.

But today, on this thousand-mile grassland, a huge eagle suddenly came from the south and drove them out in a domineering manner.

At this time, there were suddenly bursts of desolate sound from afar in the south, like the sound of ten thousand drums on the battlefield, touching the heartstrings.

This desolate voice, brought up a wave like a black shadow, only to see a large black pressure steel forest in the south where heaven and earth meet, like the water of the Yangtze River pouring down from the sky, as the black shadow approached, only to see countless flags hunting in the wind, the most dazzling and dazzling is undoubtedly the "Sui" word military flag.

This is the Xuanjia Army led by Yang Tong himself, and his return to the West Sea was not a whim, but a deliberate decision.

At present, Tubo has been cracked, Tuguhun has been destroyed, the overall situation on the plateau has been decided, Yang Tong continues to stay in Jiangyuan County has little significance, Jiangyuan now has Pei Xingyan, Wang Xiongdan, Zhou Shaoze guarded, governance also has both civil and military Li Shimo, the new county is under orderly construction, there are these people, not to mention stable as Mount Tai, but with the strength of the first army, the sharpness of the honeycomb crossbow, whether it is Niang Shangsang or Li Shimin, it is difficult to fight; And soon, Wang Fubao will also return to Jiangyuan with the officers and men of the Ninth Army, and at that time the two armies will converge, even if they enter Wenshan and Tongchang.

As the emperor, Yang Tong's current mission is to control the overall situation, not to compete for the first place in everything, let alone compete with the generals. When there is no one, it is a last resort, and you can only go on your own, and now that the talent is at its peak, there is no need to fight in person.

The key is that after the bigwigs in the court heard that he was almost buried by the mud and rock torrent, they sent eagle letters one after another, urging him to return to the court.

Everyone said so, Yang Tong decided to be good? Going back to making a piece of decoration for a while? It's a big deal to shift your energy from charging into battle to managing the government.

Since you have decided to be the mascot of the Great Sui, you have to give full play to your light and heat? So he came to Chaka Salt Lake? Prepare to cordially condolence to the skilled craftsmen who have made great contributions to show the emperor's grace.

Back a few days ago? Xihai County Shou Li Keshi sent him an eagle letter, saying that the craftsman followed Yang Dong's steps? The fine salt is made.

Is salt related to the national economy and people's livelihood? It is an indispensable necessity for everyone, and the drastic increase in human life expectancy began with eating salt. However, the immaturity of salt production technology has led to a serious shortage of production, although salt containing toxins is also sold at a good price? So the profits of salt have always been windfall profits? The salt merchants are even richer, why did Dugu become the richest man in the Great Sui in the first place?

The reason is that the Dugu clan controls the Hedong Salt Pond, and the Hedong Salt Pond is of good quality, and it does not require manual processing, so it will be formed naturally? It can save a lot of labor costs. Since the Han Dynasty, it has been developed on a large scale and exported to the whole country? It is the most important source of edible salt in Yongliang!

Before Yang Tong, the Great Sui did not implement the salt and iron official camp? The Dugu clan is the main force that usurped Zhou Lisui, after Yang Jian ascended the throne and established the country? In return to the Dugu clan? Let the Dugu faction support themselves wholeheartedly? Therefore, the operation of Hedong Salt Pond was ceded to Dugu's family, although Dugu did not directly control the salt pond, but firmly controlled the most profitable refined salt in his own hands. All the rich and noble families in Daxing City and Luoyang City eat Dugu's refined salt, and the same is true for high-end restaurants and Qinglou. Since Yang Tong recovered and merged the state, Hedong salt was nationalized, but the biggest problem of Hedong pond salt is that the minerals that are difficult to dissolve are too high, in the original production mode, they are not easy to precipitate, they will crystallize in the salt, not to mention the serious impact on the taste, but also cause harm to human health, but also because the cost of Hedong salt output is too high, so in the 80s of the 20th century, the loss of competitiveness of Hedong salt stopped production, replaced by other places of high-quality salt, among them, Xihai salt is the most important source of salt to replace Hedong salt.

Yang Tong is ready to develop a large number of salt in the West Sea, but also because he finally knows that there is a shortage of salt for the people, and the high price of salt makes the people of the Great Sui miserable, and the salt here is like mud and sand, and the only cost is simple processing and transportation.

Another potential meaning is to use the infinite value of the salt of the West Sea to break the inherent notion that the richest in the Central Plains and the rest are barbaric, so that people realize that there are more abundant places than the Central Plains, and slowly develop the habit of looking outward, rather than sticking to the Central Plains for generations.

In the distance, Yang Tong had already seen a large camp that could not be seen at a glance, and at this time, Li Keshi not only had craftsmen and 5,000 garrisons in Xihai, including more than 5,000 county soldiers stationed in Xiping, Wuwei, and Zhangye, but also rushed to Chaka Salt Lake to assist Li Keshi in managing and supervising tens of thousands of slaves in Tubo and Tuyuhun.

At this time, a group of cavalry left the camp and galloped towards Yang Dong's team, and the leader was the Xihai County Taishou Li Keshi, Li Keshi turned over and dismounted, galloped quickly, and saluted in front of Yang Dong's horse: "Weichen Li Keshi, meet the saint." ”

Yang Tong turned over and dismounted, helped Li Keshi up, and said with a smile: "I have been waiting for the good news of Li Taishou, Li Taishou has produced refined salt in such a short period of time, which can be said to be beneficial to the present generation and meritorious in the future." ”

"The real credit is the saint who improved the way of salt making, and Weichen is just painting a scoop based on the gourd, and he should not be praised by the saint." Li Keshi said embarrassedly.

"I'm just talking, Li Taishou turned the theory into a real thing, which is really remarkable."

"Thank you, Holy Lord."

Yang Tong laughed and asked again, "Let's go, go and see." ”

"Holy Lord, please come with Weichen." Li Keshi saw that Yang Tong was full of interest, and he was not wasteful, leading the way in front.

The group traveled about ten miles and came to the salt-making area.

In front of everyone's eyes are square pools, these pools are not deep, but very spacious, at this time the pools are full of brine, looking like paddy fields from a distance.

These pools are dug down one by one from top to bottom, with a drop of about 10 inches, and there are sluice gates between the upper and lower pools to flow water downward.

"Li Taishou, what is the use of these pools?" Yang Qinfang couldn't help but ask.

Li Keshi introduced: "Back to His Royal Highness, after we use the method of the Holy Lord to filter out the debris, the rest is salt brine, according to the previous practice, it is to use a large iron pot to boil dry water, and it is the salt particles that sink to the bottom of the pot, but this cooking method not only consumes a lot of firewood, but the output is not large. So we repaired these pools according to the method of making sea salt from the Holy One, poured the brine that filtered out the debris into the high pool, dried it in the sun and blown the moisture in the dry part to increase the concentration of the brine, and on the third day, we released the gate and put the brine into the second layer of the pool, and the rest of the high pool was salt like silt, and then the water was released from pool to pool, and after the deposition of the five layers of pools, the remaining brine was almost useless. As for the wet salt deposited at the bottom of the pool, it will not take a few days to form a plate, and it will be a snowflake-like salt when shoveled into a pot and stir-fried, and if you are not in a hurry, you can also dry it naturally. ”

Yang Qinfang walked to a high place, curiously pointed to the first layer of the pool beside him, and asked, "Can this pool produce salt?" ”

Li Keshi looked at it for a while and said respectfully: "The concentration of brine is nearly ten percent, and according to our salt production process, it will not take long to produce salt." ”

"How do you know it's nearly ten?" Yang Qinfang became a journalist.

Yin Mingyue and Li Zhi and other Xuanjia generals were also quite surprised, there was nothing to detect here, how could it be possible to judge the purity of the brine with the naked eye alone?

"Although the human eye can't see it, lotus seeds can." Li Keshi said with a smile: "If the lotus seeds float obliquely in the brine, they are seven or eight percent brine, and ten percent if they float flat. The different appearances and different depths of lotus seeds in the brine represent the different purities of the brine. If it sinks to the bottom of the pool, it means that the brine does not have much salt and can be discarded. ”

Everyone suddenly said, "I have seen it." ”

Yang Tong laughed and said to the craftsmen waiting on the side: "Since the brine is nearly ten percent, let's use this pool of brine to open everyone's eyes." ”

"Whoa."

The craftsmen shouted in unison, and several excited craftsmen rushed to the high-rise salt pool, opened the gate next to the pool, and put the brine into the next layer of salt pool, and as the brine dried up, a thick layer of salt like silt was left at the bottom of the pool.

Someone used a long wooden rake to push the bottom of the pond like snow, and the silt-like salt was pushed up... Then use a shovel to shovel to a trolley, a cart by car to transport to a flat salt flat, the flat is paved with wooden boards, and the board is paved with bamboo strips of drying rolls, when a cart of wet salt is poured on the roll, the craftsmen begin to use the 'nine nails palladium' like a wooden rake to bulldoze the wet salt.

As the wet salt water dries up and is dried by the sun, the snow-white salt grains slowly reveal their original appearance.

The generals of the Xuanjia Army, who led the inspection work in the future, all looked blankly at the salt mountain reflecting the white light in front of them!

You can hardly believe your eyes...

"Salt, that's it?"

"Yes, that's it." Li Keshi understands everyone's feelings, and when he saw it for the first time, wasn't he so shocked? He said with a smile: "The Chaka Salt Lake is surrounded by a flat river and strong winds, even if there is no sun, the moisture of the wet salt can be easily dried, but in order to avoid moisture, it is still necessary to fry it once, but the fuel for this process is locally produced coal, which not only has enough firewood, but also does not cost fuel, and it is also very convenient to collect." ”

Yang Tong said with a smile: "I know that the crystalline salt in the West Sea is different from the natural salt stone in Hedong, it is a naturally formed high-quality edible salt, as long as the impurities in the salt are simply removed, it will become the best edible salt." ”

"Idle is idle, I want to make a few hundred catties of salt and bring it back to reward the civil and military officials." Suddenly, Yang Tong said happily.

The salt made by the emperor himself is not only as simple as salt, if it is distributed to various provinces, everyone will not be grateful to Dade.

"The Holy One wants to make salt?" Some people who don't know what to do looked at Yang Tong with suspicious faces, the saint won't even do this, right?

"This new salt-making method is still something I came up with, and you don't look down on people." Yang Tong looked at Li Keshi and said with a smile: "Where is the raw material workshop?" Take me over ......"

"Whoa." Li Keshi responded with tears and laughter, and led everyone to a huge workshop.

。。。。。。。。。。

This huge workshop has begun to take shape, and in the warehouses, piled up with boxy salt bricks dug out of the salt lake, from a distance, it looks like a block of blue ice. There are many pots and pots in the operation room, and a large pot is set on top of a large stove, and the fire is raging inside.

Yang Qinfang bent down to find a clean place, cut a small piece with a knife, licked it with her little tongue, only to feel a bitter, astringent and salty smell coming, and hurriedly took off the water bladder to rinse her mouth, and said: "This salt is bitter and astringent, the holy method can really turn this thing into edible salt?" ”

"The biggest difference between natural salt and fine salt is that there are many impurities, and the impurities in this salt brick can be removed. You've got it. Yang Tong saw that there were all the tools here, so he threw the salt bricks one by one to a large stone trough and smashed them with a big hammer.

Under Yang Dong's command, she shoveled the crushed salt into a dustpan and poured it into a large pool filled with clear water again and again, which soon melted and disappeared, and the clear water gradually became turbid.

"Keep pouring in!" Yang Tong looked at the salt in the water tank that had melted, and the lotus seeds used for the buoy were still underneath, and began to knock on the salt bricks again, signaling Yang Qinfang to continue pouring coarse salt, so that until the lotus seeds floated up, the coarse salt would no longer melt.

"The first step in making fine salt is to filter out the sediment from the salt cubes, and although the salt cubes here are very clean and pure, we can't ignore this fundamental problem." Yang Tong said to a few women who were eager to try: "Time is limited, don't be idle, get busy, Mingyue, Yao Yao, Li Youwei, the three of you scoop the brine into the wooden barrel, Fang Xiuzhu, Zheng Liwan, the two of you help to the strainer." ”

People always have an inexplicable interest in the unknown, and they are busy according to the order.

Fang Xiuzhu and Zheng Liwan carried a filter covered with ten layers of linen cloth and put it on top of an empty pool, Yang Qinfang, Yin Mingyue, Yao Yao, and Li Youwei poured buckets of brine on the linen strainer, the linen cloth adsorbed impurities such as sediment, and the water seeped into the clean empty pool.

"That's it?" Yang Qinfang said excitedly, only feeling that this was too simple.

Yang Tong shook his head and said: "I just said, sand filtration is only the first step, there are still a few processes in the future, don't look at this brine clean, in fact, there are still very impurities, if you don't believe it, you taste it, it must be bitter, astringent and salty." ”

Everyone dipped their fingers in the brine and tasted it, and sure enough, it was similar to a salt brick, it was really bitter, astringent and salty.

Yang Tong picked up a bag of lime powder and poured it into a vat of clean water, the lack of water immediately boiled, and when the lime water was clear, Yang Dong scooped the lime water into the tank filled with filtered brine.

In the amazed eyes of everyone, they saw that the clear brine actually became turbid again, and when it was clarified again, a layer of white sediment was left at the bottom of the pool.

Then everyone helped to scoop the clear brine into another empty pool with a strainer, and when Yang Tong added the alkaline surface again, the clear brine was turbid again, and after clarification, the bottom of the basin was once again left with unknown sediment.

"Let's try it again." Yang Tong instigated.

"Hey, the brine is neither bitter nor astringent!" Everyone didn't understand how it worked, but everyone thought it was magical.

"The bitter impurities have become those sediments." Yang Tong said with a smile.

"So what now?" Everyone suddenly became excited.

Yang Tong said: "According to Li Taishou's practice, they put it in the pool outside, deposit it in a pool, and use the sun and wind to dry and blow it, but we don't have time to stay here, just boil it over high heat, and the salt will come out." ”

Buckets of brine were poured into a cauldron, and the brine soon boiled under the blazing fire, and as the water evaporated, thin salt flowers appeared on the surface of the water and on the blisters.

"That's it?" Except for Li Keshi, an understanding person, the other natives were all dumbfounded.

"When the water evaporates, all that's left is salt." Yang Tong laughed and said, "Everyone continues to make brine, and everyone will bring a copy of the results home to taste for their families." ”

"Thank you, Holy Lord." The men and women were busy excitedly.

About half an hour.

The generals of the Xuanjia Army, who were in charge of watching the fire and stir-frying, were pleasantly surprised: "Holy Lord, the water has dried up and the salt has come out." ”

Everyone came forward to take a look, and it was really salt, and under the stir-fry of several generals, a shovel of white salt as thin as quicksand appeared in front of them.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's going to turn yellow if you fry it again." Seeing this, Li Keshi shouted in a hurry.

Frightened, the generals shoveled into the baskets, then poured in the brine, and began to make a second pot of salt.

At this moment, everyone put down their work and came to watch.

Seeing that the basket was full of snow-white salt glowing with blue light and as fine as sand, Yang Tong scooped out a small plate for everyone to taste. I also pinched a small pinch and put it in my mouth, and suddenly a salty taste filled my mouth, and there was no bitterness at all.

"That's what it smells like." Yang Tong is full of nostalgia.

"From now on, the people of Dasui no longer have to worry about the lack of salt, and I also ask the Holy Lord to name this new salt." Li Keshi joked.

Yang Tong looked at the cyan salt grains: "The salt grains are faintly cyan, so it's better to call them green salt." ”

"The blue sky and white clouds produce green salt, thank you for the name of the saint." Li Keshi was overjoyed when he heard this.

"By the way, how are you producing these days?" Yang Tong asked.

Li Keshi hurriedly said: "Back to the saint, because the workshop has just been running, it only produces three or four thousand catties per day, and there are relatively few salt ponds and salt floors, in order to increase the output and meet the needs of the people as soon as possible, so it is currently mainly steaming." However, when the workshops, salt cooking stoves, salt drying ponds, and salt drying floors increase, the output will definitely be increased countless times. ”

"The people are now seriously short of salt and good salt, which is related to the salt consumption and health problems of tens of millions of people, so at present, the production should be the main focus, and it does not matter whether it is steamed or dried. When people no longer rob green salt and regard it as an ordinary thing, it is not too late to dry it. Speaking of this, Yang Tong asked again: "Li Taishou, is it okay to produce one million per year?" ”

"Holy Lord, rest assured." Li Keshi said very excitedly: "Chaka crystalline salt has the characteristics of heavy salt, less impurities, and less process, how can it produce two or three hundred thousand catties a year." If it is also cooked with coal in rainy days and winters, then the annual output of one million catties should also be possible, of course, the output is still determined by the number of manpower. ”

Speaking of this, Li Keshi said very painfully: "It's a pity that fifty or sixty thousand ready-made Tubo slaves were slaughtered by the saint like that, isn't it good to use them to dig coal?" ”

"A country can't just look at wealth, but also have a hundred battles that are invincible in the world, as well as the deterrent power of awe!" Yang Tong said with a smile: "Those captives are not only the most powerful resistance force in Tibet, but also the soul and backbone of the Tibetan army. In the long run, it is cost-effective, and besides, Wang Fubao will bring in a group of slaves, who are better than prisoners of war. ”

"Do you use it to produce salt?" Li Keshi was surprised and delighted.

"Yes, the men are digging coal to open the way, and the women are doing some light work."

No matter what era it is, salt and grain are the most important resources for human survival. People will starve to death if they don't have food to eat, and they won't live long without salt! Salt is not only a condiment, but also an indispensable substance for maintaining the human body. However, since ancient times, the people have never been able to eat good salt, first, the production of good salt is small, and second, because of the malicious hoarding and price gouging of salt merchants, this situation of short supply and demand, so that the people can only pay high prices to buy inferior salt.

The best way is to incorporate salt into the Changping system, but the basis of the salt government is to produce a large amount, only when the supply of output exceeds demand and the price of salt falls, can the people afford to eat good salt!

Now that the technology to increase production capacity is available, what is lacking is manpower, and infrastructure such as official roads is secondary to the health of tens of millions of people in the immediate vicinity. Therefore, Yang Tong decided to take all the slaves of Tubo and Tuyuhun to the West Sea as salt slaves.

"As long as there are people and siblings, it is really not a problem to produce one million a year." Li Keshi said confidently.

"How much are you hoarding now?"

"There should be twenty or thirty thousand catties."

"Li Taishou, I have destroyed two countries." Yang Tong said meaningfully.

"Weichen knows, but the time is there, saint... You fought like lightning, and in less than a month before and after, the enemy fell one after another..."Li Keshi almost cried: "But Weichen has only one recipe here, and everything else has to start from scratch, from workshops, pools, drying fields, coal, lime, salt bricks, to pots and barrels, alkali noodles... It's a great deal to get 20,000 catties of green salt in this time..."

"That's not what I meant."

"Huh!" Li Keshi said in his heart: That's what you mean.

However, he also understands that just because two generations of emperors are like this, the ancestors and grandchildren are so in a hurry to do everything in one day, and they wish they could do things for a hundred years in one day.

Yang Guangxiu Luoyang and the canal are like this. The same is true of Yang Tong's official roads, river embankments, canals, and the Great Wall. However, the difference is that the grandfather tosses the people of the country, while the grandson treats the foreign race as a person.

"I understand your difficulties, I know your hard work," Yang Tong smiled...... "At present, the output of green salt is limited, and it is difficult to produce it these days!" ”

Li Keshi breathed a sigh of relief: "Now that green salt has been made, it will continue to increase production in the future, and although salt is indispensable, it is only a seasoning after all, and the daily consumption is not as big as food, so it can be sold in limited quantities in the early stage, and it should be able to popularize the northern land at the end of the year." ”

"That's a good idea. Needless to say, I continue to make salt. Yang Tong laughed and began to get busy again.

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