Liu Jin couldn't help but despise Zhu Chongba fiercely in his heart, although Zhu Chongba was able to chase the Yuan captives north and recover the Han dynasty, which can be described as a great talent, comparable to the Qin Emperor and Han Wu.

But because he came from a humble background, he naturally had the narrow class nature of a small peasant, which can be seen from the salaries he set for Ming officials alone.

The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the lowest in all dynasties, so that first-class ministers such as Liu Bowen, the founder of the country, could not support their families by salary, to the point of almost starving to death, which shows how low the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was.

But the official has two mouths, the top is not full, how can the lower have a good life, and the official can't support his family, how can he be expected to be honest and self-disciplined, everyone wants to eat, let alone the official master.

Although this forbidden sea is inseparable from the pirates and pirates along the coast, blindly defending and banning the sea is simply to raise soup to quench boiling and drinking water to quench thirst, and it cannot play a fundamental role at all.

On the contrary, it will slowly lead to the isolation of the country, and eventually slowly fall behind the world.

What's more, the official ban on the sea will make the private smuggling more and more intense, not only can not collect taxes and silver, causing financial difficulties, but also make those who taste the sweetness of the sea trade more rampant, to the Jiajing Dynasty, the coastal pirates are very rampant, no matter how they are suppressed, it seems that they cannot be eradicated, one of the very important reasons is because many of these so-called pirates are colluding with the big families along the coast, complicit.

In addition, some helpless poor people at the bottom were forced to become pirates and pirates, so naturally they couldn't finish it.

From this point of view, it is not unreasonable for Liu Jin to despise Zhu Chongba, not all wronged him, although the Song Dynasty is weak, but the Song Dynasty attaches great importance to maritime trade, so the Song Dynasty has a very rich finance, and the salary of Song Dynasty officials is also very high.

The Southern Song Dynasty was able to stay in a corner of peace and continue the old Zhao family's country for more than 100 years, relying on the wealth of the Jiangnan region and the rich profits of sea trade.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Ming Dynasty was established, but it was quickly concealed and destroyed, one of the most important reasons is because the court of the Ming Dynasty was really poor, from the founding of the country to the extinction, and the current Hongzhi Dynasty's annual tax revenue is only more than 3 million taels of silver, which is pitiful.

"Brother Jin, look, I caught a big crab."

Just as Liu Jin was pondering, Zhao Erhu walked over happily, holding a crab the size of a plate in his hand.

"I'll go, what a big crab."

When Liu Jin saw it, he couldn't help but cry out.

In later generations, Liu Jin also ate a lot of crabs, but crabs as big as a plate are still very rare, and they will not appear on ordinary people's tables at all.

"This crab isn't too big, I've seen bigger crabs before, it's the size of a table."

Zhao Erhu said with a grin.

"Huzi, how about this crab for me, what a big crab, it must be delicious."

Looking at the crab in Zhao Erhu's hand, Liu Jin swallowed his saliva, the bigger the crab in later generations, the more expensive it is, and Liu Jin also likes to eat crabs very much.

"Of course there is no problem, there is nothing delicious about crabs, no matter how much you eat, you will not be full, the best thing is white noodles, I can eat several large bowls by myself, but I haven't eaten a good meal for a long time."

Zhao Erhu nodded briskly, and then touched his stomach and said.

In this era, seafood is really worthless, crabs, snails, sea fish, sea vegetables and other things on the beach I don't know how much, but only the poor will eat these things.

Because eating these things is not hungry, it is easy to get hungry, only rice, pasta these things are the most popular things, but because of the limited planting technology, the yield is very low, even if it is now Hongzhi Zhongxing, it is difficult for people at the bottom to eat enough.

"Huzi, as long as you follow me in the future, keep your full meal of white noodles, and then marry an aunt-in-law, and your wife and children will be hot on the kang every day."

Liu Jin looked at Huzi, patted him on the shoulder and said.

"Can you really eat all-you-can-eat white noodles in one meal?"

"Can you still marry your mother-in-law?"

When Zhao Erhu heard this, he was stunned and swallowed his saliva, and then thought of marrying his mother-in-law, and his face turned red.

He is about the same age as Liu Jin, and in a qualified family, he has already married a daughter-in-law and hugged a baby, but Zhao Heishan's family is poor, and the entire Xiahetun is also poor, and there is no girl willing to marry Zhao Erhu at all.

The so-called marriage refers to the marriage method in which a man uses his sister to marry the woman's brother in exchange for the woman as his wife, commonly known as the sister-in-law exchange.

Everyone is poor, so they use this way to marry their daughter-in-law, but when they come to Zhao Erhu, his second sister is still very young, and she has not reached the age of marriage at all, and this change of relatives will have to wait a few more years.

"Of course, when did I lie to you, keep you eating noodles until you vomit later."

Liu Jin smiled, patted his chest and said.

Although he has a way to make a fortune, there are many things to refine coarse salt, and it is impossible to do everything by himself, and Liu Jin is also a scholar now, so he has to pay attention to his identity.

This Zhao Erhu is obviously a good labor force, simple-minded, simple-minded, obedient, obedient to his words, such a good partner is difficult to find.

"I won't vomit when I eat it, noodles are the best thing, and I won't get tired of eating more."

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhao Erhu touched his head and said very seriously.

"Haha, you'll know later."

"Let's go, go back, it's time to start our fortune plan."

Liu Jin smiled and said, then turned over and returned in the direction of Xiahetun, preparing to go home to experiment on how to refine coarse salt into refined salt.

……

In the courtyard of Liu Jin's house, Liu Jin turned his house upside down, and finally found some tools that could be used.

A small stone mortar and a wooden stick are prepared to mash the coarse salt so that it can be better integrated into the water.

There is also a bamboo tube, gauze, charcoal, washed sand, etc., which are tools used to filter insoluble impurities.

There was also an iron pot, some firewood, a shovel and other tools.

"Brother Jin, what's the use of you asking me to buy these things?"

At this time, Zhao Erhu walked in with a sack on his back, and when he saw these things in front of Liu Jin, he was confused, and he didn't know what Liu Jin wanted to do.

"Did you buy everything I told you to buy?"

Liu Jin said to Zhao Erhu while carefully inspecting these things.

"Bought it, bought it."

Zhao Erhu put the sack in his hand beside Liu Jin, and looked at these things around Liu Jin again, he really couldn't figure out, Liu Jin could make a fortune with these things?

Liu Jin opened the sack and carefully inspected the things that Zhao Erhu had bought.

Quicklime, sulfur, alum, indigo, cinnabar, ochre, limestone, soybeans and burnt plant ash, etc., in ancient times when there was no modern chemical industry, it was definitely not easy to purify coarse salt.

wanted to get sodium chloride, calcium hydroxide, calcium carbonate and other things that could be used to remove insoluble impurities from crude salt, Liu Jin almost broke his head before thinking of these things that only existed in ancient times.

But Liu Jin is not good at chemistry, and he doesn't remember the chemicals contained in various things very clearly, so he simply bought more things and prepared to conduct experiments at home, and he was always able to slowly find a way out, after all, he was also a person who had systematically learned modern chemical knowledge.

"Get a pound of coarse salt out and mash it."

Liu Jin carefully examined various things while at the same time began to design his own experimental procedures in his mind.

"I knew that I would listen to the lectures well when I was in class, and I hated the books when I used them."

Thinking and thinking, Liu Jin couldn't help frowning, his head hurt, and he recalled the chemistry knowledge he had learned before a little bit like squeezing toothpaste in his mind, but when he looked at these things in front of him, he couldn't help but be black, and he didn't know where to start.

However, the first step to get rid of insoluble impurities is very simple, and it does not require too much in-depth thinking, it is nothing more than mashing coarse salt, dissolving it in water, and then filtering to remove the impurities.

Although Zhao Erhu didn't know what Liu Jin wanted to do, Liu Jin instructed him to mash the coarse salt, and he also began to work meticulously.

Take out a pound of coarse salt from the jar, put the coarse salt into the stone mortar, and slowly mash the coarse salt little by little with a small wooden stick, very seriously.

"Let's make a filtration device first."

Liu Jin looked at Zhao Erhu, looked at the tools around him, picked up the bamboo tube and started to get busy.

The bottom part of the bamboo tube is pierced, then the gauze is padded, and then the washed fine sand is spread on it, and then a layer of fine charcoal is spread, and then a layer of fine sand is spread, so that it becomes a simple filtration device.

"Brother Jin, do you think this will work?"

Soon, Zhao Erhu had already mashed the coarse salt here, and took it to Liu Jin's side and asked.

"Alright, pour the salt into the water."

Liu Jin picked up the salt in the stone mortar and looked at it carefully, Zhao Erhu was very serious and smashed it very finely.

"Ah, pour it into the water?"

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhao Erhu was stunned, and couldn't help but exclaim: "This salt is difficult to boil, pour it into clean water, if you want to cook it again, it will not be easy." ”

"I know, if you are told to fall, don't worry so much."

Liu Jin nodded and said, if it is not integrated into the water, there is naturally no way to filter it, but in Zhao Erhu's opinion, this kind of behavior is really incomprehensible, and what is finally boiled has to be poured into the water, which is purely a waste of time.