Nearly a thousand county soldiers rushed on the road, eight people in a row, holding a halberd, there are cavalry as a leader in front, a black or red flag embroidered with the word king and Zhao, shaking majestically, striding meteors, this army strode forward to the front of the fortress, and smashed the original peaceful life of Liujiazhuang Fort.

In the past, there was no good thing for the officers and soldiers to come, either to extort money and food, or to force labor, watching them line up at the entrance of the manor, a group of tenants of the Liu family were like marmots, all of them were cautiously probing in the field in panic.

However, every time Liujiazhuang, who has built a village to protect itself, this time the door of the village was wide open, and under the surprised eyes of the tenants, these county soldiers were directly let in.

"Patriarch, the officials are all wolves who can't be fed, is it really good to cooperate with the surnamed Wang?"

Not only the tenant clan was worried, even if several clan elders were bottomless, they followed Liu Wei out to greet him, and while walking, Liu Zigong, the old man with a radish face, said hurriedly, but before Liu Wei, who led the way to greet him, answered, a loud voice had already sounded in front.

"Pudong Liu's dedication to the pond is meritorious! Liu Wei, a good man in Pudong, is the magistrate of Pudong County, and his second son Liu Bo is the captain of other departments, and the two songs of Pudong are at his disposal! The prince has been sent to Xu Du, and the two of them will take office immediately! ”

"Xiaguan knocks on Xie Mingfu for promotion!"

Wang Hou, who looked excited and didn't sleep well for two days, stepped into the threshold with two black circles under his eyes, wearing full body armor, and pretending to be in a loud noise.

There are two fathers and sons, and all the people are officials, and there are two more 400 stone officials at once, and Liu Wei's two fathers and sons are immediately full of joy, and they rush out and bow down. In these years, the officials and the common people are divided into clouds and mud, watching the two fathers and sons bow non-stop like kowtow insects, and the eyes of those Liu clansmen on the edge of the look are red like vampires.

The original worries of jealousy have long been dispelled.

This fluttering sentence, the political cost paid by Wang Hou is not low! This move directly entrusted the military and political affairs of one of the six counties of Dongjun County, but there was no way, Liu Yan's political legacy was not good, the families and local tyrants north of the Yellow River were basically robbed and blackmailed by him, and their attitude towards Cao Cao's forces was not too friendly, and if they wanted to win the hearts of the wealthy families, they had to make a heavy investment.

Moreover, this money is indeed worth it!

After thanking him, in the jealous eyes of a group of old Liu family members, the two fathers and sons hugged Wang Hou and went to the pavilion in the backyard, the wooden planks on the pavilion had all been opened at this time, and more than a dozen jars of turbid dirty water were placed in the jars, which were sunburned, and seemed to be even more turbid, but looking at these jars, Wang Hou's eyes kept glowing with golden light, because these were all brine!

Puyang is located in the heart of the Central Plains, millions of years ago, here was once the bottom of the sea, after the crust lifted up the sea dried up, hundreds of millions of tons of sea salt dried up into a thick salt layer, and then deposited in the ground, forming a rock salt mine, this brine is the formation of groundwater long-term soaking rock salt layer, Sichuan is proud of the well salt, the original Central Plains also has!

And it's not just about salt, the reason why well salt is better than sea salt is that it contains more sodium nitrate, and the salt mine also contains potassium, so near the salt mine, there are generally miscanthus nitrate ore accompaniment! The saltpeter that Wang Hou has always dreamed of has a beginning.

His fingers were dipped in the dirty water again, and he sang to the ugly grin in his mouth, but after slapping his slap and taking the land album handed over by Liu Wei into his arms, Wang Hou hummed excitedly again.

"This piece of land within a radius of ten miles has been requisitioned by the officials! Liujiazhuang chose another place to build a manor! Lao Zhao, immediately sent someone back to Puyang to post a notice, this official wants to recruit 5,000 salt workers, with a monthly salary of two buckets of flour! ”

"Lord, there are only 40,000 stones left in Puyang's military rations!"

With a bitter face, Zhao Yun, who remembered Cao Hongjie's reminder, reminded him sadly in his ear, but Wang Hou, who had been immersed in the salt with all his heart, had also made a lot of money, raised his eyebrows and waved his hand, he shouted indifferently.

"There is no need for military rations, let Wang Congma return to Xudu to transfer grain, and transfer all the remaining 80,000 stone grain from the official's warehouse here, and the official will build this salt well in the fastest time!"

During the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, why was Liu Bi, the king of Wu, the richest? One is to make copper coins privately, the other is to boil the sea for salt, with these two financial resources, Liu Wei has not even levied grain and salary in Wu for more than 30 years, and the Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, Yangzhou salt merchants are also rich in the world, people can even not wear clothes, but they can't not eat salt! Originally, it was still a little difficult for Wang Hou to realize his plan to develop Puyang, but with this salt mine, it suddenly became easy!

When Wang Hou shouted, Liu Wei's face was convulsive, after all, this well salt resource originally belonged to his Pudong Liu family, and now in order to catch Wang Hou, he had to send it out, although now in exchange for the military and political power of Pudong County, but it is impossible for him not to blush and watch Wang Hou get rich.

But just as he was in pain, Wang Hou suddenly turned around and came back, pointing at him and saying with a big grin.

"By the way, the Liu family occupies a share, and after this salt farm is built, the annual profit will be divided into one percent!"

In a word, the newly promoted Pudong County Magistrate Shi almost had an excited myocardial infarction and pumped to the ground.

…………

Under his interference, in ten days, a part of the local Liu family tenants were recruited, and there were many local Liu tenants who were idle, and the five thousand salt workers were neatly and neatly, and they started work in a hurry with more than 10,000 hoes and shovels transported from Xudu.

The Liu family's manor dock fort is unlucky, the first half is better, after all, the salt workers also need a dormitory, the second half is next to the underground water belt is completely knocked down, the beautiful small garden is bulldozed, the rubble of the courtyard wall is cleaned up, and ugly pits are dug in situ.

After digging for more than ten meters, the salty brine mixed with mud rolled out, and was immediately beaten out by the workers in large wooden barrels and poured into the large-diameter deep tank smashed by Sima Tank.

It is estimated that Wang Hou's avatar will definitely be used as a negative example by environmental protection organizations in later generations! The cylinder was erected on a furnace built with bricks under the command of Wang Hou, and the raw coal was directly stuffed under the furnace, and under the blazing flame, the brine in the cylinder swirled and boiled, and the red-hot water vapor combined with the acidic smoke emitted by the burning of the coal block was black and swarthy and filled with a blue sunny day.

Fortunately, it is an ice age, and Wang Hou does not need to worry about global warming, melting of the ice sheet, sea level rise, or anything for the time being.

After a vat of brine is completely dried by the flame, the remaining layer of white flowers at the bottom of the vat is a layer of blazing salt, which is mixed with various minerals, and can be sold on the market.

Fifty large vats are smelted at the same time, more than 100 catties of brine can refine about six or seven catties of salt, and more than 700 catties of salt can be produced in a day.

It's just that wearing big boots to supervise groups of shirtless salt miners who are constantly pumping water and burning fires, Wang Hou's brows are still constantly wrinkled.

There are still too many things that need to be changed!

First of all, this salt well, all rely on manpower to dig, now the shallow is OK, once the shallow brine is exhausted in the future, and then need to dig deep brine, dozens of meters and hundreds of meters deep salt wells are not so easy to dig, extremely prone to collapse.

It's a pity that Wang Hou is a liberal arts student, mechanical design, and digging and drilling are really not his strengths, so he is helpless for the time being.

Then there is the problem of firing and refining, the caliber of the cylinder is too small, the evaporation is not enough, the heat conduction of the pottery is slow, this cylinder of brine, five or six hours to burn dry, and the pottery is really not resistant to burning, continuous heating can even burn the cylinder to more than 2,000 degrees, these two days have been burned and fried in the cylinder, it is really called no efficiency and no quality.

No wonder after the Song Dynasty, all well salt was fired in a big iron pot!

And it is very sad, Dongjun located in the Central Plains is really poor in fuel, the population of the Han Dynasty swelled to fifty or sixty million, and a large area of forest and swamp in the Spring and Autumn Period were cut down and developed into farmland, and now they are burned in the stove are all raw coal blocks transported from the small coal mine of Wang Hou in Xudu.

Not to mention the cost of transporting people and horses, just pack horses are now tired of more than a hundred horses, Wang Hou still has to worry about how to explain to Yan Liang at that time, in case his old man gets angry and sends troops to fight, his efforts will be all over.

I remember that there are many coal mines in Henan in later generations, and Puyang should also have them! The exploration of coal mines in their own territory has to be stepped up on the agenda! There is also the tap fire from the biogas digester, which can also save some fuel by heating with this thing, and it is also urgent to set up a pig farm, but pigs need grain dregs.

"Coal mines! Wok! Pig! Soybean meal! Iron pot, iron pot! ”

Repeating these things in distress, Wang Hou couldn't help licking his lips, and once again dropped his voice on the iron pot

Chinese cuisine has only flourished since the Song Dynasty, and it is because of the emergence of iron pots, stir-fried vegetables and other cooking methods that have developed one by one, making cooking colorful. At the end of the Han Dynasty, the mainstream cooking method was still boiled or baked, which was always a little worse than stir-frying. Thinking of the deliciousness of the stir-fry, Wang Hou suddenly grabbed his hair with both hands like a neurotic, looked at the sky with his head held high, and shouted hysterically with regret.

"Oiled eggplant! Scrambled eggs with leeks! Back to the pot meat! Hot kohlrabi, pot wrapped meat! Why didn't Lao Tzu get the iron pot out earlier? ”

He was already accustomed to Wang Hou's "intermittent neurotic" seizures, and following him behind, Zhao Yun didn't blink his eyelids, and yawned greatly.