When Min Yuanqi walked on the ridge, his expression was also thoughtful.

Whether it is the Shandong soldiers or the commanders of the guard, when the wheat is ripe in this season, will they still be able to enjoy the half-year labor of the banner army?

There was no need to think about it for the time being, the aroma of brown rice had already wafted in, and the noise of a large group of people gathering together could also be heard.

Seeing Baihu coming, two small flag officers in charge of the construction site greeted them, and many flag soldiers and women also stopped talking, and everyone looked at Min Yuanqi.

Min Yuanqi waved his hand to everyone and said, "Eat when you should eat, and the women should go home to see the children after eating...... You don't have to be polite to the steamed buns that should be stolen, don't dare to take them because I'm here. ”

At first, the woman saved a portion from her own mouth and took it home to the child, but later she found that she had made a lot of food, so everyone simply took some of it.

At this time, when they heard Min Yuanqi's words, everyone laughed, it seems that the Lord of Baihu is good-hearted, not confused.

Originally, people had some doubts in their eyes, the conflict between Min Yuanqi and Yang Shida, he trained his own soldiers, persuaded the big salt merchants in Huai'an Fucheng, got an investment of a few hundred taels of silver, built a large-scale sunland, and the support of the deputy thousand households...... Those craftsmen are not joking, if they don't have the support of thousands of households, how can they leave the city at will?

But these few days of the big project, really spend money like running water, the food of the hundred households is also sharply consumed, the work of frying salt has stopped, usually at this time everyone has a clear division of labor, men do heavy work, women do hands, children have to go everywhere to collect things that can burn pots, dry grass, dry firewood, these things are not as readily available as later generations, in this era, a large number of tidal flat paddocks are divided by large households, usually the people also need dry firewood and straw for cooking, the consumption of frying salt is quite amazing, if this salt pond can not be done, There is no preparation for frying salt, and the next month will be very sad.

Min Yuanqi's joke made everyone relax, and at the same time, everyone was a little ashamed, but also felt that the Lord of the Hundred Households was not an ignorant young man, Min Yuanqi's determination and will had begun to be admirable, and the generosity and boldness were even more heartbreaking.

"I've seen a hundred households."

A group of craftsmen, already like mud monkeys, stood on the edge of the pond and saluted Min Yuanqi.

In the early days, the big and small mud workers were the hardest, digging sprinkler ponds by the sea, then digging aqueducts, then crystallization ponds and some auxiliary facilities.

The reservoir is the largest, and each pond has a large amount of earthwork, and after a few days of excavation, there is a basic prototype one after another.

Not far away, Li Tianyang and several other households set up a small earthen kiln a few hundred steps away, and the tall chimney was emitting dense black smoke into the sky.

Min Yuanqi sent people to buy a large amount of coking coal in Suocheng, which ordinary people did not need, but blacksmiths and middle-class families would buy some every winter.

In the Beijing Normal University, millions of catties of coal are used a year, Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty began to burn coal in large quantities, the coal in the north is mainly from Shanxi, and the rest of the provinces also have a small amount of production, due to the existence of the Grand Canal, the transportation is also very convenient, the commercial houses that sell coal in major cities are not small, even if the Yunti Pass is quite remote here, it is not difficult to buy coal.

Small kilns are not unusual, in fact, not only can kilns be opened to burn bricks in this year. In addition, the famous Suzhou steel is also made of small blast furnaces, but the output is quite low, at most dozens of tons a year.

"Lord Hyakunho." Chen De, Li Tianyang and others came to greet Min Yuanqi, everyone was covered in mud, and their robes were even more tattered.

After getting along for a while, everyone understands the temper of the hundred households, and they don't like to make a show, do those vain things, they just like to listen to the data and see the actual situation.

"Chen De, Tianyang, Tianfu, everyone is polite." Min Yuanqi nodded, which was considered a return of the courtesy, and then walked to the first cistern.

Each reservoir is about a dozen acres in size, and with a variety of auxiliary facilities, it looks quite spectacular.

If a person has only come back from going out half a month ago, he will be shocked when he sees it.

The beach near the sea is a black saline land, and the farther from the sea is a wetland, and there are many reeds drifting in the wind. There is a village a few miles away from the naked eye, which is Li Guoding's hundred households, and he walks all the way to the big river on the trail behind him, and only arrives at the city more than ten miles away.

This is a barren and desolate place, the coastline of the sea is almost endless, and there is a lack of famous ports in Jiangbei, Haizhou has a port but the scale is very small, and the scale of commerce is not to mention. In the south of the Yangtze River, many places were the shipyards of Zheng He's voyage to the West, Nanjing was the center of sea and water transportation in the Yuan Dynasty, plus Suzhou and Changzhou Songjiang and Hangzhou and other wealthy places in eastern Zhejiang, there are not only large trading cities such as Nanjing, Hangzhou and Ningbo by the sea, the population of coastal places is also very dense, there are not only a large number of merchant ships passing by on the sea, there are also quite a lot of fishing boat activities, and the coastal islands are also inhabited.

Here in Jiangbei, in addition to Haizhou, the most prosperous port is the humble Yuntiguan.

However, the Yuntiguan was gradually abandoned at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the war affected the economy of Shandong and Henan, and the number of merchants going to sea decreased sharply, and the demand for goods and the need for sea transportation to the north were weakened.

Now it is common for the whole port to not see a ship for ten days, and the merchant ships going north, most of them are in Denglai to replenish fresh water, and go directly to the south, to Nanjing or Ningbo, or even Penghu will anchor again, and then go straight to the Wa or Luzon and other countries, Yuntiguan here The original bustle no longer exists, and the river and sea transportation have almost completely stopped.

In addition, most of the land is eroded by seawater, the soil quality is extremely poor, and there are large areas of wetlands, which are difficult to cultivate, and the most important reason why there are no prefectures and counties in the hundreds of miles radius of Yancheng.

At this time, at a glance, the black and gray sea water gives people a sense of oppression, the sea is empty, there is no trace, in a day, only a few fishing boats or cargo ships pass by the sea, when they see the situation of digging salt ponds on the sea, the fishing boats will stop and look, and after looking at it for a long time, they will pull the sails and hold the boat away.

Many large workers are on the seaside according to Min Yuanqi's instructions, find a place of high and low terrain, first find a way to store water and divert water, after the water is introduced into the drying pool, keep pushing the seawater, and then keep introducing new water and releasing old water, the brine is introduced into the crystal pool after exposure to the sun and continuous stirring, and then after the process of picking up salt and returning to the mound, the refined salt as fine as white sand is completely made.

Min Yuanqi lived by the sea in later generations, he knew that the salt works by the sea, with the ancient method of drying salt, the crystal salt pond opened out of each about mu, the large salt pond is like a field of acres as spectacular and neatly arranged, hundreds of workers use the ancient method to dry salt, the annual output is hundreds of millions of catties, or even more than a billion catties, obviously more than the record of 200 catties of salt per day in the Ming Dynasty.

Because combing the salt pans together like rice fields must have a tool for water diversion and drainage, not a pure ancient method, nor is it a ceramic or porcelain salt pond method in Fujian, it must need the assistance of a machine, otherwise there is no way to achieve such a high yield.

Min Yuanqi remembers that he used to play near the salt pan when he was a child, and the large salt pans were presented in front of him like rice fields, some of which were semi-crystallized, and some were completely crystallized, and the workers used wooden shovels to shovel out the snow-white fine salt from the crystallization pool, and then piled them up one by one.

Some of the salt is not as good as the bag, the fine salt is piled up like a hill, and some naughty children take advantage of the empty time to climb up, without exception, they fall into it, attracting bursts of scolding.

These memories are too profound, and this is also the first reaction in Min Yuanqi's mind when he thought of the first step of the plan, which was to dry salt.

Since it is in the north of Yancheng, the boundary of Huaiyang, there was originally a foundation for frying salt and a way to sell it, drying salt is the fastest way to make money and the easiest way to accumulate strength!

The three-acre salt drying pond should be equipped with seven small pools, then the last few crystallization pools, and then next to a large drying pool and supporting facilities, five drying pools are lined up together, and the originally lonely seaside immediately presents a different scenery.

Min Yuanqi lifted the hem of his robe, tied it to the leather belt around his waist, and jumped off the edge of the drying pool without any scruples or official demeanor.

More than one person is more than a person on the ground, that is, he jumped lightly, and after getting off the ground, Min Yuanqi squatted down to check it.

The technical content of this pool does not need to be high, but it needs to be carefully and carefully, mainly in the angle of water diversion, it needs to be dug deeply, and the process of water diversion and water storage can be done.

The reservoir in front of you is very large, and when the sea water is high, it is used to divert water into the pond by a diversion canal, and in the future it is possible to use a pumping machine, but at this time you can only rely on natural water diversion.

At least a few thousand tons of water can be brought in at a time, and if you rely on manpower to bring in water, even the largest water wheel is unrealistic.

When Min Yuanqi checked, a group of big workers and small workers were quite nervous, the pool in front of them actually mainly relied on manpower, and then the pool and the reservoir to dock, the terrain gradually decreased, technically in fact, mud and stone and wood are not used, but the craftsmen do their work more carefully, whether it is the reservoir or the lower terrain of the pool, as well as the final crystallization pool, are all striving to do the work fine and perfect.

The main reason for the large amount of salt pond construction is to find a suitable coast first, delineate several diversion canals, and the terrain should not be too low, otherwise the high tide will flood the pond, and the previous efforts will be in vain. Fortunately, there is a large area of sea here, less than three miles across the village to find a suitable place, the reservoir is repaired, that is, dig down the pond, each reservoir corresponds to seven kan, three reservoirs more than 20 ponds, a large area of salt ponds like rice fields is completed.