After more than a month of continuous construction, the salt field that Chi Fei wanted was finally dug up.

Each pond covers an area of about one acre, and the soil in the pool is tamped with stone wheels and stone hammers to make it smooth and not easy to sink into.

The first three pools are the low-level evaporation tank, the intermediate evaporation tank and the high-level evaporation tank.

The depth is also different, the water level of the lower evaporation pool is near the adult thigh, the intermediate evaporation pool is near the calf, and the advanced evaporation pool is near the ankle.

The low-level evaporation ponds store the most primitive seawater, and its salt content is generally 3.5%, that is, the salt content per kilogram of seawater is about 35 grams.

When this seawater evaporates to a salinity of about 10%, it is moved to an intermediate evaporation pond.

When the seawater in the intermediate evaporation pond evaporates to a salinity of about 20%, it is moved to the advanced evaporation pond.

When the seawater in the advanced evaporation pond has evaporated to a salinity of about 25%, it is moved to the final crystallization pond to wait for the best evaporation crystallization.

As for how to distinguish the salinity of the seawater in each pool, in the absence of modern professional measuring instruments, it is generally determined by experienced salt workers by the color and taste of the seawater.

But since there are no such experienced salt workers here, the pond has to use another stupid method: to judge the salinity of the water in each pool by the height of the water level.

To put it simply, a water level marker is inserted at the edge of each pool, and when the seawater in the pool evaporates to the water level marked by the marker, the seawater should be moved to the next evaporation tank, and so on.

In fact, it doesn't matter if the salinity is wrong, for example, some high-end evaporation ponds only have 18% to 20% salinity, which is far from the standard 25%. However, due to the inexperience of the salt workers or the water level was not accurate, the seawater was moved into the crystallization pond in advance to wait for crystallization.

The result is that the seawater needs to be dried in the crystallization pond for a little longer, which is not a big deal.

Therefore, the salinity requirements of each pool are not so strict, and it is probably fine.

Since the salt pan consists of two parts, evaporation pond and crystallization pond, that is, each group of salt pans consists of three evaporation ponds and one crystallization pond.

On either side of each group of salt pans, a ditch is dug for drainage.

When Chi Fei used to look at the information, the salt pans inside generally did not have these ditches.

However, it is estimated that because the salt-dried areas are dry and rainless all year round, there is no need to dig any drainage ditches at all.

These ditches are knockoffs that Chi Fei came up with to protect them from the rain.

In addition to asking craftsmen to dig salt pans, he also asked some bamboo craftsmen to make a batch of arched rain racks out of bamboo and tarpaulin.

Each rain rack can just cover the entire pool, but because of its size, it takes 7 to 8 people to lift each rack.

In the future, if the weather is bad and ready for heavy rain, the salt workers can lift these rain racks one by one to the salt pans to cover the ponds, especially the three important pools: the intermediate and advanced evaporation ponds and the crystallization ponds.

With these arched rain racks, rainwater can flow down the shelves and drain into the drainage channels on both sides of the salt pans.

Although it is not possible to completely protect against rain, it can at least greatly reduce the amount of rain entering the individual pools.

There's no way to do it.

Of course, if it's a typhoon, it's basically a problem.

When a typhoon comes, no matter how heavy the frame is, it will not be able to withstand the power of the typhoon, and it will definitely be blown over.

Chi Fei asked the craftsmen to dig ten sets of salt pans, or forty pools, in one go, and used up almost the entire beach available space.

Since he wanted to do it all at once, he didn't want to wait for the experiment to be completed, and then he had to call the craftsman to dig it again, which was a waste of time and manpower and material resources.

In addition, like other salt works that use the ditch beach salt drying method, all the surrounding areas are fenced off and guarded by soldiers day and night.

In order to build so many pools and walls, Chi Fei had to borrow craftsmen from Ning Yabai, who opened the salt factory in Zhengda, and there was a shortage of manpower.

Ning Yabai knew that the Yantian method that Chi Fei was studying was very important, so he generously transferred a large number of craftsmen over, and it was completed on schedule.

Now that the salt pan has been built, the next step is to formally test it.

Chi Fei borrowed more than 50 young men from that group of military households, and then began to use salt pans to carry out experiments on drying a large amount of salt.

……………………

Just when Chi Fei was in full swing to carry out the salt experiment, the Northwest Eastern Expeditionary Army immediately encircled the neighboring Zhangnan Mansion after taking Jiujiang Mansion bloodlessly.

Although Mo Ruoshan, the commander of the local guard post responsible for guarding Zhangnan Mansion, and Zhao Congde, the prefect of Zhangnan, had also heard the rumors that the second prince and An Guogong had launched a mutiny and Shi's father seized the throne, they were after all Great Wei officials, and their lives and futures were tied to the imperial court, even if they knew that the Northwest Army was menacing, they did not dare to join the enemy.

Therefore, they could only organize the guards to defend the city wall, and at the same time send people to the capital to ask for help.

However, they didn't know that An Guogong and others had already given up the northeastern provinces in order to hold Jiangnan and other grain-producing areas, and they never thought of sending troops to support.

So the commander of the Zhangnan Guard was not waiting for reinforcements from the capital, but a holy decree that they should guard Zhangnan and not leave without permission.

Looking at this holy decree, Mo Ruoshan, Zhao Congde and the others suddenly felt a chill all over their bodies.

The court is just going to let them wait for death!

The Zhangnan Guard is only a small local guard, with only about 3,000 soldiers.

And all of them are recruits who have never really fought, at most they have suppressed bandits.

It is simply a fantasy to use these 3,000 recruits to resist the tens of thousands of brave and warlike Northwest Army.

But now that the matter has come to this, what else can they do? In order to save their families from being questioned, they can only defend to the end.

So Mo Ruoshan was responsible for reinforcing and arming several city gates guarding Zhangnan, and Zhao Congde was responsible for mobilizing the young men in the city to help resist the enemy.

However, before they could make arrangements, more than 30,000 troops from the Northwest and the East had already arrived in the city.

There is a way that there are 10,000 people who are boundless, and 100,000 people who are connected to the heavens and the earth.

Looking at the large number of black crows and crows under the city, the defenders of Zhangnan who were standing on the top of the city suddenly turned pale with fright, where had these recruits who had never fought ever seen such a scene.

Although Mo Ruoshan was forced to be calm, after carefully observing these northwest soldiers, he also secretly complained.

These Northwest Army is worthy of being an elite division that even the fierce Hu people can repel, not only the military appearance is mighty and the array is neat, but the soldiers are calm and calm, and at first glance they are veterans of the battlefield who are accustomed to fighting.

Against such a battlefield veteran, where will the recruits on his side be opponents.

The only thing we can rely on now is the benefit of the city walls.

As long as it can be held for ten days or half a month, maybe the other party will abandon Zhangnan and attack other places instead.

This was the only thought that Mo Ruoshan and Zhao Congde could comfort themselves, although they also knew that this was a bit self-deceptive.

At this moment, a road suddenly opened in the opposing army, and a general in silver armor rode out.

In front of it, several horsemen stood in front of the general with shields in hand in case of sudden arrows from above the walls.

The general walked to the front of the city gate before stopping, and then said loudly in a loud voice: "I am Li Dingbei, the commander of the Northwest Frontier Army, and the general Zhaowu of the Holy Jing'an Emperor.

May I ask where are Zhangnan's parents, the official and the commander of the guard? Li wanted to talk to the two adults face to face. ”

After listening to the other party's self-introduction, Mo Ruoshan and Zhao Congde were even more cold-hearted.

They didn't expect that the other party would be the famous Zhaowu general Li Dingbei, and this battle was really fierce.

This Li Dingbei was formerly known as Li Ergou, and he was originally an ordinary soldier born in the northwest.

Because of his bravery and flexibility in the war, he rose from an ordinary soldier to a hundred households in just a few years.

Later, Ning Zhiyuan, the general of the Northwest, took a fancy to him and promoted him to the commander of the soldiers and horses of the sixth grade.

After that, he has been following the general Ning Zhiyuan to fight against the Hu people for more than ten years, and has made many miraculous achievements.

Before the age of forty, he was promoted to the position of commander of the border army, and made great contributions in the last anti-Hu war, and was named General Zhaowu by Emperor Jing'an.

Being able to be promoted from an ordinary soldier to a general of the third rank of Zhaowu is indeed a rare miracle in life.

This person is Ning Zhiyuan's confidant general, because he felt that Li Ergou's name was not good, so he asked the general to rename him.

Ning Zhiyuan renamed him Li Dingbei, implying that he hoped that he could pacify the northwest.

actually appointed his henchman Li Dingbei to lead the troops to attack Zhangnan, which shows that the general Ning Zhiyuan is determined to win here.

After Mo Ruoshan and Zhao Congde looked at each other for a while, both sides shook their heads, saying that they could not talk to each other privately, so as not to be misunderstood by the capital that they had colluded with Li Dingbei, thus affecting their families.

Mo Ruoshan, who had a loud voice, stood at the head of the city and replied loudly: "In Xiazhang Nanwei Commanding Mo Ruoshan, General Li may as well speak out in public if he has anything to say." ”

Li Dingbei glanced up at Mo Ruoshan, and then raised his voice: "Haven't you read the document sent by the northwest to beg for thieves?"

The puppet emperor Zhao Zhuofeng, together with Xie Thief and others, rebelled against the law, and even committed the heinous crime of Shijun Shi's father.

You are officials of the Great Wei Dynasty, and you have been deeply favored by the emperor for many years, why do you want to serve the tiger and help the abuse? ”

Mo Ruoshan smiled bitterly: "General Li, these are all matters of the heavenly family, we are just local petty officials, where can we distinguish the right and wrong of the adults in Beijing."

I only ask General Li to spare us and others for the sake of the tens of thousands of civilians in Zhangnan, so as to avoid the disaster of the war. ”

"As long as you surrender to Kaicheng, I promise not to hurt the soldiers and civilians in the city. But if you are still stubborn, then don't blame Li's subordinates for being ruthless.

From now on, I give you a pillar of incense time to consider.

If you still refuse to surrender after a pillar of incense, then we will attack the city immediately. I hope you guys are doing it for themselves. After speaking, Li Dingbei turned around and returned to the army.

Not long after he left, a soldier took a pillar of incense and lit it in front of the main entrance of the city gate.

Looking at the pillar of incense under the city gate, Mo Ruoshan and Zhao Congde could only smile bitterly.

When the two returned to command the camp, local officials such as Tongzhi, Tongju, and Tuiguan, as well as generals such as Baihu and Captain of the Guard, were waiting for them.

They already know what is going on outside.

"Lord Zhao, Lord Mo, what should we do now?" Master Tongzhi Zhang asked in a trembling voice.

The others didn't say anything, but they looked at them with the same frightened eyes.

Mo Ruoshan looked around at his colleagues who were like frightened birds, and his face showed an extremely bitter expression.

The prefect Zhao Congde's face was also pale.

Even if he doesn't understand military affairs, he knows that this battle has already been lost without fighting.

Not to mention that the ordinary soldiers guarding the city outside were almost all so frightened that their faces turned blue and their hands and feet were weak.

Even the officials in charge of the command were all frightened and at a loss, how could this battle continue?

Although he is the prefect, he doesn't know what to do now, so he can only leave everything to Mo Ruoshan, who has fought in the war.

After a while, Mo Ruoshan finally spoke: "Wait a minute, when they attack the city, you can resist a little and surrender."

Although the Northwest Army is ruthless to the Hu people, it will still show mercy to its own Han people.

As long as you resist, even if the news reaches back to the capital, you will be considered to have fought hard, and this should keep your family safe. ”

"What about you, General?" Mo Ruoshan's adjutant felt that things were not so simple.

Mo Ruoshan laughed miserably: "I am the commander of the Zhangnan Guard, if I don't die, how can I make the capital believe that we are not surrendering without a fight?" If I don't die, what will happen to my family? So I had to die. ”

"General, never!" The adjutant shouted.

The others were also stunned when they heard Mo Ruoshan's words.

"Okay, don't say anything about it. Let me drink the jar wine, I want to get drunk on the road. After speaking, Mo Ruoshan walked out alone, his back full of sadness.

The adjutant originally wanted to catch up and persuade him, but eventually stopped.

He knew that Master Mo did this not only for his family, but also for the sake of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Zhangnan.

The other officials also watched Mo Ruoshan leave with complicated expressions.

This is indeed the only way to relieve the siege of Zhangnan.

……………………

In less than an hour, Zhangnan City was captured by the Northwest and Eastern Expeditionary Army.

Even the soldiers in the Northwest felt that the battle was too easy, and encountered almost no effective resistance, and almost directly climbed the ladder to the city wall.

There were many defenders on the top of the city, but they were more like sheep than soldiers.

As soon as the Northwest soldiers were about to make a move, those people immediately threw away their weapons and surrendered with their heads in their hands.

These soldiers were joined by many local officials and generals of the guard.

The Northwest Eastern Expeditionary Army took Zhangnan City very easily with almost zero casualties.

As for the defenders of Zhangnan, there was a big official who died.

The other party is Mo Ruoshan, the commander of the Zhangnan Guard, and it is said that he killed himself with his own sword.

Before he died, he drank a lot of spirits and was full of alcohol.

Li Dingbei, who followed into the city, was silent for a while after listening to his subordinates' report on the matter, and then ordered his subordinates to bury Mo Ruoshan's body properly, and his family members who stayed in the local area should also be treated well, and they must not be rude and offensive.

After easily taking Zhangnan, the Eastern Expeditionary Army did not stop there.

After resting for two days, the whole army set out again and marched to Jinjiang Province.

Including Jinjiang Prefecture, the surrounding places continued to send letters to the capital for help, but there was no news of reinforcements. Or maybe all they were waiting for was a military order for local officials to defend the city.

Unable to wait for reinforcements, the Jinjiang River soon fell under the overwhelming pressure of the Northwest Army.

At this time, everyone had already seen that it was not that the reinforcements had not arrived for a long time, but that the capital had already abandoned the entire northeast, and would let the northwest army encroach on the various prefectures.

What the capital wants to protect is only these rich places rich in rice and grain in the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

This realization made the other cities that were still holding on, from the officials to the soldiers, even more demoralized, and everyone knew that if they could not wait for reinforcements, it would only be a matter of time before they were lost.

What made people even more desperate was that they received news that the northwest side sent an army of 50,000 people to form a flank attack with the 40,000 Eastern Expeditionary Army, attacking from the east and west at the same time, and annexing the cities along the line one by one.

In this isolated situation, no single city could withstand the attack of these two armies.

So in just three months, Linqi, Yishan, Zhangzhou, Qianhe, Huaixing and other prefectures were captured one after another, and the entire northeast soon fell into the hands of the Northwest Army.

Just when everyone was paying attention to the war in the northeast, some salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River who specialized in the illegal salt business were surprised to find that a large number of illegal salt from unknown sources had suddenly appeared on the market recently.

These private salts are not only of good quality, but also only 90% or even 80% of the price of ordinary private salt.

All salt merchants were shocked by the cheap but high-quality private salt.