The seaside is endless, and there are tens of thousands of acres of drying fields, which are drying fields for salt farms. In this drying field, you can see the busy stove at any time, and most of them are waving wine and dust on the drying field.

“…… The production method of salt production can be divided into two types: decoction and drying. Whether it is frying or drying, must first make brine, the method of making brine is generally to lead the tide into the salt flat, directly dry, this is called drying brine, in the old days Huainan to pour soil to make brine, now it is mainly to dry ash and drench brine, that is, to spread ash on the ground, lead the sea water to irrigate, meet the southeast wind for a night, the salt gathers ash, and the storm dries. Dig the ground with water to pour ash, called salt brine, cast dry lotus to try it, lotus float and take brine ......"

Standing in a drying field used for brine making, listening to Zheng Xiaru explain the process of salt making, he just stared and thought.

"Pacification makes the salt that was said before, Huainan salt field is rarely used, and in Huaibei Zhongzheng and other fields are mainly salt, they will drench the brine seawater, choose to be exposed to the sun in fine weather for a few days, after a large amount of water evaporates, it will form a piece of salt on the salty soil, the salt mark will gradually become larger until "or dozens of prints are connected", but this method of drying salt, is not easy, and compared with fried salt, there is more ash in the salt, so the price is low, so, Huainan is still based on fried salt......"

In Zheng Xiaru's explanation, Zhu Mingzhong has already understood that it is clear that in 17th-century China, although there was a salt drying method, there was no salt pan drying method.

“…… boil the sea for salt; After that, after the plate drying salt, the cylinder tan drying salt, and the flat beach salt drying, today's spreading drying technology was formed, with stable salt production, low cost and high efficiency......"

Thinking that when he was in college, he would have a tour to visit the salt pan, and the explanation of the docent, Zhu Mingzhong said while recalling the structure of the salt pan.

"The cost of frying salt is too high, and the output is limited, salt production, but also should be based on salt, this salt has a lot of dust, not the problem of salt, but the problem of the field......"

When walking along the path between the drying fields towards the sea, Zhu Mingzhong pointed to the drying field and said.

"Just like this drying field, it is just a simple mud bottom, when drying salt, it will inevitably be mixed with soil, if you can use stone chips or bricks to lay the drying field, so that you can avoid scraping up the soil at the bottom of the pool, and you can avoid brine leakage......

In later generations, in addition to the cement bottom of the pond, the salt pan was also covered with a layer of plastic film.

"Ah, laying stone chips, bricks?"

The words of appeasement made Zheng Xia stunned for a while.

"If these thousands of acres of brine fields are paved with bricks, how many bricks do you need?"

"It doesn't take much, and not all of them are paved, the brine field can be a tamped mud bottom, and only a few crystallization pools need to be laid with a flat ......"

Finally, I came to the beach, and on the seawall that protected the salt works, you could see a series of waterwheels, and there were several stoves standing on each waterwheel, constantly transporting seawater to the drying field with the movement of manpower.

"In fact, in the salt field, the most bitter thing is not in front of the furnace, but in the pumping of seawater, because the waterwheel is used, so it requires manpower to keep stepping, so in the salt field, the grass is often the woman, the frying pan is often the old and weak women and children, as for the strong men, they are all stepping on the waterwheel at the salt field embankment to pump seawater."

"Treading water ......"

Looking at the hundreds of waterwheels on the embankment that was a foot high, and looking at the strong men who were sweating like rain on the waterwheels and stepping on the waterwheels, Zhu Mingzhong's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Shisuke, do you mean that most of the strong men who make salt in this salt farm are used to overturn cars to get water?"

"That's right, to appease the envoy, if there is no strong man to take water, there will be no seawater to make brine, not without seawater to make brine, naturally you can't fry salt."

Zhu Mingzhong, who had already come to the embankment, suddenly laughed when he heard Zheng Xiaru's words.

"Then if I have a way to get water without manpower, then recruiting the strong men in this battle will naturally not affect the production of salt brine?"

"Don't need to fetch water by manpower? Pacifying envoys, how can this fetch water without manpower? ”

When Zheng Xiaru asked with a puzzled face, he only saw the appeasement envoy bend down and grab a handful of thatch.

"Shisuke, what are you?"

When he let go of his hand, the thatch was blown away by the sea breeze.

"Pacifier? What does this mean? ”

Looking at the thatch that was blown away, Zheng Xiaru's face was full of puzzlement. He didn't know the intention of appeasing the envoy at all, and in his confusion, Zhu Mingzhong turned around and asked.

"Shisuke, is there a craftsman in this one?"

Naturally, there were craftsmen, carpenters and blacksmiths in the salt works, and that was why it took only one day to build a two-foot wooden tower on the seawall, which was located just below the seawall where the seawater was pumped out, and two keel waterwheels were connected to each side of the tower.

On the wooden tower, several craftsmen were installing cloth wind boards, and Zhu Mingzhong under the tower pointed to the sails and said to Zheng Xiaru.

"This seaside has always been windy all year round, and since the wind can sail boats, it is natural that the wind can also be used to draw water, and in my estimation, one such windmill should be able to drive two waterwheels...... As for this windmill that draws water, it is recorded in the book "Heavenly Creations", which is very popular in the area of Taihu Lake in the south of the Yangtze River......"

The structure of the wind-powered waterwheel is not complicated, it can even be said to be very simple, including two parts: the windmill and the waterwheel. The windmill transfers the wind energy to the waterwheel, which then transfers the energy to the water body it draws, thus lifting the water.

However, although the structure of the wind-powered waterwheel is very simple, it has been invented in China very early, but the spread of ancient technology has limited its popularization, and even until a hundred years later, this wind-powered waterwheel is still only hated in the area of Taihu Lake in the south of the Yangtze River, and naturally no one thought that it could be applied to the salt field to draw seawater.

However, the windmill designed by Zhu Mingzhong is still different from the traditional Chinese windmill, in addition to the main body of the windmill composed of eight-leaf sails, on the other side of the windmill shaft, there is also a tail rudder, which is the rudder, which can make the windmill turn automatically, and its structure is a bit similar to a mechanical anemometer.

"This, this wind can also draw water?"

In the face of Zheng Xiaru's surprise, Zhu Mingzhong just smiled and instructed the craftsman to install the windmill, and when the sun was about to set, the last sail on the wooden tower had been pressed. With Zhu Mingzhong's order, after the windmill freed the iron bolt, the windmill began to rotate under the blowing of the wind, and under the drive of the rudder, the windmill turned in another direction, and when it faced the wind under the impetus of the rudder, the speed of the windmill became faster and faster, and under the drive of the windmill, the waterwheel that once required at least four people to step on it rotated.