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The golden time to boil salt is from October to January every year, this period is the agricultural slack, almost all the people of Fanyang County will be mobilized to provide dry firewood for the salt works, and the salt produced in the salt works in these three months is almost half of the whole year.

In fact, not only Fanyang County, but also the five major counties that produce salt in the East China Sea are in this situation, because too much wood is consumed, and it has to be transported from far away, so the price of sea salt is getting more and more expensive.

Another salt worker followed Liu Yanlang and said: "My lord, the villain's name is Lian Zhongtao, and the villain thinks that salt is an official camp, and in addition to the capital, it will be heavily taxed, which is the reason why the price of the official salt produced is as high as silver, and this has also led to the flood of private salt!" ”

The same weight of salt is almost equal to the same weight of silver, although it is a metaphor, which shows the price of sea salt. Of course, the reason why it is so expensive, this salt worker named Lian Zhongtao is not wrong, the heavy salt tax of the imperial court is indeed the source.

In the same way, the price of private salt is one-third or even one-fifth of official salt, and people are not stupid, so they naturally want to buy private salt that is much cheaper than official salt.

"Your name is Lian Zhongtao, listening to your words, it seems like reading a book." Although what Liu Yanlang said before was pertinent, as long as he was experienced and had a flexible mind, he could imagine it, but at this time, what this salt worker named Lian Zhongtao said was not something that an experienced ordinary salt worker could think of.

When Lian Zhongtao heard this, his body was shocked, and he said: "The villain was originally from Jiangdu, three years ago, because of his crime, he was assigned by the government to Fanyang County Salt Farm as a salt slave. ”

Wang Junlin nodded, didn't say anything, and motioned for the other three to continue, which made Lian Zhongtao suddenly a little worried, although he was imprisoned in this salt field, he also guessed that the new Taishou and the Lu family were not in harmony, and that Dong Kang was obviously a member of the Lu family, so he couldn't help but worry that because of the mention of Lord Dong, Lord Taishou would not like it.

Wait for the other three salt workers

After saying that, Wang Junlin nodded and said: "Yes, the five of you all have some knowledge, you can be regarded as understanding people, Liu Yanlang, Zhang Qi, Wang Mazi, Li Gou'er, the four of you will be the master master from now on, and there is still a lack of master master, Xu Xiaohu, you go and choose one more, and select another fifty ordinary masters, prepare, I will arrange a study and assessment when I go back, if you pass, you will really become a master master or master craftsman." ”

The four salt workers who were named were overjoyed when they heard this, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to Wang Junlin to thank him, Xu Xiaohu took them away after receiving the order, and Lian Zhongtao, who was depressed because he was not named, knelt down and kowtowed to Wang Junlin, and then wanted to leave, but Wang Junlin suddenly said: "Lian Zhongtao stayed." ”

Lian Zhongtao's body shook, and he quickly stopped, respectfully saying yes, at this moment he almost cried, he thought that he had missed a great opportunity to ascend to heaven in one step.

"You're after me." Wang Junlin didn't seem to notice the stimulation of Lian Zhongtao by the ups and downs, and walked forward, Zhang Tiangang glanced at Lian Zhongtao and followed, and Lian Zhongtao hurriedly followed.

The method of boiling salt like a treasure is actually very simple, even with Wang Junlin's level of chemical knowledge, he can know what is going on at a glance, let alone let Nie Xiaoyu make a move, so in terms of reducing salt production and improving efficiency, Wang Junlin will wait for Nie Xiaoyu to come and then talk about it, what he has to do now is to prepare in advance, and on the basis of subduing the hearts of all the salt workers and salt slaves yesterday, by selecting the backbone from them, he will further firmly control these people in his own hands.

However, Wang Junlin always had a question in his heart, and at this time, he intended to further test Lian Zhongtao, so he asked: "I heard that there is a method of drying salt, this method does not need to be decocted, and it is directly obtained by sunlight and wind and sun, which greatly reduces the cost, why don't you use this method in the salt farm?" ”

According to Wang Junlin's poor chemical knowledge, salt is originally soluble in water, and as soon as the sea water dries, won't layers of salt be precipitated?

In the past few days, he has not brought it up, thinking that the salt field has been boiling salt for more than a thousand years, and these people study this every day, and they are not fools, if the method of drying salt works, how can they not use it, after all, every stone of salt boiled needs to consume wood

There are 500 catties of firewood, and it requires too much manpower.

Lian Zhongtao didn't have a superfluous look on his face, and replied honestly: "What the adults said is extremely true, theoretically the method of drying salt is indeed feasible, but the method of boiling salt in the salt field is really a last resort. Because the salinity of seawater is far less than that of inland salt ponds and brine, it takes too long to dry salt, and the sun is not enough in winter, and it is useless to encounter cloudy days, compared with boiling salt, the efficiency is too poor. ”

Wang Junlin nodded, there was not much surprise on his face, Lian Zhongtao's answer was similar to what he imagined, but Lian Zhongtao actually knew the inland salt ponds and brine, which is not something that any person can know, you must know that the channels for obtaining knowledge and information in this era are too scarce and narrow, in addition to walking thousands of miles to see this kind of thing, that is, reading books on this side, of course, it is also possible to hear others say it, and remember it firmly, but no matter which one, None of this is known to an ordinary saltmaker in a seaside salt factory.

Seeing that Wang Junlin nodded, with a look of appreciation on his face, Lian Zhongtao said boldly: "My lord, in fact, the salt field is the most intense in summer and autumn, and when the supply of wood is not urgent, it will also produce salt by half-drying and half-boiling, which is to imitate the method of well salt in the land of Bashu. ”

Wang Junlin glanced at Lian Zhongtao thoughtfully, and suddenly said, "Have you mastered the method of boiling salt?" ”

Lian Zhongtao's body was shocked, and he said: "The adult's eyes are like torches, the villain has indeed speculated about the method of boiling salt according to the clues in the past three years, if the adult gives the villain a chance, the villain will demonstrate it now." ”

"It's fine." Wang Junlin glanced at the direction of the sea, and then at the entrance of the salt field, thinking that Lu Han and Guan Xiaotong had been running around with more than five hundred cavalry these days, and they were sleepy and tired, so they had to rest for at least half a day and recover before they could consider doing other things.

In addition, calculating the time, if Fang Qiao is smooth, the emperor's secret decree should also arrive, there are not enough people in his hands, and there is no emperor to delegate power to suppress Xue Li, so as to mobilize the county soldiers, some things cannot be done for the time being, so they can only wait.

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