Chapter 26: Fortune (2)

Next to the mangrove forest, Xu Qing and Dou Liweng looked at each other, each wanting the other to divert their eyes first. Xu Qing looked at the face of the hat, there were traces of wind and rain. Asked, "How did you know about me?" ”

When he heard this, he smiled and replied:

"Hearing his words, knowing his person, Thorn Shi recited poems on the cliff, the little old man undoubtedly heard it, knowing the boundaries of Cangzhou, only Lord Thorn Shi can have this courage......"

Although he was flattered, Xu Qing did not let down his guard because of this, and said coldly: "What are you doing? ”

"Without him, it's just a matter of seeing Lord Thorn Shi...... "Dou Lisa Weng said again: "Xu Thorn History, something strange happened in Huanghua County, I don't know if Xu Thorn Shi can solve it?" ”

"Who are you?" Niu Eating Grass said unceremoniously: "You dare to point fingers at what Thorn Shi did?" ”

The hat-bearer didn't care:

"If Xu Tingshi can solve this mystery, the little old man will give him a big gift!"

After speaking, the hat man left with a "whoosh", walking in the mangrove forest as if walking on the ground. Xu Qing wanted to ask again, but he had no chance, so he could only return to Haixing with doubts.

"Boss, look at the salt ......" Xu Qing walked into his salt shop, shook the blanket on his shoulder, and the copper coins collided with each other and made a crisp and pleasant sound.

Salt, as a commodity, was almost a state monopoly since the Shang Dynasty, but after the Sui Dynasty and before the Anshi Rebellion, it became a private business for a short time.

The shopkeeper listened to the voice, glanced at Xu Qing, and said in his heart: Where are the rural buns! It is true that Xu Qing's money bag is rattling, but the shopkeeper also knows that Xu Qing is the most difficult "countryman" to get along with, and to buy garlic, you have to put on a green onion, buy a catty of meat, and you have to have a page of lungs......

The shopkeeper was weak, and he didn't smile:

"This guest officer, there is no gift for buying salt here......"

"In this way, I still plan to buy a hundred and ten catties of salt, in that case, I'll go somewhere else......" Xu Qing turned around and left, am I greedy for you to take some odds? Xu Qing entered this store purely because there was a wooden sign hanging on the door number, and a yellow character was written on the wooden plate.

"The guest officer stays ......" The guy in the store smashed his tongue, a few catties and a few taels of salt, and he couldn't give anything away, but a hundred and ten catties of salt were different, and it could be regarded as a large transaction. The shopkeeper really took a serious look at Xu Qing's clothes again, and he couldn't see it in his heart, people can't look good, but the shopkeeper's eyes moved down to Xu Qing's coat again.

"Didn't you say that you won't deliver things, and I can't go to other stores that deliver things?" Xu Qing turned around, and the copper coin in the blanket sounded crisply again.

"What did the guest officer say, the wool is out of the sheep, and other stores send things, isn't the price much higher?" The shopkeeper's eyes rolled and said, "Besides, the transaction does not give gifts, but the friendship gives a thousand gold, my shopkeeper is a hospitable person......

"Well, let's look at the salt first, and then I'll see you shopkeeper......"

The guy at the "Okay ......" shop took out a row of wooden boxes, ranging from light to dark five or six kinds of salt. The guy began to introduce: "This is refined white salt, which is used to make tea, Cangzhou originally loved to eat it, this is coarse white salt, cooked and eaten......"

"None of this salt is what I want, is there anything else?" Xu Qing looked at them one by one and shook his head.

"This last one is sea salt, which is eaten only by bitter people, as long as it costs two pennies a pound, and the rich families buy it for the horses to lick and eat......" The shopkeeper pointed to a small bag of salt, which was so black that there was not even a box. What he meant in his words was that the poor don't eat it, and if you, the landlord, eat it, it's too shameful.

"Why does this horse eat salt?" But Xu Qing's attention was obviously not on face, but just curious about the horse eating salt.

At this time, there were a few donkey barks outside the door, and the shopkeeper not only laughed a few times in his heart Xu Qing, only the donkey had no horse, so he naturally didn't understand that the horse wanted to eat salt, and explained with a smile: "The horse has eaten salt, and it has a lot of strength......

"Oh, then, let's get twenty pounds of black first!" Xu Qing touched the bag, a row of big hands, forty big money, one is not much, one is not much, and one is not much, and it is placed on the table.

"Oh, I said guest officer, this sea salt is not delicious, and it is not easy to sell......

"Can't I feed this salt to the donkey? There's a lot of money for you! Xu Qing asked rhetorically.

"Well, guest officer, I'll wrap you ......" The shopkeeper took the money and silently dropped a piece in his pocket. I paid attention to Xu Qing's appearance, and felt that I had never seen this businessman before, what were you buying so much salt for? The guy was puzzled, and he didn't care, as the so-called life is long, there are many strange people and strange things, and the guy is hiding behind the cabinet, and he begins to be happy and happy to count his private money.

It's just that from now on, the guy will tell a story when he meets people. In the story, there is a landlord who does not put salt in every meal at home, so in order to see more clearly, he wants to buy black salt so that he can see clearly. When this story is told, it always makes everyone laugh. Of course, these interesting stories of "small people" are not something that Xu Qing can know.

The silver and goods are clear, Xu Qing doesn't care about the disrespect of the shop guys before, he is still in a hurry to improve Haiyan......

As early as the time of the Yellow Emperor, he began to boil salt in seawater, and the amount of salt made in this way was less and there were more impurities, and later he knew about drying salt.

The method of making sea salt from salt is to dry the sandy soil soaked in palladium seawater after the tide is over, and exposed to the scorching sun. When small white particles appear on the sand, the salt workers wash the sand with seawater, and what comes out is brine.

Then this part of the brine is filtered with a bamboo mat or something, and then boiled and dried to form a mass of black matter, which is the so-called sea salt.

Such salt is black and has a poor taste, which is far inferior to inland salt. The production of salt from seawater has not been promoted, and it cannot be used for commodity sales, but can only slightly relieve the urgent needs of poor families.

The most important step to ensure the quality of sea salt is filtration. I remember that in junior high school chemistry, there was filtering coarse salt, and what Xu Qing had to do was to improve the filtration.

walked to the county office, in order to give Yan Ku the county order face, he only entered through the back door. Yan Ku also understood that Xu Qing came this time to inspect the "homework" or arrange the "homework". Seeing Yan Ku, he briefly greeted the relationship between teachers and students, Xu Qing went straight to the point, and asked Yan Ku to bring a few big pots on the rack.

The cauldron was set up, and I saw that Xu Qing put about two catties of sea salt in each pot, poured a bucket of water, and burned a fire under the pot, stirring and stirring, and the sea salt slowly melted in the water.

The salt dissolves into the water, but the magazines in the eyes slowly settle at the bottom of the pot, forming a fine layer of bottom scale that pours out the water and soothes.

"Yan Ku, you have been in Haixing for more than ten days, how should you govern it?" Xu Qing is Yan Ku's teacher and boss, and he can call him by his first name.

"Teacher, I think that Haixing has little land and is not suitable for production, but the ocean is rich in products, as long as a small dock can be built, and then fishermen can be organized to salvage, make dry goods, and sell them to neighboring counties, you can improve a lot of life......," Yan Ku replied respectfully.

"Oh?" Xu Qing was very happy to hear it, it was rare for someone to open his eyes and look at the ocean, Xu Qing said tentatively: "But, agriculture is the foundation of governing the country, you do those things are a side door......

"Teacher, with all due respect to the students, all laws that benefit the country and the people are for the sake of the country and the people, and are not based on agriculture and commerce."

"Hahahaha......" Xu Qing clapped his hands and laughed, seeing Yan Ku stunned, Xu Qing explained: "In the future, it will be you Yan Ku who will carry forward the knowledge of the teacher!" ”

Hearing this, Yan was flattered and hurriedly knelt down: "Teacher......"

"Get up, the road you just said to get rich with seafood is still flawed, for example, where do you have the manpower and material resources to build the dock, do you have a way?"

Yan sighed bitterly and shook his head: "The student is ashamed ......"

Xu Qing didn't speak, took out the standing salt water, and put it in the washed cauldron. In the bucket where the salt water was put before, because of the decrease in temperature, a thin layer of dust and mud was precipitated.

"What the teacher said, could it be sea salt?" Yan muttered bitterly, unable to figure out what Xu Qing was doing with boiling sea salt.

Xu Qing dipped his fingers in the salt water in the pot, tasted it, tasted it, and his heart was not bad, at least he couldn't taste the miscellaneous taste.

Increase the heat to boil the salted water, switch to low heat, the water in the pot gradually dries out, and some small white crystals begin to grow more and more. Xu Qing stirred slowly with a wooden stick, otherwise the salt would be pasted. After stirring for a long time, Yan Ku also wanted to come up and try it.

The salt crystals are increasing, extinguishing the fire and steaming the water dry with the remaining heat in the pot.

"Teacher, this sea salt can still turn white......" Yan Ku looked at the layer of white salt in the pot and marveled. Rubbing his finger down a little, he tasted it, and said, "The taste, this taste is comparable to coarse white salt......

"So, can you get rich?"

"The teacher is really like a fairy descending to earth, and the student is fortunate to be taught......"

"Hahaha, everything has a way, and there is a ...... in it," Xu Qing was modest.

In fact, there are more advanced methods of drying salt in later generations, but Xu Qing will not. Therefore, this relatively inefficient method can only be used, but it consumes a little firewood, and a skilled worker can manage at least five pots. Coupled with the loss of black salt turning into white salt, weight reduction, and the price of black salt itself, the cost of a pound of white salt is only three cents. But if it is sold, it can be sold for ten wen immediately, and if it is transported to a salt-deficient area, there are more than ten wen.

The teacher and student discussed for a while about the promotion and mass production of sea salt purification. Xu Qing gave Yan Ku an indicator, a daily output of 500 catties a year ago!

With such a large output, when Manid returns, he can put a big bag on it. When his trade route is in a big circle, the economic effect will immediately appear. Moreover, all the salt workshops on the side of Yanshan are monopolized by the Huang family, and Xu Qing can directly get 30% of the output or income. The two sides add up, and if you pay back the account of the emperor Laozi, you will have confidence.

After finishing the work of Haiyan, Xu Qing's heart was full of joy, and he was very curious when he remembered the words of the bucket hat.

What happened to Huang Hua?

The county orders there are not like those in the other three counties, they are all Xu Qing's protégés, the princes of heaven and earth, and the relationship between the family. That Zhan Zeng, Xu Qing also felt like he couldn't see through.

Xu Qing let the cattle graze back to Cangxian County and transferred 800 soldiers, placed them next to Huang Hua just in case, and rode a donkey himself.