Wu Song has been gone for a few days, and the calculation time has almost arrived in Yanggu County. As for whether there are still "three bowls but not the post", the story of Jingyanggang fighting the tiger is unknown.

Seeing that the date agreed with Xu Guanzhong was approaching, Wang Lun planned to talk about the business with Chai Jin first.

Chai Jin is the bloodline of the royal family of the Later Zhou Dynasty, although there is an iron coupon of the Danshu given by the emperor, after all, it is different from others, and the official naturally can't do it. Since you don't have the power, you can only think about money.

When it comes to money, we have to mention the geographical location of Cangzhou, which is connected to Jizhou and close to the Song-Liao border. Although after the Tanyuan Alliance, there has always been a saying that tea and horses are in the market between Song and Liao, but the Liao State restricted horses from entering the Song realm, and the Song Dynasty also raised the price of tea and salt, which led to the emergence of another profession - smuggling.

Wang Lun planned to do things in salt and iron years ago to form a historical economic pillar. The iron ore business still needs to be slowly planned, but this private salt can be done first.

Before the Western Han Dynasty, salt was liberalized, and then it was basically controlled by the state, monopolized, and heavily taxed. At the same time, the sale of illicit salt has become a lucrative industry. Of course, because of this, the crackdown on the sale of illicit salt by various generations is also quite large.

One of the more famous is the smuggling of smuggled salt, such as Duan Jingzhu's horse trafficking. And Chai Jin intervened in both things, and Wang Lun also wanted to partner with Chai Jin.

Nowadays, the annual income of the Great Song Dynasty in salt and tea is more than 8 million, which shows how amazing the profits are. Cangzhou, Yuncheng and other places can directly dry salt, and directly get the first-hand supply, which is naturally much thicker than ordinary salt dealers.

Moreover, Wang Lun also knew that compared with private salt, the official salt of the imperial court levied extremely heavy taxes, which was also one of the reasons for the flood of private salt.

At the same time, Wang Lun also had a salt industry technology in his hands - the method of drying salt in seawater, which appeared very late in China, probably in the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Therefore, Wang Lun's thought at this time was to use the advanced technology of "seawater salting" in the Song Dynasty, and then Liangshan began to take advantage of its proximity to the sea to use and mine sea salt on a large scale, and developed it into a pillar industry of Liangshan's economy.

However, whether this technology can be successful or not needs to be carefully examined. Wang Lun, the "technology" of seawater salting, only understands the general process, but has not personally operated it. At present, the technology is limited, and the traditional and extensive salt pan method can only be used to make salt.

On this day, Wang Lun got kung fu and went to the beach with Chai Jin to choose a site. The beach in front of you is not particularly open, but it is relatively secluded, tucked away on the shore of a promontory, with long hours of sunshine and sea washing, which is very suitable for salt pans.

Immediately, Wang Lun handed over a note full of salt-making recipes to Chai Jin, who opened it and immediately couldn't move his eyes.

1. Torment

Halogen production (mud scraping and leaching)

The mud is put in the leaky bowl with salty mud, and when its saltiness is drained out, it is dug out with a shovel and piled up around the leaky bowl, which is called light mud, also known as raw mud. There are many accumulations, when the weather is fine or the west wind blows strongly, pick up the salt field with a basket, repave the field, let the sea water flow into the salt field, the salt is absorbed by the light mud, the sun blows, the water vapor evaporates, the salt attracts up, the field is as white as frost, so it is called the white ground (that is, the salt flower).

After scraping the mud and waiting for the salt field to whiten, flatten the waist of the towing knife with both hands, and walk backwards according to the frame of the towing knife, scraping the floating mud on the surface of the field into pieces.

The mud scraped by the mud is unevenly wet and dry, dried in the sun, and then dragged and scratched by the backs of the two people, and repeatedly copied to make it dry and loose.

The mud is dry and loose, so that the two people will cut the board to make the soil integrated into a linear shape, and each line is about one zhang apart, so as to facilitate the soil. Most of the mud collection is carried out by women and children.

Pick the mud to put the salty mud into the soil basket, shoulder to the center of the soil foundation, pile up like a fu, called the mud canopy, press to make it extremely hard, into a sharp cone, so that the rainwater will not seep in, at any time into the leaky bowl, carry the water and leach the brine, this is called the mud pile.

The bottom of the leakage bowl is first covered with a layer of dried weed or ridge hair, and then the salty mud of the mud canopy is put into it to make it level with the mouth, and it is solid with both feet, and it is smooth and smooth as a mirror.

After the leakage control is completed, the bucket is used to draw seawater from the canal, pour the leaky bowl, and every few hours or half a day, the salt brine is poured into the bamboo pipe from the bottom of the drain through the grass root or ridge hair, and poured into the brine tank.

After the brine jar is full, it is extracted with a brine hang, poured into the bucket, and hidden in other tanks or brine barrels for the purpose of boiling.

torture

Salt is fried in an iron plate, which is rectangular and composed of 3~8 pieces of iron about one inch thick. The joints are filled with lime. It is erected on the top of the pointed stove, and then woven with ribbon-shaped bamboo strips, surrounded by iron plates, and the inside and outside of the bamboo and the junction of the bamboo and the iron plate, are also smeared with lime, which is called a masonry plate. One end of the iron disc is close to the fire door, and its rear end is on the stove. If there is still room for it, two to four iron pots are arranged vertically, which is called a warm pot.

After the plate is made, the brine is poured into the plate with bamboo from the brine barrel, and at the same time it is filled with a warm pot, and the firewood is put into the fire door to open the frying. After the brine in the warm pot is cooked, exchange it and hang it into a plate towel, and then pour the cold brine into the warm pot. This is carried out repeatedly, the salt brine water in the dish evaporates, the salt gradually crystallizes, and then the high temperature is added to make all the bitter brine in the dish dry, and the salt has been made at this time, and the salt is copied into the basket with a salt shovel.

And so on, day and night. On the fourth and tenth days, the fire is extinguished, and it is called a creation. Each stove has a certain period of time, which is determined by the field officer.

After the ignition is turned off, the iron plate will be disassembled, and then fried and rebuilt with a new plate.

One load of brine can be boiled ten kilograms of salt. Its salt contains a variety of impurities, the taste is astringent and bitter, the color is slightly black, the cost is high, and the yield is low.

Second, the board is dried. The salt of the board is less impurities, the color is white and the taste is fresh, the cost is low, and the yield is high.

Halogen

In the place where the tide returns to the sea, the grass roots are cut off, and the light is as flat as a mirror, which is called the ash field (referring to the soil as fine as ash). The ash field is divided into three sections: the offshore area is soaked in tidal water, which is not easy to be exposed to the sun, and is the end; The middle part of it is tidal and receding, and it is susceptible to sun exposure, which is the midfield; Those who are far away from the sea, with the tide is not small, and they will be flooded with water, so they are called on the field.

Tide: The first half of the lunar calendar is from the 13th to the 18th, and the second half of the month is from the 27th to the third day of the next month. On the day of the big tide, there are no three games, since the third and eighteenth days of the new year, the tide is decreasing, the first is on the field, the second time is in the middle of the field, and then the sun is down, so the upper and middle fields can be dried twice a month, and the next field is only exposed once.

Wait for the salt frost on the ground and put it away with a shovel, which is called scraping. The soil is piled up in the pier tower, the bamboo pipe is run through, a well is opened next to it, and the tile cylinder is buried. There are mostly one well per tower, and there are also two towers and one well. The pier tower is piled up, watered on it, and the brine flows into the well by the bamboo pipe, and then the brine in the well is hoisted out and stored in a large bucket for the purpose of drying salt.

Salt production

Every sunny day, when the hour is shining, the salt plate is distributed on the ground, and then the halogen storage is poured on the board with a wooden ladle until the flat mouth stops. After being exposed to the sun, in the afternoon, white particles appear at the bottom of the board, which are scraped and gathered with a wooden board, and the brine that has not yet become salt is stored in the basket, and the brine is dripping out to become white salt.

The sun is weak in spring and winter, and the daily salt of each board ranges from half a catty to two catties. In summer and autumn, each plate produces about two kilograms of salt per day.

Chai Jin looked at this prescription and only felt that this note seemed to be heavier than a thousand catties. After taking a long breath, he said: "This salt is very profitable, I only hated this salt in the past, and I will not have this trouble in the future!" ”

Wang Lun looked at Chai Jin and said with a smile: "The famous mansion Lu Junyi is well-known in Hebei, and he is a powerful Heshuo, I mean to count him as one." The big officials and Lu Yuanwai mainly opened the northern trade route, and the south was responsible for Wang! ”

Liangshan 800 miles of water, the water network is densely covered vertically and horizontally, with the benefit of the boat, the traffic Jingdong two roads more than ten states and counties. With such geographical advantages, the development of Jiangnan is a matter of course! I think the reason why the Jiangnan region pays taxes in the world is because of the convenient waterway transportation and prosperous commerce.

Chai Jin nodded and agreed with Lu Junyi to join, and said, "Although Xiao Ke has a wide range of connections, he can't eat a fat man in one bite in this business!" ”

Immediately, Chai Jin asked Wang Lun again: "Then I don't know how to distribute this profit?" "In business, Chai Jin is straight to the point.

"I mean that Lu Yuanwai and I each have three floors, and Chai Daguan is responsible for the management of the salt farm, and he has four floors alone!" Although the recipes and ideas are Wang Lun's, Wang Lun is not greedy, as long as he is thirty percent.

If Wang Lun's plan is successful, it will be one-tenth of the profit, and it will also be a great fortune. is far better than the people on Liangshan, who rely on robbing their homes to make a living. This is the income without risk and in the long run.

"Brother Wang is generous, Chai Jin is ashamed!" Although it is hard to manage the salt farm, and it is troublesome to set up trade routes and dredge relationships, Chai Jin is also very satisfied with the four-layer income.

With such an interest, the two sides have undoubtedly formed an alliance.

After negotiating cooperation, the two returned to the village. After walking for a few miles, I happened to see the head brother of the Hong Sect heading south. Chai Jin remembered the acquaintance and gave another twenty taels of silver.

Waiting for Chai Jin and Wang Lun to walk away, Hong Tao looked at Hong Jiaotou and said, "I don't want Chai Jin to be so kind to the officials, we might as well go ...... again."

"Smack!" Before Hong Tao finished speaking, he had already slapped Hong Jiao's head in the face. "Fool, have you forgotten the pain of the whipping that day!"

Hong Tao originally wanted to persuade his brother to apologize to Chai Jin and beg him to take him in again. Seeing that Hong Jiao was angry, he didn't dare to speak anymore.

After a long time, seeing that his brother was only hurrying with his head bored, Hong Tao asked, "Where is my brother going?" ”

Hong Tao didn't look back and said: "If you don't stay here, you have a place to stay here!" I heard that there is a good man in Yuncheng, Shandong, who fights righteousness and squanders money......"

This pair of difficult brothers and sisters gradually drifted apart, and their voices gradually disappeared.