The early morning sun was sparkling with the water, and on the bank of the wide salt pond, Zhang Liao took Xun Yu, Guo Jia, and Hedong County Cheng Wangyi, Biqiu Xing and others to check the salt pond. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Different from when Dong Zhuo and Wang Yun were in power, Zhang Liao had a lot of scruples about controlling the salt pond at that time, at this time Li Dao and Guo Yan were in power, but he didn't care, after controlling the salt pond, the first thing he had to do was to operate the salt pond first, and to operate it better, and become an important source of taxes for himself.

The whole salt pond is fifty-one miles long from east to west, six miles wide from north to south, the south of the pond is crossed by Zhongtiao Mountain, the shape is like a lying bow, there is a peach blossom hole on the top of the mountain, the water flows into the salt pond, as the water source of the salt pond, otherwise it evaporates every day, and it dries up sooner or later.

The salt pond is extremely wide, but the salt pans carved out around the salt pond are even wider, and the past is snow-white, but the distribution of the salt pans is large and small, which is the result of each family's division and drying salt.

When Zhang Liao first served as the Taishou of Hedong, he had learned about the method of salt production in the salt pond, and the salt pond was reclaimed on all sides. Every year, the furrow is cultivated in February, the water is diverted in April, the salt is dried in summer, and it ends in August, which also depends on the time of day.

However, in addition to a few subordinate officials, there was also an experienced old salt worker who accompanied him to explain the situation of the salt pond, and he knew more about the method of salt making.

Today's Hedong salt pond, there are three main methods of salt production.

The first method is the oldest fishing method, directly let the salt workers go down to the salt pond to fish, because the water of the salt pond evaporates for a long time, and a large piece of crystalline stone salt has accumulated at the bottom of the water, as long as it is fished up, it can be eaten, this method is relatively simple, but it is only suitable for being carried out in the shallow water area, the salt pond is buoyant, people can not dive in the deep water area, and often have to fall stones, it is difficult to fish, and it is quite dangerous.

The second method is the decoction method, which is to evaporate the water from the salt pond to a certain extent to become brine, and then pour the brine into the pot to make a fire and decoction, and the water is dry to become salt.

However, these two methods, the scale and output are too small, and the water of Hedong salt pond has a bitter taste, and the salt produced by these two methods is of poor quality and has a bitter taste, so Hedong salt is also called bitter salt in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Bitter salt is generally sold to the poor or to foreign people.

Zhang Liao stopped at a salt worker's fishing place, tasted the salt he mined, frowned, the salt directly fished out was indeed very bitter, and the taste was too bad from the salt of later generations.

In addition to these two methods, the third method is the method of pouring and drying the salt pond, building a salt field around the salt pond, repairing the salt furrow, which is similar to a shallow pond several feet deep, and then digging a ditch to introduce the water of the salt pond into the salt furrow, which is blown by the wind and sun, and the water is steamed and the salt is released.

At this time, Xun Yu said on the side: "Lord, in the pre-Qin period, the salt dried by the method of pouring and drying was also bitter, and then the salt workers slowly summed up some experience, and used the split furrow to dry and separate the miscanthus in the brine, and the salt quality was better."

"Miscanthus?" Zhang Liao's chemical level is really average, and he doesn't know what miscanthus salt is.

Xun Yu walked to the edge of a salt furrow, bent down and twisted up a few thick white particles, and gave them to Zhang Liao, Zhang Liao put it in his mouth and tasted it, it was more bitter than salty, he frowned and said, "This is miscanthus salt?" ”

Xun Yu nodded and said: "Yes, in addition to salt, there are many sundries of miscanthus salt, so the pool water is bitter and salty." ”

Zhang Liaoqi said: "How to separate the miscanthus salt? ”

There are many other debris in the salt pond He knows that if it is a later generation, it can naturally be easily separated through various chemical means, but in this era, how are they separated?

"This is also the power of time." Xun Yu pointed to a piece of salt furrow on the left side, and said: "The salt workers divide the salt field into four furrows, the first furrow is the largest, after autumn and August, the water of the salt pond is introduced, and the sun drying water is consumed to become the brine, and when it comes to the harsh winter, there is miscanthus nitrate in the brine at the bottom of the pool." ”

Zhang Liao nodded, somewhat understood, the brine precipitates miscanthus nitrate in winter, which should be the use of temperature changes, in a low temperature state, the solubility of miscanthus nitrate decreases, and it is the first to be precipitated.

Xun Yu pointed to a salt furrow next to it and said: "After the first furrow of mango nitrate is exhausted, it is already March of the next year, then lead this brine into the second furrow, to the beginning of summer, the surface of the brine has this white flocculent generation, the salt worker calls it 'fuzzy', at this time the brine is called the yang water, and the yang water is still very bitter." ”

Zhang Liao nodded, looked at the second furrow, it was the middle of April at this time, sure enough, there was a large white flocculent on the surface of the brine of the second furrow, he estimated, this should still precipitate other impurities through temperature differences, but Zhang Liao didn't understand what these white floc was, he took some and tasted it, but it was more bitter than miscanthus salt.

Xun Yu pointed to the third salt furrow and said: "After the second furrow of white flocculent is generated, you can introduce yang water into the third furrow, and the bottom of the third furrow pond has a nitrate plate compacted by miscanthus nitrate, after this furrow, the white flocculent in the yang water can be precipitated, but the nitrate plate is getting thicker and thicker, and finally only the brine remains, this water is called******* Zhang Liao looked at the third salt furrow, thoughtfully, the white floc precipitates so quickly, and the nitrate plate is thickened, I am afraid that it is not only natural precipitation, it should be accompanied by the chemical reaction of the white flocculent and the nitrate plate at the bottom of the pool.

Then Xun Yu pointed to the fourth salt furrow and said: "Finally, ** will be introduced into the fourth furrow, the water is one foot deep, as long as the wind blows and the sun is exposed, salt flowers can be produced in five or six days, this is 'falling salt', the water is dry, and there is no bitter taste." ”

Zhang Liao saw that there were still some salt grains on the edge of this salt furrow, it should have fallen on him last year, he twisted out a salt grain, put it in his mouth and tasted it, although the salt grain was still a little bitter, but the taste was a hundred times stronger than the salt that was extracted.

He couldn't help but admire the wisdom of the people and salt workers, although they did not understand the chemical principle of the precipitation of impurities in the water of the salt pond, but they were able to summarize in the labor, using the temperature difference of the four seasons of the year, cleverly separating the miscanthus salt, white flocculent and other substances, which is really rare, as Xun Yu said, this is also by the power of the time.

Xun Yu sighed: "Although the salt produced by the four-furrow method is good, it needs to go through a cold and summer for a year, the storage of brine is limited, and the time is quite long, and the business trip pool is not enough, so the salt produced is not enough to supply the Quartet, and the salt eaten by the people is the bitter salt that is directly led into the pool to dry." ”

Zhang Liao nodded, he understood Xun Yu's words, most of the salt made by the Siqi method was for the imperial court and the ministers, and ordinary people still ate bitter salt.

Zhang Liao frowned and looked at the messy salt furrows of different sizes on all sides, and said categorically: "Wen Ruo, after this autumn, you can mobilize soldiers and young men to rebuild all the salt furrows on all four sides, widen them for ten miles, redivide the layout, and cultivate them into four furrows." ”

If the salt pond is renovated and the process is unified, the annual salt output will be greatly increased, and the quality will be better than the original.

"Whoa!" Xun Yu responded, and smiled again: "The lord's move is very good." ”

Zhang Liao smiled, and at this time, a burst of singing suddenly came from not far away: "The scent of the south wind can relieve the sorrow of our people, and when the south wind blows, it can relieve the wealth of our people......"

Zhang Liao couldn't help but look at the old saltworker on the side, and said with a smile: "I don't think that among the saltworkers, there are still people who can sing the songs made by Yu Shun in ancient times." ”

The old salt worker hurriedly said: "The general doesn't know, the salt workers here can sing the 'South Wind Song', the south wind rises, the salt is born, and the south wind is really a God-given treasure." ”

Zhang Liao smiled and said, "Why did the elder say this? Although the south wind is good, could it be that the east wind and the west wind are not helpful? ”

In his opinion, as long as it is wind, it can speed up evaporation, and there should be no distinction between southeast and northwest winds.

Unexpectedly, the old salt worker nodded and said: "That's right, the south wind is the best, the east wind is good, if you encounter the northeast wind or southwest wind when drying salt, the brine will be 'porridge', like rice cereal, the salt produced is more bitter and unpalatable than the bitter salt that is harvested, so in the eyes of our salt workers, this south wind is really a gift from the sky, and it must not be disrespected." ”

Zhang Liao couldn't help but be surprised, and looked at Cheng Wangyi of Hedong County: "Is this really the case?" ”

Wang Yi nodded: "General, that's exactly the case." ”

Xun Yu and Guo Jia couldn't help but be amazed, and they all sighed at the wonder of creation.

Zhang Liao pondered, he didn't believe that the south wind was given by the sky, if the southeast and northwest winds really had different effects, it must be another reason.

He muttered: "The south wind produces salt, there must be a reason, the so-called south wind is warm, the north wind is cold, the east wind is wet, and the west wind is dry, presumably this cold, warm, dry, and wet, also has an impact on the salt." ”

He naturally knows that temperature plays a very important role in many chemical reactions, and the difference between the southeast and northwest winds lies mostly in the difference between cold and warm currents, which should be caused by this factor to increase the content of miscanthus nitrate or other substances in the brine, resulting in bitter crystallized salt.

Listening to what Zhang Liao said, the old salt worker's body trembled, and he muttered: "The general's words are reasonable, think about it carefully, when the northeast wind and southwest wind come, the weather is mostly cold, I'm afraid that's exactly the case!" …… The brine comes out of the manganese in winter and the hair is blurry in summer, is it also because of the difference between cold and warm? ”

This old salt worker has been engaged in the salt industry for generations, with exquisite skills and rich experience, and after listening to Zhang Liao's words, he suddenly realized and figured out a lot of truths.

Xun Yu and Guo Jia are also wise people, and they were suddenly surprised when they heard the words.

Guo Jia praised repeatedly: "The lord can look at the surface and know the original, I might as well do it." ”

Even Xun Yu nodded in agreement, Zhang Liao's ability really made them admire.

Zhang Liao grinned, and was about to speak, when the old salt worker suddenly said: "General, there is one more thing, I have been waiting for the salt worker to be confused for a long time, and I take the liberty to ask the general to solve my doubts!" ”

"Oh?" Zhang Liao looked at the old salt worker who was full of expectations, and said with a smile: "Let's hear it." ”

Unexpectedly, at this moment, there was a sudden rumbling thunder in the sky, and they couldn't help but look at it in amazement, only to find that there was a rain cloud in the sky at some point.

Wang Yi's face changed slightly, and he hurriedly said: "General, this time of drying salt, I am most afraid of heavy rain and floods, once there are floods in the pond on all sides, this year's salt drying will be a failure." ”

Hearing Wang Yi say this, Zhang Liao's face also became solemn.