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William chose to build this salt field in order to prevent the outbreak of the Normandy and Brittany wars, so William considered the defense capability of the salt works when he chose to choose the site, and finally chose an inner bay near Honfleur to build this harbor salt works.

The surrounding rocks on both sides of the mountain surrounded and sheltered the saltworks like two arms, and the vast sandy beaches and ample space for the construction of the saltworks, and the abundant seawater that poured into the inner bay in the morning and evening, undoubtedly brought great convenience to William's construction of the saltworks.

There are two main parts of the salt drying field built here, one is the evaporation pond, which uses the natural tide water to introduce seawater into the evaporation pond, and when the water is raised to a little degree after sun exposure, the seawater containing high concentration of salt is introduced into the crystallization pool through the ditch, and continues to be sun-dried, so that the seawater will become the saturated solution of the oath, and then the salt is precipitated.

At this time, the crystals obtained were coarse salts, and the remaining liquid was called mother liquor, which was an important industrial raw material in modern industry, but with the chemical level of the Middle Ages, William could not use these mother liquors at all, so he had to unfortunately discharge them into the bay.

However, the harbor salt yard of Honfleur is located in the Nordic region, and the English Channel has the lowest salinity due to its higher latitude, so the purity and salt content of the coarse salt obtained by the salt drying process are very low, so it needs to be purified by the cooking process to obtain better quality salt.

At the back of the salt plant, dozens of large clay cauldrons are placed on huge stoves, where high-quality coal from Newcastle, South Wales and the Principality of Flanders in England is burned, and a roaring flame boils the high concentration of brine water that dissolves coarse salt.

Since the solubility of sodium chloride is about the same in boiling water and at room temperature, and the solubility of impurities to be removed in boiling water is much greater, this leads to a point that when boiling in concentrated brine water, sodium chloride will be preferentially crystallized, and most of the impurities are still in the mother liquor.

William and Osborne's butler walked all the way through the white crystalline salt fields, inspected the salt boiling factory, grabbed a handful of fine salt after cooking and crystallization, and felt the softness and delicacy in his hand, William felt very satisfied.

In William's view, these snow-white salts can not only rob the source of salt in Normandy, but also another huge source of wealth in William's hands, and William, who understands the huge profits of salt and iron in ancient times, certainly knows that grasping the production and trade of salt can bring unimaginable profits to himself.

In the monasteries and churches, when the common people could only eat black bread mixed with sand and sawdust, the precious white bread became the daily food of these clergy, and their so-called communion was sometimes even more elaborate than William's.

The reason why these monasteries were able to support the lavish life of the clergy was mainly due to the property under their control, which was supplemented by donations from the faithful and the sale of some holy relics and indulgences, and the most important source of wealth was the production and trade of salt.

However, in Normandy, the situation was different, after two major wars, a large amount of the assets of the Normandy Church were confiscated by William, and its personnel appointments and financial revenues and expenditures were controlled by William, so these bishops and priests could not stand up in front of William.

"This seaport salt works are enough to supply 760,000 people in the whole Principality of Normandy, and there is a lot of surplus that can be exported to the Baltic countries, where the salt is lower and the sun is insufficient, so the price of salt is higher, and we can sell it to get more profit." William stood on the lighthouse of the harbor saltworks, looking at the busy crowd at the inner bay saltworks, and sighed proudly.

"Young Master William, the profit of salt is very large, and we have only made a profit of no less than 30,000 pounds of silver by selling most of the fine and coarse salt to the Duchy of Normandy at a low price to expel the salt of the Duchy of Brittany.

If we can expand the production capacity of the salt works in the harbour here this year and sell them to England and the Baltics, I can guarantee that the profits of the salt trade will at least quadruple this year. Steward Osborne followed behind William, and continued William's words.

"Ahh

"Young Master William, why are you sighing?"

"Maybe I'm not greedy enough, when I was originally choosing a site for the salt farm, there was another place that was more suitable for building a salt farm than here.

In the west of Normandy there is a vast sandy beach between Mortine and Brittany, with a rocky island in the middle of the beach, which is often hit by the tide at high tide.

If a salt pan is built anywhere, it can expand its production capacity indefinitely, rather than at most doubling as is the case with this harbor salt pan. William turned and explained to Steward Osborne.

The place William is referring to is the Mont Saint-Michel and its bay, France's famous historical and cultural heritage.

In the middle of the beach is a rocky island with a Gothic Benedictine monastery, known as the "Miracle of the West", dedicated to the Archangel St. Michel, surrounded by a village. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, this monastery is an extraordinary masterpiece of technology and art, perfectly adapted to the unique nature that surrounds it.

Of course, the construction of the most important monastery of Christian civilization has not yet begun, and this miracle is now impossible for William to see.

"Rest assured, our new ships have been built at the shipyard of Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine, and their power is unparalleled, and with enough ships our fleet can easily drive out the fleet of the Duchy of Brittany, and we can easily occupy this bay.

I was still impressed by the terrifying power of the ten ballistas that were being fired down on one side of this huge warship. Osborne comforted.

"You're right, the most important thing in my Normandy is military strength, as long as we defeat the opponent and defeat the Duchy of Bretagany, not only this tidal flat, but even their most precious saltworks and even territories can be seized by us." William smiled and nodded, "Next, we will focus all our energy on attacking the Duchy of Brittany, which is related to a series of my strategies. As long as we can occupy the Duchy of Bretagany, we can use it as a springboard to attack Wales and Ireland, establish a foundation in the British Isles, and wait for the opportunity to seize the Kingdom of England. ”

This was the first time William had revealed his target strategy outside Baron Hubert, and in his mind, the Duchy of Brittany was to be captured no matter what, and it was the number one target.

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