After Song Xiance left, Zhu Jian plunged into a large room in the side hall of the Heart Cultivation Palace, holding a stone and smirking.

This large room is full of all kinds of strangely shaped jars and jars, which he designed himself, and the porcelain craftsmen fired them according to the drawings, and several large wooden cabinets and desks are also placed with all kinds of strange and messy things, which is his laboratory.

Wang Chengen, who was following behind, had a strange expression on his face, the emperor was ...... Is this evil?

Zhu Jian seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, turned his head and glared at him, held up the stone in his hand and said, "Do you know what this is?" ”

"Stone ...... Head ...... "Wang Chengen hesitated, but he honestly said what he saw, of course, he also dared to answer so boldly because he knew the emperor's character.

"That's half right, it's a stone, but it's a stone that can be turned into gold, hehe." Zhu Jian had a smug expression on his face, mineral salt, do you know?

It is now the year of Chongzhen, the situation has not been eroded to the point of no solution, the price of salt has not soared to the point of exaggeration, the price of salt in the coastal places is relatively cheaper, one pound of five or six cents, far away due to the increase in freight, tariffs and other costs are more expensive, a pound is sold to three or four cents, the price fluctuates greatly, in short, it is very expensive, the profit of salt merchants is very large, and even reaches an astonishing profit of 300 percent.

Private salt is cheaper than official salt, but it is illegal to buy and sell illegal salt, and if you are caught, you will lose your head, but the huge profits still make many people take risks, and the greater the risk, the higher the return.

In fact, the cost of boiling sea salt is not high, but the Ming court made the emperor and merchants salt for the sake of taxation, coupled with official corruption and other factors, the price of salt is ridiculously high, but the real profit is those merchants, the imperial court does not collect much salt tax.

Zhu Jian wants to break this iron law of pit people and make more money, but he can only start with mineral salt, but fortunately he knows how to remove impurities and toxic substances from mineral salt and turn mineral salt into edible and non-toxic table salt.

In fact, the mineral salt has long been discovered, but I don't know how to get rid of the toxic substance barium chloride contained in the mineral salt, and after eating it, I was poisoned and died, and no one dared to eat it.

The production method is actually quite simple, first crush the meltwater, consider the impurities, and then the air blowing method and chemical method to remove the barium chloride and other substances contained in the brine, and finally use the brine in the heating frying pan to make salt, the yield is N times higher than boiling sea salt, the cost is lower, the most important mineral salt is all over the country, Sichuan is more known as the salt capital, some salt mines are naturally exposed outside, some need to dig deep, some mineral salt is very pure, can be eaten directly.

Mineral salt?

Wang Chengen's face was confused, mineral salt, I really haven't heard of it, isn't it only sea salt? Salt boiled in seawater.

Zhu Jian was too lazy to explain, because there were too many things that needed to be explained, and it was estimated that he couldn't finish talking about it for N years, and the explanation was not clear, so he would play the piano to the cow with a stupid pen, he was busy for a while, and then called a few little eunuchs to operate, and he stood aside to command, and he had to do everything himself, and it was strange if he was not tired to death.

The mineral salt that is being explored is not made in a day, the most important thing is to remove the barium chloride this step, this thing is toxic, if not removed cleanly, it will kill people if it is eaten, coupled with the constraints of various factors such as science and technology, equipment, etc., he can only strictly grasp the process of removing barium chloride, rather slower, more time and cost to ensure that the produced mineral salt is non-toxic, and it does not kill people.

After Zhu Jian arranged for the eunuchs to repeatedly remove chlorine and barium gasification, he went to Queen Zhou's inner kitchen to be busy, of course, he was only responsible for commanding, and those who were busy were those palace maids and eunuchs, some roasted beans, wheat, flour and other things, and some pushed and grinded, mainly to polish the fried and dried beans, wheat and sea salt into powder.

Empress Yi'an and Concubine Tian were all alarmed, and ran over to join in the fun, helping the Son of Heaven to supervise and command, mainly to supervise the baking and grinding of meat.

These meats are animal offal or something, add salt and some spices to marinate and then dry with slow fire, and then polish into powder, the smell is indeed fragrant to make people swallow saliva, however, the quantity is very small, and finally poured into the various things that are ground into powder and mix well, and then poured into a wooden square template, with the wooden extruder invented by Zhu Jian to squeeze it into blocks by hand.

"Your Majesty, what is this for?" The two queens and Tian Guifei both asked curiously.

"Compressed biscuits, specially supplied with dry rations for the army."

Zhu Jian patiently explained that in these years, the dry food in the army was basically the simplest rice ball, the north was cold and dry, and the rice ball had a long shelf life, and in the humid and hot south, it would have to become rancid and taste bad in two or three days, and it was strange that the soldiers would not be poisoned or diarrhea after eating it, and it would be strange if they fell ill, which seriously affected their combat effectiveness.

In order to solve this problem, he copied the practice of compressing biscuits in later generations, and tinkered out the Ming version of Zhu's compressed biscuits, of course, high-temperature sterilization, vacuum compression packaging or something, the packaging is made of moisture-proof clean oiled paper Jane A pack is OK, although it is not hygienic enough, but it is much better than rice balls, and it is also quite nutritious.

"Come, you will pay it back." Zhu Jian picked up the squeezed biscuits and gave them to Yi'an Huang'an, Empress Zhou and Tian Guifei, and he also picked up a small piece to compensate, well, the taste is still quite good, but it is salty, and the amount of salt has to be reduced a little more.

"One piece for one person, pay for it." Seeing that the palace maids and eunuchs around him were looking at the compressed biscuits in their hands and swallowing their saliva, he greeted generously, letting people work for nothing without pay, it was already a bit shameless, and he didn't give others something to eat.

"Your Majesty." A group of palace maids and eunuchs cheered, and after thanking the lord Longen, they couldn't wait to pick up a piece of compressed cake to compensate.

"Well, it tastes good."

After the two queens and Tian Guifei tasted it, they all felt that it tasted good, better than the pastries made by some chefs, but fortunately, they were used to the fact that the Son of Heaven often had all kinds of accidents, and compressed biscuits were not a strange thing, and it became natural to get used to it.

Zhu Jian pulled the three of them aside and whispered, the compressed biscuits just now are for the soldiers, you can eat them yourself, I will give you a copy of the recipe, don't spread it, this is also a military secret, and since it is eaten by yourself, of course, the ingredients must be selected better, and the meat should be pure natural green pork, don't use those fed with clenbuterol......

Uh, forget that this is in the Ming Dynasty, not the era of hormone feed and clenbuterol, it's a pure slip of the tongue, don't use those messy animal offal to go into the water, and the hygiene aspect should also be emphasized, you know.

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