An important arrangement for this trip is to visit the salt springs of Funiu Mountain, so the boat traveled up the water for about a few miles, and the group got off the boat and walked on the river beach, to be precise, entering the salt factory.

Yuhou's brother, Yanqing Bafu made a special trip to accompany the guests.

The salt slaves saw that the prince of Yuhou Mansion, Yan Qing, and the doctor were personally accompanied, and they didn't know why Chunpei and Menglong were sacred, and some people looked up and continued to work.

The weather was good, and the guests first arrived at a long river beach, a row of past, on the river beach that was cleared and leveled by people, every half a mile, there was a row of high and unenclosed thatched roofs, and below the roof were many salt factories, which were respectively processed to complete the extraction of salt.

The first thing guests saw was a number of large wooden barrels on the river, from which the salt workers were extracting salt water and carrying it to the shore in canoes, where it was poured into open brine storage tanks.

Menglong found that there was also salt water flowing directly into the brine storage pond from the bamboo bamboo pipes drawn from the rock wall.

Walking forward, under a thatched hut, I saw that the salt workers would take out the burned plant ash from the salt stove, spread it on the ground, and then use a clay pot to scoop out the brine in the brine storage pond that has become salty after being exposed to the wind and sun, and pour it on the plant ash, and the salt will crystal.

Further on, there is still a thatched hut, and what the guests see is a salt worker scraping out the crystallized salt from the ashes of the plants, putting it into some jars, adding a small amount of salt water to dissolve it, and then pouring the salt water from these jars into the large lace garden bottom jars on the salt stove.

Then, the bottom of the garden tank filled with a high concentration of brine is heated, and the brine is added from time to time.

There is a process of heating, and the guests walk forward and watch. The salt workers take the salt brine out of the jar and move it to countless small culet cups inserted in the sand, and then pile up the green smoke ashes just taken out of the salt stove under the culet cups, and use the residual heat to further evaporate the water of the salt in the culet.

This salt-making procedure is organized in an orderly manner, and the salt is rotated in different fields, and the salt will come out one by one, and the whole salt field is busy, but it is orderly, and it is inevitable to see Menglong and Chunpei and his envy.

Ruo Chunpei joked: "Except for Nulu, Yuhou's territory is estimated to be the busiest here." ”

Ba Fu said with a smile: "Winter is coming, and many salt farms have been suspended, and if it is usual, it will be crowded. Where is the female Lu compared! Brother, do you want to go there and be busy?"

Chunpei said with a smile: "The old horse-drawn heavy cart is powerless." ”

Moving forward, the work under the straw shed has been carried out to the last stage, the salt worker sprinkles the salt seed (formed table salt) in the culet cup of the brine to crystallize, and soon the salt inside forms crystals and becomes a hard salt mold, and the salt is formed and can be sent to the market. Don't underestimate the salt molds in each pointed bottom cup, which is equivalent to hard currency.

Looking at the rows of salt molds that had been formed or were being formed in the rows of pointed bottom cups, Menglong suddenly felt a kind of inner excitement, ran forward in a few big steps, reached out and took out a little salt from a pointed bottom cup, wiped it on his forehead, and prayed silently to the sky: "We fight for you!"

Menglong's personal guard, Qi Ding, also followed at about the same time.

Menglong's sudden move surprised Ruo Chunpei, Ba Peng, Ba Fu and others, and they quickly understood what he meant, looked at each other and smiled.

After visiting the salt-making operation, everyone looked back, several miles of salt field, the smoke of burning plants and trees was like a beautiful cloud slowly rising, Ruo Chunpei couldn't help but raise his hand over his head, and praised loudly: "Yushui salt east to Jichu, west into Yuanli, against the water to nourish the night, along the water salty orange capital, how spectacular!"

When Ruo Chunpei's sigh ended, Ba Fu smiled: "I have been to Pankou Salt Market more than once, and you have also gained a lot of benefits. ”

Chunpei also smiled: "One is Jiuniu, and the other is Yimao, how dare you talk about it." ”

Ba Fu said with a smile: "Most of the salt that flows out of me is at the mouth of Panhu Lake, and I just open my eyes and close my eyes." ”

Ruo Chunpei "chuckled" in his heart, knowing that Ba Fu was quick to speak for a while, he said that he had missed his mouth, and glanced at Ba Fu lightly, judging from his expression, he should not have found his slip of the tongue, and others did not pay attention, Ruo Chunpei didn't want to embarrass him, pretended not to notice, and said: "How many ways to take salt from all over the world?"

Bafu said: "There are three ways to boil salt in various places, one is to boil salty stones, one is to boil the salt water gushing out of the ground, and the other is to boil the salt water gushing out of the river. The first thing you saw was using large wooden barrels to separate the salt water from the river, which we have only started here in recent years, and how much salt has been drained from the river over the years, but it's a pity. ”

Although Chunpei and Menglong had heard of the salt boiling method, they came to the real scene today and gained a lot.

As we continued upstream, for several miles, the riverbed became narrower and the river was deeper, and boats carrying salt water came and went.

Walking to a sandy beach, the river beach road is broken, in front of which is a relatively calm and turquoise river, with cliffs on both sides, and to continue walking, you must go by canoe.

Not far away, on the rocks on the left in front of you, is the famous Flying Well Salt Spring, which rushes out of the rock and falls into the high barrels of the wooden boats driven by the salt workers below. Precisely:

A spring spits white jade,

Thousands of miles to gold.

The guests stopped to watch and were greatly shaken, and the warriors who had shed blood for this famous salt spring, such as Menglong and Ding, were even more excited.

Ba Fu said: "Do you want to get on the boat and go to a closer look?"

Ruo Chunpei said: "No need. The shuttle canoes and busy salt workers are just a beautiful scenery, don't disturb. Looking at the flying water from a distance is like watching a flowing work of heaven and man: green mountains, clear water, white practice, wooden boats, and salt people. ”

Ba Fu smiled: "There are also distinguished guests." ”

Menglong couldn't help but admire: "This salt water is really like a white dragon, flying out, it's so beautiful!"

Ba Peng smiled: "If it weren't for the beautiful scenery, how could the people of Chu want to snatch it in their dreams!"

After everyone praised for a long time, Menglong said: "I heard that the flying water well was discovered by the Chiyou tribe, but is there such a thing?"

This is a proud story that Ba Fu has told many times, pretending to be mysterious: "This is indeed the case." After the defeat of the Chiyou tribe in Zhuolu and the Yellow Emperor, their tribe migrated southward, and some of them moved into the Yushui area and entered the Funiu Mountain.

One day, they were hunting along a river in the mountains, and they found a sika deer grazing by the river, so they chased after it desperately. They saw the sika deer running to the bottom of a cliff and falling into a spring. They ran to the flying spring to look for it, but they did not see the deer, they were disappointed, tired and thirsty, and when they were exhausted, they took the water from the flying spring and drank it, and found that the water actually had a salty taste. Hence the discovery of the flying well. ”

Ruo Chunpei said: "I heard that it was discovered by Bailu before. ”

Ba Fu said with a smile: "What was found by the white deer was the salt spring of Dengbao Mountain, the white rabbit was found in Tangxi, and the white turtle dove was found. In short, it's all a fetish. ”

Menglong looked ahead and said, "There are some long bamboo knots on the half-rock over there, are they for the salt water that leads the well?"

Ba Fu said: "Exactly. In addition to the white dragon you saw, there are several streams of brine flowing out of the vicinity, but the amount of salt water flowing out is unstable and changes with the seasons, so the bamboo pipes that are connected by hollow or cut in half to knot and then close are led to the brine storage pond of the salt factory, and then boiled into salt. ”

Ding said: "Nothing is as spectacular as flying water!"

Ba Fu said: "I Ba country salt springs, I don't know how much, just say big, no less than seven or eight places, only here and Baoshan salt water has spewed out from the mountain rock, the rest of the common is from the forest stone or from the bottom of the river gushing out, so Feishui Well and Baoshan Wu Fei water, are two treasure springs. ”

Chun Pei said: "The story that my brother just told reminds me of a big stone sika deer in Yuhou's Mansion. And said in a tone of envy and approval: "What flies out of the flying well is rich and glorious!"

Ba Fu smiled: "If brother doesn't have to be jealous, there are Tianqifeng tea, Longxiang sake, the women of Sanmiao Village, the dates of Maoergou, and the fruits of Wanfeng Village, why sigh?"

Chunpei said with a smile: "People's hearts are like the depths of the sea, and the snake wants to swallow the elephant, so what's the blame for my brother." ”

Bafu laughed.

After the tour, that night, Yanqing Bafu made the east and entertained the guests.

In the following two days, the guests of Hu'an Mountain also visited Tingziguan, not far from Yucheng, and a small river called Houzao River, which is also extremely important to the local Ba people. Houzao River, one of the source rivers of Yushui, also known as Houzhao River, Xianxi, its name comes from the ancestor of the Ba people after Zhao (stove), legend has it that Fuxi has a descendant called Houzhao, settled in Ba Shui, is one of the ancestors of the Ba people.

Some local scholars believe that the Houzao River is also one of the birthplaces of the Ba people.

The visit was a complete success, and the old grievances between the two tribes over the years were resolved overnight, and both were happy.

On the day of farewell, Yuhou ordered Ba Xin to lead a team of sailors to send guests to Yushuikou. Bapeng, Bagui and others came to the ferry to see them off.

On the ferry, Ba Peng said to Menglong: "Brother Menglong, I will give you a gift." ”

Ba Peng untied the sword on his waist, held it in both hands, and said: "This sword, rewarded by the king, is said to be the sword of the emperor, but it is actually the sword of a certain generation of the great monarch, which was supposed to be buried with him, but he ordered it to be passed on to future generations before his death. In the last battle, I knew that Brother Menglong was a hero, and it was appropriate to wear a sword. ”

Menglong took it with both hands, handed it to the guard next to him, held it in his hand, and said, "Brother Gongzi, the sword on my body is also a sword, which was once worn by the ancestor Wuzi of the clan." ”

Menglong untied it and gave it to Bapeng, who was overjoyed and received it. The two said a few more words, and Shi Li broke up.

If Chunpei asks Ba Xin to release the boat, go to Yushuikou first, and then go to Youshui Gongshi.