Chapter 7: The Salt Works

Early in the morning, Su Poman slowly woke up, there were a few small dewdrops on the linen shirt, cleaned it up a little, and was about to rinse his mouth with some water, when someone knocked on the wooden door.

Su Poman opened the door and saw that it was the black-faced man who had ordered him to come over yesterday.

“#¥%@&%!”

The black-faced man waved his arms and gestured for a while.

Although Su Poman didn't understand, looking at his gestures, he probably asked him to go somewhere.

Thinking of his language barrier, Su Poman felt that it would be good to have more contact with the locals.

The black-faced man first took him to a fenced yard, where there was a gentle-looking woman cooking, and a five or six-year-old child was playing at the small dining table.

As soon as he saw Su Poman, Xiao Tong said a bunch of words to the black-faced man, and the black-faced man was also a little puzzled, so he hurriedly asked a few words, and after the two communicated for a while, he turned around and pointed at Su Poman, and then pointed to his mouth.

Su Poman hurriedly said: "I don't understand what you say, but I'm not dumb!" ”

Hearing Su Poman's words, the black-faced man reacted, with a look of enlightenment on his face, as if he understood that the young man in front of him was not a deaf and mute person as rumored in the village, but did not know the local official language.

At that moment, the gentle woman brought out the pot and bowl with four bowls of mushy soup and a plate of dried fish.

The black-faced man pulled Su Poman to sit down, then gestured for a gesture of chopping rice, and slowly spit out a word.

Su Poman immediately reacted, the black-faced man was teaching himself to speak, and he also said it again, and after repeating it a few times, the black-faced man stuffed Su Poman with a dough cake and signaled to start eating.

The gentle woman drank the soup with a small spoon, and her movements looked more gentle, while the black-faced man was more wild, and directly tore the bread into several pieces and soaked them in the soup, and feasted on them, and the boy did the same, and ate as his father did.

Su Poman took a sip of the soup, feeling a slimy grainy feeling in it, and at the same time there was a salty and fragrant taste, very similar to the preserved egg and lean porridge he had drunk in Lanxing.

Although he has a high-level light energy physique and does not need to eat, it is difficult to let go of the appetite, and Su Poman feels that if he does not eat for a long time, his mouth may fade out.

Although the food in front of me was simple, but because I hadn't tasted anything for a long time, now I suddenly had some salty aroma, and I felt that it was very delicious in my mouth, so I immediately learned from the black-faced man to tear the dough into pieces and soak it in the soup, and swallowed it with chopsticks.

The little boy next to him looked at Su Poman with some surprise, he was a little puzzled, he was tired of eating rice shrimp soup and pastries, Su Poman could eat so deliciously, he saw that he had a little appetite, and ate more than half of the dough.

After a while, the black-faced man finished drinking the rice and shrimp soup in the bowl, and then Su Poman also ended the battle, and when he put down the dishes and chopsticks, he also hiccuped.

The black-faced man smiled slightly, got up and pulled Su Poman out.

The two quickly left the village, walked along a large road for a long time, and came to the front of a stockade, on which hung a large signboard with three big characters written on it.

It's just that Su Poman doesn't know the meaning of these three words, and the black-faced man on the side seems to be a lot more restrained when he arrives here, and there are two strong men in red with swords and armor guarding the door of the stockade.

The black-faced man took out a wooden card from his arms, respectfully handed it to the strong man guarding the door, and at the same time pointed at Su Poman and muttered a long paragraph.

The strong man in red who was holding the wooden sign frowned slightly, and then seemed to think of something, and after throwing the wooden card to the black-faced man, he waved his hand like a fly, and motioned for the two to go in.

The black-faced man put away the wooden card, smiled and was about to pull Su Poman into the stockade, at this moment, the ground shook, and then the sound of horses' hooves sounded.

Hearing this, the black-faced man hurriedly dragged Su Poman to the side of the road, and lowered his head, looking a little nervous, and at the same time signaled Su Poman to quickly lower his head.

The two strong men in red at the gate of the stockade also straightened up, staring ahead without squinting, without the lazy attitude they had before.

It didn't take long for the ground to shake more and more, and five three-meter-tall black-scaled horses galloped in, galloping all the way.

With the blessing of super vision, Su Poman can see it clearly, and even the fleas in the horsehair can be easily spotted.

This kind of horse is very different from the horses Su Poman has seen in Lanxing, not only is it taller, but it has grown a set of ink-colored scales from the head to the neck, the limbs are extremely thick, the horse's hooves alone are as thick as the mouth of the bowl, and the hair on the body is as soft and shiny as the finest satin, and it is not an ordinary horse at first glance.

If Bole is here, he will be surprised to find that the five horses in front of him are all BMWs that can travel thousands of miles a day.

Ink Scales rode up to five blue-robed men, led by a short middle-aged man, not very tall, but behind him there was a ring-headed broadsword that was a few points taller than him, which looked majestic.

There are three men and one woman behind the middle-aged man, among which the woman is quite eye-catching, with long black hair, a crown of green jade hair, a white veil covering her face, two butterfly thorns hanging from her waist, and the hem of the blue robe is slit, vaguely revealing a pair of slender and round jade legs, which looks even fairer and attractive against the background of brown riding boots.

As for the three men, one fat and two thin, with ordinary faces, their eyes swept over the thighs of the white-gauze woman from time to time during their actions, and a trace of desire was revealed in the depths of their eyes.

The five people had no intention of staying at the gate of the village, and rushed into the village with a burst of dust, leaving the ground full of dust.

After the smoke and dust cleared, the black-faced man cautiously glanced inside, then smiled at the strong man in red at the door, and led Su Poman into the stockade.

The gate was built between two low hills, flanked by high wooden walls that stretched halfway up the mountainside, and a few men in red patrolled the dense forest above.

On both sides of the gate of the walled gate, there are four or five arrow towers eight or nine meters high, on which there are red-clothed people with bows and arrows watching, where you can faintly hear the shouting sound from a distance, as if there is an army in drill.

The black-faced man did not go in the direction of the shouting, but led Su Poman to another path, and after walking for a long time, a building appeared in Su Poman's eyes.

"That's ......" Su Poman looked at the building and fell into thought, combined with the books he had read before, it didn't take long to recognize what this place was for.

There are white crystalline earth pits, which are turbid liquids, and there are round wooden towers next to them, and there are several huge salt ponds in the distance, and there are several boxy holes under the salt ponds, and a circle of salt workers are adding fire to the holes, and the fog rises on the salt ponds, and the surroundings are shrouded in a white vastness.

"This should be a salt pit!"

The salt pit is formed by the seawater that retains the tide in some relatively closed landforms in the coastal area, and the seawater in the pit is evaporated, and the concentration gradually increases, and the brine of this salt pit can be directly used to fry salt by the ancient method.

If nothing else, this village is a place where salt helps make sea salt.

And the purpose of the black-faced man bringing him here should be to find a livelihood for him in this salt pan that can support himself.

The black-faced man's job is to pick the brine here, and to carry the brine from the salt pit to the salt pond, where there is a special person to make salt with sea brine.

After saying hello to the steward here, the black-faced man took Su Poman and began to pick out the brine, bucket after bucket, and at the same time, he didn't forget to teach Su Poman to speak during the work.

As for Su Poman, he also followed the black-faced man to pick up the brine with a flat pole, and every time the black-faced man spoke with him at a very slow pace, he would take it seriously, and think about the meaning of that sentence in combination with his gestures and the environment he was in now.

The brine is taken in wooden barrels, and although it is not too heavy to pick, at the end of the day, many water porters will be so tired that they can't straighten their waists.

The black-faced man is considered an old man here, although he has spare strength, he will not walk too fast, and he will carry water with an efficiency that can maximize the maintenance of physical strength.

Su Poman did this job very easily, carrying a burden of nearly thirty kilograms without pressure at all, the weather at this time was already a little hot, and there were not many clouds in the sky, so the water porters were sweating profusely, and they had to stop to drink water and rest every once in a while, but Su Poman did not sweat at all, and even enjoyed working in the sun.

The black-faced man squatted in the shade and took out a water bag to drink, looking at Su Poman who was standing under the sun not far away with strange eyes.

"Why didn't you sweat on such a hot day?" The black-faced man asked out loud in confusion.

Su Poman didn't understand the black-faced man's question, and when he pointed to the sweat on his head, and then walked over and touched his extremely dry hair, he suddenly realized that the meaning of the sentence just now was to ask him why he didn't sweat.

Su Poman was speechless, so he could only spread his hands and show that he couldn't explain clearly.

The black-faced man was helpless, handed the water bag in his hand to Su Poman, made a gesture to drink water, and then said a word in his mouth.

Su Poman immediately understood what he meant, read it along, and then picked up the water bag and took a sip.

"Yao Heizi, what's the matter with this little brother you brought? Can't speak? A thin man dressed in a short dozen walked over and asked curiously.

Yao Dashan nodded and said: "He came to my village a few days ago, he should be a survivor who was washed by the big waves at sea, maybe from other places, anyway, he doesn't know our official words here!" ”

"Then he is really fateful, he can survive in the sea, I heard the old man say that there are demon spirits in the depths of the sea, even the masters of the Haihe Gang dare not provoke the demon spirits...... "The thin man continued.

Hearing this, Yao Dashan frowned, and hurriedly interrupted: "Don't talk about Niu Tieba, it's time to go to work, and rest again, it is estimated that the steward will come to beat people in a while!" ”

When Su Poman saw the black-faced man leaving, he also grabbed the flat shoulder and followed.

At noon, the salt field was in charge of rice, although it was not delicious, but it was better to manage enough, Yao Dashan and others ate several bowls of dry rice in a row, Su Poman felt that the food was not in harmony with his appetite, so he only ate one bowl to deal with it, so as not to attract the attention of others by not eating all the time.

Towards evening, Yao Dashan took Su Poman to receive today's salary from the steward, which was a crescent-shaped bronze coin made from a type of copper ore.

Back in the village, Yao Dashan slumped on the chair slightly tired, and Su Poman said vaguely in the local language he had just learned: "Tomorrow...... Go to work. ”

When Yao Dashan heard this, his face was overjoyed, and he was surprised: "You kid is really talented, you can know the meaning in just one day, it seems that there should be no problem in talking after a while!" ”

Su Poman heard this series of words, and tried to search the memory in his mind, but found that he couldn't understand such a long sentence at the moment, so he could only give up, shook his head in confusion, and gave up his hand to say goodbye.

Just as he turned around, the black-faced man got up from his chair and grabbed him by the shoulder, and said slowly in an extremely slow voice, "Stay and have dinner!" ”

Saying this, Yao Dashan also made a gesture of eating.

Su Poman instantly understood what he meant, and did not shirk it, and happily agreed, but in his heart he was thinking about leaving the five crescent coins he had just received for their family as food money for the next few days.

The black-faced man has always helped him, and Su Poman is extremely grateful in his heart.

Not long after, Yao Dashan's wife prepared dinner, and the little boy was also sitting at the dining table ready to eat.

Dinner was very simple, a few green vegetable dumplings, a stack of dried fish, and light rice porridge, and the family chatted at the dinner table, and time passed quickly.

After dinner, Su Poman took advantage of Yao Dashan to go into the inner room to get something, secretly stuffed the five crescent moon copper coins to Yao Dashan's wife, and then ran back to his yard.

As soon as he sat on the chair, Su Poman was about to close his eyes and recall the day's gains, when there was a knock at the door.

Su Po smiled bitterly at the corner of his mouth, and he didn't need to open the door to know that it must be the black-faced man chasing after him and wanting to return the crescent coin.

When I opened the door, it was the black-faced man, and I saw that he looked anxious, and what he was holding in his hand were the five coins that had been stuffed into his wife before.

Yao Dashan stuffed the crescent moon coin into Su Poman's hand with a serious face, and then left directly after saying a large number of words that he couldn't understand.

Su Poman was a little helpless, "The villagers here are too simple...... Then you will have the opportunity to give back to their family in the future! ”