Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang defeated the Japanese and returned peace to the coastal people, saying that it was much better than holding the family officials who oppressed the people, so Su Ming should stand with them.

The gates of Erweibao were wide open, and the men, women, and children in the fort were busy, and they were extremely happy to see that so much food had been brought back, and for ordinary people, there was nothing more tangible than food.

It wasn't until early in the morning that all the 640 stone grain was transported back, and it was piled up like a hill in the fort, Su Ming and his eldest brother Su Ren came to the grain pile and asked the small flags and flag owners to count, and today they will distribute the food they owe to everyone.

Since March last year, Jin Shanwei has cut off his military salary, and Su Ren has relied on private transactions with the Li family every month, and the grain he gets is not enough for the entire Wei Zhuang, and now the grain owed by the institute is more than 1,000 stones, and the silver taels are countless, and Su Ren plans to take out 500 stones of grain today and distribute it all.

500 stone of grain is at least enough for the entire Weizhuang Institute for half a year, and 500 stone of grain is distributed in one morning, and a total of 96 households in the six villages of Weizhuang either use horse-drawn carts and carts, or directly use flat shoulders to send the distributed grain home.

The remaining 160 stone grain, Su Ren put 10 stone in his home, the grain cabinet at home was full, and all the rest were left in the granary of Houbao, this granary is very large and there is no problem with putting down thousands of stone grain, but it is rarely used in it.

When everything was done, everyone was already very tired, and after eating two bowls of rice porridge without sleeping all night, Su Ming went back to the house to sleep, this night he slept for 8 hours, and waited until the next morning to wake up hungry.

"Awake? Come and eat! It's been a busy few days, so don't go to the morning exercise later, and rest at home for two days. Su Ren saw Su Ming come out of the room and said.

Knowing that the three younger brothers had been busy these days, Su Ren asked Cai's to grind flour and steam white steamed buns with the wheat he had just bought, and waited for them to get up and eat again.

Su Ming washed his face and smelled a strong fragrance wafting out of the kitchen, sister-in-law cooked so early this morning, he approached and saw that it was thick rice porridge, and there were a lot of dried shrimp in it.

Cai Shi gave Su Ming a bowl of rice porridge, put a few big white steamed buns in a basket, a plate of pickles and a dried fish soup, and Su Ming dried it directly. He realized that the coast guard ship in the sea could restore his strength and injuries, but he could not recover from hunger, nor could he sleep.

After eating a bowl of food, Cai smiled and gave Su Ming a second bowl, and at this time, Su Zhe also entered the kitchen, and saw that he had eaten so early today.

"Big brother, now that we have food, I plan to increase the output of the salt factory as soon as possible, when there is more salt, we can make more snowflake salt, and with silver, we can continue to buy food, and when the time comes, we will replace the weapons and armor of our two Weibao, which are all old and unusable." Su Ming saw that the eldest brother was also sitting next to him with a big bowl, so he spoke.

"Just say what you want us to do, and I can listen to you in the whole Wei Zhuang Office." Su Ren said.

The eighth brother has the ability to make snowflake salt, and there will be a big change in the entire Weizhuang Su Ren feels that it has to rely on Su Ming, and the food problem in the fort has been solved in just a few days since he came back, and although Su Ming is young, he does not have the impetuosity and impulsiveness of young people, as long as the salt factory can produce snowflake salt stably every month, their future will be different all of a sudden.

"I can't say that I want to renovate the salt pans of our salt factory, and this transformation requires something special that we need to fire.

Today I went to the town to see if there were any larger crucibles, did the eldest brother know where to buy gypsum stone? Su Ming asked.

A lot of gypsum will be used to make ceramics, and to buy gypsum stone should not be asked.

"I should go to the town to ask, why don't I go to Jinshanwei Town to ask you today, you can take the silver yourself, and I will buy the crucible you want in the afternoon." Su Ren said.

"Big brother, it's better for you to go there in person. Brother limestone, you try to sell as much as possible, the amount of salt we need in the salt field will be very large, if my solution can be successful, it is not a problem for our salt factory to increase the salt output by ten times. Su Ming said.

"It's ten times more, as long as I can double it, I'm very satisfied, how many gypsum stones do you want?" Su Ren asked.

"At least 100 stones! But big brother, you can buy as much as you want. If this succeeds, we will be able to try renovating a salt pan at about the beginning of next month. Su Ming thought for a moment and said.

"So much? But if it's just gypsum stone, the town shouldn't pay attention to it, I'll try to buy some back today, if you need anything at home, you ask your fifth brother, let the thirteenth brother follow you these days! Su Ren said.

"Okay!" Su Ming replied, and Su Zhe heard that the eldest brother was going to let him follow the starling, and a smile appeared on his face.

Su Ming still participated in the morning exercise, and after the morning exercise, Su Ming came to a flat land outside Erweibao, he wanted to increase the output of the salt field, and the best way was of course to make cement.

As long as the cement is manufactured, there is no need to consider the land for the construction of new salt pans. Find a place with plenty of sunshine, less dust, and little wind to build a salt pan of any depth, and the bottom of the salt pan made of cement is not afraid of water seepage, there is not too much sediment, even if it touches the bottom of the salt pan when taking salt water, it doesn't matter, the quality of this green salt will only get better and better.

When Su Ming was in high school in his last life, he had a very deep memory of a physics teacher, he always liked to analyze the production principles of some industrial chemical materials for students, and he sometimes took everyone to operate together.

The production of cement is nothing more than three materials, refractory materials, quicklime, and hydrated gypsum.

Refractory materials such as furnace ash, cinder, bricks and tiles, etc., quicklime production is the simplest, fire stone above 900 °C, you only need to build a furnace, the furnace does not need to be very large.

The easiest way to make plaster is to heat and crush gypsum stone, and it is also possible to make plaster from flour, but this cost is a bit large for Erweibao.

"Starling, what are we doing here?" Su Zhe saw Su Ming take himself and the iron pillar out of the gate of Erweibao, and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"I need one thing to increase the production of our salt pans. This place is good, and we will build two stoves here later, with a diameter of about one zhang, and the height is arbitrary, and there should be a place to add firewood at the bottom, and the mouth on the top should be reduced to the size of the bowl. Su Ming pointed to the two flat pieces of land he had chosen and said to Su Zhe.

"Feel free to cover? Is it okay to use adobe bricks? Su Zhe asked.

"I'm used to burn stones, you have to keep the chimney safe, and the chimney should be higher, so that the temperature of the furnace can be burned." Su Ming thought for a moment and said.

"It's simple, starling, I'll go to the castle and call someone, and keep it for you tomorrow!" Su Zhe said that he was going back to the fort.

Su Ming also wanted to work with the thirteenth brother and Tiezhu, and didn't want the thirteenth brother to directly let the people in the castle do it. The thinking of people in this era is a little different from that of later generations, although Su Ming's family is also poor, it is also a family of 100 households, and they are officials, and it is natural to let their subordinates work, if they do it themselves, the people may feel uncomfortable.

"Eighth brother, what are you doing here?" At this time, Su Qingping was also wearing cloth armor and holding a weapon to lead the patrol on the fortress wall, and when he saw Su Ming, he asked out loud.

"Fifth brother, we are trying to find a way to increase the output of the salt pan!" Su Zhe replied loudly.

"It's not safe outside the fort now, don't go too far from the fort... Wait for me to come down. Su Qingping said and led six patrol soldiers down the fort wall.

At this time of year, there are already a small group of pirates on the eastern coast of the Ming Dynasty who secretly land, enter the village outside the fort and leave after robbing and killing, Jinshanwei can block a large number of pirates with such a long coastline, but it can't stop a small group of pirates, Su Qingping is afraid that his younger brother is in danger.

Su Ming saw that the fifth brother still regarded himself as a weak scholar in the past, but he was a little moved in his heart. In the past, at home, including his father and all his uncles, he took great care of Su Ming, because he was a scholar and the hope of the whole family.

There is no doubt about the importance of cement to an era, Su Ming is now firing cement, increasing the salt production of the salt field is one thing, he can also renovate the dilapidated Erweibao city wall, if a large number of pirates and pirates come, the strength of the city wall determines whether they can hold on to the support of Jinshanwei Town.

"Fifth brother, I plan to burn something called [cement], and after it is fired, we can transform our salt pan and increase the output of the salt factory.

I'm going to build two stoves here, can you get some firewood chopping back. I'm also going to need some stones, preferably harder, like this. Su Ming picked up a stone under his feet.

"There is a lot of firewood in our fort, so I can let everyone take it as much as you want. This freshly chopped firewood is too humid to use. I'm going to have someone go to the castle to collect firewood right now... Wei Hong, you take your little flag to pick up the stone first, and listen to the eighth child to ask for the hardest stone. Su Qingping heard Su Ming say this, and directly turned his head to the two small flags beside him and said.

Su Qingping easily handed over the task to his subordinates, Su Ming also saved trouble, the matter of the earthen furnace and raw materials was solved, and there was another thing to grind, refractory materials need to be ground up, and quicklime and hydrated gypsum should also be ground when burned.

In order to keep it as secret as possible, Su Ming planned to make all three materials, and then only tell his brothers about the mixing ratio, so that someone would find their cement in the future, know the cement manufacturing materials and methods, and it would take a little effort to imitate it successfully.

"Fifth brother, this refractory material needs to be ground into powder and passed through it with a sieve, whether it is furnace ash, bricks, or tiles, which requires stone grinding." Su Ming told Su Qingping about the general method of making cement, and he handed over these labor tasks to the people in the fort.

"Okay, there is no problem, I will let the people in the fort and the six villages outside the fort collect together, and the stone grinder is easy to find!" Su Qingping said lightly.

"It's all done, what are we going to do?" Su Zhe saw the fifth brother who was the flag owner coming over and easily assigned the task, but found that he had nothing to do.

"Let's go to the salt works! Let's see how this salt pan should be changed, we can start construction on both sides, and when the cement is burned, the salt pan transformation can be completed quickly. Su Ming said.