At dusk, Liu Yan called Chen Xun into the house.

Today, Liu Dayu and Wang Yue made trouble together, which reminded Liu Yan that he, the chief flag officer, did not have absolute authority in the pier, and Liu Yan must establish his prestige as soon as possible.

So Liu Yan took out a tael of silver and handed it to Chen Xun, and asked Chen Xun to go to Wangjiazhuang before dawn tomorrow to buy some pork and come back. This can be regarded as Liu Yan's method to win people's hearts, and now that the soil soap has not yet been made, Liu Yan can only use this method to temporarily tie up the people in the pier.

Chen Xun naturally happily agreed, he hadn't eaten meat for many years, and now it was the New Year.

Soon in the evening, Liu Dayu and Wang Yue were getting together to drink, while Liu Yan returned to the house, closed the door and locked it, and was busy in the house by himself.

At the same time, the situation of Dapandun is very bad now, except for Liu Yan and Liu Dayu, almost everyone has eaten the last meal and has not eaten the next meal, this situation must be changed as soon as possible, Liu Yan needs a Dapandun with sufficient manpower and certain financial resources, this is the beginning of Liu Yan's development strength, and it is also the foundation.

So that night, Liu Yan packed up some things in the house and prepared to try making soil soap, which is the most important thing for him to start a fortune, and it must be verified before large-scale production.

Although the Internet in later generations is full of various local soap production methods, Liu Yan does know the process of making it, but Liu Yan has not actually operated it after all, and he cannot tolerate the slightest negligence, and he has no trial and error capital.

At this time, there were more than ten catties of grass and wood ash in the house, and another twenty catties of soybean oil, all of which were prepared by Liu Yan in advance, especially the twenty catties of soybean oil, which Liu Yan collected from all over the pier, and then went to Wangjiazhuang to buy some, which was enough, and almost spent most of Liu Yan's savings. There are also iron pots and molds used to make soap.

Soon everything was ready, Liu Yan began to prepare for alkali production.

I saw Liu Yan take the grass ash that had been ground and sifted, pour it into the iron pot, and then pour in clean water, which should not be about two or three centimeters above the plant ash.

In fact, metal pots should not be used to boil plant ashes, it is best to use plastic or glass products, but now the conditions are limited, and Liu Yan can only use iron pots instead. The ash of the herbs boiled in an iron pot may contain metal impurities, so the quality of the soap will be a little worse, but it should be able to meet the current needs.

Then Liu Yan began to make a fire to boil, the fire should not be too large, it must be slowly boiled over low heat, so that the ashes of the plants and trees can be fully dissolved, so as to form alkaline water with sufficient concentration.

About half an hour later, after Liu Yan's continuous stirring, a pot of alkaline water of moderate concentration was successfully boiled.

Liu Yan took the gauze, then put the gauze on top of another iron pot, and after fixing it, he poured the boiled alkaline water on top of the gauze, and began to filter the alkaline water, filtering out the impurities as much as possible.

At this time, Liu Yan's room was steaming, and the smoke of steam and firewood was intertwined, so that Liu Yan couldn't open his eyes, and his eyes kept flowing with tears, which was very uncomfortable.

After Liu Yan poured the alkaline water, he put down the iron pot, wiped his face, and prepared to heat the soybean oil.

In fact, the best raw material for making Tufa soap is lard, but now Liu Yan's financial resources do not allow the use of "luxury" such as lard, and can only be replaced by relatively cheap soybean oil.

Liu Yan first weighed the made alkaline water, and this time a total of eight catties of alkaline water were boiled. So Liu Yan took three catties of alkaline water for later use according to the ratio of three to seven, and poured seven catties of soybean oil into an iron pot and began to boil and heat.

As for the remaining five catties of alkaline water, Liu Yan poured them all into a clay pot and stored them.

At this time, as the soybean oil began to gradually emit hot smoke, Liu Yan began to pour the prepared three catties of alkaline water into the soybean oil, and then quickly took the wooden stick and began to stir constantly.

This is a hard work, Liu Yan must ensure that the two liquids are fully mixed, only then can the alkaline water and soybean oil carry out a sufficient saponification reaction.

Liu Yan observed the situation in the iron pot, and saw that the originally clear soybean oil had quickly turned milky white after adding alkaline water, so he kept stirring in one direction, until the mixed solution of alkaline water and soybean oil gradually glued.

This was a very long process, and Liu Yan kept stirring for about two hours, until the sky was dark, and the mixed liquid in the iron pot gradually became glued and became a latex-like state.

At this time, Liu Yan was already tired and sweating, his arms were sore and swollen, as if he was about to break off, and he couldn't even straighten his waist, so he put down the wooden stick and sat on the ground.

"What a tiring job!"

However, tired and tired, Liu Yan looked at a large pot of soap stock solution, and was still very happy in his heart, the stock solution can show such a state, which is already more than half of the success.

Liu Yan rested for a while, got up and came to the window, only to see that the fire road pier was still quiet, and even the dun army on the lookout was not on it, so he probably didn't know when he would go back to sleep.

So Liu Yan hurried up and took the mold prepared in advance, which was actually a small wooden frame made of small wooden planks nailed together, about the size of a palm.

However, before pouring into the mold, Liu Yan also rummaged through the cabinets and found a small package of rosin, which is a rare item, and generally only large families and scholarly families will buy it.

Liu Yan bought a little soybean oil when he was buying soybean oil in Wangjiazhuang. After all, this local soap is made without any fragrance, and even because of the use of raw soybean oil, the taste will have a little raw bean flavor.

Therefore, Liu Yan is ready to add a little rosin, so that the soap can have its own fragrance, which will look better and the price will naturally be higher.

Liu Yan put the rosin into the stone mash, carefully mashed it with a stone pestle, and then evenly sprinkled it into the soap solution, and then stirred evenly.

After everything was ready, Liu Yan slowly poured the soap solution into the mold. Liu Yan made a total of 20 molds, all of which were made by staying up late at night before, and there were still a lot of soap stock solutions in the iron pot at this time, and after all the 20 molds were filled, there were still a lot left.

So Liu Yan found a flat plate, used it as a large mold, and poured all the remaining soap stock solution into it.

After making all the preparations, Liu Yan put all the molds next to the stove, which is the warmest place in the house. These molds sit here for about seven or eight days, and then they can be demolded.

After demolding, the soap in that large plate can be cut, all cut into the same size volume.

Of course, these soaps are not finally finished after demolding, and they must continue to stand in a cool and ventilated place to allow these soaps to continue to mature, which will take at least a month or so.

During this time, the color of the soap will continue to deepen, the moisture inside will continue to evaporate, and the volume of the soap will continue to decrease.

Liu Yan put all the molds one by one, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, and then he just had to wait.

Liu Yan was busy all night, and he was already tired and sleepy at this time, so he lay on the bed and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept, Liu Yan was suddenly woken up by a noise outside, so he put on cotton clothes, got up and pushed the door out.

I saw that Chen Xun had already rushed back, and a group of Dun soldiers and family members were cheering around Chen Xun, and even Liu Dayu, who had only rushed back from Wangjiazhuang last night, was also standing not far from Wang Yue at this time, staring at a burden that Chen Xun was carrying. At this time, the news that Liu Yan was going to invite everyone to eat meat had spread, and everyone was elated.

Chen Xun was talking to everyone, and when he saw Liu Yan come out, he walked over with a smile and said, "Captain A, I'm back." ”

"Okay, how much meat did you buy?"

The surrounding people were also full of expectations, but Chen Xun was a little angry, and said: "Now the prices in Wangjiazhuang are too outrageous, now a bucket of rice costs two taels of silver, even a duck egg costs thirty yuan, and an old hen costs one or two silver!" ”

As he spoke, Chen Xun put the burden on the ground, and when he opened it, there was only a small piece of pork, and everyone was a little disappointed when they saw this.

"Now the butcher shop in Wangjiazhuang is very black-hearted, a pound of pork costs 300 Wen, and the one or two pieces of silver given by the first chief can only buy more than three catties!"

Liu Yan couldn't help frowning when he heard this, more than three catties of pork was not enough at all, but there were more than 20 people in the big plate.

Next to them, Liu Dayu and Wang Yue were also a little disappointed, and then they sneered.

Liu Dayu said: "Oh, how do you divide these three catties of pork?" I'm afraid that a person won't even be able to eat a mouthful of meat. ”

Wang Yue also echoed and said: "Yes, there is so much pork, I really don't know how to make it enough to eat." ”

Chen Xun glared at the two of them, while Liu Yan thought for a moment, then looked at the group of Dunjun and their families, and said, "I still have some black noodles in the house, go back and let the Chen family brothers and sisters bring them, and then mix them with some wild vegetables, let's wrap pork wontons today." ”

Chen Xun clapped his hands with a smile and said, "Chief A is a good idea, these more than three catties of pork are good for wonton filling, enough for us to eat." ”

Liu Dayu and Wang Yue glanced at each other, but they didn't speak anymore, and they also wanted to eat meat, worried that if they said anything more, they wouldn't even be able to eat this pork wonton.

Chen Jiang was next to him, and after listening to Liu Yan's instructions, he immediately smiled and said, "Okay, it's all up to Chief A's orders." ”

Then Chen Jiangshi also beckoned several Dunjun family members around him and said: "Don't be idle, Chief A is spending money to buy meat, and he is taking out black noodles to make wontons, so we also have to make efforts." ”

So under Chen Jiang's arrangement, several women either cleaned up wild vegetables, or packed up dishes and chopsticks, or took out coarse salt from their homes. The whole Dapan pier is lively, as if it is the New Year.

Liu Yan saw that Liu Dayu and Wang Yue were still standing not far away and muttering something quietly, so he said: "You still need a lot of water to cook wontons, you two take people to fetch water, if you want to eat meat, you have to contribute." ”

Although Liu Dayu and Wang Yue were full of reluctance, they now endured it in order to eat a bite of meat, and immediately took two dun soldiers out of the big plate with flat poles and wooden barrels.