Salt has always been an important item for human survival and reproduction.

In the early years of Taizu of the Great Wei Dynasty, the two Huai were set up in Hailing, and later changed to Yangzhou.

The two Huai Salt Divisions have jurisdiction over three sub-divisions of Hailing, Tongzhou (Nantong) and Huai'an, and two salt introduction and approval laboratories of Hailing Baoba and Huai'an.

The production of salt industry in the two Huai dynasties was concentrated in the Huaizhong Shichang under the jurisdiction of the Hailing Branch.

There are a total of 717 stove houses, 4,279 brine ponds, 5,316 pavilions, and about 183296 salt production.

There are more than 352,000 introductions of Huai salt every year, which shows that the salt production of Hailing Salt Field is more than half of the salt production of the two Huai, which is very important.

You Xiao took out 100,000 yuan and gave it to the Xu family at once, although this is the surplus salt in the hands of the stove household, but it can be imagined that the capital under it is huge.

The ten fields under the jurisdiction of the Hailing Branch Division are Fu'an, Anfeng, Liangduo, Zhangcha, Jiaoxi, Dongtai, Heduo, Dingxi, Caoyan and Xiaohai.

Among them, the tea field is also known as Nansha, due to the impact of the sea water in ancient times, the two Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties gradually gathered sand into land.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it was set up as a sencha pavilion, and people began to move here.

The reason why Zhangcha got its name is because according to legend, in the Tang Dynasty, there were raw Zhangcha trees (palms) and tea trees on the seaside, with a dry height of more than a zhang and a large crown.

Fishermen go to the sea to fish, the sea and the sky are the same, often get lost, so they all take the two trees of Zhangcha as the standard, come and go in the past, and then set up a stall to barter, build a shed for living, dig a well into a market, and call it Zhangcha. It has been used since the Tang and Song dynasties.

At this time, a chubby old man wearing silk in the tea field led a group of stoves and armor chiefs to stand at the door of the venue and wait for the distinguished guests to arrive.

One of the stoves came to the old man and said, "Chief Douchang, what happened to the Xu family this time?" ”

The old man shook his head and said, "After all, it won't be this year's beach money, so wait!" ”

After a short time, they saw a group of people in the distance approaching them, one of whom was sitting on his shoulder and carried by two subordinates.

When these people got closer, Dou Changchang was startled when he saw the comer: "It's Chang Yuegong, hurry, hurry up and pick up someone with me!" ”

That's right, this time the person who came to the Xu family to negotiate with the tea was Xu Dai in person, he was determined to win the position of judge of the Shandong Salt Division, and the tea was the largest of the ten fields in Huaizhong, and it was not very far from Hailing, so he wanted to use his identity and the identity of the second speaker of the Xu family to sing this first play.

"Chang Yue Gong!" Chief Dou took the characters with heads and faces in the tea field to bow and salute together.

Xu Dai had a request for help, and when he heard this, he immediately lowered his shoulders and helped the old man and said, "Mingsheng, why are you here in person!" ”

Ming Sheng is the nickname of Dou Changchang, and as he gets older, his nickname has not been used for a long time.

When he heard this name, Dou Changchang burst into tears, he remembered that when he was a child, his father took him to the Xu family in Hailing, and at that time the Wen Jian Gong of the Xu family was still there, and he was the Xu Dai he knew at that time.

Xu Dai was born in a family of poetry and books when he was young, and rarely had the opportunity to meet outsiders, so he could only study hard in the study all day long.

Decades have passed, and the memories of his childhood are vivid, Xu Dai looked at the sparse and gray hair that Dou Chang pulled up and sighed: "Decades have passed, Brother Dou is old!" ”

Elder Dou Chang burst into tears: "Chang Yuegong also has wrinkles at the corners of his eyes!" ”

Xu Dai subconsciously touched the corners of his eyes and smiled bitterly: "Can you not be old?" You have to worry about all the messy things in the clan, Lao Dou, how have you been living these years? ”

Chief Dou wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and said with a smile: "Thanks to the blessing of the Xu family, life is quite passable!" ”

The two old men helped each other into the gazebo, and as soon as they sat down, someone offered tea.

Chief Dou introduced to Xu Dai: "Chang Yuegong, here are all the stoves and armor chiefs in the field, I heard that the Xu family has something to do, no, they are all here." ”

Xu Dai looked at the people outside the pavilion, and rarely showed a smile, and everyone said in their hearts [This second master of the Hailing Xu family is quite kind].

However, Xu Dai then asked: "Old Dou, how has the situation been in the tea field over the years?" ”

When Lao Dou heard this, he sighed and said: "We have a total of more than 3,800 stoves, 170 pavilions, 600 stoves, and 170 halogen ponds. ”

"However, in recent years, the situation of the stove Ding fleeing from the household has become more and more serious, even if the imperial court sets up armor, it is still useless!"

There are many reasons for Zao Ding's escape, the situation is very complicated, and Xu Dai has also heard about it slightly, but at this time, he doesn't want to continue to talk about this issue, which is not conducive to talking about the right thing for a while.

So he patted Lao Dou on the shoulder and said, "Those don't talk about him, I see that you people are not short of money when they dress up!" ”

Lao Dou thought that he was quite close to Xu Dai, so he said with a smile: "That's not our Xu family's food, among these people, which one of them has not rented the Xu family's beach field, the Xu family has known our difficulties for so many years, and has not given us a rent increase, everyone is very grateful!" ”

When Xu Dai heard this, he nodded with a smile.

Lao Dou said at this time: "Chang Yuegong has worked hard all the way, I have prepared wine and food in the cold house, and please appreciate your face!" ”

Xu Dai nodded his finger at Lao Dou and said with a smile: "You, you, you, are still so polite!" ”

So he no longer sat on his shoulder, and walked out of the pavilion with Lao Dou to chat.

Not far from them is the place where salt is made.

There are three ways to make salt in the tea field.

First, as mentioned before, the reeds are put into the brine pool, and the reeds are stained with brine and then precipitated salt crystals after exposure to the sun.

The second is the salt production of plant ash, which is actually to put reeds and other burned plant ash into the brine pond, and after these plant ashes enter the brine pond to absorb water, salt is produced.

The third is the boiling method, many people think that boiling salt is to scoop out the seawater directly, and then put it into the pot to boil.

In fact, the salinity of seawater is actually very low, and it needs to be exposed to the sun to form brine and then boiled before salt.

However, the cost of using wood for boiling is too high, so most of them also use reeds and other materials as fuel.

Xu Dai has assisted his eldest brother in managing the Xu family for many years, and naturally has a deep understanding of the salt farm.

Thinking that the salt field needed reeds everywhere, and his Xu family was the largest beach landowner, Xu Dai was more confident in convincing the people in the salt field for this trip.

At this moment, suddenly there were more than a dozen guys dressed as field soldiers in the distance, pushing and shouting towards everyone.

Seeing this, Chief Dou frowned, wanting to call someone to drive things away.

But these people were already very close, and one of them saw that Dou Changchang was trotting two steps, knelt down and said with a flattering smile: "Field Chief, the little ones have caught a stove Ding who escaped!" I'm looking for you to grow old, please get old! ”