bastard seizes tang

Chapter 309
Three days later, in the southeast corner of Chuzhou, Yancheng County connected to Yangzhou.

Yancheng County, known as Yandu in ancient times, was renamed Yancheng because there are salt farms around the city. It belongs to Chuzhou and is an important place for salt camps in Huainan.

Yancheng produces a lot of salt a year, and at least half of Huainan’s salt production comes from this. However, because the Tang Dynasty did not impose a salt tax, and there were no salt officials, and the salt business was set up by private households, so this small city near the sea is still far away. It is not as dazzling as it was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but it is just a seemingly inconspicuous pearl covered in dust.

But today, it is this dusty pearl, because of a bet, it ushered in its nobleman, and the arrival of the city's glory was advanced by about 800 years.

A salt field near the sea in Yancheng County, Li Ke arrived in Yancheng at noon, and rushed here non-stop.

"His Royal Highness, everything has been arranged according to His Highness's will." As early as three days ago, Li Ke made a bet with Zhou Dingfang, and arranged for Wang Xuance to come to Yancheng to make arrangements. After Li Ke arrived at the salt field, Wang Xuance said to Li Ke .

Li Ke looked up and saw that a three-acre salt pond had been excavated on the flat land by the sea in front of him. The salt pond had been filled with seawater and was being exposed to the scorching sun.

Li Ke asked Wang Xuance: "How is this method? Has it ever produced salt?"

The method of sun-drying salt is only the seven processes of building beaches, rectifying beaches, collecting tides, making brine, measuring brine, crystallizing and fishing salt. I haven't tried it, so I don't have full confidence in my heart.

Wang Xuance said: "Although it is convenient to build the salt pond, it will take some time to lay the foundation in the sun. It was just laid last night, and it may not be so fast to bring seawater into the pond."

The tidal flats at the seaside are soft and prone to water seepage, so water cannot be directly drawn in. The foundation used in the salt pond is unusual. First, the mud and sand in the pond must be loosened, and then soaked in sea water. The pier is compacted and dried before it can be used.

Hearing this, Li Ke walked to the side of the salt pond, where several salt workers were holding wooden sticks and stirring in the salt pond constantly, the water in the salt pond was obviously quite turbid.

Li Ke looked at the milky white water of the salt pond, his eyes lit up, he slowly leaned down, rolled up his sleeves, and stretched out his hand in front of everyone.

"Your Highness." Seeing Li Ke's actions, Wang Xuance was startled and hurriedly called out.

As Guan Zhong said in the Spring and Autumn Period: "The four peoples are divided into industries, and scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce."

Anti-world people have their own division of labor, people do not concurrently serve as officials, officials do not concurrently work, scholars, farmers and businessmen, different towns and states, farmers and farmers speak forcefully, scholars and scholars speak and act, workers and workers speak cleverly, businessmen and merchants talk about numbers.

In the world of feudalism, in the eyes of the world, Li Ke, as a prince, commanded Huainan, and was above the scholars, but now he personally started the salt work trip, which is naturally inappropriate.

However, these are also seen by the people nowadays. Li Kezi is different from others, and he doesn't see these so-called distinctions between different walks of life.

"It doesn't matter." Li Ke knew what Wang Xuance meant, smiled, and continued to explore with his hand.

The salt pond was not deep, and Li Kefang touched the bottom of the pond when he reached his wrist. Li Ke reached out and touched the bottom of the pond. After touching for a while, he found a pinch of thin, sand-like things from the bottom of the pond.

The sand at the bottom of the pool had already been compacted, so what he touched could not be sand. Li Ke slowly picked up what he touched, and slowly took it out from the bottom of the pool.

Li Ke spread out his palms, and under the reflection of the scorching sun, Li Ke looked carefully, and what lay in his palms was actually a handful of light-colored, light-penetrating, white sand-like things.

In front of everyone, Li Ke brought his palm to his mouth and opened his mouth to taste it. After taking it, Li Ke felt a bitterness, but there was also an obvious salty taste in this bitterness.

Maybe it's because the sun hasn't sunned enough, maybe it's because it hasn't been sifted, and the things in Li Ke's hands are naturally far from being called salt, but Li Ke's face has shown an unconcealable smile. Li Ke knows that he The way is right.

Li Ke tasted the food from the bottom of the pond, and then smiled. The salt workers who were stirring up trouble all around looked at the supposedly high-ranking, but strangely behaving His Highness the King of Chu in front of him, and his face was also full of curiosity.They also wanted to know what His Royal Highness the King of Chu had tasted in the salt pond that could make him smile.

Li Ke looked at the salt workers on the side looking at him, all looking eager to try, so he pointed to the salt pond, and said to the salt workers: "If you dare to try, you can also try."

The salt worker at the side heard Li Ke's words, quickly put down the wooden stick in his hand, and said to Li Ke, "Your Highness is not afraid, what else should I be afraid of."

As he said that, he followed Li Ke's example, reached down, and slowly picked up a handful from the bottom of the pool, and slowly put it into his mouth.

"Salt, it turns out salt." After tasting the salt worker, his face was full of excitement, and he pointed to the salt pond excitedly.

All table salt can be divided into coarse salt, fine salt and malt salt. Although these salt workers produce salt, the salt they usually use in their homes is the cheapest coarse salt, and it is somewhat bitter, compared to what he tasted just now. It's not too much better, so there is this saying.

But Li Ke smiled, but said: "This salt still has a bit of marinade, so it's not really salt. If it wants to be salt, it needs to be exposed to the sun for another two or three days, and it needs to be sieved carefully. "

The salt worker heard the words, but said: "Your Highness is a genius. Since the theory of boiling salt was mentioned thousands of years ago, who would have thought that drying can also produce salt? With your highness's method, you only need to turn the salt field again." Expand and build salt fields, and the people in Huainan will no longer be in trouble for using salt."

Li Ke looked at the excited appearance of the salt workers, waved his hands and smiled: "It's not just Huainan. If this method is successful, I will develop the salt field in Huainan. By then, the salt field will occupy ten thousand mu. Don't say it is for Huainan. Marketing the world is not difficult."

Currently, the most common method of making salt is decoction. The consumption of decoction is nothing more than two, one is water and the other is firewood. Yancheng is close to the sea. The ones are always chai.

Boiling the sea into salt consumes a lot of firewood, and the pots and pans are limited, so the salt that can be boiled is even more limited. This is also the reason why the price of salt has always been high and it is not easy for the common people to eat salt.

But now Li Ke has introduced the method of drying salt 700 years earlier. Since then, salt production does not have to rely on boiling, and the cost of salt production is less, and the price of salt will naturally drop slowly.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Wang Xuance looked at Li Ke who was squatting by the salt pond, really smiling like a boy with sincerity, and for a moment Wang Xuance seemed to understand why Li Ke was so concerned about this matter.

With Li Ke's power, it is not difficult to seize the salt. There is no need to be ranked with the salt workers, and it takes such a lot of effort. What Li Ke is doing now is to take advantage of this opportunity to do something for the people of the world. points of vitality.

(End of this chapter)