Villager of Daming

Chapter 1252: Digging Wells to Get Water and Salt

"Captain Zhu, I am so sorry for your neglect!"

Nahachu was very straightforward and apologized first. Before that, his attention was all on Xu Da.

He was afraid of Xu Da, who was famous for his military prowess. The princes were young, so there would be no problems with etiquette, and other aspects could be ignored.

Nahachu didn't believe that King Qin Zhu Chong could really manage the department store and Ju Biqi. He was only eighteen years old, how could he learn so many things?
The head of the village knew that the people of Xiaqiu Village were powerful, and there were masters in Xiaqiu Village! What power did the head of the village have?
"The situation of Nahachu was serious. He understood the overall situation and prevented countless civilians from being killed or displaced. This is a manifestation of his benevolence."

The village head doesn't care how much attention others pay to him. At most, he can do something bad behind their backs! It really doesn't matter!
"Oh~~ There's water! There's water..." Cheers suddenly came from somewhere else. It sounded chaotic, but the content could be distinguished.

"This is..." Naha didn't understand.

"We were digging a well. We started digging at noon, but there was no water. We had to get water from the mountain. The well on the mountain did produce water, but we didn't expect that the low-lying areas would not produce water.

The main problem was that we couldn't find the underground river. After trying again and again, we finally found it, which made it convenient for our team to get water.

It’s a pity that the iron pipes used can be preserved, or whether the wellhead of the pressure well should be left for others.”

Political council member Zhao Yao knew the situation and was responsible for arranging the well digging.

"Dig a well in the mountains? Ah! Yes! That's right, it's good to dig a well in the mountains!"

Nahachu was puzzled at first, wondering why they had to go up the mountain to dig a well, and suddenly he remembered how Ma Su died.

Camp on the road! There is no water on the mountain next to Jieting.

There seemed to be no water on the mountain here, so the Ming army came here in advance and saw the situation, so they had to dig wells.

When the Ming army was in a dominant position, would our troops attack them? Or besiege them? Or just run down the mountain?

Obviously, a strong attack is not possible. If you besiege the enemy, you are not afraid of the well. Run? Run! If you run, the enemy will chase you, especially when you run to the point where the central army has just passed by, the enemy will intercept the rear army.

"I've heard that our Ming army is good at digging wells, but I don't know how to dig the soil!"

When Gegehaji heard about digging a well, she spoke to Zhu Ying who was beside her, saying that she wanted to take a look.

"We have to dig another well tonight as there is still a water shortage. It is inconvenient for people to use water and they have to queue up.

After dinner, let’s go and take a look. It’s actually very simple, just use the equipment.

However, the equipment may not be enough to find water. We used dowsing rods and compasses, but most of the time it still depends on luck.

The dovetail rod is not very easy to use. If the compass is highly sensitive and the groundwater flow is large or even complex, the magnetic needle of the compass will be disordered.

It can increase the probability of finding water, which means you are more likely to find it, but you will always find the wrong one.”

Zhu Ying said that when using a compass to find water, one needs to look at the underground hydrology. If the hydrology is not strong enough and the compass is not sensitive enough, it will not be possible to find water.

Many times we also need to look at the terrain, the vegetation, and the soil on the ground.

When Gegehaji heard that he could see, he was happy.

She turned her head and looked at the light again: "How did this candle light up?"

"This..." Zhu Ying suddenly felt tired. How to explain the electric light? It involved a series of knowledge and terminology.

"Drill wood, light it, blast it with fire, hmm! Hehehehe..." Zhu Wentian helped his own people.

"Yes! It's just like drilling wood to make fire. This time, you're not drilling wood, so the fire is different."

Zhu Ying understood and told Gegehaji this. She couldn’t explain current, resistance, etc. to her!
"Oh~~" Gegehaji looked as if he had realized something, and then he carefully looked at the village guard of Xiaqiu Village, that silly...honest man. Everyone ate and drank slowly, and there were palace maids and eunuchs playing music, singing, and dancing to liven things up.

After we finished eating, the sky was still clear and a little cooler at night. There was wind in the plains and it was no longer so hot and stuffy.

At Gegehaji's request, the group went to see where the well was dug.

The water in the river was no longer flowing. The creek on the mountain had rained heavily, and the ditch where the water flowed was filled with rotten leaves, insects, twigs and other messy things.

Where the shouting came from, there were a lot of people gathered around a well, watching the excitement.

The pump was humming, and unlike the turbid water when it was first pumped out, the water now became clear under the light.

The Ming army was taking water samples for the laboratory in Xiaqiu Village, while others were not very concerned about the well that had already been dug.

The people of Nahachu are curious! They think that digging a well is really digging with people. If there is no water, they need to dig the hole bigger and deeper.

Seeing how a well could be drilled without human intervention, they gathered around and watched, finding it very interesting.

"Sister Ying, how deep can this... device dig? I heard that our Ming army dug wells in the desert?"

Gege Haji discovered something good. She knew that there was sometimes a shortage of water on the grassland, not to mention the desert in Horqin.

If we had a set of such equipment, we wouldn't have to worry about water, whether it was for grazing or fighting.

When she spoke, she always said "our Ming army", which was very natural.

“Sister, how deep we can drill depends on the strength of the connecting rods and the power of the steam engine.

As long as these two problems are solved and the rock below is not too thick, we can keep drilling.

The well salt in Shu is produced by drilling by manpower. If the well mouth is large, brine can be directly extracted from it.

If the well mouth is small, drill another one, dig it in at an angle so that it meets the first one below.

In this way, using a bamboo tube and a rope, water can be put in from one well mouth and out from another well mouth, forming a circle.

There is no shortage of brine wells in Shu, and even less of natural gas wells. Brine can be boiled with natural gas, and the result is high-quality well salt.

There are many bamboos in Shu. After the well salt was obtained, some people..."

Zhu Ying knew that Gegehaji wanted to hear more, and since she was the one who was responsible for dealing with him, she gave him some basic knowledge.

Bamboo salt is better than the refined salt eaten by the team to a certain extent because it contains impurities, especially for people who usually consume less trace elements.

However, if the food you eat on a daily basis already contains these trace elements, there is no need to get them from bamboo.

Just like purified water, purified water does not contain the elements found in mineral water, but they are present in various foods, so why do we have to look for them in water?
The water in Taiyuan Prefecture contains a lot of impurities and even more alkali. As there is no other way, people have to eat more vinegar to balance out the alkali in the water.

If there is anything good, it is natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal and charcoal, and there is no need to dig coal or cut trees, saving time and effort.

"Now that we have the beach drying method, the salt produced can be eaten directly, and reed ash is no longer needed.

Therefore, the price of salt became lower and lower, and people could eat cheaper salt, which was better than the salt in the salt lake beside the Yellow River, where the Weishui River flows into the Yellow River.

Of course, they are now also using the beach drying method to supply people in the north.”

Zhu Ying said this and turned the topic to Shanxi. There is grassland in the north of Shanxi!
(End of this chapter)