The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 50: Come and eat salt, you will be satisfied!

Zhu Xiu desperately broke away from Lao Shi's clutches, and said out of breath, "Let's make it right first, I'll leave after I teach you how to make salt!"

Shi Kuangwei's smiling face froze, and he looked at each other and grinned.

Shi Lingyan said angrily: "You are just like those acid talents from the east, you look down on our Zhang Yi Army!"

Zhu Xiu curled his lips. The Zhangyi Army was located in a remote area, with frequent wars and poor people's livelihood. It was not easy to recruit and retain talents.

"Okay, okay, let's get enough salt first! Where do you plan to start?"

Before the old historical story was finished, the black-faced army general interrupted: "Commander Jie, the battle is critical, and the army lacks salt, if this kid makes a fuss, the method doesn't work, and the salt transportation is delayed, won't it hurt the soldiers of the three armies? "

The black-faced general stared at Zhu Xiu with his wolf eyes, full of distrust.

Shi Kuangwei frowned and hesitated, then smiled and said: "Let me introduce, this is the commander of the Yanei capital of Zhangyi Army, Wei Hu!"

Zhu Xiu cupped his hands: "General Wei."

Wei Hu didn't respond, with a cold face, as majestic as a black-faced Vajra.

Zhu Xiu curled his lips, what a rude guy.

Lao Shi rubbed his hands and said with a smile on his face: "How long will it take for your method to take effect?"

Zhu Xiu tugged his fingers and said: "Prepare iron pots, stone rollers, linen cloth, cotton cloth is better, hammer, shovel, hammer, stirring stick, vat, charcoal, sieve, funnel. These things can be seen by you today. Make table salt from brine!”

Shi Kuangwei didn't dare to miss a single word in his mind, and glared at Guan Tieshi: "Remember everything? Hurry down and prepare. It will be done within an hour!"

Guan Tieshi scratched his head and whispered: "I didn't remember all my humble posts."

"Idiot!" Shi Kuangwei scolded, turned his head and smiled sarcastically at Zhu Xiu: "Say it again."

"Humph~ I'll serve you with pen and ink!" Zhu Xiu rolled up his sleeves and walked to the table calmly. He raised his right hand and glanced sideways at Shi Lingyan.

Lao Shi winked at his daughter, Shi Lingyan pouted, picked up the pen and stuffed it into his hand.

Zhu Xiu dipped his hand in ink, put on a posture, and wrote a few large characters on a piece of paper.

"Take it and prepare accordingly!"

Guan Tieshi wiped his palms vigorously on his body, took it with both hands, opened his eyes wide, looked at it, and folded it carefully.

Naturally, he couldn't appreciate Huang Tingjian's cursive calligraphy, and he didn't even know many of the characters. But it didn't matter, he could find a clerk with a knife and pen to prepare it with him.

Guan Tieshi hurried out of the tent. Wei Hu frowned and wanted to say something. Shi Kuangwei whispered: "Don't worry, even if we can't make salt, it won't be too late to send another person back to Jingzhou!"

Wei Hu nodded and looked at Zhu Xiu coldly: "I hope you are not joking with the lives of the [-] soldiers of my Zhangyi Army!"

Zhu Xiu snorted and said nothing.

Shi Kuangwei put his arm around his shoulders and said affectionately: "Come on, sit down! I know that you still have a conscience and don't want to see our brothers in the Zhangyi Army suffer!"

Zhu Xiu curled his lips and said, "Except for a certain human trafficker, Black Face Tan, the Chang Yi Army are all heroes!"

"Hehe~~" Lao Shi didn't take it seriously, his black face smiled happily.

"Gududu~~" A series of alarm sounds came from under Zhu Xiu's belly.

Shi Lingyan pointed at him unceremoniously and chuckled, and Zhu Xiu's face turned red.

Shi Kuangwei gritted his teeth and said, "I'll have someone get you some white flour."

Zhu Xiu stopped him in a hurry and said hesitantly: "Forget it, bring me a black pancake."

Shi Kuangwei was stunned, murmured, said nothing, nodded and went to give instructions.

Shi Lingyan tilted his head and said, "Can you eat it?"

Zhu Xiu's chest puffed up and she said, "Everyone can eat it, why can't I?"

"Tough talk." The little lady pouted and muttered.

After more than an hour, Guan Tieshi basically prepared the salt-making tools, and Shi Kuangwei and Wei Hu led more than [-] people and left the customs.

Lao Shi thought the gray donkey was too slow and wanted to ride with Zhu Xiu, but Zhu Xiu sternly refused, so he had to find a cart, let Zhu Xiu lie down on it, and pull it with the horse.

Zhu Xiu tried his best to finish eating a piece of black pancake. He felt that his chin and cheeks were numb, and his belly was bulging. He slumped on the cart in an inconspicuous manner, following the large team as they swayed along.

Arriving at the stream, Zhu Xiu, with the help of Ma San, walked to a pile of rock and soil, and peeled away the brown and loess soil to reveal the salt ore wrapped inside.

Instructing Ma San to knock off a small piece, Zhu Xiu took the stone and observed it carefully, smelling the smell.The surface of the rock salt stone is light green-brown, with gray-white veins, and feels gritty to the touch.

"Take a lick." Zhu Xiu signaled.

Ma San stuck out his tongue, licked it carefully, and spit out a few mouthfuls: "Bitter and salty!"

Shi Kuangwei and Guan Tieshi, who were staring wide-eyed at the side, were overjoyed. Lao Shi grabbed the stone and stretched it out and licked it, which made Zhu Xiu feel sick.

"Bah, bah, bah~" Shi Kuangwei spat a few times, "It's a brine stone! Is this thing really edible?"

Zhu Xiu glanced at him and pointed at the ridge-like rock salt mine: "Let's dig it! Get a dozen kilograms first!"

Shi Kuangwei nodded, spit into his palm, clenched the shovel, and shouted: "Dig!"

More than fifty Hexi soldiers worked hard, and the nails were clanging.

Zhu Xiu cut his hands behind his back and directed Ma San and others to place stone rollers and large iron pots. Even Shi Lingyan was ordered around.

"Why are you standing still?"

Shi Lingyan held the big funnel in his arms, his small chest heaving, and his temples were sweating from the work. He expressed his dissatisfaction with Zhu Xiu standing there, not even bothering to move his legs.

Zhu Xiu smiled and said: "I am the commander-in-chief, taking charge of the overall situation. I am equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces. When have you ever seen the commander-in-chief personally go into battle to kill the enemy?"

Shi Lingyan bulged his mouth and wanted to refute, but felt that Zhu Xiu was right, so he gave him a blank look and continued working.

More than ten kilograms of rock salt rocks were piled in front of Zhu Xiu. He glanced at Wei Hu and Zhu Xiu smiled and said, "Can you ask General Wei to smash this pile of ore?"

Without further ado, Wei Hu swung the hammer and smashed the big stone to pieces.

"Crush it again, finer, and smaller, so that it can be put into a stone roller and ground into fine powder!"

Wei Hu glanced at him, picked up the hammer and continued to smash it.

This black-faced King Kong is so powerful that one blow from him can withstand three blows from others.

Without Zhu Xiu's instructions, Guan Tieshi collected the broken pieces and put them into a stone roller, then pushed the millstone and crushed it.

The next fine work was done by Ma San. Following Zhu Xiu's instructions, he put the green-brown fine powder ground out with a stone roller into a wooden barrel, and brought in stream water to soak, stir, and dissolve.

A large wooden bucket full of water can dissolve nearly twenty kilograms of rock salt.

When there were too many debris in the bucket and the solution was saturated, Zhu Xiu asked Ma San to use two layers of linen and two layers of cotton to make a filter and cover it on the other big bucket.

Shi Kuangwei and Ma San cooperated, one poured water and the other filtered, then changed the filter and filtered again. After repeated several times, the gray-brown impurities filtered out on the filter became less and less, and the solution also turned into a light green-brown color, with some turning. red.

Zhu Xiu asked Shi Lingyan to hold the funnel steady and put the linen and cotton wrapped with charcoal into the mouth of the funnel. Shi Kuangwei picked up the wooden bucket and carefully poured the solution into the funnel slowly.

Soon, the light cyan solution flowed into the iron pot along the funnel. A fire was set up under the pot, and the firewood burned vigorously.

Zhu Xiu stretched out his fingers and rinsed it in the pot, then put it in his mouth and slurred. Well, it was very salty and had almost no bitter taste.

The solution was boiling and tumbling in the iron pot. Fifty men and a young woman surrounded the big iron pot, staring wide-eyed and silent, waiting patiently for the moment to witness the miracle.

Zhu Xiu was lying on the cart, with her hands on the back of her head, her legs crossed, and she was humming a tune leisurely.

Fifty pairs of eyes watched the solution in the iron pot evaporate, leaving a layer of light cyan fine powder clumped together on the bottom and edge of the pot. After sifting and collecting the fine salt in the pot, there was only a little more than two kilograms left.

With trembling hands, Shi Kuangwei picked off a lump the size of his little finger, looked closer and looked again, first licked it lightly with his tongue, and then stuffed the whole piece into his mouth.

Fifty pairs of eyes looked at him.

Shi Kuangwei's black face was wrinkled, his whole body was twitching, and his scalp was numb!
"I'm so salty! Hahahaha!~~The official salt from Jiezhou Salt Pond is nothing more than that!"

Shi Kuangwei roared at the top of his lungs, his eyes red.

Guan Tieshi picked off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, dancing happily.

Wei Hu picked a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, his eyes widened suddenly, his face trembled, and he turned to look at the leisurely figure on the cart.

Shi Lingyan scraped it with his little finger and put it in his mouth to taste. His face twisted in pain, but his round eyes turned into crescents when he smiled.

Ma San didn't taste it, and muttered stupidly: "My little official's skills can't be faked!"

Without Shi Kuangwei's orders, a group of Hexi men rushed to the bank of the stream like crazy to dig out the entire rock salt mine.

(End of this chapter)