farmer's daughter

Chapter 664 Receiving the First Bucket of Salt
Chapter 660: The Fifth Bucket of Salt
Xue Jian's corn harvest has attracted the attention of the court.Lei Shangshu was specially sent here again.Lei Shangshu came to see the corn kernels on the sun-dried ground. There were rows of corn cobs hanging on the bamboo poles, and many women, old people and children were cleaning the corn kernels on the cobs. The whole Youran Villa was surrounded by golden yellow. .

Lei Shangshu laughed so hard that he couldn't see his teeth.An old man squinted his eyes with a smile, and bowed his hands to those who peeled corn kernels in front of each corn pile.After passing through two small piles, I was stunned for a moment. Someone in the pile just passed seemed, seemed, could be the queen mother?

Lei Shangshu hurriedly stepped back to confirm, who is the person in ordinary clothes, not the Queen Mother?It's just that now her whole body is different from the phoenix hairpin on her head.

Lei Shangshu knelt down with a plop and shouted:

"I'm joining the empress dowager, I was rude just now, please forgive me!"

Xue Jian jumped out from one side and laughed:

"Lei Shangshu, get up quickly. The empress dowager said that she is an old lady here, and these people are all my family members. People outside don't know that this is the empress dowager, but everyone knows that there is an old lady and old lady in our house. "

Lei Shangshu knew that he was wrong again, this was to expose the identity of the Queen Mother.He got up in a hurry, the ground was full of corn kernels, and Lei Shangshu was not young, his feet slipped, if Xuejian didn't help him quickly, he would have really fallen.It would be terrible if it fell.

Lei Shangshu was extremely embarrassed, and after standing still, he cupped his hands again and said to Xuejian:
"Thank you, little prince."

Xuejian brought people into the house, and when he saw the Supreme Emperor, Lei Shangshu naturally bowed down again.Their monarchs and ministers went to talk.Xue Jian went to look at the field again. Now the field needs to be cleaned up and all the fields have to be plowed again.The corn stalks in the field are taken back by each family to make firewood. If there is no end to it, as Xue Jian said, all of them are made into fine pieces with a big switch knife, and then they are added to the dung kang of each family to let it rot. In order to make fertilizer, it can be fertilized in winter.

Now the men from the tenant village are working in the field, and now all the old and young are in the battle, and there is no idler. Therefore, even the queen mother can't help but sit down by herself, and there is one less corn cob to clean.Everyone is helping.

The busiest thing is Xue Jian, who still has to go to Yantian. It has been two months, and most of the houses there have been built.Dozens of people are also in place.We bought ten cows, and we need two or three people to feed the cows every day.Because there is no grass here, I have to cut grass to feed.

The progress at Yanjing is pretty good now. Xuejian thought it would take half a year to drill to a depth of tens of meters, but now it has reached a depth of more than 40 meters.The brine had already started to come out from the well, not far from the well, Xuejian asked the brothers to choose a place and built a stove, and gathered everyone's opinions, Xuejian decided to use the natural gas directly from the well.At this time, Xuejian's cement and Grandpa Niu's blacksmithing skills also showed their usefulness.Natural gas is output in this small underground pipeline, and iron pipes are used for the gas outlet. Because of fear of corrosion, the settings here are easy to replace.

When trying to light the fire, Xue Jian asked everyone to back away first. Old man Mo took Xue Jian to stand aside and watched, and Fu Jinghao, who was not bad at lightness kung fu, tried to light the fire, because this natural gas Xue Jian was also trying for the first time. , to see if you can grasp it and use it.

The first ignition failed because Xuejian opened the valve too small, but the second time, after amplifying a little, the ignition was finally successful.Tried it, the wooden valve still works.Being able to control the input and output of Qi is a simple use of this energy.Xuejian was very excited.

When the first well was drilled to a depth of 50 meters, Xuejian decided to stop for a while, first try to extract brine, and then try to make a pot of salt.As soon as this matter was mentioned, everyone was very excited. The Supreme Emperor wanted to go and see for himself no matter what.There was no other way, Xuejian had to clean up the people present, even Quchen brought the Supreme Emperor to Yandi, and old man Qin also came along.Everyone wanted to come and see what could be called a miracle.

The small bamboo tubes used for harvesting brine have been strung together and lowered into the well, with a log on top. After being lowered on one side, a ox pulls a tied rope on the other side, pulling the log to turn, so that He lifted up a string of bamboo tubes again, and then turned them around on a wooden roller. After this turn, he poured the brine contained in them into a large wooden barrel below. A hole is opened, and the hole is connected to a pipe made of big bamboo, which flows the brine into the pot of the ground stove tens of meters away.

The first pot was lit by Fu Jinghao, and Xue Jian also came to watch in person, and put some things that had been prepared in the pot, and after a while, the pot boiled.Xue Jian instructed Murong Xing to do things, and Murong Xing was in charge of the pot. After a while, small white crystals appeared in the pot. After passing through a specially made bamboo mesh sieve, the crystals were continuously fished out, and then put aside Go, hang up.

The transparent white crystals are very beautiful to look at, even whiter than the salt you usually buy, Lian Quchen couldn't help it, put a little bit into his mouth first, it was so salty that his tongue stuck out.It made everyone laugh.From this pot of brine, one or two catties of salt was taken out.This made the Supreme Emperor overjoyed!That's it.How much salt can the water below produce?

Snow said:
"These have to be dried on the kang and dried in the sun before they can be eaten."

In any case, this first trial mining was a success.Xuejian is also happy, after using it for a few months, more than half a year, I saw the finished product.In the future, it can be continuously taken out.If there is the sun, it will be exposed to the sun. If there is no sun, there will be floor heating. Xuejian plans to build a natural gas pipeline and build a larger floor heating room, dedicated to kang salt.

The first pot of salt came out. According to this procedure, Fu Jinghao and Murong Xing led others to make two more pots of salt, and they were considered to have taught disciples.Then let them operate.Xue Jian repeatedly emphasized the issue of safety, and the first thing they should pay attention to is safety.

In order to strengthen the operation of these people, Xuejian asked them to shout a slogan every time they do a process, and only move after getting a response from everyone, so that everyone's attention will be focused and they will pay attention to some safety.Especially those who manage fire must be done by practical people.

After the Taishang Emperor was happy to see it, what caught his attention was the stove that could be fired without adding firewood. Xue Jian said that it burned a kind of gas from the well, called natural gas.The emperor is very interested, but Xue Jian said:
"There is no way to transport this thing away now. So it can only be used here. I will think of a way later, so that it can be used at home to see if it works."

(End of this chapter)