The Pentium Era - South to North

Located at 108.73 degrees east longitude and 18.51 degrees north latitude, Yinggehai is not only the name of a seaside town, but also the name of the second largest salt farm in the country.

Yinggehai is located between the sea and mountains. It is a tidal flat area of ​​more than 30 square kilometers, facing the blue sea and backed by Jianfengling. The continuous mountains block the typhoon clouds and rain from the north, making the place scorching with the sun all year round. There is sufficient light for salt production.

In addition, the seawater here has high salinity, which creates unique conditions for the production of sea salt.

After getting on the road again, they drove for more than 20 minutes to the Yinggehai Salt Field. They drove to the gate of the salt field. Summer is now the busiest season of the salt field. In winter, the salt field is closed. In this industry, the scorching sun is cruel to people, but it is a precious resource to the salt farm.

During the busy production season in summer, the saltworks was not open to the public. They drove to the gate, Bao Tianbin honked the horn twice, and the gate opened. From the duty room at the side, a man in his forties walked out, his face There was a layer of black glaze on the upper body and arms, which was shiny. It looked like it was caused by working in the sun for a long time.

He waved to Bao Tianbin. Bao Tianbin stopped the car. The man opened the door of the passenger seat and sat in. Bao Tianbin introduced to him that these were Mr. Zhang and Captain Feng, and Zhang Xiangbei. They said, this is Lao Fu, Director Fu.

Zhang Xiangbei stretched out his hand and said hello, Director Fu.

Director Fu held Zhang Xiangbei's hand and smiled at him, showing his white teeth. Zhang Xiangbei felt that it was like shaking hands with a black brother.

Director Fu smelled of sea salt, and when the air conditioner was turned on, it spread throughout the carriage.

Bao Tianbin started the car and drove forward. In front of them, there was an endless salt field. The salt fields were neat and uniform, just like rows of rice fields and the renovated vegetable greenhouses that Zhang Xiangbei was familiar with.

The roads in the middle of the salt field are criss-crossed. The most eye-catching thing is the salt piles piled next to the salt fields, which are piled up like hills. Under the sun, these salt piles are like endless snow-capped mountains, which makes people feel cool just looking at them. .

They drove to a salt field and stopped. The four of them got out of the car. Bao Tianbin, Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan put on straw hats. Old Fu didn't wear anything and was just exposed to the sun. He was used to it.

The salt field in front of me is white. The scene in front of me is very much like a combine harvester harvesting wheat in the rolling wheat field. In front of the salt harvester, the parallel rotating blades are constantly rolling up thousands of piles of snow. Crush the salt blocks that are crystallized on the bottom of the salt pond and transfer them from the conveyor belt to the side.

Driving side by side with the salt collector is a dump truck. The salt on the conveyor belt pours continuously into the truck bed. After it is full, another empty truck picks up and fills it with salt. The truck drove to the workshop warehouse.

Lao Fu told them that this is a crystallization area, and when the salt reaches here, it will be dried.

Lao Fu pointed to the distant horizon and told them that there is a water storage lake. There is a gate in the water storage lake. When the tide rises, seawater flows in from the tide gate, and then passes through the first-level irrigation stations to pump out the seawater with water pumps. Go to the primary evaporation pond and let it evaporate naturally in the sun.

Then it enters the intermediate and advanced evaporation pools. After repeated evaporation, the seawater becomes thicker and thicker, and the concentration gradually increases, turning into the brine we usually talk about. The brine enters the crystallization area here, and after exposure to the sun, it becomes saturated and crystallizes here. When the brine concentration evaporates to 25 degrees Baume, sodium chloride is precipitated, which is raw salt.

In all the previous processes, the most important thing is the sun, which can be said to be stupid. The length of the production cycle depends on the degree of sun exposure.

Zhang Xiangbei understood, no wonder this place is closed in winter. In fact, you have to close even if you don’t want to. Who wants the sun to be weak in winter?

"After this cart is loaded, is it the salt we eat?" Xiang Nan asked.

"This is coarse salt, industrial salt. If it is used in industry, or used to make salt-baked chicken, it is basically like this. If it is refined salt for household use, it needs to be further crushed and packaged in the workshop. The things are actually the same. ." Lao Fu said.

Lao Fu said as he led them inside. They saw that in addition to the mechanized salt collecting machine, there was also manual salt collecting.

The salt collectors wore tall rain boots and held a bamboo pole in their hands. On the head of the bamboo pole was a horizontal wooden board. They pushed the bamboo pole, just like the sanitation staff in some hotel lobbies with large wooden boards. Like a mop mopping the floor, the salt in the crystallization pond is pushed to the edge of the pond. There are other workers here who use shovels to shovel the salt into a hand-pushed dump truck and transport it away.

The advanced evaporation pool connected to the crystallization pool is different from the white crystallization pool. The seawater in the advanced evaporation pool is brown and very thick, like mud soup.

Lao Fu told them: "There is actually no technical content in drying salt. It is just a matter of strength. How people dried salt a thousand years ago is how we still dry it now."

"They were not as wealthy as you at that time." Bao Tianbin said, "The land was not valuable at that time, unlike now."

Bao Tianbin turned to Zhang Xiangbei and said, "You see, this salt farm doesn't seem to have much benefit. It's actually just a piece of fat. Do you see that such a large area, dozens of square kilometers of land, belongs to them? If they don't dry it, Yan, there is no problem in building a new coastal city here, and it can be developed in large areas."

Before Bao Tianbin came to "Zhaixianshui", he was engaged in real estate with Lao Xie. When he saw this large piece of land, he was greedy.

Lao Fu rolled his eyes at him and said, "Okay, I'll use them all to build you a house. You won't need to use salt for cooking in the future. Just put your fingers into the pot and stir it twice. Anyway, it's so hot, so will your fingers." Salty."

Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan both laughed.

Walking in the salt field, Zhang Xiangbei accidentally discovered that there was a railway in the salt field, which had been abandoned. Zhang Xiangbei was surprised. It seemed that when the railway was still usable, the entire Hainan Island was not connected to railways. The railway and ferry to the mainland are not even open. Where does this railway lead to?

"This is the earliest railway in Hainan. It does not belong to the railway department, but to our salt farm. At that time, the salt we produced went from here to Huangliu Town, and then from Huangliu Town, it was transported to all parts of the island, or was shipped in Sanya. Going to the mainland, transportation is now developed, but this railway has been abandoned for more than ten years."

The four of them walked in the salt field for more than an hour. Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan also walked closer to the salt mountains and went to the salt warehouse. They saw that the salt inside was also piled up into hills. Zhang Xiangbei smiled. He Laofu said:

"This warehouse of yours is probably the cleanest warehouse. No germs will grow."

"That's right, even rats and cockroaches won't come in." Lao Fu said.

The sun is shining above the head, the hot cement road is under the feet, and the salt is white on the edge. The straw hat made of pandanus leaves on the head can't help much. Xiang Nan's face has been sunburned. She and Zhang Xiangbei felt that they were about to faint from the sun, they were about to turn into table salt, and their clothes were already soaked through.

When they saw their car from a distance, it was like seeing a savior. Bao Tianbin understood them and trotted over, telling them as he ran, "I'll start the car first and turn on the air conditioner."

Old Fu was walking beside them, as if nothing had happened, with not even a drop of sweat on his dark forehead. Zhang Xiangbei looked at him in surprise and asked, how did you practice?

Lao Fu smiled and said, "I have to walk more than 20 miles a day in this salt field under the hot sun. I'm used to it."

Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan got to the car and drank a bottle of water. They felt like they had just come back to their senses. Lao Fu stood in the sun without getting in the car and waved to them goodbye.

The car started to move, and the heat in the car dissipated quickly. Bao Tianbin closed the car window, and the car finally cooled down. Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan both let out a sigh of relief.

Zhang Xiangbei asked Bao Tianbin: "What kind of director is this old Fu?"

"The director of the production workshop, the large area of ​​salt fields we walked through is under his control." Bao Tianbin said.

No wonder, it seems that black people are made like this.

Zhang Xiangbei sniffed his nose. He found that the smell on his body was the same as that on Old Fu before. There was a damp and fishy salty smell. He didn't know whether it was from the salt field or evaporated from his own body. from.

Zhang Xiangbei thought that if he were buried underground like this, he would probably not rot easily, and he couldn't help but laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" Xiang Nan asked.

"You're not laughing at anything." Zhang Xiangbei said, "I think even rats and cockroaches don't dare to enter their warehouse. If they bury people in that pile of salt, I don't know what will happen."

"Become Jinhua ham."

Bao Tianbin said, and everyone laughed. Zhang Xiangbei said, yes, rats and cockroaches are also afraid of becoming pickled products, so they dare not go in.

"Where should we go next?" Zhang Xiangbei asked Bao Tianbin.

"Yinggehai." Bao Tianbin said.

"Aren't we already in Yinggehai?" Zhang Xiangbei asked, surprised.

"This is the salt farm. We are going to the town. There is a fish farm there. The most beautiful sunset mentioned on the Internet is on the beach of Yinggehai Town." Bao Tianbin said.

Zhang Xiangbei nodded, understanding, Yinggehai, such a nice name, no wonder everyone likes to use it.

Yinggehai Town is very small, with an area of ​​only 12 square kilometers, far less than the salt farm. There are four villages and seven neighborhood committees in the town, with a combined population of only more than 10,000. It is a typical small fishing village developed. town.

Not long after driving into the town, Bao Tianbin turned the steering wheel and stopped in front of a store, beckoning Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan to get out of the car.

This is a very small shop with only three tables inside. There is no air conditioning in the shop, only the ceiling fan above the head is spinning constantly, and the hot air comes down.

Bao Tianbin asked Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan to sit under the ceiling fan. He walked to the counter and ordered something. Zhang Xiangbei looked at it and saw that this place didn't look like a restaurant, but like a cold drink shop.

After a while, the landlady brought them three bowls of food.

The bowl is a disposable plastic bowl, and the spoon is also a disposable plastic spoon. The white thing in the bowl is coconut milk. This bowl of things looks like a refreshing tonic, but it is not. In the middle of the white coconut milk, there are streaks of ink floating there. Green, jelly-like stuff.

"What is this?" Zhang Xiangbei asked.

"Try it first, you taste it first, and I'll tell you after you taste it." Bao Tianbin pretended.

Zhang Xiangbei and Xiangnan took a spoonful and tasted it. It was sweet and glutinous, with the aroma of grass, and the chilled coconut milk, which made people feel relieved from the heat and felt indescribably comfortable.

Zhang Xiangbei kept eating. After eating half a bowl, he looked at Bao Tianbin and asked:

"Now you can tell me, what is this?"

"Chicken shit and rattan cake seeds." Bao Tianbin said.

"Chicken shit vine?"

"Yes, chicken shit vine, a kind of vine grass, is very similar to gallbladder. Because after the leaves are rubbed with hands, they smell like chicken shit, so it is called chicken shit vine. But if you smell it for a long time, you can smell a refreshing fragrance. , it’s similar to stinky tofu, it smells bad and tastes delicious, this one tastes really good, right? Haha.”

Bao Tianbin smiled proudly, okay, it does feel good, it feels so damn good, Zhang Xiangbei thought to himself.

Thank you Li Ruijin for your monthly ticket! Thanks for all the votes and reading! I wish you a nice weekend!