Even in modern times, when large-scale mechanized production has been achieved, salt drying is still a very labor-intensive and extremely hard work. It is far from just digging some condensation and steaming ponds on the beach to produce salt in batches - the ancients long ago We know that steaming seawater accumulated on the reefs can condense a small amount of salt, but until the Yuan Dynasty, boiling the sea into salt was still the most common method of making salt. [No pop-up novel website] Sun-drying salt is not as simple as imagined - applying theory to production practice requires a systematic process flow. Wang Luobin had seen salt farm production in rural Guangxi. The technological process is that seawater is introduced from the tidal ditch outside the dam into the water storage ditch inside the dam. Power machinery is used to move the water from high to low, and is sent to the steaming pool through the main and branch water channels. The brine reaches 5 to 10 degrees (Bome degree) and is placed in the brine pool. After that, it is concentrated to 2o ~ 25 degrees, collected back to the brine machine room through the brine transport ditch, and then lifted to the brine tank by power, and then injected into the crystallization tank. The brine depth is 6 to 8 centimeters, and the concentration should be maintained at 26 to 28 degrees, so that Get out the salt.
In ancient times, it was obviously impossible to have such production conditions. How they increased the concentration of brine under primitive conditions was a question that he was very interested in.
The village chief took him and Xiong Buyou to the embankment. Under the embankment were many large stone salt troughs that looked like inkstones. The placement of these salt troughs was very particular. They seemed to be stacked up irregularly, but in fact they were high and low. Well-proportioned. In order to make full use of the sunlight, the center surrounded by salt troughs is a patch of black salt field. The village chief said that there are now more than 7,000 salt tanks in the village, all of which were dug and polished by our ancestors and passed down from generation to generation.
Yantian is a kind of muddy tidal flat, which they call "salt mud". During the dry season, when the sunlight is relatively strong, the seawater will flood the salt mud twice a month during the spring tide. The salt mud has the effect of absorbing the salt in the seawater. When the sea water recedes, the salt mud is loosened with a rake, and then After being exposed to the sun for several days to evaporate the water, this piece of salt mud contains a very high salt content.
Then putting the mud containing salt into the salt pond is completely manual work: using a wooden board to rake the sun-dried mud into the salt pond. The so-called salt pond is a 2-meter-wide, 3-meter-long, and 1-meter-deep pool excavated in the salt field. Bamboo chips and thatch are placed underneath to act as a filter.
After the salt mud enters the pool, the salt worker needs to step on it firmly and then inject seawater. The filtered water flows into the brine pool on one side from the small opening reserved next to the salt pool, and there is a pool of brine.
How to judge the concentration of brine? The salt cubs will break off the stems of the yellow croaker plant that grows beside the salt fields and put them into the brine pool. Only when the stems of the yellow croaker float on the water are the real saturated brine, otherwise they will have to be repeatedly exposed to the sun.
He carried the brine to the salt trough. The salt trough was made of volcanic stone. Wang Luobin took a closer look and saw that there were tiny holes on the stone, perhaps for water permeability? Pour the brine into the salt tank before the sun rises. After being exposed to the sun for a day, you can scrape the salt with a board at dusk and put it into a bamboo basket. In the brightest and hottest seasons, a salt tank plus two or three brine can be used to dry it.
At this time, most of the salt tanks are empty, but there are still salt crystals on some salt tanks that shine brightly in the sun, which is really beautiful.
Wang Luobin looked at these more than 7,000 salt troughs: Even with this most primitive working method, more than 200 tons of salt can be produced here a year. He can't help but marvel at the infinite wisdom of the ancient people.
There was a shed for tools on the embankment. Out of curiosity about ancient salt field tools, Wang Luobin walked in and took a look. There were many tools piled inside, and their appearance was not much different from what he had seen in the salt field in the past. I tried the rake for raking the ground and found that it was much heavier than modern products - ancient times lacked processing capabilities and could only use the most cumbersome method to manufacture. It is really hard work dragging such a heavy tool under the sun on a hot summer day.
He approached a salt drying tank, and a layer of white salt had already condensed in it. It was crystal clear, beautiful, and very delicate. It looked very much like the refined salt produced in modern salt factories - this was beyond his expectation. Sea salt could reach this level without going through a refining process, at least he had never seen it before. I picked some with my fingers and put it in my mouth. It was much lighter than the fine salt I brought and it melted in my mouth.
I don't know what the sodium chloride content is. There are no instruments here, so we can't analyze it. However, Wang Luobin knew that just because of the appearance of this salt, it would not be a hot commodity.
But it was so unexpected that this place was so poor. The working people in ancient times really lived in dire straits.
While I was sighing, I suddenly saw a group of people walking towards the embankment. They were riding horses - this is a rare thing in this area. They were followed by a large group of people in Tsing Yi. When Tan Cunzi saw it, a look of fear and disgust appeared on his face. He turned to Wang Luobin and said, "It's a wealthy family."
"Gou Dahu?" Wang Luobin vaguely remembered this name, but it seemed that he had forgotten where it came from.
"Well, well." Village Chief Tan seemed to be afraid of the power of this big family. He didn't even have the time to say a word to him. He hurriedly greeted him, crossed his hands in salute, and bent his back with a very respectful attitude.
Wang Luobin didn't know who this wealthy family member was, but judging from the respectful and fearful look of the village chief Tan, he was definitely not a good person. He was most likely a local tyrant. They were now weak and it was difficult to compete with them. If you deal with such people directly, you might as well just watch from the embankment.
The man on the horse was seen scolding repeatedly, and Village Chief Tan was bowing and bowing, as if he was begging for something. After this live pantomime for a while, Village Chief Tan led the people to the village dejectedly. He actually left them on the embankment and ignored them. Wang Luobin hurriedly notified the people who were still moving salt in the village about the situation through the intercom, asking them to be on guard.
But the visitors obviously didn't dare to provoke them. The power of the short-clothed pirates was now well known to women and children in Lingao. After a while, the village chief returned to the embankment and led them back to the village with a sad face.
Xiong Buyou inquired for a long time before he finally understood the whole story. It turns out that according to government regulations, the salt farm adopts a payment system based on discount. In other words, the salt collectors did not need to pay the extra salt directly to the government, but instead converted the salt into rice or silver. The rule in the old years was that each salt was converted into rice and one stone. Later, the rice conversion was renamed as silver conversion: the salt was first converted into rice, and then converted into silver according to the price of rice. The amount of salt produced in Ma Niao Salt Farm is "one thousand four hundred and seventeen and two hundred and thirty kilograms", and the amount of rice is more than one thousand four hundred kilograms. According to the price of silver in the Chongzhen year of Tianqi, it would cost nearly 2,000 taels.
There are certain benefits to the salt collectors: production is no longer subject to the supervision and control of the government. As long as you pay the salt tax on time, you can basically do whatever you want, and you no longer have to devote yourself to the Ming Dynasty's salt industry day and night. After the salt is produced, businessmen will naturally come to buy it. If the salt is dried a lot and the market is good, then life will be good. Some people think that drying salt is too bitter, and some use their income from business or land reclamation to pay the salt tax.
But after the earthquake, everything changed. Gou Dahu's father took advantage of the fact that the salt fields in the village were washed away and he could not pay all the salt taxes for a while. He borrowed debts to gradually control most of the salt sales. However, his purchase price was much lower than the market price. The salt that the saltmen worked so hard to produce was not enough to pay off the serial debt to the King of Hell. He also colluded with the government and took over the salt class, insisting that the price of rice was now so high that every stone of rice was worth three taels of silver. The loan sharks here can't be repaid, and the official courses there are in arrears. The saltmen knew that he was causing trouble, but they had to beg him to smooth their cheeks in front of the government. Over time, the Gou family became the de facto rulers of the village. The salt field seems to have become the private property of the Gou family, and exploitation is getting worse. In addition, every time pirates come to Gao in recent years, they always rob the salt in the salt field and kill many people. The village becomes more and more desolate. The young people usually dare not go home and gather in some remote areas to cultivate wasteland and live their lives.
As for the purpose of his visit just now, it was actually to demand the payment of this month's "regular silver" and to ask him to call all the young people back to dry the salt, otherwise he would arrest all the women, children and children in the village and put them in jail.
"Is he in jail?" Wang Luobin asked, "Is he an official?"
"There, it's his family's private prison." Village Chief Tan shuddered as he spoke, "The Gou family is amazing, let alone a private prison. Anyone who offends his family will be arrested and tortured to death. have--"
As he spoke, he quickly shut up, probably feeling that he had said too much, and just kept urging them to transport the salt and leave quickly. Wang Luobin felt that the matter in Yancun was a complicated issue. The issues involved here may really need to be dealt with by the land reform task force.
In order to obtain the executive committee's guidance on this matter, he returned to Bairen City that night. Although some of the executive committee members were not in the city, after discussion, the remaining people agreed with the idea of the work team he proposed: to send a smart and capable team to the salt field to help the local villagers resume production, and to arm the salt workers to get rid of the The threats of bullies and pirates have made Ma Niao Salt Field an important salting raw material base for time travellers.
Because this is the first time that time travelers have truly comprehensively transformed a place from a social level, each group attaches great importance to this matter and mobilizes personnel to form a salt field work team.
Originally, the executive committee was going to let Wang Luobin serve as the captain of the work team, but Gong Wang believed that this position was best filled by someone who was familiar with the military and had strong social communication skills, and finally decided on Xi Yazhou.
Du Wen is in charge of the organization of cultural propaganda. Since she joined the 6th, she has not found any real work other than reading radio scripts every day that no one can listen to. This time she heard that "land reform" was going to happen, and she immediately became interested. I volunteered to participate. The entire working team has a total of thirty people, including a doctor - Hippo.
Each man carried enough weapons: pistols, rifles, daggers and plenty of ammunition. The hippopotamus brought many medicines and simple surgical instruments. Considering that they may be stationed there for a long time, the work team also brought wind turbines and other equipment. The food issue is more troublesome - in addition to eating for ourselves, we may also need to provide relief to the local people. Although Xiao Zishan had already taken people to Guangzhou for a large purchase, it would still be some time before the first batch of grain was shipped back. Wu Nanhai did not dare to give more and allocated a week's worth of grain and non-staple food.
