Not long after, Zhang's mother's noodles were ready. Li Dalian brought a bowl to him, and Yan Poxi also got a small bowl. The whole family ate while standing or sitting in the yard.
After dinner, Yan Poxi continued to recuperate, and Zhang Wenyuan went out to Li Er's house. He performed an operation on his wife yesterday. He had been worried about her wound becoming inflamed. But after arriving, I found that there was nothing unusual about their home. Li Er was still doing carpentry work. When he saw him coming, he smiled and said, "Third Master, are you here?"
Du Jiang asked, "How is my sister-in-law? Does she have a fever?"
Li Er said happily, "Ahem... No, no! It's been a good night. You are better than those doctors!"
"Let's go and have a look!"
The two came to the backyard. Madam Li was still lying on the bed. When she saw him, she shouted excitedly, "Third Master, you cured my back sore. You are my great benefactor!"
Zhang Wenyuan saw her energy improved a lot. Knowing that the operation was successful, he smiled and said modestly, "Get down quickly, don't move, I'll change your dressing!"
After removing the gauze and seeing that the wound was only slightly red and swollen, Zhang Wenyuan finally felt relieved. He rinsed it again with alcohol, replaced it with new gauze and bandage, and said, "Don't move around for now, don't touch the cold water, it will be fine in a few days." !”
Li Er and his wife were overjoyed and wanted to keep him for dinner again. Zhang Wenyuan laughed and said, "The food I ate in the morning is still in my throat. I can't eat it down! I have nothing to do here. I just want to take a look. Since it's okay, I Just go back!"
Li Erqian thanked him profusely and bought him two more kilograms of pork. Zhang Wenyuan refused, so he asked his eldest son Gou Wa to follow behind. Zhang Wenyuan had no choice but to accept it.
Back in the yard, Zhang Wenyuan handed the pork to Zhang's mother and began to refine the salt. He asked Li Dalian to wash the pot and boil water, while he himself prepared the plant ash solution. Shandong has been a major salt-producing province since ancient times. The sea salt it produces is sold throughout North China. Many people have made a fortune from the salt industry. However, the salt-making technology of this era was still relatively backward. Because impurities such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium could not be separated, the salt produced was bitter and astringent. Therefore, there is a big gap between Shandong's sea salt and Shanxi's salt solution and Sichuan's well salt. What he has to do is separate these impurities.
After all the ten pounds of salt were dissolved into the water, he added the mixed plant ash solution into it. Plant ash contains potassium carbonate. After precipitation, take the clear water above to form a potassium carbonate solution, which can be used to precipitate calcium ions and magnesium ions in the salt solution. Take the top part to get a mixed solution of sodium salt and potassium salt. .
Then divide the solution into two parts, A and B. A is less and B is more. Boil both parts and dry part B directly to obtain a salt block. Then pour the nearly boiling part A into the salt block and stir continuously. After it is fully dissolved, pour out the brine. After repeating the operation several times, you can obtain refined salt with a purity of more than 90%.
This is called the "salt washing method", which uses the relationship between the solubility of sodium chloride and other salts and temperature. Anyone who has studied chemistry knows that the solubility of almost all inorganic salts will increase with the increase of temperature, but sodium chloride Except that is not the case, its solubility has almost nothing to do with temperature, and the salt washing method takes advantage of this.
Zhang's mother and Li Dalian saw that he turned the originally bitter and astringent coarse salt into snow-white refined salt like magic. When they thought of his previous ability to purify syrup and improve spinning wheels, their eyes changed when they looked at Zhang Wenyuan, as if he was The busy person in front of them was not Zhang Wenyuan, but a god.
Zhang's mother first asked, "San'er, when did you learn these skills?"
Zhang Wenyuan had already thought of the excuse, "I got drunk at Fengjiao's place that day, and after I fell asleep, I dreamed of an immortal. All these skills were passed down to me by the immortal in his dream."
Zhang's mother and Li Dalian looked at each other and went to ask Yan Poxi for confirmation. Yan Poxi was trying to curry favor with Zhang's mother, but her face turned red when they asked about what happened that night. But Zhang Wenyuan was talking about being drunk, so she had no choice but to make it up, "Well... there is such a thing. Sanlang used to be a light sleeper because he was afraid of being discovered, so he usually left after a while. , but he slept very deeply that night and kept talking in his sleep. He couldn't wake him up no matter how much he screamed, so he missed the time to go to the Yamen!"
Seeing that she didn't look like she was lying, Zhang's mother believed her, but this kind of thing was really unbelievable, so she asked for confirmation again, "So there are really immortals who can guide you?"
Yan Poxi also carefully recalled the scene at that time. They played very crazy that night. Saburo tossed her in different ways. The two of them were confused and didn't know where they were. Finally, he fainted and woke up. It was like a different person, and he also called the name of a person named "Xiao Bo". Thinking of this, her eyes instantly lit up, and she thought to herself that instead of being taught his skills by an immortal, he should be possessed by an immortal!
Now that he is possessed by an immortal, he will definitely have a bright future in the future. All he has to do is follow him and he will definitely be successful. If he can give birth to a boy and a girl, won't he have enough food and clothing for the rest of his life?
"Well, it must be an immortal imparting his skills!" Yan Poxi made up her mind and started making up a story. "He slept so deeply that night and kept talking in his sleep. It must be an immortal imparting his skills to him!"
Neither Zhang's mother nor Li Dalian were materialists. On the contrary, they were very superstitious. Seeing that Yan Poxi's words were convincing, they naturally believed them. Zhang's mother was so excited that she went to the temple to burn incense to fulfill her wish, but Li Dalian asked hesitantly, "Mother, do you know which immortal taught Sanlang his skills?"
Zhang's mother was startled, scratched her head with her hands and thought for a while, then said happily, "Those skills of Sanlang are all the skills of a craftsman. They are probably favored by Master Lu Ban, so I'll just go to Lu Ban Temple to fulfill my wish!"
After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left, Yan Poxi thought in her heart that Sanlang might not be the ancestor of Lu Ban who passed down his skills, but he should be possessed by the ancestor of Lu Ban. He has so many abilities now, the slave family is really blessed! I just don’t know where my mother is. She must think that I am dead and should go back to my hometown in Kaifeng!
Eh... Even if she goes back, it makes sense for me not to support her if she treats me like that!
In another room, Zhang's mother and Li Dalian were carefully examining the refined salt made by Zhang Wenyuan. Seeing their curiosity, Zhang Wenyuan said, "These salts should be sold at a good price tomorrow, right?"
But Zhang's mother said as if she was facing a formidable enemy, "Ah... we can't sell it! This is illegal salt. If you are caught selling illegal salt, you will be beheaded by the government!"
"Ah, you can't sell it?"
Only then did Zhang Wenyuan remember that in ancient times, salt, iron, tea, and horses were exclusively owned by the imperial court and could not be bought and sold freely by the people. "Oh...how could I forget this?"
Zhang’s mother said, “If you don’t sell it, keep it at home and eat it yourself!”
Li Dalian said, "This fine salt can't be sold for money. It's really all for nothing!"
Zhang Wenyuan thought carefully for a while, and soon thought of a person - County Lieutenant Gao Keji.
That day in the county government office, if he hadn't protected him in every possible way, he might have been assigned to the border area, but I hadn't even gone to thank him yet. Now that high-precision table salt has been produced, it can be used as a meeting gift, and it can also be used to build relationships. He is an extremely crucial link in his revenge plan.
After thinking about it over and over in his mind, Zhang Wenyuan said to Li Dalian, "Take out this salt to dry in the sun, and then package it well, and I will send it to County Lieutenant Gao. In the court that day, the County Lord was going to exile me to Five hundred miles away, it was him who interceded and was spared from exile. I haven't even gone to thank him yet, but these salts can be given to him as gifts!"
Hearing that Captain Gao had helped the Zhang family a lot in the county government, Zhang's mother said gratefully, "Well... San'er is right. If you receive a drop of kindness from someone, you should repay it with a spring. You used to be just a copywriter. , it was Master Gao who promoted you with his wise eyes and knowledge of people, and now he has saved your life, so you should repay him with a good life."
Zhang Wenyuan still had some memories about him and Gao Keji in his mind. When his mother said this, he couldn't help but feel grateful for the big tree, "Well, mother is right, I will go in the afternoon!"
