The largest salt mine in the alliance is located not far south of the capital, and small salt mines can be found everywhere. The eastern part of Lake Texcoco is divided by dykes, where there are saltwater lakes with high salinity. There are many high-quality salt springs in the surrounding mountains and deep valleys, which are also the product of volcanic activity.
The Mexican Union never lacks salt. Salt is an important trade item for the Mexicans and their income is extremely rich. There are many salt-making villages from the east bank to the south bank of the lake area. The large salt mine also developed from a salt-making village. It is the closest to the prosperous capital city in the lake and has extremely convenient transportation. Therefore, it has a large population and the largest production capacity, capable of supplying the salt needs of hundreds of thousands of people.
Not long after traveling south, we arrived at the Big Salt Mine. The piles of white salt sparkle in the sun, and have been exposed to wind and sun, and are mixed with loam, giving them a light gray color. Hundreds or even thousands of salt workers work here. There are only forty or fifty warriors in charge. From time to time, merchants in cloaks would come quietly with slaves, and leave in a hurry loaded with goods.
Looking around, there is a vast expanse of white between the mountains and trees. When the breeze blows, fine salt particles are rolled up, and the salty wind blows in your face, as if you are on the vast seaside.
Shulot stopped and looked at this spectacular scene with emotion. Salt was the real wealth in the Middle Ages!
"Kouod, how many salt workers are there here? What is the daily salt production?" The young man's eyes were bright.
Hearing this, Kuaud sighed secretly and had a headache. His Highness is good at everything, except that he always asks him for specific figures. There are very few people below who really know how to count, so how can he answer accurately.
After thinking for a moment, the craftsman director cautiously responded.
"There are nearly a thousand salt workers here. According to the latest market standards, each person produces at least several liters of salt per day. In total, there are always several thousand liters of salt. All of these salts belong to the alliance."
Then, he thought for a while and whispered slightly.
"Of course, the actual output is probably far more than that. Salt is a necessity, even the tribal people in the mountains and forests need it. Salt workers and supervisors will sell it privately, and there are also businessmen who trade privately and secretly take away part of the output."
Shulot was slightly surprised.
"Why doesn't the Alliance strictly control an important product like salt and collect tribute?"
Kuaud thought for a moment and continued talking in a low voice.
"The Alliance is rich in lake salt and rock salt. If this area is strictly controlled, merchants will naturally gather in other salt-producing villages. Rather than letting them move to the fiefdoms of the great nobles, it is better to trade in the royal territory here. What's more, privately The large profits from the transactions flowed into the hands of nobles at all levels.”
Shulot frowned slightly. He thought for a long time before slowly nodding helplessly.
The two are talking. From a distance, a supervisory warrior came hurriedly, his round face full of smiles.
The guards had already stepped forward to show their identity, and the overseer warrior knelt down respectfully and shouted loudly towards Shulot.
"Your Highness, you are truly blessed by the patron saint to come here! I am willing to die for your great Highness!"
The shouts dispersed far away, and other overseer warriors heard the sound and came over. The overseers knelt down and saluted one after another in confusion, and Shulot looked at them expressionlessly. After the overseers' performance was over, the young man looked at the salt field again. At some point, all the cloaked businessmen had disappeared.
Shulot lowered his eyes slightly, then opened them again, smiled and accepted the flattery of the overseers, and then waved. Let them each return to his place. Immediately, the young man strode forward, surrounded by warriors, towards the busy salt workers.
The tools used by salt workers are very simple: stone shovels for digging soil, stone hoes for loosening soil, and stone picks for digging out mineral salt. They used sacks made of jute to carry the salty soil, and then used large clay pots to transport the clean water for washing the salt.
Hulot stood beside the salt worker and watched quietly.
Salt workers first excavate salt-rich lakeside soil, underground saline soil, or salt spring soil. Then mix the soil properly and thoroughly. Next, they formed mounds of salt ready for leaching, alongside shallow pools of sand and lime.
Immediately, the salt workers slowly poured the clean water from the clay pots down from the top of the salt soil pile, allowing the clean water to flow through the salt soil at a uniform speed, dissolving and taking away the salt in the soil. The salt water gradually flows out from the bottom of the mound, along the designed earth path, and slowly flows into the concave pool. This process of melting and filtering out the salt is quite slow and requires sufficient physical strength and patience.
Some concave pools are wide, conical pits with a depth of half a meter and a diameter of one meter. The salt workers then took out the salt water from the concave pool and boiled it in a clay pot to obtain crystallized salt. After the crystallized salt dries in the sun, it can be sold as table salt.
Another type of concave pool is a shallow evaporation pool spread out flat. The salt water is evenly spread in the evaporation pond and quickly turns into crystal white powder under the sun exposure of the tropical plateau. The evaporation pond has a shallow filtration setting, which is slightly slower, but the quality of the salt will be better.
Shulot stepped forward, pinched some salt grains with his fingers, and tasted it in his mouth. Similar to the table salt we usually use, the output here is coarse salt. The larger salt particles fall on the tip of the tongue, giving a feeling of salty taste bursting in the mouth. The boy tasted it carefully again and determined that it was gray salt. It has a strong taste, is full of mineral and salty aroma, and is full of water. It is very suitable for grilling meat or cooking beans.
Shulot nodded slightly. Then, he looked away and observed the noisy salt workers gathered in several groups around him, looking here from time to time.
Similar to gold miners, salt workers have lean bodies and chiseled faces. They also come from nearby villages and settlements, and they stick together to support their respective salt workers' leaders. But unlike the strictly restrained simple temperament of the gold miners, the temperament of the salt workers is more fierce and aggressive.
Even when important people come to the salt field, the salt workers are still pushing and shoving each other and whispering curses to each other. Shulot vaguely heard words such as "South, salt road, fortune". He frowned slightly and looked at Bertard.
The warrior commander waved solemnly forward, and the accompanying elite warriors immediately pulled out their war clubs, trotted forward neatly, and shouted at the salt workers, "Kneel down and be quiet!". The salt workers took a few steps back in fear, and most of them hurriedly crawled to the ground. A few salt workers cursed angrily and fought back, but were then mercilessly knocked down by the samurai with long sticks and blunt wooden sides.
Shulot observed for a moment that the resisting salt workers' martial arts skills were not worth mentioning, and they had no power to fight back against the charging samurai. But they will subconsciously cover each other, gather into a team that supports each other, and then be knocked down together. This instinctive tacit understanding is one of the most important qualities in team combat and is also the key to the coordination of the gun formation.
The young man nodded secretly. He looked at the group of salt workers who were finally knocked down, and pointed at the leader of the salt workers in the center. Immediately, two leather-armored warriors came forward and dragged the leader of the salt workers over. A dozen salt workers behind him still struggled to rescue the leader, but were knocked down again.
The leader of the salt workers was probably in his early thirties, with a fierce face and an unconcealable unruliness on his face. He was dragged to Shulot, raised his head and boldly looked at the young man's clothes, and even paused for a moment on the young man's face.
Seeing this scene, Bertard's eyes turned cold. The samurai commander took two steps forward, pinched the salt worker leader at the back of his neck, and then quickly hit the opponent's armpit and abdomen twice. The leader's eyes suddenly opened wide at first, and then his pupils shrank violently. He let out a low scream, leaned forward, and fell to the ground. He fell headlong into the salty salt soil, saliva leaking uncontrollably from the corners of his mouth.
After a while, he regained his composure and knelt down in fear to salute, not daring to raise his head again. The ferocity had disappeared from his face. Sweat seeped out from his face, condensed into sweat beads, and dripped into the salty salt soil, making a faint but clear sound.
Shulot watched all this calmly. There was a sense of solemnity and silence in the salt field. The overseer warriors also knelt down and saluted. But fifty or sixty elite warriors wearing armor subdued thousands of salt workers. No matter how fierce the untrained salt workers are, they are just civilians without armor.
The deathly silence lasted for two quarters of an hour, and the salt workers were motionless and silent as if they were petrified. The young man smiled slightly. As long as the coercion is enough, the discipline of the salt workers is actually acceptable.
"You are the leader of the salt workers' rebellion? What is your name?"
"Ah! Dear high priest, I am not the leader of the salt workers, and we dare not resist you! I am just... I am just the leader elected by the village. There are many leaders like me. Just now Brothers, on impulse, please..."
"What's your name?" A cold voice came from above.
"I'm Moreno." Moreno didn't dare to look up, his abdomen was still in severe pain.
“How many salt cubes are there among the salt workers in nearby villages?”
"These... more than a dozen villages are making salt privately, including men, women, old and young. There are hundreds of people, dozens of people, plus the thousands of people in the big salt mine, there are more than 3,000 salt cubes. . I can’t figure out the specific number either.”
Moreno had sweat on his forehead and didn't know what the noble man in front of him wanted to do.
"Moreno, if I give you warriors and property, how many salt cubes can you attract?"
"This... Sir, do you want to deal with the salt? Sir, please forgive me! We are all small businesses. Even if we secretly sell a little salt, most of the income will be given to the nobles in the capital. With that little wealth, do you do this? To a great nobleman, they are nothing but the legs of an ant!"
"Moreno, let me ask you again, how many salt cubes can you summon for me?"
Moreno trembled slightly. He couldn't see the expressions of the great nobles, so he could only guess the mood and thoughts of the great nobles. He hesitated.
"Our village... has a maximum of three hundred people. All the salt they produce is dedicated to you."
"Then you're useless. Someone, drag him out and sacrifice him to the gods."
The warriors immediately stepped forward and grabbed the leader of Yanding's arm.
Judgment fell from the sky, and Moreno was instantly ice-cold, and he shouted with all his strength.
"My lord, my lord! If you want wealth, I have a way here. It's a huge deal. I guarantee you will be satisfied!"
Shulot waved the warrior to stop and looked at Moreno with interest.
"explain."
"Dear Priest. The big businessman of Tarasco was recently executed in the capital. It seemed that he had offended a certain noble. As soon as he died, a big gap suddenly appeared in the originally saturated southern salt road. The brothers all wanted to seize it. This is an opportunity to make a fortune. The relationship between the saltmen has been tense recently, and this was why they were shouting just now. I didn’t mean to offend you."
"The Southern Salt Road? To Mixtec and Tlaxcala?" Xiulote remembered something and asked in a deep voice.
"Your Excellency is so wise! As long as you give me fifty or not thirty elite warriors and a little protection, I can take my brothers to participate in the southern trade, and 70% or not 80% of my income will be handed over to you! Then But a real white gold river!"
Moreno's voice was slightly excited. He couldn't help but raise his voice.
Shulot frowned. The southern trade to the Mixtec and Tlaxcala is not under the control of the Alliance, and is participated by nobles and foreign business groups from all over the world. The hostile Tlaxcalans always received important strategic supplies from the Mexica Confederacy, including salt, cotton cloth, and even copperware.
Shulot once again looked at the kneeling salt leader. To dare to participate in this kind of trade route clearly shows that he has deep roots in the local village. The young man pondered for a moment and asked again coldly.
"Moreno, let me ask you one last time, how many salt cubes can you summon for me?"
"Ah, this, my lord...I...as long as you give me fifty warriors and enough cotton cloth, I will control all the saltmen in the villages for you! There are always two thousand people! But you If you want to defeat the nobles in the fiefdom in the capital, they are a bunch of greedy hyenas!"
Hearing this, Shulot nodded slightly with satisfaction. The young man stretched out his left hand.
"Looked up."
Moreno raised his head for the first time and saw the expressionless face of the young priest, and then saw the boy's slender left hand. He hesitated for a moment, then scanned the surrounding warriors' equipment again, thinking hard about the family crest on it, but he couldn't recall it.
He glanced at the overseer warrior who was also lying on the ground respectfully, then gritted his teeth and took a few steps forward on his knees. Then, he bowed his head respectfully, imitating a samurai's show of loyalty, and let the boy's left hand fall into his hair.
"Dear priest, I am willing to die for you!"
Shulot held the hair of the salt worker leader. He thought for a moment, then took out the long dagger he carried with him and cut off a strand of Moreno's hair.
"Moreno, under the witness of the Lord God, the 'Inspired One' accepts your allegiance! I will throw your hair into the sacred fire of the priest's temple and report your loyalty to the omnipotent patron saint. Take the letter, Report to the High Priest’s Mansion tomorrow!”
Bertard took out the jade talisman engraved with Xiulote's name and handed it to the leader of the salt workers. Moreno trembled slightly. He looked at the young man in front of him in disbelief, and then he knelt on the ground in true respect.
Shulot nodded silently. He took one last look around the white salt field, looked deeply at the samurai who could supervise the work, and then left surrounded by the guards. After he left for a long time, the saltmen got up from the ground and looked at each other without saying a word.
The salt field is still white, and the salt water seeps quietly, gathering into shapes of unknown meaning in the salt pond. Moreno covered his abdomen, lowered his head, and silently stared at the reflection in the salt pond. The salt water flows slowly, and the figures are unpredictable, just like the unpredictable future.
