Liu Haojia has not been idle these days during the construction of the salt factory! In particular, the engineers and soldiers he sent to the salt field were his spies, and he had long identified those among these civilians who were suitable to serve as soldiers.
Liu Haojia is preparing to further expand the Wu'an Army, and the Navy also needs manpower. And these trained civilian husbands know how to abide by discipline and are the best candidates for recruitment expansion. Therefore, when the construction of the salt field had just ended, many officers had already entered the salt field and started recruiting soldiers.
Originally, these civilian husbands were reluctant to leave Tianjin, a place where it was easy to survive. Now that they heard the news of recruiting soldiers and the treatment was so good, they were naturally willing to defect. Therefore, a large number of civilians have directly changed their jobs and become soldiers these days.
As for the expansion of the salt farm next year, that will be even simpler! After this year, Tianjin's reputation will definitely be greater, and there will definitely be more refugees coming here in the second year. Then we will just recruit people!
The three Wang brothers also went their separate ways after their work at the salt farm ended. Wang Da took all the money saved by the three brothers and went home to serve the old man! And the money he brought back was not a small amount, enough to buy more than ten acres of land! When he returned to his hometown this time, he planned to exchange all his money for land, then serve his parents and farm well!
Wang Er used his brother's eyes to learn how to work and learn to read and calculate accounts. He has achieved some success and has now been officially hired as a steward of the salt factory! From now on, he no longer has to dig in the soil for food, and can concentrate on working in the salt field!
As for the third oldest Wang Zhengguo, he is even more legendary! Within a few months, he completed the triple jump from refugee, scribe, junior steward, to senior steward! Later, he was taken to the military academy by Liu Haojia and became a glorious artillery reserve officer!
Liu Haojia is now fully aware of the importance of officers, especially grassroots officers! So he simply set up an officer school in Tianjin to train junior officers. Someone like Wang Zhengguo who knew arithmetic was sent directly to the artillery school. After he came out, he was a qualified artillery officer! .
Don't think that you don't need an officer to use a smoothbore cannon. In fact, the amount of calculations required by a qualified artillery officer is not a small number! Think of Emperor Napoleon, he was an artillery officer who graduated from the Artillery Academy! Moreover, the establishment of the military academy also means the beginning of the regularization of the Wu'an Army.
Fortunately, he didn't have to do these things personally, so he still found time to go to the salt field after a few days.
Although it is already close to late autumn, and the sunshine is not as abundant as in summer, fortunately, the sea breeze here in Tianjin is relatively strong, and the seawater in the salt fields evaporates relatively well!
Now the salt field in front of Liu Haojia has been filled with water several times with the help of high tide. After being exposed to the wind and blown by the wind, the seawater inside can now be called brine! Liu Haojia would not comment on things he did not understand, so he directly arranged for the three old salt workers from last time to come forward to inspect.
Three old salt workers went directly to the salt field, picked up the brine with their hands and tasted it. After returning, one of the old workers bowed and said: "Master Hou, this brine is almost ready, but if you put it in water again and dry it out, it will still be better." It can be better!"
Another salt worker looked at the sky and said, "We can probably release water once at high tide. I think we can pump out the salt fields above tomorrow, otherwise salt will form here!"
Zhang Zhi looked at Liu Haojia anxiously when he heard this, and he smiled and said: "You have the final say here, what do you see?"
Liu Haojia was indeed not making fun of Zhang Zhi when he said this, because the early stage involved the use of engineers from the Wu'an Army, and there were also a large number of people gathering in the salt field, so Liu Haojia had to be careful! In addition, Zhang Zhi and others were inexperienced, so he stepped in to ask!
Now that the salt farm is on the right track, and Zhang Zhi and others can use what they learned in the inner study, he will naturally stop interfering. The next step is for him to just open the salt road and wait to collect the money!
When Zhang Zhi heard what Liu Haojia said, he immediately said: "Hurry up and inform the people above to drive the water tanker!"
Not long after Zhang Zhi passed down the order, more than a dozen waterwheels were stepped on one after another. The brine in the salt fields was quickly pumped to the highest filter tank, which was filled with crushed charcoal. They will act as a final filter. Then the filtered brine will flow to the next level of salt pan,
Inside that salt pan will be where the brine begins to crystallize.
Watching the waterwheel start moving, Liu Haojia turned to the three old employees and said, "You three, when do you think the salt will be produced?"
After the three old salt workers looked at each other, one of them said cautiously: "Sir, it's autumn now. The weather is not very suitable, but the wind seems to be fine. According to our guess, this afternoon or noon tomorrow It’s almost time to produce salt!”
After hearing this, Liu Haojia said to Zhang Zhi: "In this case, I won't wait here. If there is any news, please inform me immediately."
Naturally, Zhang Zhi agreed immediately. After sending Liu Haojia away, he led his people to guard the salt field to see when the salt would be produced.
The next morning, just as Liu Haojia came out of the military camp and entered the city, a man ran towards them panting. Before he could get closer, he was stopped by the Jin Yiwei on the periphery.
When Liu Haojia saw this person, he signaled to the Jin Yiwei to release him, and said condescendingly: "I know you, your surname is Wang! The eldest of your three brothers has gone home to farm, and the third of your family has entered my military academy. You Stay in the salt factory and work as a steward, right?"
Wang Er wiped the sweat from his face and nodded and said, "Master Hou is right, it is indeed the case!"
Liu Haojia smiled and said: "Since you are in charge, you should be more steady! How can you be so impetuous and bump into people! Wouldn't it be wronged if others treated you like an assassin and chopped you into pieces! Tell me. , what happened in the salt field? Is there salt?"
After hearing the first half of Liu Haojia's words, Wang Er turned pale with fright! He had just stepped into the small bourgeois class from a farmer, and he didn't understand why the powerful were called powerful! I may have lost my head after hearing this, but then I realized the seriousness of the matter!
But when he listened to the second half of Liu Haojia's words, he immediately forgot everything. He smiled loudly and said loudly: "Salt is coming out, Lord Marquis! Salt is really coming out, and it's starting to come out in many salt fields!"
Liu Haojia was happy when he heard this. He flicked his horsewhip and said, "Let's go first. You can follow us slowly!"
After saying that, he led his men and horses and ran towards the salt field. Nowadays, Liu Haojia is known to everyone in Tianjin! When I saw that he was riding a horse, passers-by gave way. However, no one scolded him. Instead, many people bowed and bowed at the roadside!
