Chapter 41 Saltworks
However, He Xi's luck was not very good.
Although sperm whales are distributed throughout the world, they are found in various ice-free seas. Naturally including the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and other sea areas. It's just that He Xi didn't have such good luck. This time, none of the whales was a sperm whale, and naturally no ambergris was found.
He Xi was secretly disappointed because he had no time to stay here.
Just hand it over to local officials. Immediately take the entourage and move along the west coast. This road is not easy to walk. There are post roads all the way from Shenyang to Lushunkou, although the post stations in ancient times were not as good as today's rural roads. But at least the ground is level.
Along the coastline there are only roads trodden by humans and horses. There aren't even many signs of repairs. As a result, it is even more difficult. Fortunately, He Xi was not in a hurry because he wanted to inspect these salt fields. On the way to Yingkou.
There are hundreds of miles of sandy beaches on this coast. Especially suitable for sun salt.
He Xi inspected the place along the way. First of all, we need to look at the shortcomings and shortcomings of sun salt technology. Then we examine the statistics and the output of the salt farm. Let’s see how many pounds of salt can be sold this year. Although salt cannot be sold to Daming. But it is hard currency. If there is really nothing, these maritime merchants will agree to offset the salt with the account.
After all, don't look at Southeast Asia, Japan, and other places, which have large areas of coast. The salt industry is not developed. Salt was hard currency for a long time.
There is enough value.
However, from a technical point of view, drying salt is not difficult at all.
First of all, Fujian in the Yuan Dynasty already had the prototype of sun-dried salt technology. There is even a complete set of specifications. But it was not implemented by the imperial court. It’s not that the technology is bad. But it is not friendly to the government. During the salt cooking period, the imperial court used iron pots to control salt production. A large iron pot specially used for boiling salt. This thing is heavy and not easy to carry. The government only needs to control this thing, so most of the salt production will not escape from their supervision. And if it turns into sun salt. There is no beach anywhere in the world. Even the beaches on the mainland can be monitored. What about the beaches on the islands?
Although, not all beaches can be salted. But the imperial court's hopes of controlling the salt industry were doomed to fail.
This is the real reason why the sun salt method has not been implemented, rather than the difficulty of the sun salt method.
Now the principle of the sun salt method is very simple. Isn't it the transformation of the three states of matter? and physical knowledge such as solution saturation. This little bit of truth has already been written into the textbook by He Xi. So after He Xi pointed out this principle. It is not too difficult for the following craftsmen to design a sun-salted system.
Not to mention, there is Fujian’s sun-dried salt method as a reference.
However, because time is tight and the task is top priority. He Xi did not choose the best plan among many plans. Instead, all the options were used directly. Only then do we have these salt fields that stretch for hundreds of miles.
Of course. The reason why the construction speed is so fast. On the one hand, He Xi moved a large number of Korean immigrants directly to the saltworks. On the other hand, there is a lot of experimentation with another new technology.
Nothing else but cement.
This does not mean that salt fields cannot be built without cement.
What salt pans need is a layer of land that is impermeable to water. So that the sea water can be retained. But there are many ways to get such land. For example, use Sanhe soil. For example, spread it out with salt. In short, there are ways. But time and efficacy are both very problematic.
It cannot be advanced quickly and on a large scale.
But cement is different.
Although, in He Xi's opinion, the cement formula is not mature at all. Various data after cement solidification are not ideal. Although, it has not been used for a long time yet. He Xi didn't know that this first generation of cement would weather in a few years.
However, such data is absolutely impossible to obtain without large-scale use. The improvement of cement should also be based on large-scale production.
Therefore, Fushun Cement Factory was established based on Fushun Coal Mine. After all, Fushun is rich in resources. A large amount of limestone and other raw materials for burning cement can be found locally. After all, this is not a rare mineral. Available everywhere.
More importantly, Zhu Yuanzhang arranged the task of opening mountains and cutting off dragon veins. When He Xi does this, it is never good for other people's true purpose. It can only be excavated on a large scale in the so-called dragon veins of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Isn’t it just a dozen peaks? Just dig it flat.
Anyway, with the development of later generations, I don’t know how many mountains have been leveled. He Xi just deviated slightly when mining.
It was the production of cement. The first batch of cement was invested in the salt field, and then the salt field of more than 100 miles was built.
"The quality of this cement is worrying, or the first generation of cement. I didn't expect it to be used in such a high-salt and high-humidity environment." He Xi stepped on the cement floor at the edge of the salt field and could already see small fragments of cracked cement. He picked up two pieces. After grinding it, some dust immediately fell off. He Xi thought secretly in his heart.
He Xi immediately asked Tie Xuan, "Is this useful?"
Tie Xuan was also from the Imperial College. Historically, he was valued by Zhu Yuanzhang. After coming out of the Imperial College, he went directly to the Ministry of Rites. Now the Imperial College and the Imperial College are He Xi's territory. Tie Xuan was even more involved with He Xi. It's just that Tie Xuan is still very young, only in his twenties.
More importantly, Tie Xuan was born in Hui Hui.
Although it is said that Ming Dynasty treats foreigners equally. But this concept was very emphasized at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but later it was not emphasized as much.
Was it because there was no discrimination against foreign races when the Ming Dynasty was founded, but in the middle and late Ming Dynasty it became discriminatory?
No, quite the opposite. Many times, the more emphasis is placed on something, the less something is. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had to emphasize this point repeatedly when faced with very complex problems. But after the world was at peace, there were not many among the civil servants. But among the military generals, there are countless foreign generals who died serving the Ming Dynasty. Even when the Ming Dynasty was in danger, there were generals like Mangui who were born in Mongolia, and generals who were born in the southwestern chieftains, who fought to the end.
It can be seen that after certain concepts are deeply rooted in people's hearts, there is no need to say more. On the contrary, in the three hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, Manchus and Han people were no longer said to be one.
Tie Hyun still encountered some resistance in this environment.
However, He Xi supported Tie Xuan very much and asked him to take charge of all the salt fields in Liaodong. Now he only has an acting official position. If he can handle it well, the Liaodong salt transport envoy will be Tie Xuan.
Tie Xuan said: "It's very easy to use. With this foundation, these salt fields can be built as quickly as possible."
He Xi said: "Is it starting to collapse now?"
Tie Xuan said: "Sir, come here and take a look." Tie Xuan then found a place on the salt farm, pulled out the dagger on his body, and dug underneath. The salt layer on the mountain surface was quickly dug up. A layer of hard soil appears. Tie Xuan said: "Xiaguan found that if it is exposed to salt for a long time, it will look like this. There is no need for a cement floor."
He Xi grabbed a handful of dirt and looked at it carefully. This is actually sand mixed with salt grains.
This kind of salt soil can actually become the bottom cornerstone of the salt field.
But He Xi secretly sighed: "Cement still needs to continue to work hard."
He Xi put aside the issue of cement and asked, "How is the output?"
Tie Xuan said: "Sir, this is my first time doing salt drying. Although I hired some people from Fujian, after careful questioning, I found that they were just ignorantly adhering to the methods of their ancestors. They had no idea at all. That’s why. I can only start from scratch.”
"It's also because of the sunshine. Starting from the first crop of salt, it takes half a month to harvest only a few dozen kilograms. Recently, the technology has been improved, and the weather is hot. It has already been harvested every five days. One hundred kilograms per mu. "Xiaguan can guarantee that in summer, we can produce one crop a day. The yield per mu is about 100 catties."
He Xi was stunned and said, "How many hectares of salt fields are there now?"
Tie Xuan said: "There are now thirteen large and small salt fields. Just because of different inputs, the output of salt fields in different places is also different. The output mentioned by Xiaguan can only be achieved here. Other salt fields will probably only be able to achieve it next year. Generally speaking, There are probably more than 2,000 hectares of salt fields.”
