Playing intrigue is worse than engaging in infrastructure

Salt production in other places still requires digging brine ponds to dry the salt, but in Mobei, there are blue-gray salt crystals everywhere around the salt lake, and a thick layer of crystals is deposited on the bottom of the lake.

Therefore, as long as these crystals are collected, purified and processed, salt is produced.

Salt Lake is also regarded as one of the important sources of edible salt in later generations.But at this time, these salt lakes, whose salt content is comparable to that of brine, can only be drunk by passing livestock to supplement the salt, and people must not take it for food.

In order to turn salt crystals into edible salt, the impurities must be removed.

Isn't this the purification of coarse salt?Knowledge points that appeared in junior high school chemistry.Although Song Qingyuan has graduated for many years, he still remembers this knowledge.

When the scale of salt production is large in the future, several evaporation ponds may need to be built.But with the current level of productivity... Song Qingyuan calculated that these exposed salt crystals alone would be enough for them to work for a year or so.

After being fished out, the salt crystals must be cleaned first to remove the dust and silt inside.

"Your Highness, I have only heard of washing clothes, but I have never heard of washing salt. How do I wash this salt? Wouldn't it melt in water?"

Song Qingyuan was explaining to this group of people with an average age of over 30 years old the knowledge of coarse salt extraction that appeared in junior high school chemistry, but he didn't expect that when he mentioned the first step of "dissolving coarse salt", someone would ask a question.

Seeing Song Qingyuan look over, the person who spoke realized what disrespect he had just done.

They are all slaves sent here, and they are the most despicable type of people who can be killed at will.He had never heard of what the other party said, and he was curious for a while but forgot the rules.

It is a crime of disrespect to interrupt at will.

The person in front of him is the third prince of Yanyun, their honored guest from Mobei, with just one word, they can decide the life and death of them.

He lowered his head anxiously, and was about to kneel down and beg for mercy, when the person in front of him answered his question very naturally.

"The washing here doesn't mean that. It means that the dissolved brine is filtered to remove impurities such as sediment."

Song Qingyuan's expression didn't change a bit.To be honest, he didn't think it was a serious matter to be interrupted while explaining.

Compared to asking aloud when he ordered a task, the other party didn't ask clearly what he was going to do, and ended up messing up what he explained. That was a big trouble that Song Qingyuan couldn't bear.

Therefore, in Song Qingyuan's eyes, it was perfectly normal for these people to ask a question, and the teacher even encouraged students to ask questions during lectures.

It is true that the people in front of him are not his subordinates or students, but captives acting as slaves, but in Song Qingyuan's view, there is not much difference.

He asked Lian Ti to ask slaves to be responsible for making salt, just because he was afraid that after the method of making salt was spread, people would use it improperly to produce poisonous salt that is harmful to human body, and salt had a special status.

But for these people, Song Qingyuan's attitude was no different from that of the soldiers in the military camp and the craftsmen who built the embankment.

Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, he raised his eyes to look at the fearful crowd, and suddenly understood in his heart.

He said in a deep voice: "If you have any questions, just ask. If you can put forward useful opinions, I will reward you."

After saying this, the slaves relaxed visibly.

After speaking a few words, Song Qingyuan realized that the dictation alone was not straightforward enough, and the other party couldn't understand, so he asked someone to take some salt crystals and put them in the water, and gave them a live demonstration.

During the demonstration, Song Qingyuan quickly discovered a problem, that is, the efficiency of filtering to remove impurities was too low.

Such a small cup of solution is fine.But when the actual production starts, the salt water needs to be counted in barrels or vats, and it needs to be filtered one by one.

Seeing Song Qingyuan staring at the murky cup of salt water on the stove and meditating, everyone thought there was something wrong with it.

Some of the officials who followed over even snorted coldly.

It has only been half a year since Song Qingyuan came to Mobei, a series of actions made people admire, but at the same time aroused the envy of many people.

Therefore, when he proposed that table salt could be made from salt lakes, many people followed him, ready to see his jokes.

They admitted that Song Qingyuan had some abilities, but everyone knew that the salt crystals in this salt lake were not edible, and no one could change it for many years.

But when he came to Mobei, he said that he could produce salt from the salt lake.Doesn't it look like they are some wastes who eat all day long and eat vegetarian meals?

And Nubuhe is also one of them.

"You also said that you want to sell it to Nan Zhou, maybe you are too confident in yourself?" He thought to himself.

Standing next to a group of slaves, he already showed a gloating expression, but he heard Song Qingyuan calmly order the people around him to bring salt and water.

"I want to see what tricks you have to play!" Nubuhe looked worried.

The servant soon came back with a big bag of salt.So Song Qingyuan slowly poured a whole bag of salt into half a pot of water under the eyes of everyone who were either shocked, puzzled, or disdainful.

The concentrated brine in the pot quickly reached saturation, and even if you poured more salt into it, it would not be dissolved.

There were incomprehensible whispers from the crowd, but Song Qingyuan ignored them, and asked people to pour all the salt crystals into a cauldron filled with concentrated brine.

Then, a shocking scene appeared to the onlookers. The salt crystals poured into the water were not only not dissolved, but became cleaner and cleaner during constant stirring.

When it was fished out again, there was no trace of sand in the salt crystal.

After Song Qingyuan washed his hands casually, he explained the principle to people, without even noticing that there was an angry middle-aged man standing next to him.

What's more humiliating than losing to an opponent?A: That means people don't take you seriously at all.

This sentence is simply too appropriate to describe Nubu and his current mentality.

But Nubuhe soon discovered that even after removing the salt crystals from the sand, it was still inedible.

As for how he knew?Of course, he secretly tasted a little while everyone was not paying attention.

That salt is bitter and rough, how can it be used for cooking?Nubuhe smiled again.

But it may be because of the recent bad luck, the self-confidence he had built up with great difficulty was quickly destroyed by Song Qingyuan again.

The salt of this era has a more or less bitter taste, which is caused by excessive magnesium and calcium in the salt.

And it just so happened that both of these substances could be removed by Song Qingyuan.

The solubility of the solution after dissolving salt crystals will not change much due to temperature changes.Therefore, the extraction of table salt is generally done by evaporation and crystallization.

But those metallic impurities are different.When the brine is nearly saturated by cooking, you can add an appropriate amount of fresh soybean milk to absorb the impurities precipitated in the brine.

When Song Qingyuan scooped up a spoonful of soy milk and poured it into the boiling brine, everyone was still a little suspicious.

But soon, they saw yellow-gray dregs constantly surfacing from the water.

Amid the exclamation of the crowd, Song Qingyuan calmly ordered someone to scoop out the dregs.

After repeating this two or three times, the brine becomes white and pure.

In fact, adding other substances such as sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide can also remove impurities in the salt.

But after all, it is something to be put into the mouth, and there are not enough conditions now. Once the dosage is not mastered, the consequences will be very troublesome.

If it hadn't been for the feature of soy milk, Song Qingyuan wouldn't have dared to say that he could use the salt crystals in the salt lake to make salt.

The curling steam took away the moisture in the brine, and soon, snow-white salt grains appeared in the pot.

Song Qingyuan quickly asked someone to fish it out.At this time, the salt is still slightly damp, but soon, the remaining temperature will evaporate it.

After it cooled down a little, Song Qingyuan twisted a little and put it in his mouth.

If you rinse it with clean saturated salt water at the end, the taste should be even better.he thought.

In Song Qingyuan's opinion, the taste of the salt produced now is a little worse than that of later generations.But in the eyes of everyone, this kind of salt is already the best of the best.

Such salt hardly exists in their cognition.May I ask, who has ever seen such clean, white, and extremely pure-tasting table salt?

It is said that only the gods in the sky can eat it, and they also believe it.

But such salt was actually created by Song Qingyuan, so isn't he more powerful than the gods in the sky?

Sensing that everyone's eyes on him were getting hotter, Song Qingyuan quickly put down the long spoon that was turning over the salt.After assigning work to everyone, they hurried out of the yard.

But in the end don't worry about them making salt for the first time.So Song Qingyuan went back to the house with heavy steps after walking around outside.

The slaves sent over have already started the process of making salt.

The room was steaming, and buckets of white salt were quickly moved out by people sweating.

Salt making is also hard work. Song Qingyuan sighed, and asked in a low voice to a trusted aide next to him: "Where do these slaves come from?"

When he went to the mine that time, he heard from the steward inside that they used slaves to mine ore.

These people have no personal freedom, and naturally there is less risk of leaking secrets.

The steward said that these slaves were rebel soldiers, but Song Qingyuan always suspected that they were civilians of the rebel tribe, and they were called "prisoners of war".

The person next to him shook his head and explained: "Return to Your Highness, these people are the captives brought back by the king when he quelled the rebellion."

"Aren't they the people of the rebellious tribe?" Song Qingyuan thought for a long time before asking this question.

Fortunately, the other party did not show any annoyance, but shook his head very sincerely, "The king does not allow us to harm the common people. He also reminds us often during wars, let us try not to harm the people's livestock and pastures."

He was also a lieutenant general under Lian Ti's command before, so he naturally knows how strict Lian Ti's army is.Situations like what Song Qingyuan said were absolutely not allowed at Lian Ti's place.

Song Qingyuan nodded thoughtfully, wondering if he should tell his original plan.

In the eyes of today's people, Lian Ti was very lenient to them.But after all, he is a modern person in his bones, and it is inevitable that he will have some sympathy for these people.

Neither of them was right or wrong in this matter, nor was it caused by his Virgin Mary.It's just that because of the different values, the views on the same thing will be different.

Looking at the busy slaves inside, Song Qingyuan finally asked, "Are these people slaves for life?"

The lieutenant general shook his head, "There is a time limit, like these people, ten years. There are also longer ones, depending on the specific situation."

What he said made Song Qingyuan feel better, but he was even more surprised to mention it repeatedly.

Such a move would have been widely publicized and praised in ancient times, but for some reason, he had never heard of it.

"Then can I distribute some clothes and food to them?" Song Qingyuan asked again.In later generations, this should be called work meals and work clothes.

The lieutenant, who was still answering questions just now, suddenly fell silent, showing a very complicated expression.

Song Qingyuan frowned, and heard the other party murmur: "How can your majesty guess so accurately..."

"What did you just say?"

"It's nothing." The lieutenant quickly came back to his senses, stood up straight, and replied sternly: "Of course, Your Highness can. After working here, these slaves are His Highness's people. You can even forgive them if you want."

Song Qingyuan didn't speak, and his face was watertight.

After a while, the adjutant had no choice but to add in a low voice, "But the king also reminded His Highness that if you let them go, there will be no one on his side."

Song Qingyuan couldn't help laughing, he finally understood the meaning of what the adjutant said just now.

The reason is that he had guessed that he would do this a long time ago, so he let the deputy general through it in advance.

It's really scheming... Song Qingyuan clicked his tongue, but for some reason, he didn't feel angry at all, instead he wanted to laugh inexplicably.

He shook his head when he heard a strange noise from the other side.

When walking over, Song Qingyuan happened to pass by a man with a bit mean appearance.For some reason, the man let out a very angry snort.

Naturally, he didn't know that the other party was slapped in the face severely by him, and now he was feeling sullen.

But now all his attention was on the voice just now, so he naturally ignored this insignificant voice.

"What happened?" Song Qingyuan asked.

Seeing him coming, the slave who was bending over to work hurriedly bowed his body and said: "If you go back to Your Highness, there is a relatively large piece of salt crystal that was just delivered, and the small one thought about smashing it and cleaning it, but never thought about it. Your Highness was disturbed."

Song Qingyuan looked around when the other party was talking, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong, he nodded and turned to leave the room.

He had noticed before that the slaves were extra nervous when they saw him.

After that, it's better to sway less in front of the other party.

Fortunately, there is nothing wrong with him here.Just as Song Qingyuan was about to take his people away, he had already stepped out of the courtyard gate, and turned around as if remembering something.

"What did your Highness leave behind?" The person next to him observed his words.

"No." Song Qingyuan waved his hand, seemingly ordering very casually: "Take some of the freshly produced salt back and show it to your king."

Lian Ti showed great curiosity when he proposed to use salt lakes to produce salt.But today happened to be that he was going to the military camp to train soldiers, so he didn't have time to come over.

When he walked out of the yard, he suddenly remembered the look in the other party's eyes when he said he believed him that day, and subconsciously wanted to bring salt to show him.

When I realized it, the people around me had already entered the salt warehouse with their leather bags in their hands.

Forget it, it's just reciprocating.It's not in vain that the other party has always been responsive to him.

Song Qingyuan tried his best to suppress the inexplicable feeling in his heart, and explained to himself.

The author says:

Reciprocate: Reciprocity (×) is always good (√);

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!