novelden Chapter 128 Seawater Salt Production 2
Chapter 128 Seawater Salt Production 2
The news that the eldest daughter of General Su's mansion was making salt by the sea spread throughout the city at the fastest speed.
Although the salt farmers and fishermen on the coast did not know Su Weixi, because the people working under her command were soldiers in the military camp, many wealthy families in the city sent people to check on them.
Some of them had accompanied their host family to attend banquets at the Su Mansion, so they naturally recognized Su Weixi and Su's father who was standing beside them.
He went back and told his owner, so in the past few days people would go to the salt fields by the sea to watch the fun from time to time.
Su Weixi divided her ten acres of salt fields into four parts. The tidal land closest to the sea was used to dry salt soil, the second part was dug into a filtration pool, the third part was used to collect brine, and the last part was a salt drying field.
The salt field was what the soldiers had been tamping with wooden hammers. The ground needed to be made very firm and flat, and then paved with stones and bricks all around.
Su Weixi's previous steps are actually not much different from those of the previous salt farmers. The most critical part is the last step. After the brine is prepared, the salt farmers fry it in a pan, while Su Weixi dries it in the sun.
"The brine is ready, let's open the salt field!" Father Su listened to Su Weixi's arrangements and loudly ordered the soldiers.
Upon hearing the order, the soldiers opened the barrier between the brine pool and the salt field and released water into the salt field.
When the brine filled the entire salt field, Su Weixi asked everyone to go and rest.
She and Su's father were also resting under a tree. Because they had been at the beach recently, Su's father was worried that Su Weixi would get sunburned, so he specially asked someone to build a small shed with food and drinks inside, as well as Su Weixi's favorite lounge chair.
Of course, these soldiers also had food and drink. The Su family had never been stingy with helping their work. It was just that there were too many of them, so there was no shed, and they gathered in groups of three or four under the shady trees, and the servants of the Su family would deliver food to them.
"Alas, this general's eldest daughter is just fooling around. The good brine is wasted like this."
"Old Zhao, keep your voice down, or the nobleman might hear you and give you a beating."
"It's so hot, let's go back."
"No, it's fine for the past few days, but today I heard there will be a big move. If I don't watch it carefully, how can I explain it to my master when I return?"
"how do you know?"
"The servants of the Su family said so."
While waiting for the brine to dry, some salt farmers were muttering about Su Weixi's approach not far away.
There were also some servants from other wealthy families in the city who were reluctant to leave because someone had gone to talk to the servants of the Su family. The servants of the Su family said that the salt would be produced today, so they did not dare to leave and wanted to stay to see the results so that they could go back and report the situation to their masters.
The sun is quite strong today. Even though it is only March, the temperature is already very high. Su Weixi estimated that it is around 30 degrees Celsius.
As evening approached, many people looked at the salt fields in disbelief.
I saw a layer of white gauze-like particles appearing on the salt field.
"Look, what is that?"
"Is it salt? That's impossible? Why is it so white?"
After an entire afternoon of exposure to the sun, even though most people were standing under the shade of trees, many people felt very dizzy and didn't pay much attention to the sunbathing area.
It was not until someone spoke that everyone looked in the direction of the salt field. They saw that the field, which was originally full of water, was now covered with a layer of white sand that was dazzling to the eyes.
The people who were watching the fun on the sidelines were driven by curiosity and rushed to the salt field to check it out, regardless of the soldiers not far away.
This action naturally attracted the attention of the soldiers and Su Weixi and his daughter.
Su Weixi went forward to check the situation, and saw that there was only a shallow layer of water in the drying yard, and the white salt grains were very conspicuous in it. Su Weixi nodded to Su's father.
Father Su shouted to the soldiers: "My men, it's time to collect the salt!"
"Yes, General."
The soldiers who received the order picked up the wooden shovels, brooms and other tools beside the drying yard, and according to Su Weixi's previous instructions, began to sweep the salt on the drying yard to a dry area outside the drying yard.
Before long, piles of salt as high as small hills appeared in front of everyone, like snow-capped mountains.
In fact, this is a salt field at the bottom of the soil. The salt is not particularly white, but is covered with a lot of yellow mud.
But this still couldn't stop the salt farmers, fishermen and servants of the wealthy families who were watching the fun from the sidelines.
Especially the salt farmers, when the soldiers went down to sweep the salt, they couldn't help but get excited and went down to help. The soldiers had already received the instructions from Su Dad and Su Weixi, and did not stop them.
At this time, three carriages drove nearby and County Magistrate Ma got off the first carriage. Several people also got off the other carriages behind him. It was obvious at a glance that they were other officials from the county.
County Magistrate Ma stepped forward and greeted Su's father: "General Su, are we late? Where is the salt? Didn't they say that the salt would be produced today?" As he spoke, he looked around but did not see any salt.
Because the salt was surrounded by salt farmers and fishermen, and there were too many people, it was blocked.
"Magistrate Ma, you've come at the right time. The salt has just been collected and is over there." Father Su pointed to the salt pile that was surrounded by people. Some soldiers had already dispersed the people with great insight.
"Hey, this, this is the salt made by General Su and Miss Su?" County Magistrate Ma said in disbelief, pointing at the piles of salt.
The official following behind him was even more clever. He stepped forward, dipped his finger in some salt and put it in his mouth. It was salty, really salty!
"Master Ma, this is really salt! It's so salty."
Magistrate Ma also stepped forward to taste the salt himself, then excitedly grabbed a handful of the still-damp salt grains, and saw the salt grains flow out from his fingers like sand on the beach. He was so excited that he didn't know what to say. The other officials who followed him also repeated his actions.
It was no wonder that Magistrate Ma and other officials, salt farmers and fishermen were so excited. It was because the salt made by Su Weixi's method was completely different from the salt-making method they knew.
The previous method of frying salt basically produced large salt blocks, which needed to be processed further to obtain fine salt. The current method does not require firewood and can directly produce fine salt.
"General Su, can the method developed by Miss Su be used to produce salt on a large scale?" County Magistrate Ma grabbed Su's father and asked excitedly.
"Of course you can. The bigger the drying yard is, the more salt you can produce. And this method can produce ten times more salt than frying salt." Father Su said, motioning everyone to look at the other salt piles.
"Can this method be taught to the salt farmers?" Magistrate Ma asked cautiously, fearing that Su's father would refuse.
Father Su smiled and said nothing, looking at Su Weixi. Magistrate Ma also reacted at this time. It was so lively these days, and he knew that the method was thought up by the general's daughter.
Then he bowed to Su Weixi and said, "I wonder if Miss Su would be willing to teach this method to the salt farmers."
The salt farmers who had been listening to the conversation on the side also turned their eyes to Su Weixi, their eyes full of anticipation.
"Of course you can. Everyone has seen what I have done these days. You can just go back and transform your own salt fields." When the people around heard Su Weixi's words, they all looked happy.
"But..." The faces of the people who were originally happy froze, fearing that Su Weixi would say some bad news the next moment.
Su Weixi saw everyone's expressions and understood their thoughts, so he quickly said what he hadn't finished, "But the salt made by this method will inevitably contain some yellow mud. If you have the conditions, it's best to cover the salt drying field with stone slabs, so that the salt you get can be even whiter."
"Miss Su is very resourceful. On behalf of the salt farmers, I would like to thank Miss Su for being willing to pass on this method to everyone."
The salt farmers also expressed their gratitude, and some older farmers even shed tears.
They have been boiling salt for generations, but the output is not equal to their labor, and they can only barely support their families. Now with the sun-dried salt method, the output is higher, and even if the salt merchants buy it, the price will not increase too much, but the quantity is large.
Afterwards, Su Weixi and Su's father carefully reminded Magistrate Ma and the salt farmers of a few details, and then everyone dispersed.
Su Weixi returned home, while Su's father went to the military camp to find Xiao Yi to report the matter and asked him to write a letter to the emperor.
Even Magistrate Ma would report the matter, but he could only report it layer by layer, and it would not be as fast as Xiao Yi.
Another reason is to prevent some people with ulterior motives from exploiting salt farmers or salt merchants and using this as a gimmick to drive up salt prices.