novelraw Chapter 282 Methods
Chapter 282 Methods
"Master Lin, why are you back!"
When Lin Hai stepped into the Yanzheng Yamen, everyone was in a daze, saying that this person went to Beijing to participate in Emperor Xuande's Longevity Festival, why did he come back so soon?
and……
Seeing Lin Hai's little official head-on, he shrank his head. It seems that Mr. Lin is still wearing casual clothes!
"I don't have time to talk about this. Tell everyone in the yamen to gather in the lobby immediately. I have something to ask." Lin Hai walked towards his room while ordering the officer.
In his room, he changed into the official uniform of the inspector of the salt censor, and when Lin Hai arrived at the lobby, all the officials in the Yan government office had arrived.The leader was Mr. Chen, the transfer envoy of salt transportation. Seeing Lin Hai approaching, he quickly went up and asked, "Master Lin, what happened? He wants to call us for questioning."
Lin Hai squinted at him, don't think he doesn't know that Mr. Chen is quietly putting eye drops on himself, but right now he doesn't have the time to talk nonsense with him, so he just ignored him and asked the big and small officials in front of him. Said: "How is the situation of official salt in various places in the south of the Yangtze River recently?"
The salt department in charge of this matter, seeing Lin Hai's complexion, quickly replied: "Returning to Mr. Lin, the official salts in various places are arranged according to the amount of the previous year, but just in case Every year, a small half of the output will be increased."
Lin Hai nodded, and asked Si Yuntong, the envoy of salt transport, "Has the official salt transport started this year?"
The salt transportation envoy Si Yuntong glanced at Mr. Chen, and then replied: "Master Huilin, there is no word yet, because the south of the Yangtze River is mainly transported by water, so every time it is transported after the flood peak passes, the first half of the year has already been transported. The second half of the year will be about two months away.”
Lin Hai nodded.He breathed a sigh of relief, as long as there is no chaos here in Jiangnan before he comes back, he doesn't want to clean up the mess in the closet!
"My lords, don't blame me for being rude. It's really too big a matter, and the emperor himself sent the word." After he breathed a sigh of relief, Lin Hai said calmly.
Mr. Chen was a little embarrassed, Lin Hai didn't answer his words just now.Now he won't speak anymore, so Si Yuntong, the envoy of Salt Transport, looked at his boss with a face that he wanted to know, but he couldn't speak, and stepped forward and asked, "Dare to ask Mr. Lin. But something happened. whats the matter?"
Lin Hai nodded, "It's okay to tell you about this. Although everyone will know the news sooner or later, I hope that everyone's mouths should be tighter before the court issues a formal document."
All the officials are exhaustive.If you don't know something, it's okay to tell them, but it makes them tense, so they can only answer in a low voice: "Yes!"
"The official salt in the Changlu Salt Area and the Liaodong Bay Salt Area were robbed!" Lin Hai announced the answer.
"What!?" All the officials were taken aback, none of them knew more about the consequences of the official salt being robbed than them.
The official salt was robbed, which meant that there was no salt in a large area.Salt is like food, it doesn't just pop up out of nowhere, and it doesn't come when you want it.
At present, the method of making salt in the Feng Dynasty is all: the decoction method. The process is to make brine first, and then boil the salt.
Put the salty mud in the drain bowl first, and wait for the salty substance to drain away, then dig it out with a shovel and accumulate it around the drain bowl. This is called light mud, also known as raw mud.When there is a lot of accumulation, when the weather is fine or the westerly wind is blowing, use a dustpan to carry it to the salt field, and re-pave the field surface, let the seawater flow into the salt field, and the salt will be absorbed by the light mud. Attracted to the top, the face of the field is as white as frost, so it is called Baidi (that is, salt flower).
After waiting for the salt field to turn white, use both hands to flatten the waist of the drag knife, relying on the frame of the drag knife, walk backwards, and scrape the floating mud on the surface of the field into pieces.The scraped mud is uneven in dryness and wetness, and it is dried in the sun, and then two people drag and scratch it on their backs, and copy it repeatedly to make it dry and loose.The soil is all dry and loose, so two people guide the cutting boards to make the soil into a straight line, with a distance of about 3.5 meters between each line, so as to facilitate the picking of soil. This process is mostly operated by women and children.
Then put the salty mud into the dustpan, shoulder it to the center of the soil foundation, and pile it up like a mound, which is called a mud canopy. It is pressed to make it extremely firm and shaped into a sharp cone, so that rainwater will not seep in. It can be picked up into a drain bowl at any time, and the water can be drained. This is called a mud pile.Spread the bottom of the leaking bowl with a layer of dry warts or bristles, and then put the muddy salty mud into it to make it level with the mouth. Use your feet to be firm, and climb to make it smooth and clean like a mirror.
After these are completed, use a bucket to draw seawater from the canal, pour it into the drain bowl, and every few hours or half a day, the brine will pour from the bottom of the drain through the grass or bristles into the bamboo tube, and then pour it into the brine tank.After the brine tank is full, use a brine hanger to draw it, pour it into a bucket, and pick it up and hide it in other tanks or brine buckets for tormenting.
The process of tormenting is very simple. First, salt is fried on an iron plate. The iron plate is rectangular and is composed of 3 to 8 iron blocks about one inch thick.The joints are filled with lime.It is built on top of the sharp stove, and then woven with strip-shaped bamboo strips, surrounding the iron plate. The inside and outside of the bamboo and the joint between the bamboo and the iron plate are also smeared with lime.One end of the iron plate is close to the fire door, and its back end is on the stove.If there is still room, arrange 2 to 4 iron pots vertically, which are called warm pots.
After the plate is built, the brine is poured from the brine barrel into the plate with a bamboo slipper, and the warm pot is filled at the same time, and the firewood is put into the fire door to fry.After the bittern in the warm pot is cooked, replace and hang it into the dish towel, and then pour the cold bittern into the warm pot.Repeatedly, the water in the bittern in the plate evaporates, and the salt crystallizes gradually, and the temperature is increased to make all the bittern in the plate dry.It takes about 1.5 to 2.5 hours to fry a plate.Such continuous torment, day and night.From the fourth day to the tenth day, the fire is turned off, which is called a creation.
Each stove has a certain period of time for the daily production, which is determined by the field official.After turning off the fire, disassemble the iron plate, fry it later, and build a new plate.A load of brine can boil 10 kg of salt.Its salt contains various impurities, tastes astringent and bitter, slightly black in color, high cost and low yield.
If it is the salt used by officials, or the salt sent to the palace, it has to go through a series of processes to remove the bitterness.But the cost of doing so is higher!
At the beginning, Lin Hai didn't think about switching to the more modern and advanced board drying method and beach drying method, but after a field inspection, Lin Hai changed his mind.
Although this torture method is a bit troublesome, the whole family, old and young, can work together and get paid. The life of the bottom salt workers is still very hard.So seeing this situation, Lin Hai decisively shut up, he improved the method, the profit is still the salt merchants, not the bottom salt workers, maybe it will break the peace in the past!
It is because of this cumbersome production method that although the raw material is available, it cannot be turned into edible salt for a while, so if the official salt is robbed, things will be a big deal!
Mr. Chen didn't dare to show off at this time. He and Lin Hai were both grasshoppers on the same rope. If something happened, Lin Hai might be fine through the activities behind his family background. Then he, Yan Guan took the lead. Isn't it just a scapegoat?Therefore, he hurriedly asked respectfully: "Then what does Lord Yilin mean, what should we do now?"
Lin Hai glanced at Mr. Chen, and said in a deep voice: "What else can we do? The enemy is in the dark, and we are in the open. We can only tell those transporters to be careful, and by the way, order the prefects and counties along the way to pay more attention. If the salt in the south of the Yangtze River is caught again If people rob it, then this matter will be even bigger!"
"Yes!" Master Chen also knew that this kind of thing was impossible to guard against. Bandits and bandits were the most annoying thing, and there was no definite conclusion.
The deputy envoy of the Salt Transport Department, Mr. Liu, said cautiously: "The lower official has an idea, but..."
Lin Hai searched for the sound and waved his hand, "If you have anything to say, just say it! If you have any good ideas, just come out, as long as the official salt in Jiangnan can be delivered to the designated location safely, I will ask the emperor for you. rewarded."
The deputy envoy of the Salt Transportation Department, Mr. Liu, looked excited, and then he said: "The salt fields in the south of the Yangtze River are distributed in the north from the Xiuzhen River Estuary at the junction of Sulu and south to the Yangtze River Estuary, which is a long and oblique coastal belt, spanning Lianyungang and Yancheng. The 4 counties and districts in the 13 cities of Huaiyin, Huaiyin and Nantong have the most extensive coastal tidal flats in the country, and these are all salt-producing areas.
Therefore, most of the salt in the south of the Yangtze River is exported. According to the little knowledge of the officials, since someone is eyeing the official salt, and it is easy to get it, we might as well separate the exported salt and sell it from now on. Control the quantity each time, no more, no less, and let the caravans with good relationships continue to take some away.Although the lower officials knew that doing so would be a drop in the bucket, but it was better than being wiped out all at once! "
Lin Hai didn't make a sound, just looked at the crowd and said, "What do you think?"
A small official at the bottom said: "I think it's inappropriate. The merchants are all lured by salt, and let other caravans take it. Isn't this a violation of the rules? As the saying goes, there is no rule. Someone pretended to be, so what should we do?"
The most important thing is that salt merchants mainly include nest merchants, transport merchants, field merchants, and general merchants.But no matter what it is, you have to deal with the salt government office, which will issue a series of official certificates to prove that they are legal salt merchants.Among them, there are many opportunities for each salt official to make money. In order to get the certificate earlier, or to obtain the certificate of some good places, the salt merchant will give the salt official a lot of money. With this rule, the gray income in the hands of these salt officials will not be less in the future!
Sure enough, two more people objected.
Lin Hai slapped his hands heavily on the table, "Master Liu thought of this idea in such a short time. Although it's a bit wrong, it's still good. Don't hold on to other people's mistakes, at least give it to me." Come up with an idea!" As soon as the official authority was released, everyone fell silent!
Lin Hai said impatiently: "Okay, let's all go down and do things!"
Ps:
[I would like to recommend Qingfeng Angel's masterpiece: "Pocket Happiness Space" Wu Duoduo got the space bracelet and started a real-life farming career. Good food, good rice and good life, working and living, raising flowers in leisure time, selling and selling when short of money Vegetables, life is happy and nourishing]