"Bang...bang..." The two teenagers next to them were swinging sledgehammers, and they were hammering back and forth against the salt ore placed on the stone slab.
Lu Siqi squatted not far from Mu Heng, staring at the burning fire, lost in thought.
After Butler Zhao set up the pot, he directed a group of people to carry a large vat in, followed by a few men carrying water.
Mu Heng looked at the charcoal powder about the same size as gravel in his hand and felt that it was almost done.
"Oh, there are so many people." Mu Heng, who was focused on the thickness of the charcoal, hadn't noticed that so many people had suddenly arrived, and was inexplicably a little nervous.
Not long after, each group had almost finished their work. Mu Heng looked around and saw that most of the salt ore had turned into powder. Lu Siqi had burned the charcoal and the flames had disappeared. The combustion should be
It's quite sufficient.
"Sir, what should we do next?" Seeing Mu Heng's uncontrollable nodding, Butler Zhao understood that he could proceed with the next steps.
"Put some salt ore powder into these basins and soak them in water." Mu Heng said to the two teenagers.
"Daniu, Erhu, hurry up and do as the master orders." Butler Zhao followed the instructions, and then asked Mu Heng: "Sir, how much should be put in each wooden basin?"
"First put two big handfuls of each." Mu Heng still doesn't know the salt content in these salt ores, so he can only try to make them first.
"Yes." The two teenagers responded neatly.
"Everyone, don't be idle and help me." Butler Zhao said to the seven or eight people standing there watching.
"Two of you, go and sweep up the charcoal ashes that the general burned with a dustpan, and prepare them for the young master." After all, he is a housekeeper, so he arranges things in an orderly manner.
With the help of Butler Zhao, Mu Heng also avoided a lot of trouble. After all, he was suitable for academics and not very good at management.
"Stir more often like I do to increase the dissolution speed of the salt." Mu Heng demonstrated by stirring the wooden basin with his hands.
"Learn a lot."
"yes."
"Brother, is there anything else that needs to be done?" Lu Siqi looked at Mu Heng's continuous instructions and demonstrations, with dense beads of sweat oozing out from his forehead.
This scene is very similar to the scene where the hairy son-in-law just arrived at his mother-in-law's house and worked actively.
"Then two filters." Taking advantage of the gap of dissolved salt, Mu Heng continued with the tools he needed to use next.
I took a moso bamboo tube, sawed off the bamboo joints on the other side, and drilled some small holes in the bamboo joints on the other side.
After doing this, spread a few layers of gauze on the bottom of the bamboo tube, fill the gauze with ground charcoal powder, and finally spread a few layers of gauze to make a simple filter.
The second one was easier to make, and the two filters were completed in a short time.
"Now let me explain it to you first." Mu Heng was worried that everyone would not understand it, so he took the time to explain it specifically so that everyone would not know what it was and why.
"The first step just now is to dissolve the salt in the salt ore into the water. This step should be easy for everyone to understand." The first step is not difficult, and the salt that people eat now comes from this.
"The finer these stone powders are ground, the more salt will be produced in the end. However, basically this is enough." Mu Heng grabbed a handful of powder and showed it to everyone.
"I see, the finer you grind it, the more it will come out."
"Young master is really knowledgeable, he knows all these things."
"...."
"Everyone, be quiet." Mu Heng interrupted their chatter. Some were lamenting the salt ore, while others were praising Mu Heng. Some were so exaggerated that Mu Heng himself could not listen anymore.
Mu Heng then picked up one of the wooden basins and carefully poured the salt water into the other empty basin. He also added: "This step needs to be more steady and try to block the sand at the bottom of the water.
The role of preliminary filtering.”
Then he said, "The next step is the most critical step. Why is this the most critical step? Because this step is to remove the impurities dissolved in the water from the mineral salt, which is what brings about to the salt that we usually eat.
Bitter impurities.”
As soon as he said this, everyone present widened their eyes and waited for his next move.
Lu Siqi is no exception. The people of the Star Kingdom are suffering from the salt policy and have to eat mineral salt that is difficult to swallow because of the bitter taste that is difficult to remove and even harmful to the body.
Now I hear Mu Heng’s idea that these impurities can be removed and this shortcoming can be solved. How can we not be impressed by everyone?
"Sir, do you really need to use these plant ash?" Erhu asked curiously when he saw Mu Heng holding a dustpan with plant ash in his hand.
"Smartness indeed relies on these plant ashes." Mu Heng gave him a positive reply.
"Is it true, plant ash can remove bitterness?"
"unbelievable."
"If it's really that simple, why hasn't anyone discovered it before?"
Seeing everyone's disbelief, Mu Heng was not in a hurry to defend himself. He needed to speak for himself with facts. Otherwise, no matter how much he said, it would all be lies.
"Brother, are plant ash really useful?" Lu Siqi remained skeptical, although she wanted to believe Mu Heng.
Mu Heng did not answer her clearly, but just gave her a reassuring look. Then he took a dustpan made of bamboo strips and took two or three handfuls of plant ash and sprinkled it into the preliminarily filtered salt water.
Still the old way, stir with a wooden stick to speed up dissolution and reaction.
Looking at the dirty salt water, Lu Siqi couldn't help showing a look of disgust.
"You still need to let it sit for this step, waiting for these impurities to sink to the bottom, which can reduce the number of filtration times." Mu Heng explained following the movements of his hands.
"After letting it stand, just follow the simple filtration steps before, and slowly pour out the clean brine on the upper layer." This time it is much more difficult than the last one. After all, the first preliminary filtration, the impurities are the sand that settled on the bottom.
, this time there are also suspended plant ash and solids produced by the reaction.
"Brother, can the salt produced from such dirty water be eaten?" Lu Siqi noticed that the water poured out by Mu Heng was not as dirty as before, but it was not much cleaner. What do you think of the gray salt water?
None of them seem to match the word "eat".
"Of course this won't work, so further filtering is needed." Mu Heng gave her another gentle look.
Gradually, Mu Heng no longer minded giving a man a gentle look. I have to say that habit is a terrible thing.
"The next third step is filtering. What you need to use is the filter I made. The method of making it has been demonstrated just now, so I won’t go into details here."
"Before filtering, you need to wait for the sand in the basin to settle down, so that there will be less impurities during filtering." Mu Heng scooped out a ladle of salt water from the basin and prepared to pour it into the filter.
"Sir, although this salt water looks colored, it is crystal clear. Isn't it already pure? Why does it need to be filtered?" The young man named Erhu asked a common question in everyone's mind and also asked the same question.
The voice of Lu Siqi came out.
"That's a good question." Mu Heng looked at the fifteen or sixteen-year-old man, his eyes sparkling.
"This salt water looks pure, but in fact there is still a lot of invisible grit in it. If it is not filtered, the salt cooked later will have a teeth-grinding feeling." Mu Heng patted the young man's shoulder and explained with a smile.
"Is there any sand in this?" Everyone was very confused after hearing Mu Heng's explanation. Aren't all the stones sinking to the bottom? How could there be sand in this water?
Mu Heng glanced at Lu Siqi, who had a curious baby expression on his face, smiled slightly and said, "This principle is very troublesome to explain. You can try it later to see if there is any difference between salt cooked with and without filtration."
"Everyone, keep watching." Mu Heng kept pouring the salt water from the ladle into the filter. As the water volume continued to increase, water also flowed out from the bottom of the bamboo tube.
After the charcoal has absorbed the impurities in the brine, the color has become much lighter.
After going back and forth several times, I had collected a tub of salt water.
Then use the second filter to perform a second pass of refiltering.
"Huh?" Lu Siqi's eyes had never left Mu Heng. At this moment, he was very surprised to see the pure salt water that had been filtered twice and turned into colorless.
"Brother, how did you do it? How come the color in the water disappeared after doing this twice?" Lu Siqi didn't understand how these common things could be combined to produce such a strange effect.
Looking at the other party with strange eyes, Lu Siqi now believed more and more that Mu Heng could refine fine salt.
"If you really want to know, I'll leave it to you later. It's hard to explain clearly in one sentence or two now." Mu Heng waved his hand, indicating that she would talk later.
"Yeah." After speaking, Lu Siqi's heart warmed up and he was full of expectations.
"All that's left is the last step, boiling the salt." Pour the filtered salt water into the pot, indicating to Erhu that it's time to start the fire.
After a while, the salt water in the pot began to boil. As the heat continued to dissipate, the salt in the water slowly precipitated out.
"It's out, it's out." Lu Siqi couldn't help but said in surprise when he saw the snow-white crystals in the pot.
"This is... this is... fine salt." Butler Zhao stared at the crystals at the bottom of the pot and said in surprise.
"It's really fine salt, the young master really did it."
"It's really strange, why is the salt we cook so coarse, but the salt you cook is so fine?"
Mu Heng did not answer their questions. He took out a little salt from the pot, put it in Lu Siqi's hand, and said, "Try it."
Lu Siqi also had this intention. The taste of salt is the most important criterion for judging the success of this attempt.
At this time, the taste of salt seems to be not only a taste, but also the key to whether it can destroy the current salt policy and save the star country from water and fire. Lu Siqi can't help but feel a little nervous.
Now he didn't care that the salt was extracted from the dirty water just now. He cautiously and expectantly stretched out his tongue and added a mouthful of salt. His face suddenly showed surprise.
She couldn't believe it and took another taste, confirming that it only tasted salty. Lu Siqi stared at Mu Heng with bright eyes, full of enthusiasm.
Although it is only a little salty, it is more delicious than delicacies from the mountains and seas. This chapter has been completed!
