Yancheng County, somewhere on the seaside, looking around, you can see a large water tank as tall as a person, with hundreds of people, and strong men are constantly carrying seawater into it.
In the upper corner of each large tank, there is a wooden shelf covered with a layer of gauze. The strong man carrying the water pours seawater into the tank from the gauze along the steps, and some sand, gravel and weeds in the water will be absorbed.
Strain on gauze.
This is just the first step in the salt-drying process. The seawater will settle in the tank for a day, and then there will be a water outlet at the lower end of the tank. Workers will filter the precipitated seawater twice before filtering the seawater inside.
Pour into a porcelain dish for crystallization.
If the sun is sufficient, the time required for crystallization is only one or two days, but a porcelain plate as big as a dustpan can only produce two taels of salt each time, which is really pitiful.
Zhu Cixi also knew that if the water in the tank was exposed to the sun for a few more days to make the seawater thicker, the salt produced in one plate would definitely be much higher.
But after careful consideration, he decided to maintain the efficiency of producing salt in two days. Although the output was pitifully small, he could expand the number of porcelain plates and water jars indefinitely.
Otherwise, it would drag on for a long time, and if it rained in the middle, all the efforts would be wasted. As for building straw sheds or something, he had never thought about it. At most, he could give those workers a place to rest and drink water.
Whether it is a water tank or a salt tray, they are placed directly in the open air on the sand where sea water cannot be flooded. No installation or protection measures are taken. Otherwise, it would be better to boil salt to save time and effort.
Although the number of water tanks and disks is large, a large number of workers will be needed to carry water, filter it, and toss it back and forth, but this is only temporary. After he gets the rubber pipe out, he can pump the water directly, which will definitely reduce manpower greatly.
Improve efficiency.
After calculation, a large tank needs at least thirty salt trays, plus three people to operate it. In three days, about six kilograms of salt can be produced.
The efficiency is not as fast as boiled salt, but the salt produced by drying is fine salt. Although it is not as good as refined salt, it is much better than the coarse salt cooked.
One vat, thirty salt pans, and only six kilograms of salt can be produced in three days. It depends on God's face. Ten thousand vats and thirty thousand salt pans can only yield sixty thousand kilograms. Zhu Cixiang knew that it would be unrealistic to rely solely on drying salt. After all,
It takes time to bake the vat and the porcelain plate, and I'm afraid it won't be able to scale up within a year or two.
So for the time being, he could only boil and dry salt while increasing the scale of the porcelain factory. As for ceramic tiles, he had postponed them indefinitely.
His plan is that in the future, salt farmers will use porcelain plates and water tanks to dry salt in the summer, and continue to boil salt in the other three seasons.
The dried salt has a better quality and taste and can be sold to large households as refined salt and fine salt, while the boiled salt can continue to be sold to ordinary people.
Until one day in the future, when the scale of sun-dried salt is enough to meet the needs of everyone in the Ming Dynasty, boiled salt will be completely eliminated.
However, Zhu Cixi also knew that he could not just dry and cook salt in Yancheng County, so when the porcelain factory got on track, he began to go south along the coastline, and then sent people to go north along the coastline, and finally in Shandong and Jiangnan provinces.
, selected more than fifty places suitable for drying and boiling salt, and then established fifty salt factories, and also restructured the Salt Transportation Department.
Just when Zhu Cixi was vigorously developing the salt industry, the New Deal in the north was also launched with great vigor under the auspices of Ma Shiying. Huang Degong, who was far away from being naturalized, also began to pledge his strength to go on an expedition, leading an army of nearly 40,000 Han and Mongolian troops.
They crossed the Yinshan Mountains and headed towards the more distant Mobei.
After more than half a year of preparations, the preparations for this expedition to Mobei can be said to be quite sufficient.
In addition to the chariot battalion, cavalry battalion, infantry battalion, and half of the logistics battalion and firearms battalion that were naturalized last year, another 5,000 cavalrymen were transferred from the Tumut Department, adding to the original 5,000 and 10,000 people, and
The two newly recruited Tuxie Tubu cavalry battalions were also brought along, with the same number of 10,000 people.
As for the return of tens of thousands of other tribesmen and captives from the Tuxie Tu tribe, as well as a large number of cattle, sheep and horses, they have long been escorted to the Liaohe area.
So after the army went out, the entire Hetao area became deserted again. Although there were only 40,000 troops, the total number of horses was as many as 70,000 or 80,000. As a result, all the four-wheeled chariots of the chariot battalion were loaded with
Food and various supplies.
After the army crossed the Yin Mountains, Tu Xie Tu people led the way. They were not afraid of getting lost or taking the wrong path. They knew exactly where there was water and where to rest. Similarly, the habitats of the other two tribes in Mobei were also nowhere to be found.
shape.
After all, there are only a few places in Mobei that are suitable for large tribes to live. As long as they are familiar with the terrain, there is no place to run, so Huang Degong chose to go straight to the habitat of the Chechen Khan tribe to kill. He had no intention of playing hide and seek with the opponent.
After conquering the Chechen tribe, take care of the Zasaktu tribe.
Among the three major parts of Mobei, the Tuxietu tribe was originally located at the southern end, closest to the Yinshan Mountains, the Zhasaktu tribe was located at the east end, closest to the Horqin tribe, and the Chechen tribe was located at the northernmost end, closest to the Beihai.
Since the Tushetu tribe moved south, the Chechen tribe and the Zasak tribe have had several conflicts in order to seize the Tushetu tribe's territory. In the end, no one could do anything about it, so they negotiated to divide the Tushetu tribe's territory.
is two, each side takes half.
Almost as soon as Huang Degong's army crossed the vast Gobi and entered the territory of the former Tuxie Tu tribe, it was noticed by the Chechen tribe.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the Chechen tribe's sweat tent seemed very depressing. The faces of the Chechen tribe's Great Khan Yatov and other leaders were more solemn than ever before, and they were even heavier than when the conflict with Zasaktu broke out last year.
.
If it were just the Tuxie Tu tribe, their Chechen tribe would not be afraid at all. But judging from what the warriors found out, there were also a large number of Han people among them. There were not only tanks but also artillery in the team, totaling at least 40,000.
people.
Although their Chechen tribe is the most powerful among the three tribes in Mobei, with a population of more than 80,000, and as many as 20,000 sword-carrying warriors, if they are pieced together, they can even pull out 50,000 capable warriors.
But Yatov and all the leaders knew that even if their Chechen tribe used all their strength, they might not be able to match each other.
If all the people who come are Han, no matter how large the number or how powerful they are, they don't have to worry. They can completely defeat the opponent by relying on their unfamiliarity with the terrain.
But the opponent has more than 20,000 Mongolian cavalry, and there are even a large number of Tuxie Tubu people among them. It is simply unrealistic to bring down the opponent, not to mention that the opponent has clearly come for their habitat, except for a decisive battle.
There was no place to hide and no place to run.
In the end, everyone discussed and decided to send people to negotiate while sending people to the Zasak tribe, because only if the two tribes unite can they have a chance of winning.