The Luo River is gentle and in a place called Shanyao Town, the northernmost part of Jiangyang County, suddenly becomes slightly turbulent. Because from here, there is an arched ridge that forces the river channel to become narrower and more steeper. After passing that ridge, it belongs to Han'an County in the north.

The towns at the junction of the two counties are often poor places with poor transportation conditions and natural environments, and are relatively poor. Most people have never seen the world.

Wang Yang is the eldest son of a salt farm in the town. He, Aweng, had his own well and two wells managed by the government. He was considered a rich local person. So on the way to suggest that day, when he saw a majestic fleet of officials coming to the town, he immediately realized the problem and hurriedly informed his father.

The Eastern Han Dynasty followed the "salt and iron official business" policy since Sang Hongyang, the Western Han Dynasty. Private salt is of course prohibited from legally speaking. However, in remote areas, in order to balance production efficiency and management costs, the government generally allows the coexistence of both the official business and the private business during the salt mining stage.

As long as the salt dug from private wells is sold to the government for underwriting and not selling by itself, it is not illegal. This also facilitates the government to focus on big and small circulation rather than production, which stimulates more enthusiasm in the production process and actively find ways to improve technology and improve production efficiency.

"Aweng, come and see. A high-ranking official came to our town and was also a special visit to Yanjing. At most, we have only been here in the county magistrate, but the prefect has never seen him. The person who came here is very young, but he is more pompous than the prefect. I heard that it was accompanied by Prefect Chen." Wang Yang hurriedly pulled up his father who was still filled with fermented glutinous rice in the house.

"Give Naiweng a lot of fuss. How could there be an official who is older than the prefect come here? Even if there is really, would it be that he would have to increase the salt water or lower the price of the government's purchase? It's not a good thing. But I haven't heard of the price reduction in Jiangyang, so how could he target our remote area alone?" His father Wang Jiang said, and slapped Wang Yang's back with bamboo chopsticks, which was a warning to his son to be calm. Then he dusted his coarse coat and got up.

As soon as they walked out, they saw Xu An, a fellow villager in the town, also brought a few shops to the well ground of Wang Jiang's family. As soon as they met, they grabbed Wang Jiang's sleeve:

"Brother Wang, I remember the two official wells in your family who were in charge of the house would get angry? Prefect Chen just arrived in the town? Are you sitting in my room asking about this? Come and repay me! I heard that there is a governor here."

The "home" in the Eastern Han Dynasty was not just a title of "a respected elder in the countryside", but a subordinate of a county magistrate? Some were also called "three elders"? In fact, it was equivalent to the village chief. It was ranking a hundred stones, but actually received eight stones of grain every month. It actually received ninety-six stones a year.

This is equivalent to a township chief meeting the mayor (prefect) of a prefecture-level city suddenly came to inspect and brought a governor who was more senior than the prefect? ​​How can he not pay attention to it?

When Wang Jiang heard that such a large official came, he complained secretly, thinking that he would be plundered by the people, but he was very puzzled why such a high official came to such a remote area to search for him.

We can't blame these people for not knowing each other. After all, they have never left the county in their entire lives. No one even knows the world outside? Last year, when Liu Yan died, it was replaced by Liu Bei. They didn't know that the county magistrate and the prefect did not replace him. Who told Chen Shi to surrender to Zhao Yun without fighting? So that the people under his rule did not go through wars and officials were kept? They didn't know that if they changed their masters, they should still live.

...

Wang Jiang was miserable and was understood by Xu An. Li Su was already waiting there to be cross-examination, and Chen Shi and Guoyuan sat next to him.

Of course, the houses of the villagers are very dilapidated? They are just adobe houses, only the main houses are built with tiles? The courtyard walls and ear rooms are all without tiles? They are covered with straw.

Chen Shi flatteredly asked someone to fan Li Su's hair? He also asked a servant to hold a large banana leaf fan to block Li Su's head, so as not to fall off the mud on the roof and dirty Li Su's hair.

Li Suai's reputation for taking a bath is well known in the Yizhou officialdom. Judging from Li Su's clothes and hair, he also knows that he is much cleaner than others. People like Chen Shi who surrendered and maintained their official position should be more careful to serve him.

"Governor, it's this Wang Jiang. There are two hot-tempered officials in charge of the county in the family." Xu An, the village elder, knelt down and reported. He usually didn't have to kneel down when he saw the county magistrate, and the prefect was not very particular, but today the level difference was too big and he felt unsure.

"Everyone get up and talk, let me ask you, how deep is the well of these two wells that are irritated? How much is the yield? Can you use irritated gas to cook salt?" Li Su asked kindly.

He actually didn't have much expectations for the last question, because the history of using natural gas to cook salt in Shu seemed to be the matter after Zhuge Liang governed Shu. However, natural gas in Yunnan seemed to be used earlier, and it was recorded during the Eastern Han Dynasty, but Li Su couldn't remember it clearly.

If the people don’t understand, he will teach them.

When Wang Jiang heard that it was not a search for price reduction, but a questioning output, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly replaced the prepared words of complaining and begging for mercy with a set of words "emphasizing technical difficulties":

"Governor, we are wronged. It's not that we don't work hard to mine the Guanjing Well. In fact, these two Guanjing Wells cannot be digged deeper. Those who have opened the salt well know that the deeper the salt well, the better the brine. But if a well has anger, as long as it gets angry, you can't dig deeper, and you have to be more careful in mining.

I'm not talking nonsense. More than 20 years ago, when my father was in charge of those wells, he was digging deep into the well and fainted in one breath. When we found out, half a quarter of an hour had passed and he pulled it aside but couldn't save it. If the anger was not burned, it would be poisoned to death if it gathered in one place. As for using the anger to cook salt, I couldn't even think about it. We only dare to burn some dispersed poison when the anger accumulated too much."

When Li Su heard this result, he was quite pleased. It turned out that the Gongjing area had already reached a sufficient depth of stabilization, and not continuing to dig was just because the people were afraid of poison, rather than insufficient excavation technology.

If the drilling technology is too weak, Li Su will not be able to cheat. After all, he is not a student at the oil university and cannot develop awesome drills.

But the people are not mentally prepared and afraid, so there is a place for him as a liberal arts student to use.

As for the toxic fire that Wang Jiang mentioned, Li Su estimated that the methane concentration was too high, which caused suffocation. Low concentrations of natural gas (methane) were not effective in toxic to the human body. Only when there were several methane in the air would you feel headache, dizziness and fatigue.

The one that has the strongest toxicity is coal gas (carbon monoxide), not natural gas.

Li Su shook his head and sighed, "What a pity, you don't understand, so you waste natural resources - these fires can be used to directly steadily to make fire and boil salt. After burning the fires, it will not cause any benefits or disadvantages, so as not to be too breathless for people and animals. But it's not too late. Chen Taishou, let's start supervising the rectification today."

Li Su said the second half of the sentence to Chen Shi.

Wang Jiang hurriedly dissuaded: "Governor, it's not that easy. When burning the air, there is a fire at the wellhead. How to make a brine? We can't make a brine? I have only heard of the seniors in Qiong County who have opened the wellhead and occasionally ignited the fire to dissipate the air. I really have never heard of burning the fire while burning the salt and burning the fire."

Li Su waved his hand and said, "I can't get it! You won't make some pipes, drill another side hole next to the brine well, and lead the air to the distance and burn it. Then you can continue to use it. Don't you talk nonsense and go to the scene to take a look."

He was too lazy to reason directly with the foolish people. These people only had operational skills, but did not have basic scientific knowledge.

The group of people arrived at the scene and found a well with companion natural gas and tried it. At first, the materials for the gas pipe were not found. After some tinkering, Li Su ordered to try it with a bamboo tube, but the test effect was not good, because the bamboo leaked and the flames were burning everywhere. Fortunately, there was no major danger, and it was not enough to cause a gas explosion-

The air outlet of this well is very low, the natural gas density is low, and it dissipates faster. As long as it is not a confined space and is not guided or stored, it will not reach the explosive concentration.

This is also determined by the physical characteristics of natural gas. What is really easy to explode is coal gas, because the average density of air is 29 (nitrogen 28 oxygen 32, averaged by 29 according to the respective concentrations), while methane molecular weight is only 16, much lighter than air, and it can easily rise and drift. Gas is carbon monoxide, with a molecular weight of 28, which is too close to air 29, so it is easy to mix fully with air.

Although the experiment failed, it was based on the experiment. Everyone had some intuitive understanding of the operation process of "natural gas and salt boiling" and was also quite inspired.

Guoyuan, who had been in charge of farming in Zhuti for more than half a year, finally had a flash of inspiration. He thought of a question and took the initiative to advise: "Governor, I know what's going on. When I was in Zhuti, I inquired about the information of business travel in Nanlai. I heard that there were also a small amount of salt wells in Nanzhong, which were also angry. Some of them used fire to cook salt. At first, I didn't believe it, but now I have read your experiment.

They must have used bamboo tubes to induce air to burn it, but the Qiong bamboo in Nanzhong is much taller than the bamboo in Jianwei County. Didn’t the lord reward the Qiong bamboo sticks that are specialized in Nanzhong? A cane can be made of bamboo with seven or eight feet long. But I heard that the thickest bamboo in Nanzhong can be one or two feet at a time. Therefore, their air conduit joints are less than ours and less air leakage than ours, so that they can boil salt!”

After hearing this, Li Su thought for a while and was overjoyed. She patted Guoyuan's shoulder and praised him: "Zi Ni! I didn't expect that you would still think about these things and be rewarded! After you have done your best, I will let the lord be promoted to the Diannong School Captain."

It turns out that the Nanzhong people are obviously inferior to those of Shu people, but the Nanzhong people can use gas and boil salt in a small amount because their gas pipelines have good sealing properties!

In most areas, bamboo has similar habits to herbs, and it witheres and flourishes every year, so it is difficult to grow very thick and long, and the spacing between bamboo joints is particularly wide.

However, because Yunnan is too hot and there is no winter, some Qiong bamboos that grow in the tropical region will survive the winter. The length of perennial bamboos and annual bamboos is of course huge advantages.

The biggest problem with using bamboo as gas pipelines is to cut off the bamboo first and cut off the bamboo joints so that the air can flow over. However, the more cut-off interfaces, the more air leakage will be.

After understanding this problem, Li Su's first reaction was to deal with it with two tricks: first, after conquering Nanzhong, he should add a "perennial Qiong bamboo with thick and long bamboo joints" to the trade materials in Nanzhong.

Secondly, when you can't get so many southern middle-range bamboos, you can first find a way to solve the problem of "drilling the bamboo without cutting the bamboo open, just drilling holes to break the bamboo joints", or develop how to reseal the bamboo that cuts the joints and connect them.

Nowadays, there is no electrical tape, no rubber, and even ordinary airtight tape paper. I have to find a way to get other sealing materials.

Moreover, as long as the gas pipeline is well built, the scale of natural gas and salt boiling can be much better than the current small-scale fights and small-scale fights such as Nanzhong people who "can only burn one pot in a well" like.

As long as there is technology to set up a gas pipeline that is more than ten feet away without leaking, Li Su can continue to dig deep into the companion gas well to increase the gas output exponentially, and then cover a salt boiling workshop with dozens of pots on the air outlet, and use the gas pipeline to separate the gas to the bottom of so many pots.

Even if a well does not have so much braised for you to cook, then lay a "pipe brine pipe" to bring the brine from other high places in the same village, and use the gas from the well with gas to cook the brine from the entire village.

"I didn't expect that when I returned to the end of the Han Dynasty, I had to deal with tap water pipes and gas pipes again. It seems that the evaluation of me, a bathing marquis in history books in the future, will be like the "water supply and drainage emperor" like Lingdi.
Chapter completed!