From the moment he found the salt mine, Xu Chen's biggest concern was not mining, but transportation.
It would be difficult for the Yu Gong clan alone to build a road more than a hundred miles long in the virgin forest in the south. It is estimated that many people from other tribes would need to be recruited to help.
At present, the second round of house expansion and paddy field renovation is being started on a large scale near the royal city, and these are projects that must be completed before spring. In addition, next month he also wants to build a wooden bridge across both sides of the Jicang River, which requires both manpower and material resources.
very nervous……
"Alas~"
Xu Chen let out a long sigh, feeling like a clever woman struggling to make a living without rice, which was similar to the mood she felt when she went down the mountain to build a house when she first traveled through time.
There is a shortage of people, a shortage of people everywhere.
As the kingdom was established and more and more projects needed to be developed and constructed, he became more and more understanding of Taizu's simple view that his family members were more powerful.
With food in hand and no panic in his heart, Xu Chen could cut down this virgin forest if there were enough people.
But for now, all things can only be solved slowly one by one. The large-scale development of this salt mine and road construction can only be left until next autumn and winter.
Xu Chen used the copper pick he brought to randomly excavate several places on the salt-alkali flats. He found that the salt content of the sediment here was very high. It was much higher than that of the small salt mines of the Mongolian people. He could almost grab a handful of sand.
One-third of it is made of rock salt. If you dig deeper, you can still see the crystallized salt crystals. The closer you are to the central salt lake, the greater the salt content. When you walk to the area more than ten meters away from the salt lake, there is already a thick layer of salt on the ground.
A layer of solid salt crystals makes a popping sound when stepped on.
“So much salt!”
Seeing so much salt, the hunters who came with them all exclaimed excitedly, and some even grabbed a handful and started licking it.
At this time, Xu Chen had put behind him the depression of missing people, took off his boots, walked barefoot and slowly to the edge of the salt lake, and then walked straight into the water.
The salt lake is not deep, and the center is less than one meter.
Under the clear lake water, there was a thick layer of snow-white salt. Xu Chen bent down and grabbed a handful. Under the clear autumn sun, the purity was intoxicating.
The Mongolian people cannot form surface salt lakes due to the slow leaching of salt brine. They need to manually dig salt ponds and wash the salt to evaporate and precipitate this pure salt.
But here, salt can naturally precipitate in the surface salt lake all year round.
This salt lake has existed for tens of thousands of years. Although the area is not large, there must be a lot of salt precipitated below. It is estimated that it will not be a problem to get more than ten tons. In addition, the halite crystals excavated and cleared from the surrounding salt-alkali flats are also estimated to be good.
Dozens of tons.
If all this salt is shipped out, it will be enough for the entire country of Pakistan for two to three years.
In other words, the current salt mine does not require large-scale overall development, and it can only meet the demand in the next few years by picking it up.
The only problem is still transportation.
But this matter really cannot be solved at the moment.
The population is too small, which is a very real and unsolvable problem.
Of course, there are advantages to having fewer people, that is, the demand for salt will be relatively less, just like food.
Although a large population speeds up construction, it is also more likely to cause a lot of poverty and hunger.
Therefore, the main task at the moment is to protect this salt mine, carry out an overall development plan, and then gradually implement mining, think of more methods and invest more efforts to transport the salt out.
For the next whole day, Xu Chen almost stayed in this salt mine area.
Not only the salt mines should be inspected, but also all terrain and conditions within a few miles of the surrounding areas should be inspected.
Because if we want to protect and develop the salt mines here, we must build a large number of houses here and arrange for people to station and monitor them, as well as build a large number of tools and supporting facilities such as mining and storage.
In order to protect the salt mine from being polluted, not only fences must be built around it, but the salt-alkali flats and salt lakes must also be cleaned up as a whole.
In order to ensure the smooth progress of salt mine production, sufficient food must be provided. Hunting alone will definitely not be enough. It is also necessary to find suitable places nearby to cultivate some farmland to grow food crops, and even to raise poultry and livestock.
Just like the construction of a complete industrial and mining plant area in later generations, in the case of extreme traffic congestion, the salt mine needs to be as self-reliant as possible to complete the internal cycle of closed production, and the less external dependence the better.
The day passed in a blink of an eye, and the sun was about to set again.
Hungry, Xu Chen returned to the barbarian settlement and found that Lei, with a team of nearly two hundred hunters, had been cutting down hundreds of waist-thick and thigh-thick trees around the camp in one day.
These trees were carried to the small lake and piled together, which looked spectacular.
After cutting down these trees, the area around the lake suddenly became much brighter and wider.
This time Xu Chen came well prepared with his army. For him, conquering the barbarians was a certainty, and developing salt mines was the most important task.
Therefore, before setting off, he had ordered all the participating hunters to carry as many metal tools as possible, such as axes, hatchets, copper hoes, and pickaxes. In addition to the bronze waist knives generally distributed by the officer class, almost half of the hunters now have one in hand.
Heavy weapons.
With these metal knives, cutting down trees is naturally very fast.
The manic speed of logging by a group of hunters naturally frightened a group of defeated and conquered barbarians, men, women, and children out of their wits.
From the moment the first big tree was chopped down by two big and round hunters, all the barbarian people's eyes almost fell out, their mouths were wide open and they were stunned for several minutes, unable to recover.
But for the whole next day, the sound of big trees falling around the entire camp was like a disaster. The sound of hunters logging and scattering could be heard all the time, and the sound of big trees snapping and falling could be heard all the time.
The whole forest seemed to be mixed with a group of prehistoric giant beasts, violently overturning the big trees.
After the felled trees were quickly cut into certain lengths and sizes, the hunters shouted neat chants and carried them to the open space by the lake for stacking.
This group of barbarians could not understand what the Ba hunters were shouting.
But after a day of familiarity, these chants were like magic, lingering in their minds and never getting rid of them.
"One quack, one quack, lift the wood, quack."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, it's so heavy."
"Quick, quack, quack with all your strength."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Mo Nu quack..."
For a whole day, all the barbarians were immersed in the rhythmic chants and could not extricate themselves. Their expressions gradually changed from the initial frightened dullness to numbness and adaptation.
It’s not that they are ignorant, but that this is a conflict between two different worlds and civilizations.
Not to mention cutting down such a big tree, even cutting down a strong wooden stick as thick as an arm to make a spear is still a big project for them.
But for this group of hunters who conquered them, cutting down trees was as easy as peeing and defecating, and it was over in just a few clicks.
And those shining golden sharp weapons in the hands of all hunters are their greatest support.
Their most ferocious and muscular leader, the man, was beheaded by this weapon.
Therefore, looking at these sharp bronze weapons, all the savages were both afraid and envious.
Xu Chen has already arranged the construction of the camp. Lei and a group of hunters will make arrangements according to the situation on site, so Xu Chen does not need to worry too much.
However, when Xu Chen returned to his residence, he found that Long and a group of forbidden soldiers had not returned yet, and he couldn't help but feel worried.
It's only about ten miles from here to another barbarian tribe, and there are only a few dozen men, women, and children in that tribe. Logically speaking, they should be back by now, but there is no sign of them at all.
So he called Lei over to ask about the situation. Lei was also a little puzzled and said he didn't know what was going on with Long, but he believed that Long would be fine.
The more than ten miles of primeval forest seemed very close, but it would take two or three hours to walk, so it was definitely too late to arrange for people to go explore it now, so Xu Chen had no choice but to give up and order to start lighting a fire for cooking.
When Xu Chen went out this time, he asked all the hunters to prepare half a month's worth of food, pottery bowls, cups and other utensils. In addition, he also used horse teams to carry a lot of pots and pots and other cooking utensils, so food and drink were enough for the time being.
Today, Lei stayed behind to cut trees and build a camp, and also specially arranged for two teams of hunters to hunt in nearby territories. They successively hunted nearly ten wild wolves, wild boars, dogs, badgers, rabbits and other large and small beasts, as well as seven or eight large wild birds.
In addition, more than ten large fish were caught with simple fishing nets from the small lake near the camp.
These fresh fish can also greatly supplement the army's food.
Although the barbarian men suffered heavy casualties and most of them lost the ability to work in a short period of time, the women, children, old and young were almost all safe. Xu Chen was not too strict with them. During the day, they were also in the woods around the lake under the supervision of hunters.
Look for some wild fruits and roots to dig up.
All kinds of food added up, not only a lot but also very rich, including fish, meat, fruits and porridge, enough for all the hunting team and barbarians to have a full meal.
As piles of bonfires were once again lit in the woods and open spaces near lakes, thick smoke rose into the sky, rising into the clear blue sky in the evening breeze of the setting sun, making this normally wild and lonely primitive land
In the dense forest, there is more activity of human civilization.
After the beast was disemboweled, it was cut into large pieces with sharp daggers and knives and placed directly on the campfire for barbecue. The large bones were smashed with an ax and put into clay pots for cooking soup. In addition, some minced meat was also finely chopped.
Finely chop into minced meat and cook into meat soup in a clay pot.
Most of the wild birds were plucked, then sprinkled with some salt and pepper, wrapped in leaves, covered with a thick layer of lake mud, and buried directly in the fire to burn.
Beggar's chicken is Xu Chen's invention. It is simple to make. Although these wild birds are not as fat as the domesticated poultry and the meat is slightly thicker, they are more delicious when cooked in this way than cooked in a clay pot.
More than a dozen large fish were also cut up and either grilled or boiled.
Xu Chen turned around and cooked himself a small pot of spicy and sour fish.
Only he can enjoy this spicy and sour taste that stimulates the soul.
And after eating it for a few days, Xu Chen actually became addicted. If he didn't eat it for a day, he would feel a little unsatisfied.