"Why are you looking at me like this?" Gu Qingling felt weird.
Li Wenchong: "Why didn't I know that you could still practice salt? As far as I know, the Yao family has never touched anything related to salt."
"You don't believe me?"
"No." Li Wenchong refused to admit it. "I don't believe you. It's just about salt... You know, salt is government-run and cannot be touched casually."
He wanted to remind Gu Qingling that no matter where she got the salt training formula, salt was definitely not something that ordinary people like her could touch. It was better not to bring out such shady things, otherwise...
He was also not easy to deal with with his imperial brother.
Gu Qingling rolled his eyes: "What are you thinking? Our family has never touched salt, but I know how salt is refined. Moreover, I am just giving you a method. Is it useful? I need you to find someone.
experiment."
Then, Gu Qingling wrote down the refining methods of well salt and sea salt, and asked Li Wenchong to arrange for someone to try it.
She dare not say that the method she gave is 100% effective, but the general direction is in the right direction. As long as we find a few craftsmen who specialize in this area, I believe they will be able to test the results soon.
"How do you know these methods?" Li Wenchong frowned and looked at the "salt sun method" and "salt refining method" written on the paper, feeling a little confused.
"Have you forgotten what our family does? The essential oils and essential oils in our family are 'refined'. The craftsmen in various workshops in our family are all experienced with these things. If you lack talents in this field
, I can also lend you a few."
Gu Qingling really didn't lie. Whether it's essential oil or Feng Jingjing, some secret-related technologies are used, and these have some similarities with salt refining.
The salt refining technology of this era was still relatively crude, and they mainly relied on the "rock salt" naturally formed in nature.
Rock salt can be eaten directly without excessive processing.
High-quality rock salt is generally colorless, transparent or white, and is supplied to the royal family and some dignitaries. Some of the rarest rock salt will be mixed with impurities or sludge of some metal compounds to show other colors. These are what ordinary people see in their lives.
of salt.
Rock salt is mainly naturally folded out of salt lakes or Hechi, where the climate is hot, and crystal clear rock salt is often thickly condensed on the surface of salt lakes. It is usually in the hands of officials or some powerful families.
Common people cannot afford salt and think it is expensive. In addition to this reason, the other reason is the limited production of salt lakes.
The method Gu Qingling gave to Li Wenchong included three refining methods: sea salt, pool salt, and well salt, which just filled the gaps in the four types of ancient salt mines.
Pool salt, also called lake salt, refers to natural crystals in salt lakes, or is made from brine on the surface of hot lakes.
Needless to say, sea salt can be boiled, brine made and then dried, or brine made and then sun-dried, or directly sun-dried. The specific method depends on the specific sea area and local conditions.
Well salt is "drilling wells to obtain brine", mining underground natural brine and solid rock salt.
Gu Qingling not only wrote down the specific methods of obtaining salt from three salt mines, but also described the characteristics of their distribution. Although with this thing, you cannot find all the salt mines immediately, but if everything goes well, you only need to find some of them, that is
surprise.
"Do you know what it means when you take out this thing?" Li Wenchong stared at her with burning eyes and asked.
"Will it shake the foundation of those aristocratic families?" Gu Qingling said, "It is said to be official salt, but in fact most of the rock salt is in the hands of certain aristocratic families. This is the real reason why your royal family is controlled by others. For example, the Lou family.
Once you get a new way to practice salt and a new way to get it, you can break their monopoly, and then... I don’t need to tell you the rest, right?"
Li Wenchong laughed: "You have given me a big problem, but... who made you my woman? I will take this job. But I have to think carefully about how to make this matter smooth. You guys
The Yao family has never come into contact with salt, and they suddenly come up with something like this... If there is no reason, it will be difficult to explain."
"That's your business. Since you want to marry me, you must make some contribution."
Professional matters should still be left to professionals. Li Wenchong found a group of people to travel secretly, divided the troops into three groups, and visited three different salt mines.
It is almost obvious that lake salt is the same as rock salt. If Gu Qingling hadn't reminded him, Li Wenchong would not have known. In fact, lake salt has been mined by various aristocratic families for a long time, but it has always been in the name of "rock salt".
Show up and fool everyone.
"Damn it!"
When Li Wenchong saw the report sent back by the team, he was so angry that he almost exploded his lungs.
"These aristocratic families are going too far! It's going too far!"
"They have obviously found a new way to refine salt, and they keep saying that rock salt is hard to come by, asking my royal brother to give in again and again, and retreat again and again."
…
Qingzhu looked at him like this and handed him a cup of tea soothingly: "Master, drink some tea to calm down. If the old lady knows that you are angry because of these people, I'm afraid she will feel bad."
Li Wenchong glared at her: "Will she feel distressed? The sun is rising in the west."
"In any case, you are also Jiuye's father. Even if you don't look at the monk's face and look at the Buddha's face, even if the old lady is doing it for the good of Jiuye, you still have to feel sorry for your master, right?"
Li Wenchong choked, are you sure these are comforting words?
He stared at Qingzhu, wondering whether this kid was doing it on purpose, or what, why was he talking more and more irritatingly?
"Besides, in the past, the master didn't know and couldn't do anything to these people. But now that the master knows everything and has obtained the evidence, is he still afraid that he can't deal with these people?" Qingzhu continued, "Think about it from another angle.
Since lake salt is real, does that mean that the well salt and sea salt mentioned by the old lady may also be real? Those aristocratic families don’t know about these two yet. We don’t know what well salt looks like, but how big is the sea?
Ah, as long as you hold this in your hand, are you still afraid that Dayan will have no salt in the future? As long as Dayan has salt, will your Majesty be afraid that you will not be able to deal with those wealthy gentry? "
Li Wenchong looked at Qingzhu in surprise: "You kid, you seem to have become much smarter!"
Qingzhu was speechless: "Zhuzi, how stupid does a slave have to be in your heart?"
"You know it yourself, don't you?"
"The slave doesn't know. Otherwise, the master should tell the slave something?"
Li Wenchong immediately praised Qingzhu for his superb martial arts skills and that he was the best in the world. There was no one more powerful than him in the world. He praised Qingzhu until his tail was raised and he was so proud.
See, people with well-developed limbs and simple minds are so easy to coax.
After coaxing Qingzhu, Li Wenchong began to write a letter to Emperor Mingguang, telling him that the family had discovered "Lake Salt".
