He stepped forward and looked under the water. He saw something different at this glance. It was different from ordinary paddy fields. There was a bit of white under the water, but it was not silt, but it was not like salt either. Prince
Bai Shan looked at Bai Shan suspiciously, "Is there salt below?"
Bai Shan only glanced at it and said: "This is the first time for the seawater to be dried. It has only been in the water for two days, so the performance is not obvious. Your Highness, let's go further ahead. The place with many people over there seems to be collecting salt."
.”
The prince glanced forward and saw that there was indeed a crowd gathering in the distance, but he was not in a hurry to go there and walked directly along the field ridge.
He looked from field to field, and as he looked, he discovered the differences.
Going down the field ridge, there was a wide ditch with water flowing slowly in it. The prince stepped forward and took a look.
He glanced at the ditch, then at the salt fields on the side, and thought thoughtfully, "Is this sea water?"
"Yes," Bai Shan explained: "When the tide rises, the seawater will pour into the ditches. The ditches are connected to the first salt field in each row. When the salt crystals and salt brine are exposed in the sun, we will sieve and wash them.
Put it in the second field."
The prince walked to a field and asked, "Like this one?"
This is a salt field where you can see large salt crystals at the bottom. The water is almost dry, but there is still a shallow layer of water on top.
The prince squatted down and reached out to grab a handful of salt from the field. Some of the salt slowly melted and slipped from his fingers...
He twisted it and stuck out his tongue to taste it. It was very bitter salt, but it was indeed salty.
Governor Guo and others who were following the prince were in a daze, and they have not come back to their senses until now. They have many questions in their hearts. The first is, what are these square fields used for?
I heard that Bai Shan means sun salt?
Aren’t fields meant for planting?
Doesn’t salt need to be boiled?
The officials looked down at the salt fields at their feet and were speechless for a long time.
The prince washed the salt off his hands in the salt field, and Eunuch Wu quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands.
The prince wiped it twice carelessly and looked at the last field in this row.
Bai Shan immediately said: "That is the second salt field where the salt crystals are dried, melted with water, and then filtered and dried. It is also the last salt field. We have compared it, and the salt filtered twice and dried is no worse than boiled salt.
.”
In order to save firewood when boiling salt, they only filter it once. The salt is bitter and darker than the salt they boil.
The prince nodded slightly and led the people forward.
Zhou Liwei was squatting by the salt field, rubbing the salt crystals pushed to him and checking the quality. A long-term worker looked behind him several times to confirm that he had seen correctly, and said quickly: "Master Zhou, the county magistrate is here again."
Zhou Liwei glanced back and couldn't see the person clearly, "It's impossible, he just left yesterday."
The long-term worker squinted his eyes and looked for a moment before confirming: "It's the county magistrate, that's right!"
We have received notification from the soldiers. Inspection Luo, who was patrolling the mountainside, has already rushed over with his people. When passing by the salt field, he called Zhou Liwei: "The county magistrate is here, and he has brought many high officials. You are still stunned."
What are you doing? Go and greet him quickly."
When the soldiers found him, they told him that among the people brought by the county magistrate, there were not only people wearing red official robes, but also one wearing purple robes, and the county magistrate was following behind the man in purple robes.
When Zhou Liwei heard this, he immediately got up and followed Luo Inspector and ran there.
After running for a while, they finally met the prince halfway.
Inspector Luo didn't know the prince, so he thought there was nothing wrong with saluting anyway, so he raised his hand to salute. However, Zhou Liwei, who had seen the prince's face clearly, couldn't help but exclaimed, "His Royal Highness?"
The Zhou family had never met the emperor, but the prince and princess were fortunate enough to have met him.
Although he saw little of the prince, Zhou Liwei still tried hard to remember his face because he was such a noble person.
Inspector Luo did not put down his raised hand. His knees softened and he knelt down on the field ridge with a thump.
Zhou Liwei, who had originally planned to bow down to the end, could only pull up his trouser legs and kneel down, and kowtowed to the prince together with Inspector Luo.
The prince was very satisfied with their respect, and the smile on his face became wider. He raised his hand and said, "Get up."
He skipped Luo's inspection and looked Zhou Liwei up and down. He thought he looked familiar, but couldn't remember who he was, so he asked, "Do you know Gu?"
Zhou Liwei subconsciously looked at Zhou Man behind the prince.
The prince also glanced back at Zhou Man and suddenly realized, "It looks familiar to me. Your eyes look very similar to Zhou Man's."
Zhou Man said: "He is my second nephew."
The prince nodded slightly and asked, "What is he doing in the salt field now?"
Bai Shan replied: "Be a steward."
He said bluntly: "I have limited energy, so I let him help me."
The prince nodded slightly and asked Zhou Liwei, "Is salt harvesting over there? How much salt can be harvested from a field, how many days can it be harvested, and how much manpower is consumed?"
Zhou Liwei was a little nervous, but fortunately his uncle had asked these questions before when he came here, and his account book was pretty good, so he could answer them one by one.
The prince was mentally prepared, so there was nothing visible on his face, but the officials who were listening all the way behind him couldn't help but look at the salt fields on both sides of the field ridge. They didn't pay much attention to the road and almost fell into the field.
When we arrived at the salt collection place, the long-term workers were pushing salt in the salt field in short attire. The wooden shovels were polished to a sharp point and were about one meter wide. After they were put down, they were pushed forward, and the salt crystals in the salt field were pushed together.
, more and more, more and more, and by the time they were pushed in front of the prince and the others, there was already a small pile.
Even the prince was stunned for a moment, not to mention the ministers behind him, who all had their mouths wide open.
Governor Guo thought of something and his eyes turned red. He turned to look at Bai Shan.
Bai Shan stood behind the prince, waiting for them to come to their senses.
The prince knelt down, grabbed a handful of salt, looked at it, and twisted it carefully. The salt particles fell one by one. Not to mention, they were quite thin, at least thinner than the ordinary salt sold in the market.
The prince said to the people behind him: "You should also come and take a look."
Tang He and others were waiting for the prince's words. As soon as he finished speaking, several people crowded up to touch the salt, squatting in rows and occupying the whole side of the salt field.
The long-term workers looked around at a loss, and when they saw Zhou Liwei indicating for them to continue, they turned around and continued shoveling salt, ignoring these ignorant officials.
The censor didn't quite believe that the salt was made from the sun, so he looked at the salt field behind him and saw that it was filled with water and there was no trace of salt at all.
No, it's not that I didn't see it at all. The water was different from ordinary water at first glance. It seemed to be a little white and turbid.
He stretched out his fingers to stir in the salt field, took it into his mouth and felt it, it was very salty...
The censor hesitated between doubt and belief, but finally decided that seeing is believing, so he said to the prince: "Your Highness, I would like to stay in the salt field to see the method of drying salt."
Unless he saw with his own eyes the salt produced from the sea water entering the fields, he would not believe it.