Chapter 6 Drinking Water Crisis
The fire of hope yesterday was almost extinguished by the ruthless reality as soon as it was sown.
Fang Zhe reported to Song Yang about Zhao Wenbin. As soon as he left with the search team, problems arose in the base camp.
"Your Majesty! It's not good, the well water has become turbid!"
Wang Dabiao, who was responsible for guarding Song Yang, hurriedly came to report.
This guy is one of the eighty-seven guardsmen.
Because the number of guardsmen is too small, and it is an emergency.
So these guards have now become the prince's personal guards.
"Let's go! Let's go take a look!"
Song Yang was doing physical exercises at the door in order to recover faster.
After hearing the news, he immediately took Wang Dabiao to the well.
The camp here turned out to be a small market outside the city.
There is a well that is not too deep to provide daily water for everyone.
The location of Jiangzhou was Jiujiang in Song Yang's time.
With the Yangtze River to the north and Poyang Lake to the east, there is no shortage of water resources.
But disaster struck. After the earthquake, the rivers and lakes became filthy.
Coupled with the previous heavy rain, the dirt near the water source was washed into rivers and lakes.
This makes the water situation even worse.
The most important thing is that the water has a bitter and fishy smell.
Take a bite and it tastes like sea water.
It is obviously dissolved salt-alkali minerals.
Coupled with the large number of dead fish floating on the water, this all shows that the surface water is no longer drinkable.
On the first day, someone did not believe in evil and boiled the lake water and drank it.
As a result, I had unbearable abdominal pain that night, and it took me two consecutive days to recover.
I don’t know what heavy metals or other pollutants are in the water.
The situation with groundwater is not much better either.
The water produced by wells in the city is the same as surface runoff, and white floating objects are clearly visible.
It also smells strange.
There is no way to quote it, even if it is boiled.
Fortunately, there is a small well here in the campground with much better water quality.
This is also an important reason why this place can become a camp.
When we arrived at the well, many people had gathered around.
"The prince is here! The prince is here!"
"Your Majesty, a thousand years old!"
Seeing Song Yang coming, the people greeted him one after another.
Song Yang no longer had to kneel down, but the people still respected him very much.
"My lord, look at this well water!"
Wang Dabiao raised the bucket in front of Song Yang.
This bucket of water looks very dirty.
It is gray and white with clearly visible sediment.
Song Yang took a handful of water and looked at it carefully. The white suspended matter looked like lime.
"The concentration of calcium and magnesium ions is so high!" Song Yang frowned and said.
"Gai... Gai Mei? Pears? What are Gai Mei pears?" Wang Dabiao was stunned.
Naturally, the people around him didn't know why either.
Song Yang shook his head and did not explain. This thing could not be explained for the time being.
Preliminary analysis should be that the underground rock formations caused by the earthquake fragmented, polluting the underground water source.
In fact, excessive calcium and magnesium ions are not the main cause of water pollution.
Calcium and magnesium ions are also present in tap water, and you can drink it after boiling it.
Although this concentration exceeds the standard, the precipitate will not cause diarrhea after boiling.
There must be other pollution in this water that is invisible to the naked eye.
"Your Majesty! What should we do now! There is not enough drinking water left."
"Yes, my lord! Please think of a solution quickly!"
"How about we escape, to Hongzhou! Or go further south to Fuzhou!"
"Yeah. Let's go! Get out of here and find a way out!"
"Your Majesty! Please come up with an idea!"
For a time, the people were talking a lot, and most people wanted to flee.
If there is no food, he can survive ten or eight days by eating grass roots and tree bark.
If the drinking water is cut off, he will die in three days.
"You can't go anywhere!" Song Yang looked at everyone and said.
"You can't drink the water here, how can you drink it from Hongzhou? Poyang Lake also leads to Hongzhou!"
"As for Fuzhou... we can't get there without water!"
Song Yang's words silenced everyone
"There is no need to despair, we are not at the end of our rope yet."
"Now, everyone listen to my orders!"
"Bring all the pots and pans over here! I have a way for everyone to drink water!"
Song Yang ordered loudly.
His tone was full of confidence.
"Wang Dabiao!"
"Biao...ah cut!"
"The mark is on!"
Wang Dabiao sneezed loudly, rubbed his nose hurriedly and shouted.
"Take people to cut more pillars and come back!" Song Yang ordered.
"Got the order!"
For a man like Wang Dabiao who is in the army, as long as you give him an order, he will not ask why.
It is their bounden duty to carry out orders.
Wang Dabiao led a team of 100 people out of the camp and headed for the bamboo forest.
There is so much bamboo around Jiangzhou that it is basically inexhaustible.
Not long after, the people in the camp also brought over all the existing pots and pans.
"How many people know how to do masonry work!"
"I can!"
"Grass people can do it too!"
…
When Song Yang asked, thirty-seven people actually spoke.
In fact, it's not that there are many masons, but that people in this era are more or less capable of doing some manual work.
These thirty or so people can only be said to have more dignity and dare to speak, but they are not necessarily any more proficient than others.
"Thirty-seven of you, come forward!"
"Everyone else should watch too!"
Take everyone to the open space to the west of the camp. Not far to the west is a lake.
I had people clean up the debris nearby and dig out some soil.
The soil is mixed with water to make it even and easy to shape.
Finally, someone brought over the remaining bamboo from the camp.
Song Yang squatted down with great effort, planning to do the actual operation.
"Your Majesty! If you have anything to do, just ask us to do it!"
"Yes! Yes! Your injury is not healed yet, take care of yourself!"
"My lord, what do you say, I will do it as you say."
The craftsmen saw that the prince was getting started, and wondered how they could let the prince do such dirty and tiring work.
Everyone gathered around to persuade them.
Song Yang raised his head and looked around at everyone and said with a smile:
"I want to make a simple distiller, who among you knows?"
"Steam... steamer?"
Thirty-seven craftsmen were all scratching their heads.
It’s not that the ancients were ignorant, some people can make simple distillers in this era.
However, there are specialties in the technical field, and those people are basically concentrated in the brewing industry.
It's a pity that no one among the 5,400 of them understands this.
"Haha, don't worry, everyone, just help me."
"This thing is very simple. I will only do it once, and you will understand it after seeing it."
"After teaching it for a while, everyone will get involved."
Song Yang said with a smile.
First, he ordered people to dig a simple stove pit and fill the clay pots with lake water for boiling water.
The lid of the clay pot has two round openings, and bamboo tubes are inserted into each.
A section of one of the bamboo tubes was connected and tilted downward to one side.
A stopper was added to another bamboo tube to serve as a water injection port.
Then, build a small pool with the mixed soil below the inclined section.
The water in the pool and the lake covers this section of the bamboo tube.
After that, the connecting parts of the entire device are sealed with soil to prevent air leakage.
Finally, place a clean porcelain bowl at the other end of the bamboo tube as a water container.
After doing this, Song Yang stood up and ordered:
"Light the fire."
This chapter has been completed!