Seeing everyone's reaction, Xia Hongsheng scratched his head, didn't speak, turned around and went back to the stove, and when he came out again, he had a small crockpot in his hand, and walked to the courtyard and put the crockpot on the table. The four of them stared at the white greasy in the crockpot in surprise, Yan Shigu looked at the crockpot with some surprise, and said suspiciously: "This is salt?" The old man had never seen such white salt, and it was a little whiter than the green salt used for purifying his mouth! ”

As he spoke, Old Master Yan was very taboo and stretched out his finger to dip a little in the crockpot, and then put it into his mouth, and immediately squeezed his eyebrows: "It's really salt!" ”

Suddenly, I saw three eyes suddenly turn sideways, and those eyes were fierce, looking at Xia Hongsheng, it actually made Xia Hongsheng feel a little weak and trembling. Uh, what are these three people going to do, with a cannibalistic expression, do you think I'm scared?

"This thing...... Well, Jingshi, have outsiders ever seen you when you were making salt? Yan Shigu took the lead in recovering over, with a solemn expression, and asked Xia Hongsheng with a solemn face. The other two people also reacted, and they also had a stern face.

Looking at the reactions of several people, Xia Hongsheng frowned slightly, and when he saw their expression, he put his sister-in-law aside and said, "No, when I made salt, I made it while my sister-in-law was not at home, and even my sister-in-law didn't know." ”

"That's great!" Yan Shigu nodded, turned his head to look at the middle-aged scribe and Xu Xiaode, and the three of them sat back again, lowered their voices and began to communicate. Their voices were very soft and small, Xia Hongsheng was curious, so he secretly leaned over to listen, but only heard a sentence "The most important thing is this thing, in my opinion, it should be the ...... in the army in the west" and then wanted to listen down, but was glared at by Yan Shigu, so he had to scratch his head and stay away. Cut, don't let us listen, let's eat something good. Xia Hongsheng turned his head and glanced at Xu Qixian, Xu Qixian immediately understood, walked around the three people to Xia Hongsheng, and followed Xia Hongsheng into the stove.

Xia Hongsheng lifted the lid of the wooden pot, rummaged in the pot, then scooped out two sheep bones, then sprinkled some condiments on them, turned around and handed one of them to Xu Qixian, who was already sucking in saliva by the aroma. Xu Qixian was also polite, took the lamb bone and gnawed it. took a bite, tore off a piece of mutton and chewed a few bites, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he immediately devoured it, and slipped the mutton bone clean with three strokes and five divisions.

Xia Hongsheng, who had only eaten less than half of it, stared at Xu Qixian with wide eyes, and took out another one from the pot speechlessly and handed it over: "I said Brother Xu, you eat slowly, it's like you haven't eaten for hundreds of years, as for ......?"

Hearing Xia Hongsheng say this, Xu Qixian smiled a little wryly: "Cough, this is not to blame for my brother, my brother ran out early before breakfast in order to inform you of the academy earlier this morning, and now I am hungry!" ”

Xia Hongsheng smiled, turned around and scooped out half of the soup from the pot with a spoon and tasted it, well, it's almost. So he took a big bowl casually, cut the green onions, cut the mutton, put the seasonings, and then brewed a big bowl of mutton soup, turned around and put it in front of Xu Qixian: "Eat, the shredded cake hasn't had time to be baked, you can just take it with the scallion pancake." ”

Xu Qixian was not polite, he bent down and took out a scallion pancake, lowered his head and blew, took a sip of mutton soup, and immediately raised his head in surprise: "The fresh fragrance is rich and delicious, it is mutton but it does not have that smell, but it is still a little fragrant!" It's the first time I've drunk such a delicious soup! Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! ”

Xia Hongsheng rolled his eyes, are you a cat star?

Xu Qixian didn't care about the heat, he took the chopsticks and drank it in a big gulp, Xia Hongsheng was slowly gnawing on the mutton bones next to him, yes, Xu Qixian is also a mouthful, look at Xu Qixian's table, this mutton soup is quite successful, and it is definitely delicious enough to sell it on the street. This pine wood and angelica are secret recipes, but they can't be known to others for the time being. When the sheep soup pot is set up, some pancakes are baked and cut into shredded cakes, and if you don't want to eat shredded cakes, there are scallion pancakes, and business should be good. The life of the family is getting better day by day, although the sister-in-law is busy, the smile on her face is getting more and more, and she looks more energetic, and she doesn't look so old. Wait for the relatives on the sister-in-law's side to come over to help, and the sister-in-law can be more relaxed. When this snack stall gradually expands, you can plate down a larger storefront, not a restaurant, just make a snack city, there are all kinds of tricks in it, the price is not expensive, and the taste is novel and delicious, and the business will be very good.

Xia Hongsheng slowly gnawed on the sheep bones without a mouthful, thinking about the bright future of the family, when he suddenly heard a cough at the door, looked up, and saw that the other three people had finished the secret conversation and came over.

Xu Qixian choked, and quickly coughed and stood up, Xia Hongsheng was not so panicked, and gave a salute and said: "Brother Xu didn't eat in the morning, so he was hungry and uncomfortable, and it happened that the mutton soup made by the students was also completed, so he made a bowl for my brother first." Master Yan, seniors, and Uncle Xu also invited them to take a seat, and the students rushed out. ”

"There's no hurry." Yan Shigu waved his hand and said to Xia Hongsheng: "Jingshi, you continue to make salt from this salt soil, and explain the process to the old man and others." ”

Xia Hongsheng nodded, returned to the courtyard with the three of them, and then pointed to the two big wooden barrels, and said: "Actually, the process is very simple, first grind the salt mine into salt soil - the students buy it directly - pour the salt soil into these two wooden barrels, and keep stirring to make it fully dissolved in water. This is the first step. ”

After speaking, Xia Hongsheng took out the two pieces of linen again, covered the linen cloth to the mouth of the barrel, and said: "The second step is filtration, there are too many impurities in the salt soil, in addition to salt, there are many other mineral components, and the linen cloth can filter out those large particles well." ”

As he spoke, Xia Hongsheng began to filter the salt water in the bucket, Xu Qixian also ran out, and the four of them stared closely at Xia Hongsheng's every move. Xia Hongsheng filtered it a few times, and then took off the linen, and then looked at the linen at this time, the originally clean linen was already full of dregs.

"These are large particles, all of which are toxic minerals, and if you eat salt soil directly, you will eat all these things." Xia Hongsheng changed two pieces of clean linen cloth and explained: "But it's not enough, there are still many invisible poisons that need to be filtered out with charcoal." ”

He wrapped the sackcloth in crushed charcoal, and strained the brine many times until it turned into a pale cyan liquid, and then stopped.

"This last step is to put the remaining salted water in a pot and boil, and when the water boils dry, the good salt will come out." Xu Qixian helped Xia Hongsheng pour the remaining bucket of brine into the pot and boiled it.

After completing this qiē, Xia Hongsheng invited the four of them back to the table and sat down.

"Jingshi, don't blame the old man for being so out of shape, you are still young, I don't know how many people have been killed because of this lack of salt." After sitting down, Yan Shigu said to Xia Hongsheng with a sad face, and several other people also had the same expression, but listened to Yan Shigu continue: "Sea salt is difficult to enter, the people lack salt, if you don't enter the salt, the whole body is swollen, the yellow-haired child will be dizzy and unable to distinguish things, can only eat salt soil, salt soil is also toxic, long to eat purple bruises, mouth and tongue stiff, and finally poison to death." Emperor Yang of the former Sui Dynasty made three expeditions to Goryeo, and hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Liaodong. The weather in Liaodong is cold, the sea ships do not enter, the army is short of food and grass, and there is no more than half a grain of salt soil, the soldiers are sick, weak and weak, unable to fight, plus the weather is cold and frozen, there are countless dead and wounded, and they turn into a dry bone. Now, although the Tang Dynasty has established a country, although it is temporarily peaceful, the surrounding countries, especially the Turks, Xue Yantuo, and Tuyuhun in the west, will have a war sooner or later. In the army in the west, I am afraid that the people in Guanzhong are more short of salt, but all over the Western Regions are full of salt soil, if there is this method, not only can we solve the dilemma of the army without salt, but also with the addition of countless salt fields, the people will no longer have salt to eat? When the time comes, it will not be an exaggeration to make this merit a marquis! ”

While a few people were talking, Master Yan couldn't sit still, and had to go to see the salt being boiled out with his own eyes, and several people entered the stove, but saw that as the water vapor in the pot gradually evaporated, the white salt crystals gradually precipitated, and the four of them opened their eyes wide, and the middle-aged scribe stretched out his finger and dipped a little spit in disregard of the image, dipped a little white salt crystal in the pot and tasted it, and immediately looked at the other people excitedly: "This is really salt!" There can't be a mistake, it's really salt! ”

Old Master Yan's body was like a shaking sieve, his face was flushed, his two eyes were staring at the boss, one hand pointed to the fine salt in the pot, and he twisted his beard vigorously with one hand, and he didn't say anything for a long time, and when his hands were shaking and he pulled out several beards, Xia Hongsheng was worried and wanted to pinch his people, so he squeezed out a few words in a trembling voice: "The method of extracting salt from this mine is ingenious, ingenious!" Old man...... Shizuki, good! The old man is very relieved! Static stone, this method ......"

Xia Hongsheng understood what Old Master Yan meant, so he arched his hand and smiled: "This method of making salt is naturally handled by Master Yan, if it can be spread out and benefit the people, it will be a great thing." ”

Old Master Yan smiled vigorously, his smiling eyes were gone, and looking at Xia Hongsheng's eyes was like looking at a baby, which made Xia Hongsheng panic.

The other two people didn't say anything for a long time, and after a long time, they saw Xu Qixian's uncle suddenly take a step back and bend down, bowed, and sighed: "The old man has thanked Xia Xian's nephew for the people of the world!" A good Xia Jingshi, who looks at the common people and has the world in mind, the method of making salt and the name of the virtuous nephew will remain in history forever! ”

"Uncle Xu, don't dare to be!" Xia Hongsheng hurriedly dodged, and Old Master Yan smiled heartily: "It's a pity that there is no wine here!" Anyway, let's make a few bowls of Fang Cai's food, the old man is comfortable today, and he should eat three bowls with joy, hahahaha! ……”

Xia Hongsheng was speechless for a moment, and almost couldn't help but roll his eyes.