If you want to hit Artemisia knotweed, you don't have to go far, the woodwoods next to the river can be said to be everywhere, and when the three of them arrived at the riverside, Fushou and Yuemei took a sickle and cut up the artemisia knotweed, and the ox picked up a firewood knife to cut up miscellaneous wood branches on the edge of the woodwoods.

This artemisia is also artemisia and knotweed, wild and wild grow everywhere, if ordinary people feed pigs and donkeys, they can be cut and broken and boiled into trough food, and the brothers and sisters of the Bi family have naturally done this kind of farm work, and they will be cut full of dill after a while. When the scalper saw it, he asked Yuemei to send Yiluo back first, and saw that there were a lot of water canopies growing on the riverbank, and asked Fushou to cut some artemisia and water canopies.

After about half an hour, the ox made two bundles of twigs, and the brothers and sisters of the Bi family also cut off the four carrots back and forth, and when they were about to finish work, they saw that someone in the distance led three public servants wearing soap suits to come over, and the clothes of the leader should be the head catcher of the Huangzhou Mansion.

When I got closer, I saw clearly that it was the second uncle of the Zhao family who led the way, and the second uncle Zhang Hu of the fifth uncle of Lizheng Zhang.

Originally, the scalper still wanted to ask if he was leading the catcher to see the crime scene last night, but he saw that the second uncle Zhao who was walking in front saw that he was just about to speak, and was pushed by Zhang Hu who followed behind, and then the two wanted to whisper something, so they quickly led the catchers into the woods.

"Yo hey!" The scalper grinned and pulled out his teeth, this family is addicted to grabbing credit, right?

Since the old man explained the doorway in this kidnapping case, the scalper has long been no longer depressed, and the Taoist officials in this world can't be provoked, let alone bandits. Lao Wanjia was killed overnight because of the bandits, and a dozen people were killed overnight, and a small Li Zheng dared to snatch the credit for rescuing the hostages, and I really don't know how many ways to write dead words.

The scalper didn't pay attention to it, so he and Fushou picked up a bundle of twigs and went home.

When I got home, I saw that Yao Erniang had also returned, and sold a liter of lime, twenty duck eggs, thirty eggs, and two catties of coarse salt and one catty of final salt. The scalper looked at the basket of chickens and duck eggs and shook his head and smiled bitterly, it should be Erniang Ren Ran who was suspicious and didn't dare to buy more for fear of trampling things.

"Son! The mother thought about it and was afraid that the official salt at home would not be good, so she bought two more kinds, do you see if it is available? Yao Erniang opened the cloth bag containing coarse salt and end salt, and saw that although the coarse salt was as black as the official salt, it was not mixed with sand and gravel and the particles were larger, and although the end salt was also black in color with a little green, the particles were very fine and looked good, and it should be the refined salt used by rich and noble people to gargle.

The official salt in this house is the inferior salt purchased by the salt lead, although it is cheap, but it is mixed with a lot of mud and sand, a pound of official salt can at least sieve out two taels of soil, thinking about the secret method of the scalper for fear of having a bad pool, Yao Erniang gritted her teeth and sold the best end salt.

"You don't need it, you can also use official salt." The scalper thought about it, so he went to the stove room with lime, and went back to the house to measure a pound of official salt, and did not forget to look at the back room, but he didn't see the old man, so he asked: "My father is up?" ”

Yao Erniang replied: "Yes, Uncle Zhang's family came to invite your father to speak, saying that someone from the public gate came, it seems that your mother and uncle are also here." ”

"Hmmm! Got it, let's make a move! When the scalper went to the stove room, he asked the Bi brothers and sisters to light the fire, then poured the measured official salt into a wooden basin, scooped two floating waters, and then ordered: "Mother, you come and salt the water, and I will prepare something." ”

Then the scalper returned to the house, went down a kettle made of bamboo tubes from the wall, first dug open the mouth of the pot with a knife, cut the leftovers left by Yao Erniang's sewing and embroidery and stuffed it into the bottom layer, and then turned out an old jacket from the clothes box, took out a punch of cotton from it and stuffed it into the pot, and finally walked into the stove room, took out a handful of firewood ash from the stove and filled the bamboo tube with fullness, which opened a small opening at the bottom.

"Is the brine melting?" After getting this strange bamboo tube, the scalper came to ask Erniang, and Erniang said, "It's half gone." ”

The scalper saw that half of the salt in the wooden basin had indeed melted, but there were not only salt grains that were difficult to dissolve in the basin, but also fine sand, so he said: "Give me the salt water, and my mother will wash the pot." ”

Saying that, the ox took the bamboo tube to the water tank first, scooped a scoop of water to the side and poured it into the tube, and then a stream of water flowed out of the small hole under the bamboo tube, and took a look at it with the water drift, and saw that there was a little ash, so it poured two more floats until the clear water flowed out, and then poured the salt water into the bamboo tube, and poured the filtered salt water into the pot.

Then the scalper moved in the miscellaneous wood sprigs he had beaten, and said to Fu Shou, who was burning in front of the stove: "The next step is to mix and burn the artemisia knotweed, but the ash of the artemisia knotweed cannot be mixed with the firewood ash!" ”

Then the scalper taught Fushou how to mix the miscellaneous wood twigs with the firewood, and mixed the freshly beaten artemisia knotweed into the miscellaneous wood to burn the ashes, but it would not be mixed with the firewood ashes.

After the fire burned for half a moment, the salt water in the pot boiled, and suddenly there was a faint smell of sea in the stove, and the scalper sniffed and couldn't help but smile. He once followed Shizun Zhu Taozhi to visit Zhejiang and Fujian, and when he heard it, he knew that this must be sea salt, and as for why the official salt made of sea salt was dark and mixed with sand, Shizun also talked about it.

It is said that Liu Yong, who was erased by Song Renzong, once wrote a poem "Boiling Sea Song", a poem: "Every spring and summer, the tide is overflowing, and the tide recedes and scrapes the mud into an island. The salty flavor gathers on the air-drying day, and the tidal wave slips into brine. ”

How to make sea salt in this era, the poem "the tide recedes and scrapes the mud into an island" is naturally clear, that is to say, in addition to seawater, there is also sea mud used to make brine salt: the sea salt preparation method at this time is also called the decoction method. To make a load of brine, it is necessary to pick four or five loads of raw material salty mud, and it must be filled with thirty or forty loads of seawater.

After gathering enough brine, start to build a plate to fry salt. The salt frying equipment is divided into iron plates, grate plates, and iron pots. Set up several pots behind the plate, and use the residual heat to warm the brine. The decoction is formed into a plate for about an hour, and then the marinade is poured into the frying to continue the frying, and the cycle is repeated repeatedly, and the fire is not extinguished day and night. After four to ten days, the fire was ambushed, and the resulting salt was called "Ichizao".

The sea salt produced in this way is naturally black and muddy, but it can barely survive when used to supply the poor people.

Not long after, the water in the pot evaporated, and the salt crystals began to condense, but they saw that Yao Erniang and Fu Shouyuemei all had straight eyes, and the lower pot was obviously black official salt water, but after the scalper used a bamboo tube, it boiled out snow-colored salt grains, which made people wonder.

The scalper asked Fushou to reduce the firewood to low heat, fried it with a wooden spoon for a while, and then put the salt in the pot, filled a full plate with more than half a catty, and said to Yao Erniang with a smile: "Mother, how is my master's secret method?" ”

Yao Erniang looked at it dumbfounded, stretched out her fingers and tasted it, then frowned and relaxed, turned around and took the last salt she had just bought from the hall to compare, and said in surprise: "It's much whiter than the last salt?" ”

The scalper naturally didn't explain the principle to Erniang, but asked Fushou to take the burned artemisia ash and put it in the pot, knead it and mix it with water to boil.