Chapter 2969 Yantian

He stepped forward and stared at the bottom of the water. This time, he saw the difference. It was different from ordinary paddy fields. The water surface was a little white, but it was not silt, but it was not like salt. Prince Looking at Bai Shan suspiciously, "Is there salt below?"

Bai Shan just glanced at it and said, "This is the first time the seawater has been dried. It is estimated that it has only been in the water for two days, and the performance is not very obvious. Your Highness, let's go further ahead. It seems that the place with many people is collecting salt. ."

The prince glanced forward, and there was indeed a crowd gathered in the distance, but he was not in a hurry to go there and walked directly along the ridge.

Looking at the fields one by one, he found the difference.

Going down the ridge, there is a very wide ditch on the side, and there is water flowing slowly in it. The prince stepped forward to take a look.

Glancing at the ditch, then at the Yantian next to him, thoughtfully, "Is this sea water?"

"Yes," Bai Shan explained: "When the sea tide is high, the sea water will be poured into the ditches, and the ditches will connect the first salt field in each row. When the salt crystals and brine are exposed, we will sieve them and wash them. into the second field."

The prince walked to a field, "Like this one?"

This is a salt field with large salt crystals on the bottom. The water is almost dry, but there is still a shallow layer of water on it.

The prince squatted down and stretched out his hand to fetch a handful of salt from the field. After some salt was scooped into his hand, it slowly melted softly and slipped from his fingers...

He twisted and stuck out his tongue to taste the salt, which was bitter, but salty.

Inspector Guo and others who followed behind the prince looked dazed, and they have not recovered until now. They have many questions in their hearts. First of all, what are these square fields for?

Listen to Bai Shan's meaning to dry the salt?

Isn't the field used for planting?

Isn't the salt meant to be boiled?

The officials looked down at Yantian at their feet, and were speechless for a while.

The prince washed the salt grains from his hands in the salt field, and Eunuch Wu quickly took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands.

The prince brushed it off carelessly and looked at the last field in the row.

Bai Shan immediately said: "That is the second field where the salt crystals were dried, melted with water, and then filtered for drying, and it is also the last salt field. We have compared the salt that was filtered twice and dried to no worse than the boiled salt. ."

Boiled salt In order to save firewood, they are only filtered once, the salt is more bitter and darker than the one they dry out.

The prince nodded slightly and led the people forward.

Zhou Liwei was squatting on the edge of the salt field, rubbing the salt crystal that was pushed in front of him, checking the quality, and a long-term worker on the side looked behind him several times, confirming that he had read it right, and quickly said, "Master Zhou, the magistrate is here again."

Zhou Liwei glanced back and couldn't see the person clearly, "Impossible, he just left yesterday."

The long-term worker squinted and looked at it, and confirmed: "It's the county magistrate, that's right!"

I have received a notification from the soldiers that Patrol Luo, who is patrolling the mountainside, has already rushed over with someone, and called Zhou Liwei when passing by Yantian: "It's the county magistrate who has brought a lot of high-ranking officials, and you are still stunned. What are you doing, go meet me now."

When the soldiers found him, they said that among the people brought by the magistrate, there were not only those in red official robes, but also one in purple robes, and the magistrate followed behind the purple-robed man.

When Zhou Liwei heard this, he immediately got up and followed Luo Patrol to run there.

After running for a while, they finally met the prince halfway.

Luo Xunjian didn't know the prince, thinking that it would be wrong to salute anyway, so he raised his hand to salute, but Zhou Liwei, who had already seen the prince's face, couldn't help but exclaimed, "His Royal Highness?"

The Zhou family had never seen the emperor, but the prince and the princess were fortunate enough to meet.

Although it was rare, Zhou Liwei tried his best to remember the face of the prince, such a noble person.

Luo Xunjian didn't put his raised hand down, his knees softened, and he knelt on the ridge with a thud.

Seeing this, Zhou Liwei, who had planned to bow to the end, could only pull his trouser legs and kneel down, and together with Luo Xunjian, kowtowed to the prince.

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 at Zhou Liwei up and down. He felt that he was a little familiar, but he 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, "Gu said it looks familiar, your eyes look very similar to Zhou Man."

Zhou Mandao: "He is my second nephew."

The prince nodded slightly and asked, "What is he doing in the salt field now?"

Bai Shan replied, "Be in charge."

He said bluntly: "The minister's energy is limited, so let him help the minister."

The prince nodded slightly and asked Zhou Liwei, "Where is the salt harvesting? How much salt can a field harvest, how many days can it harvest once, and how much manpower does it take?"

Zhou Liwei was a little nervous, but fortunately, the little uncle had asked these questions before when he came, and his account book was okay, so he could answer them one by one.

The prince was already mentally prepared, so he couldn't see anything on the face, but the officials who listened all the way behind him couldn't help but look at the Yantian on both sides of the field ridge.

At the place where the salt was collected, the long-term workers were pushing the salt in the salt field in short hexagrams. The wooden shovel was sharpened, about one meter wide. After it was put down, it was pushed forward. The salt crystals in the salt field were pushed together. , more and more, more and more, when pushed to the prince and the others, there were already a small pile.

Even the prince stayed for a while, not to mention the ministers behind him, all of them opened their mouths.

Inspector Guo thought of something, his eyes were red, he turned to look at Bai Shan.

Bai Shan stood behind the prince, waiting for them to return to their senses.

The prince squatted down and grabbed a handful of salt. After twisting it carefully, the salt particles fell one by one. Not to mention, they were quite fine, at least a little finer than the general salt sold on the market.

The prince said to the people behind him: "You guys also come and have a look."

Tang He and others just waited for the prince's words, and his voice fell, and a few people squeezed up to touch the salt, squatting in rows, taking up all the side of the salt field.

The long-term workers looked at them at a loss. Seeing Zhou Liwei signaling them to continue, they turned around and continued to shovel salt, ignoring these ignorant officials.

The imperial censor was a little unconvinced that the salt was sun-dried, so he looked at the salt field behind him, and saw that it was full of water, and he didn't see any shadow of the salt.

No, it's not that I didn't see it at all. The water was different from ordinary water at first glance, and it seemed to be white and turbid.

He stretched out his fingers and stirred in the salt field, put it in his mouth and felt it, it was very salty...

The censor hesitated between doubt and belief, and finally decided that seeing is believing, so he said to the prince, "His Royal Highness, I want to stay in the salt field and have a look at this method of drying salt."

He wouldn't believe it unless he saw with his own eyes that the sea water came into the fields and dried out the salt.

see you at eleven o'clock