He stepped forward and stared under the water surface, and he saw that it was different. It was different from ordinary paddy fields. There was some whiteness under the water surface, but it was not mud, but it was not like salt either, Prince Looking suspiciously at Bai Shan, "Is there salt underneath?"
Bai Shan only glanced at it and said: "This is the first time that the seawater has been dried, and it has only been in the water for two days, so the performance is not very obvious. Your Highness, let's go a little further. The crowded place over there seems to be collecting salt." .”
The prince glanced forward, 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.
Looking at the fields one by one, he noticed the difference.
Going down the field ridge, there is a wide ditch beside it, with water flowing slowly in it, the prince stepped forward to have a look.
Glancing at the ditch, then at the salt field next to it, thoughtfully, "Is this sea water?"
"Yes," Bai Shan explained: "When the sea tide is high, the seawater will be poured into the ditch, and the ditch is connected to the first salt field in each row. When the salt crystals and brine are dried out, we will sieve and wash them. Put it in the second field."
The prince walked to a field, "For example this one?"
This is a salt field where large salt crystals can be seen at the bottom of the water. The water is almost dry, but there is still a shallow layer of water on it.
The prince squatted down and reached out to fish a handful of salt from the field. Some of the salt melted and slipped from his fingers after being scooped into his hands...
He twisted it, stuck out his tongue and tasted it, it was very bitter salt, but it was indeed salty.
Guo Cishi and others following behind the prince were in a daze, and they have not come to their senses until now. They have many questions in their hearts. First of all, what are these square fields used for
I heard that Bai Shan means drying salt
Isn't the field used for planting
Isn't salt for cooking
The officials looked down at the salt field at their feet, and were speechless for a while.
The prince washed the salt off his hands in the salt field, and Eunuch Wu hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands.
The prince wiped it twice indifferently, and looked at the last field in this row.
Bai Shan immediately said: "That is the second field where the salt crystals are sun-dried, melted with water, and then filtered for drying. It is also the last salt field. We have compared it, and the salt that is filtered twice is no worse than the salt that is boiled. .”
In order to save firewood, they only filter the boiled salt once, and the salt is bitter and dark yellow than the salt 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 crystals pushed in front of him, checking the quality, when a long-time worker next to him looked behind him several times to make sure he read it correctly, and quickly said: "Master Zhou, the county magistrate is here again."
Zhou Liwei glanced back, but couldn't see the person clearly, "Impossible, he just left yesterday."
Changgong squinted his eyes for a while, and said with certainty: "It's the county magistrate, that's right!"
Having received a notification from the soldiers, Luo Xunjian, who was patrolling the mountainside, had already rushed over with his people, and when he passed by Yantian, he called Zhou Liwei: "The county magistrate is here, and he brought a lot of high-ranking officials, you are still standing there What are you doing, hurry up and meet him."
When the soldiers found him, they said that among the people brought by the county magistrate were not only those in red official robes, but also one in purple robes, and the county magistrate followed behind the purple robed man.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Liwei immediately got up and followed Luo Xunjian to run over there.
After running for a long time, they finally met the prince face to face halfway.
Luo Xunjian didn't know the prince, and thought that there would be nothing wrong with saluting anyway, so he raised his hand to salute, but Zhou Liwei, who had seen the prince's face clearly, couldn't help but exclaimed, "His Royal Highness?"
The Zhou family had never seen the emperor, but the prince and princess were lucky enough to have.
Although rarely seen, Zhou Liwei tried his best to remember the face of such a noble person as the prince.
Inspector Luo didn't let go of his raised hand, his knees softened, and he knelt down on the ridge of the field with a thump.
Seeing this, Zhou Liwei, who had already planned to bow to the end, could only pull up his trouser legs and kowtow to the prince together with Luo Xunjian.
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 inspecting Luo, looked Zhou Liwei up and down, 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, "Gu said the eyes are familiar, your eyes look quite 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 in charge."
He said bluntly: "I have limited energy, so let him help me."
The prince nodded slightly, and asked Zhou Liwei, "Where is the salt harvested? How much salt can be harvested in a field, how many days can it be harvested, and how much manpower will it consume?"
Zhou Liwei was a little nervous, but fortunately his uncle had asked these questions when he came, and his account books were not bad, so he could answer them one by one.
The prince was already mentally prepared, so he couldn't see anything on the surface, but the officials who listened 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 they arrived at the place where the salt was collected, the long-term workers were pushing salt in the salt field in short suits. The wooden shovels were sharpened to a width of one meter. After putting them down, they pushed forward, and the salt crystals in the salt field were pushed together , more and more, more and more, when they were pushed to the prince and the others, there was already a small pile.
Even the prince was stunned for a moment, not to mention the officials behind him, they all opened their mouths.
Governor Guo thought of something, his eyes were red, he turned his head to look at Bai Shan.
Bai Shan stood behind the prince, waiting for them to recover.
The prince squatted down and grabbed a handful of salt to look at it, twisted it carefully, and the salt grains fell one by one, not to mention, it was quite fine, at least finer than the general salt sold in the market.
The prince said to the people behind him: "You guys also come and take a look."
Tang He and the others waited for the prince's words, and then his voice fell, and several people squeezed up to touch the salt, squatting in rows, occupying one side of the salt field.
The long-term workers looked at it a little helplessly, and when Zhou Liwei signaled them to continue, they turned around and continued to shovel salt, ignoring these ignorant officials.
The censor didn't quite believe that the salt was dried out, so he looked at the salt field behind him, and saw that it was full of water, and he didn't see any trace of salt.
No, it's not that I didn't see anything at all, the water looked different from ordinary water, it seemed a little whitish and turbid.
He stretched out his finger and stirred it in the salt field, took it into 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, "Your Highness, I want to stay in the salt field and take a look at this method of drying salt."
Unless he saw the salt coming out of the seawater after entering the field, he would not believe it.