In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 42 Salt Making
After a few days, despite the language barrier, the Mongolian girls not only did not run away, but gradually integrated in, which made Lin Rui breathe a sigh of relief.

If these Mongolian girls really escaped, he would not be able to capture them in a short period of time.

In the following days, Lin Rui led a large army into the mountain, leaving only Sister Niu and a hundred men and women to continue building the internal buildings of the castle.

After everyone arrived at the valley, they first set up camp beside the creek in the valley below the mountain col, and then began to clear the open space on the top of the mountain col and the gentle slope on this side.

Lin Rui planned to clear away all the shrubs and weeds on the gentle slope on this side, and also carry the rocks to the col to build the wall, so that it would be easier to defend.

The slope facing the large valley is very steep, at least over 50 degrees. As long as the bushes and rocks in the middle are cleared away, when the enemy attacks, just roll the logs down from the mountain col, which will be enough to make the enemy helpless.

As for the mining of salt mines and coal, he planned to push back. After all, winter was still far away and there was plenty of salt.

More than 300 people also trained in the morning and worked in the afternoon. The remaining [-] prisoners were also shackled. The heavy work of lifting stones and wood will be contracted by them in the future.

"Listen up, from now on, as long as you work hard, don't be lazy, don't run away, and perform well after half a year, you will be free and return to your tribe."

Looking at the sixty Tatar slaves whose faces were full of despair, Lin Rui announced loudly.

Naturally, he would not be so kind. He just wanted to give these prisoners hope for better management in the future.

When the time comes, he picks some who are exhausted, kills them secretly, and then announces to others that those people have been freed and returned to their tribe. He will not believe that others are not working hard.

Sure enough, after hearing these words, the Tatars' eyes became brighter and their faces became more hopeful.

After breakfast, they went to carry the stone obediently. Lin Rui only asked Xiaocui and the others to supervise the work.

As for the grazing of the war horses, it was left to the forty Mongolian girls. These Mongolian girls did not have to work. They were responsible for teaching everyone some horse riding skills in the morning. They drove the horses to graze in the afternoon and came back in the evening.

At night, Lin Rui would also take time to give them some basic training, as well as some things they need to pay attention to when going out for reconnaissance, such as distinguishing the number of people, identifying directions, judging approximate distances, etc.

These girls were at the beginning of their love life. After tasting the sweetness of a man's love and having food and meat to eat every day, all of them were already happy and had no idea of ​​escaping.

In fact, what Lin Rui didn't know was that when two tribes on the grassland exchange populations with each other, especially the women who are exchanged, generally they will not escape.

Because once they escape, it is likely to trigger a war between the two tribes, and the outcome will be very tragic.

Just like that, with the addition of 40 Mongolian girls, everyone's riding skills are improving by leaps and bounds.

Although the archery on horseback is still not accurate, the rapid chopping on horseback is already impressive.

And with those sixty strong laborers who can be squeezed to their heart's content, the construction of the cottage is progressing rapidly.

A month later, the shrubs and weeds on the slope were cleared, and the stones that could be lifted were carried to the top of the mountain col. Those that could not be lifted were pushed directly to the valley, and as many obstacles as possible were cleared on the gentle slope.

"Sir, I think we can use these stones to build a wall. At least we can cut a stone wall a hundred feet long and half a foot high, and then build an earth wall a foot high on top. No matter how many people attack, Not afraid anymore.”

Zhang Heizi, a small flag official who was born as a bricklayer, spitted all over the place.

"Well, let's do as you say. First repair the wall, and then use the soil to make bricks and build the stockade."

Lin Rui nodded, feeling that what he said made sense. This place was no different from the plains. It had terrain advantages. The walls did not need to be built high, as long as they were strong enough.

"Sir, there is coal here. Why don't we just build two kilns and burn them all?" Zhang Heizi tried again.

"Will you burn?"

"My subordinates don't know how to do it, but they can figure it out. It shouldn't be difficult after thinking about it."

"Then let's wait until you figure it out before burning it. For the time being, we'll use adobe bricks."

Lin Rui waved his hand. There was little rain on the grassland, so adobe bricks would be enough. It would save trouble and effort. It would be better to burn some tiles, which would be more practical.Lin Rui called everyone together in the evening. He planned to allocate some people to make salt and dig coal.

"Is there anyone who can burn charcoal?"

"Sir, I know how to burn charcoal, but I have never burned stone charcoal."

"Sir, I can also burn charcoal."

A full five or six people stood up with their hands raised. There were men and women among them, but all of them could only burn charcoal, and none of them knew how to burn stone charcoal.

"Actually, burning charcoal should be about the same as burning charcoal. From now on, you guys will be responsible for burning charcoal. As for how to burn it, you can figure it out yourself. As long as you can burn it, you will be promoted to the first level!"

Lin Rui had no choice but to promise to a few people.

He didn't know exactly how that kind of anthracite was fired, but he knew that the Ming Dynasty had already matured the technology of how to make coke.

It shouldn't be difficult to think about it. These people can actually burn charcoal. It would be more suitable for them to figure it out than to do it himself.

"Yes, son."

Everyone was overjoyed. Not to mention that burning charcoal was much easier than building walls and houses. After burning charcoal, you could get promoted. Naturally, they were very willing to do this kind of good thing.

Although the others were envious, they couldn't make charcoal, so they could only secretly curse these people for their bad luck.

Burning coke can be left to these people to figure out on their own, but how to make salt, Lin Rui knows that he must do it himself.

So he selected two more carpenters and three women to set up a salt-making team. Lin Rui only knew how to extract the salt from the salt mine and remove impurities and harmful substances using charcoal and lime.

Unfortunately, no limestone was found in the mountains, so charcoal could only be used.

So we plan to first let the charcoal-burning team burn two kilns of charcoal, then let the carpenters build some small buckets and large wooden barrels, then build a filtering funnel, and finally build a few stoves by the lake in the small valley.

Ten days later, everything was ready. Lin Rui first asked people to crush the salt ore, then poured it into a large wooden barrel and stirred it with water, and then let it settle overnight. The next day, he used charcoal in the funnel to filter the brine again, and finally Pour salted water into the pot and cook until dry.

"Sir, this is really salt." Looking at the dark substance at the bottom of the pot, everyone scraped a little with their hands and tasted it, and they were all surprised.

Lin Rui had a sore face. He found that his thinking was too simple.

If this black thing was salt, he wouldn't believe it to death, but it tasted bitter and salty at the same time.

"Okay, scrape out the salt, pour it into a bucket, fill it with water, filter it with charcoal, and boil it."

Lin Rui only tasted a small sip and did not dare to taste it again. He decided to dilute and filter it again. If it still happened like this, he would not eat it even to death.

Finally, it was fully diluted, filtered, and steamed three times. Although the boiled salt was still a little bitter, it looked much better. It was no longer black, but a little yellow. At least it was better than the salt sold by Shanxi merchants on the grasslands. , much better looking and much more delicious.

"Young master, it's done."

Everyone was ecstatic after tasting it this time.

"It seems that this is all we can do. Follow the above steps and get me a hundred pounds first."

Lin Rui also knew that it was probably unrealistic to make white salt that was not bitter at all in ancient times.

He is already very satisfied with such a taste. As for whether there are any harmful substances, that's for sure. But these days, as long as it doesn't kill people and has no obvious adverse reactions in the body, it basically meets the standard.

(End of this chapter)