open sea

Chapter 34 Saltpeter
In the winter month of the 45th year of Jiajing, the 60-year-old Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houcong died in the Qianqing Palace. His temple name was Sejong, and his posthumous title was Qin Tianlu Dao Yingyi Sacred Xuanwen Guangwu Hongren Da Xiaosu Emperor. He was buried in Yongling Mausoleum in Changping, Beijing.

The successor, his son Zhu Zaihou, king of Yu, ascended the throne after 49 days of mourning, and changed his reign name to Longqing, which was the first year of Longqing.At the beginning of Emperor Longqing's accession to the throne, he honored the late emperor's edict: those who survived were summoned, those who died were recorded as sympathy, and those who saw the prison were released and reinstated first.

Among these officials who were restored to their original posts, there was a man named Hai Rui from Qiongshan, Hainan.

When the news reached Chen Junye's ears, it was almost February of the first year of Longqing.

Chen Mu didn't have much empathy for the death of the emperor, but felt that the giants of the times had taken another step forward.Few military households are not as sad and intense as Ke Zeer. This group of poor settlers look at me and I look at you. In the end, it seems that it is not appropriate for them to be dumbfounded when others are crying. Shao Tingda raised his leg and kicked Xiaobalang Somersault, someone finally cried.

Anyway, drinking and having fun at this time is inappropriate, but happy events can't be stopped when they come.I don't know what happened to Qingyuanwei this winter. In short, Luo Qianhu, who was on the wall with Bai Yuanjie, was demoted to Lianzhou in the name of cowardice. He took over the post of deputy Qianhu of Qingcheng Qianhu Institute.

The arrangements for Chen Mu and the others have not yet been announced, but no matter how hard it is for the Banner Army to pretend to be sad all day long, they are even unwilling to show up at the Anyuan post station, running to the caves on the mountain or rushing to fly water all day long. The bridge is on duty—maybe a place with no one can give them a good laugh.

Bai Yuanjie's promotion to Qianhu more or less meant that it might be a good place for them to transfer away from Anyuan Station.

But the sky didn't work out, as it was the beginning of spring, there was no new order from Baihusuo, and there was no letter from Bai Yuanjie for more than ten days in a row.It stands to reason that their duty at the Anyuan post station has ended, and they should go back to the hundred households to deal with the busy farming, but there is no news at this time, and even the small flags for their rotation did not arrive as scheduled. This situation can not help but make people guess up.

After waiting for half a month, Chen Mu sent someone to the Baihu Office, but was told that there was no one to take over the vacancy in Xinbaihu. He sent someone to Fenghuang Street in Qingyuan City, but was told that Bai Yuanjie, the deputy Qianhu, took a boat to go north. Jiangdong has been traveling for more than a month and has not been returned.

Now even Chen Mu himself has no idea, what is his Shangguan Bai Baihu's plan?
No matter what Bai Yuanjie's plan is, Chen Mu's life will still go on. Since no one has sent him an order in the spring, he doesn't care about the fields of Baihusuo, so he simply continues to live in Anyuan Station. Go into the cave and continue to boil the nitrate. Anyway, the nitrate hole will be sealed after the nitrate is gone, so why not cook thousands of catties of white nitrate now!

Cave nitrate basically does not belong to nitrate production, but filters out the potassium nitrate rich in the sedimentary soil of tens of millions of years in caves by soil methods, and relies on its insoluble in water but soluble with temperature rise characteristics to cook and collect, and the yield Limited by the nitrate in the cave, 30 jin of nitrate was mixed with [-] jin of water, and after layers of filtration and boiling, more than [-] jin of nitre could be obtained.

In the past three months, the flag army under Chen Mu either carried buckets back and forth between the riverside and the cave, or dug soil, filtered and boiled in the cave all winter. Large vats weighing hundreds of catties were stacked under the cave.

Because of this work, Chen Mu's well-fed and sleepy Zhu Ding, who has a heavy workload, has become stronger after this winter.

The military households don’t understand why Chen Mu takes a fancy to waste water. They are more willing to be happy with the nitrate, especially the two slaves. Every time Chen Mu goes to the cave to check the stock of nitrate, he asks him if he has the nitrate. The idea of ​​selling to Japan—in the Ming Dynasty, saltpeter was forbidden to go to sea, and in the Ming Dynasty, saltpeter was smuggled and trafficked to Japan, which could make ten times the profit.

In Guangzhou, the selling price of saltpeter is [-] yuan per catty. This is because Linhai is convenient for smuggling and selling. If it is in the north, the price of saltpeter will drop to [-] yuan per catty.

Although the entrance of the cave at Anyuan Post Station is small, it is narrow and deep inside the mountain wall. It can be guessed that even if only the top layer of nitrate soil is taken, the entire cave would weigh more than [-] jin. The workload of the soil is getting bigger and bigger, because they have to travel farther to fetch the soil in the cave. Chen Mu estimates that in another month, the soil that can be boiled out of the nitrate within a thousand steps of the nitrate hole will be dug up by them. Any further is out of date.

[-] catties of saltpeter, which is roughly what Chen Mu estimated that the saltpeter cave would make the most profit under the conditions of military households' hard work.

It is difficult to obtain nitrate soil farther away, and it is difficult to transport it in the cave, which will also delay the efficiency of boiling nitrate. After all, Chen Mu only has three Yu Ding and two Congwo to do this, and the manpower is really limited.

But this is enough, even if they can only produce two thousand catties of saltpeter before they are transferred, and even if they sell it to a sea merchant for only two or five yuan after finding a market, the profit of fifty taels is enough for him to distribute to the three Yu Ding and his wife. Each of the two Japanese pirates was paid 50 taels, and Zheng Ding did not put in much effort in carrying water, so he also bought people's hearts with 20 taels. In the end, he could still earn [-] taels and the waste from boiling nitrate.

That is not waste, high concentration of potassium nitrate is saltpeter, low concentration of light potassium nitrate is fertilizer, the best fertilizer in the world in this era.

Besides, the selling price will only be higher than this and not lower than this, so it's worth it.

Is there anything more beautiful in the world than eating and living for nothing in one winter and earning an extra two years of salary?
Chen Mu wanted to say that there really was——Shao ​​Tingda found a bigger cave seven miles east of the post station, and he was on the road of sustainable development!
There are many mountains and rivers in Guangdong, and there is no shortage of mountains and rivers in Qingyuan. Where there are mountains and rivers, there is no shortage of nitric holes.

At present, there are only two nitrate holes known to Chen Mu, except for the Anyuan Station, which is enough for them to find a chance to work for another year.Larger nitration holes, more manpower, and more output mean more silver. Maybe it won't be long before Chen Mu can build a glass kiln in Qingyuanwei, and then the silver will be the real source continuously flowed into his hands.

But that requires a prerequisite, that is, he has more voice in Qingyuan, a larger network of relationships, and stronger forces, and at least the ability to protect his small inventions among thousands of military households.Qingyuanwei is a double-edged sword, which can not only protect his little invention from being coveted by the outside world, but also avoid the prying eyes from inside.

Maybe when Mr. Chen Jun has money, he can try to bribe a Wu Jinshi!
Just when Chen Mu raised his gun again and hit a wooden target on the tree trunk fifty paces away, there was applause from the side of the road, and when he turned his head, Bai Yuanjie, who had been promoted to deputy thousand households whom he hadn't seen for a few months, was smiling and clapping, seeing him looking back. , with a face with high cheekbones suddenly became serious, and said: "Qingcheng deputy Qianhu Bai Yuanjie has an order, Xiaoqi Chen Mu killed five Japanese pirates, rewarded 120 taels of silver, and awarded the general banner of Qingcheng Qianhusuo for his meritorious promotion! "

(End of this chapter)