Su Ming took his thirteenth brother and Tie Zhu to the salt factory and saw that there were many more workers working here than before.

"Brother Chunrui, why are there so many people in the salt field today?" Su Ming came to the salt field and asked when he saw Cao Chunrui.

"Ba Ye! We distributed grain a few days ago, and every village said that it was because you came back and sold the salt at a high price that everyone had food to eat. So today, many more people took the initiative to come to the salt field." Cao Chunrui said.

Working in the salt factory for a month will give you 80 kilograms of grain and 200 Wen. This is the rule set by Er Wei Bao before. However, because the court does not pay salaries, Er Wei Bao can only make a living by selling salt privately every month.

The salt factory has always been owed money and food, so the situation at the salt factory is getting worse and worse.

Now that Su Ming is back, everyone has seen hope. Now they work more here, and Su Ren also has money and food to distribute to everyone, so everyone's enthusiasm for work has become higher.

"This is a good thing. I happen to have some ideas for renovating the salt farm. Brother Chunrui, can you tell me if you can do it?"

I am trying to bake something called cement. After it is fired, it solidifies when exposed to water and becomes as hard as stone..."

Su Ming expressed his thoughts on the transformation of the salt farm, and Cao Chunrui listened attentively. It was not until he finished speaking that Cao Chunrui thought for a moment before speaking.

"If this [cement] you are talking about, Mr. Ba, is true, it is an incredible thing. Our salt production area is in the leeward area, and the sun is abundant, so wind and sand can hardly blow here.

Master Ba, if you want to experiment, try it in this salt field first! This salt field is four acres in size, and if it fails, it won’t have much impact on our salt field," Cao Chunrui said.

"Even if there is an experiment, it will not affect the normal production of the salt field. This salt field is not small. Let's dig a new salt field here!" Su Ming nodded and said.

The new field dug by Su Ming is not the previous method of digging salt fields. A water channel is drawn from the sea. When the salt field is full, the water channel is sealed. After the salt water in the salt field evaporates, some salt water is added to continue to evaporate until the salt water is salty enough.

You can boil the salt.

This time he plans to divert a water channel from the old salt field to build a new salt field. This salt field will be larger and shallower, so that evaporation will be faster.

A smaller salt field will be dug behind this salt field. A special pit for collecting brine will be built in this salt field. In the future, there will be no need to worry about the brine being dirty and affecting the quality of the green salt.

"Okay, then I will follow your request and have people dig in this area. This area is about ten acres of salt field, with a depth of only 1 foot. The water channels between the three salt fields are slightly larger. This small salt field is only half an acre in size.

, right at the entrance of the manor, with a depth of 2 and a half feet, the pit is 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and three and a half feet deep." Cao Chunrui heard what Su Ming said and said to Baosheng.

"Yes, the key to this big salt field is to make it flat. The ten acres of salt field will be deep on one side and shallow on the other. If there is no way to make the bottom of the salt field very flat, you can use the method I mentioned to hold water in a bamboo tube to measure the balance.

The terrain of the small pool must be lower than that of the large pool. After digging, the bottom will be compacted and some water will be sprinkled on the sand every day. I will use cement to make the baffles between the three pools separately. Then the salt water in the small salt field will be

It will be very clean.

When our other salt fields are renovated in the future, we may divert the brine from all the salt fields to this small salt field, and then it will be easier for us to cook salt," Su Ming said.

"Yes, Mr. Ba! If the cement you are talking about can really be successful. There is a salt field behind the salt field, and the speed of drying salt is faster than before. That's not a big deal. By then, we can turn this entire area into a salt field. Then every day

Wouldn’t there be too much salt water to survive?” Cao Chunrui said.

"When the cement is out, we can re-build the salt field. Then the brine intake port will be placed directly in the yard. We can even lead it all to the farmyard to boil the salt pot. Which of the several salt fields has the highest salt content?

Which salt field do we use directly?

By then, walls can be built higher, houses can be built with cement, and our salt factory can also be used as a defensive base when encountering pirates." The more Su Ming thought about it, the happier he became. As long as the cement comes out, it will be of great use to the salt factory.

of.

"Then I will have people dig the salt field now. It should be completed in five days. I will have people find some stones to pave the surrounding and bottom of the salt field. By then the salt field will be stronger," Cao Chunrui said.

"Yes, after the cement comes, you may need a lot of coarse sand and pebbles. Brother Chunrui, please let someone filter some sand and clean it. If there are pebbles, just use a sledgehammer to smash them." Su Ming mixed the sand and pebbles.

Shi Zi's work was all handed over to Cao Chunrui.

Cao Chunrui quickly called the workers over. Su Ming used tree branches to draw the place to be dug on the ground. He also made it clear to Cao Chunrui the design of the ditch and baffle opening connecting the salt fields. Now he just had to wait.

The cement is burned out.

The eldest brother Su Ren came back with several soldiers from the fortress at night. He brought back more than 200 kilograms of gypsum stone and told Su Ming that he had made an agreement with the mine owner who sells gypsum in Jinshanwei Town.

, he can get as much gypsum stone as he wants, and a cart only costs 40 cents. This gypsum ore is not uncommon in Jinshanwei.

By March 25, the two earthen stoves that Su Ming needed had been baked and dried. He directed on the spot and asked people to place stones in a circle along the walls of the furnace, then add firewood and light the fire.

The fire broke out, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

This furnace burns quicklime, and the other furnace burns plaster of paris in the same way.

Quicklime requires the temperature in the furnace to reach above 900 degrees Celsius. It is still difficult to use this kind of earthen stove. Su Ming has people keeping watch on the spot, and there are people adding firewood even at night.

It is easier to bake plaster of paris. It takes half a day to bake on low fire and one day on medium fire. By the time the fire in the quicklime furnace was extinguished on March 28, Su Ming had already used a stone mill to sift out hundreds of kilograms of plaster of paris.

powder.

"Is this right?" Su Ren saw someone taking out the burned stone that had turned white from the earthen furnace, and hurriedly took it over for Su Ming to see.

Su Ming picked up the white stone and threw it hard on the ground. The stone was shattered into pieces.

"There should be nothing wrong. Grind all these white stones into powder, just like gypsum. Let's give it a try." Seeing that the quicklime was successfully fired, Su Ming said to his elder brother.

In the past few days, Er Weibao had collected stone mills from nowhere and had ground thousands of kilograms of refractory powder. When the four brothers returned home, Su Zhe looked at Su Ming with a bag containing quicklime.

"Put the gypsum powder in the crucible and stir it quickly. When the temperature of the gypsum powder feels higher than the temperature of the boiling water, mix it with refractory powder and white stone powder and stir it to cool down quickly. Refractory powder: white stone powder

:The ratio of gypsum powder is 15:4:1..." Su Ming tried his best to give instructions in a way that everyone could understand. Soon something that looked like cement appeared in front of him.

"It should be ready now. Logically speaking, this cement will be most effective if it is stored for more than 20 days. Let's try it first." Su Ming said, taking some cement, mixing it with sand and pebbles, adding water, and mixing it to make a small shape.

Thin shape then wait.

The four brothers were waiting around here. Su Ming couldn't help but smile when he saw this. After everyone heard about the role of cement, they all attached great importance to it. The eldest brother even did not allow the people in the fort to talk about collecting tiles and bricks.

, the matter of grinding porcelain flakes into powder.

"It will take at least a day for the cement to solidify. We can't keep waiting like this. Fifth brother, please let people continue to burn stones and gypsum according to the method I told you. The amount of refractory powder is still not enough. If we want to give more to the salt farm,

To build several salt fields, the refractory powder may cost more than 5,000 kilograms," Su Ming said.

Every few hours when Su Ming saw that the cement board was dry, he poured some water on it. This continued until the afternoon of the next day. Su Ming saw that the cement board was already somewhat dry, so he picked up a stone and smashed it hard on the cement board.

Down.

The cement board was smashed and cracked in the middle, and Su Ming couldn't help but frown. He had never actually fired cement in his previous life. He only knew the principles of making cement. It was probably impossible to use cement with such strength.

"Fifth brother, how are you?" Su Ren entered the courtyard and saw Su Ming frowning and asked.

"The strength is not enough, maybe the cooling rate is too slow, or the solidification time is too short," Su Ming said.

"What should we do?" Su Ren was also very anxious after hearing this.

"There is no problem with the materials and proportions. Let's put the crucible in the evening tonight, spread it out in the yard to cool down after frying, and let it dry for two days the day after tomorrow. Let's see!" Su Ming said.

The materials, principles, and proportions were all known, but it was not that easy to make cement. Su Ming took the newly cooled cement and watered it again to solidify. When the solidification time was almost enough, he went to experiment again. This time, although the strength of the cement board was not

It was far from what I expected, but it was much better than the first time.

Su Ming used a stone to hit the cement board again. Although it could be smashed, it was very laborious. If it was left for a month, the effect would be much better.

And when he made the salt field, it didn't need to be strong to build a city wall, as long as it didn't leak.

Two days later, the results of the new cement effect experiment showed that Su Ming's soil cement could fully meet the needs of Erwei Fort to build a new salt field.

And Su Ming also plans to make more attempts to make cement with stronger hardness. By then, the city wall of Erwei Fort will be rebuilt and raised, so that they will be safer if the pirates come again.

In the early morning of March 30th, Su Ming, Su Ren and more than a dozen people came to the salt factory with more than 300 kilograms of cement. Two salt fields had been dug here, waiting for Su Ming's cement.

Su Ming first asked him to spread a layer of dry cement on the two salt fields and the middle canal, so that it would be easier for the cement and bottom stones and sand to solidify later. Then Su Ren divided the work, and soon everyone started working on the two new salt fields.

Get busy.

Su Ming kept staring at the construction site. He required that the height of the bottom of the salt pan must be as set, and the cement around the salt pan did not need to be too thick, more than an inch was enough. They did not have a lot of cement, so this time they could only meet this requirement first.
Chapter completed!