Chapter 91

How could Yu Heng listen to what Lazy Toad said? In his view, he was a descendant of the Yuan Lineage of Divination and Calculation; how could there be any reason for him to be a prisoner?

Thus, Yu Heng took off his shoes, dug out three copper coins from the lining, closed his eyes to mutter a silent prayer, and then opened his eyes to throw them onto the ground.

"Great auspiciousness?"

Yu Heng looked at the hexagram revealed on the copper coins in disbelief, feeling dizzy, and suddenly burst into tears.

"It's over, Master! I haven't learned the skills you taught me! I'm done for..."

Lazy Toad sighed and turned over, only feeling that this child was a bit noisy.

Jiang Jinshi wandered off to find Li Xinyue, intending to see how her progress was coming along.

At this moment, Li Xinyue was openly cutting down trees and directing everyone to move them to the side.

Jiang Jinshi stepped forward to ask: "What is this for?"

Li Xinyue turned back to explain: "Cutting trees to make wooden barrels."

"Then why not just go buy one?" Jiang Jinshi felt that this was laborious, and relying solely on the half-baked people in the stronghold, would the wooden barrels they made really not leak?

"The number of wooden barrels I need to make is large, and they are very large in size; there might not be any for sale in the city." Li Xinyue then excitedly introduced it to Jiang Jinshi.

"The main trunks of the trees are used to make planks, then the planks are made into wooden barrels, and the scraps can also be used to make charcoal."

"But why do you need such large wooden barrels?" Jiang Jinshi was puzzled.

Li Xinyue put her hands on her hips and said: "Whether it's dissolving coarse salt in water or soaking wood ash in boiling water to obtain lye, large barrels are needed. Preparing the tools all at once will make things easier later on."

Jiang Jinshi nodded in deep agreement, but in reality, his academic performance hadn't been good, so he didn't understand many things.

He could only secretly tell himself to ask less and watch more next time, so as not to expose his educational background.

They say that many hands make light work; there were over a dozen people cutting trees, and then four carpenters processed them, and soon two wooden barrels appeared before Jiang Jinshi's eyes.

Li Xinyue brought coarse salt from the kitchen and handed a wooden stick to Jiang Jinshi, signaling him to pour clear water into it and stir.

Jiang Jinshi did as he was told, and Xiao Hu couldn't stay idle either, going to fetch water at Li Xinyue's signal.

Soon, the yellow and bitter coarse salt dissolved into the water, becoming brine. The brine was turbid, and one could even see fine mud, sand, and impurities suspended within it.

Next, the brine needed to sit for a period of time to allow the heavier particles to naturally settle to the bottom of the barrel.

Of course, Jiang Jinshi couldn't go rest; he continued to bring over wooden barrels, put the prepared wood ash into them, added boiling water, and continued to stir with a wooden stick, letting it sit before taking the clear lye from the top for later use.

For this step, Li Xinyue specifically had Jiang Jinshi do it away from the crowd to prevent this "exclusive recipe" from being leaked.

Next, Jiang Jinshi used three arm-thick tree trunks to make a simple tripod, found two pieces of good-quality cloth, folded them into two layers, and spread them over the tripod to form a concave "filter net."

The cloth used was the high-quality fabric Jiang Jinshi had purchased earlier, not the coarse cloth commonly used by ordinary people.

The gaps in the coarse cloth were too large to provide a good filtering effect, so he had to use better cloth.

This scene was of course seen by everyone, and they all felt sorry that such good cloth was being wasted by Jiang Jinshi.

Because everyone still didn't understand what the Chief was doing, they just blindly followed orders to do things.

Even so, this filter was still not perfect in Li Xinyue's mind, so she spread a layer of fine sand taken from the riverside on top, and then another layer of crushed charcoal powder.

"The sand filters out large particles, and the charcoal can absorb the color and strange odors." Li Xinyue said to herself.

Jiang Jinshi understood that she was explaining it to him, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said: "I understand this, I learned it when I was in school."

At this time, the brine in the first basin had separated into layers. Jiang Jinshi carefully scooped out the relatively clear brine from the top and slowly poured it into his homemade "sand-charcoal filter."

This scene also attracted the attention of everyone, who kept looking over here while working.

The turbid brine passed through the sand and charcoal layers, and the liquid dripping into the barrel below actually became much clearer and more transparent!

Pour the filtered brine into a clean pot, light a fire, and heat it over a low flame until it is slightly warm.

Li Xinyue couldn't help but remind him: "It cannot be boiled!"

Jiang Jinshi nodded without speaking, concentrating fully on stirring while slowly dripping the prepared wood ash lye into the warm brine.

When some white flocculent matter began to appear in the pot, Jiang Jinshi whispered excitedly.

"Look!"

Continue adding a small amount of lye until no new flocculent matter is produced, then stop heating and let it sit to settle.

By this step, Jiang Jinshi already felt a bit tired, but he still gained a full sense of achievement.

But it wasn't over yet; under Li Xinyue's direction, Jiang Jinshi went to make a second filter to filter the brine that had just settled.

This time, the filtered brine was almost as clear as water, and Jiang Jinshi tasted it; the bitter taste had also almost disappeared!

Pour this final pure brine back into a clean pot, boil it over a high flame, then turn it to a medium-low flame and slowly simmer until the water gradually evaporates, and a layer of white crystal rings begins to appear on the edge of the pot.

Jiang Jinshi kept stirring with a wooden spatula to prevent it from burning at the bottom.

By this point, it was basically done. Filter out the small amount of remaining water at the bottom of the pot, spread the obtained wet salt grains on a clean linen cloth, and slowly dry them using the residual heat of the stove.

Then crush the dried salt grains, and you get white, fine, odorless refined salt.

Looking at the full pottery jar of refined salt, Jiang Jinshi was very happy, feeling a sense of pride that he was transmitting culture across eras.

"How much silver does this kind of refined salt sell for on the market?" Jiang Jinshi was most concerned about silver.

Li Xinyue didn't know this either; since she transmigrated, the number of times she had been to the city could be counted on one hand.

Thus, Jiang Jinshi hurriedly sent for Wang Hou, who often hung around in the city and would certainly know the price.

After Wang Hou arrived, he looked at the thing in front of him with some confusion. "Chief, what is this?"

"Salt! Taste it!" Jiang Jinshi proudly handed over the pottery jar in his hand.

Wang Hou pinched a little salt and put it into his mouth, and he was immediately stunned on the spot.

In his cognition, he had never seen or tasted salt of this quality, so he was unable to estimate its value.

He could only helplessly say to Jiang Jinshi: "Chief, you're making it difficult for me; I've never eaten salt this fine before!"

Then he thought for a moment and added: "When I was in the city before, I saw what the shopkeepers called refined salt, selling for four hundred and fifty wen per jin. Ours is better than theirs, so naturally, it can sell for more."

This was not a lie; Jiang Jinshi still had confidence in this.