I'm a useless prince, so what if I know a little bit of chemistry?

Not long after, Chun Fang led his men to the yard where Lin Fan was.

From a distance, Chu Hu could be heard shouting in the yard: "My Lord, is there anything delicious? I heard from Chun Fang that there is a pot in the yard. Is this the hot pot you mentioned?"

There was also Xiang Long's scolding voice: "Eat, eat, eat, all you do is eat. Can't you think about something else?"

"Oh, you know that the Marquis's meal is so delicious. Don't say you are not greedy. I don't believe that you, Xiang Shazi, have such a noble character."

It seemed that Xiang Long was in the wrong, or he didn't know what to say. He just grunted for a long time and then didn't say anything else.

The footsteps gradually approached, and soon, more than thirty people were seen walking into the yard.

The one walking in front was the fat man Chu Hu. After seeing Lin Fan, Chu Hu rubbed his hands, walked over carelessly, and asked, "Hey, Lord, what good stuff do you have today? I, Chu Hu, have been craving for it for a long time."

After saying that, Chu Hu looked behind Lin Fan again. He didn't see any ingredients, and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. But Chu Hu then felt that it seemed that he wanted us to prepare the ingredients ourselves, so he asked:

"My Lord, if you had told me earlier that you wanted to eat hot pot, I would have gone to the mountains to catch some mountain cats and wild animals."

"Bobcat? Where's the bobcat?"

At this time, Qin Yu'an ran into the yard in two steps, his face full of excitement. When he saw Lin Fan, he ran over and said, "Brother, I'm here."

Lin Fan looked at this silly brother, smiled and nodded, and said, "It's good that you're here, Shi'an, move the pot out of the kitchen."

"Okay, leave it to me." Qin Shian smiled and walked into the kitchen.

When Chu Hu heard this, he swallowed his saliva, looked at Xiang Long, smiled smugly, and said, "Oh, I told you that the Marquis wanted to treat us to a meal, but you didn't believe me. Do you believe it now?"

"Hey, Lord, I'll go move the tables, chairs and benches."

Lin Fan looked at Chu Hu's greedy face and felt extremely helpless. He teased him, "I didn't realize that you, Fatty Chu, can eat so much. I'm afraid you have gained a lot of weight in the past few days, right?"

Chu Hu scratched his head embarrassedly and said flatteringly: "Hey, I've been thinking about the meals made by the Marquis lately."

Xiang Long nudged Chu Hu with his elbow, signaling Chu Hu to stop talking.

After all, what kind of boss is like a cook, cooking for his subordinates every day? That's why Lin Fan was not angry. If it were another boss, Chu Hu would have his head chopped off several times.

Lin Fan smiled and was not angry. Although Chu Hu was Lin Fan's subordinate, Lin Fan felt that Chu Hu was more like a friend to him, so he didn't mind.

"Okay Fatty, let's not cook today. Go and make a simple pot rack that's a little bigger and sturdier." Lin Fan said to Chu Hu.

"I'll go right away."

Lin Fan looked at Xiang Long again and said, "Brother Xiang, take a few brothers with you to surround this yard and make sure that what happens in the yard will not be known to outsiders."

"Yes!"

Xiang Long nodded in agreement and took his men outside to deploy.

After a while, with the busy work of several people, a pot rack was set up.

"My Lord, you really don't want to eat hotpot?" Chu Hu asked doubtfully. He really couldn't think of what else he could do with a pot besides making hotpot. Could he possibly boil salt?

"You'll have food to eat later, but you have to get down to business first today," Lin Fan replied.

"Business?" Chu Hu also noticed the mineral salt in the big pot at this time, and couldn't help but be stunned.

"My Lord, these are all mineral salts, and they are all poisonous. How can we eat them?"

"This is called boiling salt. You won't understand even if I tell you. Light the fire first. You have to use dry grass, nothing else." Lin Fan was too lazy to explain to Chu Hu. After all, even if he explained, Chu Hu would not understand. In that case, why bother to explain?

"Oh, okay." Seeing Lin Fan's serious expression, Chu Hu also became serious. He stopped joking and lit the fire.

The dry grass burned very quickly, so Chu Hu could only keep filling the bottom of the pot rack with dry grass.

Finally, the salt water in the pot boiled, and Chu Hu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He finally didn't have to keep burning the fire.

Lin Fan used a wooden stick to stir the pot for a while, making sure that all the mineral salt was dissolved in the hot water, and then said to Chun Fang: "Chun Fang, go get some clean cloth, some coarser material is also needed."

"it is good."

After Chun Fang left, Lin Fan looked at Qin Shian again and said, "Shian, go get some big buckets."

Qin Shian obeyed Lin Fan's orders and went to find a bucket.

Soon, the things Lin Fan ordered were brought over by the two men.

"My lord, what are you going to do?" Chun Fang asked curiously.

"This mineral salt contains too many impurities such as mud and sand, so it must be filtered out." Lin Fan explained.

"Shi'an, pour the water from the country into this bucket. Remember, I will put two layers of cloth on top of it. Just pour it onto the cloth."

After explaining this to Qin Shian, Lin Fan said to Chu Hu, "Put this coarse cloth on the bucket first."

The two men did as they were told and soon poured the mineral brine in the pot into the bucket. A lot of mud, sand and other impurities were left on the piece of cloth that Chu Hu held up.

"Good. Then change to a finer material and repeat it a few more times."

While the two were busy, Lin Fan used a small shovel to shovel all the ashes from the burning dry grass into a bucket of water, and then stirred it with a wooden stick.

"My lord, these ashes are still useful?" Chu Hu was greatly surprised when he saw this scene and couldn't help asking.

"Yes, don't underestimate these ashes, they are also indispensable things." Lin Fan said.

Wood ash is alkaline. Now that Lin Fan has no other alkaline substances, he can only use wood ash as a substitute.

This is also one of the reasons why Lin Fan asked Chu Hu to continuously light the dry grass.

On the one hand, Lin Fan wanted to increase the solubility of the mineral salt by heating it, and on the other hand, he wanted to obtain wood ash.

Afterwards, Lin Fan poured the salt water and wood ash water into a slightly larger bucket and began stirring it again.

Chu Hu asked doubtfully, "Lord, is this really possible? It's not that I don't trust you, Lord, but this is mineral salt. Eating it will kill you."

Lin Fan smiled, not caring about Chu Hu's words, and just said casually: "You will know in a while."

After the two buckets of water were fully mixed, Lin Fan repeated the previous action and filtered the mixed water several times.

Lin Fan looked at the last bucket of salt water, smiled with satisfaction, and said, "It should be almost done, just boil this bucket dry."

"Ah? Still cooking?" Chu Hu became deflated when he heard it, and he opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

"This time we don't need dead grass, just use cooked wood." Lin Fan said.