【Quick Wear】My Years as a Mother-in-law

"What? Drying salt? How do you dry it?"

Patriarch Li was bewildered, and so were the Li clan members. Was this something they could do? Was it a serious crime? In the past, smuggling salt was a serious crime, punishable by beheading and exile.

What Yun Xi wanted to talk about was the salt field method, which was also the method used by salt fields to extract sea salt. The extracted sea salt was mostly sent to the palace, and occasionally it flowed out of the market for consumption by dignitaries. Ordinary people could only buy simply processed rock salt and coarse salt that had undergone certain deep processing. Of course, coarse salt was a bit expensive, so most people ate rock salt.

"The salt field method is a way to extract salt from seawater. I've seen it in my father's book." Yun Xi once again brought up her scholar father.

Patriarch Li slapped his thigh and said, "Yes, your father is a scholar. I almost forgot. Does that mean you can read?"

Yun Xi nodded, "I can read."

"Okay, okay, wait until the school is built..."

"Dad! The most important thing now is salt!" Li Wuniu was speechless and quickly interrupted his father.

"Yes, yes, yes, Yan, Sanniu's wife, you tell us how to do it, and we will follow you." asked Chief Li.

Yes, it’s been so long since we last ate salt, who would care about the court? The Li family thought fearfully.

"It's very simple. Find a mudflat and pour seawater into it to dry. Once it's almost dry, transfer it to a crystallization pond and continue drying it until the water dries up and the salt is precipitated. You'll get the coarse salt sold in grocery stores." Yun Xi looked around. Everyone was very curious, so she continued, "Dissolve the coarse salt in fresh water, filter it, and then dry it in the sun or boil it in a pot until it's dry. That's fine salt."

Li Wuniu was anxious, "What are you waiting for? Let's get started."

They got to work right away. They found a seaside spot with a freshwater stream and mudflats and started working. They dug thirty large pools in one go and then just waited for the sun to dry them.

"Let's dig thirty more small ponds."

The next day, another thirty small ponds were dug.

The waiting period was too boring, so Yun Xi took everyone to the beach to catch seafood. They cleaned the seafood they found by the stream and placed it on the rocks to dry in the sun.

There was no one on the beach except them. The small animals on the beach were probably used to freedom and forgot that there were predators like humans. They just stood there stupidly without knowing how to run.

Therefore, Yun Xi can dry more than ten kilograms of seafood a day, including kelp, dried shrimp, sea fish, sea shells, abalone, sea cucumbers, etc. Of course, there are not many precious seafood such as abalone.

The food is rice soup with sea urchin or boiled crab. This cannot be dried and taken away, so you have to eat it first.

In a blink of an eye, half a month passed and the sea water in the big pool was almost dried. Everyone scooped the sea water into the smaller pool to continue drying it, and the big pool was filled with water again.

Another half month passed, and it was now May 18th. The weather was very hot. Yun Xi had made 200 filtration devices and burned a large pile of activated carbon as a backup. The container she chose was a thick bamboo tube that had grown for many years, and each section was as big as a small bucket.

The bamboo tube has openings at the top and bottom. The bottom opening is covered with cloth and tied tightly with a rope. Then fine sand is poured in from the top opening, which accounts for about one-fifth of the volume of the bamboo tube. The same amount of activated carbon is put in the middle, and finally coarse sand that is twice the amount of activated carbon is put in. In this way, a simple filter is born.

Yun Xi began to demonstrate. She put the coarse salt from the small pond into fresh water to dissolve it, and then poured it into the filter. The brine passed through coarse sand, activated carbon, fine sand and cloth, and flowed into the bamboo tube placed below. The brine in the bamboo tube was poured into the unused filter next to it and filtered again. It was then poured into an iron pot and heated. The water vapor soon evaporated, leaving a layer of crystal clear and delicate refined salt.

The tribesmen were stunned and couldn't understand why salt just appeared like that?