Volume 1: Farming Chapter 39 Salt
When Xiao Yun first came here, the body he inherited from the original owner was completely that of a stunted bean sprout. His upper and lower ribs were clearly visible, his hands and feet were as thin as bamboo poles, and he was half a head shorter than the Yangmao girl who was two years younger than him.
Now, Xiao Yun's head is still not as big as the wooly girl, but at least he has a layer of flesh on his body... The genes of the snow wolf man are evolving towards a muscular brother. The meat he has eaten and the labor he has done in the past six months have successfully brought out the genes of the snow wolf man in his body. If he were not surrounded by a bunch of muscular brothers to compare with him, Xiao Yun could also pat his chest and say that he is very healthy and beautiful.
In short, Xiao Yun, who had successfully built up a strong and healthy body, now proposed to lead the team to the southern inland sea. At least the tribesmen would not worry that he would die on the way and never come back.
After finalizing the team members and repeatedly reminding the tribe leader and tribesmen who were in charge of the tribe to remember the key points and basic points of the work within the tribe while he was away, he also asked Qiuqiu, who had a more reliable IQ, to keep an eye on things... He also had a private talk with Thrall, and only then did Xiao Yun feel at ease to lead the team out.
As for Qingyan... he had to take Qingyan away. He had figured out that Qingyan always hung out with Dahe, and he absolutely didn't believe that there was nothing wrong with the two of them.
If Qingyan was also a snow werewolf, then Xiao Yun would have nothing to say. How free would he be to care about other people's free love? But this guy is a black panther! Reproductive isolation! They are different species, so why should they rub against each other? He has to do this thing of breaking up the couple!
The team of eight people walked out of the tribe and headed south, wading across the river and walking through the southwest grassland that had not been used since last year. After walking south for more than three hours, part of the jungle appeared at the end of their sight.
It is said that you should walk south along the jungle, but you can't really go along it... This jungle has been spreading freely and growing wildly for thousands of years, and its edges are like giant saw teeth and are not smooth at all. If you really want to walk along the jungle, you will have to take a lot of detours.
The sun gradually moved to the top of the sky, and the temperature rose to the hottest time of the day. The jungle in the distance, the water vapor evaporated by the sun, reflected a dazzling halo, and the grass leaves under her feet, which were taller than people, scraped her arms and legs from time to time; people walking on the grassland seemed to be pressed to the ground by the dazzling sunlight, but fortunately, the vast world in front of her did not make people feel depressed.
Xiao Yun took off his thin snakeskin coat and stuffed it into the animal skin pocket on his back. When the temperature rose to about 20 degrees, both the snow werewolves and the caracals were shirtless, but he really didn't have the habit of being shirtless, so Hongye gave him the python skin she picked up during patrol and made him a cool snakeskin coat - this thing is still very popular in the minds of the grassland residents, but they all use it to make leather pants, not as wasteful as he did.
The seven people walking in front of Xiao Yun, including Qingyan, had taken off all their clothes except for their rattan sandals... The non-breathable animal leather pants were too sweaty, and it would feel terrible if the area between the legs was covered in sweat while traveling.
Well... Although I understand these guys' naked running behavior, Xiao Yun, who is walking at the back, still feels it's too much to see... Six white butts plus one black butt dangling in front of the eyes, only those who have been here know the sour and refreshing feeling.
Uncle Ashan was quite warm-hearted. After running for a while, he turned back and asked, "Ayun, can you still run? If you feel tired, just tell me and I'll carry you."
"It's fine, no thanks." Xiao Yun refused decisively. In this temperature, a werewolf couldn't turn into a wolf and carry a human, and he didn't want to lie on the back of a naked fellow.
"Then you have to keep up!"
Hongye, who was two meters ahead, turned around and said, "It's okay. Let's all keep an eye on the back. Ayun can't fall behind."
Xiao Yun silently looked away. It was true that the naked buttocks of female snow werewolves were no different from those of males, but if a brother with a piece of meat missing between his legs looked at it for a few more times, he would still be blinded...
Six hours after setting out, the group entered a strange land that the patrolling soldiers had never set foot in. Fortunately, the soldiers had the ability to identify directions, so they could head south without a compass.
"There are more and more trees." Qingyan, who was the best at recognizing the road, ran ahead. After leading the team around a forest, Qingyan slowed down a little. "If there are only trees ahead, it might be difficult to take a detour. Should we go through the forest?"
"No, it's best to avoid it if possible." Xiao Yun thought for a moment and said. The grassland dwellers didn't know much about the jungle, and it wasn't their home ground, so they didn't want to take risks just to take a shortcut.
"In that case, we may have to walk a lot further. The further south we go, the larger the jungle is." Qingyan said.
...This guy's bad luck really worked. After another hour, the group was blocked by the large jungle that was "invading" the grassland.
"Hoo...Hoo..." Panting, Xiao Yun raised his head and glanced towards the east of the jungle blocking the road. His eyelids suddenly jumped. Damn it, he couldn't see the end...
"If we take a detour, it's not really a matter of walking a little more distance. But... no one has a topographic map in this direction. Who knows whether we need to go through part of the jungle to get to the beach from this direction? But it's not a good idea to just go straight in. We might end up walking into the deep jungle and completely miss the inland sea..." Xiao Yun had a headache. He had thought that it would be difficult to open up a new map, but he had never thought that he would have trouble on the first day out.
Everyone else looked at him, waiting for his opinion. Xiao Yun hesitated for a moment and decided to...go around. After all, the jungle was not the home of the grassland dwellers. Even if it took a longer detour, it was still safer to go through the grassland that everyone was used to.
After resting, Qingyan went to look for some wild fruits that could be found in summer, and everyone ate some dried meat and dried radish brought from the tribe. After resting, Hongye and Yu went to the forest and broke a tree, carried it out, and stuck it into the ground as a road sign, and the group set out again.
The journey lasted two and a half days...On the evening of the third day, everyone finally walked out of the jungle that blocked the road, and the vast grassland that everyone was very familiar with appeared again in the south direction.
Well... the scenery of this place is slightly different from before. It is more similar to the geographical environment of the Tauren tribe. There are more low hills, streams and springs are scattered among the thorns and grass, the woodlands are denser, and swamps of all sizes are more common.
"The terrain in this area is lower and the moisture is more concentrated."
When passing a forest whose lower half was soaked in mud, the group discovered that the muddy, bottomless mud in the forest was actually shining with colorful light under the sunlight, which caused people who had never seen such a sight to exclaim repeatedly. Xiao Yun knew the basic knowledge of light refraction. This forest must have been soaked in mud for many years, and the anaerobic bacteria fermented in the humus layer were densely covered in it. When the sunlight came in from the side, this spectacular light refraction phenomenon would appear. (People who have lived in old residential areas have probably seen the smelly ditch shining with colorful light under the sunlight...)
"If we could dig up the mud in this forest, it would be such a natural fertilizer~" Xiao Yun sighed in his heart when the tribesmen were amazed.
On the afternoon of the fifth day after setting out, when crossing a continuous low mountain range, Xiao Yun felt the sea breeze with salty smell of sea waves and the breath of low-pressure hot wind -
"What a huge river!" Asante looked into the distance in amazement, raised his arm and pointed hard, "Look, there's no end to that river!"
They were standing on the top of the mountain range. Although the mountain range was short, it should be more than 100 meters high. Beyond the dense jungle at the foot of the mountain, at the end of the sight, there were endless waves connected to the sky.
"If it's not a river, then it must be the inland sea." Xiao Yun couldn't control his excitement. "We found the seashore . That's the sea. There is endless salt in the sea!"
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then cheered...
"ah!"
An elf who was jumping among the treetops in the jungle suddenly slipped and fell forward. Fortunately, he was agile and quickly reached out to grab the vines on the tree to hang on to his body, thus avoiding falling headfirst to the ground.
"Kai?" The companion in front stopped and looked back in confusion.
"Hailin, did you hear the wolf howling?" Kai, still frightened, grabbed the vines and looked around.
"Can the howling of wolves scare you like this? Then you'd better go back and don't drag me down." Her companion Hailin frowned and said bluntly.
"No, it's not an ordinary wolf howl. It's more like the howl of a snow werewolf." Kai explained quickly, "Do you still remember the conscription order issued by the Elf King eleven years ago? I participated in that conscription and left our hometown to go to the Northern King City--"
"That's enough, Kai. I know that participating in the battle of the royal city is the most glorious thing for you. There's no need to show it off again and again." Hailin said unhappily.
"I'm not trying to show off, I really think the wolf howl just now is very similar to the sound of the snow werewolf!" Kai threw away the vines, jumped over a distance of more than four meters and landed next to his companion, trying his best to gesture, "The snow werewolves have reached the foot of the royal city. Those monsters that are as powerful as top-level monsters defeated the Elf King's royal army..."
Hailin jumped up and stood on a branch six meters away. She looked back at her companions with disgust and said, "Alright, Kai, we are only here to rescue our people who were abducted by human merchant ships. Our enemies are not the snow wolves. If you are afraid of even humans, you can retreat now."
“Hey, I’m really not…”
Kai hurriedly chased after her, but Hailin had no intention of waiting for him and left him behind with a few jumps.
From the top of the mountain outside the forest, the snow wolves happily carried stones and wood, built tall signposts in the most conspicuous locations, and then happily rushed down the mountain and headed into the jungle that they did not like.
The jungle, which seemed to be no more than two kilometers deep from the top of the mountain, took the snow wolves more than an hour to run through. Finally, they got out of the jungle that made them feel uncomfortable all over. After running for more than half an hour, they came to a cliff where they could directly see the sea. That's right, there was no beach, no soft sand. The border between the land and the sea in this direction was a steep cliff dozens of meters high. Even the cats could not climb down.
The tribesmen who were ready to cheer again were dumbfounded and looked at Xiao Yun with dull faces.
"... Let's look along the cliff. It's impossible that all cliffs are like this... It should be because the terrain difference is large on this side close to the jungle. It can't be like this in other places." Xiao Yun wiped the sweat off his forehead and encouraged everyone.
The farther you go west from the sea, the greater the drop in elevation, so you can only go east. The farther you are from the jungle, the flatter the terrain becomes. After more than two hours, Xiao Yun finally saw a natural beach that matched his understanding of the seaside - on the coastline that you can't see the end of, between the vegetation and the sea water competing for territory, the white and soft sand is gleaming faintly in the afterglow of the setting sun; the soft and moist sand is densely covered with rich seafood left after the tide recedes, and flocks of seabirds take off and land on the beach, doing the work of predators in an elegant posture.
"The sea!" Xiao Yun opened his arms excitedly and roared to vent the pressure that had been accumulating in his heart since he embarked on the journey.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh salt salt salt salt—!”
In less than half a second, the snow wolves destroyed Xiao Yun's hard-earned excitement. One by one, their big white butts pushed Xiao Yun away and they spread their legs and pounced on the beach.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaa——!”
...Then this group of people were driven back by the waves that came back to regain their lost territory, and they fled in a stumbling manner, leaving their weapons and armor behind.
"..." Xiao Yun held his forehead with his hand, "Stop playing, take a break quickly. We have to hurry up and get the salt and return it all."
"Oh." The snow wolves, who were frightened by the sea, looked at the waves that were slowly receding with lingering fear and walked back obediently.
Before they were halfway through the walk, Ah Yue suddenly jumped up: "Ouch, something is pinching my foot!"
"I told you to wrap your feet with animal skins, but your toes are all exposed outside the straw sandals...ah, what is this?!" Hongye, who wanted to help, was shocked.
"I don't know what this thing is!" A Yue shook her feet desperately.
"Crab! Crab! Just crush it!" Xiao Yun was furious.
"Crabs can be this big?" Ah Yue, whose toe was pinched, was actually in a state of shock and pointed out with her fingers, "Aren't they all only this big?"
"Are you in pain or not?" Xiao Yun shouted.
"It hurts! Hongye, help me step on it!"
"Then stop jumping around!"
Xiao Yun was too lazy to pay attention to them. He twitched his lips and looked away... Then he saw Qing Yan, who was hiding behind the old man and shivering.
"There's so much water!" Qingyan met his eyes and said in a trembling voice with a scared look on his face.
Xiao Yun: “…”
...Wait a moment.
They jumped onto a flat ground in the vegetation-occupied area on the coast, unpacked their bags, made a fire, set up a clay pot, boiled the dried meat with fresh water from the jungle, and ate it with dried radish. Then Xiao Yun led everyone to level the area for drying salt.
Boiling salt is labor-intensive, while drying salt is too time-consuming, so Xiao Yun plans to make salt in two ways at the same time: use the hoe he brought with him to dig out large salt fields, inject shallow sea water, let the wind and sunlight help evaporate some of the water, and then use to boil - if it relies solely on boiling, the clay pot cannot withstand such a toss.
After scraping away the vegetation and tamping the ground with logs cut from the jungle, they worked all night to create two acres of salt fields. After pouring a layer of seawater into the fields, they fell asleep out of exhaustion. The next day, they were awakened by the sun and the chirping of birds. When they got up to look, a lot of the seawater in the salt fields had evaporated.
When drying salt, the larger the contact area between seawater and air, the larger the evaporation area, which can effectively shorten the evaporation cycle. However, Xiao Yun did not have modern convenient tools to rely on, so he could only use the most clumsy manual method... Tie two relatively straight wooden sticks into a T shape. When the sun is at its highest, stand by the salt field and hold the long end, and slowly push the salt water in the salt field with the "one" end the stick, so that the contact area between the flowing salt water and the air is increased.
As for the others, they continued to level the new salt pans and compact the bottom of the fields...
Xiao Yun had never seen a calendar since he came to this world. The nomadic inhabitants of the grassland did not pay much attention to observing the solar terms. The only farming nation, the Tauren, did pay attention to climate change, but their main ethnic base was far from sufficient to create their own solar terms and establish the Gregorian calendar... So Xiao Yun could be said to have lived without realizing the years.
However, based on common sense about the Earth's climate, this short-lived season, which lasts only two months a year and has an average daily maximum temperature of around 30 degrees, should be the hottest months of July and August every year...
There are only two months in a year with such temperatures, so Xiao Yun naturally hopes to get more salt back. He is generous and lets his tribesmen work hard to open the salt fields - it won't be wasted anyway, and they can still use it next year.
On the fifth day after the start of salt drying, the first two salt fields turned into a thick and saturated solution under the evaporation of the sun and wind. Curious tribesmen dropped their work and ran over to watch. Hongye dipped some of the solution with her tongue and licked it, showing a pleasant expression: "It tastes like salt, but a little bitter."
"Don't try it. It hasn't been filtered yet. The brine is poisonous." Xiao Yun was startled and quickly drove these curious kids who wanted to taste the saltiness of everything away from the salt field.
The crystals obtained by directly drying the water from seawater cannot be said to be table salt directly. There are still other impurities in it. It can only be regarded as coarse salt and industrial salt. It has a strong bitter taste and is harmful to the body if consumed for a long time. If it is to be used as table salt, it must be filtered.
Filtering the brine is actually very easy... Xiao Yun took out the cloth (a relatively fine linen cloth) he got from the patriarch, wrapped it in charcoal taken out of the fire, stretched it on the mouth of the clay pot, then used a wooden spoon to scoop up the brine from the salt field, poured it into the clay pot, and filtered it with the charcoal wrapped in the cloth.
The Snow Wolves had already opened up 20 salt pans, and no one was willing to leave. They all squatted beside and watched Xiao Yun's operation curiously. Yu You was watching very seriously, his light green pupils widened.
Xiao Yun also wanted his people to think more and become smarter. Seeing how curious everyone was, he explained to them, "The salt in the seawater can be eaten directly by boiling it into salt crystals, but it will taste bitter. This is because there are too many impurities in the seawater salt... Of course, in terms of impurities, the green salt we bought from the human caravan is not much worse. It is just well salt that has not been properly processed. Tsk tsk."
"Using charcoal to filter out impurities in the brine like I do can't say that all the impurities can be filtered out, but it can effectively filter out most of the impurities, so the salt obtained in this way will not have that bitter taste." Xiao Yun removed the charcoal bag on the mouth of the pottery jar and poured the filtered brine into the pottery bowl for everyone to see. "Look, isn't the color of this brine a little lighter than that in the salt field?"
The six snow wolves and a black panther squatting side by side looked at the pottery bowl and then at the salt field, nodding in unison.
“Filter it two more times.”
Xiao Yun shook out the linen, rewrapped the charcoal and stretched it on another pottery jar. After filtering the brine three times, he handed it to Ashan and asked him to boil it into crystals.
When Ashan walked aside with the clay pot to make a fire, Yu showed a particularly conflicted and struggling expression... He really wanted to follow Ashan to see how the brine turned into salt, but he was worried that if he walked away he would miss Ayun's next move.
"Maomao, you go help Ashan. I will filter the brine next. It would be good to have more people to cook salt." Xiao Yun was a little amused and pretended not to notice Yu's little thoughts and acted indifferent.
“……” Yu opened his mouth and closed it again. He wanted to say, “My name is not Maomao”...but now is not the time to say that.
A Shan was afraid of burning the clay pot, so he cooked it slowly over low heat until the sun set. Only then did the brine in the pot evaporate and turn into white salt crystals with a hint of green.
"It's really salt!" Ah Shan held the pottery pot and carefully placed it on the sand. He dipped his finger in the salt and tasted it. He immediately smiled happily. "It's not bitter at all. It's better than the green salt I got from buying oxen!"
Yu was not as excited about getting salt as Ah Shan. He dipped some salt in a pilgrimage and tasted it. Feeling the pure salty taste in his mouth, Yu suddenly felt his eyes warm...
Xiao Yun's tribe went downhill after losing a large number of warriors and losing the grassland. They had plenty of horned cattle that could be exchanged for salt. But Yu was different... Yu's tribe had lived in the southwest border of the grassland for decades, and their ancestors had never been rich. In order to ensure salt for the tribe, they had really had a hard time over the years.
But now, they only need to spend five or six days running to the seaside and another five or six days drying and boiling salt to get the edible salt that has always been a choke for their tribe. Just think about how they didn’t dare to slaughter the sorghum cattle even if they were hungry in order to save them. This huge gap really makes Yu feel complicated.
Ashan was happy about getting the salt but soon he began to check the clay pot with concern, muttering something like "I hope it's not burnt anywhere". Yu felt even more complicated after hearing this... To be honest, their tribe didn't seem to have the capital to lose the clay pot in exchange for salt. It was really sad to think about it!
Ah Shan was right to worry. The clay pots really couldn't stand long-term boiling. After boiling the brine from the two salt fields into half a leather bag of salt, two of the six clay pots he brought out were broken...
The Snow Wolves were heartbroken, and Qingyan also looked distressed. There was nothing Xiao Yun could do, so he asked them to run around to see if there were any stone slabs of suitable size. Anyway, there were forests and firewood all around, so if all else failed, they could just use the stone slabs to "roast" the salt.
Ashan and Qingyan went to the west to look for it, while Hongye and Yu went east together. The two of them walked along the vegetation on the coastline and explored all the way. They actually found a rocky beach where the beach was separated by a cliff protruding from the sea. At the end of the rocky beach, they could see a cave of astonishing size.
“Maybe there’s one here?”
Hongye's eyes lit up, and she quickly jumped down and ran to the rocky beach. It was unknown whether this area had experienced a change in the bottom crust such as an earthquake. The rocks on the rocky beach looked like they were formed by the collapse of the cliff. Under the impact and weathering of the sea water, some of the rocks near the sea were washed into a more rounded shape.
The two searched the rocky beach and saw many strange-shaped stones, but they didn't see any thin stones that could barely be considered slabs...
"How about we find a bigger stone and use Ah Yun's method of roasting it over fire and then flushing it with cold water to split it in half, Hongye, do you think it's feasible?"
Yu felt that there was no hope of finding a ready-made stone slab, so he proposed an idea and wanted to ask Hongye's opinion. But when he turned around, he found that Hongye was staring in the direction of the cave with a puzzled look on her face, as if she didn't hear what he said.
"Hongye?" Yu called again.
"Ah." Hongye turned around and waved at him, "Yu, come over here and listen. I seemed to hear someone's voice coming from inside just now, but it disappeared in an instant. Did I hear it wrongly?"
