Chapter 2 I'm Zhang Jiusi

The sky is full of stars, and the dark night sky looks so quiet. Only a horse lamp in the bow of the boat reveals a dim red light.

Zhang Yang sat in the bow of the boat and kept kicking his legs. The fire of hope that had just been ignited fell into the endless darkness again.

Why am I so unlucky?

Fate, why did you make such a big joke with yourself!

A few days ago, I was a graduate student majoring in light weapons design and manufacturing at the Army Academy. I took a boat to a secret arsenal in Hainan.

This arsenal mainly produces the latest assault rifle. I went there this time. After working on the production line for a month, I can sit comfortably in the office for research and development. What satisfies me most is that the salary and bonus are good. After working for a year, I will be given a house of more than 200 square meters.

However, as I fell into the sea, everything turned into nothing. I was a dry duck. After drinking a few sips of seawater, I lost consciousness.

He was fished up again and was surprised to find that he came to the Yuan Dynasty and came to the twelfth year of the Yuanshun Emperor.

I became a salt transporter in a salt farm. In this water town in the south of the Yangtze River, I took all kinds of waterways to transport salt to various places.

My name is Zhang Shicheng, also Zhang Jiusi, and three younger brothers, Shiyi, Shide and Shixin in turn. They are also called 95, ninety-six and ninety-seven respectively. The names of this Yuan Dynasty are really interesting.

Zhang Jiusi is his official name. In this Yuan Dynasty, where racial discrimination was particularly serious, the lowest was the so-called southerners, that is, the Han people and other ethnic groups in the southern Song Dynasty. And I am a southerner, and I don't even deserve a name. Adding the age of my parents is my own name, and Shicheng, which is called in private.

Zhang Shicheng? He must not be a big shot. Why haven't he seen this person in his history class? However, the person he sees the most in his history class is Zhou Gong.

If only he had become Zhu Baba when he came up. If he changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang, he would be the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Since you're here, it's better to live than to die. But when he returned to Zhang Shicheng's home, his heart was completely cold.

In several thatched houses, the adobe walls have been mottled and fallen off, looking scarred. The only door is still pieced together with a few broken boards, leaking everywhere. Can people live here?

Zhang Shicheng is just a small salt worker. With a few hundred yuan a month, he just can't starve to death.

However, what you have that people in this era do not have is knowledge. From primary school, junior high school, high school, college, internship. Growing up in the 21st century, I have been studying since I entered kindergarten at the age of three or four. The knowledge accumulated over hundreds of years is my greatest wealth. What's more, your major in college can be useful.

Once, I made a rifle myself in the internship workshop.

Red Scarf Army? Are you making trouble, Zhu Yuanzhang? Did you rise up, Yuan Dynasty? You can survive. Let's take a rest. Now that I have come to the Yuan Dynasty, let me do something great!

The first step is naturally the accumulation of capital. No matter what you do, you must have money and food. Jiangnan has been the hometown of fish and rice since ancient times. There is no need to worry about food. Therefore, the first step is to make money.

Anyway, he is also a salt transporter. While transporting salt to the court, he transports his own salt to sell. Isn't all this a problem?

However, it is illegal to transport private salt by yourself. After all, it is necessary to be beheaded. Moreover, the profit of transporting ordinary sea salt is too small.

Therefore, I used chemical methods to purify crude salt. This is an experiment I have done in junior high school, and I am naturally familiar with it.

Coarse salt, that is, sea salt. The seawater is directly evaporated, and the resulting sea salt contains various insoluble impurities such as sediment, as well as several soluble impurities.

First dissolve the coarse salt into the water, then filter it to remove the insoluble impurities, and then evaporate to get pure table salt. Brother Shicheng."

Zhang Yang was thinking, and a voice interrupted his thoughts.

Zhang Yang looked up and saw that it was Li Bosheng. He was also Zhang Shicheng's best friend.

"Bersheng, didn't you rest in the cabin?" Zhang Yang asked.

"I can't sleep." Li Bosheng said. Brother Shicheng, we are really going well this time. When we go home this time, we finally don't have to worry that the rice jar is empty. I bought 50 catties of rice, which is enough to eat for a while.

"Don't worry, we don't have to worry about rice cylinders in the future." Zhang Yang said.

" By the way, how did you find the soda?" Zhang Yang asked.

A few days ago, the crude salt was purified. After several dissolutions, filtration and evaporation, the resulting salt was not white, and there were impurities in it. Zhang Yang knew that this impurity can be dissolved in water, and the filter can only filter out those insoluble sediment and other impurities. These things can only be removed by adding other reagents to produce chemical reactions.

And the scientific name of this reagent is sodium carbonate. It is impossible to find sodium carbonate from a place nearly 700 years ago. Fortunately, Zhang Yang also knows its common name, called alkali, also known as soda, for steamed buns.

"Shide, where's our soda?" Zhang Yang asked.

"soule? What is it?" Shi De asked.

Zhang Yang looked at his stunned younger brothers and suddenly remembered: Hou's alkali method.

In this era, there was no industry to synthesize soda ash. The only soda ash comes from natural alkali ore. The price is very high, and ordinary people can't afford it.

The clever woman couldn't cook without rice. Zhang Yang looked at the yellow sea salt in the pot and was a little anxious.

"Brother, someone is knocking on the door outside." The fourth brother Shixin said.

It is also illegal to boil salt without permission, let alone purify coarse salt. Therefore, the four brothers chose to work at night, so that no one paid attention to the smoke from burning wood when heated.

But in this big night, someone knocked on his door.

"Open the door." As Zhang Yang said, he clenched the only kitchen knife in the family. If he was an official or something, he would risk it.

Under the dim yellow oil lamp, a familiar face came in.

"Brother Bo Sheng!" Shi Xin recognized it.

He is from Hailing, Taizhou. He moved here a few years ago. A few years later, he and the Shixin brothers have been friends of life and death. He once rescued Shiyi, who fell into the ice hole in the frozen river.

Li Bosheng swaggered in, and he didn't know how much tension his arrival had brought to these people.

"Huh? What are you cooking? Can you eat it?" Li Bosheng stretched out his little finger and dipped it in the pot.

"Bah! It's so salty!" Li Bosheng said.

It's so salty. It must be salt. However, this salt looks much cleaner than sea salt.

"We are purifying coarse salt," it seems that we can't hide it. Anyway, Li Bosheng is also a person who can be trusted.

"purification?" Li Bosheng really doesn't understand this modern word.

"It is to process coarse salt and turn it into refined salt." Zhang Yang said.

"Trick? I like it." Li Bosheng said, "However, this doesn't seem to be refined salt. It's still so yellow."

"I'm still short of one material." Zhang Yang said.

"shoshine."

"There is no soda ash, but there is oral alkali." Li Bosheng said.

"Yes, that's it." Zhang Yang said that he remembered that when he was in chemistry class, the teacher said that there was another name for this soda.

"All right, I have it in my house. I'll bring it to you." With that, he strode out again and muttered as he walked, "Anyway, I don't need it now."

Dissolve the alkali in salt water and stir it with a wooden stick. After a while, yellow crystals appear from the pot.

It worked! Zhang Yang was secretly happy.

Filtered the impurities again and evaporated the water. This time, a pure white powdered refined salt finally appeared.

The purified dozens of catties of refined salt is indeed a hot item, and it is all sold out this time. Zhang Yang remembered the soda again. How could Li Bosheng know this kind of thing?

"Because I was a warlock before I came to our salt farm." Li Bosheng said.

"Worcerer? Isn't that alchemy?" Zhang Yang asked.

"Yes, I have a few refined yin and yang complementary pills here. After eating them, I will do the couple's business, turn over the clouds and rain, and prolong my life." Li Bosheng said and took it out of his arms.

"Forget it, I don't have a wife yet." Zhang Yang said.

Warlock? An excited spirit in Zhang Yang's mind suddenly thought of something.

"Then can you find sulfur and saltpeter, as well as charcoal?" Zhang Yang asked.

"Of course, sulfur and saltpeter are available in pharmacies. Charcoal can be burned by itself."

"What if I need a lot?"

"How much?"

"The more the better."

"Then let me look for it on the mountain." Li Bosheng said.