Cao Cao called me to rob a tomb

Chapter 40 Shouldn't Salt Be Yellow?
But now, because of limited conditions...

Well, showdown, stop pretending!

It's just that I didn't study chemistry well at the beginning, and later I chose liberal arts. I basically took chemistry classes in Internet cafes, so it's okay!
Therefore, Wu Liang had no way to come up with the messy chemical reagents used in the crude salt purification experiment, so he planned to use the "five-step salt production method" that has been used for more than 1300 years since it appeared in the early Tang Dynasty to purify the crude salt. Purify.

But looking at the appearance of Chen Jinshui and others, Wu Liang knew that it was useless to talk to them, so he simply did not continue to popularize science.

Soon after.

Dian Wei finally crushed dozens of catties of coarse salt in the iron salt basin.

Wu Liang didn't have a large enough container to fully dissolve the coarse salt powder with water.

So I only took about 5 catties from it, put it into another big tank, and then asked Chen Jinshui and others to fetch some water, and filled the big tank with coarse salt powder while stirring, so that those Powdered salt dissolves quickly.

During this period, he ordered Dian Wei to pour the remaining powdered salt into a small jar and keep it for later use.

He himself took out the copper dagger stolen from the tomb of King Liang Xiao, and squatted on the ground to pry a layer of hard and thick white substance like scale attached to the inside of the salt iron basin.

"I said talented brother, you are already a Sima. I don't know how much salt you can buy with a month's salary. There is no need to save so much, right?"

Chen Jinshui and the others looked funny and couldn't help joking.

"Sima!?"

Hearing this official position, Dian Wei couldn't help but pause, and looked at Wu Liang even more unexpectedly.

He had been speculating on Wu Liang's identity just now, but even though he had thought of ten thousand possibilities, he never expected that Wu Liang was actually a Sima...

To be honest, Dian Wei was no longer a recruit, and he had seen dozens of officers if not hundreds, although Sima was still considered to be of a relatively high rank among the officers he had met.

But Wu Liang is definitely a special case.

This person has no airs of a military officer at all, even if Chen Jinshui and others did not tell him, he would not be able to connect Wu Liang with the army, let alone Sima.

While Dian Wei was surprised, Wu Liang was still concentrating on "greedy for petty gains".

"Crack!"

With a soft sound, a piece of white substance was finally pried off by him.

This thing is fucking solid, hard as a rock!

So, it's not salt.

Or it is not ordinary salt, commonly known as "salt plate", the chemical name seems to be something like "white, sodium, magnesium, alum". Who knows the specifics.

Wu Liang only knew that it was a mineral crystal aggregate formed during the long-term boiling of salt.

In the "five-step salt production method", this thing plays a vital role. It is not only insoluble in water, but also can analyze most of the elements in coarse salt that are invisible to the naked eye but are harmful to the human body. This is of course a must As for the chemistry problem, Wu Liang couldn’t explain the specific principles, so it’s enough to be useful anyway, so what to do with it, right?

"Why don't you let me come?"

Seeing Wu Liang strenuously, Dian Wei walked over with great insight and said, this alone is much better than Chen Jinshui's fools.

"Okay! Pry it all off, but this time you don't need to grind it into powder, just smash it into crumbs the size of sheep dung eggs."

Wu Liang resolutely stuffed the dagger into Dian Wei's hand, and turned to look at the coarse salt water stirred by Chen Jinshui and others.

At this moment, the salt powder in the water has completely dissolved, and the muddy smell is even worse. The color of the water has also completely turned yellowish brown, which looks a bit disgusting.

"Lift it up and pour it into the jar. Be sure to slow down and don't spill it."

Wu Liang pointed to the big vat next to him which he covered with four layers of linen.

Chen Jinshui and others still don't know why, but they can only follow suit.

As the coarse salt water was gradually poured in, many small stones of different sizes and dross of unknown composition were left on the linen cloth. Wu Liang lifted the linen cloth on it, and although the color of the coarse salt water in the tank became lighter, it was still bright. tan.

"Rinse that urn clean and do it again."

In this way, the two tanks were used interchangeably, and the cycle was repeated many times. The crude salt water in the tank still showed a faint yellow color, but the linen cloth basically could not filter out impurities, and the color of the crude salt water did not change any more. Wu Liang finally called it off.

At the same time, Dian Wei finally disposed of the "nitrogen board" in the salt iron basin.

Wu Liang took the sackcloth to wrap these "nitrate grains" again, made a simple funnel with ready-made things, stuffed the wrapped "nitrate grains" into the bottom of the funnel, and then set it on an empty tank.

"Get up, let's filter it twice."

"Again?"

"Do you still want to eat meat and drink tonight?"

"I'm coming!"

Everyone quickly got up to help.

This time, there is an extra "nitrate grain" funnel, and the filtration process is much slower.

But the brine flowing out of the funnel has completely lost its faint yellow color, and is as crystal clear as a mountain spring.

Wu Liang knew that it was the chemical reaction of the nitrate plate, which had already decomposed most of the impurities in the brine that could not be seen with the naked eye.

As for why there is a nitrate plate in the salt iron basin, but it can't play the same role in the process of boiling salt?

It is because the brine slurry that has been dried and saturated is used for boiling salt in the salt industry at this time, and it is directly boiled dry. The viscous brine slurry cannot fully contact with the nitrate plate at all. Even if a small part of it has completed the chemical reaction, this link It is also impossible to filter in the middle, and the impurities produced after the reaction cannot be filtered out in time, so not only can it not play the role of purification, but it will cause secondary pollution to the final boiled salt.

So, Wu Liang was still worried.

After filtering twice in this way, I finally lit a pile of firewood around the vat and entered the final step of extracting refined salt—heating to evaporate water and waiting for saturation to crystallize.

This will be a relatively slow process, but Wu Liang is very comfortable, sitting on the sidelines and patiently waiting for the birth of the masterpiece. For a modern person living in the 21st century, this is undoubtedly a rare life experience and a sense of accomplishment. full.

However, what Wu Liang did was so weird in the eyes of Chen Jinshui, Dian Wei and others. They still didn't understand what Wu Liang was doing.

Until the afternoon, I saw some extremely pure white crystals that Wu Liang scraped from the inside of the water tank.

"This is……"

Everyone is puzzled.

"Salt, taste?"

Wu Liang smiled contentedly, rejoicing like a child.

"Shouldn't salt be yellow?"

Yin Jian asked puzzledly, even the refined salt in the inner hall of the Salt Bank, which is exclusively for "Tianlong people", also has a faint yellow color.

So in his impression, salt should be yellow, not pure white like snow.

Having said this, Yin Jian tried to stick a little bit of rice grain-sized debris into his mouth with his fingers.

"Hiss... so salty! But it melts in the mouth, it's really salt!"

Although salty grinned, Yin Jian's eyes were full of surprise, "This salt has no strange smell, and it looks very good. If the salt in the salt shop is called refined salt, your salt is the best in refined salt." Refined salt!"

(End of this chapter)