The first legitimate son of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 22 The Ice Collection Institute and Ling Ren

It was late at night. Li An was leaning on the Liu family's bed, frowning slightly. At this time, Li An was thinking about what Liu Fangzi told him while eating, that is, the court had noticed him and was always there. Find out about yourself.

Li An didn't know whether this was good or bad, let alone why the court wanted to inquire about his information in such detail. Who gave this order, the emperor, a minister, or someone else.

If you just want to inquire about yourself, then that's nothing. You are just afraid that the other party will have some evil thoughts towards you, such as arresting you. If you are arrested and cannot return to modern times, your daughter will be in trouble. .

According to the current situation, Li An should not contact Li Zhi anymore, because maybe it is because of his contact with Li Zhi that he will be investigated by the court. But Li An must contact Li Zhi, why... because Li An needs Li Zhi's writing.

At this time, Li An was really caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, he wanted to get Li Zhi's name and go back to raise money. On the other hand, he was worried that he would be trapped by the people here. Li An was really not afraid of death. He was just afraid. He was afraid that his death would harm his daughter.

Tossing and turning all night, Li An could only change his mind and began to think of how to find a way out for Huatian Village. You must know that Huatian Village is in its most difficult time now, and Li An is also responsible for this difficulty, so Li An also This problem should be solved for Huatian Village.

But what kind of way out should we find for Huatian Village?

Li An thought for a long time. The weather in Guanzhong was sultry at this time. Li An was very irritable and sweating profusely. He had to leave the room and go to the yard. He fetched a bucket of water from the pool in the yard. , ready to go back and wash up, but at this moment, Li An thought of two words in his mind: ice cubes!

Yes, Li An's eyes lit up. He finally knew what kind of way out he wanted to find for Huatian Village. He could sell ice.

In ancient times, there was ice in summer. However, the ice in ancient times was hidden ice. You had to go out to collect ice and store it. In the Tang Dynasty, there was already a place dedicated to collecting ice, called the Ice Collection Institute. The worker there is called Ling Ren, who specializes in collecting and storing ice.

You must think that you have to go deep into the mountains to harvest ice, but then you are overthinking it. Not to mention ice harvesting in deep mountains, transporting the ice back is also very troublesome. In ancient times, the roads were not very good, and the ice is easy to break, so , the ice harvesting location is actually in Chang'an City.

First of all, there are eight water canals and four canals in Chang'an. Not to mention the eight water canals, the four canals are Longshou Canal, Qingming Canal, Yongan Canal and Cao Canal. Among them, the place where ice is harvested is Longshou Canal.

Every winter, Longshou Canal is flooded. What is shabu-washing? It means that after the beginning of winter every year, people from the ice harvesting station must first remove aquatic plants, debris, etc. from the canal, then open the upstream gate and release water to flush the canal. This is called "washing the river" on both sides of the middle bank. After completion, the downstream gates are closed to store water and wait for the weather to get cold and the river water to freeze.

After the winter solstice, the people at the ice harvesting station can go down to the river to collect ice.

Ice harvesting is also called "cutting ice" and "beating ice". Every year on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, the ice cellars in Chang'an City will begin to store ice.

Every morning, people from the ice harvesting station would go to Longshou Canal to collect ice, armed with hooks, spears, ropes, and ice platoon trucks.

The size of the ice is "five inches square". Ling Ren first draws a line, then uses a hook and sickle gun to poke the ice according to the line, then hooks the ice pieces of similar size to the shore, puts them on the platoon cart, and ties them with ropes. good,

After hitting a patch of ice, lift the gate and release the water, so that the water level can be restored.Freeze again and make two more crops, or even three, four or five crops.

The first batch of ice is the thickest, the second and third batches are cleaner, and the fourth and fifth batches are much thinner and brittle.The Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty stipulates that the official ice is one foot and five inches square, while the private ice is three feet long and two feet five or six inches wide, which is almost twice the size of the official ice.

After the ice cubes are picked and sent to the ice storage cellar for storage, ice tokens will be issued to princes, ministers and family members. An ice token can get a large piece of ice. Later, some officials became corrupt and secretly sold ice cubes to make huge profits. A cube of ice one foot and five feet square sells for five guan.

During the Tang Dynasty, there were no civilians hiding ice yet, because ice cellars were not easy to build and only the government could build them. This ice was still very rare and precious.

There are a million people in Chang'an City. How many ice cubes can there be? Therefore, there must be many people without ice cubes. Li An doesn't know how many ice cubes there are in Chang'an, but Li An believes that without the right, you It’s just that if you have money, you can’t buy ice cubes no matter how much money you have.

At this time, if there is a place that sells ice, then these rich people who cannot buy ice will definitely flock there.

And the method of making artificial ice cubes, Li An also happened to know, was to use saltpeter to make ice. In fact, in the late Tang Dynasty, people in the Tang Dynasty also began to use saltpeter to make ice.

But at this time, everyone had questions again. Since saltpeter was already used to make ice, why did they still use primitive and labor-intensive cellars to store ice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties?

There are three reasons for this: The first reason is that ice made directly from saltpeter cannot be eaten. If you eat ice made from saltpeter, you will have diarrhea or even more serious conditions.

The second reason is that making ice with saltpeter requires a sufficient dose, a large dose, but the mining capacity in ancient times was originally relatively low, and saltpeter cannot be found by just digging.

So ancient people could only give up.

The third reason is that saltpeter is generally in places that are out of reach of ordinary people, so it is very difficult for ordinary people to use it.

For these three reasons, Li An can solve the first problem. Ice made directly from saltpeter cannot be eaten, so we don’t make it directly. We can use ice to make ice. First, put water in a large wooden basin. Then put the small wooden basin in.

Pour the saltpeter and use the ice in the big tub to freeze the ice in the small tub. This way the ice in the small tub will be clean and there will be no saltpeter ice.

The second problem is easy to solve. Saltpeter requires a large dose, but what the ancients didn't know is that saltpeter can actually be reused. Don't pour the saltpeter water after you use it. You can directly refine it using the crystallization method and get an iron pot or bronze pot. The pot can be used to burn, and the saltpeter can be extracted. In this way, it can be reused and there is no need for so much saltpeter.

But the last problem is a bit troublesome, that is, Li An does not have any power in Chang'an City. He wants to get some saltpeter, which is really troublesome. After thinking about it, Li An thinks that if he wants to solve the saltpeter problem, he can only Looking for Jin Wang Li Zhi, the problem has returned to the original point, that is, to find Jin Wang Li Zhi, because except for Jin Wang Li Zhi, Li An has no way to get saltpeter.

(End of this chapter)