Chapter 198 Salted Fish Assembly Line

The rain turned into drops that slowly slid down the bare ginkgo branches, creating ripples in the puddle under the tree.

The fine rain mist gathered and dispersed in the wind, and the muddy road was full of puddles of various sizes and depths.

The cold rain in early winter was bone-chilling, and the refugees drifting along the river were shivering in the cold wind, rain and fog.

The rain fell on their hoods or thatched cloaks, making a pattering sound, and their straw sandals with exposed toes often splashed up a circle of mud when they stepped into the puddles.

They were heading towards a long bridge not far away. At the end of the bridge, the Saviors and local beastmen were building a floating bridge with rafts.

Standing on the big rock on the shore of Nanze Lake, the rain splashed on Horn's face, and he could only squint his eyes and look towards Qiumu Island.

Amid the sound of the rushing rain on Qiumu Island, one could also hear the sound of gunfire that rang out at regular intervals.

Those are the Holy Gunners who are still clearing out the hairy zombies on Autumn Island.

Putting his hand in front of his brow to block the rain, Horn could still see the light of lightning in the sky above Autumn Dusk Island.

In this kind of rainy day battle, Jeanne is almost invincible.

Whenever they heard the gunshots and lightning, the barbarian beastmen who were volunteered to help Horn build the camp could not help but shrink their necks.

This morning, when the corpses of the hairy zombies were brought back to the shore, a large number of Blood God priests immediately fell into shock after the explosion.

The barbarians had completely lost the courage to resist. After getting Horn's promise that "as long as they don't cause trouble, the Savior Army will not turn their guns on them", the great division between the northern and southern beastman kingdoms was finally unified in Horn's hands.

However, after the death of the Blood God, the beastman barbarian kingdoms fell into confusion of faith, but this problem was quickly fixed by the resurrected Blood God priests.

When the Moon God died, wasn't he replaced by the Blood God? Now that the Blood God is dead, we just have to follow Huo God.

The Blood God is dead, and the Huo God should be enthroned!

Therefore, the Blood God priests were transformed into Huo God priests within just one day.

But Horn has not noticed this yet. He currently has to focus his main energy on military affairs - training a new army.

"After this rain, it will probably be winter." Looking at the beastmen fishing in the cold rain on the lake, Horn said to Busak beside him with a little emotion.

Busak looked up at the dark clouds in the sky and said, "This rain is coming and going. It will probably last for seven or eight days. But if it really snows, it will probably not snow until the second half of December. We still have time."

Although Daze Township is a swamp, it still snows every year. When it snows, perch and black carp will gather from the relatively shallow North Lake to the relatively deep South Lake.

When the weather gets cold, the water surface will become colder, and the deeper the water is, the warmer it will be. The fish in the lake will dive deeper to avoid the cold.

Although it snows in Daze Township, Nanze Lake rarely freezes, which results in the fishing boats being unable to catch any fish even though there are fish at the bottom of the lake.

Due to technical limitations, there are no fishing nets that can reach that deep. If we try to make one on site, we don't have enough time and materials.

That's why Horn was in such a hurry to find people to fish and build saltworks.

However, after clearing Autumn Dusk Island and the beastman barbarians, Horn was able to operate in the original war zone. He specially set up wooden stake fishing nets at several river mouths.

As the weather turns colder, local fish are moving towards Nanze.

According to Dumpie, at the mouth of the river "one could literally cross the river by walking on the backs of fish."

After sneezing, Horn rubbed his nose and asked, "How's the flu in the camp these days?"

"The number of people has increased again. We can't control them. Some of the refugees don't listen to us at all. They are shouting or running around..." Busak complained, "We told them that whether it's the flu or the Holy Spirit, it's not a big deal."

After hearing this news, Horn could probably understand the refugees' thoughts.

In this era, for the lower-class farmers, a flu is indeed a fatal thing. The long-term inertia makes it impossible for them to restrain their behavior.

In addition, during this period, the Holy Spirit and influenza broke out at the same time. Their symptoms were extremely similar, and no one knew how to treat them.

Forget it, let’s take a look at the salt field.

Mounting their horses, Horn, Busack and their group walked on the muddy ground, along the swamps and rivers.

Not long after walking, we saw hundreds of beastmen and Saviors carrying shovels and digging the swamp soil on the shore.

A group of workers braved the rain, raised their mattocks high, and dug the sticky and compact swamp soil one after another to loosen it.

Another group of workers inserted their shovels into the loosened swamp soil, stepped deeper with their feet, shoveled it out with force, and poured it into the wheelbarrow behind them.

When the wheelbarrows were full, a dozen strong men came from the end of the dirt road with empty wheelbarrows. They put the empty wheelbarrows away and pushed the wheelbarrows filled with swamp soil towards the simple peat extraction workshop at the foot of the mountain. "The speed is quite fast and there is no drag." Bonard looked at the workers blankly, "Your whip skills are good."

"We don't have supervisors." Horn pointed at Armand and several child soldiers standing nearby. "Their main job is to motivate the workers and control the process. The lazy ones are all in the Holy Trinity Education Team."

"Then how come they are so diligent?"

“First, I told them that every shovelful of dirt would turn into peat, the peat would turn into salt, and the salt would turn into saltfish.

The peat was used to heat themselves and their families in winter, and the salt was also for their own consumption.

As for the salted fish, the Savior soldiers who eat the salted fish will be stronger, and they will avenge you and protect them on the battlefield.

Second, I gave them a salary that was 20% higher than the labor market average, and the best performing group also received a bonus.

Since the bonuses are distributed by group, each group will supervise each other. "

Horn spread his hands: "It's that simple."

After saying that, Horn shook the reins and ran towards the peat alchemy workshop farther away, while Bonard watched for a few more seconds before catching up with Horn.

Going forward along the dirt road, there is a flat open space with seven or eight thatched houses next to it.

Dozens of Saints, all wearing black hoods and holding sticks in their hands, jumped in circles along the deep pit in the open space.

In the deep pit, dark peat gradually seeped out. In the circle they formed, two coal shovelers shoveled out new peat and then turned over the old soil to reveal the new soil underneath.

There were four or five carts parked on the side of the dirt road, each loaded with four or five baskets of peat and covered with canvas and thatch.

Several strong beastmen tied hemp ropes on their chests and pulled the carts forward in the rain.

Riding on horses, Horn and his companions passed the group of beastmen pulling the carts and walked forward along the sparse bushes and thorns on both sides. Finally, they saw the salt field at the foot of the mountain.

The salt field was not far from the swamp. It took Horn and his companions seven or eight minutes to get there on horseback, or at most ten minutes on foot.

It is located in a valley, with sparse trees around it. The obvious tree stumps show that they were most likely cut down by beastmen.

Horn got off his horse, walked to the salt well, and looked in. He saw that the well mouth was only the size of a human head. A hemp rope was hung on the wheel, and at the bottom was a small bucket.

"Why don't we dig this salt well bigger so that we can use bigger barrels?" Horn asked the Hand of the King of Carthage standing beside him.

Stepping forward, the King's Hand respectfully replied, "Don't hit it too big. If you hit it too big, it will collapse easily."

Horn reached out and touched the wall of the well, nodded thoughtfully, and walked out of the valley. When he passed by, he saw the salt boiling field on this side.

At the outer exit of the col, there are seven or eight salt pans.

Each salt stove is about knee-high, with a small opening at the bottom divided into two layers. Peat and fire starters are placed on the upper layer, while rotating wood chips are used to fan the lower layer to make the salt stove burn more vigorously.

A flat-bottomed ceramic basin with a diameter of two or three meters and a depth of less than half a meter is placed on the salt stove. The pale yellow brine boils under the blazing flames of the peat, bubbling with large bubbles.

Guided by the Hand of the King, Horn came to a nearly boiled clay pot.

Circling around the pottery basin, a beastman used a piece of wood to scrape off the light yellow well salt bit by bit.

This salt actually contains a lot of impurities and needs to be decolorized, but the beastmen don't care and just do it.

Next to the salt field is a temporary shed for making salted fish. Several royal chefs from the kingdom are inside the shed, skillfully dissecting the fish, removing the entrails and putting them aside.

The two pieces of fish are stacked in a wooden box for pickling, with one pound of salt for every ten pounds of fish.

Next to the work shed is the smoking room. Due to the humid climate in Daze Township, the food cannot be dried in air, so it has to be smoked.

"Can the production of salted fish keep up?" After scanning the entire salted fish production line, Horn turned to the Hand of the King and asked.

"If we have to batch one batch every ten days, time is a bit tight." The old beastman frowned, "We may need to add more salt stoves and peat..."

"It's okay. I can send more people and work in three shifts."

"Your Majesty, we only have two salt wells. We have salt stoves, but not brine. And we don't have enough time to dig new wells."

This was indeed a problem. Horn looked at the col for a while, took out a notebook from his pocket, wrote a few words on it, and then patted the old beastman on the shoulder.

"It's okay. You expand the salt stove first. I'll find a way to solve the brine problem."

(End of this chapter)