togophonebook #198 - Salted fish production line
#198 - Salted fish production line
Raindrops, like flowing beads, slid slowly from the bare branches of the ginkgo trees, creating ripples in the puddles beneath.
Fine rain mist gathered and dispersed in the wind, leaving the muddy road covered in puddles of various sizes and depths.
The cold rain of early winter was icy and piercing, causing the displaced people moving along the riverbank to shiver in the cold wind and mist.
The rain pattered on their hoods or thatched rain capes, while their straw sandals, exposing their big toes, splashed mud as they stepped into the puddles.
They were headed towards the long bridge not far away, where at its end, the Salvation Army and the local beastmen were building a pontoon bridge with rafts.
Standing on a large rock on the shore of South Marsh Lake, rain lashed at Hoen's face as he squinted towards Autumn Dusk Island.
Amidst the rushing sound of rain on Autumn Dusk Island, the occasional gunshots could be heard.
Those were the Holy Gunslingers still clearing out the long-haired zombies on Autumn Dusk Island.
Raising a hand to his brow to shield his eyes from the rain, Hoen could see the glint of lightning in the sky above Autumn Dusk Island.
In such rainy weather, Lana was practically invincible.
Whenever they heard these gunshots and saw the lightning, the barbarian beastmen who had volunteered to help Hoen build the camp couldn't help but shrink their necks.
This morning, when the bodies of the long-haired zombies were transported back to the shore, a large number of Blood God priests immediately went into shock after bursting out.
Those barbarians completely lost their confidence to resist. After receiving Hoen's promise that “as long as they don't cause trouble, the Salvation Army won't turn their guns on them,” the great division of the North and South Beastmen Kingdoms finally came to an end under Hoen's leadership.
However, after the death of the Blood God, the beastman barbarian kingdoms fell into religious confusion, but this problem was quickly resolved by the resurrected Blood God priests.
Didn't we switch to the Blood God after the Moon God died? Now that the Blood God is dead, we'll just follow Lord Hoen.
The Blood God is dead, Lord Hoen shall rise!
Thus, the Blood God priests, within a short day, transformed into Hoen God priests.
However, Hoen had not yet noticed this. He currently had to focus his main energy on military affairs—training a new army.
“After this rain, the weather will probably turn to winter.” Looking at the beastmen fishing in the lake in the cold rain, Hoen said with some emotion to Bursac beside him.
Bursac looked up at the overcast sky: “This rain comes and goes, it's estimated to last seven or eight days, but it probably won't snow until the second half of December. We still have time.”
Although Great Marsh Township is a swamp, it still snows every year. When it snows, river bass and bluefish will gather from the relatively shallow North Marsh to the relatively deep South Marsh.
Because when the weather turns cold, the water surface will become colder, and the deeper the water, the warmer it will be. The fish in the lake will dive deeper to avoid the cold.
Although Great Marsh Township will snow, South Marsh rarely freezes, which leads to the fact that there are clearly fish at the bottom of the lake, but the fishing boats can't catch them.
Because, limited by technical means, there is no fishing net that can reach that deep. If it is made on site, first, there is not enough time, and second, there are no materials.
That's why Hoen was in such a hurry to find people to fish and establish salt farms.
However, after clearing Autumn Dusk Island and the beastman barbarians, Hoen was able to operate in the original combat zone. He specifically set up wooden stake fishing nets at several river mouths.
As the weather turned cold, the local fish were migrating to South Marsh.
According to Tobiah, the river mouth was “literally able to cross the river on the backs of fish”.
Sneezing, Hoen rubbed his nose and asked: “How is the flu situation in the camp these days?”
“The number of people has increased again. We can't control it. Some of the displaced people don't listen to us at all, or they shout and run around…” Bursac complained, “We told them that whether it's the flu or Holy Favor, it's not a big deal.”
Hearing this news, Hoen could probably understand the displaced people's thoughts.
In this era, for the bottom farmers, a flu is indeed a fatal thing. Long-term inertia makes them unable to restrain their behavior.
In addition, Holy Favor and the flu have broken out together during this period, and their symptoms are extremely similar, and they don't know how to treat them.
Forget it, let's take a look at the salt farm.
Mounting his horse, Hoen and Bursac and his party stepped on the muddy ground and moved forward along the swamp and river.
Before long, they saw hundreds of beastmen and Salvation Army soldiers carrying shovels, digging swamp soil on the shore.
A group of laborers, braving the rain, raised their mattocks high, striking the viscous and compact swamp soil one after another to loosen it.
Another group of laborers inserted their shovels into the loosened swamp soil, then stepped on them to deepen them, and shoveled them out forcefully, pouring them into the wheelbarrows behind them.
When the wheelbarrows were full, a dozen strong men pushing empty wheelbarrows walked from the end of the dirt road. They placed the empty carts and pushed the carts filled with swamp soil towards the simple peat refining workshop at the foothills.
“The speed is quite fast, and there is no procrastination.” Bonder looked at these laborers blankly, “Your supervisor's whip skills are good.”
“We don't have supervisors.” Hoen pointed to Armand and several child soldiers standing aside, “Their main job is to motivate the laborers and control the process. The lazy people are all in the Trinity Education Team.”
“Then how are they so diligent?”
“First, I told them that every shovel of soil will become peat, peat will become salt, and salt will become salted fish.
Peat is used to provide heating for themselves and their families in winter, and salt is also for them to eat.
As for salted fish, the Salvation Army soldiers who eat salted fish will be stronger. They will avenge you on the battlefield and protect them.
Second, I gave them 20% higher wages than the average labor market price, and the best performing group also gets a bonus.
Since the bonus is distributed by group, they will supervise each other within each group.”
Hoen spread his hands: “It's that simple.”
After speaking, Hoen shook the reins and ran towards the peat alchemy workshop further away, while Bonder took a few more seconds to catch up with Hoen's pace.
Along the dirt road, there was a flat open space, and there were seven or eight thatched houses next to the open space.
Dozens of Holy Favor holders, all wearing black hoods and holding sticks, jumped around in circles around the deep pit on the open space.
In the deep pit, dark peat gradually oozed out. In the circle they formed, there were also two coal shovelers shoveling out the new peat, and then turning over the old soil, revealing the new soil below.
Parked on the side of the dirt road were four or five flatbed carts, each loaded with four or five baskets of peat, covered with canvas and thatch.
Several strong beastmen tied hemp ropes to their chests and pulled the carts forward in the rain.
Riding past the group of beastmen pulling carts, and walking forward along the sparse bushes and thorns on both sides, Hoen and others finally saw the foothill salt farm.
This salt farm is not far from the edge of the swamp. It takes Hoen and others seven or eight minutes to ride over, which is at most ten minutes on foot.
It is located in a mountain depression, and the surrounding trees are sparse. The obvious tree stumps show that this was probably cut by the beastmen.
Hoen got off his horse and walked to the salt well. He poked his head in and saw that the wellhead was only the size of a human head. A hemp rope was hanging on the pulley, and at the lower end was a small bucket.
“Why isn't this salt well made bigger, so that a larger bucket can be used?” Hoen asked the King's Hand of Gaddaki beside him.
Stepping forward, the King's Hand respectfully replied: “It can't be made bigger, it will easily collapse if it is made bigger.”
Hoen reached out and touched the well wall, nodded thoughtfully, and then stepped towards the outside of the mountain depression. When he passed by just now, he saw the salt boiling field here.
And at the outer exit of the mountain depression, there were seven or eight salt stoves erected.
Each salt stove was about knee-high, with a small opening underneath divided into upper and lower layers. The upper layer was for peat and kindling, and the lower layer was for fanning the wind with rotating wooden pieces to make the salt stove burn more vigorously.
A flat-bottomed pottery pot with a diameter of two or three meters was placed on the salt stove, with a depth of less than half a meter. The light yellow brine was boiling under the blazing flame of peat, bubbling with large bubbles.
Under the guidance of the King's Hand, Hoen walked to a pottery pot that was almost boiled dry.
Around the pottery pot, a beastman used a wooden piece to scrape off the light yellow well salt little by little.
This kind of salt actually contains a lot of impurities and needs to be decolorized, but the beastmen don't care, just do it.
Next to the salt farm is the temporary salted fish production shed. Several royal chefs of the kingdom stayed in the shed, skillfully opening the fish's internal organs, removing the internal organs, and putting them aside.
The two pieces of fish were stacked in wooden boxes for pickling, placed in the wooden boxes according to the ratio of ten pounds of fish to one pound of salt.
Walking to the side of the shed is the smokehouse. Because the climate in Great Marsh Township is humid, it cannot be air-dried, so only smoking can be used.
“Can the production of salted fish keep up?” After scanning the entire salted fish assembly line, Hoen turned to ask the King's Hand.
“If it's a batch every ten days, the time is a bit tight.” The old beastman's face was wrinkled tightly, “Maybe we need to add more salt stoves and peat…”
“It's okay, I can send more people over, we can work in three shifts.”
“Your Majesty, but we only have two salt wells. If the salt stoves keep up, the brine will not keep up, but there is not enough time to dig new wells.”
This is indeed a problem. Hoen looked at the mountain depression for a while, took out a notebook from his pocket, wrote a few words on it, and then patted the old beastman's shoulder.
“It's okay, you expand the salt stoves first, and I will find a way to solve the brine problem.”