Qiao Yu had already personally trained six blacksmiths. He expanded the team, letting these six lead the team, and divided them into six small groups. Within a day, they had forged six large iron pots.
Iron pans make delicious dishes, but Qiao Yu is reluctant to use iron in his daily life. He uses an iron axe for felling trees, a hoe for clearing land, planes and chisels for carpentry, and arrowheads, spearheads, knives, and swords for hunting and warfare. Iron is needed in so many ways.
The iron ore they stole seemed to be quite a lot, but the iron produced after smelting was not much. Compared with the tribe's various needs, it was far from enough.
The reason she made these six large iron pots was simply to make salt. Once the salt mine was finished, she planned to melt the six iron pots and make other things.
On this day of salt making, several elders came to watch.
Qiao Yu divided the twelve selected people into six groups of two, and asked them to work together. One person would add water to the pot, while another would crush the salt ore. Once these tasks were completed, one person would start the fire while another would chop wood.
When the water in the pot boils, the crushed salt ore gradually dissolves in the boiling water. As the water evaporates, a large number of white crystals appear on the edge of the iron pot.
"Salt is out, salt is out." Seeing the white crystals, everyone shouted excitedly.
Shanquan, who was burning the fire, quickly added two pieces of firewood to the stove.
"Don't make the fire so big, burn it slowly, don't be in a hurry." Qiao Yu said.
Shanquan had no choice but to remove the firewood and continue to boil water patiently until all the water in the iron pot evaporated.
At this point, only a layer of the fired material remained in the pot, with stone impurities underneath and a layer of white crystals covering the top.
"Quick, bring the clay pot and scrape the salt into it," Lu said excitedly. "We'll use this salt to make soup tonight."
Qiao Yu quickly waved his hand to stop the person who wanted to take the pottery jar after hearing his order: "Don't use it for now."
She explained to Lu, "We need to cook it again."
"Do you need to cook more?" Everyone was puzzled.
While the salt scraped straight from the pot now inevitably carries rocks and impurities, this is the salt they usually exchange for in the Sun Tribe. In the past, when they grilled meat, they complained about the salt, sometimes biting into it and finding rocks and sand. But now, the tribe is all about making meat soup. Once the salt dissolves in the soup, the rocks and sand settle to the bottom, becoming a minor issue.
So they think this kind of salt is already very good.
Qiao Yu said to the salt-making team, "We're eating this salt, not exchanging it for other salt. So, of course, we have to make it better. It's just one or two extra steps. If we have to go through a little more trouble, everyone will get better salt. Why should we be so lazy?"
The salt-making team naturally wants to make better salt.
They said, "We are not afraid of trouble. We want to make better salt. Yu, teach us the method, and we will do it according to your requirements in the future."
Qiao Yu nodded and asked everyone to scrape off the salt, wash the pot clean, add water, and put the salt that had just been scraped off into the pot.
Once the salt melted, she asked one of them to lift the iron pot and pour the brine into her special filter.
The filter was a wooden square frame with several thin wooden strips embedded underneath. She placed clean pebbles on top, then a layer of small stones, and then a layer of coarse sand and a layer of fine sand. Beneath the fine sand was a piece of linen she had exchanged for at the Jiangyuan tribe's stall at the Sifang tribal market.
At this time, the carpentry team had already made many wooden barrels and basins according to her requirements.
After the salt water had all flowed through the filter into the wooden basin below, Qiao Yu had someone pour the water from the basin into the iron pot, which had been cleaned again, and continue to boil it. When it was boiled dry, a layer of white fine salt appeared on the iron pot.
"Oh my God, I've lived to such an old age, but this is the first time I've seen such good salt." Lu exclaimed.
Qiao Yu asked Shanquan to shovel the salt into the pottery jar and said to everyone with a smile: "Everyone can taste the salt."
Lu was impatient and had this idea in mind for a long time. However, he was intimidated by Qiao Yu's prestige and did not dare to make any rash moves.
Seeing Qiao Yu speak, he couldn't wait to reach out and put some salt into his mouth.
Seeing this, others followed suit.
Lu smacked his lips, his eyes lighting up as he praised, "Wow, delicious. Just salty, not a bit bitter."
"Yes, there is no bitterness at all. This salt is really great." Others also praised.
In the past, salt was not purified enough and always had a bitter taste. They never thought that salt could be only salty and not bitter.
Qiao Yu knew these people had never eaten anything good. As long as it was a little better than before, they would be very happy.
She also pinched a little salt and put it in her mouth.
She nodded immediately.
The salt produced in this way naturally does not taste as good as the refined salt of later generations. It may be slightly bitter if you taste it carefully, but it is much better than the salt used before.
"Has everyone learned it?" she asked the salt-making team.
Everyone nodded: "I got it."
This salt-making method is simple. Without someone to teach you, it would be difficult to understand. But after Qiao Yu's instructions, everyone found it easy.
"That's good. These salt ores are now handed over to you. Chen, you are the team leader. You will supervise the six teams working every day. The team that produces the best and most salt will be rewarded."
"Yes." Chen responded loudly.
Chen was originally from the Stone Tribe, and now he is promoted to team leader. He is also in charge of Qiao Yu's younger brother and cousin. He was immediately overwhelmed with emotion and felt that he must do a good job to live up to Qiao Yu's appreciation and trust in him.
After teaching the salt-making method, Qiao Yu left it alone. The ironwork and logging teams were led by team leaders, and Man and Liu Shui were supervising them. She only needed to check in from time to time.
She focused her attention on women and children.
The population of the tribe, young and strong men, including boys like Shanquan and Hui, accounted for less than one-third of the total population. The majority of the tribe were women and children.
The Dragon Tribe is surrounded by the Sun Tribe and the God Tribe to the south, and the Sifang Tribe and the Jiangyuan Tribe to the north. These tribes compete for resources and territory, and conflicts will arise sooner or later.
Compared to these four tribes, the Dragon Tribe's population was far smaller. Even if they possessed iron weapons, in this age of cold weapons, strength still lay in numbers. Four men armed with stone or wood against one with iron weapons would undoubtedly have a greater chance of victory.
Even if many people in the tribe were getting married, it would take at least ten years for them to get pregnant, have children, and grow up. The four surrounding tribes would not allow the Dragon Tribe to develop so peacefully.
So Qiao Yu planned to arm women and children as well.
It was winter now, and the women couldn't go out to gather, so they were basically all resting. Qiao Yu planned to catch them and train them.
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