Han Shunde organized the men to dig half a meter down the hole, widening it to become a tunnel.
After walking along this tunnel for less than 100 meters, a doorway appeared. This doorway was noticeably narrower, but it was lowered by almost a meter.
Therefore, a cart can still pass through, and it gets cooler as you go down.
After passing through the narrow doorway and walking less than 20 meters forward, the road suddenly opened up.
Li Lanzhen noticed that the mountain walls on both sides were very damp, but strangely, she didn't find any plants. She reached out and touched the damp stone walls on both sides, and grabbed a handful of wet, white, sand-like stuff in her hand.
She held it under her nose and smelled it; it had a strong salty smell. A very bad feeling suddenly welled up in her heart; she hoped it wasn't what she thought.
An hour later, the people from the three villages arrived at the bank of the underground river.
This underground river is quite wide, the water is not deep, and the banks on both sides are quite wide.
The people of Hanjiacun gathered on this side of the riverbank, watching the clear, gurgling water flow. Everyone cheered happily, and the children jumped and splashed into the water.
The adults couldn't wait to bend down and gulp down the water.
But then came the sounds of coughing and vomiting.
"Damn it, why is this water both bitter and astringent?"
"Mommy, Mommy, my throat hurts so much, and this water is so salty!"
Han Mingjiang resisted his urge to drink and led the big blue mule and the black donkey to the riverbank, intending to let them drink first. Unexpectedly, the big blue mule bent down, took a sip, and then raised its head and "pfft!" sprayed a mouthful of water all over Han Mingjiang's face.
Then the big blue mule raised its head and neighed.
For a moment, the sounds of everyone cursing, coughing, children sobbing, and livestock bellowing echoed throughout the underground river.
Li Lanzhen closed her eyes and thought to herself: Just as I guessed!
This underground river must be saline-alkali, no wonder this stone forest is barren. Even though the climate is humid after entering the underground riverbed, there are no plants to be seen, not even a single saline-alkali plant like Artemisia or Suaeda salsa.
People had gone through a period of anticipation and hope, but now they were utterly disappointed. They lost all their energy and collapsed to the ground, pounding the ground and sobbing.
Seeing them like this, Li Lanzhen felt bad, but everyone still had to think about what to do. The first thing to solve was how to get out. Should they just follow the underground river?
Just then, the old village chief called to her again, "Lanzhen, bring me the map, let's see if we're heading in the right direction along the river?"
Li Lanzhen casually took the map out of her bosom and handed it to Han Mingjiang.
This time, she didn't follow. She didn't want to look in the direction anymore. They had already made their decision. Now, she needed to think about how to make use of this underground river.
Seeing that the river water wasn't murky, she kept thinking about how to turn it into drinkable water, or at least reduce its salinity.
Her first thought was filtration, but then she realized that was wrong; filtration is only suitable for murky water.
The river has clear water, but it has a high salinity, so filtration won't work. The only option is distillation, but without advanced distillation equipment, the primitive method is too slow.
Moreover, the amount of water extracted is relatively small. It's unclear how long we can stay here, and whether we can get out by following the underground river, or whether we need to return the way we came and pass through the stone forest.
As Li Lanzhen walked, she pondered and picked up stones from time to time. After arriving at the Stone Forest, she would quietly send any stones that were pretty, unique, or beautifully colored into her spatial storage.
She remembered that a merchant needed stones, but she forgot which one it was. Anyway, they were hanging there, and anyone who wanted them could take them.
There are many stones on both sides of the underground river. Without exception, no matter what color or shape the stones are, they are all covered with a layer of alkali that looks like white frost.
She picked up a palm-sized stone covered with a layer of fuzzy frost-like alkaline flowers. She stuck out her tongue and gently licked it, immediately sensing that the saltiness was stronger than the alkaline taste.
Li Lanzhen's eyes lit up. This meant that the underground river had a high salt content. Could they extract pure water while extracting salt?
When people lived in the village, they didn't have much table salt. They bought the lowest quality salt, which was large, yellowish in color, and tasted a bit bitter. They also didn't have much of it.
Despite the abundance of game caught on the mountain, no one dared to be extravagant enough to salt it, nor did anyone dare to pickle wild vegetables into salt and bring them along.
It would be great if we could extract salt from this river water.
Thinking of this, she urged Wang Hui to run away and called her daughter-in-law and sister-in-law to start the experiment.
Xue Nizi, Tonghua, and Li Sanya quickly set up the pot as she instructed and began drawing water from the river to pour it into the pot.
Li Lanzhen ran to her family's big blue mule cart, rummaged around in it, and pulled out a bundle of firewood she had collected from the woodshed of the Ankang Prefecture government office.
"Nizi, start a fire, fill the big iron pot with water from the river, and boil the water underneath."
Xue Nizi asked, puzzled, "Mother, why waste firewood? This water is bitter and astringent, it's undrinkable. And the mushy stuff you make from burning it is also undrinkable."
Xue Nizi's mother, Wu, came over and patted her, saying, "Your mother-in-law's instructions must be very useful, so do as she says quickly."
Li Lanzhen glanced at her in-laws with admiration, thinking to herself that the original owner of this body, this awful old lady, had encountered several very good families who could become relatives and friends and have long-term cooperative relationships.
Gou Dan, Han Yinan, and the others were initially excited and proud, feeling like they had found an underground river. However, upon arrival, they discovered the river water was bitter and undrinkable. Frustrated and disappointed, they all hung their heads in dejection.
Before long, the children's nature led them to run up and down the riverbank, searching for fun.
The men all gathered around the old village chief to look at the map and discuss how to proceed.
Li Lanzhen then led several of her in-laws to begin her experiment. She tilted a large iron pot slightly, covered it with a wooden lid that extended slightly in the direction of the tilt, and attached a wooden bucket underneath.
Then he ordered them to start a fire.
No one paid much attention; it was just a few bundles of firewood, and Li Lanzhen told them to burn it.
When the water boiled, the dripping sound caught their attention.
There were water droplets dripping from the tilted side of the pot lid into the wooden bucket below.
Li Lanzhen started collecting water droplets with a bowl.
After filling the bowl with water, he slowly tasted it, then smiled happily.
Then he handed it to Xue Ni, who was sitting on the ground and stoking the fire unhappily, and said, "Nizi, come on, try this water, it might be drinkable."
Xue Nizi grumbled unhappily, "It's just brine, isn't it? It's just boiled. Even if it's boiled, it's still brine."
Unexpectedly, she took a small sip, then a large gulp, and then tilted her head back to pour it all into her mouth.
With sparkling eyes and smacking her lips, she exclaimed to Li Lanzhen, "Mom, you're amazing! How did you turn salty and bitter water into drinkable water after boiling it?"
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