Super Chief

Chapter 30: salt!

When the stone bear in the late autumn of a previous life visited the museum in Long Province, he once saw many sheep "grabbing the earth" on the empty land. At that time, the stone bear said distressedly: "These sheep are really real." Poor, why didn't their master prepare more feed? Look at these lambs who are hungry, even the dirt..."

As a result, a colleague from the museum there gave Shi Xiong an embarrassing answer—these sheep are not gnawing the soil, because they are all saline soils with high salt content, so these sheep lick the soil here to replenish their body. Salt...

   Shixiong remembers very clearly. At that time, this answer embarrassed himself. It was almost at the end of cancer...

   Later, Shi Xiong specialized in studying this knowledge, so he can see today what the animals are gathering under this hill.

   After confirming that this hill was a salt mountain protruding from the surface, Shi Xiong's mind immediately became alive.

   Salt is a good thing in this era. It is no exaggeration to say that the value of this thing in this era is definitely not lower than that of gold!

   This is really not an exaggeration. Before mankind mastered the methods of large-scale salt mining and salt production, salt was the most demanding material in the world, and there was absolutely no one!

   Salt is the number one flavor, as long as a person lives, he cannot do without salt! The importance of salt to humans is really as important as air, water and food.

  It can be said that the history of salt is a history of human civilization!

   Whether it is ancient China or the ancient West, salt is very precious, and even once played the role of currency. In ancient Rome, when ancient Roman aristocrats had vested interests ruling groups, even based on the "salt covenant" established by God as the source of law and legal principles, legislation prohibited the boiled and sold salt, and at the same time used "valued salt" as the salary in kind. , To organize and hire a professional army, hoping to tie the interests of the army tightly with the effective enforcement of the "Salt Production and Trade Monopoly Law."

In medieval British upper class banquets, the salt shaker on the table was placed above the owner’s seat. Sitting on the top of the salt, that is, sitting at the place closest to the owner, is particularly respected by the owner, which is equivalent to "respected as a guest of honor." ", and sitting at the bottom are insignificant little people, ordinary guests.

On the royal dining table of the French royal family, there are usually huge and beautifully decorated boat-shaped basins filled with salt. Salt symbolizes health and the way of long-term preservation. It conveys that the king’s body is very healthy and healthy. The meaning of sustainable inheritance.

   As for before the 20th century, there were countless wars over salt.

   There is a noun in China called "Compete in the Central Plains". This word is a term used for war. It refers to a group of heroes coming together to contend for the world.

   But in fact, according to the research of historians, the word was produced much earlier than the "Historical Records. Huaiyin Hou Biography" recorded that "Qin lost its deer, and the world chased it." It was so late.

   China’s earliest large-scale, organized war was fought by the three tribes of China’s ancestors, Huangdi, Yandi, and Chiyou, in order to compete for the Yanchi in the Yuncheng area of ​​Shanxi Province.

Qian Mu, a well-known Chinese historian, pointed out in the book "Introduction to the History of Chinese Culture" that the salt pond of Jie County was a goal that the various tribes of the Central Plains in ancient China fought together. qualifications.

   The Yellow Emperor launched a war against Emperor Yan and Chi You, fundamentally to control salt, an extremely important livelihood and strategic material. As Huangdi defeated Yandi and Chiyou successively, and occupied and controlled Yanchi, his tribe became stronger and stronger and eventually became the ancestor of China.

Yao, Shun, and Yu successively became the emperors and queens who unified China, and they chose to build cities near Yanchi in Pingyang (Linfen, Jin Province), Puban (Yongji, Jin Province), and Anyi (North of Yuncheng, Shanxi). The capital of Shun and Yu was precisely out of the consideration of defending Yanchi.

In ancient China, salt was called "turbid brine". Because of the homophony, "turbid brine" gradually became "Zhuolu", and later it became "Zhuolu", so later generations competed with their ancestors for salt. The battle of (halogen) Chi was called "competition for the Central Plains", and this term later became synonymous with war.

   In ancient Central and South America, a highly developed Maya civilization was produced. In the first millennium BC, the Mayans could use solar energy to evaporate and produce sea salt in the Yucatan Peninsula.

   At the beginning of the 16th century, the Maya had a huge industry and extensive trade related to salt. The scope of trade not only included salt, but also salt-processed salted products, such as salted fish and leather.

   Mayan civilization flourished due to the production and trade of salt. Similarly, it was precisely because of the abundant salt resources of the Mayan civilization that the European colonists were coveted. Then the Spanish colonists who controlled the thermal weapons raised their butchers to the friendly and hospitable Mayans, and the whole of Central and South America broke out. The continuous war finally led to the historical tragedy of the demise of the Maya nation and the annihilation of civilization.

   As for the U.S. Independence War, the British army severely weakened the combat effectiveness of the Continental Army led by Washington by cutting off the supply of salt, restricting and slowing down the process of American independence.

   And during the American Civil War, the Northern Army led by Lincoln destroyed salt fields in the South, resulting in an extreme shortage of salt in the South. uukanshu. com severely affected the combat effectiveness of the southern forces and accelerated the progress of the war.

   It can be seen that the history of salt is not only a history of human civilization, but also a history of human warfare!

   At the same time, it is enough to prove the importance of salt to mankind.

   Now, let alone the North American continent, even in the European continent, the salt production is extremely low. The Hundred Years War between Britain and France, which lasted for more than one hundred years, was actually due to salt.

  In this age, salt is also a very scarce material in Europe, and it is even more precious here in North America. The main reason for this situation is that the human salt mining and salt production technology has not yet reached, so it has formed a situation where salt is not enough today.

   It is well known that the cost of using sea water to dry and boil salt is very high. Even in later generations, the cost of sea salt is much higher than that of well salt. Regardless of whether it is well salt or rock salt, it is mostly mixed with many impurities. If it is not refined, the salt produced will not only taste bad, the key is that it is poisonous and can kill people if eaten.

   Therefore, in Europe, the amount of well salt is not much mined. The mined well salt is all supplied to the nobles. The ordinary people and the soldiers of the army are mainly sea salt.

   But sun-dried salt is very restricted by the weather, so the local salt in Europe is not enough to eat.

   However, Europeans do not know how to refine well salt and rock salt, nor how to remove the large amount of impurities contained in them, but they know...

   Shi Xiong, who was squatting in front of this small salt mountain, narrowed his eyes and thought, unknowingly showing that kind of weird smile on his face.

  PS: Guiqiu recommendation tickets and collections! The recommendation ticket and collection of new books are very important to a book, so Lao Mo begged for both, the more the better! Old Mo is very grateful!

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