Zigong is called Du Yan, not Yancheng. Zigong was built because of salt and prospered because of salt. Historically, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a salt spring, which was naturally drained by the brine along the Fuxi River and then dug into a salt well, named artesian well. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there was a salt well named Dagong Well along the Xu Shui River, a tributary of Fuxi River. Because of its excellent salt quality, it is also called Gongjing. Ziliujing is under the jurisdiction of Fushun and Gongjing is under the jurisdiction of Rongxian County. In the past, it was collectively called Furong Salt Field, 1939. Because of salt, Zigong is called Ziliujing and Gongjing. Zigong has hundreds of miles of saltworks. In history, there are many cranes, roads and buildings, and well stoves are scattered all over the territory. People call it "Xian Zigong", and it is called the salt capital of China.

According to the Han Dynasty portrait bricks and literature records, well salt was produced in Sichuan as early as the Han Dynasty. Zigong salt industry began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Since Li Qing in the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan salt industry has invented the percussion drilling and sinking technology on the basis of summarizing the salt digging technology of large-mouth wells, and excavated a new type of small-diameter salt well-Zhuo Yi simple well. This kind of salt well is the first salt well in the world that uses a drill bit (that is, a cutting edge), a bamboo casing and a halogen absorption tube with a one-way valve device. The emergence of Zhuo barrel well in Song Dynasty made a new breakthrough in drilling technology. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Sichuan well salt production technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and Zigong saltworks became increasingly prosperous. The world's first deep well, listed as a national cultural relic, is more than 1000 meters long, and its landscape is "fire and water can't invade", which makes ancient and modern people sigh.

Salt is the first of all flavors and has an indissoluble bond with human beings. Throughout the ages, people have called salt a "national treasure". Zigong is an ancient and vibrant land with rich brine resources. Five rock salt ore bodies, such as Weixi, are distributed over 6 million square kilometers, with preliminarily proved reserves of more than 20 billion tons.

1892, salt rock was first discovered in the north oblique structure of Zigong Ziliujing, which opened the history of deep rock salt mining in China and soon took the lead in realizing natural underground communication mining of rock salt. In the old days, digging salt wells cost a lot of "tools on the well, or tens of thousands of gold", "gold is less than 10 thousand", "and it takes a long time", "the journey can take four or five years, or more than ten years" to operate the salt industry, which is very risky, but it also requires abundant capital. Therefore, most of the people who exploit Zigong salt wells are Shaanxi businessmen who are used to spending money. Later, some businessmen in Sichuan, loan sharks, saw that it was profitable and invested. Those who want to invest in salt with money in their hands are called "customers", and those who own the well site are called "landlords". Guests and landlords often cooperate to operate wells and sign contracts, which are called "mountain contracts". After the completion of the well, the two sides will share it according to a certain proportion. This is a successful joint-stock operation in the history of salt industry.

The excavation of salt wells is not smooth sailing. Some people have dug many wells and the funds have been announced, but there is still not a drop of brine. Some people even take the opportunity to dig wells, and once they succeed, they can monopolize or share them. This is called "doing the next section". Not everyone can succeed in the next festival, some spend all their money and still can't see the brine, so the play repeats itself. We need to recruit new investors and turn ourselves from a big festival to a middle festival, even "those who have counted their surnames for decades and achieved success." If you spend all your money, no one will get the best, and finally you can only give up in tears. Some salt wells here are named "Mozi Well", "Digging Ear Well" and "Chai Jin Well". That is, when the owner ran out of money, he exchanged the remaining silver digging ears or gold hairpin for some wine and meat to entertain the workers, thanking them for their hard work in recent years. After dinner, the workers thanked the host for his kindness and went to drill several wells, which happened. People took such names as "digging ear wells" as a souvenir.

The production cost of well salt is high, so operators can't master the whole production process generally, and can only control one ring or part of the shares in one ring. So there are "well households", "kitchen households" and "households". After successful shaft sinking, well households often sell brine to households and kitchens, and households are mainly responsible for transporting brine to kitchens, while kitchens are. There are also "cattle pushers" who sell cattle, push brine for wells and salvage objects in wells.

With the development of well location, the scale of well stove is huge, which promotes the increasingly fine internal division of labor, and the production of saltworks has changed from simple cooperation to clear technical division of labor. First of all, in the whole production process, there is a division of labor among various departments of wells, pits and furnaces, and there is a complicated technical division of labor among various departments. There are not only a large number of salt workers in the old saltworks, but also many seasonal salt workers and vendors. Li Siyou Hall employed more than 2,000 workers of all kinds during the light-years of sweeping the road. Someone once vividly described the salt field in the past. "People have respect, thinking of cows, thinking of secrets, thinking of nations, thinking of exercises, thinking of lessons, thinking of countries, Hoth, thinking of models and thinking of exercises; There are also medical workers, well workers, blacksmiths and carpenters. Its sound, the sound of people, cows, cars, knocking, slotting, flowing, boiling, fire, shoveling, cracking, striking the iron and sawing wood. Its gas is popular, bullish, bubbling and soot. Angry and loud, so we don't fight, all Xi Zhi, dark clouds cover the sky and it doesn't rain. "

The old saltworks will be dedicated to the "well god" for blessing. The saltworks workers also organized gangs. There are "Yan Di Club" for salt burners and stove washers, "Zhu Huahui" for brine miners and "Four Holy Clubs" for well drillers, among which Yan Di Club is very powerful and its activities continued until the eve of liberation.

Well salt production is profitable and there are many salt merchants. Zigong is known as "the land of essence" and "rich in Sichuan". Salt merchants often indulge in the land of flowers and wine or turn funds into land. "Month into the wing. Buy a place every year. " Salt merchants also donated officials, spending thousands to tens of thousands, and even donating officials for their dead fathers. Others spend a lot of money or sponsor relatives, or build bridges and pave the way, or spare money to satisfy their hunger. Or Zhong Yi's funeral. All these have had an impact on the customs of the saltworks, just as it is recorded in Fushun County Records that "the gentry are not ashamed to talk about profits, eager to benefit the people and waste money on millet".

In the 1920s and 1930s, the salt field began to introduce advanced production technology, and the old customs gradually disappeared. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zigong Salt Field began to recover, with a new look, and modern large-scale production replaced the old small-scale production. After the reform and opening up, the saltworks showed new vitality. Drilling, using rotary drilling instead of manual tamping drilling; Picking brine, replacing animal power and manual labor with gas lift and water lifting; In salt making, the traditional round pot and square pot are gradually eliminated by advanced vacuum evaporation and hot pressing processes. Zigong saltworks are changing with each passing day and developing in different months. From geological exploration, drilling, brine mining and transportation, salt production and comprehensive utilization of brine to education, scientific research and design, equipment manufacturing, transportation and marketing, a relatively complete salt production system has been established, making it the largest production base of well and mine salt in China.