The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 772 Why not eat iodized salt

In the middle of the night, Yang Tong led his troops to quietly leave the Jishiguan camp and headed for Fuluochuan City in the northwest. Fuluochuan City is located at the intersection of Kunlun Mountain and Qinghai Nanshan Mountain. The main road to enter the Qaidam Basin and go south to Liangfeichuan, Heyuan, is very important in transportation and military status, and is under the jurisdiction of Xuande County, Xihai County.

The army hurried for a day, and camped on a hill surrounded by mountains and rivers, and prepared to spend the night here.

When Yang Tong was hanging out with Wei Fengwu, a group of soldiers escorting more than a dozen officials came rushing from Xuande County, Xihai.The leading official is Li Keshi, the prefect of Xihai County, followed by Tong Shou, Jun Cheng, County Magistrate, County Cheng and so on.

Li Keshi received a letter from Ying in the early morning, asking him to secretly bring court officials to join him.

"My ministers see the Holy Majesty, the Empress." Under the leadership of Li Keshi, more than a dozen Xihai parents and officials bowed and saluted.

"Exemption." Yang Tong looked at the sparsely populated ones, and asked, "Why are you the only ones?"

Li Keshi glanced back and said puzzledly: "Your Majesty, all the officials above the county captain in Xuande County are here, and the status of the other minor officials is too low, so there is no need to come to see the Holy Majesty, and the orders I received are secret. Come here, so not too many people are alarmed."

"Prefect Li misunderstood. I mean, there are only so many officials in Xihai County that can be put on the table?"

"Uh..." Master Li understood what Yang Tong meant, and said with a wry smile, "My lord, Xihai is vast and sparsely populated, spanning more than 400 miles, but there are only two counties in Xuande and Weiding in its territory. Classification, it is the lower county, to be stricter, it is not even counted as the lower county."

"Spanning more than 400 miles, the five counties in Guanzhong are not as big as it combined, and they are not even qualified for the next county? How is this possible?" Wei Fengwu's eyes widened, her pretty face was full of disbelief .

"The queen doesn't know something." Li Keshi introduced: "Although Xihai County is large, there are very few places suitable for human life. The scope of activities of Xihai people is mainly in the east of Nanshan Mountain in Qinghai, and the hundreds of thousands of miles to the west are full of salt lakes. It’s just that the salt there is the same as the salt in Qinghai Lake. You can’t eat it, and you can’t drink the lake water for irrigation. Those lands can’t grow crops, and they can’t even be used as pastures. Of course, there are some places that can be used For example, the Altyn Mountains in the northwest, the Kunlun Mountains in the southwest, the Qilian Mountains in the northeast, and the foothills in the south of Qinghai in the east. The melted ice and snow water flowing down from the mountains can be used to grow crops, but the land is barren and has no value for development. Instead of wasting manpower and material resources there , it is better to concentrate on the development of Dafeichuan and Heyuan Liangfeichuan.”

"It's a pity that such a large territory is useless." Wei Fengwu regretted.

"It's not useless. At a certain time, it is equivalent to the Silk Road." Li Keshi recalled, and then said: "In fact, there is not only one Silk Road, but many. In different regions, in different periods, there are Different routes, the most famous of which is starting from Luoyang and Daxing, passing through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang. But every time when the North and the South confront each other, the northern regime does not allow the southern regime to pass through. The southern regime can only enter from Yizhou. At that time, it belonged to the The source of the river and the West Sea controlled by Tuyuhun, crossing the city of Fuluochuan, and entering the saline-alkali land that resembles a large basin..."

"From then on, that big basin is called the Qaidam Basin, which is recorded in the local annals." Yang Tong, who was listening silently, added.

"Here." Li Keshi responded, and then said: "After passing the Qaidam Basin, there are Altun Mountains and Kunlun Mountains. From here, there is another big basin, which is occupied by our Sui Dynasty and the countries of the Western Regions."

"That big basin will be called Tarim Basin from now on." Yang Tong interrupted him again and gave him a name.

"Here." Li Keshi replied again, feeling very strange in his heart, not knowing why the Holy One wanted such a strange name, but he is the emperor, the emperor has the final say.

He didn't say much, and continued: "When the North and the South faced each other, the Silk Road of the southern regime was Yizhou-Heyuan-Xihai-Qaidam Basin-Altun Mountain Pass-Tarim Basin-Western Region', or 'Yizhou -Heyuan-Xihai-Xiping-Qilian Mountain-Dunhuang'. Because it is located in the south of the Yellow River, it has names such as 'Henan Road', 'Qiang Middle Road', and 'Qinghai Road', and its strategic value is no less than that of the Hexi Corridor. But The environment in this area is harsh, and there are a lot of saline-alkali lands. Unlike the Hexi Oasis, fresh water can be found quickly. Therefore, after the Great Sui unified the world, the "Henan Road" lost its use value and began to sink. The first two In [-], after the Sui Dynasty recovered the Hexi Corridor, the puppet Tang contacted Tuyuhun again, planning to take the "Henan Road", but Tuyuhun was beaten away, and the puppet Tang's dream of the Western Regions was broken."

Master Li laughed when he said this, he was full of schadenfreude.

Yang Tong shook his head: "The Qaidam Basin only exists as the crossroads of various ethnic groups, except for the backup Silk Road, it seems that there is nothing worthy of praise, but in fact, no one knows its true value. "

Li Keshi asked: "The real value? What is it?"

"The Qaidam Basin is not only the largest salt mine in the Central Plains, but also the largest salt mine in the world. It also contains countless iron ore, copper ore, tin ore, coal and other materials. It is not called a 'cornucopia'. It’s too much. Once it’s developed, it won’t be a big deal. Leaving aside iron ore, copper ore, and tin ore, salt alone is a great project that benefits the people of the Sui Dynasty.”

"Your Majesty, the lake salts of all sizes in the West Sea are blue in color. They look good, but this salt is bitter and astringent. Even cattle and sheep don't lick it. How can people eat it?" Master Li frowned.

Yang Tong explained: "The crystalline salt of Xihai lake salt is actually the best edible salt in the world. The reason why it is bitter is that the salt contains a lot of sundries that are invisible to the naked eye. As long as these sundries are purified, the salt lakes of Xihai are full of crystals. Salt will become the best table salt in the world, and if it is further refined, it will even become as white as snowflakes."

"Edible salt like snowflakes?" Everyone was shocked.

Yang Tong nodded and said: "Yes, the crystallized salt is everywhere in the West Sea. As long as I use my skills, just one county of the West Sea, the salt like stones and silt is enough to eat for ten thousand years. There will be no shortage of salt in the Sui Dynasty. worries."

"Salt is a necessary thing, but the price of salt is too high, and the people suffer unspeakably. If this is the case, I will be blessed in the Sui Dynasty." Wei Fengwu said with full confidence in her husband, surprised and happy.

"The Queen's words are extremely true. In other places in the Sui Dynasty, you can talk about it separately, but the two prefectures of Yongliang and Liangzhou that are close to you have always been short of salt. All the salt is shipped from Jiangnan, Bashu and other places. In this vast distance, a catty of salt can reach The manpower and material resources consumed by Yongliang are self-evident, and the price of a catty of salt in Yongliang area has doubled." Li Keshi analyzed: "From the point of view of my ministers, the reason why the price of salt remains high First, the output of salt is small; second, the transportation road is long and the cost is huge; Some poisonous poisonous salt, this kind of salt is like a slow poison, if you eat too much and eat for a long time, you will be poisoned and die, which is one of the reasons why there are few long-lived people."

Yang Tong nodded approvingly, Mr. Li's words hit the point, the key is that the production capacity of good salt is seriously insufficient, resulting in a shortage of supply.

After asking Master Li Ke, I learned that the current method of salt production is very primitive. First, the raw materials are poured with water to dissolve the salt to make brine, and then poured into a large pot to heat and evaporate the water to dry up, and finally the salt grains are obtained.However, this production process consumes a lot of firewood, and the result of laborious work is that the production capacity can still be low.It is worth mentioning that before frying the salt, the brine needs to be dried to increase the salt concentration.Therefore, people usually put lotus seeds into the brine, and determine the brine concentration according to the ups and downs of the lotus seeds. The principle is exactly the same as that of a density meter.

However, when Yang Tong traveled to Hainan before, he passed by a sun-drying salt field and found that their salt-making method is quite simple, that is, they use the sun-dried beach sand to pour sea water and filter it to make high-salt brine, and then store the brine in the pond. In the sun, it evaporates and crystallizes into salt in the sun, and there is still a lot of table salt obtained.Some people simply take advantage of the terrain to build salt ponds by the sea, directly introduce seawater into it, and naturally evaporate and crystallize into salt in the sun, saving even the step of making brine.

Yang Tong felt that his role as emperor was really unsatisfactory. In the past, most of his attention was on the military, and the major decisions of the court, which were closely related to the people's firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea.

If it wasn't for Wei Fengwu and Li Keshi talking about the Qaidam Basin, he suddenly became suspicious.

I am afraid that Yang Tong, who has no worries about salt and does not know the suffering of folk salt, will one day hear that the people have no salt to eat, and make a joke of "why not eat iodized salt".

At this time, Yang Tong thought about it carefully and found that many simple techniques that he took for granted in his previous life were invaluable treasures in the Sui Dynasty.

I didn’t pay attention, it’s not that I don’t care, it’s that he is too extraordinary, first he was the grandson of the emperor, and then the emperor, and he never felt sorry for the little things in daily life. Just say salt, his family’s food must be the best in the world, and he has never been short of it. What does he care about?Ancient people like Yang Gongren thought that it was normal for crude salt and low-quality poisonous salt to flood the market, so naturally they would not mention it.

There is also saponin for bathing and shampooing, which is also a small thing that Yang Tong uses every day, but for others, it is a sky-high price.

In short, he is superior and does not know the sufferings of the people.

(End of this chapter)