Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 482 Bring Salt For You

Seeing that Li Yin is still such a bad guy, Gao Ming immediately felt relieved.

After asking the servant to make a pot of tea, he asked Li Yin.

"Why did you come back suddenly, boy? Is there no need to worry about Yingzhou? If you leave your post like this, you are worried that the old man will take care of you!"

Gao Ming originally thought that after he carried Li Shimin out, Li Yin would definitely be frightened, but what he didn't expect was that after hearing what he said, Li Yin was not only not afraid, but even laughed
"Haha, big brother, don't scare me with your father, this time I have followed his order to send Yan back to Beijing!"

"Send salt?"

Gao Ming remembered that when he and Meng Xin were in Jinzhou, Tian Yi told him that he had shipped 100 million stone back.

Converting this weight into the unit of later generations is equivalent to [-] tons, which is not a small amount!

Moreover, the population of Datang is not large now. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Household Affairs, there are only more than 350 million households, and the total population is less than 2000 million.

Calculated in this way, the 100 million rock salt Tian Yi brought back was enough for the people of the Tang Dynasty to use for half a year, but why did Li Shimin suddenly ask Li Yin to transport the salt back?

Thinking of this, Gao Ming frowned immediately.

"Are you responsible for sending back the salt produced in Fanyang Salt Field? Isn't Tian Yi in charge of this?"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Yin laughed again.

"Haha, big brother, you don't know this. Tian Yi's salt is sold to the common people, but the 100 million stone salt that I'm responsible for sending back is the one that my father intends to use as a reward!"

Hearing Li Yin's words, Gao Ming was even more puzzled.

"A reward? And you still need 100 million rock salt. Who should you reward with so much salt?"

As the saying goes, you don’t get rewarded without merit. Since Li Shimin wants to reward, he must reward those who have meritorious deeds. As far as Gao Ming knows, in the past six months, except for the war between the Tang Dynasty and Goguryeo, nothing happened. So who are these salt rewards given to?
"Could it be..."

Thinking of this, an answer suddenly appeared in Gao Ming's mind, and his eyes widened immediately.

"Could the old man plan to use salt to reward the soldiers who conquered Goguryeo?"

Seeing Gao Ming's unbelievable expression, Li Yin couldn't help laughing out loud, and he gave Gao Ming a thumbs up while laughing.

"Hahahaha, big brother is worthy of being big brother, he guessed it right. That's right, these salts are used to reward the soldiers who conquered Goguryeo!"

"..."

Sure enough!

After hearing Li Yin's affirmative answer, Gao Ming immediately showed a helpless expression.

"He actually used salt as money. Should I praise him as worthy of being the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"

Having said that, in fact, Gao Ming also secretly admired Li Shimin's clever little calculation in his heart.

Gao Ming knew very well that when his salt field was not produced, Datang's salt was very precious.

Take a court official like Changsun Wuji as an example, his monthly salary can only buy more than 50 catties of salt. It can be seen that salt is a well-deserved daily luxury.

But it's different now, Gao Ming asked Tian Yi to build a salt field in Fanyang, and the output in one year can supply Datang for more than three years!
Datang is not like later generations. There are many factories that can be called "big salt consumers". In Datang, salt has only one usage, and that is to eat!

And so much salt is obviously not so easy to eat. Anyone with a vision knows that it will not be long before Datang's salt will step down from the altar of luxury goods and become an ordinary item that ordinary people can afford.

Of course, Li Shimin is also very aware of this, so he is going to let it play a wave of residual heat before the salt depreciates!
According to the practice of Datang, if a big victory is won, the ruler still has to express it more or less, which can be regarded as some encouragement to those who are working hard for Datang.

Those who have merit will naturally be rewarded, and those who have no credit but have worked hard must also show it. In this way, a large sum of money will naturally be paid.

This must be given and cannot be saved!
Originally, Li Shimin had planned to take out 100 million guan from the national treasury for rewards, but when he heard that there was no rain for more than four months this year, so the Fanyang Salt Farm had a bumper harvest, he suddenly had a new idea.

In order to confirm the feasibility of this idea, when he went to Mount Tai to pray for rain, Li Shimin took this opportunity to ask Liu Bing to secretly go to Fan Yang to personally confirm the situation in Yantian.

When Liu Bing reported to him that Fan Yang had accumulated more than 200 million rock salt, Li Shimin immediately knew that the era of low-priced salt was coming.

Although Li Shimin had never studied economics and overall planning, he understood the principle that things are rare and expensive, so he made a decision, that is, to reward the soldiers who went to Goguryeo with salt after they returned.

Ordinary soldiers are given fifty catties each, low-level military officers are given one hundred catties each, and middle and senior generals are given two hundred catties each.

I have to say that although Li Shimin's idea seems a little out of character, it is indeed feasible.

Gao Ming thought about it casually, and he knew that if Li Shimin offered two pennies and fifty catties of salt for the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to choose, then the soldiers would definitely choose the latter without hesitation.

Because in their values, the value of fifty catties of salt is higher than two pennies.

Once the soldiers accept this reward, even if the price of salt drops sharply after a year or two, the soldiers will not be dissatisfied because of this.

It's as if someone kindly gave you a brand-name mobile phone, but soon after you found out that this kind of mobile phone will be given away as long as you charge the phone bill. In such a situation, do you feel that you have suffered a disadvantage?
This is obviously impossible.

Moreover, the people of Datang have suffered too much, so they know how to be grateful.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, most of the retired veterans received only half a bag of grain, but no one complained, because in their opinion, it was a blessing to have enough to eat.

Li Shimin is a qualified king, but he lacks some kindness to the soldiers, but the soldiers are used to it, so they don't think there is anything wrong.

But when Gao Ming became Tiance Admiral and began to distribute veteran subsidies, he quickly gained a large amount of prestige and the loyalty of the soldiers, which even Li Shimin did not expect.

And this time Li Shimin's plan to distribute salt is actually a way of buying people's hearts.

After thinking about these things, Gao Ming secretly sighed inwardly.

"Well, since it's the old man's idea, then I'll cooperate with him. Later, I'll have someone notify Tian Yi and ask him to temporarily stop selling low-priced salt to the outside world. Let's talk about it after the old man rewards the salt!"

Thinking of this, Gao Ming looked at Li Yin again.

"Lao Liu, since you have brought the salt here, are you going back to Yingzhou soon?"

When he said this, Gao Ming actually hoped that Li Yin would stay for a few more days. Although this guy is a little bit stupid, he is very sincere in his dealings with others, which is hard for Gao Ming to find in other brothers.

Seemingly feeling the persuasion in Gao Ming's tone, Li Yin immediately grinned.

"Hey, since we're all back in Chang'an, we have to wait until after the Dragon Boat Festival!"

Hearing Li Yin's words, Gao Ming also laughed.

"It turns out that the Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon, and it seems that we can get Qu Yuan's glory again!"

But what Gao Ming didn't expect was that as soon as he finished speaking, Li Yin's eyes widened.

"Qu Yuan? Who is Qu Yuan? Is he an acquaintance of yours?"

"..."

(End of this chapter)