The ministers begged me to ascend the throne

Salt is as important as food.People will starve to death if they don't have food to eat, and they will die of illness if they don't have salt to eat.If something goes wrong with food or salt, it will cause people to panic.If the situation is serious, riots may even occur.Therefore, the prices of grain and salt cannot be too high.If the price of salt and grain skyrockets, that means trouble is coming.

The prices of salt and grain in the Great Zhou Dynasty were lower than those in the previous dynasty.During the riots in the previous dynasty, the prices of salt and grain were so high that the people simply could not afford grain and salt.Therefore, most of the people at that time starved to death, and some died of illness because there was no salt to eat.

As soon as the late emperor ascended the throne, he first forcibly lowered the prices of grain and salt and restored them to normal prices, so that the people could afford grain and salt.

Because of this incident, the wealthy merchants and aristocratic families who controlled grain and salt were very dissatisfied and wanted to oppose the court's policy. However, they were suppressed by the troops led by the then prince, who is also the current emperor.

In order to stabilize the prices of grain and salt, the emperor killed many grain dealers and salt dealers.

Although grain dealers are rampant, they are not as crazy and vicious as salt dealers.After being suppressed back then, the grain dealers became more honest and did not dare to behave like monsters again, but the salt dealers were still arrogant.

In the past few years, the Yangzhou aristocratic families were so domineering mainly because they were in cahoots with the Yangzhou salt dealers.Back then, when the emperor led troops to suppress the salt dealers, they killed the most Yangzhou salt dealers, so the Yangzhou salt dealers hated the emperor and the court.

After the emperor ascended the throne, he issued many decrees to rectify the price of salt, especially the price of salt in Yangzhou.

Yangzhou's salt is the best salt in Dazhou, and it is also tribute salt.Furthermore, Yangzhou produces a lot of salt every year.If the price of salt in Yangzhou is too high, it will inevitably affect the price of salt in the entire Zhou Dynasty, and people will complain.

Because the imperial court suppressed the price of salt in Yangzhou, the salt dealers in Yangzhou hated the imperial court even more.They colluded with aristocratic families and officials to control the salt in Yangzhou.Not only that, they also secretly smuggled Yangzhou salt to foreign countries, causing chaos in the entire Zhou salt market.

Both the late emperor and the emperor knew that the salt dealers in Yangzhou would not always be honest, and also expected that they would secretly undermine the price of salt in Zhou Dynasty, so they made arrangements in Yangzhou early.This is why in the past few years, the emperor brought Yangzhou's aristocratic families, officials, and salt dealers under one roof.

Only after all the arrogant and domineering salt dealers in Yangzhou were killed did the price of salt in Da Zhou become stable.Today, the price of salt in the Zhou Dynasty is [-] qian per shi, while the most expensive salt in the previous dynasty was [-] qian per shi.

The salt of the Great Zhou Dynasty continued from the previous dynasty, and was basically well salt, alkali salt and sea salt.Among them, well salt is the best salt, alkali salt and sea salt are both unpalatable.

Compared with the world of Zhao Yao in his dream, the salt manufacturing technology in Dazhou is very backward.If we don’t mention well salt, let’s talk about sea salt.People directly dry seawater into salt, which is very rough and unpalatable, but the price is very cheap.

Sea salt is only eaten by people living by the sea.People in Lingnan have always eaten sea salt.Of course, there is also good salt sold in Lingnan, but the price is very expensive and ordinary people cannot afford it.

When Zhao Yao came to Lingnan, he brought some tribute salt from the capital.However, he felt that the tribute salt was also very unpalatable compared to the salt from Zhao Yao's world in his dream.The salt in Zhao Yao's world in the dream is very fine. Unlike the salt in Dazhou, which is as big as a pebble, it may not be possible to stir-fry the salt even if you stir-fry for a long time.

He Lianfang suddenly asked: "What is the price of salt in Dazhou now?"

"The price of salt in the capital is four hundred yuan per stone, which is the same price in most places. It may be higher in some remote places, but it will not exceed one thousand yuan per stone." Before coming to Lingnan, Zhao Yao specifically investigated the price of Da Zhou. Types and prices of salt.

"Do you think four hundred dollars per stone of salt is expensive?" In He Lianfang's view, four hundred dollars per stone is very cheap.

"It's definitely not expensive for us, but it's expensive for many people." Zhao Yao's face turned ugly when he thought of the proliferation of salt dealers. "Although salt can only be made and sold by the imperial court since the previous dynasty, and private sales by the common people are prohibited, the actual situation is that the private sale of salt cannot be suppressed at all and is still rampant. If we don't talk about other places, let's just say that salt dealers in Jiangnan have never disappeared. "

He Lianfang said objectively: "It is impossible to get rid of all the salt dealers."

"Yes, the huge benefits brought by salt will make countless people take risks to sell it, and it is impossible to get rid of it, so the price of salt has been unstable." Zhao Yao continued to analyze, "Every once in a while, the price of salt will Rising. If the imperial court had not intervened to suppress it, the price of salt would have only risen higher and higher. In recent years, the salt dealers in Jiangnan have become honest and dare not make trouble, but the salt dealers in Qilu have begun to act like monsters again. In recent years, The main reason for the unstable salt price is that the salt dealers in Qilu have been raising the price."

"Didn't the imperial court suppress the price of salt in Qilu?"

"Yes, the imperial court suppressed it, but it can only be controlled for a while. Soon the price of salt in Qilu will increase again." Zhao Yao said with a cold face and a tone full of displeasure, "The price of salt keeps going back and forth, no matter what It is not a good thing for the court or the people."

He Lianfang listened to Zhao Yao's words and looked at him deeply.

"I didn't expect you to worry about the price of salt."

Zhao Yao asked innocently: "Shouldn't I worry?"

"The price of salt should be the concern of the imperial court and your father, so why is it the turn of an idle prince like you to worry about it?"

Zhao Yao felt that He Lianfang was irritating him, "Second uncle, do you know the price of salt in Lingnan?"

Of course He Lianfang didn't know, he never cared about these "trivial" things.

"do not know."

Zhao Yao stretched out two fingers and said with a serious face: "Two thousand coins and one stone."

He Lianfang was shocked by the price: "Two thousand dollars?"

"Isn't that outrageous?" Zhao Yao raised his lips and sneered, "Fortunately, the people in Lingnan are very poor and cannot afford to eat."

"Why did these officials set the price of salt so high?" The people in Lingnan couldn't afford it, so who did they sell the salt to when they raised the price so high?

"Sold to foreign countries." Zhao Yao said, "The salt from Annan and Siam countries is mainly sea salt. Their drying technology is the same as that of Dazhou, so their sea salt is also very unpalatable, and our Dazhou salt It’s better than theirs, and of course their rich people are willing to spend money to buy it.”

He Lianfang nodded.

"I tasted sea salt from Lingnan before, and the taste is indescribable." Zhao Yao felt distressed when he thought that the people in Lingnan ate salt as big as pebbles and with a bitter taste every day. "If it weren't for the fact that salt is a must, I don't think the people in Lingnan would eat sea salt even to death."

He Lianfang asked curiously: "What are you going to do?"

Zhao Yao deliberately betrayed the truth: "Second uncle, you will know when the time comes. However, my new salt-drying method cannot be known to outsiders, otherwise those salt dealers will act like monsters again."

"Are you sure the salt you make is better than the salt from inland?"

Zhao Yao nodded affirmatively: "It will be very delicious. The most important thing is that I plan to make fine salt. The current salt is really too coarse. Sometimes the salt in the dishes has not melted yet, and I accidentally put it in my mouth. Teeth." He was bitten by the salt in the vegetables several times, and when he was seven years old, he lost a tooth.

"Fine salt?" He Lianfang heard about "fine salt" for the first time. "How fine can it be?"

"Just like snow."

"Fine salt like snow?" Hearing what Zhao Yao said, He Lianfang was looking forward to it.

"Yes, wait until I make it. Second uncle, you will know how good it is after you eat it." Zhao Yao felt that it was useless no matter how much he said now. "If sea salt becomes delicious, it will not only allow the people on the seaside to eat good salt, but also increase their income. The most important thing is to restrain inland salt dealers from raising salt prices."

He Lianfang reminded Zhao Yao: "If you make new sea salt, you will go against all the salt dealers in the inland." Zhao Yao naturally knew this, but he didn't care.

"Am I afraid of them?"

"If you interfere with their wealth, they will not let you go." He Lianfang was worried about Zhao Yao's safety. "They will join forces with these officials in Lingnan to get rid of you. Let me remind you, salt dealers kill people. But it’s very vicious.”

"I know, I can't stop making new sea salt just because I'm afraid of being killed by them."

"You should know that if the officials in charge of salt do not collude with the salt dealers, they will die miserably." He Lianfang said, remembering an incident from the previous dynasty, "A salt official named Lin in the previous dynasty was unwilling to cooperate with the salt dealers." The salt dealers colluded with each other, and as a result, their families were destroyed by the salt dealers, and eventually the entire species was exterminated."

Zhao Yao knew about this, but he was not afraid.

"I am not an official, but a prince. Although I am not favored on the surface, if they really attack me, they will be the ones who become extinct. Besides, there are secret guards around me, and they want to send people to kill me. It’s not that easy to succeed.”

"It's easy to dodge an open arrow, but it's hard to guard against a hidden arrow."

"Second uncle, I will be fine." The reason why Zhao Yao is so confident that he will not be hurt by hidden arrows is not because there are dragon guards around him, but because there are many animal spies around him.

Seeing that Zhao Yao didn't take the salt dealers seriously, He Lianfang sighed helplessly in her heart.It seemed that he could only worry more about this boy.

"There is no need to worry about food in Lingnan. The first thing now is to make new sea salt." Lingnan planted double-cropping rice several years ago, and its grain output is the highest in Dazhou. "When I make new sea salt, I'll make white sugar."

"What is white sugar?"

"It's sugar. Second uncle, you know it when I make it." Zhao Yao smiled mysteriously, "Second uncle, this white sugar is also precious. When I make it, it will be like salt."

He Lianfang looked surprised: "So powerful?"

Zhao Yao nodded and said: "Yes, that's how powerful it is."

He Lianfang had no interest in sugar and didn't ask any more questions.

"By the way, there is a letter from the Japanese country. They have dug out a lot of gold and silver and asked you when they will bring it back."

"If it is brought back now, there will be no place to hide the gold and silver in the Marsh Mansion." Zhao Yao forgot about this matter, "Let's come back during the Spring Festival next year. I will find a place after a while, and then dig out a cellar. Come and store this gold and silver.”

"Then you have to dig deeper, otherwise it won't be enough."

"I know."

"Your father didn't tell you?" He Lianfang said, "This matter cannot be hidden from your father."

"You can't tell your father now. You can wait until next year to tell him." Zhao Yao thought of his father's rogue and shameless temper and said angrily, "If you tell your father now that I sent people to dig up gold and silver in Japan, He will definitely send someone to dig it out right away, and then we won’t have any left.”

"Zhao Zheng can do such a thing."

"So let's hide it from him for the time being." He still has a lot of things to do, and these things will cost a lot of money to do.The money he makes now is simply not enough, so he desperately needs the gold and silver of Japan. "Second uncle, do you have anything else to do?"

"What, you have to go out to work again?"

"I have to find someone, otherwise I won't be able to make my new sea salt." Zhao Yao thought about his current shortage of manpower and said with a sad face, "Second uncle, I now actively agree with your idea of ​​raising [-] private soldiers. matter."

He Lianfang raised her eyebrows and looked at Zhao Yao: "You want to buy someone now?"

"Second uncle, haven't you seen that I am extremely short of people right now." Zhao Yao clapped his fingers and complained to He Lianfang one by one, "We need people to make new sea salt, to build farms, factories, and to build intensive military bases. .There are also digging cellars, building city walls, making new farm tools and new weapons..."

He Lianfang felt a headache after listening for a while, and quickly interrupted Zhao Yao: "Okay, just tell me how many people you need?"

"Second uncle, what do you think?"

He Lianfang glanced at Zhao Yao, who had a distressed face, and said with a mocking tone: "If you rush to complete all the things you just said, only 10 people are enough."

"It doesn't take a hundred thousand, twenty or thirty thousand is enough." Zhao Yao asked He Lianfang, "Second uncle, do you think it's feasible for me to bring those people who have been exiled to Lingnan and are still serving their sentences to work?"

"You have the right to mobilize those people to do things." The whole Lingnan belongs to Zhao Yao, and he can do whatever he wants. "However, I remember that these people who were exiled to Lingnan were not in the same place."

"I know, I plan to bring the exiles near Marsh Mansion to work first." Zhao Yao has already planned, "First bring the exiles from Baiyan Mansion, Biyue Mansion, and Yinshuang Mansion. There are at least 5000 people in the three places, which can barely be used." Of course, these 5000 people were not exiled by the Zhou Dynasty, but were exiled by the previous dynasty.

"You brought so many people to Marsh Mansion, do you have a place for them to live?"

Zhao Yao was stunned by the question, and after a while he said stiffly: "...There is no place to live." Well, this idea can only be given up temporarily. "Well, let's do things one by one. However, the new sea salt must be produced as soon as possible. I will let our people work hard first and help with it." Fortunately, before I was in Lingnan, I trained a lot of my own people.

"Then let our people do it."

"Congratulations." Zhao Yao called towards the door.

Soon, Tongxi walked in, "Your Highness, what are your orders?"

"Go and call the captain of the guard. I have something to tell him."

"The slave is going here."

After a while, a tall, rugged-looking man walked in.

"Your Highness, do you have anything to tell me?"

"I have something for you to do..." Zhao Yao gave the order.Wait until tomorrow, and he will personally lead people to do it.The production of new sea salt must be overseen by him personally. (End of chapter)