Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 248 A Trivial Favor

Chen Qingsi and Cheng Boxian sat by the brazier to keep warm.

The former looked at the financial statements sent by the governor of Yanzhou and thought about his plan to increase salt production in Yanzhou.

The latter was bored and playing with the coals in front of him.

Salt is a rare thing in any era.

Only the early Tang Dynasty did not take it seriously and implemented a monopoly system. The price of salt was set by the court and was monopolized by the government.

This kind of monopoly is not a profit-making monopoly, but a monopoly policy implemented to benefit the people.

There is no tax on table salt.

Since the imperial court opened the Silk Road and received tributes from vassal states all over the world, the internal economy was also booming, so it did not think about raising taxes through the salt industry.

In this era, official salt was cheaper than private salt, and there was no issue of official salt or private salt at all.

People all over the world can have access to low-priced salt.

This also leads to a problem: cheap salt hurts salt.

The low price of salt is indeed beneficial to the people of the world, but it is undoubtedly a harm to the salt people.

If salt cannot be sold at a high price, the income of salt residents will naturally be reduced.

This situation is most obvious in Yanzhou.

Yanzhou is located in Hengshan District, stretching for thousands of miles, and the roads are rugged and difficult to navigate. The salt produced has to be transported out of Yanzhou, and the toll and loss are quite high.

As a result, it was a tragic thing to go through all kinds of troubles to transport the salt and then not be able to sell it at a price.

Moreover, there are salt ponds in Hedong, Guannai, and Longyou, especially Hedong Salt. It has the reputation that one pool of Hedong Salt can fill half of the history of China.

Even though Yanzhou green salt is of high quality, it is not as convenient and affordable as Hedong salt.

This also resulted in Yanzhou having valuable land but no place to sell it, which produced no economic effects.

The late Yanzhou people used fine green salt to feed cattle, sheep and horses. The resulting fat sheep had delicious meat and the horses were fat and strong, which added an extra income.

But how many people actually raise cattle, sheep, and horses?

When Chen Qingsi learned about the situation in Yanzhou, he had an idea.

The land in Gyeonggi Province cannot be sold, and the Hedong salt and Longyou salt there respectively occupy half of the world. But now that I have built a large market in Mobei and Monan, I can completely sell green salt to the north.

Prairie people are indeed not short of salt. There are quite a few salt ponds in southern and northern deserts, so they are more than enough to be self-sufficient.

But how can the poor salt-making technology of the prairie people compare with theirs?

They can produce low-priced and relatively fine green salt. The salt blocks produced by the prairie people with great painstaking efforts have a bad taste and are expensive. How can they compete?

"Sir, the student is back."

Di Renjie shook off the snow on his body, rubbed his hands, and jumped.

"Quick, come here, have a cup of hot tea to warm your stomach."

Di Renjie, like Chen Qingsi, lives on the south bank of the Yellow River all year round. Facing the wind and snow in Monan is a bit unbearable.

Di Renjie trotted forward, first took the tea soup from Chen Qingsi, held it in both hands, felt the temperature on his hands, and took a sip.

The tea soup made with ginger is the best to dispel the cold. After one sip, your body will feel warm, as if you are alive again.

Chen Qingsi waited for Di Ren to get over his chill, then asked, "Has the news been conveyed?"

Di Renjie nodded and said: "I have conveyed everything. Your official reputation is excellent and you are deeply loved by the people. The people who stay up late are saying good things about you. It's just hard to say whether someone will come."

Chen Qingsi responded in silence, and then said after a moment: "Do your best and obey fate. This is all I can do..."

There has been a saying throughout the ages that "the people do not fight against the officials." When people suffer injustice, most of them tolerate it as long as they can. At that point, nothing can be undone.

Therefore, Chen Qingsi cannot guarantee whether people will come to complain or make representations.

It's just that he wanted to do something within his power for the kind and honest people of Ling, Xia and Yanzhou to relieve the uneasiness in his heart.

After a long while, Chen Qingsi said: "You deserve it!"

Cheng Boxian was bored. When he heard this, he said: "Sir is famous all over the world, and it is not normal to be respected. I can hear other people praising you everywhere, how can I feel ashamed? I don't know when I can do it." Just like Mr.…”

Chen Qingsi glanced at Cheng Boxian with a smile and said: "Then first you have to be able to bear this praise. Tell me, sir, I have never been to Yanzhou and Xiazhou. Why are the people in these two states so cooperative with the corvee? "

Lingzhou was right, after all, under his planning, he resisted the invasion of Tiele, the fifth surname, and had the grace to protect the people of the state.

What about Yanzhou and Xiazhou?

Cheng Boxian said: "Of course it's because of Mr.'s fame."

Chen Qingsi shook his head and smiled bitterly: "You are flattering me. How can the people care so much? The reason is very simple. I gave them enough time for the autumn harvest and did not recruit them during the autumn harvest."

Cheng Boxian said in surprise: "Is it that simple?"

"It's that simple!"

Chen Qingsi repeated Cheng Boxian's words, but her tone was full of affirmation.

Corvee was a problem that ancient people had to face.

As a citizen, you must be forced to obey the corvee.

Even saints like Confucius and Mencius could only say "the people are safe" when faced with corvee, rather than rejecting corvee. The development of the world is inseparable from corvee.

Common people have long been accustomed to it and take it for granted.

No matter what dynasty, ordinary people cannot avoid being squeezed by those in power.

As long as it was not inhumane oppression like the Sui Dynasty, most people would numbly obey.

As long as the court needs it and the government wants it, it can be done almost immediately.

This is especially true for military service.

The highest level of corvee, disobedience was severely punished.

Cheng Boxian didn't know how to answer for a while.

Chen Qingsi said: "This is the common people. For a trivial favor, they can be grateful and work hard to repay it."

Because of this, Chen Qingsi wanted to do more things for them, but his main task as the pacification ambassador was to build Sanshoujiang City. He could do some incidental things, but he could not put aside the construction of Sanshoujiang City and go to Sanshoujiang City by himself. State entity inspections can only use this method to understand the situation of each state and solve some things that they cannot solve.

The children of the Cheng Boxian family cannot understand this, so they can only digest it as much as possible.

Di Renjie could understand and deeply appreciated it, and kept it in mind as an example.

But in fact, Di Renjie would have taken the same path even without Chen Qingsi.

Chen Qingsi and Di Renjie were chatting about selling Yanzhou green salt to the north, while Cheng Boxian took a nap aside.

Time passes moment by moment, and it is almost the fourth year of Xianqing.

Suddenly a voice came from outside the house: "Sir, there is a Xiazhou citizen outside who wants to see you for something."

Chen Qingsi was a little discouraged at first, but after hearing these words, she became energetic and said with a smile: "Quick, invite him in."

As he spoke, he also said to Di Renjie: "There are still people who are unwilling to accept this."

(End of this chapter)