Reborn Regent of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 3 Cooking Salt

"My lord is here, stop everyone except those who burn the fire!"

He had been following Zhang Shouren all the time, and was also a small banner officer. At this time, Zhang Shiqiang also felt a little pretentious, standing on a high place, yelling with his arms akimbo. www>

Under his order, dozens of military households did not dare to neglect, put down their work and rushed over.

"Kowtow to my lord!" [

"Greetings, my lord!"

When Zhang Shouren rushed down, there was already a crowd of kneeling people in front of him.

Zhang Shouren has a hundred households, so of course he can cover the sky with one hand here.

Moreover, he was originally irritable and willful. Many of the military households in front of him have suffered from his fists.At this moment, seeing him coming, everyone was kneeling on the ground, their foreheads were almost on the sand.

"Get up!"

Seeing this, Zhang Shouren quickly waved his hands and ordered everyone to get up.

There is a supervisor named Zhang Shifu in the salt field. He is the chief banner officer of the iron brand and Zhang Shouren's deputy.

Seeing Zhang Shouren coming, Zhang Shifu came forward to meet him and reported: "My lord, all the salt from last month is here. If you don't sell it, you will accumulate too much. I have counted the too much. Please let me know." My lord, take a look."

This man had a beard, his hair was a little white, his eyes were red from smoke, and his hands were rough and black. He looked like an old farmer in his 40s.

But in Zhang Shouren's memory, this person was only 27 or [-] years old, and the difference between his appearance and age was too great.

Boiling salt by the sea is a hard job, as expected.

The boiled salt is all stacked together, so there is no rain in winter, and there is no fear of being soaked.Each pack weighs 120 catties, and they are all opened for inspection by Zhang Shouren.

Zhang Shouren clicked, and there are ten bags on his side, and there are a dozen more bags, which belong to everyone else.

Burning a lot of firewood and consuming a lot of manpower and material resources, this saltworks boiled three to four thousand catties of salt every month, 120 catties per stone, and sold it to the saltworks for three to five silver coins, and Zhang Shouren could get half of it. Up to four taels, the remaining seven or eight taels of silver are divided among dozens of people, and on average, it is less than two taels of silver.

No wonder these military households are all dark and thin, with no expression on their faces.

Such a hard job, but such a low income, of course they will suffer from malnutrition.

The military households have their whole families to feed, boil the sea for salt, catch some fish and shrimp, and have a few acres of Susukida near the sea. The total annual income is about five or six taels. Just starve to death.

Next to the salt pile are a dozen chicken carts, the kind of wheelbarrows of later generations, each of which can push three to four hundred catties. It is also a hard job to push this kind of wooden wheelbarrows for dozens of miles to sell salt. .

"Who's going to deliver the salt?" [

Asking a question, Zhang Shouren grabbed a handful of sea salt with his hand and looked at it carefully.

They are all bluish-white salt grains with large particles, which look very rough. After all, they are boiled by primitive methods, and the craftsmanship is very backward.This is how it looks here. After it is delivered to the saltworks, people in the saltworks will add more than a dozen catties of sand to every hundred catties of salt before selling it.

Salt collection is three qian silver 120 catties, which is one stone.

When it is sold, it costs between two taels and two taels, but the price of official salt has to be doubled when it is sold to the common people.

The price of salt is high, and the salt is cheap and cheap. The place where the salt is directly produced gets the least benefit. Most of it is in the hands of the government and the big private salt dealers. Therefore, along the coast of Shandong, there are many powerful private salt dealers who make money by monopolizing private salt.

"Eat the mountains by the mountains, and eat the sea by the sea..." Holding a handful of rough salt grains in his hand, Zhang Shouren was also thoughtful.

Of course, I want to do a big business in this life, and the start is to get money first.

Without money, any ambition is a joke.

I have no fertile land here, nor is it a place with developed commerce, and the population density is not high. The only advantage is that it is close to the sea.

It seems that we have to rely on the sea to eat the sea!

However, this method of boiling the sea to produce salt is really backward... We must find a way to improve it!

"Go back to your lord, I sent Shilu to take people there."

Zhang Shifu replied, and Zhang Shilu, the small banner officer, also came over to greet Zhang Shouren.

These two low-ranking military officers were both wearing red fat jackets, with iron and wooden plaques indicating their identities hanging on their waists.In addition, the identity of their military officers could not be seen.

Although this little flag officer doesn't talk much, he looks capable.

Zhang Shouren nodded, and told Zhang Shilu, "I sold the salt, take my share of the money, and buy all the wheat back."

"Yes, the villain went to Jimo County to buy."

The salt field is between Fushansuo and Jimo County, and it is cheaper to buy wheat in Jimo County. Just this sentence, you can know that Zhang Shilu is very shrewd in his work and is not afraid of hard work.

In the whole hundred households, except for Zhang Shouren who is the largest, they usually rely on two general banners and ten small banner officials, most of whom are members of the Zhang clan, and they can be regarded as Zhang Shouren's trustworthy confidantes.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, military households stopped fighting a long time ago. Although the system of guards was still in place and they had official positions, the thousand households and the hundred households were big and small landlords, and the military households below were farmers. Zhang Shouren treated the soldiers under the hundred households That is to say, it is the identity of a landowner plus the chief of the castle.

After dealing with the salt field incident, Zhang Shouren simply climbed up to the high hill by the sea and looked into the distance.

The water and the sky are the same color in front of you, and there is a blue scene between the sky and the earth. [

This is a world that has not yet been polluted by industry. The air is cold and pure. Looking at the past, there are almost no buildings taller than trees. It is winter, but there are still many pines and cypresses in the Cangshan Mountains that are green. People feel free.

In the previous life, Zhang Shouren once stayed here in Fushan, and Fushan Institute became the Fushan Forest Park later. The forest and the sea are connected together, and the scenery is very beautiful.

This is called, looking back, it has been a hundred years.

At this moment, Zhang Shiqiang ran over, his face pale and ugly.Looking at Zhang Shouren, he murmured, "My lord, Han Liu is here, drunk and making trouble in the castle."

"Han Liu..."

After thinking about it, Zhang Shouren knew who Han Liu was, and there was a murderous look in his eyes.

Zhang Shiqiang had never seen him like this before, he was terrified at the moment, and quickly stepped back.

Zhang Shouren smiled coldly, and was already striding towards the castle.

There is no point in reminiscing about the past!