Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 126 Unexpected Luck (2)

Beside the mangrove forest, Xu Qing and Dou Liweng looked at each other, each wanting the other to look away first.Xu Qing looked at Weng's face, which was marked by the weather.Asked: "How do you know me?"

Hearing this, the bamboo hat man showed a smile and replied:

"Hearing his words, I know what kind of person he is. The governor recited poems on the cliff, and the little old man undoubtedly heard it. Knowing the boundaries of Cangzhou, only the governor can have such courage..."

Even though he got the flattery, Xu Qing didn't let down his guard because of it, and said coldly: "What's the matter?"

"Without him, it's all just a matter of meeting the Inspector..." Dou Liweng said again: "Inspector Xu, a strange thing happened in Huanghua County, I wonder if Inspector Xu can solve it?"

"Who are you!" Niu Chicao said bluntly, "You dare to point fingers at what the governor did?"

The bamboo hat Weng said indifferently:

"If Governor Xu can solve this mystery, the little old man will give you a big gift!"

After speaking, the bamboo hat Weng left with a "swish", walking in the mangrove forest like walking on flat ground.Xu Qing wanted to ask again, but there was no chance, so he could only return to Haixing with doubts.

"Boss, look at the salt..." Xu Qing walked into his salt shop and shook the bag on his shoulder, and the copper coins collided with each other, making a crisp and pleasant sound.

As a commodity, salt was almost exclusively owned by the state starting from Shang Yang, but after the Sui Dynasty and before the Anshi Rebellion, it became a private business for a short period of time.

The store clerk heard the voice, glanced at Xu Qing, and thought, "Where are you country bumpkins!"It's true that Xu Qing's purse is rattling, but the store clerk also knows that "country people" like Xu Qing are the most difficult to deal with. When buying a head of garlic, he insists on a piece of green onion, and when buying a catty of meat, he insists on a page. lung……

The store clerk was weak, and said with a fake smile:

"Guest officer, there is no free gift for buying salt here..."

"Well, I'm still going to buy a hundred catties of salt. If that's the case, I'll go to another place..." Xu Qing turned around and left. Am I greedy for you to get some snacks?Xu Qing went into this store purely because a wooden sign was hung on the door plate, and a yellow word was written on the wooden sign.

"Guest officer stay here..." The store clerk smashed his tongue, a few catties and taels of salt, but he couldn't deliver anything, but a hundred catties of salt was different, so it was considered a big deal.The store clerk really took a closer look at Xu Qing's clothes, thinking that you can't see it, you can't look like a person, but the store clerk's eyes moved down to Xu Qing's bag again.

"Didn't you say that you don't want to give away things? Is it okay if I go to another shop to deliver things?" Xu Qing turned around, and the copper coins in the bag made a crisp sound again.

"What did the guest officer say? The wool comes from the sheep. Isn't the price much higher when other stores send things?" The shopkeeper is a hospitable person..."

"Well, let's take a look at the salt first, and see you again, shopkeeper..."

"Okay..." The store clerk took out a row of wooden boxes, with five or six kinds of salt ranging from light to dark.The clerk began to introduce: "This is refined white salt, which is used to make tea. It used to be that the aristocratic people in Cangzhou love to eat it. This is coarse white salt, which is used for cooking..."

"These salts are not what I want. Is there anything else?" Xu Qing looked at them one by one and shook his head.

"The last thing is sea salt, which is eaten by poor people. It only costs two cents a catty, and rich people buy it for horses to lick..." The store clerk pointed to a small bag of salt, which was black and even the box was dark. No.What he said was that the poor don't eat it, and it would be too embarrassing for you, a landlord, to eat it.

"Why does this horse eat salt?" But Xu Qing's attention was obviously not out of face, he was just curious about the horse eating salt.

At this moment, a donkey brayed outside the door, and the shop clerk not only laughed a few times in his heart, but Xu Qing, who only had a donkey and no horse, naturally didn’t understand that horses needed to eat salt, so he explained with a smile: “Horses eat salt, so they are so strong… ..."

"Oh, then, let's get twenty catties of black ones first!" Xu Qing fumbled into the bag, with big hands in a row, one of the forty bills was not much, and the other was not, and they were placed on the table.

"Oh, I said guest officer, this sea salt is not delicious, and it is not easy to sell...

"Can I feed this salt to the donkey? You have a lot of money!" Xu Qing asked rhetorically.

"Um, guest officer, I'll wrap it up for you..." The shop clerk took the money and put it in his pocket without a sound.I paid attention to Xu Qing's appearance, and felt that I had never seen this kind of merchant before, why did I buy so much salt?The guy didn't understand, but he didn't care. As the saying goes, we've seen each other for a long time, there are a lot of weird people and strange things. The guy hid behind the cabinet and started counting his private money happily.

It's just that from now on, the buddy will tell a story to everyone.In the story, there is a landlord who does not put salt in every meal at home. In order to see better, he buys black salt so that he can see clearly.When this story is told, it always makes everyone laugh.Of course, Xu Qing is not able to know these interesting stories about "little people".

The money and the goods are cleared, Xu Qing doesn't care about the previous disrespect of the shop assistant, but he is still in a hurry to improve Haiyan...

As early as the time of the Yellow Emperor, salt was boiled in sea water, which produced less salt and more impurities. Later, we learned about sun-dried salt.

The method of drying salt to make sea salt is too earthy, that is, after the spring tide, use palladium palladium palladium to soak the sandy soil in seawater and expose it to the sun under the scorching sun.When small white particles appear on the sand, the salt workers wash the sand with sea water, and what comes out is brine.

Then filter this part of the brine with a bamboo mat or something, and then boil it dry to form a black mass, which is the so-called sea salt.

This kind of salt is dark and tastes bad, far inferior to inland salt.Salt production from seawater has never been popularized, nor can it be used as a product for sale. It can only relieve the urgent needs of the poor.

To ensure the quality of sea salt, the most important thing is to filter this step.I remember that in junior high school chemistry, there was coarse salt filtering. What Xu Qing had to do was to improve the filtering step.

Walking to the county government office, in order to save face for the county magistrate Yan Ku, he only entered through the back door.Yan Ku also understood that Xu Qing came this time to check the "homework" or assign "homework".Seeing Yan Ku, he briefly exchanged greetings with teachers and students, Xu Qing went straight to the point, and asked Yan Ku to carry a few large pots on the rack.

After the big pots were set up, I saw Xu Qing put about two catties of sea salt in each pot, poured a bucket of water, put a fire under the pot, stirred it, and the sea salt slowly melted in the water.

The salt dissolved into the water, but the magazines in the eyes slowly settled at the bottom of the pot, forming a fine layer of dirt, and the water was poured out and left to stand.

"Yanku, you have been in Haixing for more than ten days, how should you manage it?" Xu Qing is Yanku's teacher and boss, so he can be called by his first name.

"Teacher, I think that Haixing is not suitable for production due to its small land, but the ocean is rich in products. As long as a small dock can be built, fishermen can be organized to salvage them, make dry goods, and sell them to neighboring counties, which can improve a lot of life... "Yan Ku replied respectfully.

"Oh?" Xu Qing was very happy when he heard it. It is rare for someone to open his eyes to look at the ocean. Xu Qing tentatively said: "But agriculture is the foundation of governing the country. What you do is heresy..."

"Teacher, forgive the students for speaking bluntly. All laws that benefit the country and the people are for the country's foundation and the people's livelihood, and agriculture and commerce are not different."

"Hahahaha..." Xu Qing clapped his hands and laughed, Yan Ku was stunned, Xu Qing explained: "In the future, you, Yan Ku, will carry forward your knowledge as a teacher!"

After hearing this, Yan Ku was flattered, and quickly knelt down: "Teacher..."

"Get up, the road to getting rich from sea goods you just mentioned is still flawed. For example, where do you get the manpower and material resources to build the dock? Do you have a solution?"

Yan sighed bitterly and shook her head: "The student is ashamed..."

Without saying a word, Xu Qing took out the static salt water and put it into the clean cauldron.In the bucket where the salt water was placed before, due to the drop in temperature, a thin layer of dust and mud was deposited again.

"The teacher said, could it be sea salt?" Yan Ku muttered, unable to figure out what Xu Qing was cooking sea salt for.

Xu Qing dipped his fingers in the salt water in the pot, tasted it, tasted it, and felt good, at least he couldn't taste the smell.

Increase the heat to boil the salt water, switch to a low heat, the water in the pot gradually evaporates, and some small white crystals begin to grow.Xu Qing stirred slowly with a wooden stick, otherwise the salt would be mushy.After stirring for a long time, Yan Ku also wanted to come up and try.

The salt crystals piled up, put out the fire, and let the remaining heat of the pot evaporate the water.

"Teacher, this sea salt can turn white..." Yan Ku looked at the layer of white salt in the pot and was amazed.Rub it down with your finger, taste it, and say, "Taste, this taste is comparable to coarse white salt..."

"So, can you get rich?"

"The teacher is really like a god, and the students are lucky to be taught..."

"Hahaha, everything has its own way..." Xu Qing was very modest.

In fact, later generations have a more advanced method of drying salt, but Xu Qing can't.So I can only use this relatively inefficient method. After a little calculation, it only consumes a little firewood, and a skilled worker can manage at least five pots.Coupled with the loss of weight from black salt turning into white salt, and the price of black salt itself, the cost of a catty of white salt is only three Wen.But if it is sold, it can be sold for ten cash immediately, and if it is transported to a salt-deficient area, it can be sold for more than ten cash.

The teacher and the student discussed for a while about the promotion and mass production of sea salt purification.Xu Qing gave Yan Ku a target of [-] catties per day a year ago!
With such a large output, when Manid comes back, he can fill a big bag.When his business route has made a big circle, the economic effect will appear immediately.Moreover, all the salt workshops on the Yanshan side are monopolized by the Huang family, and Xu Qing can directly get [-]% of the output or income.Add up the two sides, and pay back the debt of the emperor Lao Tzu, and you will have the confidence.

After working on Haiyan's side, Xu Qing's heart was brightened, and she was very curious when she thought of what the bamboo hat man said.

What happened to Huang Hua?

Unlike those in the other three counties, the county magistrates there are all Xu Qing's disciples, the relationship between the heaven and earth monarch, relative and teacher, and a family relationship.Xu Qing also felt that Zhan Zeng couldn't see through it.

Xu Qing let the cattle eat grass and went back to Cang County to transfer [-] soldiers, and put them next to Huanghua just in case, while he rode a donkey.

(End of this chapter)