Change the Tang Dynasty Li Yuanba

Chapter 34 Find a way to make money

"Brother Meng, I'm back. Do you have food?" Li Cha's voice came from outside Meng Huhu's room.

The old man forgot to eat again.

"Yes, yes, come in quickly." Meng Huo replied somewhat cautiously.

He didn't even bring his title. If it were someone else, even if Yuwen Chengdu, who was second in the world back then, was resurrected, Meng Huo wouldn't be like this.

The main reason is that the legend of this master in front of him is too scary, coupled with the killing he personally experienced not long ago, for Meng Huo, knowing Li Cha's identity, he really doesn't know how to deal with Li Cha.

"Hahaha, I know that Brother Meng is refreshing, so I won't be polite, and I will serve you something delicious."

Seeing Meng Huo's stiff look, Li Cha felt a little awkward, he didn't want to associate with such a Meng Huo, he had to find a way to untangle Meng Huo's heart knot.

"Okay, here we come." Two large plates of mutton and two large plates of venison were brought up by Meng Huo in a short while.

Then Meng Huo stood there waiting for Li Cha's orders.

"There is only meat? Why is there no wine? Brother Meng's house is out of wine?" Li Cha exclaimed intentionally.

"Yes, yes, I'll get it right away." Meng Huo brought two more jugs of wine.

"Come, come, come, I'll have a drink with Brother Meng. I know that Brother Meng has good wine and meat here." Li Cha said with a smile.

"What good wine is it? It's all bad wine. It's just the usual salamander. I'll just take a sip of this wine. Besides, there is no good meat. I bought it in Chang'an City on the way back today. I don't want to think about it." After going out for a few days, the meat at home should have gone bad by now, so I just bought some."

Meng Huo said carefully.

"San Lejiang is indeed not a good wine. I will let you taste what a good wine is some other day. Let's not talk about it. Come, eat meat and drink." Li Cha greeted Meng Huo cautiously.It was as if the owner of the house had been replaced by him.

"Okay, okay. Eat and drink." Meng Huo hurriedly agreed.But I muttered to myself: "I mean, this salamander is already the best wine, what other good wine can you let me taste?"

Wine is indeed a good thing.It is an invincible weapon for establishing a good relationship between men.After three catties of wine, Meng Huo began to grow older and younger brother Li, and he no longer had the restrained feeling he had before.Li Cha also felt much more comfortable.

"By the way, Brother Meng, Qin Qiong was also there when we raided the Turkic royal court. Did you see him? I was only focused on killing people at that time, and didn't pay much attention to whether there were other people around." Li Cha said.

"Ah? Didn't you know that Qin Qiong was there? After we left, he led the people to deal with the aftermath of the Turkic royal court." Meng Huo asked suspiciously.

"Brother Meng? Should I know? Didn't I say that I was only focused on killing people and didn't pay attention to my surroundings?" Li Cha was more puzzled than Meng Huo.

"I think I know what's going on, Brother Li, you should kill less people in the future. After killing more people, your physical condition is not right."

Meng Huo recalled Li Cha's state after killing someone, and said to Li Cha.Then he explained Li Cha's state at that time and Qin Qiong's appearance in detail.

"Oh, I see. There is indeed something wrong with my body. After killing the people on the city wall, I only had a killing intent in my mind. I just wanted to kill everyone I could see."

"At that time, I was suppressing the killing intent in my heart, and I knew nothing about the outside world." Li Cha explained.

Li Cha didn't care about it after he finished speaking, anyway, he is doing well now, let his uncle Sun Simiao come and let him take a good look at him.

"It doesn't matter, Brother Meng, which industry do you think is the most profitable in the Tang Dynasty? I am too poor, and I need a lot of money to do what I want to do. The emperor is even poorer, and he can't even afford the money for the replacement of [-] war horses. I I have to find a way to help him earn some money. It saves him from staring at the people's taxes all day long."

In fact, Li Cha had some thoughts in his mind.However, he still wanted to ask Meng Huo for his opinion. Meng Huo knew this Tang Dynasty better than him, so he might be able to give him some better advice.

"The most profitable thing must be salt. Without salt, people will get sick and can't live. Otherwise, Cheng Yaojin, the evil king of the world, will sell salt? The other is iron. No matter whether you are farming or hunting, you can't do without iron. But these two things are under the control of the imperial court, and selling them secretly will be decapitated." Meng Huo said.

Li Cha only thought of wine and silk, but really didn't think of salt and iron.Li Cha generally knows the places where salt is produced in later generations. Since Meng Huo brought it up, he should first solve the problem of common people eating salt.

"Okay, hahaha, thank you, Brother Meng, for reminding me. I've decided, I want to make salt. Let the common people eat salt." Li Cha was a little high-spirited.You can do something for the people of Datang again.

"Salt making? What do you make salt for? Ordinary people already eat salt, and a bucket of salt costs only a few pennies, which is enough for a whole family to feed for a year. If you make salt privately, it is a serious crime, and you have to invest a lot of manpower." Material resources are not worth it." Meng Huo said doubtfully.

"Huh? Then why are there so many salt smugglers?"

Li Cha really doesn't know this.Didn't everyone say that the Tang Dynasty lacked salt?

"That's because the imperial court controls the salt. People who want to buy salt have to go to the salt office designated by the imperial court. Some villages are very far away, so someone took advantage of this loophole and took private salt to those inconvenient places. Go and buy in the village."

"A bucket of salt costs an extra penny or two, which is a huge sum of money. Just think about how many villages like this exist in the entire Tang Dynasty."

Meng Huo explained.

"Oh, Brother Meng, I see. Let me take a look at the salt you eat first." Li Cha said.

"Cook, cook, bring me some salt for cooking."

Meng Huo drank three catties of wine, and let go of it all. He didn't bother to stay on the bed, so he yelled directly in front of Li Cha.

After a while, the cook came over with a small bowl of salt, and asked, "Does the owner think the meat is tasteless and should be eaten with salt? Then I will take it and mash it first, and then come over."

"No, the meat you cooked is very tasty. It's all right, you can go down." Meng Huo waved his hand and told the cook to go out.

Li Cha saw the salt in the bowl, white shapeless crystals the size of rice grains, with some yellowish-brown impurities, but quite few, no different from the coarse salt in the countryside in the early years of later generations.

Li Cha sticks a few grains with his fingers, puts them in his mouth and tastes them. There is only a salty taste, and the slightly bitter taste can be ignored.

Li Cha was very surprised. Datang's current level of salt production is really so advanced?
"Brother Meng, do people in my Tang Dynasty eat this kind of salt now?"

Li Cha asked, this really broke his perception of this Great Tang.

"Hehe, how can it be? This is the best fine salt for cooking. There is also a better green salt, which can only be produced by a salt well in Guanzhong Road, and the output is very small. That is every morning. It is used to purify the mouth, not to be eaten. These salts were sent by His Majesty the Emperor."

"Although the old man has no official position, the emperor will send people to send these daily necessities, and the salary has never been interrupted. The old man can't refuse. This kind of salt is not available to ordinary people. The richer eat that kind of salt." Coarse salt the size of a finger belly has a bit of a bitter taste. Those who are poorer eat the kind of fist-sized salt, which has a strong bitter taste, but ordinary people don’t care, as long as they can eat it.”

Meng Huo explained.

"Oh, okay, I see. Let's not talk about the salt thing. Tell me about other ways to make money?" Li Cha already had an idea in his mind about the salt problem.

"What's more, it's wine. The people of Tang Dynasty go up to officials and aristocrats, down to old men in the village, no matter whether they are civil servants or military generals, there is no bad wine. Wine making will definitely make money. But the way of making wine is all in the big family. We can't find someone who can make wine if we control it in our hands." Meng Huo thought for a while.

"Well, needless to say about wine making, I have my own way. Is there anything else?" Li Cha said, wine making is also a way to make money that he thought of before.

"There is also tea. I heard that some arty people will drink it. Anyway, I don't drink it. There is no taste like wine. I heard that it is very profitable. The other thing is to go hunting in the mountains. Tigers, black blinds and so on are very valuable, even if Deer, wild boar, etc. can be sold for a lot of money. With the two of us, we can definitely make a lot of money. I can’t think of anything else.”

After hearing what Meng Huhu said later, Li Cha was happy.What a rough guy in the army, relying on the two of us to hunt and earn money, I can afford to build a college and support an army.It is impossible to exterminate all the animals in the Qinling Mountains.

Seeing that Meng Huhu was still scratching his head and thinking of other ways, Li Cha decided that it would not be difficult for him.

"Okay, Brother Meng, that's enough, thank you." Li Cha said.

"Okay, then when you go hunting in the mountains, call me. Two people are better than you alone." Meng Huo nodded in agreement.

"Hahaha, Brother Meng, when did I say I was going to go hunting in the mountains?" Li Cha made Meng Huo laugh.

"Ah? Then how do we make money? We don't know how to make wine or tea. We really sell illegal salt. It's better to make more money from hunting. Selling illegal salt is shameful."

When Meng Huo heard that it wasn't hunting, he was a little confused. This master is not really going to sell private salt, is he?

Even if he has no official position, he was still an invincible general before, and his salary was paid according to the standard of the Duke of the state. He was not laughed at by others for selling private salt.

"Hahaha, Brother Meng, you laughed so hard at me, you don't need me and you to sell private salt, you don't have to worry about it, I have my own way. You will know in a few days."

Li Cha was so amused by Meng Huhu's words that he couldn't straighten his waist.

Li Cha never thought of making money from ordinary people.

It's been almost a year since Li Cha's soul returned, and he knew very well that it would be good for ordinary people in Datang to make ends meet, and they didn't have any extra spare money to do other things.

What he wants to earn is the money of the five surnames and Qiwang, the eight major families of Guanlong and the dignitaries.

Everyone in the future generations knows a truth that people in this era have not yet understood.Only when money circulates can it drive social productivity.

People in this era just want to save up money and put it in the treasury to rust. That money is worthless copper plates.

So Li Cha now wants to deduct money from the rich and send it to the poor.

How to deduct money from the rich, it needs some high-end products that represent status, such as refined salt, fine wine, rouge perfume, soap, silk
How to give to the poor people?If Li Cha's later life experience was in other countries, he might have thought about it for a long time, and in the end he could only do some kind of government relief, welfare and the like.

But Li Cha happens to be from China.That's easy.Engage in infrastructure recruitment.

What a simple matter, the people of Datang are not lazy, but apart from farming and serving, there is really no other way of making a living.If you have an opportunity to make money, you will naturally not miss it.

When the common people have money, then Datang will become truly prosperous.

"Brother Meng, tell the children to go to class tomorrow. By the way, you can tell my unmarried daughter-in-law that I will come back and ask her to remember to bring me food. Why wait until the eighteenth next month? Get married directly What a wonderful home, what a trouble. Go, go."

PS: Lao Yu checked a lot of information. In fact, there was no shortage of salt in the early Tang Dynasty, and it was very cheap.The sources of data are "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", "New Tang Book", "Old Tang Book".From the Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, the imperial court did not control the salt. It was the middle and late Tang Dynasty that completely controlled the salt.Cheng Yaojin was not a salt smuggler, but since the history is empty, let's continue writing.Please don't criticize Lao Yu because of the plots in some novels or TV.

　Ladies and gentlemen, let's count the votes.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)