In the dilapidated courtyard of Old Man Ding's house.

A 200-pound fat man introduced himself with a smile and narrowed his eyes: "I am the leader of the Yanghe Group. Sir, are you sure you want to buy our salt dumpling?"

Zhu Cixiang nodded and said: "Yes, the output of your salt group is far from enough. If you have other ways to introduce me, I can give you a benefit. The price of collecting salt is the same as your group."

Fatty Han's little eyes lit up and he said flatteringly: "We are really lucky to meet a customer like you, but you may not know something. Salt is not bought and sold casually, which means you don't have to be rich to buy it.

I'm here, I wonder if you can understand what I mean."

Zhu Cixiang glanced at him and said: "Nonsense, I don't have any salt. How can I come here to buy salt?"

Fatty Han's eyes continued to shine brightly and he said: "I'm going to ask a casual question, but I wonder if Master knows about the Wei family, the salt merchant? The salt produced in our Yanghe regiment is all collected by the Wei family."

"I don't know, and I'm not interested in knowing."

Fatty Han was stunned and asked tentatively: "I wonder where the young master comes from?"

Zhu Cihong threw a piece of silver to him and said, "Don't talk so much nonsense. If you have anything to say, just say it."

Fatty Han took the silver very skillfully, wiped it on his body, put it into his sleeve pocket, and then said with a smile: "Young master, you will definitely be the top scorer in high school in the future!"

Seeing that Zhu Cixiang looked unhappy, Fatty Han quickly withdrew the topic and said: "Now the Lianghuai salt industry is taken over by big salt merchants, and there are some forces behind them, such as the ambassador of the salt class. I am worried about the young master...

..."

After hearing what Fatty Han said, Zhu Cihong probably understood that the salt production in Yanghe Tuan was monopolized by the Wei family.

The Wei family is not one of the top ten salt merchants who own the salt chain, but is a market merchant under the salt merchants, that is, an intermediary merchant who purchases salt from kitchen households in the salt farm and resells it.

These salt farm merchants have the monopoly privilege to purchase all the salt produced in the salt farm, and adopt unequal exchange methods to brutally exploit salt producers and seize commercial profits. The Wei family is one of them.

There is also a general merchant above the Wei family. Those big salt merchants have strong economic power. Their main task is to transport salt and make the yamen collect salt taxes from the salt merchants. They have the closest relationship with the government. They are giants among the salt merchants and have thousands of assets.

Ten thousand.

Salt merchants have monopolized the entire process of salt circulation across the country, arbitrarily lowering buying prices and raising selling prices, exploiting kitchen households and consumers, and obtaining huge commercial monopoly profits. Most of them live in luxury, especially the Lianghuai salt merchants in Yangzhou

.

After Zhu Cihong heard this, he chuckled and said: "Han Tuantou, don't worry, my family also has connections in the government and has some background. I will accept your salt, and the Wei family will not dare to trouble you."

Hearing this, Fatty Han was slightly relieved. These guards were wearing official boots, indicating which of the officials this young master should be. From the accent, he was from South Zhili. Since he dared to say this, his power must be greater than

The Wei family is big.

Fatty Han is not afraid of rich salt merchants, but he is afraid of this kind of collusion between government and businessmen. With the backing of officials, he cannot afford to offend him!

Even if he were beaten to death, he would not believe it. This harmless young man in front of him was the legendary cruel and ruthless Crown Prince...

Seeing that he was satisfied, Zhu Cixiang began to ask about the business: "Since ancient times, the benefits of boiling salt have been more important than those in the southeast, and the Huaihe River is the most important. I have been traveling all the way and found that your house is simple and your life is hard. It is not like the rumors.

, why is this?”

President Han Tuan gave a wry smile and said: "Young master, you don't know. Our Yanghe Tuan was not like this during the Wanli period. At that time, the court implemented the color-changing method. Although life was a bit harder, the government sent more people.

, but everyone can make do with it and still have some money left over at the end of the year."

"Since the imperial court implemented the salt system twenty years ago, and the big salt merchants took over the salt class, everything has changed. The salt produced by our Yanghe regiment can only be purchased and processed by the Wei family. At the beginning, the salt introduction

They were able to give one to two five cents of silver, but later it was reduced to one tael, but this year they only gave eight cents, and I heard that the Wei family plans to only give five cents next year."

The old man Ding on the side sighed: "We Zao households can't survive this day. To be honest, young master, some people in our regiment have escaped in recent years, and they have escaped from dozens of households. If it weren't for the military disaster around us, we would have started.

Years from now there will be more people running away..."

After Zhu Cihong listened, he pondered for a while. The Gangsalt Method implemented by the imperial court was more advanced than the Zhese method. It was just for better management to increase fiscal revenue. However, in less than twenty years, the salt tax was not only getting higher and higher.

So few, even the kitchen households who cook salt have such a hard time.

Although salt production is profitable, the money ultimately enriches the salt merchants and salt officials, while the real working people are still living in dire straits. Even though Zhu Dadian cracked down on private salt before, the final money still flowed into the salt merchants.

In the pockets of salt officials.

Zhu Cixiang thought for a moment and said, "Take me to your salt factory. I want to see the quality of the salt."

"okay!"

Fatty Han responded happily and quickly led Zhu Cihong to the salt field, as if he was very confident in his salt production.

Not long after, everyone came to the salt field. At first glance, they saw the seaside and the salt fields facing each other.

The factory occupies a large area, with at least four to five hundred people working inside, using the salt boiling method that has been popular for thousands of years.

There were firewood burning under hundreds of large pots, steam was rising, and the gurgling sound of boiling water was constantly heard. There were people stirring beside the pots.

Zhu Cixi's visual inspection showed that the diameter of this large iron pot was about 1.4 to 1.5 meters and the height was about 30 centimeters. He moved forward and found that although the water in the pot had not been boiled dry, he had already seen it.

The white flowers are full of fine salt.

According to Han Tuantou, boiling salt here does not involve pouring seawater into a pot and boiling it. Instead, brine is made first, and then the brine is placed in a pot and boiled over fire to become salt. What they saw was boiling.

As for the salt, an iron pot needs to be boiled for three hours to produce seven to ten kilograms of salt.

In addition to iron pots, there are also bamboo pots for cooking salt. Bamboo pots are made of bamboo strips, with a square flat bottom and coated with lime or yellow mud. They are three meters long, one meter six wide and one meter deep. Each pot can boil a thousand salts.

catty.

After walking out of the salt-making field, Zhu Cihong saw a row of large pools dug out on the other side not far away. I didn't know what was paved on them, and a group of men and women were watering them with buckets.

Like an enthusiastic tour guide, Fatty Han explained to Zhu Cixiang: "This is to make brine by pouring brine sand into it with sea water."

Zhu Cixi probably understood the process of boiling salt. In order to produce brine with a high salt content, kitchen households spread raked pine with fine sand about two to three inches thick on the beach where the tide can reach, so that the sand can be fully absorbed.

tide.

The seawater is dried in the sun to form brine sand, and then the brine sand is evenly spread in the brine pool, and then poured with seawater. The seawater can fully absorb the salt in the brine sand, greatly increasing the salt content. If the salt content is increased,

The salt concentration can be repeatedly rinsed with brine.

Pour the brine into a pot and stir-fry, and you can make white salt. If you want to make refined salt, you need to filter the brine five or six times. Silk is the best material for filtering, followed by cotton cloth.
Chapter completed!