Especially when Bai Yuqi fell to the point where he couldn't even drink millet porridge.

Can you still expect him to be pure-hearted and dismiss money as dung? He is not a true immortal who can eat and drink dew!

But looking at the thick layer of black-brown hard substance on the rock wall next to the bitter spring, Bai Yuqi suddenly turned his mind and turned around and asked, "Is there a shortage of salt in the village?"

Yang Tieniu was stunned for a moment, he didn't understand why the little fairy mentioned salt, and nodded honestly: "That is naturally extremely scarce, in recent years, Jingshi, Guanzhong, and Longyou have all made a salt shortage and grain shortage, and grain and salt are expensive, and a bucket of millet must be silk, and a combination of salt must also be silk......"

"Huh?"

Bai Yuqi was stunned when he heard this, and his mind turned for a long time and he couldn't calculate how many catties a bucket was.

Fortunately, I have read a lot of novels, and after thinking about it for a long time, I think about it, as if I saw it in that book, the "Yidou" of the Tang Dynasty seems to be 6000 ml.

A bucket is 6000 ml, and the bulk weight of corn is 0.82 (because there are gaps).

That is to say, a bucket of millet is about 4920 grams, which was not so accurate in ancient times, and it is 5000 grams, and a horse of silk can only buy five kilograms of corn?

And what is silk? A collective term for all kinds of silk!

A silk horse is four zhang long and one foot eight inches wide, one zhang ten feet, and one foot in the Tang Dynasty = 30 centimeters...... it?

Doesn't that mean that a piece of silk 12 meters long and 54 centimeters wide can only buy five kilograms of corn?

Wait, how much is one-in-one?

One bucket of ten liters, one liter of ten li, one heal is 60 ml, and the density of salt is 2.165, one hei is almost 130 grams.

racked his brains and counted his fingers for a long time, Bai Yuqi was taken aback!

A horse of silk can only buy two and a half taels of salt? Is this too expensive salt, or is silk too worthless?

Bai Yuqi, who was confused, was stunned again, and then he reacted, why do you use silk to buy things?

Belch...... It seems that the main currency in circulation in the Tang Dynasty was copper coins, and although gold and silver were also precious metals, they were rarely circulated among the people.

In other words, even if Bai Yuqi dug out the gold and silver mines in the bitter valley, he couldn't directly take them out and use them, and the excitement of discovering the gold and silver mines was suddenly like a furnace that had been poured with a scoop of water, and it was cold!

Yang Tieniu and the others were excited by Bai Yuqi for a while, and they were confused for a while, like an eggplant beaten by frost.

"By the way, how much does a silk cost?"

Bai Yuqi, who came back to his senses, was about to be driven crazy by the ancient weights and measures, so he simply asked Yang Tieniu directly.

"At the beginning of the year, His Majesty only initially set the two taxes......"

Yang Tieniu thought for a while and said, "The official office has set a piece of silk, which is worth three thousand two hundred Kaiyuan Tongbao." ”

Although he didn't know whether the price of 3,200 copper coins and a piece of silk was more or less, Bai Yuqi knew that it would definitely be expensive to buy two taels of salt at this price.

"In fact, 'Pi Silk and Salt' is just the price in the market. ”

"In the past few years, the Turks have been knocking on the border every year, and the trade route in Shandong has long been cut off. ”

Seeing that Bai Yuqi was struggling with the price of grain and salt, Yang Tieniu thought for a while and added: "Salt can't be transported in, even if there is salt, it will be supplied to the army first, and you can't buy salt in the market with silk." ”

Bai Yuqi was stunned, why did he transport salt from Shandong? Doesn't the local salt be produced?

With the gradual understanding of this era, some of the information about this era that Bai Yuqi has seen from various channels in the past is also slowly recalled in his mind.

I think back to ancient times, because it was impossible to filter the impurities in the mineral salt, there were very few places in the interior that could produce salt, and the yield was very low, and it was impossible to meet the demand.

Therefore, in ancient times, the people in the mainland basically ate sea salt produced in Shandong, but even sea salt was far from enough to consume.

Not to mention that the trade route to Shandong has been cut off by the Turks, and the salt from the salt farms in the coastal areas of Shandong cannot be transported, and there is no salt to eat in the Guanzhong region.

It is not surprising that he has a silk horse worth 3,200 Kaiyuan Tongbao, but he can't buy two or two halves of salt.

If you don't eat salt, you don't have strength.

In order to be able to fight the Turks, salt naturally had to be supplied to the army first.

People eat horses and chew a huge consumption, so the people naturally have no salt to eat.

That's right, horses also have to eat salt, and they consume more than people, or they can't run fast.

Moreover, salt was not only used for food in ancient times, but also played a huge role in animal husbandry, medicine, agriculture, and handicrafts.

Animal husbandry needs salt because it makes them stronger, stronger, and fat.

The pharmaceutical industry needs salt to disinfect and stop bleeding, remove stasis and reduce phlegm...... Can you believe that the gold sore medicine used in the army puts salt in it?

"Can't buy salt?"

Bai Yuqi was puzzled: "What do you eat?"

"In fact, there is salt and no salt in the market, and these people can't afford to eat it. ”

"You can only save some mountain goods and come back with some salt cloth, which is better than no salt to eat. ”

Yang Tieniu smiled bitterly: "If you don't eat salt for a long time, people will have no strength, and they will get sick." ”

Bai Yuqi was shocked, what kind of rare thing is salt cloth?

Yang Tieniu took out a piece of animal skin from his arms, unfolded it, and took out a piece of black paint and hard erection.

Bai Yuqi took it curiously and took a look, and found that it was a piece of coarse cloth about the size of a palm, but it was covered with a layer of dark substance, which was very rough to the touch.

Putting it in front of his nose and smelling it, Bai Yuqi almost didn't vomit.

I don't know if this thing smells like this, or if it has been held in Yang Tieniu's arms for too long, it is fishy, salty, and has a strange smell.

"This is the brine mud left over from the salt merchant boiling sea salt, and it is boiled by Gabu, although it is not as good as the salt, but it also has a salty taste. ”

Yang Tieniu wrapped the piece of salt cloth with a smell on the insoles of the sneakers that had not been washed for several years, and wrapped them in animal skins and stuffed them into his arms: "If it weren't for the strength to go up the mountain to hunt, I wouldn't even be willing to eat this salt cloth." ”

Bai Yuqi understood, what kind of brine mud?

Isn't it just that after drying the salt, the dried sea salt grains are scraped away, and then the remaining layer under the salt pond is left?

In ancient times, there was no cement to build the salt pool, but you can imagine what kind of things were scraped from under the salt pond.

"Isn't this thing poisonous?"

"Like this rock brine, it contains a lot of toxic substances!"

Bai Yuqi pointed to the layer of crusts on the rock wall next to the bitter spring, and frowned: "If you eat it, you will get sick!"

Sea salt is not suitable for consumption, and is used as industrial salt in modern times.

"You know that the mud is less poisonous, and you won't die if you eat it, and you won't die if you don't eat salt. ”

Unexpectedly, Yang Tieniu nodded calmly: "Although these rock brine have a salty taste, they are not salt, they are very toxic, and they will die if you eat them." ”

Although he said it calmly, his words were full of this era, the helplessness and bitterness of ordinary people, and even numbness and resignation, made Bai Yuqi silent, as a modern person, it was difficult to understand their sorrow.