Master Xue was waiting for his son to come over in the study, Xue Qianxun knocked on the door, only to hear what he said inside: "Come in,"

Xue Qianxun pushed the door in, and saw that his father was practicing calligraphy at the table with a pen, he sat on the stool and waited for a while, watched his father collect the pen, and said slowly: "Dad." ”

Master Xue glanced at him and said, "What did you think about what I told you yesterday." ”

"Dad, I'm not going to do anything about this,"

"But if this happens, you can make a lot of money." Master Xue hurriedly walked down to his son's side and said with a straight face.

"Dad, now that the situation in the court is in chaos, if you want to put a foot in the private salt at this time, have you thought about the consequences?"

"Heroes come out in troubled times, and the more chaotic the situation, the more beneficial it may be to us, and the more money we will earn." The more Master Xue talked, the more he felt that this business could be done.

Xue Qianxun said lightly: "Dad, it is illegal to sell illicit salt, and if you are held accountable, it will cause trouble to the house." ”

Master Xue laughed twice and said, "Isn't there still your second uncle in the capital?" With your second uncle here, what can we do? ”

Xue Qianxun stood up, walked to the window and looked at the snow scene outside and said: "Second Uncle is struggling now, if something happens, I'm afraid he can't do anything, this is a big crime to kill his head." ”

"If this success is successful, our family will not be doing any other business, and we can also ensure that the three generations of children and grandchildren can live a worry-free life."

"Where is it as easy as you say," If he hadn't married, he might have the idea of trying, but now that his wife is pregnant, he doesn't want to take such a big risk and ruin his happy life.

Master Xue said in a firm tone: "I have also decided this matter, you are my son, if this matter fails, you will not have good fruit to eat, you still help me think of how to make this private salt become official salt." ”

Xue Qianxun saw that his father was bent on going his own way, and persuaded: "Dad, there is no shortage of money in the house now, and there are a lot of shops and fields in the house, and it is also one of the largest households in this town, so why take the risk of smuggling salt?" ”

"Not for you!" Master Xue pointed at him with a dark face.

No matter how Xue Qianxun persuaded him, his father still insisted on his opinion, and finally had to say: "You let me think about this, don't prepare it privately first, if the implementation plan must be thorough and not left behind, let me think about what to do." ”

Seeing that his son's attitude had eased, Master Xue smiled and said, "Okay, then the father is waiting for your good news." ”

Xue Qianxun walked out with a calm face, this matter must be thought about carefully, if private salt can become official salt, just like his father said, his future children and grandchildren will be free to live, but if it is not a ......, he can't help but tremble when he thinks of this.

It was too risky to pour smuggled salt, so after he returned to the house, he stayed in the study and didn't come out, thinking about how to deal with this matter, but he didn't think of a way, so he saw Qing'er push the door in, he eased the expression on his face, and said gently: "Why are you here." ”

Tang Qing'er closed the door, walked to his side, saw that his face was not good, took his hand and said: "Do you have any troubles, say it and we will solve it together, I think I have a bright mind, maybe I can help you solve the problem?" "Yesterday and today, when he came back from his father-in-law, his face was always bad.

Xue Qianxun touched Qing'er's face and sighed: "Do you know why my father came to me three times and twice,"

Tang Qing'er shook her head and said she didn't know, Xue Qianxun continued: "Dad wants to resell illicit salt? ”

Tang Qing'er was startled, stood up suddenly, and shouted, "Dad wants to ......"

"Woo woo......" Xue Qianxun was quick and covered Qing'er's mouth, she could only shake her head with a whin, Xue Qianxun whispered: "This matter is silent." ”

Tang Qing'er nodded, Xue Qianxun let go of his hand, Tang Qing'er quickly exhaled a few breaths, and gasped: "This is a crime, if it is known, it will be killed." ”

Xue Qianxun nodded and said, "I know, but my father has made up his mind, and I can't stop it." ”

"You'd better persuade Dad! Now that there is no shortage of food and drink in the house, it is impossible to take such a big risk to earn this dangerous money. Tang Qing'er anxiously stopped.

"I persuaded him, but my father didn't listen, and I couldn't stop him."

"Then you can't sit here either."

Xue Qianxun's face darkened, and he said in a low tone: "I've been thinking of a way, but I can't think of any good way in my head,"

Tang Qing'er was anxious, walking around the study, Xue Qianxun grabbed her arm and said: "I'm afraid that you are in a hurry, so I haven't told you, and now seeing you so worried, doesn't it make me even more anxious." ”

Tang Qing'er had no choice but to stop, sit on the stool and think about the way, the history teacher had said in the past that the production of private salt in ancient times was a direct product of the unreasonable salt resale of the imperial court, and if there is official salt, there must be private salt, the stricter the official salt, the easier the private salt is to sell, and the higher the profit, which is an objective law.

One of the reasons for the excessively high price of salt is the heavy burden of salt tax, taking the salt from Lianghuai to Hankou as an example, one salt is one tael and seven cents of zero for one salt, but even after cleaning up and rectifying, it has reached more than 10 taels of silver after adding various miscellaneous taxes one after another.

In addition to the above expenses, the salt merchants also had to pay bribes to the government in the form of donations, donations, etc., despite this, the salt merchants were still the richest in the world, living a luxurious life of spending all day and drinking every day, from which you can know how rich they are, no wonder the father-in-law also wants to make profits from the private salt.

The reason for the popularity of illicit salt is also due to the relationship between supply and demand, the population has surged, salt is a necessity of life, and the increase in population has also greatly increased the demand for salt, making illicit salt more and more prosperous.

But it is illegal to make smuggling salt, if you are caught, you must be killed, and now the situation in the court is turbulent, if you are caught by someone because of this, the final outcome will be two words 'kill the head'.

Tang Qing'er thought that the salt of this era was boiled salt, and it was recorded in the Book of Rites&8226;Suburban Special Sacrifices: "The beauty of the liquor, and the frying of salt, the noble natural product, Jingzhao Mansion, Fengxian County, the side of the brine pond near the people, take water and firewood to burn ash and fry salt, each lime gets 12 catties of salt and one tael, the chaos is worse than the salty soil, please forbid." ”

In this dynasty, the official salt extracted by the salt merchants can be divided into four kinds of sea salt, lake salt, well salt and mineral salt, people basically have no standard for the composition of salt, as long as it is clean, the bitterness is lower, it is salty, and many of this salt are extracted from seawater, without other treatment, the quality is very poor, and it also contains some harmful substances.

If you don't make smuggling salt privately, but have a good relationship with the government, refine your own edible salt, and sell it to salt merchants or the government at a low price, then it is not considered a crime, and it is better to let the salt merchants make money from it and let the government get a piece of the pie.

Tang Qing'er knew that salt was obtained by crystallizing and refining salt-containing brine or seawater, but the real salt refining method was not so simple, this town was neither near the sea nor near the lake, it was impossible to extract salt from seawater, and the rest could only be well salt, which was made from ancient wells.

Generally, the salt merchant has his own method of making salt, and the salt she refines must be better than the salt refined by the salt merchant, so that they will give up their own salt and buy their own, and the salt she makes must be of high purity, white and fine, although it is not as good as modern times, but the salt refined by other salt merchants must be a hundred times stronger.

Thinking of this, Tang Qing'er slowly opened her mouth and said to Xue Qianxun: "If we don't pour smuggled salt, but refine the salt ourselves, cooperate with the government, and refine it into salt that is better than the salt merchants, and sell it to the officials?" ”

Xue Qianxun shook his head and said, "But no one around us can refine salt, and the salt we have here is all transported from the Jiangnan region. ”

Tang Qing'er said crisply: "I will, it is precisely because we have no salt that we have to refine salt ourselves and sell it to the government." ”

Xue Qianxun asked, "Will you?" How would you? ”

Tang Qing'er said: "It's written in the book, you don't need to care about this, I just ask you if this method is feasible?" ”

Xue Qianxun shook his head and said: "Even if you know how to make salt, you can't do it, the government has salt merchants who cooperate with him, if we rush to cooperate with the government, won't we offend other salt merchants?" ”

Tang Qing'er didn't expect this, thought for a moment and said, "Then we can sell the salt refined by ourselves to the salt merchants, and the salt merchants can also sell it to the government?" ”

Xue Qianxun said: "Why do salt merchants buy our salt if they have their own salt?"

Tang Qing'er cocked her chin and said, "You don't know this!" The salt I refine, the color is white, the particles are small, the purity is high, and there are no impurities, the most important thing is that we sell it cheaply, they don't have to refine it themselves, they just need to buy ours, and they sell it to the government, and they earn the difference money, which saves labor and money, so why not? ”

At this time, Xue Qianxun finally showed a satisfied smile on the corner of his mouth and said, "If this is the case, you can give it a try." ”

Tang Qing'er nodded and said, "In this way, we are not looking for illegal salt, but we are only helping salt merchants make salt,"

Xue Qianxun nodded, and asked again: "Then what method do you have to refine salt?" ”

Tang Qing'er said: "The official salt extracted by salt merchants is generally sea salt, lake salt, well salt and mineral salt. ”

"So, how do you refine well salt?"

Tang Qing'er slowly explained the method of refining well salt to Xue Qianxun: "First of all, you need to mix brine, its raw material is brine, which is divided into two types: yellow brine and black brine, yellow brine is a brown solution, and the salt boiled with it is bitter and poisonous; Black halide is a black solution, and they are all bad things for people's health. ”

"If it's not good, why do you need to use halogen?" Xue Qianxun asked.

"You listen to me in detail, to refine the well salt, brine is a must, we only need to mix the yellow brine and black brine in a certain proportion, so that they combine into a white precipitate, we are removing the sediment, and then use the method of "brine point tofu", with the fresh soybean milk to wash the brine, so that the brine slag can be purified and clear, because there are a large number of impurities in the brine, these impurities include some floating impurities and solid impurities, which affect the quality and color of the well salt, The ground soybean milk is white clay crops, which can filter out the precipitation of the brine seeds. ”

Seeing Xue Qianxun's thoughtful look, he continued: "The next thing is to boil salt, in order to shorten the boiling time, it is best to add the slag salt of "mother and child slag" in the boiling process, which is actually a kind of crystallized salt, which can induce the salt brine to accelerate the crystallization, so that you can get a white crystalline...... Well salt. ”

Xue Qianxun said: "According to what you say, isn't this crystal very big?" ”