Salt is an unexpected gain, not the reason why Yang Tong asked Li Keshi to come urgently, but salt is related to the life and health of thousands of people in Dasui, and since the problem has been encountered, it cannot but be solved as soon as possible.

Yang Tong immediately brought Li Keshi back to the big tent and taught him the technique of salt extraction.

There are three kinds of salt, sea salt, well salt, lake salt, lake salt, lake salt, lake salt, Qinghai salt everywhere is a kind of lake salt, this salt after a long period of wind and sun, condensed into crystals, precipitated to the bottom of the lake, such as Chaka salt sea, Qinghai Lake, the salt lake of the Qaidam Basin, after tens of millions of years of changes to form a dry lake, salt crystals are exposed on the surface, can be directly dug without processing, the required process is only purification, drying these two steps, but only the purification technology is not in place this step, so that it has not been developed, such as soil, Generations have been exposed to the wilderness.

However, compared with the complex composition, very purified Hedong salt, the salt of the West Sea is a natural high-grade edible salt, the composition is very simple, first liquefy it into brine, add an appropriate amount of lime water, several major impurities will occur chemical opposition, precipitate, take the upper layer of water, and then use soda water, stir constantly, until no longer produce turbidity, you can remove the astringency, and finally steaming or drying can get snowflake-like high-quality salt, and the rest is beneficial and harmless trace elements to the human body.

After listening to Yang Dong's technique, Li Keshi had a sense of enlightenment, and after thinking about it carefully, this method seems to be nothing, the key is that no one has thought about it before.

"It's actually very simple." Yang Tong said: "There are hundreds of salt lakes in the West Sea, which are full of crystalline salt, and coal is used as fuel for liquefied crystalline salt and cooking, so as long as there are enough people, it is not a matter of producing 10,000 catties per day." ”

In any era, salt was the top priority of a country, on the one hand, it was related to the lives of millions of people, and on the other hand, it was related to the taxes of the imperial court. Just because in any dynasty, the salt tax was a small amount that could not be ignored.

The salt of the West Sea is backed by the inexhaustible Chaka Salt Lake and Qaidam Basin, as long as the people are siblings, the production capacity is unimaginable, and then it can rely on the official road, the Yellow River, and the Huangshui transportation, so it can be said that the salt conditions of the West Sea are unique.

Once the West Sea becomes a major salt-producing area, the impact on all aspects will be huge.

In particular, the Qaidam Basin, relying on the innate conditions of iron, copper, salt, and coal abundant in the local area, will surely become an industrial powerhouse specializing in the production of salt, iron, and copper products in the Great Sui Dynasty, as later generations did.

"Holy Lord, according to what you say, this kind of salt has the characteristics of local materials, simple methods, low cost, high quality and low price, once it is listed, it will definitely cause a sensation, and it can beat the expensive fine salt, coarse salt, and poisonous salt on the market in an instant. Let them close their doors. If salt is produced, how can it be sold? ”

Li Keshi knew that Yang Tong only let him know this salt-making technology, which was obviously a secret technique for himself, and it was used by the imperial court alone, rather than giving this huge profit to the salt merchants.

Yang Tong said: "This kind of technology and products that are beneficial to thousands of people should be used to benefit the people, and must not become a tool for some people to make huge profits. ”

The supply and marketing cooperatives are government-run supermarket chains, both glazed products, heroes and other luxury goods, but also farm tools, ironware, grain, oil and other items related to people's livelihood, due to the bumper harvest, and there are a large number of reserves of the imperial court to stabilize the price, so the price of grain and oil has always been stable, there has been no grain cheap injury to farmers, grain and expensive injury to the people, the importance of salt is not weaker than grain, naturally it should also be included in the control scope of the imperial court, take the road of small profits and benefit the people.

"If it is included in the control of the imperial court, the price of salt will plummet, which is really a blessing for the people of the world. Holy righteousness. Li Keshi praised the festival and said his thoughts: "After the salt of the West Sea is made, it can be transported to Jincheng through Huangshui, and then transported to Huining, Lingwu, Wuyuan, Yulin, Dingxiang, Mayi, Loufu, Yindiao, Lishi, Longquan, Yan'an, Wencheng and other counties on both sides of the Yellow River supply and marketing cooperatives, and finally divided into counties on both sides of the Yellow River such as Yongzhou and Erzhou; the second way is to enter Guanzhong through Weishui; The third road is from the source of the river to the south into Yizhou. The fourth road, from Daxing through the Guangtong Canal, arrived in Luoyang, and then with Luoyang as the center, it was transported to all parts of the country through canals and official roads. As for the county close to the West Sea, it can be transported by land nearby. ”

"In this case, the transportation cost is still high, and I plan to use Li Taishou's method to solve the salt problem in the Great Sui West of Luoyang; As for the east of Luoyang, it is dominated by sea salt. Yang Tong said with a smile.

"This method can also be used for sea salt?"

"Yes." Yang Tong said: "The high price of salt is mainly due to the small production capacity, the small production capacity is the way to make salt, if the sea salt will be replaced by the cooking method to the drying method, the long coast is the land of salt production, the output will naturally come up, although salt is an indispensable food, but it is a condiment after all, a pound of salt can make a family of five people use ten days and a half months, so as long as the first wave of power, people's demand is greatly reduced, and salt has continued to enter the market, the price has naturally dropped." At this time, there will be a situation similar to 'grain cheapness hurting farmers', but it is impossible not to produce it, so in order to maintain a large number of salt farmers, it is necessary to open up new trade routes. ”

"Takeaway via the Silk Road?" Li Keshi's eyes lit up.

For example, today, not only the Great Sui, but also the Western Regions and other countries are also due to lack of technology, and the salt prices of various countries are also high. And the West Sea to the north, you can enter Zhangye through the Dadou Pull Valley, if you start from the Qaidam Basin, cross the big and small Chaidan, Altun Mountain and Qibian Pass, you can reach Dunhuang, these two roads further west, is the Silk Road to the North of the Western Regions. But if you go directly to the west from the Qaidam Basin, cross the Mangya, it is Shanshan and the end, and then go to the Western Regions, which is the Southern Silk Road, and for the West Sea, the Southern Silk Road is undoubtedly closer.

"That's what I thought, too. After the salt of the Western Sea met the domestic needs, it was specially used to earn money from the Western Regions, the Western Turks, and Persia at a high price. ”

Yang Tong said with a smile: "If you want to produce a large amount of salt, you need to hire a large number of people from the West Sea to mine raw materials, and everyone's life will become rich because of salt." For the local people, the interest of mining salt raw materials is higher than grazing, and they will gradually settle near the salt farm, and even attract many Hexi people to come, and you, the parent official of the West Sea, only need to divide the fields equally, properly resettle, and manage and educate them in the future, which will also save a lot of trouble, and in the long run, the nomads are no different from our Central Plains. But everything is difficult at the beginning, and your burden is also heavy now. ”

"Holy Lord, Wechen is not afraid of a heavy burden, but he is afraid that there is no burden." Although Li Keshi is Li Jing's younger brother, the two brothers are eleven years apart, the elder brother Li Jing is slowly aging, but the younger brother is in the prime of life, full of vigorous "vitality". Otherwise, I will not give up the beautiful life in Guanzhong, please let it go, and become a county guard with relish.

But if you follow Yang Tong's way of thinking, and go victoriously, this Xihai County, which is not even qualified for the lower county, will sooner or later develop into a world-renowned upper county, which is much higher than governing an upper county.

Yang Tong also likes this kind of "vibrant" official, and said with a smile: "Large-scale production also requires large-scale workshops, so you can't be in a hurry." You write down all these steps and have the artisan test the ratio of lime water and alkaline water several times to produce the best table salt, and then use this recipe to produce a large amount of salt. ”

"Wechen obeys." Li Keshi said excitedly. The emperor put him alone in charge of the refining of table salt, apparently not treating him as an outsider, and this strong trust made him very encouraged and moved.

"You can start with the Chaka Salt Lake and make it a success story, and then expand to other places when you get your hands dirty."

"Whoa."

"Yesterday I captured more than 10,000 Tibetan soldiers, half of whom needed to build Jishi Pass, and the other half I gave you as labor, first to build workshops, blast furnaces and other infrastructure near the Chaka Salt Lake, and then to dig coal."

"Thank you, Holy Lord." Li Keshi was overjoyed, what he was most worried about now was manpower, and these more than 10,000 captives were simply pillows falling from the sky before going to bed.

"You can use these captives with confidence, it doesn't matter if they are all dead, I just need to catch them again." Yang Tong said indifferently.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Li Keshi suddenly smiled sinisterly, such an attitude was exactly what he wanted.

。。。。。。。。。。。

"The development of the great cause of salt in the West Sea is just one of the reasons why I came to you." Yang Tong also wants to save face, so naturally he won't say that the great cause of salt is very important, but it is an accidental product of listening to Wei Fengwu and Li Keshi's chat, "There is another reason." ”

"Command, please." Listening to the tone of the saint, another matter seemed to be more important than the great cause of salt, and Li Keshi also became solemn.

"There is also an anti-Sui force that has been entrenched in the West Sea for many years, and I only know three pieces of information about this force. First of all, the leader of this force is named Tuoba Wei, and I suspect that he is a remnant of the Wei Dynasty; secondly, they took Fuluochuan City as the center, developed around, and used the means of hostage holding and kidnapping to force the surrounding departments to contribute materials and support the army; Third, Tuoba Wei had contacts with the opposition forces of many kings in the Western Regions; Fourth, Tuoba Wei planned to surrender to Tibet, use the power of Tibet, based on the West Sea and Heyuan, and establish an anti-Sui state. Yang Tong said the true meaning of this trip.

After all, since ancient times, rebellion is the primary crime, if the rebellion occurred before the local officials were ignorant, they would be punished afterwards, and if it was serious, they would even be punished as accomplices, and they would be punished for the crime of extermination.

He bowed nervously and said: "As the Taishou of Xihai County, Weichen knows nothing about this force, which is a serious dereliction of duty, please punish the saint." ”

"You have been the Taishou of the West Sea for less than a month, and it is not your responsibility." Yang Tong helped him up and said with a smile: "This force, in fact, as early as when Li Liang was pacified and Ye Hu was broken, I had already discovered it, and let the Western Regions Xingtai investigate openly and secretly, but they acted secretly and hid very deeply, so they couldn't find out why, and I only learned yesterday that the leader was called Tuoba Wei." ”

"Thank you for your grace of innocence." Li Keshi breathed a long sigh of relief.

"I don't know exactly how many people Tuoba Wei has." Yang Tong said: "What I am worried about now is that if the war between the Great Sui and the Ertu coalition army reaches a stalemate, he will give us a fatal blow from behind, so I plan to cut it off before the decisive battle with a fast horse. ”

Li Keshi, who was relieved, hesitated for a moment and said, "Holy Lord, we don't know anything, I'm afraid it's not easy to uproot it in a short period of time, right?" ”

"I know."

Yang Tong nodded and said, "Tuoba Wei's subordinates, there is a Tocharian named Jia Luohan, do you know this person??" ”

"On the Holy Side, Jia Luohan is a great man in Fuluochuan City, and there are many people who know him." Li Keshi continued: "In the past few years, the whole country has been turbulent, and the Hexi Corridor has also fallen into a situation of separation, and there have been frequent wars between Li Yuan in Guanzhong, Li Liang in Hexi, Xue Ju in Longxi, and Liang Shi in Yongbei, which has led to the blockage of the Northern Silk Road in the Hexi Corridor, and the Southern Silk Road of 'Xihai-Qaidam Basin-Altun Mountain-Western Regions' has also ushered in the peak of development. In order to make a profit, he not only took on the important task of guiding the direction and escorting the army, but also bought the Western Regions sweat and blood BMW and Persian blanket specialties from Hu Shang at a low price, and then sold them at a high price in the hands of Xue Ju and Li Yuan. In terms of Central Plains items, he also bought special products such as 'silk porcelain paper medicinal tea' from Central Plains merchants at low prices, and then resold them to Hu merchants at high prices. He sat firmly in Fuluochuan City, and through the hands of merchants on both sides, he earned a huge price difference, and in just a few years, he finally became a tycoon in the West Sea. ”

Although Li Keshi has been in office for a short time, he has a very good understanding of the local forces, and this is also the first task that the new official must do well after taking office.

Yang Tong nodded, this is good news, no wonder the old man Su San said that this Jia Luohan is easy to find, it turns out that he is a rich man in the West Sea, this matter is easy to handle. Hurriedly said to Li Keshi: "In this way, Jia Luohan is equivalent to Ling Jing, the secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, and is in charge of the most important part of money, which shows that Tuoba Wei trusts him a lot, and he must know a lot of confidential things." ”

"Holy Master." Li Keshi also thinks so.

Yang Tong pondered for a moment, then made a decision, and said with a smile: "In the name of your inspection here, all the great tycoons of Fuluochuan City will be called, and you will be said to hold a bonfire banquet to entertain the local gentry." ”

"Whoa." Li Keshi smiled bitterly when he heard this.

The officials before Emperor Shengwu, after they took office, many people would set up a name, win over the gentry, and blackmail a part of the money in the name of paying taxes and donations, and then the officials and gentry colluded to squeeze the people and embezzle the court money, and finally they were all happy.

Whoever wants to do this now will suffer the whole clan. Even if they began to get away with it, the officials of the criminal department and the imperial department who went deep into the people would twist them out one after another from the section of the new official banquet, and there would be a lot of them when they were caught. Therefore, the current officials do not dare to hold banquets or go to banquets.

Now that the emperor has arranged this, he should have planned to make himself a corrupt official temporarily, and in the name of setting up a banquet to solicit bribes, he would deceive all the tycoons of Fuluochuan here. However, this method is indeed a good way to let the local tycoons of Fuluochuan relax.