Li Shimin looked at Ma Zhou and smiled: "The Qing family is on duty in Menxia Province, these days, the salt and iron envoy Chen Jiye's performance, the Qing family has seen it, right?"

Menxia Province is mainly dealing with the recitals and edicts, all the recitals and edicts need to be served and seen, Ma Zhou is a diligent person, how could he not have read it, he said: "I have seen it."

"What do you think of the Qing family?"

"Your Majesty, in the Han Dynasty, there was a theory of salt and iron, and the benefits that salt and iron brought to the court were extraordinary. Therefore, the issue of salt and iron is the foundation of the country. Today, my Tang Dynasty follows the Sui system, and in the Sui and Tang dynasties, I don't pay much attention to salt and iron. Although my Datang has set up a salt and iron envoy, the minister has checked it, and the income from Datang's reliance on salt is only 170,000 yuan a year. The fundamental reason for this is that although the imperial court has enough salt wells, most of these are only for military supplies. The rest of the salt wells controlled by the people, although the imperial court had already ordered the salt and iron envoys of various states to impose heavy taxes on private salt, but most of them were in the hands of the Gaomen clans, and it was too easy for them to avoid these taxes. ”

When Fang Xuanling heard this, he nodded secretly in his heart, but he didn't echo it, this Ma Zhou is bold, the shortcomings of the current salt and iron politics were easily punctured by him, on the surface, this is the problem of salt and iron, and the root of it lies in the gate valve.

Of course, everyone understands the truth, but if you want to clean up the salt business, you must first snatch food from the hands of those high-ranking people, these people do not have a fuel-efficient lamp, not to mention, there are quite a few of these people, all of whom are Li Shimin's relatives and old ones.

"Let's talk about the salt affairs of Chang'an, the minister has also consulted, last year, the salt tax collected by the salt and iron envoys of Chang'an, but only 1,900 yuan, even less than the ordinary state capital, this is because the problem of Chang'an, more serious than the states, most of them are in the hands of the ministers, the salt and iron envoys can not collect taxes from their hands, and it is precisely because of this that the salt and iron envoys not only did not benefit, but the deficit was very amazing. If you want to fundamentally improve this problem, it is not a salt and iron envoy, but your majesty, taxes are the foundation of the country, and if the salt and iron envoys cannot collect the salt tax, the treasury will not be abundant, and the imperial court's great policies will not be fulfilled, which is a great harm. But if you want to cure it radically, it is not a salt and iron envoy who can do it, only Your Majesty, if you can learn from the pain and collect all the salt wells in the world, then the problem of salt administration can be alleviated. ”

Li Shimin fell silent.

His eyes were slightly closed.

In fact, he understands the truth, Ma Zhou just pierced this layer of window paper.

Who doesn't know that to solve this problem, he needs to be ruthless as an emperor and force those who occupy the salt well to pay the salt tax obediently.

But how difficult it is to break your wrist. After all, the Tang Dynasty was initially decided, and the power of the gate valve family was still strong, and if they were robbed of their interests at this time, it would inevitably lead them to deviate from morality.

What's more, the vast majority of these people were their own old days, and when they fought the world and won the door in Xuanwu Gate, they were extremely loyal to themselves and made great contributions.

Once the salt affairs are to be rectified, it means that they will be harsh, and they may even have to make an example of chickens and monkeys, which Li Shimin does not want to see.

He sighed: "What the Qing family said is very good." Then he laughed: "Ma Qing is a pillar of the country, who asked you to raise pigs, this person is really bold."

Ma Zhou suddenly understood.

His Majesty deliberately diverted the issue, apparently not making up his mind to solve the problem of salt affairs at this time.

He only casually said a few perfunctory words: "This minister is willing, not forced by others."

"It must be that Chen Zhengtai......" Li Shimin shook his head.

After retiring from Fang Xuanling and Ma Zhou, Li Shimin sat alone in the hall and fell into deep thought.

Reason, he doesn't understand, salt tax is the most important support for the national treasury, and sooner or later Datang will have to face this problem.

Now that it is decided today, the imperial court has begun to use troops against Hexi, and possibly even with the Turks, in addition, there are canals that need to be widened, and there is no money available in the treasury, if the salt wells can be recovered, then many problems can be solved.

But the problem is that it is not easy to break the wrist with strength.

He couldn't help but smile bitterly, lowered his head, and glanced at Chen Jiye's recital.

The words in the song, which said that he didn't want to do it, clearly caught Li Shimin's eyes.

Li Shimin pondered for a moment, picked up his pen, and replied under the recital: "It's easy for you."

These four short words can be regarded as Chen Jiye's official response to several books.

Roughly speaking, you don't want to solve the problem, so you shut up, you can solve your own problem.

............

Chen Zhengtai is busy every day.

He soon discovered that there was a huge salt mine near Chang'an.

This salt mine is almost ownerless, because of the abundance of minerals, there are almost no crops growing on the land, and naturally, it is worthless.

Although they are all called salt, there are only two ways to take salt in this era, there are only two kinds of salt making from seawater and salt from brine.

Therefore, this large salt mine outside Chang'an City was almost bought by Chen Zhengtai for less than dozens of dollars.

In his opinion, whether it is seawater salt or brine salt, not only is it inefficient, but most of the salt produced is coarse salt and green salt, and the taste is very poor, and the taste depends on the conscience of the salt sellers.

Now those big families almost monopolize the salt wells and generate huge profits. Since there were no salt wells, Chen Zhengtai was determined to start with this worthless mineral salt.

In order to produce edible salt, the first thing to do is to remove the minerals from the mineral salt, and it is precisely ...... This is something that can be done by people with a high school chemistry level.

Coincidentally, Chen Zhengtai's chemistry level stayed in the third year of junior high school, and no matter how much he ...... There really isn't.

He called Chen Fu, recruited a few children of the Chen family, and then set up a simple tent here, and then began to try to extract the mineral, and then crushed the mineral, let people first burn a cauldron, dissolve it, make brine, and then filter, purify, and crystallize.

It took several days for the snowflake-like salt to finally be ready.

Holding a handful of salt carefully, Chen Zhengtai seemed to see them turn into copper coins, which was particularly cute.

Chen Fu came up.

Chen Zhengtai said: "Come, Ah Fu, you eat and see."

"This ...... Can you eat it? Chen Fuhu looked at the white salt in Chen Zhengtai's hand suspiciously, a little suspicious.

"Don't worry, you can't eat it."

Chen Fu was silent for a moment, obviously his mind made him a little unable to turn around: "For...... Why do you let me eat it?"

Chen Zhengtai coughed: "Because I'm going to give my father a taste later."

"Oh." Chen Fu suddenly realized.

Immediately, he became happy, and said with a smile: "I understand, Gongzi is the most filial person, so let me taste it first, and if there is no poison, I will honor Ah Lang."

Chen Zhengtai's chick nodded as if pecking rice, and Chen Fu looked indescribably cute when he used his brain to think about it.

Chen Fu's fingers were lightly dipped in a little white salt, and he was about to enter his mouth, when he suddenly said: "Childe, I won't die if I eat it, this is stone salt refining, it is poisonous salt."

Chen Zhengtai appreciates his straightforwardness.

But he immediately lowered his face: "If you don't eat, you will be beaten to death, what are you doing so much?"

Chen Fu didn't ask any more questions, his finger entered, sucked in, and frowned.

"How's that, how's that?" Chen Zhengtai was a little nervous, this is related to his father's official position and the wealth of the Chen family.

Chen Fu smacked his lips: "Salty, salty, this taste...... Yay. ”

Call......

Chen Zhengtai breathed a long sigh of relief: "Let's go, go home."