Xiahetun is very close to the sea, and it takes a few miles to get there.

Before reaching the beach, a sea breeze and the smell of sea came to your face, and you could see rising smoke in the distance, and smell the smell of burning smoke and dust such as plants and trees.

"Burning stubble?"

"No, there are no fields by the sea, where is there a bellflower to burn."

Liu Jin looked at the smoke rising from the seashore, and began to check the memory of the original owner in his mind, trying to figure out what happened.

"It turned out to be boiling salt."

Soon, Liu Jin knew what was going on with these white smokes, and at the same time, he was about to go to the beach, turning a low hill, and his vision was also broadened.

I saw thatched huts built under the hillside near the seaside tidal flats, which were full of firewood, and a stove was built with stones next to each thatched hut, and each stove was busy here.

"That's right, this is by the sea, there has been a tradition of boiling salt since ancient times, if I am not mistaken, the salt is still the first to start from Wudi in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and now it should be called Haifeng."

Soon, Liu Jin came to the place where the villagers of Xiahe Village boiled salt, and he also remembered some of the contents of the historical novels he had read before, which had a very long history of boiling salt with seawater, which can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Liu Jin looked carefully at this place where salt was boiled, the whole place where the salt was boiled was backed by a hill by the sea, and hundreds of salt-boiling stoves were built along the hill, and half of the stoves were busy at this time.

Some people picked up the brine from the brine pond on the beach by the sea, and some people made a fire while chopping wood; Some of the stoves have already been cooked, and the villagers happily shovel the salt from the pot and put it in jars.

"Brother Jin~"

A gruff voice came.

Liu Jin followed the sound and looked over, only to see a long tiger's back and bear's waist, one meter and nine meters high, and the whole person looked like a tiger's brain, carrying two buckets of brine and walking over from the seaside tidal flats.

From the memory in his mind, I know that this person's big name is Zhao Erhu and his nickname is Gouzi, and he has had a very good relationship with Liu Jin since he was a child, and there is no gap between the two because Liu Jin is a scholar.

"Two Tigers~"

Liu Jin said with a smile.

"Brother Jin, next time Tang Laohu bullies you again, you tell me, I will beat him to death."

Zhao Erhu put down the brine, came to Liu Jin's side with a smile, and said very angrily.

"Dog, don't work hard, what are you barking about?"

Not far away, Zhao Erhu's father, Zhao Heishan, couldn't help but scold Zhao Erhu when he heard it.

"You can talk about this old man Tang, don't know how to die when the time comes, I don't know how the sky is high."

Obviously, Zhao Heishan, an honest farmer, was very afraid of Tang Laohu, and he didn't even dare to say a word in this place where there were many people.

"Uncle Black Mountain~"

Liu Jin smiled and greeted Zhao Heishan, this Zhao Heishan people are still very good, and often help Liu Jin's family, and now Zhao Erhu is also said because there are many people here, and he is afraid that people will go behind his back to make a small report.

"Brother Jin, are you okay?"

Zhao Heishan still respects Liu Jin very much, after all, Liu Jin is also a showman, he is the only literate reader in the entire Xiahetun, and he is already a showman at a young age, and he may be able to become a master in the future, and he will soar when the time comes.

"It's okay, it's okay."

Liu Jin smiled and shook his head, then walked over and looked carefully.

"This pot is almost finished, isn't it?"

Liu Jin saw that the water in the pot of Zhao Heishan's house was almost dry, and the surrounding areas of the pot had already formed white and yellowish crystals.

"No, it's been boiling for almost three hours."

Speaking of this, Zhao Heishan couldn't help but smile and said, this Zhao Heishan is also very tall, but he is an honest farmer, very timid, very afraid of things, but he is very enthusiastic, there is nothing wrong with asking him for help, except for borrowing money and borrowing grain.

It's not that he Zhao Heishan is stingy, but because Zhao Heishan's family is really poor, this Zhao Heishan is very capable of giving birth, starting from Zhao Dahu, he gave birth to nine children in a row, and his luck is quite good, none of the nine children died.

To feed nine children, the life of Zhao Heishan's family can be imagined, and more importantly, Zhao Heishan's family only has 2 acres of land, which is not enough to feed the family.

Therefore, in addition to planting his own field, Zhao Heishan's family also has to farm land for Master Tang's family, and then he has to make some money to make a living by boiling salt.

"I'm afraid there are 5 catties of salt in this pot."

Liu Jin looked at the full pot, only there was some water in the middle, and the surrounding area of the pot was already full of salt.

"Is this kosher salt?"

Liu Jin looked carefully at the salt in the pot, which was very different from the salt eaten in later generations.

The edible salt bought in the supermarket in later generations is snow-white, snow-white, and tiny granules, but the salt in the pot is white and yellow in the middle and clumps into lumps, which looks similar to the shape of rock sugar, but not as white as rock sugar.

"5 catties should not be available, 4 catties should be indispensable."

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhao Heishan said with a smile.

"4 pounds is not bad."

Liu Jin nodded with a smile and said.

"No, boiling this pot of salt, it costs a few pennies just for firewood, and these 4 catties of salt can only be sold for about 20 yuan, and a few yuan will be taken out by Master Tang, and you can only earn seven or eight yuan."

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhao Heishan shook his head helplessly, don't look at this pot can boil 4 catties of salt, but in fact, he makes very little, very little money.

"Just a few words?"

When Liu Jin heard this, the whole person couldn't help but be surprised.

These 4 catties of salt are only sold for 20 wen, and this article is only 5 wen, but Liu Jin knows that this salt is the same as iron in ancient times, it belongs to the official monopoly thing, and the price has always been relatively expensive, it is definitely not a bargain, and it should not be sold for only 5 wen a catty.

I remember that I had read a historical novel, the author carefully checked the level of various prices in the Ming Dynasty, in the Jiajing period Zhu Tingli's "Salt Political Chronicles" recorded, in the early years of Jiaqing, Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanjing and other areas sold for three cents and four cents of silver per pound of salt, and in the seventh year of Jiajing, each pound of salt was sold for one and a half cents of silver.

It fluctuates greatly, and varies from place to place and from period to period, and it varies so much in just eight years, but even at the cheapest time, a pound of salt can be sold for a penny and a half.

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver was equal to 16 yuan, which was almost 1000 Wen, which was a relatively normal price, and could be exchanged for 1500 Wen by the end of the Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of money was cast "Dazhong Tongbao", and 4 Wen could be exchanged for 1 money of silver. According to the official regulations, the copper coins minted by the emperor were 7 wen to 1 cent of silver, and 70 wen to 1 cent of silver, while the inferior money stolen by the people even took 30 to 60 or 70 wen to exchange for one cent of silver.

At this time, it belongs to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was founded for more than 100 years, and this cent of silver is almost equivalent to 30 Wen, that is to say, when it is the cheapest, this catty of salt will be sold for more than 40 Wen, and the most expensive time it will be sold for hundreds of Wen.

Now the salt cooked by Zhao Heishan and others can only be sold for 5 yuan, which is too far from the market price, which is why Liu Jin was surprised.

"It's good to have a few articles, at least you can have something to eat."

Zhao Heishan was also busy while speaking, shoveling out the salt in the pot and putting it in the jar for storage, and then poured the brine that Zhao Erhu had just picked up into it, and continued to boil the salt, it takes about 3 hours to boil a pot of salt, and it can almost cook two pots a day from morning to night.

"Then why do we still have to pump water for Master Tang?"

Liu Jin looked at Zhao Heishan, who was tired and couldn't straighten his waist, and couldn't help asking.

"We are not stove households, it stands to reason that we can't boil salt, but we rely on the mountains to eat the mountains and rely on the water to eat the water, if we don't boil the salt, we will starve to death, and this pumping is not all for Master Tang, he needs to have a good relationship with the county master, so that the upper authorities will turn a blind eye to our salt cooking."

Zhao Heishan looked at Liu Jin and felt a little surprised, but after thinking about it, he was relieved that he was a scholar, and patiently explained to Liu Jin.

"It's the damn household servitude system again!"

When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately understood.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, divided the household registration into many kinds, such as military households, artisan households, stove households, etc., and strictly prohibited the replacement of households, which means that what a grandfather is, what a son is, children and grandchildren, generations are.

Zhu Yuanzhang tried to use such a system to maintain the entire Ming Empire for thousands of generations, stipulating the identity of all people, and this identity is a continuation from generation to generation, and there can be no change.

If you want to boil salt, you must have the identity of the stove household, but the stove household is not an enviable identity, don't look at the salt sold very expensive, I think that the life of the stove household is better, in fact, because the stove household can only cook salt for a living, the life is more bitter than the ordinary people.

Under the monopoly system of salt and iron, the salt of the stove households can only be sold to the government, and the price is naturally pressed to the extreme, and the government can easily earn a huge price difference from the sale of this salt, so this also breeds the emergence of illegal salt dealers.

The villagers of Xiahetun are not stove households, so they can't boil salt, but any system is implemented by people, as long as the parents don't care, they can naturally go to boil salt.

Of course, there is no doubt that this Tang Tiger must have eaten a lot from it, judging from this pumping, almost one-third of it was taken away by him, and how much of it went into his pocket, it is estimated that only he knows.