Since the pre-Qin era, the salt sources in Guanzhong have come from the East Halogen Pond in Fengxian County, and after more than 1,000 years of large-scale mining and boiling salt, the salt resources of the East Salt Pond have gradually dried up.

Now the output is only one-tenth of the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, in fact, in the past few decades, Guanzhong generally uses sea salt from the East, the East Brine Pond has basically stopped production, because the current salt production is still slightly insufficient, Guo Song decided to use the East Brine Pond to save the emergency.

Accompanying Guo Song to inspect Dongluchi were Zhang Qianyi, the right Sima in charge of the household department, Li Yangui, the head of the household department, and Xie Huaien, the commander of the Salt and Iron Administration, as well as the county commander and county Cheng of Fengxian County.

The East Halo Pond covers an area of thousands of acres, sparkling, the shore is full of reeds, and there are many water birds, Guo Song asked a little strangely: "Since it is called the Halo Pond, it should be a salt water lake, how can there be aquatic plants and birds?" ”

Zhao Jun, the county commander of Fengxian County, bowed down and said: "Your Highness, the brine in the East Halo Pond has been boiled many times, and now the salt content is not high, and some plants and water birds can survive." ”

Guo Song frowned, "In that case, isn't the East Halo Pond wasted?" What else is there to use? ”

Next to the salt and iron bureau Xie Huaien said: "Your Highness doesn't know, the water in the east brine pond has long been light, now the salt production is mainly well salt, dig a well down, you will encounter a salt layer, and then pour into the pool water, and wait for the well water to become a brine with high salinity, and then pump out to boil salt." ”

"In that case, how much does a bucket of salt cost?"

"It's not much, the cost of a bucket of salt is at most twenty wen."

"Is it that low?" Guo Song was a little unconvinced.

Next to Li Yangui explained: "Your Highness, the cost of mining salt is indeed not high, the key is the freight, like we mine salt from the West Sea Salt Lake, the cost of each bucket is only a few cents, but when it is transported to Chang'an, the cost will increase to 30 Wen, and the salt in Yanzhou is also expensive, and the cost of each bucket is 20 Wen when it is transported to Chang'an. ”

"In this way, the cost of Puzhou salt should be the lowest."

Zhang Qianyi nodded, "Your Highness is right, Puzhou is transported to Chang'an, and in the end, the cost of each bucket of salt is about fifteen yuan, so everyone is so active in mining Puzhou salt pond, after all, it is profitable, and we can earn fifteen yuan per bucket of salt." ”

At present, the selling price of each bucket of salt is 130 Wen, of which 100 Wen is a military salary, and the thunder cannot be moved, so if the Counsellor's Hall wants to make money, it can only make a fuss in the 30 Wen, and the development of the East Brine Pond in Fengxian County is more troublesome, and the cost is slightly higher, while the cost of Puzhou Salt Pond is low and the profit is large, so the Counsellor's Hall is more inclined to mine Puzhou's salt.

Everyone came to a salt well, the well is very large, filled with lake water, Xie Huaien introduced: "After the salt well is filled with water, it will take half a year to a year, and the concentration of salt will be saturated before we start to take water to boil salt. ”

"How many salt wells are there here? How much is produced per day? Guo Song asked continuously.

"Back to His Royal Highness, there are about 600 old wells, and we have drilled more than 700 new wells, and now the old wells are mined, producing about 1,000 stones of salt every day, and when the old wells are finished, the new wells are almost good, and then the new wells are mined, and the old wells are filled with water, and the cycle repeats, so that the output can be maintained at about 1,000 to 1,200 stones per day."

Guo Song quickly calculated in his heart that the imperial court could make a profit of about 40,000 guan per year in the salt well of Fengxian, and the output of Puzhou was three times that of this side, plus the salt of Yanzhou, the Counselor's Hall could make a profit of 200,000 guan per year, of course, there was no need to consider military spending, plus wine monopoly, land rental income, taxes, etc., the government's annual profit was more than one million guan.

There is also grain income, which is also a large part of the income, and in the end, the government has an income of about 1.5 million yuan a year.

This is actually not much, it can only be said that it is barely enough to maintain the operation of the government, the root cause of which is that the population base is relatively small, but even if it is useless to lay down Hebei now, Hebei is too weak, not to recuperate for more than ten years, do not want to recover, far water does not quench the thirst of the near, the only way is to open source and throttle, everyone must learn to save life, as one of the profits and taxes of salt mining, but also to find a way to reduce costs.

Then it is open source, the development of productive forces, so that the materials are sufficient, the wealth increases, and the income of the government will increase accordingly.

Thinking of this, Guo Song asked, "Which one is the most expensive to make salt here?" ”

"It should be the most expensive to boil salt!"

"Look at it!"

Everyone flocked to Guo Song to the salt boiling field, the salt boiling field was very large, hundreds of huge crucibles were erected, and there was a ladder on each crucible, and some people stood on the ladder, or used a big spoon to dig out the salt crystals, or poured buckets of brine into the crucible.

"We are first filtered, filtered a few, filter out all kinds of impurities, and then boil salt, although the salt obtained is still relatively coarse, can not be compared with sea salt, but we are very cheap, now the price of salt in Yangzhou has reached 500 Wen, is more than three times ours, it is still the origin of sea salt, Luoyang salt price 800 Wen, even more outrageous."

Guo Song was a little speechless, the quality is not good, just take the price, the low price of salt in Chang'an is suppressed by himself, is it good?

But Guo Song is very helpless, the quality of well salt is not the same in various places, like the quality of Bashu well salt is very good, Fengxian County is not good, there are more impurities, although Puzhou is not well salt, but there are more impurities, and the quality is slightly inferior, this is a congenital deficiency, no way, and the quality of salt over there in Qinghai Lake is very good, but it is too far away, and the freight is too expensive.

As for drying salt, don't think much about it unless there is an endless tidal flat planted by the sea.

At this time, Guo Song found that it was actually wood that was burned, which made him really stunned, and he vigorously promoted coal, and actually used wood in the big link of boiling salt.

"Why don't you boil salt with coal?" Guo Song asked very dissatisfied.

Xie Huaien hesitated for a while and said: "This is a habit, I have used wood to cook salt for hundreds of years, and I can't change it for a while." ”

"No! Change it for me immediately, next time I come, if I still use wood, the Fengxian County Order and the Salt and Iron Supervision Order will all be replaced, not only Fengxian County, but also Puzhou and Yanzhou, you must use charcoal to cook salt. ”

Guo Song was really a little angry, and he did everything possible to reduce the cost for them, but they didn't use such an obvious way to reduce costs, and used habits to prevaricate themselves.

He said to Li Yangui and Zhang Qiaoyi: "Hedong and Guannei Dao are rich in coal, the quality is very good, easy to mine, and the calorific value of charcoal is large, which can greatly shorten the time of boiling salt, and use charcoal instead, and the cost of each bucket of salt will be reduced by at least three cents, you can calculate it, you can increase the income of 300 yuan a day, increase 100,000 yuan a year, and everyone's welfare can be improved, why not adopt this good plan?" ”

Zhang Qianyi was ashamed and said: "Your Highness is right, or we are more conservative in our thinking and cannot accept new things, this matter must be changed, and it must be changed immediately, within three days, all of them will be changed to charcoal." ”

Guo Song nodded, "This matter can be inferred, let's discuss it again when we go back, there are many similar things." ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

At this time, Guo Song asked the soldiers on the side, "What's the matter?" ”

He saw that the soldier seemed to be in a hurry to find him.

The soldiers stepped forward and whispered a few words, Guo Song's face changed, and he immediately ordered: "Go to Fengxian County!" ”

There is a pigeon letter station in Fengxian County, Wang Yue sent a pigeon letter to Fengxian County, and the situation is more critical.

Wang Yue used cruel means to finally force the result, and twenty large iron fire mines were on their way to Jizhou.

This is a loophole in the management of the iron fire mine, the iron fire mine made by the Jin army has a shelf life, generally three years, and after three years, it must be sent back to Zhangye for refilling, in fact, it can still be used, just in case.

Li Wujun's subordinates used 1,500 taels of gold to buy off Li Chao, the Ordnance Agency responsible for escorting the iron fire mines, and during the transportation, Li Chao cooperated with them to steal beams and change pillars, and replaced a ship transporting iron fire mines at night in Lanzhou, and the three soldiers on board were also killed by them.

This happened three days ago, and now the ship is missing, and it contains twenty large iron fire mines.

Guo Song was extremely annoyed, and immediately ordered the Chang'an internal guards and the Taiyuan internal guards to dispatch to find the ship, and at the same time, he sent a pigeon letter to Ying Caihe, asking her to participate in the investigation of the matter.