Min Yuanqi smiled, this surname Zhu is really interesting, meeting is a test.

Min Yuanqi said quietly: "Min's ambition is to make the hundreds of people under his command be fed and clothed, but it makes the young owner laugh." ”

Zhu Wanchun said with interest: "I know that Lord Min brought more than 6,000 catties of salt, which is worth fifty taels of silver. In terms of Lord Min's current subordinates, there are at least more than 300 people, if it becomes a formal 100 households, then there are more than 100 households in the banner army, and 5 or 600 people in 100 households are at least, and more than 50 taels of silver in a month, which is a drop in the bucket. I don't know what Lord Min plans to do next, but I would like to hear it in detail? ”

Min Yuanqi fought with Yang Shida and his gang at the dock, nothing more than to save ten taels of silver, Zhu Wanchun didn't believe that the person in front of him was a person who worked hard for ten taels of silver, if Min Yuanqi's pattern ambition was like this, then no matter how good his performance was, it was not worth taking seriously. After this banquet in front of me, there was no more.

"If you go to Beijing against the tide, the general trend will be chaotic." Min Yuanqi thought for a while, and said in a deep voice: "We can't go into battle like a battalion soldier when we wait for the flag army of the guard, but at least we must have the strength to protect ourselves." The flag army must train and build ordnance, and the first thing is to get food. The piece of boiled salt is a few hundred silver a year, less than one or two per capita, which is too little. So I won't give Yang Shida's share again, and I have to find a way to earn more. ”

"What's the solution?"

"I want salt!"

"Salt drying method?" Zhu Wanchun thought about it crookedly, and at this time, the reserved and conceiving aura on his face was gone, and the shrewdness inside was exposed. After thinking about it, Zhu Wanchun said: "In fact, there are people on the beach before and after Jiajing who try the salt drying method, and they still need to take the tide to take brine, which is also time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the only thing saved is manpower and firewood, but after someone tried it, the government banned it......"

Zhu Wanchun struck the table with his fingers, thinking a lot, obviously with his knowledge and experience, it was not enough to make any of the following decisions.

Min Yuanqi smiled slightly, and continued: "At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Fujian had a salt drying method, but Taizu still used the salt frying method, the reason is also very simple, whether it is the bamboo leak in Zhejiang or Guangzhou, or the iron plate of our two Huaiyangzhou, it requires a lot of manpower and firewood, and the government is easy to control, and it is not easy to have large-scale private salt in the local area, which will not shake the national capital." Zhu Shaodong knows that Zhang Shicheng, who has been fighting with Taizu for many years at the beginning of the country, is commonly known as King Zhang, and his background is a salt lord like Yang Shida. So it's not that the salt drying method doesn't work, but the times are different, and now in this situation, people like Yang Shida can be salt lords, and the law of the national dynasty has been abolished to this point, I think, in my two Huai places with the salt drying method, there should be no one to run to find trouble. ”

From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, salt from the official control to the flood of private salt, in fact, just like all the industries of the Ming Dynasty, strict management to indulgence, to the Chongzhen period, miscellaneous commercial taxes and sea trade will not be able to collect money, only the acres of land although it is soaked and concealed a lot, but the field is the easiest resource to grasp in the Ming court, and the court can only continue to exploit from the land from top to bottom.

When it comes to salt, there are six kinds of sea salt, well salt, pool salt, nitrate salt, rock salt, and river salt, and the most important salt industry in Daming is of course sea salt, although the quality of well salt is the best, but the output is not comparable with sea salt.

The important salt fields are distributed in Changlu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and of course, the most important is Lianghuai.

At the beginning of the country, although Fujian already had a salt drying method, it was indeed only to save firewood, and it was necessary to enclose the tide to make brine, and it was not easy to control, so at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was still determined that the frying salt was the main method of boiling salt.

The salt pans of Lianghuai use large cast iron plates, the large plates are more than 100 catties, and the small plates also weigh dozens of catties. Only the households can receive the salt, and then multiple households cooperate to fry the salt together.

According to the experience at that time, the whole family can fry two pots overnight, one pot is thirty catties, and sixty catties of salt are obtained in one day and one night.

Fujian's salt drying method can get 200 catties of salt for one day and one night, and there is no need for firewood, and the gap is not small.

However, Lianghuai, Changlu and Zhejiang are not as long as Fujian's sunshine time, the temperature is high, it is easy to get halogen, and it is easy to crystallize. Coupled with the strict control at the beginning of the country, as well as the restrictions on the circulation of technology, etc., the salt drying law was not popularized.

In fact, in the Wanli period, there was a further breakthrough in the salt drying method, that is, the Fujian people invented the Chengkan salt drying method.

Zhongyun in the Republic of China's "Fujian Tongzhi": "There are people who build Chengkan with tiles in Wanli, and now they are all over the road." Chengkan is also known as "Qiupan", "tiled with tiles".

The specific production method of the Chengkan salt drying method in the first volume of the "Records of Commodities" "Food and Salt" is recorded in detail in Wanli's "Fujian Yunsi Chronicles": "Where the seaside tide is horizontal, choose its high dew, and use greasy mud to build a circle around it and empty it, which is called leakage; Still pick up the soil and leak, fill it with tidal water, and dig a hole next to the leakage, so that the water comes out as a brine. Build a mound plate high, tiled with tiles, sprinkle the brine in the Cheng, wait for the sun to be exposed into grains, then the salt will be formed. ”

In this way, the seawater is naturally crystallized into salt by sun exposure in Chengkan, and the biggest advantage of the Chengkan salt drying method is that it further saves the process of preparing brine, and saves considerable time and labor. Force.

At this time, there are more than 100 salt drying fields in Fujian, but the technology spread very slowly, there are many stove households here in Lianghuai, there are many people, and it is not difficult to supply several provinces in terms of salt production.

From the perspective of the imperial court, the stove household is easy to control, the salt industry of Lianghuai is a prosperous place, not the kind of seaside ravine in Fujian can be compared, there are big people in the Chongzhen period who have promoted the salt method in Lianghuai, and have played several times, and strongly promote the benefits of the salt method, but the court considers that the poor income of the salt class comes from the two Huai, once the salt class is lost, no one can afford this responsibility.

In addition, the stove households were embezzled by the nobles, civil and military officials and gentry, and regarded as fish and meat.

Seeing that the other party was still pondering, Min Yuanqi said: "It's not that there are no difficulties at all, one is the sunshine, fortunately, even in winter, the sunshine here in Huaibei is sufficient, but it is still worse than the scorching sun in summer." The second is the salinity of the seawater, but if Fujian can do it, we can do it too. The third is the salt class lifting division, although now there is private salt all over the place, but others do it privately, and I do it with great fanfare, which is two different things. ”

After Min Yuanqi finished speaking, he looked at Zhu Wanchun with burning eyes.

Shaodong, the firm in front of him, since he said that he is very powerful, he has manpower and technology, if the other party is sincere, he should come up with something at this moment.

If the other party didn't take responsibility, hesitated and didn't make a decision, Min Yuanqi didn't care, he originally planned to conduct a small-scale experiment first, and the cost was not much, and he could afford it.

Once successful, you can invite the big salt merchants in Yangzhou to cooperate, and you are not afraid that no one will invest at that time.

Zhu Wanchun really didn't expect that the little military attache of the guard who he wanted to win over at a moment would really have a heart and a plan.

"The salt drying method yields ten times more salt than frying salt." Min Yuanqi said lightly: "I'm not a businessman, I have to exchange salt for money and grain, and in exchange for money and food, I can train and raise soldiers, train soldiers well, and I can defend the countryside." My Min family has been in Dahewei for more than 200 years, and Huaibei is my hometown, except for a few traitors, the local people are good people, although I am not related to each other, but I am a fellow villager. As long as the price of salt is not too low, of course, I hope to underwrite it for large merchants and save my own worry and effort. ”

This calculation completely convinced Zhu Wanchun.

The most concern about Min Yuanqi is the investment in the future, and the salt drying method is about to be completed, according to Min Yuanqi's current manpower, the output of salt is at least dozens of times more than hundreds of times. The salt that was originally 50 taels a month may become 500 taels, 5,000 taels, or even tens of thousands of taels. This business, for the salt merchant family with annual sales of about 100,000 taels, is equivalent to doubling the existing market, if this business is not next, Zhu Wanchun feels that he is ashamed of his ancestors, and he will also be ashamed of his descendants!

The salt merchant business has been passed down from generation to generation, and the number of salt stove households in the hands of the family determines how thick the salt merchant family is. As long as there is salt, it must be sold, as long as there is salt, there is a profit, this year it is said that private salt is overflowing, but the folk salt must be in short supply, and even the price is not consistent, some places are cheap, some places are quite expensive, until the Republic of China period, the price of salt in some places in Sichuan and Yunnan and Guizhou is quite expensive, and ordinary people cannot afford to eat salt.

Zhu Wanchun also said in a deep voice: "I don't know what Lord Min plans to use to make a salt drying field, how many places do you plan to build, how much will it cost?" ”

"A salt pond should not be too big, twenty or thirty acres of land is enough." Min Yuanqi said: "There must be ten people in a pond, I plan to build a salt pond first, ten ponds, and the drying pool does not need to use porcelain or tiles, just use green bricks." For those who spend money, manpower and bricks, one pool costs twenty or thirty taels of silver, and ten pools of three hundred taels of silver are enough. ”

This money is indeed not much, 300 taels of silver is the income of 15 peasant families in a year, enough for 30 families to live and clothe for a year.

But this silver is not enough to wander in the Qinhuai River for ten days, a famous prostitute, the first time they meet from top to bottom, the reward is at least ten or twenty taels, the clothes bought for the girl are at least fifty taels, and then the nod jewelry is dozens of taels, and there are no silver taels for the wine banquet, Qinhuai famous prostitute, this level of expenses is still at the middle and lower level, and it is not really a first-class expense.

Scholars buy calligraphy and paintings, antiques, and spend thousands of taels at a time, and it is not uncommon to build a garden and build a pond pavilion.

As for luxury goods such as ginseng, Dongzhu fur, the price is also quite expensive.

In this world, the gap between the rich and the poor has become wider with the opening of the sea in Longwan, and the poor are like farmers in the north and northwest, eating Guanyin soil and gnawing tree bark, and they can only rebel if they can't survive.

The rich are the gentry, maritime and salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, who can spend thousands of dollars just to make the beauty smile.

And Min Yuanqi is a member of the poor class in the rich and poor class, he still has more than 20 taels of silver, Min Yuanjin and Liang Shifa, as well as Yang Zhijin and Gao Cuncun, Min Yuanzhong and others, plus ordinary banner troops, looted out the family property of everyone under the general banner...... It will not add up to more than a hundred taels of silver.

If you count the thin fields and thatched huts under their names, they can add up to three hundred taels, but who would have lost their hearts and run crazy to buy those saline-alkali land and broken grass houses?

Min Yuanqi will not be stumped by a penny, but he still counts less than three hundred taels, the price of bricks is not cheap, a large number of bricks are needed for a large number of reservoirs, and the wages of large and small workers are not cheap, and they have to eat and live...... Three hundred taels is a number that cannot be less.