Heifu, as the county guard of Jiaodong, arranged the itinerary in front, and Qin Shi Huang's large army was twenty miles behind, just when Zhang Cang sighed for the first time to see the sea, Qin Shi Huang was in the last pavilion on the seashore, eating the food cooked by the imperial kitchen improvised.

Qin Shi Huang was not a foodie like Qi Huangong, which may have something to do with his bad stomach. There are a lot of things in the world, Qin Shi Huang is very nervous every day, and he is used to working while eating, and in the end, because of the review and reading, the soup and vegetables are cold, but he didn't eat a few bites. In addition, when people reach middle age, their stomachs are gradually gone, so they only eat a little at each meal, and they do not seek luxury and completeness, and they are not interested in the bells and whistles that have become popular in Guanzhong in recent years.

After the attendant had tested the poison twice with a silver needle and his own life, Qin Shi Huang took the chopsticks and picked up a cooked fresh fish to the mouth, but frowned again.

"The salt is heavy."

Yongren, who was in charge of the imperial meal, hurriedly knelt on the ground as if he was in danger, and the cook was also brought to ask for guilt, saying that although the tableware was brought from Xianyang, it was the local sea fish, and the sea fish meat had its own salt, so it was slightly heavier.

Qin Shi Huang didn't get angry, let the cook get up, and asked him: "Is the salt used from Shaofu or the local salt?" ”

"It's the salt of Shaofu." The cook cherishes his life very much, how dare he use it for salt from unknown sources!

He added: "There are two kinds ......of salt in Shaofu, Huamachi green salt in the north, and white salt in Anyi, which were all obtained by Shaofu himself and transported back to Xianyang for storage."

"The salt of the world is divided into three points, and two points are from Qi, but why doesn't Shaofu use the salt of Qi? Do you know? Qin Shi Huang tilted his head and asked the ministers this pointed question.

The ministers looked at each other, but Zhao Gao, the commander of the CRRC Mansion who was used to living a hard life when he was a child, smiled and said: "Your Majesty, Huamachi green salt comes from the frontier, the color is the best, and the taste is the most positive. And Anyi was called Great Xia in ancient times, the salt of Great Xia, and the beauty of harmony. These two or two are the most suitable seasoning for the king. Although there is a lot of salt, most of it is astringent, if it is not cooked properly, there is a bitter taste, this is the salt of the head of the people, how can it enter the mouth of His Majesty? ”

"Although it is the food of the head of the Qian, it is a huge profit in the world."

Qin Shi Huang looked around: "Where is Zhang Cang from Shaofu?" Isn't he erudite, he is still in charge of the imperial court, and he came to talk to me about the salt politics of the world. ”

"Your Majesty, Zhang Cang went to the seashore with the Jiaodong County Guard." Tingwei Ye Teng stood up and said that Li Si was left in Linzi by Qin Shihuang to preside over the collection and repair of books in Qidi, Ye Teng became the head of the accompanying courtiers, and some people said that this was Prime Minister Li Cheng's deliberate failure to come to Jiaodong to watch the government.

"He's not there when I want him, but he's loud when I'm not needed."

Qin Shi Huang was a little displeased, and looked at Ye Teng: "I have heard Qing say that when you were a small official, you also took care of salt and grain, so it will be up to Tingwei to talk to me a little bit." ”

He didn't pick anyone, and with a wave of his hand, he asked Ye Teng to tell when he was eating.

Ye Teng smiled: "Your Majesty, this salt seems ordinary, I eat it every day." But in fact, it is enough to determine the life and death of people, the strength of the country! ”

"Oh?" Qin Shi Huang was interested and asked Ye Teng to talk carefully.

Ye Teng started as a politician, and he understands the warmth and coldness of the bottom very well, so he started from what he saw in his daily life. This person eats salt every day, the nobles are used to it, and sometimes they feel that the salt is heavy, but for the poor Qianshou, whether he eats salt or not is a matter of life and death!

"If there is no salt, you are powerless, let alone work in the field, and you don't even feel strong to walk, so people can't live without salt."

In addition to daily needs, the preservation of vegetables, meat, fish and other things also depends on salt to pickle, Li Si took the two most common foods in Qindi, "sauce" and "sup", as an analogy.

These two things, one is the mashed and pickled beans, which is an indispensable food for the Qin army to go on the expedition, which is salty, but a meal only needs a small plate, and the dry corn can be eaten deliciously, and it can also supplement the salt needed by the Qin soldiers, so that they can carry the spear and halberd. The same is true of "succumbing", which is pickled vegetables, mainly winter sunflowers, which are common dishes in farmers' homes. There are even sea fish from Qidi, which can only be widely sold in the mainland by salting them nearby, and have become the only meat that many people can eat all year round......

Salt is so important that everyone can't live without it, but the biggest problem is that not every region produces salt.

Most of the farmers are self-sufficient, they can grow their own grain and eat it, they can grow their own brown linen, and they can be woven by women, regardless of food and clothing, they can rely on themselves, but salt can't! It could not be grown in the field, which made salt the only commodity that the people needed to buy and exchange.

The earliest merchant in the world was a salt merchant! Salt was transported from the Great Salt Pond near An-eup to other places.

Ye Teng said: "Therefore, only grain, salt, cloth, iron, copper, and livestock are the heaviest in the world!" ”

He put salt in second place, even more important than cloth!

"So this land is rich by sea salt?" Qin Shi Huang stopped chopsticks.

Ye Teng said: "However, the area around Yingqiu in Qi was mostly a land of salt and brine eight hundred years ago, and the land was vast and sparsely populated, but the trade and industry of Qi Taigong benefited from fish and salt, and the people returned to Qi, and Qi became a big country." As for the time of Qi Huan, the people have been numerous, and they used the policy of managing Zhong, the official mountains and seas, so that the government monopolized salt and iron, so Qi Guan brought clothes and shoes to the world, and the sea and Dai went to the court. ”

He also favored the emperor, leaving aside the key point of "mercantilism", which was important in the prosperity and strength of the Qi country, and only emphasized the salt and iron official camp.

Ye Teng thought that the Duke of Qi Huan obtained a large amount of salt by chopping wood and boiling salt, and then sold it to the saltless princes of the Central Plains at a high price, thus earning a huge profit.

"Guan Yi said, Jun cut down the salary and boiled the water, in order to be from the world! This means that by boiling the sea and selling salt, everyone in the world is paying salt taxes to the Qi State, and Qi is rich because of it. ”

Qi, who has sufficient financial revenue, can become one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, the princes of Jiuhe, and the world. Without the financial support provided by the trade system brought by salt, how could Qi Huan have the money to organize multinational peacekeeping forces, how to hold princes' summits every year, how to maintain the peace of the Zhou world, and how to establish a new international order in the Spring and Autumn Period?

When the Tian family was in charge, Qi has always been famous for extravagance, the palace is several times better than Qin, not only to raise the growing fields, but also to spend huge sums of money to build huge defenses and the Great Wall of Qi, and a large number of foreign soldiers, but also often spend money to hire people to fight, in this case, actually only collect eleven taxes on farmers, and the people in the country are still living well......

All of this is the dividend brought by the sale of sea salt!

But now, the sky has changed, the state of Qi has been destroyed, and the Qin Dynasty has taken control of the seaside salt works, this cornucopia, is in the hands of the Qin officials.

"Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh, and I am honest."

Qin Shi Huang looked at the uneaten plate of fish, and said with understanding: "And in this small fresh dish, in addition to adding some grain, the most indispensable thing is salt. ”

……

The reason why Qin Shi Huang took the time to come here to take a look is very simple: now the imperial finances have been stretched, whether it is the emperor's private small treasury Shaofu, or the country's financial and political history, they are all so poor that they are clanging......

In short, there are so many places to use money! It has been difficult for the imperial court to increase the oral tax several times, which has aroused the people's complaints, and the tax has been received at 1.5 stone per mu, which is impossible to increase, so the emperor, who spent lavishly in the past few years, has to start looking around with his eyes wide open to see where he can open up new sources of wealth to maintain his ambitions and the huge empire.

Since the Qi State relied on Haiyan to create a huge amount of wealth, why couldn't Qin?

In the eyes of the emperor, salt is no longer salt, but white gold!

For this reason, when he was in Xianyang, Qin Shi Huang specially asked Shaofu to check the salt production of Jibei, Linzi, Jiaodong, and Langya counties in Qiqi, and the result was almost out of gas!

When Tian Qi, he boiled more than 100,000 minutes of salt every year.

But when the Qin Dynasty managed these salt farms, the output actually shrank by half, only fifty or sixty thousand bells!

The reasons for this are very complicated, and it is not clear in a few words, in short, the salt tax of the Qin Dynasty is much worse than the emperor expected. Since last year, Qin Shi Huang has ordered the coastal counties to rectify several times, but the effect is not satisfactory. He sent Heifu to Jiaodong, in addition to this is the only way for him to tour the east, and it is also one of the purposes to let Heifu find a way to manage the local salt administration.

And today, it is time for the emperor to check the results, although I have also heard some rumors, Heifu also mentioned it, saying that the results are considerable, and the output will double next year, but there are some things, it is better to see is believing.

Thinking so, Qin Shi Huang also finished the morning food with three times and divided by two, and was about to let the convoy set off again, going to the salt field at the mouth of Weishui......

It's just that before boarding the car, Zhao Cheng, the Langguan in charge of guarding, that is, Zhao Gao's younger brother, came to report that a few miles away from the pavilion, he found that the soldiers of Jiaodong County were arguing with a few people.

Zhao Cheng knelt down and said: "The minister saw that those people were suspicious, and thought they were assassins, so they went over to ask, and after an interrogation, they said that they were the Fangshi of Jiaodong County, and they had grievances to report to Your Majesty......"

"What grievances do you have, you have your own local order and Cheng to deal with them, what's the use of coming to me?"

Qin Shi Huang glanced at Zhao Cheng coldly, in the Qin Dynasty, the cases were tried level by level, unless the criminal was begging, otherwise he could not report to the next level! The emperor reviewed his edicts in important cases, and only occasionally interfered in the administration of justice, such as Qin Shi Huang's release of Zhao Gao's death......

Zhao Cheng hurriedly said: "But that group of monks said that they originally wanted to sacrifice magic to make His Majesty immortal, but they were blocked by the Jiaodong County Guard!" ”

"Oh?"

To Changsheng, this is a knot in Qin Shi Huang's heart, after hearing this, he frowned, but still did not come forward, but looked at Tingwei Ye Teng.

"Tingwei, you and the county commander and Cheng go to listen to it, and then hand over the book to me."

Ye Teng took the order awe-inspiringly, and after half a moment, he sent the book back with Cheng of Xiami County.

Qin Shi Huang did not open it and asked, "What did those group of monks say?" ”

Ye Teng smiled helplessly: "The three monks told Jiaodong County to falsely pass on His Majesty's will and deceive them. ”

"They said that the county guard of Jiaodong County posted notices in various counties a few months ago, saying that they wanted to recruit Jiaodong warlocks and practice strange magic, and dedicated them to His Majesty, hoping that the monks would come to the county government to report."

The people believed it was true, so they went to Jimo, but unexpectedly, the Jiaodong county guard treated them as prisoners and vassals, either to go to the mountain col to find ore and veins, or to send them to the seashore, all day long, to do some hard labor...... It wasn't until a few days ago that these monks had to be released, and they had been sunburned off a layer of skin, and they felt that they had been deceived by the Jiaodong County Guard, and they heard that the Holy Son of Heaven was touring the east, so they came to shout ......"

The ministers looked at each other, Zhao Cheng was a little proud, if he didn't ask more, the three Jiao Dongfang priests would be stopped by the county soldiers, and they wanted to wink at their brother Zhao Gao to ask for credit, but they were glared at by Zhao Gao!

"Stupid!" This is Zhao Gao's heartfelt words.

And Lu Sheng, Han Zhong and other monks looked at each other, and a few monks who didn't know the truth wanted to speak, but Lu Sheng shook his head to stop them......

Qin Shi Huang was stunned at first, and suddenly laughed, this matter, Heifu mentioned it a few days ago, but Qin Shi Huang didn't care much at that time, he didn't expect it to become like this in the mouths of those few monks.

"Okay, my Jiaodong county guard, actually did such an act, and detained those few magicians, and took them to the seashore together, let's see what 'strange magic' the black man made them concoct!"