Chapter 591: White Pony Field

Therefore, the reason why Lin Xiao worked so hard and brought so many migrant workers on this trip was that in addition to the need for manpower to buy and transport salt, another original intention was to hope that after on-the-spot investigation, he would find a suitable salt flat, first carry out a pilot project, and open up a "state-owned" salt farm with sufficient scale.

In this way, these refugees can not only provide stable jobs, but also ensure a reliable supply of salt, which will serve as a backing to stabilize the abnormally high salt prices......

After driving more than 250 miles, it was not until the evening of the fourth day that I arrived at the place of Yancheng.

Seeing that it was getting late, Lin Xiao ordered to unload the car and camp, and at the same time ordered Situ Zheng to lead people into the city to find the baggage connection of the first battalion of the cavalry regiment under Zhang Chenfeng.

According to the prior deployment, the garrison of this company is Yancheng, and if the battle of the Yellow River goes well, they may be in place at this moment.

Lin Xiao decided to hand over all the purchased salt to them, wait for the fleet sent by Yangzhou to come to pick it up, and use the fleet to relay the southward transportation instead.

In fact, at this time, not far from the west side of the embankment, there was already a salt river that reached Hai'an Town, but they could not find a large number of river boats in a hurry, so they had to unload their cargo here so that they could travel lightly.

However, Situ Zheng entered the city to inquire, but found that the baggage company had not yet arrived.

In desperation, Lin Xiao had to leave the only machine gun company at hand for the time being, and the rest of the people continued to go south early the next morning.

After Yancheng, the front is the boundary of Yangzhou Mansion.

Lin Xiao considered that the procurement task of another 5,000 stones would be completed near Xinghua County and Taizhou, which would shorten some transportation distances and be more advantageous in terms of time.

However, a strange thing happened - more than three hours after departure, not long after entering the territory of Xinghua County, there were almost no people to be seen along the way.

Along the way, in addition to the barren beaches as far as the eye can see, it is a long time to see one or two small villages with ruined walls, which look like there has been a great war here.

After continuing to walk for almost an hour, I encountered a few groups of pedestrians, and after entering the salt area of Hakukoba, there were no people again.

Seeing this scene, Lin Xiao wondered in his heart - according to the information he had in advance, the Baiju Field, Caobu Field and Liuzhuang Field in this area are all not small salt farms.

Among them, Shijiaqiao in Baijuchang is also the hometown of Shi Nai'an, the author of "Water Margin", and in the plan, he wants to visit it by the way.

According to intelligence data, this Baiju farm alone can produce more than 1,000 taels of salt every year, and this salt farm produces nearly 200 tons of salt every year according to the calculation of 300 catties per guide.

In terms of population, there are at least more than 1,000 people in such a large salt farm, and if you add your family, there are four or five thousand people around the salt farm, so there should be many salt villages.

But why is there nothing but ruins along the way?

It wasn't until noon that they found a half-deserted stone road that meandered westward, in the shade of trees.

Lin Xiao ordered the team to rest for a while, personally led a few people down the embankment, and walked all the way along the stone road, and finally found a village with cooking smoke.

Walking into the village, I found that this village is not small, but most of the houses are adobe houses with thatched roofs, many of the houses are closed, some of the weeds in front of the door are high, some have long collapsed, and the ruins have been overgrown with grass, and it looks like no one has lived in it for many years.

Most of the people in the village were numb, unclothed, old, and young, women and children, who looked extremely poor, and when they saw a group of uninvited guests like soldiers, they did not hide, and looked indifferent.

Maybe there was some trouble in language communication, Situ Zheng inquired for a long time before finding the village chief's house.

The village chief is an old man who is nearly sixty years old, and when asked, this is indeed Shijiaqiao, and he himself is surnamed Shi, which is the hereditary salt here.

"Maybe it's still a descendant of Shi Nai'an's own clan......"

Looking at this wrinkled old man with a wrinkled face and a somewhat rickety body, Lin Xiao thought to himself.

Seeing this group of strange people visiting, this village chief Shi was not very restrained in his words and demeanor, and it was obvious that he had gone out and seen a little bit of the world.

"It's too difficult for the villagers here to make a living,"

In the face of Lin Xiao's question, his answer was quite neat, "Not only do I have to go to the salt pan to dry salt, but I also have to go out to sea to fish and collect sea vegetables...... Although there is a road connecting the village, most of the time it ...... The road was empty......"

As soon as he heard that someone wanted to buy salt, he smiled bitterly and asked someone to open the salt warehouse—there were only a dozen bags of salt in it, about seven or eight hundred catties.

Lin Xiao was taken aback by such a small amount of salt - compared to the big salt field in Huai'an Mansion, it was like two worlds.

After careful questioning, he learned the details.

Last year's tsunami washed away many of the newly reclaimed salt farms east of the Pham Gong Causeway, and some even sank directly into the sea, and the production capacity of the salt works has not been restored to the previous level.

However, the silver issued by the government has not decreased at all, and the merchants who collected it on behalf of the market have not only urged it tightly, but the price of salt has become lower and lower, and the salt diners have found it difficult to survive and have fled a lot.

The salt boiling industry in ancient times is completely labor-intensive, if the manpower is not enough, it is difficult to maintain normal production, the silver is even more uneven, the government is urging the class and urgent, and many Ding Zhuang in the village usually hide everywhere.

Fortunately, there is still a lot of land on the west side of the Fan Gong Embankment, and there is irrigation from the salt river.

However, to add insult to injury, a few days ago, it was rumored that the thief was coming, and the lord of the city guard of Yangzhou Mansion ordered an additional "salary", stipulating that it must be paid within three days.

Where could the poor jingle salt Ding get any silver, so a team of soldiers came, forcibly snatched all the salt stored in the salt field, saying that it was to offset part of the salary, and also said that they would levy more strong men, so the salt Ding fled, and the killed were killed, and now there are less than 200 salt dices left in the whole village......

This situation gave Lin Xiao a big blow.

Obviously, the condition of this salt farm is extremely unsatisfactory, and it is almost paralyzed.

When asked, the other salt farms are similar, only worse, not the worst.

It seems that the situation will only get worse and worse if we go any further, and the task of purchasing the remaining 5,000 stone of salt will be difficult to complete.

As a result, the original plan had to be revised.

On the one hand, they had to send people back to Yancheng immediately to send an order, asking them to increase the amount of purchases in Huai'an Province, and quickly gather 10,000 stone of goods and wait for them to be loaded.

On the other hand, he intends to open up new salt works in this area, and at the same time, he must try to control these old salt works, and immediately organize the manpower to resume production and expand production......

For a while, Lin Xiao felt like a land reform team leader in a movie he watched when he was a child, and there were all kinds of waste waiting to be rebuilt.

However, it is not an easy task to resume production immediately.

Because, in theory, these remnants of the salt pans are all private property in the names of the salt people, and whether they are leased or acquired depends on their wishes; On the other hand, he also needs to assess the situation of the tidal flats outside the embankment to see if it is suitable for large-scale reclamation.

After some thought, he decided to go to the salt field to have a look at it first. Please Baidu "Throw Book Network" Thank you for your support!