In the south of Dinghai County, the sky is high and the clouds are light.

Wei Boqiu, who arrived in Ningbo Prefecture on the "Cadiz Rock" sailing battleship, has been staying here for almost a week. During this week, he visited the coastal salt farms of Cixi, Dinghai, and Yinxian counties to carefully inspect the production of sea salt here. In general, the situation is very bad, not only is the salt production technique backward (it is still the decoction method), but the output of the salt works has also been declining year after year due to the war. By the time the East Coast took control of the area, production fell to a record low due to the continued unrest, and workers fled in large numbers.

Wei Boqiu's visit to the Minghe Salt Division of Cixi County; Dinghai County Qingquan Salt Division, Changshanchang Salt Division, Chuanshanchang Salt Division, Longtouchang Salt Division; Judging from the situation in Yinxian Dasongchang Salt Division and other places, the salt farms in Cixi and Yinxian are basically abandoned, and the output is pitifully low for various reasons. At present, the salt works in Dinghai County are still tenaciously persistent, especially the Qingquan Salt Division and the Chuanshan Salt Division with the highest output, and the annual output of salt is still about 5,000 yuan, which is about half of the previous one.

Wei Boqiu, who shouldered Shao Shude's entrustment to revitalize the economy, after inspecting the salt farms along the coast of the three counties, basically had a spectrum in his heart, that is, to give up the production of salt farms in Cixi and Yinxian counties, and concentrate all the salt workers who had not escaped in the two salt farms along the coast of Dinghai County. At the same time, it will also introduce low-cost plate drying or beach drying salt production technology to replace the backward firewood decoction method, increase salt production and greatly reduce costs.

The demand for salt on the East Coast today is so great that it is difficult for ordinary people to understand. With the increasing catches of salmon, saury and Far Eastern sardines, the production of the Dabo Canned Food Factory, which produces canned salted fish, is also expanding. This has created a huge demand for table salt. At present, part of the salt supplement of the people on the east coast comes from the Dengzhou salt works, which have just resumed production. Partly from Sakhalin boiled salt. To be honest, I was still nervous. Once the salt works in Ningbo Prefecture are brought under control and normal production resumed, the salt demand of the people on the east coast will be fully satisfied, and the scale of salted fish production will continue to expand.

After inspecting the salt farm, Wei Boqiu returned to Dinghai County surrounded by his entourage, and tacitly agreed not to go to Yinxian County, where Huang Yi was seated. As soon as he returned to the county office, the head of the Korean military husband team stationed in the city (who went south with Wei Boqiu, a total of 2,000 people) came to report: Five ships of cotton were sent from the direction of Yinxian County, and they have been unloaded at the Yinjiang wharf; Just sent this man away. Another military leader came to report: More than 1,000 Yuyao weavers and their families arrived at the Yinjiang wharf by boat, and there were also a number of looms along with them.

Listening to the reports of two people in a row, Wei Boqiu started from Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, on the other side of the road, is a famous cotton planting area in Zhejiang, integrating cotton planting, picking, processing, spinning and weaving, and the cotton cloth produced is sold in the surrounding areas. Although these industries were affected by the turmoil after the Qing army moved south, a large number of weavers continued to stubbornly organize production to supply the surrounding areas.

This time, the army on the east coast marched westward, and in a battle, it broke through two or three thousand people under Zhang Jie, the general soldier of Ningbo in the Qing Dynasty, and occupied Yuyao County. After the victory in the first battle. Liu Haiyang left a small number of men and horses to suppress the local and collect handicraftsmen, and the collected materials and personnel were immediately transported to the rear along the Yaojiang-Cixi water system. These cotton, looms and weavers are one of the results.

Anyway, since the Qing army went down to the south of the Yangtze River, China's foreign trade has plummeted, whether it is raw silk, porcelain, tea, cotton cloth, sugar or anything else, almost all of them have plummeted by more than 70 percent, and many things such as raw silk, porcelain, tea, and cotton cloth trade have plummeted by more than 90 percent -- the export of raw silk has been almost cut off, and until 1750, the annual export of raw silk from the port of Guangzhou in China has not exceeded 1,000 quintals (one quintal is about 100 kilograms) -- This figure was even a fraction of the annual volume of Persian exports at that time.

Therefore, since foreign trade was cut off, some handicraftsmen (silk reelers, weavers, dyers, etc.) who had no food and clothing were collected to the control area of the people on the east coast, and then they were organized to carry out resumptive production, and the goods were exported to the nearby Heishui region, and even the Kingdom of Korea, which maintained commercial ties with the east coast, was a good sales target - although the country was poor, there was still a certain demand for consumer goods such as cloth, silk, and tea, which was enough to feed a small industry.

There are now more than 100,000 people in the Heishui region (Sakhalin, Amur, Jeju, Yantai, and Kushiro) -- of course, not many of them are settled with spending power, most of whom are immigrants waiting to be transported, and belong to the proletariat -- whose daily consumer goods have been in a tight supply for many years. The Heishui region, which is under military control and wars, is also unable to develop people's livelihoods, so it is in urgent need of a production base that can provide a large number of consumer goods. In particular, consumer goods such as silk, cotton, salt, sugar, cereals and even southern fruits have been in high demand over the years, and if the Ningbo area can take on this production task, it will be a good thing for both sides.

Of course, this kind of thing may not be happy to be seen in the locals, so it is necessary to communicate with the locals repeatedly. Although Wei Boqiu had some ulterior plans for the direction of the situation in the Far East, he did not dare to openly set up a factory in Ningbo to produce cotton cloth, a commodity that was extremely competitive with the local people--this hurdle would not be able to pass Shao Shude's place in the first place--it was possible to set up a silk reeling factory, but the silk weaving workshop was very dangerous, and most of them could not be approved. But even so, Ningbo can still do a lot of things, and the Heishui economy in the north is completely complementary and mutually beneficial.

And just as Wei Boqiu was thinking about the cotton and raw silk industries in Ningbo Prefecture, a military leader ran in outside the door and reported to him with a happy face: Two more boats of raw silk, a boatload of cloth and a boatload of tea and porcelain were sent from the upper reaches of the Yinjiang River. At this time, with the report of the people below, the word "tea" made Wei Boqiu's thoughts diverge again.

Isn't it, Ningbo not only produces silk and hemp cotton, but also an important production area of tea! The Siming Mountains and the Tiantai Mountains meet here, and the numerous hills and suitable climate provide good conditions for the growth of tea, and the later Ningbo City produces 20,000 tons of tea annually, which is an astonishing scale. At this time, within the entire Ningbo Prefecture, Fenghua County, surrounded by mountains and hills, was the main production area of tea, and historical teas such as Baiyan Mountain Tea, Xuedou Quhao (tribute in the Song Dynasty), and Anyan Monk Tea originated here. Even in the war-torn late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the scale of tea production did not decrease much at this time, and as long as there was a suitable market, the tea industry here would soon be able to recover again.

In addition to Ningbo Prefecture, Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, which is adjacent to it, is the production area of the historical tea "Waterfall Immortal Tea", and the "Wanghai Tea" of Ninghai County, Taizhou Prefecture is also one of the famous teas in later generations. In particular, this Ninghai County, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side, is only connected with Fenghua County by several mountain valley roads, but its tea production is more than that of Fenghua County at this time and in later generations. Next door to Ninghai County, Ningbo Prefecture also has two enclaves, namely Xiangshan County and Changguowei, which are also important production areas of tea, and their production capacity cannot be underestimated.

Yuyao County will not talk about it first, the connection between Fenghua County, Ninghai County, Xiangshan County, Changguowei and other places and the outside world is cut off by the mountains and mountains, and other modes of transportation are very inconvenient except for the sea route. As long as the garrison is repaired at the key hole position, it is really not easy for the Qing army to fight over, and with the current situation of the people on the east coast, it can basically be held firmly in their hands.

And once these major tea-producing counties are brought under control, then Wei Boqiu can organize manpower to resume production, and it is not a problem to produce tens of thousands of quintals of tea every year, and the output value should be close to one million yuan (if they can be sold to Europeans), which is a lot of money. It is a pity that the Western world has not yet formed a large-scale tea drinking atmosphere, and tea consumption is only popular in some regions and some commercial cities, which greatly restricts its total consumption.

In fact, if you really have to calculate strictly, among the many countries in Europe and the New World today, the country with the largest per capita tea consumption is undoubtedly the East Coast Republic of China. This is due to the preference of the upper class of the country for tea as a drink, and their preference for this kind of drink is gradually transmitted to the lower class.

In the past, most of the tea drunk by the people on the east coast was plundered by the Heishui pioneers, and both the quantity and quality were unsatisfactory, so they had no choice but to turn to the Dutch and the Portuguese to buy unbearably expensive tea - Wuyi tea, which initially cost 18-20 yuan per catty, and then decreased year by year, but also maintained at seven or eight yuan. But you must know that the price of Wuyi tea bought by the Dutch on the southeast coast is only 2-3 guilders per pound (about 0.7-1 yuan of silver dollars on the east coast), and the profit during this period is more than ten times!

We must never be so pitted by the Dutch again! Wei Boqiu, who received the report from the military husband, made a decision in an instant, and it did not cost any troops to completely control Fenghua, Xiangshan, Ninghai, Changguowei and other places, and the terrain of these places determined that the people on the east coast could occupy this place lightly. With the gradual increase of the local population and the gradual expansion of the market, it is believed that the consumption of tea will gradually rise from less than 500 quintals per year (here 1 quintal is about 50 kilograms).

What's more, with the fall in the price of tea, the increase in consumption is likely to be even more striking, coupled with the gradual increase in the acceptance of tea in the Western world (the current total consumption in the European market is about 1000-1500 quintals per year, mainly concentrated in the Netherlands and its surroundings), the future prospects of the tea market are quite broad.

On April 21, 1650, after consultation with Huang Yi, who remained in Yin County, Wei and Huang jointly decided that Sun Shouzheng would lead 500 soldiers south to Fenghua County to establish a stability maintenance committee controlled by the people on the east coast, and began to collect various information on local tea production. (To be continued......)