In those days, the entire territory of the Lanhe Empire was lit with "wolf smoke", and almost all the night wolves were acting. The results were equally impressive, except for a few people who were not on the list and were notified to evacuate in time, most of the targets were wiped out.

"How?" At the court meeting, Lin Haoyan knocked on the armrest of the dragon's head on the throne and asked the ministers in the audience.

There were 17 fewer families in the imperial capital, and at the court meeting, there were more than 17 fewer officials, and in the face of Lin Haoyan's question, no one dared to step forward to answer.

This time, the Night Wolf's actions were as swift as wildfire, burning the officials of the entire Lanhe Empire, as well as those big clans and families. And this time the actions of the Night Wolves have nothing to do with the legend, they quietly appeared, but they did not deliberately erase the traces they left behind. The bloodstains on the ground, the broken bones, the burned embers, and the deep claw marks all proclaimed something to the world.

They are night wolves, they are real, not legends.

"Your Majesty, Liu Xianghe...... He was killed in his home, and I beg your majesty to investigate and punish the murderer! Finally, an official stood up, he had worshiped under Liu Musong, and later succeeded in serving in the household department because of Liu Musong's recommendation.

Lin Haoyan narrowed his eyes and looked at it carefully for a long time before he remembered that there was indeed such a person. This person was in charge of the dispatch of tea and salt around the imperial capital in the household department, and he was scavenging for oil and water, but he had always opposed the establishment of more local state-run salt factories in the coastal areas for civilian use. Not only that, but also took "Guanshan Hai" as an example, and vigorously listed the importance of salt to the country and society, in short, to oppose the opening of more salt farms in every possible way.

Salt was indeed extremely important to the Lanhe Empire. Salt is the most important preservative for vegetables, meat, fish, and milk, because these foods are perishable and spoiled, unlike cereals, which can be stored for a long time. But if it is salted into pickles, ham, salted fish, cheese products, it can be preserved for months or even years. The people in the inland can't eat the sea fish, and if they want to taste the sea fish, they must be salted to make dried fish, so that the idle fish can be transported into the inland without spoiling; People in the south could not eat dairy products from the northern grasslands, but salt could be processed into cheese and shipped to the south. People in the hinterland of the Central Plains can also dry the beef into corned beef jerky and transport it to the four directions. Although there has long been a habit of storing ice cubes in winter, the special ice room is only for the royal family and the big family, and ice is still a luxury for the people, not to mention using the ice room for preservation.

Of course, in addition to being used as a processing ingredient, the Lanhe Empire, which was still in an agrarian society, was extremely important, whether it was cattle for farming, horses in caravans, or war horses in the army, a large amount of salt would be consumed.

Probably the list can't be written, Lin Haoyan thought.

"I beg your majesty to punish the murderer!" Seeing that Lin Haoyan was still thinking and was not angry, the man became even more bold.

In fact, his request was understandable, after all, there was no overly legitimate reason for the Night Wolf to initiate this massacre, and the starting point of asking for the teacher's life was extremely legitimate.

In other words, he is on the "righteous" side, just like the officials in the audience, and he has the moral high ground to loudly denounce disloyalty and injustice.

"What story is the gentleman going to tell today?" Lin Haoyan asked.

"Your Majesty, taste what this is first?" Liu Musong took out a pack of paper bags and spread it out, which was full of snow-white particles (refined salt).

"Sugar?"

Lin Haoyan dipped his fingers and tasted it.

"It's salty, it's salt."

"Yes, this is sea salt from the sea water of the East China Sea."

"Can you get salt out of the sun?" Lin Haoyan was curious.

"Exactly, as long as there is seawater, salt is readily available, but Your Majesty knows that this catty of salt can be exchanged for ten catties of rice."

"But why is salt so expensive, you also said, it's not difficult to boil salt?" At that time, after learning the price of salt in the private circulation, the young Lin Haoyan asked Liu Musong, who was in the prime of life.

Liu Musong looked at him dotingly and told him a story.

A long time ago, Qi Huan Gong and Guan Zhong discussed politics. Duke Qi Huan wanted to expand taxes to enhance national strength, but Guan Zhong believed: "If the people give, they will be happy, and if they take it, they will be angry, and the people's feelings are the same." The first king knew what it was, so he saw the form of giving, but did not see the reason for taking." That is, taxation is tangible, and collecting money directly from the people will naturally cause dissatisfaction among the people. Therefore, the best and most ideal way is to "take it from the invisible, so that people will not be angry." Based on this, Guan Zhong proposed the method of "paying taxes at a price" - hiding taxes in commodities, so that taxpayers can look like they have not paid taxes but have actually paid taxes, so that they can collect money without causing psychological resistance among the people.

This is a story about taxation, Liu Musong also gave an example, instead of taxing each household in a village, it is better to directly tax the salt merchants who sell salt to this village, after all, taxes can be escaped, but it is impossible to escape the salt in food, clothing, housing and transportation. Moreover, even if the price of salt is 10 or 20 times higher than that of rice and flour, the difference between salt and rice and flour that people eat every day is 100 times higher, so it is not easy to arouse the resentment of the people.

"Moreover, the salt merchant can also be a way to pass on the news, and now that the road is much more developed, His Majesty may not be able to feel it." Liu Musong sighed, after so long of the divided war, the country finally regained stability and prosperity.

When Liu Musong was young, where there were so many official roads, it was not very convenient for the people in the village to communicate with the outside world, and many people only knew that it was the Lanhe Empire that ruled them, but they didn't know what the Lanhe Empire was like. After all, at that time, men and women were already completely self-sufficient, and the few things that needed to be connected to the outside world were salt. At that time, it was the salt merchants who walked in all corners of the imperial capital who connected the isolated small societies into the entire society of the Lanhe Empire, and it was precisely because a kind-hearted salt merchant took a fancy to Liu Musong's aura that he had the opportunity to go out of the village and enter the officialdom.

"I understand that the people's lives are inseparable from salt, and what we have to do is to become the salt of the people, so that our country can become an inseparable part of the people."

At that time, just after resigning from the position of Night Wolf, the young and immature Lin Haoyan was put on the throne of the emperor, he could not do anything but kill people, after changing countless teachers, it was Liu Musong who used many carefully selected stories to teach Lin Haoyan many seemingly simple, but he may not be able to understand the truth in his life.

He wanted to open more salt works, and he also had the intention of reducing taxes.

Lin Haoyan looked at the ministers in the main hall, and the position was vacant. He raised his head and looked at the old man above the temple.

I wanted to put my forehead against his old wrinkled but warm and generous hands, call out "sir" as before, and listen to his carefully selected stories.

Guan Zhong, Yanzong, and Niuren's "only official mountains and seas are Ke'er" was the first to be proposed

This chapter is about how important it is to popularize salt

(End of chapter)