Rugao, which is close to the sea, is full of overgrown saline land. Due to the erosion of the sea, the soil quality here is extremely poor, and it is not possible to cultivate food at all.

However, most of the people here are salt households and stove households, and they do not make a living from farming at all, they rely on boiling the sea to make salt, and then sell salt for silver, and use silver to buy grain.

Expensive salt is everywhere in the mainland, which one doesn't make a few thousand catties a year?

As long as a layer of fine sand is spread on the seashore, when the sea tide rises, the fine sand absorbs the seawater, and after the wind blows and dries, it becomes brine sand. Then filter, steam, and salt.

There are not many procedures, and the process is not complicated, but due to the extremely low production efficiency in this era, the annual salt production of stove households is not very large. Then it is necessary to pay the amount specified by the salt transportation department at a certain price, and then it is necessary to pay taxes, so the life of the salt households is very hard.

Because the high-priced salt sold in the mainland is not worth much in this salt area, salt farmers work hard to cook salt all year round, and in many cases, they cannot even get food and clothing for their families.

According to the household registration system formulated by Emperor Taizu, each household is determined by nationality, and all people in the world have their own household registration. The people who boil salt belong to the salt stove nationality, and the Ming people's nationality is determined, and the descendants pass it on to their descendants, and they cannot be changed. Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang hopes that the people of the world can perform their duties, so that the social order will be stable and chaotic.

Those who farm can only farm, military households can only eat grain to fight, and the ancestors who boiled salt can only boil salt for generations.

Of course, in any place, there are poor people and rich people. There are also many rich people in the salt area, and their family property can even compare with the big salt merchants in Yangzhou, and these rich families are the so-called rich people and wealthy stoves.

This rich people and Hao Zao are the strongest among the salt households, and they have been freed from the heavy labor of boiling salt, and rely on the salt transportation envoy to collect the salt tax of the stove households, buy the remaining salt after the stove households pay the salt class, and then sell it to the salt merchants at a higher price.

Therefore, although these people are still stove registrations, they are actually equivalent to sitting merchants, colluding between stove households and salt merchants, and engaging in the business of salt monopoly.

The rich people and the rich stoves have great influence in the local salt area, and their subordinates generally have a large number of thugs to help them, and ordinary stove households do not dare to sell salt to others beyond them, and salt merchants do not dare to cross them to collect salt privately.

By hoarding salt and manipulating the price of salt, these mansions made a lot of money, and their family property was no less than that of salt merchants, and many mansions had mansions in Yangzhou City.

According to the custom, salt merchants buy salt at the salt transportation department, and then check the authenticity of the salt at the salt import office, and then go to these stoves to buy salt, and then transport the salt to the provinces for sale.

Therefore, the relationship between the salt merchants and the wealthy stoves is really interdependent and closely related.

In Rugao, the largest stove is named Wang Xian, relying on the good relationship with the salt transportation envoy, relying on his hundreds of thugs, the stove households in the nearby salt area within a radius of 100 miles are under his control, and the salt transportation envoy also asked Wang Xian to be responsible for the collection of salt, and the salt boiled by the stove households is generally sold to Wang Xian. Wang Xian buys a large amount of salt every year and sells it to salt merchants at a higher price, and Wang Xian's biggest customer is Jiang Heming.

Wang Xian also has a mansion in Yangzhou, but he prefers to live in Rugao's manor, in this salt area, in front of the stove households, he is like the emperor of the soil, and he feels extraordinarily good.

On this day, the big customer Jiang Heming suddenly visited, which surprised and delighted Wang Xian, and hurriedly welcomed him outside the manor. One is because Jiang Heming is his rich man, and the other is Jiang Heming's status as a person, which is far from being comparable to his stove nationality.

"Master Jiang, everyone is here, it's really brilliant." Although he came from a vulgar background, he has been rich and noble for so many years, and Wang Xian is no longer the bitter stove household at the beginning, and his speech and demeanor naturally have a bearing.

"Brother Wang is polite!" Jiang Heming smiled.

Wang Xian welcomed Jiang Heming into the hall, the maid served tea, greeted him for a while, and then asked him what he meant, after all, as Jiang Heming's identity, there must be something big happening when he comes to a place like the seaside.

"Brother Wang, Brother Fool is here to apologize to you this time, I'm afraid I can't ask for salt for the next quarter." Jiang Heming sighed and said.

"What does that mean?" Wang Xian was stunned, in the past few months, he had purchased tens of thousands of taels of salt from the stove households, if Jiang Heming didn't want it, what could he do with this salt? Sell to other salt merchants? Each salt merchant has its own way of buying salt, how can they buy it from themselves?

Jiang Heming sighed and told Wang Xian about his situation, "The governor of Jiangbei sent someone to raid my house and seize my family property, where do I have money to buy salt now, this business can't go on." ”

"What nonsense!" Hearing this, Wang Xian said angrily, "Doesn't this governor surnamed Chen know the importance of table salt? If you raid the homes of your salt merchants, the provincial capitals will be short of salt and fall into a salt panic, not to mention that the stove households in this salt area will not be able to sell the salt in their hands, and they will have no money to buy grain, which will make the salt area chaotic! ”

Jiang Heming will no longer collect salt next month, and if he can't sell so much salt in his hand, he will definitely not buy it from the stove households, and if the salt cooked by the stove households can't be sold, he will definitely want to sell it to the private salt dealers, so that it won't be long before his own interests will be eroded a lot, which Wang Xian can't allow.

"Pingnanhou is from a military family, where does he understand the importance of salt, let alone the suffering of stove households and businessmen like me." Jiang Heming sighed, "It's just that I can't do business, relying on the family property I saved before is enough to live for the rest of my life, but what about the stove households in this salt area?" If they can't sell their salt, the whole family will have to go hungry, and it won't be long before the salt district will be in chaos! ”

"Isn't there anyone who talks to Nanhou about this?" Wang Xian hurriedly said, if this continues, Jiang Heming will certainly suffer huge losses, and his own losses are not small.

"This Pingnanhou is a person who doesn't cry when he doesn't see the coffin, plus he has a backer in the court, so he doesn't listen to other people's persuasion at all." Jiang He said.

"Then let him see the coffin!" Wang Xian gritted his teeth and said.

"Brother Wang, do you have a way?" Jiang Heming's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked, "We are actually grasshoppers on a rope, Brother Wang, you can tell me as much as you can, don't worry about leaking." ”

"Hehe, it's easy. What these officials are most afraid of is civil unrest, as long as the stove households in this salt area riot, I am afraid that the surname Chen will be held accountable by the imperial court, and there will be no energy to deal with you, Master Jiang, and our business will naturally continue. Wang Xian said with a smile.

"Brother Wang, you have to be careful, this surnamed Chen's methods are very vicious." Jiang Heming reminded.

"Hmph, how could I possibly come out on my own? As long as I send someone to incite a few words, those poor stove households will jump up and make trouble, and if the matter is big, it doesn't matter to me. Wang Xianyin said compassionately.