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Yingcheng is located in the middle of Hubei and the Jianghan Plain in the transition zone, water and land transportation is very convenient, although it is only a hundred miles of the city, but it is also a place where the mountains and rivers are beautiful, the products are rich, and gypsum has been produced since ancient times. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info gypsum out of the county's western caves, bright and delicate, the government even set up a plaster gate to collect its taxes.

However, a while ago, the war was in chaos, but the gypsum cave business in the west of Yingcheng County was depressed, because of the fear of being forced to be brave, the plasterers fled one after another, and to this day, most of the more than a dozen gypsum caves on this mountain are still in the closed cave and stop production. However, for these gypsum cave owners, they are all waiting for the situation to resume production when the situation is stable.

That is, in the midst of this depression, Liu Xinxin, who was wearing a priest's robe, accompanied by Zhang Pu, the scribe of the Governor's Mansion, came to Panjiaji, and before coming to the gypsum cave where work was stopped, the first thing that caught his eye was not the messy work sheds and scattered tools, but the slightly blue slate all over the ground.

It's just that as soon as he saw those stone slabs, Liu Xinxin, a priest from France, immediately said.

"There must be a salt mine here!"

Although he is a priest, Liu Xinxin was a mining engineer before becoming a priest, and although salt mines are not his specialty, he knows a certain amount about them.

"This blue slab is a by-product of gypsum ore. Between each layer of gypsum and gypsum in the ground there is a grayish-blue, soft-textured rock slab, known as the "blue slab", which is rich in salt, and even if there is no rock salt underneath the gypsum mine, salt can be extracted by soaking it in water. ”

"Father Liu, you mean, there's salt here?"

Zhang Pu looked at the blue plate dug up on the ground in surprise, there is actually salt in it? He is a native of Anlu, he naturally knows that this gypsum mine has been mined for hundreds of years, who would have thought that this saltless Hubei since ancient times, salt is in this gypsum cave?

"There must be salt!"

Liu Xinxin nodded heavily.

"Given that gypsum mines are generally in the upper part of the rock salt mines, I can say with certainty that there must be salt here! And the buried layer is not deep! We could have expanded the gypsum mine further and extracted the rock salt directly from the ground, so ......"

Suddenly, Liu Xinxin's words paused, and he pointed to the mountains of blue boards in the distance and said.

"You see, the people here already know that these blue plates can make salt, and they deliberately pile up the blue plates in the pool to soak them, if it is not bad, there must be someone here who is making salt!"

Someone makes salt!

Although Hubei does not produce salt since ancient times, but for hundreds of years, the cave merchants in the Panjiaji area dug wells to exploit oil, a large number of waste ballast were abandoned outside the cave, accumulated over time, gradually piled up like a mountain, after a long period of rain washing, and then produced salt brine, in the past there were only occasional villagers salt brine pickles, and now with the salt road cut off, the price of salt is high, the people of Panjiaji, Leijiashan, jujube forest, steep river slope and other places have risen to follow suit, and even some cave merchants are thinking of soaking with waste water, taking water to boil salt, and Chen Yishun is one of them.

"Brother Han, Brother Wang, Brother Peng, Brother Peng, the younger brother has already tried, if the blue plate is used to make brine, each load of water can be boiled 3-4 catties of salt, this hole is a waste ......"

In the hall of the Chen family, Chen Yishun looked at Han Cheng, Chen Baotai, Wang Tai, Peng Sheng and others who were invited by himself, all of them were the largest cave merchants in Panjiaji, Leijiashan, jujube forest, steep river slope and other places, but if it was about using waste to make brine and boil salt, his Chen family was the first person in Hubei, and the reason why he invited these people over this time was for no other reason - the government wanted to close the mountain.

"Oh, it seems that this official mansion closed the mountain, and I think it was also for making brine and boiling salt!"

In fact, when the government ordered the closure of the mountain and the cave, Han Cheng and the others knew the government's thoughts-salt!

Since the Hongyang rebel army occupied Jiangning and Huai salt was cut off, the price of this salt has risen day by day, and it has risen to 60 Wen a catty.

"Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever known that in addition to Huai salt, there is Zigong well salt in the neighboring Sichuan, and its well salt is mined underground, which is similar to my Yingcheng.

Staring at everyone, Chen Yishun directly said his thoughts.

Be a salt merchant!

For Chen Yishun, who has been operating a gypsum mine for many years, almost when Huai salt was cut off and salt prices soared, he keenly saw the opportunity and saw the opportunity for the Chen family to soar.

For Chen Yishun, who had traveled to Sichuan more than ten years ago and seen the wealth of the Zigong salt merchants, he naturally knew that now was an opportunity to get rid of the dismal operation of the plaster merchant and become a wealthy salt merchant.

"Hmph, Brother Chen, it's easy for you to think, now the government can order the closure of the mountain and the cave!"

Peng Sheng said with direct understanding.

"What kind of government is this government? Those plaster holes are all our holes, how can we let them take away a piece of paper? ”

With a cold smile, Chen Yishun's face was full of contempt, he naturally looked down on the so-called "righteous army", and in his opinion, this so-called "righteous army" was just a thief.

"It's nothing more than a thief!"

"Thieves? Brother, do you know that those people are thieves? ”

Chen Baotai laughed dryly, looked at his own brother and said.

"But no, now, this is not the government according to Hubei, what kind of righteous army is this, is it possible that your brother Chen's neck can be harder than the knife in the hands of thieves!"

"That's it, what an idea! If you can't keep it, we haven't wanted to protect the hole, but the knife handle of the people here has fallen, and I know that this neck is not as hard as a knife! ”

Although the businessmen are profit-seeking, but there is no one stupid person in this room, they know better than anyone who is now according to Yingcheng, if it is the government in the past, they can still rely on the silver to do a little, maybe the government will be cut off because of this salt road, accurate they make brine and boil salt, as long as they have a name, everything will be easy to do next, but the problem is that now according to the basis, Wuchang is the "righteous army" that started from the reckless.

Those people rely on the handle of the knife to seize the world, if they annoy them, the random knife will be cut down, and the big guy will accompany his life.

"Hmph, I said your guts, it's too small!"

Shaking his head, Chen Yishun looked at everyone and sneered.

"There is a way to seek wealth and danger, if you want to get rich, but you are afraid of taking risks, so what is so easy? Besides, who said that we should show up, then let other people show up! ”

"Dude, what do you mean?"

"Over the years, there are more than 1,000 villagers working in the paste cave, and now this mountain has been sealed, and the people have no livelihood, how can it be a good ......?"

"Okay, my brother is the most clever way."

As soon as Chen Yishun's words fell, Han Cheng couldn't wait to call out.

"It's really hard for us to get ahead of this, and it would be better if we let those villagers do it. It doesn't matter how many people die, when the time comes, those people know the resistance of the villagers, wouldn't it be better for us to use some more money to solve problems for the righteous army? ”

"But it is not this hole of ointment that is the mother of the cave of salt, first there is anointing and then there is salt, and if he does not chisel the ointment today, he will have no salt one day...... First there are villagers to hinder, and then we take the initiative to donate, when the time comes, why worry that the right to boil salt will not fall into the hands of you and me......"

But it was only a moment's effort, everyone saw the opportunity from Chen Yishun's idea, saw the opportunity to regain control of the plaster hole, as businessmen they are good at dealing with the government, in their opinion, now only those rebels do not know how to "do", so they will seal the hole, as long as they know what "mass anger" is, they will naturally make concessions.

"Yes...... Doesn't this offend the government?"

Peng Sheng said a little nervously.

"But no, don't say it's Wuchang's side, it's the court's side, I know that we are working hard for the thieves, in case we are investigated, when the time comes, we will be ten heads, I'm afraid it won't be enough for the court to cut off!"

As soon as Peng Sheng said this, everyone's faces changed again, but this is not the truth, according to Wuchang, the self-proclaimed "righteous army" is actually a "thief" who is a rebel, if the imperial army comes over, what will happen when the time comes? In case the court investigates it, what should the big guy do?

"Oh, yes, offended the court. It's a bad idea. ”

Chen Yishun's eyes rolled a few times and then sneered.

"Although the younger brother is not as old as you, but for so many years, I have seen a lot of officials, these officials, almost all of them are black-eyed and can't see silver, as long as the time comes, we have enough silver, why worry about them not speaking for us, besides, the reason why we are on an errand for thieves is also a last resort, we can do it while contacting the adults in the court, with the adults to support us, why worry about the court in the future."

"This may not work, in case Wuchang finds out ......"

"That's it, that's going to be a head-off!"

But that's not the reason, for these cave merchants, the biggest problem now is this, although they want to turn into salt merchants, but they have to worry about the imperial court, even if they want to have a secret trick, but they are worried that they will be cut off by Wuchang.

After Chen Yishun's suggestion was rejected again, there were no more ideas in his stomach.

But he was not willing to miss such an opportunity, so he said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is white silver......

"It's not ......"

Han Cheng muttered in his mouth, and suddenly, he gritted his teeth violently, looked at everyone and said.

"This man dies for money, birds die for food, although there is a little risk, but if it is done, you and I from now on, why worry about the family business, as for the future, how much risk in the future, the younger brother still does not know, but the younger brother knows, if you miss this opportunity, then you will regret it in this life!" (To be continued.) )