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"Twenty miles long street and eight wharves" refers to Hankou on the north bank of Hanshuikou, and the merchant ships of Hubei, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other provinces, as well as Xiajiang merchants and Huizhou merchants who came to Han to trade, all have docks. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info the ships moored on both sides of the Han River are often around 24,500 boats, a busy scene, and the people of the time once used the poem "Ten miles of sails according to the city, and the lights of ten thousand homes are bright in the sky" to describe it as "the port that never sleeps".

With the expansion of the scale of water shipping, the port area on both sides of the Han River has been unable to meet the needs, the wharf began to develop to the bank of the Wuchang River, people dug an artificial small river in the Tangjiao outside the Wusheng Gate in the north of Wuchang City, the name of the new river, used to berth the salt boat from the lower river, "the salt boat in the river often stretches for more than ten miles", the scene is very spectacular.

"There are thousands of people in the day, and there are ten thousand lights in the night"

It is said that this new river wharf, but this wharf is now not seen yesterday's prosperity, although now the river navigation is not broken, but the fire along the river has also affected the prosperity of this Wuchang wharf, Rao is occasionally a boat to come, that berthing is also from Huangzhou, Hanyang, Anlu, De'an and other places to come from the rice boat, the loss of this Hubei is the land of fish and rice, and now Wuchang City is only tens of thousands of people, but there is no worry about rice grain.

It is true that there is no worry about rice grain, but at this time there is a new worry, this is not the dawn of the day, there is a group of traders in the city early at the wharf of the new river, although Wuchang City is full of devastation at this time, but the city is rapidly recovering, as long as there are people in the city, there will naturally be a sale, but this trade is not as good as the past, it is nothing more than this and people's lives are closely related to firewood, rice, oil and salt and other transactions.

And the reason why the vendors gathered at the Xinhe Wharf was to wait for the government to release salt. From ancient times to the present, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are essential things at home, and these things are only table salt, and no substance can replace them. Throughout the ages, a family of ten people has eaten salt for ten people, and a village of 100 people has eaten salt for 100 people, and the common people have no ability to produce their own salt, so they can only rely on buying. Therefore, it is only necessary to control the production, operation and sales of salt, and slightly adjust the price of salt to obtain considerable profits.

It is precisely because of this that the Metropolitan Governor's Office, which controls the land of the Five Prefectures, still follows the old system and controls the sale of salt, but unlike the salt merchants who transported salt and resold it in the past, now all the salt in Hubei is the illicit salt transported by salt dealers. It's just that the smuggler has to sell all the salt to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and then the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion will transport it to various places for sale. It seems that this kind of official sale is for profit, but in fact, this is because of the shortage of salt, after all, those salt sellers need to go through a risk all the way to reach Wuchang, and now that the army is in chaos, not every salt seller is willing to take such a risk.

After the vendors waited for almost an hour, when the salt store opened the door and tried to buy salt, they saw that the salt store hung up a sign.

"No salt today!"

No salt again!

How many days is this?

Hearing the news of the lack of salt, the vendors all began to complain.

"Hey, I'll just say it, this righteous army can't grow the tail of a mouse, don't say anything else, there is not even a salt, and when the time comes, if the army of the imperial court comes, they will be bored!"

"But no, without salt, people have no strength, and if they don't have strength, they can't lift the knife handle......"

"Okay, okay, you know, you know a fart!"

"Come on, let's not talk about other people, it's the common people who don't have salt to eat right now!"

"Isn't it, when the little salt at home is eaten, how can you ......make it without salt?"

"What's the matter, the price has risen!"

"You go up, you have to have salt to sell when the price rises! If it doesn't rise, it will also rise empty......"

While the vendors were talking, salt was also being discussed in the Metropolitan Governor's Palace.

"Since Yangzhou was occupied by the Taiping Army, the Lianghuai Salt Road has been completely cut off! The contractor said that it was not because they were unwilling to serve the governor of the capital, but because the shipping route was cut off by the Taiping army and the official army, and it was difficult to transport salt goods......

Standing respectfully in front of the Metropolitan Governor, Chen Duan looked at the Metropolitan Governor, and now the Taiping Army has cut off the Lianghuai Salt Road according to Jiangning and Yangzhou. For more than a month, there was no shortage of salt in various places, firstly, because there were quite a lot of stocks in various places, and secondly, there were occasional salt dealers who came to smuggle salt. Although the price of salt has risen slightly, it is not salt-free, but now, with the Taiping army and the Qing army cutting off the river navigation, this salt road is naturally cut off.

"Not only is it difficult to transport salt goods, from Zhenjiang to Jiujiang, the Qing army and the Taiping army have set up many checkpoints along the way, the Qing army is okay, they have fewer boats and fewer boats, but it is just a full appearance, but the Taiping army has cut off the route, not only the salt is difficult to transport, but even our ships, although they are flying foreign flags, they will not be allowed to go now......"

Shen Ming, who has been turned into a fleet admiral, complained repeatedly when he mentioned this matter, but it was just a complaint, there were more ants biting elephants, although his "fleet" now has four Western steam sailing ships, but after all, they are only merchant ships, not warships that can withstand 32-pounder guns or even 64-pounder guns, and in contrast, although the Taiping army only has small boats such as sloops and sampans, there are thousands of them, so he can only watch the Taiping army cut off the route.

"If it really doesn't work, escort it! Escort those salt ships! ”

Shen Ming's suggestion made Zhu Yifeng's brows raise slightly, it's not impossible, as long as the salt can be transported in, what's the point of sending a "fleet"?

Salt, Zhu Yifeng never thought in the past, after the establishment of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, the biggest problem he faced was not silver and grain, but the most ordinary - salt.

Huguang has not produced salt since ancient times, and the salt it needs is completely dependent on Huai salt. After the Taiping army cut off the salt road, although there was some salt storage, and some salt dealers transported salt to Hubei for profit, but because Huai salt was difficult to transport, the price of salt rose three times a day, and now, even to the point where there is no price and no market -- another reason why salt dealers did not dare to transport salt was that once they were stopped by the Taiping army, the Taiping army would not only grab the goods, but even the people would be pulled into the camp to fill the bar, so naturally no salt dealer dared to risk selling salt again, so it was natural that Wuchang was short of salt.

"Metropolitan Governor, this unobstructed shipping route can't solve the problem, after all, don't say that we are short of salt here, even the Taiping army in Jiangning City is also short of salt, after all, these two Huai salt farms are in the hands of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Huguang has not produced salt since ancient times, salt needs to rely on Huai salt, Fang Jinhuai salt is in the hands of the Qing court, and the transshipment is also broken by the Taiping army in Jiangning, Huguang lacks salt, it is really a difficult thing to solve, even if the fleet is escorted by the salt merchants, the salt merchants have no salt to transport, what can they do? Is it possible, we are going to lay the salt works......"

Saltworks......

Lin Zhiping's suggestion was heard in Li Ziyuan's ears, which only made his eyes light up, and he hurriedly said.

"Dadu Governor, this salt field is not impossible to fight, after Yichang is the salt spring of eastern Sichuan, Wushan, Fengjie, Yunyang, Wanxian and Zhongxian, which has been rich in well salt since ancient times; Daning in Wuxi and Yun'an in Yunyang are important places for Sichuan salt production. If we can win this matter, not only will the people of Huguang not have to worry about light food, but we will also be able to get a salt tax to supply military supplies......"

Hit Kawato!

Li Ziyuan's suggestion made Zhu Yifeng's face show a wry smile, not that he didn't want to fight eastern Sichuan, but if he really did this, the step would be too big, even now, the base areas of these five prefectures have not yet been stable.

"Brother Zilin, the time is not yet ripe to take eastern Sichuan,"

Without waiting for Zhu Yifeng to speak, Lin Zhiping objected to the side.

"Not to mention the others, if you take the east of Sichuan, you must first take Jingzhou, Jingzhou defenders are no less than 15,000 people, of which 10,000 are bound to defend the banner soldiers, and today Yuezhou has Xiangyong, Qianyong 10,000 people, although the righteous army is brave and the firearms are sharp, but after all, the strength of our army is only 30,000 people, and now Yuezhou, Jingzhou, although the strength is not as good as our army, but they are each other's horns, no matter where our army is, if it is based on the city to defend to the death, and then attack and disturb the rear of our army with partial divisions, now, it is the time for our righteous army to train and improve its combat effectiveness, It's not the time to expand outward......"

Lin Zhiping's rebuttal is naturally reasonable, and in fact it is also a safe statement, and it is also the strategy of the current Metropolitan Governor's Office. At present, the strategy of the Metropolitan Governor's Office is not to expand blindly, but to consolidate the existing territory step by step, rather than like the Taiping Army, which seems to be majestic, but in fact, the territory it now controls is not even as big as the Righteous Army.

"But I don't want to do it, what about the salt? Not to mention, the people can't be without salt for a day, even if it's a righteous army, how can they be without salt for a day, if there is no salt, not only will the people suffer from light food, but people's hearts will be in turmoil, I'm afraid that even in the army, the army will also be scattered, and besides, the soldiers will be without salt, and the body will be weak, and the time will be ......."

When the time comes, it will really not collapse on its own......

"It seems that we still have to find a way to transport salt, if it really doesn't work, let's pull a salt team out by ourselves and specialize in selling salt!"

"That's it, if the Huai salt seller can't come in, let's go and sell Sichuan salt, and we can always think of a way to ......"

"Salt...... It's not Huai salt, it's Sichuan salt, if Hubei can produce salt, how can there be a worry about light food......"

Chen Duan's muttering like a complaint happened to fall into Zhu Yifeng's ears, and he hurriedly asked.

"Chen Shuban, what did you just say?"

"Huh? The Grand Governor? ”

Looking at the Metropolitan Governor in surprise, Chen Duan tried to answer.

"How can you have trouble eating lightly?"

"Go further!"

"If Hubei can produce salt?"

Salt produced in Hubei! This complaint made Zhu Yifeng's eyes light up, and he immediately thought of a small invention when he ran a school a while ago, and the geological knowledge buried in the depths of his mind immediately surfaced.

"Yes, that's right! That's right......"

Suddenly, as if remembering something, Zhu Yifeng stood up suddenly, walking back and forth, and kept muttering.

"Salt farm, salt farm, no, no, no, yes, yes, certainly right......" (To be continued.) )