PS: The second one is presented

Fan Xu is a lean and honest young man, but his arms are thick and his waist is strong, and he looks like a good crop. He was originally from Xilu, and after being recruited by Zhao Wuxian as the envoy of Xilu, he even ran around this radius for hundreds of miles, where it was suitable for planting what crops, and where the soil quality was clear.

So when Zhao Wuxian summoned him to ask where there was such a thing as "soil salt" in Xilu, Fan Xu immediately thought of the dry riverbed east of Zhencheng.

"Si Kou, that's the land in front of you."

Zhao Wuxian was now standing in the suburbs thirty miles east of Zhencheng with Fan Xu and others, and a dry riverbed caught his attention.

Mid-spring February is the season of germination, under the moisture of continuous spring rain, whether it is the tender green millet seedlings in the fields or the various wild grasses in the wilderness, they all begin to grow hard. But only the riverbed in front of me, and the surrounding land are white, like a layer of frost in the morning, and as if it snowed overnight yesterday.

This is saline, inferior land where no crops can be grown, and on which only a few goats greedily lick the earth and rocks on the surface because it contains the minerals they crave.

Squatting on the edge of the riverbed, he grabbed a handful of dirt from among the sun-dried pebbles, the yellowish sand mixed with the crystals of white flowers, which flowed between the cracks in his hands. They were originally dissolved in the soil, but they were dissolved after the rain fell a few days ago and were exposed to the scorching sun.

"Is this white soil?"

Fan Xu also squatted aside and explained: "Si Kou, this is white soil, also known as salty soil, and the farmers here often use it to make soil salt. ”

As you know, most of the time salty soil refers to the soil on saline-alkali land, because it is mostly white. In many places, it is called white soil, that is, white soft soil. There are three main reasons for the formation of saline-alkali land, one is the degradation of ancient salt ponds, the second is the product of sea flooding, and the third is the old course of rivers.

Next. Fan Xu summoned the local pavilion chief and lieutenant chief, and said such a general thing in the ear of a nervous old farmer, and asked him to demonstrate to Zhao Wuxian the method of producing soil salt.

The old peasant saluted tremblingly, took his children and grandchildren to fetch soil, set up pots, and chop firewood.

Earth salt, also known as small salt, is made by scraping salty soil and frying. As far as the observation is concerned, the processing of soil salt is relatively rough. Take a pot of salty soil, soak it in clean water, remove the soil at night, and boil the water into the kettle for a square, which becomes soil salt.

When the salt was ready, the old peasant retreated to the side tremblingly, for it seemed to them that they could squat in the field for an afternoon. Fan Xu, who chatted cordially, came from the city to the countryside, and the nobles needed to be in awe.

And the pavilion chief and the chief are like offering treasures, the size of the palm. The yellow-brown earth salt was placed on the kudzu cloth and carefully presented to Zhao Wuxian.

"I'll try it." The shirt was about to go up with his sleeves rolled up, and the pavilion chief hurriedly explained, saying that this soil salt tasted bad and could not insult the mouth of the virtuous priest.

"It doesn't matter."

Zhao Wuxian waved his hand and broke a small piece in the shocked gaze of everyone. I licked it with my tongue, and suddenly, not only the tip of my tongue was numb, but the whole mouth was also salty and bitter.

The people and even the low-level officials eat this kind of soil salt on weekdays, so they naturally know the taste. And the attendants next to him also hurriedly handed over the kettle, wanting Zhao Wuxian to rinse his mouth.

But Shirtless endured the nausea and tasted it again, which really surprised everyone even more.

Fan Xu was also stunned and said, "Si Kou, ...... are you?"

Could it be that Lord Sikou thinks this thing is delicious?

"It's not tasty."

Zhao Wuxian sighed and said to the local village elders and lieutenant chiefs: "It turns out that the rest of the people eat this kind of thing on weekdays, and it is indeed as bitter as a gallbladder. In the past, I focused all my energy on making the people not hungry for two meals, and I had clothes and brown clothes to wear warm in winter, and I didn't pay enough attention to salt, which caused a salt shortage, and I should take it as a warning in the future. Someone come, send this piece of soil salt back to Yuncheng and hang it in my living room, I will taste it once a day, so as not to forget it! ”

Fan Xu was shocked by this move, and the pavilion chief by the riverbed was even more playful to praise virtue, and the people of Zhencheng who surrounded him were even more grateful, and some wealthy Chinese people had some complaints because of Xilu's "salt rationing" and disappeared in an instant.

Xiao Si Kou didn't forget our suffering just because he ate the best green and white tiger salt every day, since he would often taste the bitter earth salt, why didn't we eat it for a month or two?

After returning to the car amid the cheers of everyone, Zhao Wuxian thought about it.

It is already the middle of February, and with the economic sanctions of the Qi State wielding the big stick of salt policy, the Qi salt merchants who used to be transported from Xugu, Yi, and Qinyi to Xilu have not come for a long time, and there are many fewer salt ships going down the river from Taoqiu.

Although Zigong got the news in advance and snapped up some of the salt hoarding, who knows if this trade war will last for months or years. Therefore, the price of salt in Xilu rose slightly, and the markets that sold salt in each Yi began to ration, and each li was purchased in a limited amount with salt tickets. The salt of the soldiers was first guaranteed, while the people, common people and savages could only eat inferior and coarse earth salt.

The people are not in an uproar, but panic and complaints are inevitable.

As long as today's events are deliberately publicized, these strange voices will be able to calm down for several months, and Zhao Wuxian has a heart to do it, and he is still very popular among the people.

But at the same time that Zhao Wuxian and Zigong decided to fight back against Qi's sanctions, new salt roads must also be found and opened, otherwise, they will always be controlled by others. This is like the oil-poor countries of later generations had to grit their teeth and swallow blood when oil prices soared and oil routes were cut off.

……

Zhao's next stop was Chengpu, where Zigong had come from Taoqiu to meet with him to discuss how to completely solve the need for salt, and set out to fight back against the Qi people.

"Zigong's previous hoarding of salt can only satisfy two months' urgent needs, and there are 1780,000 people in Xilu and a large number of horses and livestock, and they need to eat salt for 7800 minutes a month. Mr. Ji and Zichi have already calculated that the output of soil and salt in Xilu is not high, and even if it takes a lot of effort to turn the dry riverbeds and saline-alkali lands upside down, it will be enough for 20,000 or 30,000 people at most. ”

He had already tried earth salt, not to mention that the taste was too unpleasant, because it was mixed with a large amount of metal oxides that could not be filtered by the technology of this era, and the earth salt sometimes caused diarrhea and poisoning, and in severe cases, he turned purple and foamed at the mouth and died.

It is a three-point poison in medicine, and it is also a point of poison in salt, one of the reasons why the ancients did not have a high lifespan, perhaps it is also because of this.

Only the high-grade tiger-shaped green and white salt specially for the Son of Heaven and the princes can make Wuxian eat the taste of an ordinary bag of salt in the supermarket in later generations.

Moreover, it has not been iodized......

Zigong knelt opposite Wuxian, and he recalled what he had seen and heard in Qufu: "The rest of the Lu country also produces earth salt, and several small towns under the jurisdiction of the Ji clan also have salt wells, and the taste and quality are far superior to earth salt. However, the output is not much, and it can only meet the consumption of Feiyi and Qufu. ”

Wuxian denied this recent source: "This time the Qi country banned salt, and even the Lu country was affected, and the price of Qufu salt has doubled. I have already let Feng Rin test it, and it may not be easy to buy Jia from his peers. ”

It was not without his intention to open wells in the territory under his control to find salt mines, but this was a time-consuming and laborious process, and it was far from quenching his thirst.

Zigong said: "Indeed, as Guan Zi once said, how can a country without mountains and seas be? Because of the mountains and seas of people, it is fake! We still have to rely on foreign salt. Seventy percent of the salt in this world is produced from the seashore of Qi country, among which the place where the water flows into the sea is the best, this place is close to the mountains and forests, and can be cut down and boiled salt nearby, so it is said that the salt of the canal exhibition, the quality is white, and the taste is the best, so it is popular in all countries. ”

Puzzled, he asked: "The State of Qi has strictly forbidden the flow of official salt to Cao, Xilu, and Qufu, even if there is more Qi salt, we will not be able to get it." ”

"No, because the subordinates know best the essence of profit-seeking by businessmen. Although the state of Qi implements the policy of official mountains and seas, the border is too long to guarantee that there are no mistakes. Under the temptation of heavy money, there will definitely be private salt merchants who sneak into Xilu. ”

Wuxian's eyes lit up when he heard it, Zigong was right, as the so-called hustle and bustle in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, this is a loophole that Qi people can never plug. If he encouraged those smuggler salt dealers in Qi State, he would have enough profit to make them risk the punishment of killing the city! It can be regarded as one of the miracle tricks.

The salt that Qi transported to other cities could also be resold through merchants from non-Xilu and Taoqiu.

But Zigong said: "After all, the official salt of the Qi State accounts for the majority, and the salt brought by the private salt merchant Jia Neng is too little, which is not enough for the consumption of Yiyi and Qinyi on the border." On the one hand, the Qi people have already declared that once they find out that they have sold salt to Taoqiu, Qufu, and Xilu, then they will no longer expect to get a grain of salt from the Qi country, and the merchants will be afraid to cooperate with us. ”

Knocking on the table without sympathy: "This is the Qi people's decisive move on salt, the lord is a bully to the customers, but the merchants can only rely on his nose, this evil idea, probably from the hands of the Chen family." ”

Zigong said: "Therefore, if we want to defeat the Qi people in this battle for goods and colonization, we must first find a new and stable salt road to calm the people's hearts. ”

He also did a salt selling business, and he kept in mind what the salt-producing areas in the world were.

"After Qi Huan felled the mountains and cut the lonely bamboo, Yan's territory expanded to Shaohai (the ancient name of the Bohai Sea), and since then Yan has the rao of fish and salt, jujube and chestnut, and Yan boils salt on the seashore, Xianyu, Wuzhong, generations, and even the more northern Su Shen rely on it."

Wuxian shook his head: "The Yan Kingdom is too far away, it is located in the north, and it is not often allied with the princes. And the road is inconvenient, there are Xianyu, Qi, and Zhongxing clans in the middle, and it takes two months to go to Yandi, and then let the caravan go back and forth after discussing the trade matter, half a year has passed, and it is not advisable. ”

What's more, Beiyan is also an in-law and ally of Qi.

Zigong said: "However, Jingchu's Fangcheng, Wushan and other places are similar to them, so the ministers will not talk about it, now there are three places for Si Kou to choose from, and the distance from Xilu is no more than a month." ”

"Which three?"

"The first is the Anyi Salt Pond controlled by the Wei clan of the Jin State, the second is the land of Huaihai controlled by the Wu State, and the third is the Ju State located in the east of the Lu State with the Langya Seashore!" (To be continued.) )