They walked on again and came to the door of a salt shop. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info that guise flutters in the wind, and there are a few big characters on it, Pingzhou salt. Yan You was interested, and walked to the door of the store, where a scale was placed on the counter in front of him, and a wooden flat bucket was placed next to it. There was a gray clay pot next to Pingdou, the clay pot was filled with loose salt, snow white, Yan You couldn't believe that the salt could be so clean. A shopkeeper stood in front of the counter and looked at Yan You and asked, "Sir, but you weigh salt?" ”

Yan You said: "I just want to ask what is the price of salt?" ”

The shopkeeper lost interest and replied casually: "5 yuan a catty, each person is limited to 10 catties." ”

Yan You looked like he had been struck by lightning, his face was dull, and he asked again: "But 5 yuan a catty, is your money 5 baht?" ”

The shopkeeper who looked at this scholar was talking crazy, and he didn't want to deal with it, and said, "Nonsense, isn't it five baht money, isn't it gold?" After speaking, he twisted his head and didn't look at Yan You again.

Yan You staggered from the salt shop to the main road, his face was yellow, beads of sweat appeared on his head, and he couldn't speak for a long time.

Jiang Hexing looked at Yan You and said, "Why do you need to do this? Isn't salt cheaper? ”

Yan You's hands trembled a little and said, "Hewang, I heard that you restrict the sale of salt to the Han land, and I thought you didn't have enough salt to eat here." In many places in my Han land, a pound of salt, eat for half a year, and the people eat salt extremely economically, it seems that you don't need it here, you can eat as much as you want. ”

Jiang Hexing said: "General Yan, if I let go of the salt in this place and there is no restriction on the salt of these merchants, what do you think?" ”

"I'm afraid that chaos will arise, and in the end the people will suffer."

"That's right, this is the fundamental reason why I restrict salt and iron from leaving the country."

Yan You looked at Jiang He and said eagerly: "There is an ironware shop here, can I take a look?" ”

Jiang Hexing took him to Kong Fei Kong Yu's shop in front, and now that the busy farming season has passed, there is no Kong brother to be seen. The two young men behind the counter looked at the two of them lazily, neither of them knew each other. Yan You's eyes kept turning, and he saw that there were all kinds of tricks in it, including axes, saws, sickles, iron plows, shovels, and all kinds of iron tools used in household life.

Yan You opened his mouth and said, "Bring me the sickle to see." ”

The young man took the sickle from the shelf and swung it on the counter, saying, "20 yuan a hand, no two prices." ”

Yan You took the scythe and looked at it, the scythe was not sharpened, but he knew that it was good iron, the scythe glowed with blue light, and his heart was cold, the iron here was the same as salt, not only cheap and incredible, but also good and incredible. He had been dealing with weapons for many years, and knew that this scythe was made of fine iron, which was what made a good weapon. Who would have thought that this place is simply rubbish and used as a sickle. The sickle of the Han land is not even as good as the stone knife, the official camp, can you expect to make something good, and it is expensive to death.

After looking at it for a while, Yan You and Jiang Hexing left, and they no longer had the heart to go shopping. The two of them rode in a carriage and headed north out of the city.

Yan You sat in the carriage, looked at the blue-gray cement pavement, listened to the sound of the horse's hooves "clicking the tower", and then looked at both sides of the road. The green rice fields are endless, and there is no one in sight in the fields, only the constant shouting in my ears.

The road was so smooth, the fields so vast, and a four-wheeled carriage full of timber beside it soon overtook them and headed north. Behold how fast the chariot goes, and I fear that it will pull more than a thousand pounds. Yan You sighed and woke up the half-asleep river next to him: "To the north of this place, I know a lot of wood, why do you still transport it from south to north." ”

Jiang Hexing also sighed and said, "Aren't they those Chang'an businessmen?" Now I am north of Changchun City is about to be built, a lot of businessmen stationed, decoration shops, the local everywhere is not used trees, to say that Chang'an's wood is the most noble, they insist on buying from Chang'an, scarce is expensive, now Chang'an wood is almost the same as Chang'an silk. ”

Yan You laughed when he heard it, these businessmen are really full of tricks. But the four-wheeled carriage is too fast, and if it is to transport troops and food, it can be repaid. Yan You asked, "How far can the carriage go so fast?" ”

"The carriage and the post station are faster than the cavalry, the carriage is equipped with forage, there is a post station every 30 miles, the horse can keep hurrying, such a road can now go 150 miles, but now the day is long, and it is good to travel 100 miles in winter."

Yan You was horrified, this is too powerful, if the cavalry uses this car to replenish, isn't it where the cavalry goes, and where the supply can go? If there are such elite soldiers and supplies, there will be no rivals in the world.

Yan You thought about it for a while, knowing that Pingzhou could only be wooed, and he couldn't come to war, and he really underestimated this place before.

The two talked as they walked, and each was impressed by each other's profundity. Jiang Hexing always thought that Yan You was just a general, but after chatting, he realized that he was actually a classmate with Wang Mang, but the degree of importance was not very high, and Yan You also complained a little in his words, but it stopped at the point, it seemed that the supporters behind Wang Mang wanted to balance, and he had to be wronged.

Yan You found that Jiang Hexing saw the problem very thoroughly, and he could explain the causes of the complicated phenomena in a few words and how to deal with them. Just like what he saw in the market, Jiang Hexing had already known about it, and regarded this kind of phenomenon as a normal thing. And told Yan You that as long as the route from Luoyang to Pingzhou does not stop, the price will soon be consistent or not much different.

There were not many carriages and horses along the way, and after a few post stations, speed up and rest at the post station at night. I walked all the way for 6 days to Changchun.

Yan You had never been here before, and this city was several times larger than Xianwu. The walls are towering, and the blue-gray cement plastered walls look unusually solid.

The city gate was tall and majestic, and the city where the two of them entered in a carriage was different from the bustling of Xianwu, and few people could not be seen on the almost wide road.

Jiang Hexing took Yan You for a walk, and Yan You was amazed that although this city is not as big as Chang'an Luoyang, it is not much smaller, which shows that Jiang Hexing is very big. Look at the city, if you want to capture it, it is almost impossible for an army of 100,000. Even if a war breaks out one day, it is estimated that this Changchun alone will not be able to be captured. The fields, rice, beans, and various other crops that he had seen along the way were growing very well, and Yan You knew that this place was no longer mainly for sheep and horses, but mainly for farming, and it was strong.

Later, Jiang Hexing took Yan You to find Liu Qing, and Liu Qing naturally changed his name to Wenqing in front of outsiders. Jiang Hexing introduced this Mr. Wen to Yan You, Yan You saw that he was really a talent, although there are not many people here, but it is full of vitality, and within a few years it will be a magnified Xianwu City. Especially what Wen Qing introduced to him, there are many people from Chang'an and Luoyang here, and businessmen from all over the world have gathered here, bringing not only businessmen, but also farmers who are responsible for reclamation. A merchant can bring 100 people to reclaim the land, and now there are more than 100,000 people here. How many of these 100,000 people will be brought here in the future? Yan You didn't dare to think about it, he only thought of having enough food and a rich life.

The three of them chatted for a long time, after all, Liu Qing had only done the county order, and he didn't understand many things. Later, in front of Yan You, he specifically asked Jiang Hexing why he couldn't sell salt and iron to the Han Dynasty.

Jiang Hedao: "More than half of the imperial court's income depends on salt and iron, which is also another kind of tax. Everyone wants to eat salt, and the cost of this tax is low, but it's a pity that it only suffers the people. If our salt in Pingzhou is released, the price of salt in Han will be 100 times that of me, and no one will eat it. At that time, the income of the imperial court will be reduced by half, and if it is less than half, it will be difficult to maintain the income of the victims, the income of officials, and the maintenance of the army. ”

"If the victims do not give relief, they will become displaced people, and the displaced people may rebel, and the rebellion will increase the burden on the imperial court, and then the imperial court will have to raise more taxes to make up for the shortfall, but the tax increase may lead to more displaced people and more rebellions. As a result, they will fall into a vicious circle.

The same is true for the reduction of officials' incomes, and they will also find ways to extract from the people, causing many poor people to become displaced people, and still go to the previous cycle.

The lack of supply of the army is even more troublesome, perhaps they do not listen to the order, or maybe the officers will set up their troops to loot and become bandits, causing more poor people to become real outcasts.

In the final analysis, the lack of income of the imperial court will lead to more displaced people, and the increase of displaced people will reduce the income of the imperial court. There will be a balance between the income of the displaced people and the imperial court. If there are fewer displaced people, the society will be stabilized if the court income is more, and if there are more displaced people, the court will fall into a vicious circle. Therefore, Pingzhou is afraid that salt and iron will impact this balance point, so it strictly controls salt and iron.

Because once this equilibrium point is broken, it will only be bad for Pingzhou's trade, not good. And the imperial court will fall into the fire of extinguishing the rebellion of the homeless people every day, because the income is getting smaller and smaller, and the homeless people are increasing, so the homeless rebellion can only fight more and more until they are destroyed. But if the court is gone, there will be peace among the displaced people, far from it. I will continue to fight until I have a boss who can deter the Quartet and convince the crowd. At this time, it can be regarded as stopping, and no one knows how many years this time is, maybe ten or eight years, maybe more than a hundred years. ”

Liu Qing suddenly realized, Yan You was in a cold sweat in the summer, he knew that salt and iron would seriously impact the income of the imperial court, he definitely didn't expect that there would be such a big impact, but if you think about it, it is true. It seems that Jiang Hexing basically holds a sharp weapon that can strike a fatal blow to the imperial court at any time, but he refuses to do it for his own business. Liu Qing actually really didn't know, Yan You didn't necessarily think so, he thought that the two of them sang double reeds and woke themselves up again.