"It's salty! Out of the salt! Lord Liu's salt pond is out of salt! A stove household shouted loudly, which instantly caused a sensation in the busy stove village. Zaodo Village is a small village where Zaodo usually lives in the Shihe Salt Farm, located in the northeast corner of the salt farm. There are only about 300 households in this small village, and they live in thatched huts and adobe houses, which can only shelter from the wind and rain, and there are hardly any decent buildings in sight. Due to Liu Fan's announcement of a new method of drying salt, except for Qingzhuang, who was requisitioned to help in the salt farm, the rest of the old and weak had leisure time to rest in the village.

With a shout, almost all the villagers of Zaodo Village came out to see the new salt pans. When I came to the salt farm, I found that the current salt farm has almost changed its appearance, and I can hardly see the smoke billowing from the usual boiling salt. Instead, there is a large neat salt pan, each of which is separated by ridges, and it looks as if you have entered a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, where the clear water is everywhere, and the breeze is sparkling together, and even the wind has a faint smell of sea.

Liu Fanzheng took Ding Lu, Li Xiaohu and others to inspect the sea salt exposed in the new salt field, and was surprised to see a large group of people coming. After half a month of understanding, the villagers are also very familiar with Liu Fan, an approachable official! They all said hello, and then ran to the vicinity of the salt pond to watch, at this time the salt pond has crystallized, and a large pile of sea salt has been piled up by the salt workers into a small salt mountain. From afar, it looks like a white hill. The old salt worker grabbed a handful of sea salt and looked at it, the sea salt in the salt mountain said that the light white particles also have light yellow salt grains, put it in the mouth and tasted it, the taste was salty and bitter, and there was almost no peculiar smell of coarse salt. The salt is also very pure, with few impurities. It's already comparable to refined salt! The old salt worker's hands trembled, and he asked excitedly, "Dare to ask your lord!" How is the salt production in this new salt pan? ”

Liu Fan saw the old salt worker's excited appearance and said with a smile: "A salt pond produces about fifty stones of salt every day!" ”

"Oh my God!" The old salt worker exclaimed: "Then these dozen salt ponds can produce more than 600 stones of salt in one day!?" That's more than 18,000 stone in a month!? There was a burst of exclamations from the crowd! This month's output is more than in the past year! It seems that the old salt worker's face changed when he thought of something!

The old salt worker fell to his knees and shouted, "My lord! The little people are ignorant and shouldn't question the adults! I hope you will forgive us mud legs! Give us a way to live! The old man kowtows to you! With that, his forehead hit the ground hard, making a heavy sound! Some smart stove households immediately understood the key, they were so opposed to Liu Fan's construction of a new salt pan, and now the salt pans have proved to be tens of millions of times more than in the past! Liu Fan has succeeded! So will it end well for these opponents? As long as Liu Fan doesn't let them take over the new salt pan, the stove households who don't have a job will die at that time! The stove households around this explanation suddenly realized, and then fell to their knees, and there was a sound of crying and begging for mercy around them.

Liu Fan was stunned! I forgot to pick up the old salt worker for a while! Ding Lu's mind turned quickly, and he took the first step and said to the old salt worker, "Old Yang'er! Don't worry, adults won't blame you! This salt pan is still in your hands! ”

Hearing Ding Lu's words, Liu Fan came back to his senses, bent down to help Lao Yang's head, and then said to the surrounding stove households, "Don't be afraid, everyone! After so many days, everyone has a rough idea of what kind of person I am! Please rest assured, this salt pan will be handed over to you! Let's all get up first! Hearing Liu Fan's explanation, the stove households breathed a sigh of relief and slowly stood up.

Liu Fan saw that everyone stood up, and then announced, "This time, the Shihe Salt Works has implemented a new reform!" Not only will I hand over the salt pans to you, but I will also implement new methods! That is to contract the salt pans to you! ”

Everyone looked dazed and puzzled what Liu Fan meant, and Old Yang had the courage to ask, "My lord!" What does this mean by "contracting"? Seeing everyone's reaction, Liu Fan suddenly realized that they didn't understand the meaning of "contracting", Liu Fan explained: "It means that I will rent the salt field to you for management, and I will pay you wages according to the commission of one pound of salt and one penny per pound of salt every day!" According to the standard of fifty stones per salt field, one salt pond is ten taels of silver! You are free to combine these 10 processes. ”

As soon as Liu Fan finished speaking, the crowd was stunned, and they couldn't believe what they heard! A salt pond is ten taels of silver a day, if; The two families work together to contract a month, which is three hundred taels! There are still one hundred and fifty taels in half, this is simply a pie in the sky! The crowd went crazy! rushed to ask Liu Fan to contract the salt fields.

Liu Fan was suddenly surrounded by the crowd, and everyone made Liu Fan dizzy, and he couldn't hear what everyone was talking about. Seeing Liu Fan's embarrassed appearance, Li Xiaohu shouted, "Bold!" Stand down! "With a team of pro-soldiers like wolves, they squeezed into the crowd and punched and kicked! The crowd dispersed, and there were bursts of cries of pain! Liu Fan was shocked and shouted, "Stop! "The pro-soldier team just stopped and returned!

Liu Fan kicked Li Xiaohu who was standing aside, kicked him to the ground, and then scolded, "Who gave you the order!" Dare to do it to the people! Forgot your duty? Have you forgotten where you came from? Tell me! How I usually teach you! We are the sons and daughters of the people! It is our duty to protect the people from harm! Look at what you're doing now! Get the Ten Whips yourself! Execute it now! "Then pick up the whip and hit Li Xiaohu! Whip and whip blood! The man who beat this iron beat clenched his teeth, and there was cold sweat on his forehead!

The old Yang Tou'er next to him was shocked when he saw this, and stepped forward to stop Liu Fan, "My lord!" I can't help it! It's all the small people who don't know the rules! Regardless of this little adult's business! Don't fight, adults! After that, he shouted at the crowd, "Why are you still stunned!" Hurry up and persuade the adults! The crowd woke up and stepped forward to dissuade them.

Only then did Liu Fan suppress his anger and say to Li Xiaohu, "Hmph! Still stunned what to do! Ten lashes for one person! Perform each other! When the pro-soldiers heard Liu Fan's order, they all picked up the whips in their hands and hit each other in pairs! For a while, the audience was silent, only the whip was heard hitting the flesh and making a "pop" sound. The stove households looked at each other speechlessly, and their eyes were full of reverence and emotion when they looked at Liu Fan.

After the pro-soldier team finished executing, Liu Fan said: "Remember this lesson!" The next time I do it again, it won't be ten lashes! If I see you bullying the people, get out of here and go to the coolie camp!" When did you reflect on it and when did you come back! ”

Ignoring them, he continued to say to the stove household: "Everyone is making such a mess, and you won't be able to tell the result until tomorrow!" Tomorrow I will send someone to make unified arrangements! We will definitely give you a satisfactory result! But there's one thing to say in advance! If you want to contract the salt field, you can only build it yourself! When the time comes, it will be considered a contracted salt pan! But don't worry! I will send heavy troops to assist you! It's not free, though! I charge a fee for the salt production that the soldiers helped build, and you will only receive half of the wages for the first three months, and the other half as the soldiers' salaries. The salt pans that have already been built will be charged two-thirds of the fee for the first three months! In other words, you will only get a portion of your wages for the first three months! Back to normal levels after three months! When the stove households heard Liu Fan's explanation, they probably understood what it meant, and discussed it one after another.

Seeing this, Liu Fan said, "Let's go back and sum it up!" The result of the discussion will be registered at the Ding Lu office tomorrow! Now it's all gone! ”