Liu Fan and the others came to the salt field, raised their eyes and looked, they saw that the whole salt field was full of busy stove households, the ridge and the dry place of the salt field were full of salt mountains everywhere, some were white, some were darker in color, no wonder there were poets in ancient times to describe the scene of boiling salt in ancient times, saying "the fire wheel rises at the beginning of the road, and the thunder drum turns over the tide and the soles of the feet smell." Ten thousand stoves boil white snow in the morning, and a river and autumn ears cut yellow clouds. It is an apt description of the stove household digging a well to take brine, the scene of boiling salt in the stove, when boiling salt, the smoke curls up, the boiled salt is spread in the sun, white as a snowflake, the stove household piles up the dried salt together, from a distance, there are many dots, there are piles of salt mountains everywhere, making people feel like they are in the salt sea.

Ding Lu led Liu Fan and the others to a salt pan and explained, "This is the salt pan where salt is dried!" This method is mainly the craftsmanship from Haifeng County, which is mainly used to make brine by the method of drenching brine. This method requires the cooperation of three people, in charge of five to six salt fields, one person scatters ash and one person transports one ash, and it can be harvested in four to five days, and each salt field can get more than one stone of salt, which is both time-consuming and costly, and the salt produced is still in poor condition, and the discount of the salt warehouse is sixty percent. It's just a little bit better than boiling salt! “

While listening to Ding Lu's explanation, Liu Fan looked at the salt workers working in the distance, and between he held a dustpan filled with plant ashes, and from time to time he reached out and took out a handful, and scattered it evenly towards the salt pan. The sea water in the salt pans is no longer visible! Only a thick layer of plant ash was visible. Liu Fan took a few steps forward, wanting to carefully observe the process of drying salt, and happened to see a salt worker using a bamboo stick bucket to open the thick grass ash on the salt pond that had been condensed, and suddenly there was a viscous seawater flowing out, and the salt worker took it with a wooden barrel, filled it and poured it into another salt pool. In a short time, an empty salt pond next to it was filled with sticky seawater. Liu Fan suddenly realized that the salt workers used plant ash to absorb the water in the seawater to accelerate the condensation rate of the seawater, and used this method to extract salt.

When the salt worker finished answering, Liu Fan stepped forward and asked, "Uncle!" How many days will this pool of sea water be salted? "This salt worker is about forty years old, exposed to the wind and sun all day long, his face is dark and his skin is chapped, he looks very old, he looks very old, he looks up when he sees someone asking, he looks up and looks at it, and sees a person who looks like a big official with a few people, including Lord Ding, and immediately kneels to the ground in panic, "Little old knock to see my lord!" Liu Fan stepped forward and supported him, "Don't panic!" You kowtow to me at such an age, I'm going to lose my life! Get up and talk! ”

The old man was at a loss: "Yes!" Be! Back to adults! If the weather is good, it will take three to four days for the salt pond to be brine."

Liu Fan was speechless, "Huh? What will take three to four days for good weather? What should I do if the weather is bad? ”

The old man also felt that this adult did not look so vicious, and replied cautiously, "If the weather is bad, you have to wait a few more days, and generally if it rains, we will cover it with a dismantling cloth, or collect the brine in advance!" ”

Liu Fan was suddenly curious about the "weather forecast" in ancient times, so he asked: "Then how do you know when it will rain?" When is it windy? ”

The old man glanced at Liu Fa strangely, and then said, "My lord is a noble person at first glance, I don't know the joy and anger of this god!" We all rely on the sky for food, and the elders have already told us that the red clouds in the sky are rain, and the red clouds in the dusk are fire. Big faint wind, small faint rain, sunset walking in the clouds, rain after midnight. The sun hits the horizontal bolt, and the rain looks at the Ming Dynasty. The rainbow hangs on the seaside, and the pile is driven and the mortar is smashed. The rainbow hangs straight to the ocean, and there is no water to wash clothes. ”

"Huh!" Liu Fan was stunned, what does this mean? "Halo" He knew that it was clouds surrounding the moon, but what were the red clouds in the sky? What the hell is the sun hitting the bolt? I don't understand it at all! Liu Fan didn't dare to ask in detail, it seemed that he was too inferior! It is detrimental to the majesty of adults! Let's wait and study it privately! Pretending to understand, he nodded, "I see!" ”

"That's it! Thank you, sir! Go get busy! There's still something to do next! Go first! Liu Fan said to the old man in a harmonious voice

The old man was suddenly terrified, and even said, "Don't dare!" "Quickly slipped away with the barrel.

Seeing the old man's appearance, Liu Fan was stunned for a while, is he so scary? Shaking his head, he ignored it, and said to Ding Lu, "Let's go and see other ways to make salt!" ”

Ding Lu took Liu Fan around the salt field, Liu Fan also roughly understood the level of salt making in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the two traditional methods of pouring brine, frying (boiling) salt, there is also a kind of salt drying tide, digging and drying salt two more advanced methods, digging salt is to dig a deep well in the sea water rise is to open the gap into the seawater, after the tide recedes, plug the gap, wait for the sea water to dry naturally, and then take salt, this method has a large yield, and the quality of salt is very good, it takes too long, for the stove households who have to hand over the ration of salt goods every month, To make salt in this way is to make a joke on your life. Therefore, this method is generally used as a backup when you are free. There are also many salt wells in the Shihe Salt Works, but they are all passed down from generation to generation, and every month salt workers will bring seawater into the wells to accumulate salt brine for the unexpected need or for the benefit of future generations. As the name suggests, it is to introduce seawater into the salt pan and dry the salt by the weather, which is very close to the method of later generations, and the quality of the dried salt is also very good, but it is not widely used. This made Liu Fan very puzzled. Later, after inquiry, I learned that this method took too long, and once it encountered a rainy day, the previous efforts were abandoned, and the stove household was restricted by the imperial court, and did not dare to gamble on their lives with this method of gambling on luck, and it was generally used as the early process of frying salt, and the salt workers put seawater into the field, and took the seawater with higher salt content, so as to reduce the time used to fry salt.

After this in-depth understanding of Liu Fan only had a clearer understanding of the salt production in the Ming Dynasty, he always thought that the ancient people would only use the pot to boil salt, and also thought of using the methods of later generations to make a fortune, it turned out that this was not the case, the salt making methods of the Ming Dynasty were already very advanced, but the lack of scientific mechanized large-scale production methods in later generations, mainly by the constraints and oppression of the imperial court, so that the salt workers did not dare to use the method of making salt for too long. It has seriously affected the development direction of the salt industry, and under the task of forced and high-pressure salt production, salt workers can only continue to rack their brains on how to accelerate the condensation rate of salt

After returning to the Salt Division, Liu Fan inquired about the operation of Ding Lu's salt price and taxation. Ding Lu replied: Our salt department is mainly engaged in salt taxation, and the salt tax is divided into three kinds, one is to collect from stove households, and retail households are called stove tax, the other is to collect from merchants, which is called introduction of tax, and the third is to collect all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes called miscellaneous taxes. The stove households of the salt field are responsible for paying the corresponding quota of salt goods to the salt division, about 1780 catties per small quote, and the salt division pays the stove household one stone of rice, or 500 yuan in silver. Merchants use salt to bring salt to the scene or to pay for salt, about six and a half cents per lead, and the price of salt has recently increased, rising to about eight cents per lead. During the Jiajing period, the salt law was revised, and one introduction of positive salt was allowed, and two quotations of surplus salt were allowed, each of which was a package, with a total of 285 catties. A total of 550 catties or 570 catties of surplus salt is a pack, and only a pair of salt is needed. The merchant took salt from the salt field, and each bag of salt silver was two taels or four dollars. The domestic merchant gave the water merchant a price of 322 yuan per package, which is equivalent to 2780 catties per package. The water merchant transported salt to other places, and the profit was changed from a large bag to a small package in the "unbundled", and more than 70 bags were obtained, each bag weighed about eight catties, and five taels of silver were obtained. At this time, the price of salt has reached more than 70 Wen, and when the local big salt merchants take the goods from the water merchants, they make a price of one penny and a bag of silver, and sell them to small shops at a higher price, at this time, each catty of salt rises to more than 150 Wen or 200 Wen, and the price of salt in the hands of the people is even higher, almost reaching 2890 Wen. There are more than 300 places where there is a shortage of salt. Regarding taxation, during the Hongzhi period, the imperial court implemented the "Open China Law" to get a salt introduction for every stone of grain delivered to the nine sides, so now most of our salt introduction in Shandong is in the hands of Jin merchants. The imperial court had little tax on the introduction of lessons. During the Wanli period, the government no longer interfered in salt affairs, and only collected taxes, and only collected taxes of two or three wen per catty of salt. Therefore, the income of Shihe Salt Works is only more than 9,000 taels. ”

"Poof! More than nine thousand taels? Liu Fan, who was drinking tea, suddenly sprayed! The annual income of such a large salt farm is only 9,000 taels?

Liu Fan finally understood why Daming's salt tax was only a million taels a year when he heard Ding Lu's explanation, and most of his feelings were taken away by businessmen! From the ex-factory price of less than three wen per catty to nearly three hundred wen in the hands of the people, how huge is the profit? The imperial court actually earned less than five cents per catty plus taxes. The annual output of official salt in the Ming Dynasty is about 2 million yuan, and one introduction is 200 catties. The annual salt production is less than 500 million catties, and the income per catty is only 5 cents, and there are 2.5 million taels! However, the annual salt tax is only more than 1 million taels, which is 2 cents per catty, which is incredible.

"What about the private salt? What do you say about private salt? Liu Fan asked

"This..."Ding Lu hesitated for a moment, not daring to speak. Liu Fan glared at him and said, "But it's okay to talk about it, this official brought troops!" Immediately a large army will be brought to surround this place, and no one will be allowed to enter or leave in the future. This official has the emperor's order, and I will have the final say in the Shihe Salt Farm in the future, and no one will interfere with it! If you are not satisfied, the official has the right to cut first and then play! ”

Ding Lu suddenly shuddered, quietly glanced at Captain Yanding, and saw him nod violently. Only then did he calm down and said, "My lord, as far as I know, the illegal salt merchants in Jiaozhou buy one or two silver per stone of coarse salt from the Salt Division or the surrounding illegal salt dealers. More than 200 catties per stone, which is five wen per catty. This is a difference in quality. If the quality is better, the sediment will be increased to six or seven. ”

Liu Fan was surprised: "Only five or six wen per catty? Why so few? Is the purchase price of private salt also so low? ”

"Yes! My lord! That's the price! People control the price, and our court can't do anything about it, not to mention that I'm just a small official who can't enter the stream of salt classes, so I can only go with the flow and admit it! Ding Lu echoed

Listening to Ding Lu's words, Liu Fan fell into deep thought, this is completely different from what he imagined, the big salt merchants control the pricing power, even if the purchase price of private salt is only five yuan, but the sale to the inland is as high as three hundred yuan, the most profitable place in the middle is not salt production! It's the salt seller in the middle! Even if Liu Fan expands his salt production, in the end, he is just making a wedding dress for others! But Liu Fan had no sales channels, so he could only hand over the salt to the salt merchants for sale, but Liu Fan was particularly unwilling to see such a huge profit being taken away by the salt merchants in vain. rashly meddling in the sale of salt, he himself does not have that much strength! For a while, Liu Fan didn't know what to do!

Liu Fan, who was unwilling, asked Ding Lu again: "What about the refined salt?" How do salt merchants buy? ”

"The refined salt depends on the condition, the quality is good, and the white refined salt is generally about 200 wen per catty," Ding Lu replied truthfully

"Two hundred wen!" Liu Fan muttered, it seems that if you want to get rich, you still have to refine refined salt to have a way out!