Chapter 3: Dismounting
Most of the salt barons who trafficked illicit salt were armed. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, private salt was already commonplace, and the government did not dare to provoke such armed salt lords.
Huai salt is all private salt, and there is only a small part of official salt. This was known to all the officials of the Manchu Dynasty, but no one mentioned it to the emperor, let alone proposed rectification.
Those who trafficked illicit salt were mostly powerful people, or had good friends with powerful people, so they could mention illicit salt.
Like the salt merchants in Shandong, they are still too tender compared to the salt merchants of Lianghuai. If you want to sell salt, you can't have enough salt to sell them.
Zhao Yan is now developing the Laizhou Bay salt area on a large scale, and there will inevitably be a large amount of salt output.
The most important thing is to sell it, and it is completely nonsense to talk about cost competition in the area of private salt. There is no cost of private salt at all, and the reason why the price is so high is because the imperial court monopolizes the sale.
If you use cost to compete, no matter how much the price is pressed, as long as there are windfall profits, there will definitely be competitors. If you press the opponent to the point where there is no profit, you will definitely have no profit, and it is stupid to fight a price war. And when you sell it on your own, you definitely can't be so pervasive.
Therefore, Zhao Yan only planned to sell salt in the territory he could control, and handed it over to those merchants in Shandong outside the country.
It is enough to control the price of salt at two taels of silver, and of course it can be as high as possible.
Just two taels of silver per load, after the renovation of Laizhou Bay is completed, there are tens of millions of taels in the account every year, and the redevelopment of other salt farms in Shandong will make the annual income even higher, which is enough to support military spending.
It can be sold in advance.
……
After Zhao Yan inspected the salt works, he immediately returned to Zhaojiabao with his own soldiers. As soon as I entered the fort, I heard the following announcement that the Imperial History Supervisor had arrived.
"It's been hanging for two days." Zhang Buyun said.
"Hmmm! Set up a table tomorrow to pick up the wind for others! Zhao Yan smiled and instructed below. Then ask Liu Heng to help him write an invitation.
Naturally, those Shandong businessmen were invited, and let them come to Zhaojiabao for a while in half a month.
The next day, Zhao Yan set up a table of banquets and invited Qian Zhiyi, who had been ignored for a long time, over. When Qian Zhiyi saw Zhao Yan, she couldn't help but be stunned, she was so young.
"Lord Yushi came so early, the official thought it would be another ten days and half a month! It just so happened that there were bandits in Laizhou again, and the official went to deal with it. If you miss the distance, please forgive your sins. Zhao Yan said with a haha.
"Really? This official heard that the Denglai horse bandits are making a lot of trouble! I don't know if Lord Zhao can be exterminated? Qian Zhiyi asked coldly.
As soon as these words came out, a trace of an inexplicable smile appeared on the corner of Lin Yi's mouth, who was sitting on the side. And Zhao Yong and Wang Wenyue's expressions were strange. The expressions of the three of them flashed, and then they drank their own wine.
"Lord Goshi doesn't know anything! The horse bandits came and went like the wind, as if they were flowing from the north of Zhili. I am short of horses and have no money to ride, and it is really difficult to exterminate. Zhao Yan said with a smile.
"The Holy Lord asked me to come and urge Lord Zhao to suppress the bandits, if I don't exterminate the horse bandits, I'm afraid Lord Zhao will have a bad time." The threat in Qian Zhiyi's words was self-evident.
"Really? Did the imperial court send troops to arrest my general? Liu Heng took a mouthful of food, smiled when he put it to his mouth, and then put the chopsticks into his mouth and smiled unscrupulously.
Everyone else at the table burst out laughing, as if they had heard some funny joke.
"Lord Qian, this world is different from the past, just say that Kong Youde, he was originally a miner, and the court has been killed by several governors, and there are still people who take care of him." Liu Heng said with a smile: "As for civil officials, there are not a few people who have been killed in the state and county!" But it's not just that he lost the state and county, if he forced some good people to rebel, the temper of the saint was not very good, and the civil officials would kill them when they said they would. ”
"That's why the world is different today." Liu Heng said and ate a table full of dishes by himself, and no one had touched the dishes on the table! There is no scruple at all, and he directly stretches out his chopsticks to eat.
The meaning of the words is naturally to let Qian Zhiyi see his position clearly.
"Don't talk nonsense, how can the Holy One be able to speculate." Zhao Yan reprimanded him painlessly, but Liu Heng was a little bold.
"Humph! That Kong Youde is just a clown jumping off the beam, and he has not been extinguished in the end. Qian Zhiyi snorted coldly, and Wang Wenyue suddenly said: "Yes! But he ran to Liaodong and was crowned king! ”
Qian Zhiyi was speechless for a while, and her heart was extremely depressed. came to Huangxian County as a prison soldier, and he didn't give people a dismount, but let others get off the horse.
At the same time, I was also secretly shocked in my heart, this Denglai guerrilla was simply disrespectful. If he is slaughtered, what ......
Thinking of this, Qian Zhiyi couldn't help but shudder.
For a while, I couldn't help but regret why I borrowed Beijing debts to fight for the imperial history of Denglai, and people didn't take him as a prison soldier in their eyes at all.
In a somewhat dreary atmosphere, the banquet ended.
Qian Zhiyi returned to the small courtyard where she lived in a very bad mood, raised her feet and entered the door, and immediately there was a knock on the door outside. When I opened the door, I saw that Liu Heng was here, and someone brought a box over.
"This is ......" Qian Zhiyi's gaze lingered in the box for a while, and a glimmer of dawn suddenly appeared in her gloomy heart.
"Master Qian came from afar and worked hard all the way. The general of my family asked me to send some special products, and Lord Qian was appointed by the Holy Lord, and they will inevitably take care of each other in the future. Liu Heng said with a smile.
Qian Zhiyi laughed dryly, feeling a little complicated. After a while, Liu Heng took people out of the small courtyard, and Qian Zhiyi couldn't wait to open the box.
The box was full of white silver, Qian Zhiyi had never seen so much silver, and he couldn't estimate how much it was for a while, so he hurriedly asked the servant to carry it into the room, closed the door, and sat on the bed alone and slowly counted it.
After counting for a long time, there were three thousand taels.
It seems to be a return to the basics! Qian Zhiyi's mind couldn't help but become active. Although Zhao Yan is a little arrogant, this way is still clear!
Then Qian Zhiyi hurriedly called the servants and asked them to take the silver back to Beijing, and quickly repay the Beijing debt. The thought of that Beijing debt makes people sleepless, if it's late, you have to turn it up!
As soon as the two servants reached the fort gate, they were immediately searched. However, no secret reports were found, and they were quickly released.
For this prison army, Zhao Yan is stuffing silver and monitoring at the same time.
If he reports something unfavorable to him, it can surprise him. Accidents are not simple, Zhao Yan from later generations has seen too many accidents.
Drinking water, peek-a-boo, push-ups, hanging on shoelaces......
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The third more.
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