After Liu Shou, the king of Qiyi, entered the court to dedicate the country, the state of Qi was handed over to the imperial court. In order to avoid the notoriety of competing with the people for profit, the Shaofu and the Great Agricultural Order did not take over all the industries under the name of King Qi, but handed them over to the royal industrial group to take care of them.

In just over a month, Qi and Donglai, Jiaodong, and Langxie coastal counties, but all the flat coastal barren beaches, have excavated countless huge beach pools for drying salt. Under the strict supervision of the craftsmen sent by the Imperial Industrial Group, the actual objects of the beach pond are not wrong according to the construction plan.

The ridge of the pond is about half a foot high, built into a square pool, the area is generally eight steps (five feet per step) of each square pond from top to bottom, the beach pond is dug low one by one from top to bottom, the drop is generally three inches, there is a pool door between the upper and lower pools, which is used to flow water downward. A mound, commonly known as a salt mound, is built under the bottom pond to prepare for salt storage.

Dig two or three large ditches around the beach pond, commonly known as salt ditches, in order to store water in the tide. On the seaward side of the ditch, open a water gate and set up a gate to prepare for opening and closing. Outside of it, open a "tidal ditch" again, which leads directly to the sea, is used to lead the tide into the ditch, and prepares the salt ditch to accept the tide.

There are tall treadmills standing all over the salt ditch, constantly absorbing the seawater in the ditch and pouring it into the brine platform, after using the light to evaporate the water, the flowers can be floated and crystallized, and the salt is returned to the mound after a few days.

Looking at the countless bags of white sea salt transported to the ships at the wharf, they have gone north or south along the coast, and then enter the inland river through the estuaries of various rivers and transported to the counties along the river, Dong Guo Xianyang, the head of the salt department of the Royal Industrial Group, has a look of excitement written on his face, and he is also faintly complacent about his wise choice.

Dongguo Xianyang was originally a large salt merchant with thousands of local assets in Qi State, and the Dongguo family has been engaged in the salt boiling industry for more than 100 years. At the beginning of the envoy sent by the royal business group to the Qi State to reorganize the national salt industry according to Liu Fei's plan, the first thing that came to mind was Dongguo Xianyang.

Dongguo Xianyang did not hesitate at first, after all, the salt industry is really a lucrative industry, and as the largest salt merchant in Qi State, he naturally does not want to be shared. However, when the group's envoy invited him to visit the first newly built salt drying plant, he no longer hesitated to pledge all the salt works, salt workers and even ships and carriages in exchange for the opportunity to cooperate with the Royal Industrial Group.

As a shrewd businessman, he knew very well that once a large number of new salt farms were completed and a steady stream of high-quality and low-cost sea salt began to be delivered to various counties and counties in Dahan, the originally lucrative salt merchants from all over the country would face extinction.

In fact, the Royal Industrial Group could completely put aside any salt merchant and go it alone, but they finally chose to cooperate with Dongguo Xianyang, the top salt merchant in Qi State. Whether it is the crown prince Liu Che or the chairman Liu Fei, they don't want to spend too much energy and manpower on transportation and sales, what they want is nothing more than to crack down on the rich and unkind giant salt merchants, curb the high salt prices, and make a little money by the way, instead of completely cutting off the livelihood of all Han merchants.

Wancheng is the governance of Nanyang County, the head rests on the barberry, the foot pedals the Jianghan, the east is based on the Tongbai, and the west chokes the Qinling Mountains, which can be described as an outstanding person. Well-known at home and abroad, Shangsheng Fan Li and Mousheng Jiang Ziya both originated here......

The spirit of Wancheng businessmen is quite strong, and it is also from its origin. In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, Qin II forcibly immigrated a group of industrialists and merchants from all over the country to Nanyang County. The arrival of these merchants naturally changed the customs of Wancheng and gave rise to the custom of sitting on Jia and traveling merchants.

What really interested the crown prince Liu Che was the extremely developed iron and salt industries in Nanyang County.

During the time of Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, he adhered to the national policy of not competing with the people for profit, and had delegated the sources of mountains and rivers such as iron smelting, mining, and boiling salt to private management, and let the people mine freely. Until Emperor Wen ascended the throne, he still "indulged the people in coining money, smelting iron, and boiling salt", and continued to let private individuals produce and sell salt and iron.

Now to the Jingdi Dynasty, Nanyang County has appeared a large number of merchants who made a fortune by operating iron smelting and boiling salt, the most famous rich people are Cao's, Zhuo's, Cheng Zheng, etc., and Nanyang Kong's family, because of his mastery of "big drum casting", and "the benefits of trade", is even more rich to a huge million, with thousands of waists.

These wealthy businessmen not only enjoyed themselves, but also lavishly communicated with princes and magnates, and built a huge political protection network with huge sums of money. They not only annexed a large number of mines and fields in Nanyang County, but also wantonly bought mansions and slaves in Beique Jiadi in the capital Chang'an, without regard to the national policy of valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce.

The prosperity and development of the commodity economy and the continuous expansion of the financial resources of the salt and iron merchants have not only enabled them to control a considerable part of the economic lifeline, but have even become a social force that contends with the central power, and in the long run, it will seriously endanger the rule of the feudal state.

Liu Che's blueprint for the economic layout of the Han Empire is naturally indispensable to the prosperous Wancheng. In order to crack down on these arrogant wealthy businessmen, Liu Che did not intend to suggest that the emperor's father, like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in history, use political and military force to enforce the "salt and iron official camp", and return all the management rights of iron smelting and boiling salt to the central government. For the crossers who have opened the golden finger, the clever use of economic means is often higher than the use of strong force to suppress the surname.

Recently, the major salt merchants in Wancheng have all looked sad, and the salt excavated from the major rock salt mines in Nanyang County is now unsalable. Compared with the snow-white sea salt, the yellowish and bitter mineral salt is of slightly lower quality. The reason why Nanyang salt merchants were able to make a lot of money with mineral salt was because Nanyang County was located in the inland of the Central Plains, and the production of sea salt was insufficient, and the freight was high.

Recently, however, news has come from the surrounding counties that a large number of ships full of sea salt continue to dock and unload at the wharves along the Yellow River and Huaishui. The merchants of Qi who came with the ship, and they didn't even bother to go ashore to rest, so they set up tables on the ship and traded with the local salt shop stewards who flocked to the ship after hearing the news.

After inspecting the goods, many salt shop managers offered sky-high prices for these sea salts with good color and excellent taste. However, as if they had fallen into an evil spirit, the merchants refused to sell the high price, but only used the price of 20% of the local mineral salt, that is, the ultra-low price equivalent to 80 yuan per stone of corn, to dump and sell a large amount of sea salt.

Naturally, the stewards of the major salt shops were ecstatic, and they waited at the wharves everywhere, and as soon as the merchant ships trafficking in sea salt docked, they would flock to it like hungry tigers and rush to buy it. The frenzied rush lasted for more than half a month, and a large number of salt bales were piled up in the salt warehouses of various counties along the coast, but the salt ships were still moored and unloaded in an endless stream.

The stewards of the salt shops, who had regained their senses, reported such a strange situation to the master's family, and on the other hand, organized a large number of caravans to transport the salt stored in the warehouse to the more inland counties, trying to get rid of it as soon as possible before the news spread, if not to make money, at least not to lose money.

In just half a month, the price of salt in Jiujiang, Huaiyang, Hanoi, Henan, Yingchuan, Runan and other counties along the river has dropped from 400 yuan per stone to 200 yuan per stone.

What's more serious is that the shrewd Han people saw the price of salt plummet, except for a short period of panic buying in the first few days, they immediately looked forward to it, and would rather eat less salt than wait for the price of salt to continue to decline before buying. After all, there is no impermeable wall in the world, and the people already know that the salt shop is purchased from the merchants of Qi at a price of 80 yuan per stone, and as long as more sea salt is shipped in the future, the price of 200 yuan per stone will definitely not last long.

The salt merchants in Nanyang County are not vegetarians, and after many discussions, they reached a consensus, suddenly cut off the sale of mineral salt, and at the same time raised a lot of money, and sent people to rush to the wharves to pack all the sea salt that was transported.

When the salt supervisors sent by the Imperial Industrial Group to various counties to manage the trafficking and sale of sea salt saw that there was something strange and summoned Liu Fei Kuaima in Chang'an City, most of the salt shops in the surrounding counties of Nanyang County had closed down one after another and no longer sold salt to the people. For a time, rumors spread in various counties and counties, and the price of salt soared rapidly, which could return to the original level, but it was still priceless.

Liu Fei was shocked when he heard the news, he knew that the matter was very important, and if he didn't make a big mess, he naturally didn't dare to make a decision alone, and hurriedly entered the palace to see the prince Liu Che.

Liu Che read the letter submitted by Liu Fei repeatedly, and in addition to disdain, his face was also a little annoyed. The wealthy businessmen and tycoons in Nanyang County were indeed a little arrogant, and they clearly wanted to blackmail the people's livelihood to force the imperial court to prohibit the royal industrial group from continuing to dump sea salt. Liu Che absolutely cannot tolerate these social forces who think they control a part of the economic lifeline and want to compete with the central power.

Liu Che raised his eyebrows and said fiercely: "Brother Huang doesn't need to worry too much, just order people to mobilize more ships, chariots and horses as soon as possible, and at the same time suspend the delivery of sea salt to the counties in the north and south, gather all the transportation capacity, and transport all the newly dried sea salt to the surrounding counties of Nanyang." The lonely king doesn't believe it, they can still eat it all, Mo Dao can't kill them?! ”

Liu Fei's jaw head agrees that even according to the price of corn, it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to wrap all the rounds. Even if the Nanyang businessmen have a net worth of hundreds of millions, but after all, the hearts of the people are separated from the belly, and their current alliance is extremely fragile.

It's just that rumors are spreading in Nanyang and surrounding counties, and there are even local officials behind it. Nanyang giant merchants have been communicating princes and magnates for many years, and the entanglement of interests between them and local officials is even more intertwined, in case the dog jumps off the wall in a hurry, I am afraid it will be difficult to clean up......" Liu Fei pondered for a moment, hesitating and tentatively.

A cold light flashed in Liu Che's eyes, and he said coldly: "It's okay, King Gu has already discussed this matter with his father and Prime Minister Yuan Cheng. To deal with the annihilation of merchants, it is necessary to use the means of merchants; But if they dare to break the rules and violate the taboo of collusion between officials and businessmen, they will be killing themselves! (To be continued.) )