One hawker completed the transaction safely, and the second hawker was bold, although the blatant bandit was going to have a problem, but being forced to trade by the bandit could not be regarded as a bandit, right? Several bold hawkers jumped down from the city wall and delivered all their goods to Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, and Zhu Yuanzhang did not refuse to come and bought them all.

After buying a large number of small supplies from this group of hawkers, Zhu Yuanzhang said again: "I don't have anything in the mountains, and the soldiers don't even have a new clothes to wear. Trouble the cloth merchants in the city to come out, I will buy all your cloth. ”

The people at the head of the city looked at each other for a long time, and Cao Baoxiang shouted: "What are you waiting for? Throw all the cloth sellers out to me. ”

After a while, the cloth business was done again. Zhu Yuanzhang was still not satisfied, and said: "There is no salt and no iron in the mountains, give me some more salt and iron." ”

"This ......" Cao Baoxiang hesitated this time, in the Ming Dynasty, salt and iron were not ordinary commodities, unlike later generations who could buy them casually in the supermarket, and they could buy as much as they wanted.

The Ming Dynasty implemented the official operation of salt and iron, that is to say, salt and iron are operated by the government, and they are not allowed to be bought and sold by the private sector, why is this?

The reason is very simple, salt is a necessity for people's lives, everyone must buy it, and when the government controls salt, it controls a lot of wealth. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court has controlled the salt industry, allowing this money to be earned by the political axe.

As for iron, the reason is simpler, iron is not just like salt, it is a necessity of life. And in ancient times, iron was the most important strategic material, and there was no one!

In modern warfare, there are many materials used to make weapons, such as aluminum can be used to make airplanes, and uranium can be used to make atomic bombs, but in ancient times, no matter whether you use swords, guns, swords, halberds, or any of the eighteen kinds of weapons, iron is indispensable. What, you said you used a copper hammer? All right! Copper is used to make money, you take it to make a hammer, beware of being chased and beaten on the battlefield, because in the eyes of the enemy, what you wield in your hand is not a copper hammer, but a large lump of money, killing you can not only use your head to receive a reward, but also pick up a large lump of money, do you say you can not be chased and cut to death?

If Cao Baoxiang takes the official salt and official iron to sell to the bandits, it will really be a real bandit, if he is a ginseng in the court in the future, it will definitely be a place to die without a burial, Zhu Yuanzhang will dare to give anything else, just these two things, that is really not daring to give.

As soon as he hesitated, Zhu Yuanzhang outside the city smiled: "Afraid that the imperial court will settle accounts after the autumn?" Aren't you afraid that I won't wait for the autumn queen and settle accounts with you now? ”

Cao Baoxiang's heart is bitter, the front door is a wolf, the back door is a tiger, this Baishui's * county order is really too difficult. Seeing that he was embarrassed there, the dog-headed master next to him hurriedly rushed out and said in a low voice: "Lord County, didn't we arrest a few smuggler salt dealers and a few itinerant merchants who smuggled and sold iron tools?" Throw these people to Zhu Ba...... To be honest, we are a small city here, and the official salt and iron supplied by the imperial court to us are very small, not as much as those in the hands of these smuggler salt dealers, maybe they are even more satisfied with Zhu Ba. ”

"That's right!" Cao Baoxiang was overjoyed, this is really a rescue from heaven, let the thieves meet their needs.

He said a few words to the officials, and after a while, the officials came out of the prison with four or five men, two of whom were smugglers of salt, and three of whom were smugglers of iron, all of whom had only been caught for a short time.

The officials also carried out the salt and iron seized by the traffickers when they were arrested, and they also carried a lot of loads.

Cao Baoxiang said in a flattering tone: "King Zhu Ba, official salt and official iron, the lower officials really don't dare to give it to you...... These smuggling salt and iron dealers, do you use them to make use of them? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang's face remained unchanged, and he said: "It's also done, then I'll accept these people." In fact, Cao Baoxiang confessed to the smuggler of salt and iron, which was already expected by him, and when he forced the other party to give salt and iron, he expected that this would be the outcome, and what he wanted was exactly such a result.

He knew very well that with the scale of white water, there could not be much official salt and official iron. Iron, in particular, was barely enough for the local people to make a few kitchen knives and plowshares, and it was impossible to use it to make weapons in large quantities. Moreover, the official salt and official iron are also unstable, once the imperial court cuts off the supply of white water, even if he holds a knife on Cao Baoxiang's neck, it is impossible to buy it.

Instead of this, it is better to contact a few smugglers of salt and iron to obtain the materials they want through smuggling. Things like smugglers of salt and iron are also outlaws who lick blood on their heads, and they are a pair made in heaven with thieves like themselves.

Several traffickers were sent out of the city, and even a few loads of smuggled salt and smuggled iron were thrown into Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, and Cao Baoxiang came to curry favor again: "King, there is no other request now, right?" Xiaguan also asks you to raise your noble hand and go around the city......"

"Okay, for your sake, this Whitewater City...... Forget it! Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, turned around and left: "By the way, do you want to quickly write an urgent letter of eight hundred miles, and ask Xi'an Mansion to send troops to encircle and suppress me?" ”

"Don't dare! The lower officials will definitely not dare! Cao Baoxiang shouted in a hurry.

"Oh!" Zhu Yuanzhang let out a meaningful "oh" and led his troops away, leaving only an arrogant back in Baishui City. The six hundred soldiers he brought with him, and a thousand newly recruited villagers, carried on their shoulders the "taxes" they had collected from the squire, and went with him in high spirits.

"Phew, this guy is finally gone." Cao Baoxiang's careful liver, which had been hanging in his throat, finally fell back into his stomach, he turned his body and said to the master next to him: "Go and write a letter, hurry up to 800 miles, send your henchmen to Xi'an Mansion, and ask the court to send troops to exterminate Zhu Ba, a traitor." ”

"Lord County, didn't you just say you wouldn't dare?" Master Khan.

"Are you stupid? Of course, you have to say that to thieves. Cao Baoxiang couldn't help but shouted indignantly: "This guy is too arrogant, I must treat him." ”

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Let's say that Zhu Yuanzhang led the team back to the mountain, and the soldiers followed him out of the mountain for a turn, harvesting a lot of food and goods, and they were all a little happy. The old first to fourth teams, although they barely managed to maintain the silence of the march. But the new ninth team, the new tenth team, and the new villagers couldn't help but laugh and talk lively.

In the midst of the uproar, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the salt and iron dealers, intending to talk to them about cooperation.

First of all, there are two salt sellers, these two people are very dark-skinned, slightly short, and their shoulders are very strong, it seems that they are often honed by carrying salt burdens, Zhu Yuanzhang chatted with them casually, it turns out that these salt sellers all belong to a huge salt dealer organization, the leader is named Zhou Ye, and he usually acts in the Huguang area. He obtained illicit salt from coastal cities, and then transported it by water and land, carrying it on his shoulders and carrying it, and sold it to various cities.

These two small salt sellers are the two small ones under Zhou Ye, because Baishui is a small place, Zhou Ye did not send many men, only sent the two of them, and used the burden to carry two loads of salt to sell, but they were arrested and arrested, I thought I would die, but I didn't expect to be rescued by Zhu Ba.

Zhu Yuanzhang casually agreed with them that in the future, Zhou Ye's private salt organization would deliver salt to his cottage, and these two people were originally engaged in this business, so of course they had no choice but to agree.

Then there are the iron dealers, the three iron dealers can all speak Shaanxi * Western dialect, but from their occasional conversations with each other, Zhu Yuanzhang can easily hear the Si * Sichuan dialect, it turns out that these three iron dealers are all from the four * Sichuan.

Four * Sichuan, also known as Shu, the difficulty of Shu Road, it is difficult to go to the blue sky. Due to the unique geographical conditions, since ancient times, Si * Sichuan has a bit of a sense of reading power outside the whole world, the so-called world is not chaotic Shu first chaos, the world has been peaceful Shu is not peaceful.

There are many heroes in Shudi, and there are also many people. There are also many minerals in Shu, and after the iron ore dug up by the Diao people was handed over to the government, they secretly took out the excess and sold it privately, so there were many iron dealers in Shu, and the radiation power covered every province at the junction of Si*chuan.

These iron dealers are villagers on a mountain in northern Sichuan, the village is rich in iron ore, and the local government forces the villagers to mine and buy it at a very low price, not to mention that the eunuchs in charge of the iron ore have to levy very high iron taxes on them, and their lives are very difficult. (Note: The Ming Dynasty liked to use eunuchs to manage salt and iron tea.) ）

As a result, the villagers were miserable, so they handed over a small part of the excavated iron ore, hid more than half of it, smelted it into pig iron, and then took the pig iron out to sell it privately, so that they could make a good living with the money they earned from selling pig iron.

Zhu Yuanzhang hit it off with several iron dealers and soon negotiated a business. You must know that it is not easy for iron dealers to sell pig iron, they have traveled all over the world, and they can't sell a lot, because the people of the Ming Dynasty are poor and can't afford to buy iron tools, such as iron pots and kitchen knives, which don't use much iron, can already be used as heirlooms in people's homes.

Iron dealers had to sell their pig iron only occasionally to blacksmiths or craftsmen, and in doing so they had to risk their heads killed, which was a far cry from the salt sellers.

But Zhu Yuanzhang is different, he is a rebel "villain", he needs a lot of pig iron to build weapons for his soldiers, in this case, he will become a good buyer, no need for these iron dealers to risk their lives everywhere to sell, just need to go back to the village to organize a team of villagers, pick a small road, and transport pig iron directly to Zhu Yuanzhang's cottage through the mountains and mountains.

"Brother Zhu, we are so lucky, the most important salt and iron can be solved in such a simple way." Ma Xiaotian couldn't help but laugh when he was next to him.

"It's not luck, the smuggler of salt and iron, I was going to find it for a long time." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed lightly, he recalled his previous life, one of his biggest opponents in life, Zhang Shicheng, that guy was a huge salt lord. I didn't expect that in this life, I would actually join forces with the salt owl......