The problem of salt, to say that it is not a big deal, as the only salt resource source in the big-headed ant kingdom, "Yancheng" will restore the supply of salt sooner or later, and at present, the various nests under the command of the protagonist can endure it, and it will pass, and it will not be life-threatening.

But the problem of salt is not small.

Salt is a necessity, not only for ants, but also for people, and because of its necessity and scarcity, it has always been a very important strategic resource.

The distribution of salt is concentrated, and the ancient salt-producing areas are mainly concentrated near the seaside, salt ponds and natural rock salt mines, while the modern salt production depends on coastal salt farms, salt lakes and underground well salt. Like ancient China, it mainly relied on sea salt in coastal areas, well salt in Sichuan and pond salt in Shanxi for a long time.

Salt is one of the necessities of human production and life, with large social demand and very little consumption elasticity. There is a huge contradiction between the universal demand for salt and its non-universal distribution. And this contradiction is also the root cause of many policies and events in human history.

In China, the word "salt" originally means "to boil and marinate in a vessel". It is recorded in the "Shuowen": Those who are born are called halogen, and those who are boiled are called salt. Legend has it that the Yellow Emperor boiled sand with seawater and fried it into salt, with five colors of green, yellow, white, black and purple, which shows that the Chinese began to boil salt around the time of Shennong (Yandi) and the Yellow Emperor, and the salt at that time was boiled out of seawater.

China is also the place where the salt well was invented. "The Book of the King of Shu": "Emperor Xuandi began to wear dozens of salt wells in the festival. ”

Since the Han Dynasty, salt ponds have also been used to extract salt. Wang Hui praised it in "Luo Du Fu": "There is a salt pond in the east, the jade is clean and fresh, it is not boiled, and it is natural." ”

Historically, in the early days, salt production relied on fire. This primitive boiling of salt is time-consuming, fuel-intensive, and low-yielding, resulting in high salt prices.

As a result, from the moment salt was born, the royal family established the salt law. In the Zhou Dynasty, the official in charge of salt administration was called "salt man", and "Zhou Li, Tianguan, Salt Man" recorded that the salt man was in charge of salt administration and managed all kinds of salt-using affairs: bitter salt and loose salt should be used for sacrifices, shape salt should be used for hospitality, and starch salt should be used for the king's meals.

In feudal society, most of the means of production and subsistence were self-sufficient, but salt in most areas could not be self-sufficient and had to be obtained from the outside world.

In ancient Chinese society, salt, iron, tea and wine were a few commodities traded in large quantities, but these commodities were monopolized in different periods, and salt was the variety that had been monopolized for the longest time, the widest range, and the greatest economic impact.

Under the monopoly system, the commodity properties of salt have changed greatly compared with the situation under the conditions of free production and circulation.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, if there was salt, the country would be rich. "Book of Han": "Wu boiled the water of the East China Sea as salt, in order to get rich, and the country was satisfied." "The Guan Zhong of Qi also set up a salt official to cook salt, and rejuvenated the country with the benefit of fishing salt.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the Salt Law, implemented the monopoly of official salt, and prohibited private property. According to the "Historical Records and Pingzhun Book", whoever dared to make salt privately was punished by cutting off his left toe. During the Jin Dynasty, the people who boiled salt privately were sentenced to four years in prison, and the officials were sentenced to two years.

The salt monopoly system in feudal society is a complete set of systems in which the ruling class monopolizes the production and sales channels of salt, and it has become a financial revenue tool for the ruling class in feudal society, plundering the wealth of the people for its feudal rule, earning huge profits and increasing fiscal revenue.

In feudal society, those scholars and doctors with financial consciousness have a visual description of this, "profit out of a hole", its image lies in only seeing the benefits, but not looking at how the interests are generated.

For example, Guan Zhong specially calculated an account for Qi Huangong: "Ten people in ten people eat salt, and one hundred people eat salt in one hundred people." An adult man eats five and a half liters of salt a month, a woman eats three and a half liters, and a child two and a half liters. A kettle of salt is 100 liters, and the price of salt per liter is increased by half a penny, and a kettle can earn 50 cents; Add one dollar per liter, and one kettle can earn 100 yuan. Add two dollars per liter, and one kettle can earn two hundred dollars. Ten cauldron for one bell. For a thousand minutes, that's two million dollars. If a large country of 10,000 times earns 2 million a day from the price of salt, it will be 20 million in 10 days, and 60 million in a month. In contrast, in a large country with 10,000 multipliers, the taxable population is only 1 million people, and the monthly tax per person is 30 yuan, which is only 30 million in total. You see, we don't have to tax adults and children directly, we have twice as much tax. But if you openly say: I will directly tax adults and children across the country, then there will definitely be a lot of resentment among the people. Now if we adopt a fiscal policy of salt, even if we get a hundredfold of tax profits, no one will be able to escape. ”

In this way, the ruling class has cleverly borrowed the commodity appearance of salt to conceal its essence of plundering the wealth of the people.

The ancient salt merchants, who were directly responsible for the sale of salt, generally had monopoly privileges, so nine times out of ten, the salt merchants made a fortune.

China's first salt merchant was the Lu people in the Spring and Autumn Period, and there was an old saying of "Tao Zhu and Yi Dun's wealth". Tao Zhu is Fan Li, according to legend, Fan Li helped the Yue King Gou Jian to destroy Wu, because he thought that the Yue King could not be happy together, so he abandoned the official to Shandong Dingtao County called "Tao Zhu Gong", and became rich in business. "Yidun is to the Spring and Autumn Period of the Xun Kingdom, the Han Dynasty belongs to Hedong County, now belongs to Shanxi, there is a pond of salt. Yidun operated Hedong Salt in Xunguo for ten years and became rich.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the extravagance of salt merchants in Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River reached its peak. According to the "Qing Barnyard Banknotes": "There are those who want to spend 10,000 gold for a while, so that the guests can buy gold leaf with gold, carry it to the tower of Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang, and carry it to the wind, disperse in an instant, and between the grass and trees along the edge, it cannot be recovered."

The history of salt in the human world is a history of the ruling class constantly strengthening its control over the people and stealthily plundering it.

The protagonists who understand this history naturally know what a huge interest there is behind the seemingly tiny salt.

Because of this, the protagonist now has a heart of self-reliance, and of course he can't let salt be an important resource out of his control, and be choked by others.

For example, during the Warring States period of Japan, the Takeda family, which was deep inland and had no salt mines in the territory, had a bad relationship with the Hojo family by the sea, and the Hojo family and the Imagawa family imposed a salt blockade on the Takeda family.

It can be seen that salt can also be used at any time to limit the blockade of the enemy, especially when the opponent does not have the control of the salt mines.

Faced with such enormous political, military, social and economic interests, the protagonist is determined to take the salt mine into his own hands.