Yan Liqiang lived in a modern society in his previous life, and in modern society, if you want to choose one of the most important materials, it must be oil. Oil is the blood of the modern economy, is the source of wealth, is the basis of industry, without oil, the whole society will be suspended, in the earth of Yan Liqiang's previous life, those most powerful rich families and secret groups, the fate of those most powerful countries and economies, are closely related to oil, oil derives a huge amount of wealth, also derives countless wars and sorrows, oil is the battlefield of great power wrestling, the "old friend" of the Chinese people Kissinger also has a famous saying—— Whoever controls the oil controls all the countries.

And in the world that Yan Liqiang lives in now, in the Silver Continent, if there is anything that can be as important as the oil in his previous life, there is no doubt that that kind of thing is table salt. Therefore, the expression of the importance related to oil can be placed on salt, it is not an exaggeration, the importance of salt, to a certain extent, even exceeds oil, because a person can survive without oil, but a person without salt, absolutely can not live, salt, is the absolute protagonist of this world trade, is the largest trade commodity, those stories around the occurrence of salt, and those stories around the occurrence of oil, almost the same, the rise and fall of countless wealthy families, countless wars between countries and tribes, almost all related to salt。

In this world, where salt can be produced, it is the same as where oil can be produced in the previous life, and as long as there is salt, countless riches will rush in. In this world, in the Han Empire, the richest and most powerful families have an inseparable relationship with salt, and the salt tax is the pillar of the Han Empire's financial revenue.

In a world where force is supreme, the Han Empire did not have a monopoly policy of the salt industry controlled by the government, and the salt trade was open to everyone, and in order to control the salt trade and obtain the huge financial funds needed by the empire from the salt trade, the Han Empire invented a very clever management method, that is, the issuance of salt stamps.

Salt stamps have three functions, one is market access, the second is tax collection vouchers, and the third is with the nature of invoices.

All the production of salt, if you have a production capacity of 10,000 catties of salt a year, then you have to buy 10,000 catties of salt tickets from the official, your salt can legally enter the market circulation, from the beginning of the production of salt, salt tickets began to enter it, bearing the role of tax collection and market access vouchers, and when the people buy salt, such as buying a catty of salt, you can ask the salt merchant for a catty of salt tickets, and then the people can take the salt tickets to buy salt, to the relevant local salt administration Yamen to "tax refund" In the end, the salt ticket returned to the hands of the imperial court.

According to the different quality of salt, salt stamps are divided into four kinds: superior, medium, inferior, and inferior, different grades and quality of salt, you need to buy different grades and quality of salt stamps, under normal circumstances, the value of a pound of salt stamps, almost occupies about 50% of the market price of a pound of salt, but even so, the salt industry is still a profiteering industry, because between the price and cost of salt, conservative estimates are twenty or thirty times the profit margin, even if the official takes half of the profits, leaving the sellers, there are at least ten times more profit margins。

If the people buy salt when the salt merchant can't give the salt ticket, then the salt bought is private salt, the Han Empire's crackdown on illegal salt is very resolute and severe, if an ordinary person buys a pound of private salt without a salt ticket, as long as he takes the salt to report and accuse, once it is verified, he will immediately "reward a thousand taels of gold", and instantly get rich, and the person who sells illegal salt is a felony of stealing his house and killing his head.

Under such a complete control system, although there is illegal salt, it is only a minority, and it is not rampant.

Yan Liqiang didn't focus on salt before, because money was not his pursuit, but on the way back to Ganzhou this time, Yan Liqiang repeatedly asked himself how to gather a huge force around him in the shortest possible time, when he saw the caravan of salt merchants on the road, he suddenly remembered the history of Zhang Shicheng, a smuggler of salt dealers, and Zhu Yuanzhang who he had seen in his previous life。

Yan Liqiang was curious in his last life because a few people who sold illicit salt could also influence history, and Zhu Yuanzhang was a tyrant in troubled times to dominate the world, so he also bought a few related books to read, and after reading those books, Yan Liqiang suddenly realized that salt had such a great role in ancient times, and the war between the Yellow Emperor and Emperor Yan broke out because of the competition between the two sides for the solution pool, and the solution pool was the place where salt was produced, because the Yellow Emperor finally controlled the salt of the pool, which became the overlord of the tribes at that time, and before Zhang Shicheng, Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi, who almost destroyed the Tang Dynasty, were also illicit salt dealers, and Cheng Biting Jin was also a smuggler of saltIt was this group of smugglers who deeply participated in and influenced the historical trend of several important dynasties in ancient China.

Ganzhou also produces salt, soil salt is a kind of brine salt, limited to this era of brine salt processing technology level is generally not high, the quality of soil salt produced in Ganzhou is generally not high, and can not be sold at a high price, compared with other high-quality green salt, pool salt, worse than several so on.

Fortunately, in the books that Yan Liqiang read in his last life, there is an introduction to the salt processing technology, with the knowledge in his head, Yan Liqiang just spent one night, in his own room in the manufacturing bureau, he prepared a little simple tools, materials and utensils, and easily made the low-quality soil salt produced in Ganzhou come to a gorgeous turn and turned into snow-white refined salt.

The salt industry has too much interest in this transaction, and the involvement is too wide, and this buy** Get up, the four-wheeled carriage is just a small business that can make money, to get involved in the salt industry, Yan Liqiang still lacks a little strength and local influence, if time permits, a few years later, he may be able to fully rely on his own ability to intervene in the period, not afraid of anyone, but time waits for no one, Yan Liqiang needs time most now, so it is a shortcut to find a strong partner and backer in Ganzhou, and in the whole Ganzhou, naturally no one is more suitable than Lei Sitong.

Lei Sitong is not only the history of Ganzhou Thorn, but Sun Bingchen's evaluation of him was also very high, whether it is ability or character, he is the most suitable person Yan Liqiang can find now, Yan Liqiang naturally wants to pull Lei Sitong into his chariot.

When it comes to making a lot of money, the two sides hit it off.

The production of soil salt in Ganzhou is very loose, there is no scale, the forces that control those salt farms have local tyrants, there are also forces outside Ganzhou, the situation is a bit complicated, just in Yuntao County, Pingxi County, there are several small-scale brine mines, but those brine mines are ownerless, Yan Liqiang and Lei Sitong initially talked about the intention of cooperation.

The first step of this cooperation is that Lei Sitong is responsible for getting the salt mines in Yuntao County, whether it is existing or newly discovered, and then Yan Liqiang takes over the production with manpower, capital and equipment, Lei Sitong is responsible for the safety of the salt farm and provides some convenience and help for the sales of the salt farm, Yan Liqiang is responsible for the sales, and finally the profits are divided equally between the two sides......

The matter of getting rid of the salt mines in Yuntao County is not three days or two days to have results, there are a lot of joints behind this, even if it is Lei Sitong, it is impossible to really take the salt fields in Yuntao County with soldiers and horses like bandits and hand them over to Yan Liqiang, as a state thorn history, there are rules for doing things, you can't mess around, Yan Liqiang is not in a hurry, to get involved in this kind of big business comparable to oil trade, the preparatory work in the early stage is normal even if it takes half a year and a year, after the two sides negotiated the initial cooperation intention, saw that it was late at night, Yan Liqiang left, and Lei Sitong was under the attention of officials and squires in Pingxi County, enthusiastically sent Yan Liqiang to the door of the garden......

"Uncle Lei, please stay, you don't need to send ......" After some discussion, Yan Liqiang, the title of Uncle Lei, was also called more appropriate.

"Liqiang has something to do in the future, and it is the same to find Jianbei and Yucheng directly, whoever dares to trouble you is to find trouble with me Lei Sitong, who wants to make you unhappy, that is, let me Lei Sitong not be happy, the guillotine in my Lei Sitong hand is for these people......" Lei Sitong smiled and pointed to the new county guard and overseer of Pingxi County, and said domineering words in a homely tone, and the content of that sentence made countless people around listen to the heartbeat.

"Okay, I know, I'm afraid I will have to trouble Uncle Lei and the two adults in the future......"