Naturally, it is impossible to excavate only ten acres of salt fields in half a month, and these ten acres are only used for experiments and training skilled workers.

Drying salt really doesn't have much technical content, it's a fool's operation, and the only trouble may be to wash salt.

But the process can also be modeled, starting with a pool that can hold one ton, two or three tons of water, and then making a fixed-size keg of salt.

How much salt can be washed in a pool, and the water will be changed when it is washed enough, and the fool-style assembly line operation will be operated.

Therefore, after two or three rounds, the natives can already skillfully dry and wash salt.

With salt, the first thing to meet is naturally their own domestic demand, in order to prevent the leakage of technology, Wen Yi did not dare to take out the salt drying technology before, Tang Guo and even Jin'an County are short of salt.

Even he, the lord of the country, did not dare to eat salt openly, let alone the people below.

Now the salt problem can finally be solved.

However, he did not engage in any cheap salt, for the simple reason that the tax was so low that he had to find a way to concentrate the surplus grain in the hands of the people into his own hands.

Salt is the best tool.

He will not lower the price of salt until the country is strong enough to a certain extent.

In addition to salt and sugar, he has asked people to reclaim land in the Chiayi Plain to grow sugarcane, and sugar will enter the market in half a year at most, becoming a tool for him to 'loot' the people.

It is said here that sugar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was not solid, but liquid.

Because of the backward production technology, the sugar made by the earliest humans was a viscous liquid, similar to honey, and was called sugar dumplings.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the improvement of technology, semi-crystalline sugar appeared, that is, half liquid and half solid, which was already very close to solid sugar.

Historically, Shatang did not appear until a hundred years later in the Southern Dynasties of Qi and Liang.

In other words, at this time, Wenyi does not need to come up with high-quality sugar, and the simplest brown sugar is already a food that is ahead of the times.

What's more, he knows how to make red sugar and white sugar, especially white sugar is a big killer.

Straight to the point.

Wen Yi didn't stay in Yancheng for too long, and the salt farm was able to operate normally to produce qualified salt, so he returned to Mengqi City.

It's just that he came back with a large boatload of salt, and when the news came out that Baihuahua's high-grade salt was sold in unlimited quantities at the price of coarse salt, the people rushed over to buy it like crazy.

The first people who immigrated had surplus food at home, so they were not stingy with salt.

The people who migrated last autumn had not yet harvested the first crops, so naturally they had no money to buy salt.

But Wu Yi thought of a way to borrow salt.

You can come and borrow salt with your household registration, or the interest-free kind, as long as you wait for the summer harvest to pay back the account.

This is the time to test the credibility of the government, and under normal circumstances, the people will not borrow money until they are desperate.

Because nine times out of ten, it will evolve into a donkey rolling, and in the end, the rolling self has nothing or even becomes a slave.

Wu Yi's action of borrowing salt this time is also a test of public opinion, so the entire high-level people in the Tang Kingdom are staring at the development of this matter.

At first, no one dared to borrow salt, and many people didn't dare to speak as they circled around the salt pile.

The people in the yamen are also secretly anxious, don't become a joke when the time comes.

Fortunately, two days later, someone finally couldn't help but come and borrow a pound of salt. The people of the Yamen almost did not serve him as God, and several people served him.

And also issued an IOU in duplicate to this person, and everyone saw that the price, no interest, and summer harvest were clearly written on it, and their hearts relaxed a little.

Someone took the lead, and more people were tempted to come over to borrow salt, and the hearts of Wu Yi and others finally relaxed.

Wen Yi is also very happy, the will of the people is the basis of all his plans, and with the support of the people, he will be more confident in his ideals.

More and more people borrowed salt, and in the end, except for a few stubborn families, almost all of them borrowed salt from the yamen.

Wu Yi did not take special care of those families, because taking care of them was an injustice to others.

However, they did not let it go, but lent them some salt through their neighbors.

Wen Yi is even more satisfied with Wu Yi's way of dealing with it, and fairness and favor are taken into account.

The country is larger and the population is larger, so it is definitely impossible to take care of everyone so meticulously, and sometimes it will be counterproductive if it is too meticulous.

But now that they are small countries and widows, they must have a small country and widows to take into account everyone as much as possible.

With salt, you can't just pile it up in the warehouse, you have to sell it quickly.

Wenyi called everyone over to discuss the start of foreign trade.

"We've established ourselves on Dongning Island, it's time for the second step of the plan, do you have any suggestions?"

Everyone's eyes looked at Xue Dayuan, the number one administrator, he didn't speak, and others couldn't speak.

Xue Dayuan was very useful in his heart, got up and said: "Doing business first needs a competent person to preside over the overall situation, this person must be well-informed and lively, and loyal enough to the lord of the country. ”

"If you can find this person, it's half the story."

Wen Yi said in agreement: "Do you have a suitable candidate?" ”

Everyone shook their heads, there are few other positions they can recommend, this position can be said to be Dongning's money bag, who should be used can only Wen Yi make his own ideas.

They can reject the people selected by Wen Yi, but they can't propose who to use themselves.

Wen Yi also understood this truth, and he already had a candidate in his heart, and when he saw that everyone shook their heads, he directly said his answer:

"Jin Rushan, the head of the opera troupe, what do you think?"

Everyone else was stunned for a moment, Jin Rushan and they knew that they were in charge of singing. How do you let him take care of the money bag? Isn't that child's play?

Xue Dayuan's eyes lit up and said, "Wonderful, how did I forget him." ”

Seeing everyone's puzzled looks, he explained: "Jin Rushan used to be the third shopkeeper of a big business. ”

"He knows so much about opera, all because he used to go back and forth to Qinlou Chu Pavilion, and the more he listened, the more he understood."

Only then did everyone suddenly realize that this person still had such a past, and that was really a talent.

So this candidate was decided, and Jin Rushan was in charge of the caravan.

In order to reassure him, and also to give him the corresponding real power, Wenyi set up a business department under the Ministry of Household to be in charge of business.

Jin Rushan served as Langzhong.

At present, the Department of Commerce only needs to be responsible for foreign trade, but in the future, the Ministry of Commerce will be established with it as the core to manage all commerce in the Tang Kingdom.

Such a big pie fell into his bowl, Jin Rushan almost jumped up excitedly, and expressed his loyalty to Wen Yi one after another.

Wen Yi said: "Don't be in a hurry to be happy, whether you can serve as the head of the Department of Commerce still needs to be assessed, and all the colleagues here have agreed." ”

"Well, let's talk about how you're going to conduct foreign trade."