"Put!"

"Boom!"

On the huge warship, equipped with a three-bow bed crossbow, as well as a trebuchet, as a sharp weapon with extremely strong lethality, the bed crossbow and trebuchet were also practiced by Wu Jun.

With the order of one of the leading generals, the bed crossbow fired huge crossbow arrows, and the trebuchet also threw fireballs one after another.

This fireball is mixed with flammable materials such as grease, sulfur stone, and wolf dung, and it is very easy to catch fire if it hits an enemy warship.

The crossbow arrows shot by the bed crossbow are needless to say!

If you shoot an arrow, if the wooden planks of the opponent's warship are not thick enough, you can completely penetrate it with one arrow!

Let the enemy's ship leak and sink gradually!

Immediately afterwards, the archers standing on the deck drew their bows and arrows, throwing round after round of rockets into the open space opposite.

You don't have to strike with precision, you just need to cover it with firepower!

In Qingji's words, it is "if you are poor, you will be crushed tactically, and if you are rich, you will be covered by firepower"!

If there is not much money, the state treasury will not be able to support it, and Wu will not be able to vigorously develop the shipbuilding industry.

One warship after another, like a giant.

At this moment, Qingji, who was standing on the deck of the building ship, looked at the mound that had almost been razed to the ground, and his heart was quite satisfied.

With such an invincible armada, it is not difficult to compete with the boatmen of other countries, even if it is to cross the sea to explore overseas islands!

……

After the end of the trip to Zhufang County, Qingji's patrol team went out to sea all the way, and after sailing in the offshore sea for less than a day, they arrived at the beach of Yanling.

There, it is the largest salt-making workshop in the Wu Kingdom.

As the saying goes, relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the water to eat the water.

Like Wu and Qi, they can rely on the profits of fish and salt to make a lot of money.

The Jin Kingdom, in its early years, mined many salt ponds, and the number of salt merchants was second only to the Qi State, but they were only barely self-sufficient, and the quality was not as good as the sea salt of the Qi State.

Most of the salt that people in the Central Plains used to need in their daily lives was imported from Qi State!

Because after the Qi State changed the law, the benefits of fishing and salt were greatly enhanced, and the Wu State, which was catching up for a while, was really unable to compete with the Qi State.

Salt is an indispensable nutrient for the human body.

More than 10,000 years ago, human beings entered the agricultural era, and the way of life gradually changed from hunting to farming.

In ancient times, most of the salt production depended on seawater or salt springs, and inland areas did not rely on the sea, and there were few salt springs.

Salt often needs to be obtained from salt merchants who walk the north and south of the Yangtze River, as long as the country is in war, the merchants are not connected, the inland areas are easy to lack salt, and the people are not able to make a living!

Therefore, salt is an important lifeblood and an important financial income of the Wu State.

Qingji very much hoped that the salt of Wu would surpass the salt of Qi in terms of quality, and a large number of them would be exported to the Central Plains.

At this time, Qingji, accompanied by Shi Fan Li, Tingwei Bo and other ministers, came to the salt making workshop by the Yanling Sea.

The salt workshop is composed of brine wells, brine ditches, various pits, large salt stoves, brine storage pits and stove sheds.

Qingji inspected and saw that the salt stove was composed of a workshop, a fire pit, a fire door, an oval large stove room, a long strip stove room, a flue, a chimney and a left and right brine storage pit.

The oval stove is large in scale, with an area of nearly 20 square meters.

Some helmets are glued with grass and mud at the bottom, and a grid is set up on the stove room, and the helmets are fixed on it with grass mud in rows, and there are several helmets fixed together on the salt stove.

"I don't know what kind of process is used in the salt production method in the workshop?" Qingji asked.

The person in charge of the salt workshop, who was accompanying him, replied, "My lord, our salt workshop uses the salt frying method!" ”

"Salt frying? What's the doorway? "Qingji is in high spirits.

"The decoction of brine has to go through several processes such as collecting salt, drenching and refying."

"There are many ways to make salt, as far as the minister knows, in addition to the method of frying salt, there are also the method of sun exposure, the method of making brine from seawater, etc., the method of making salt in my Wu country is like the same as the country of Qi."

"However, whether it is the output or quality, it is always inferior to the salt of the Qi people, which leads to the fact that the salt exported by my Wu country can occupy a place in the world below, but it is extremely difficult to compete with the salt produced by the Qi people!"

When he said this, everyone present bowed slightly.

Selling salt is a very lucrative industry, so Wu State, like Qi State, implements the salt and iron official system, and does not allow people to sell salt privately, and violators will be severely punished!

"Second and third sons, do you know what salt means to a country?"

Qingji said suddenly.

The ministers who accompanied him all looked at each other, pricked up their ears, and listened to the instructions of Qingji.

I saw Qingji and said: "Such as the salt lake in the east of the river, famous all over the world." ”

"In the past, Yao, Shun, and Yu all successively established their own capitals in the east of the river, Yaodu Pingyang, Shundu Puban, and Yudu Anyi, all of which were built near Yanchi!"

"Later Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty both maintained a strong interest in Jinnan, which is the benefit of salt."

"The land of the salt pond in the east of the river, the big river is in the front, the mountains are blocked behind, the valley is wrong, the depression is not suitable for farming, but why is it that the salt pond in the east of the river can often become the overlord of the world?"

Hearing this, Fan Li replied: "What the king said is extremely true. How many times the benefits of salt are there? ”

"Salt is like rice millet, and if you don't eat it, you will be tired."

"There are many salt ponds in the world, among which the salt pond in Hedong is the most famous!"

"In the past, the princes competed for hegemony, and the Jin State was able to stand out and become the overlord when Jin Wengong was the prince, I am afraid it is not unrelated to the benefits of having pond salt."

"Not bad."

Qingji bowed his head slightly and said: "Because there is a salt pond in Jindi, it is a good country." The Jin Kingdom was strong because of salt and had the benefit of salt ponds, so it was able to dominate the Central Plains for hundreds of years. ”

"And the State of Qi has the benefits of salt and iron, and when the Duke of Qi Huan was able to respect the king, he was the first to dominate! It can be seen that the benefits of salt are also. ”

As far as Qingji knows, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the pool salt produced in the salt pond in Hedong was transported to all directions through a salt road, and the history called "Qinlong in the west, Fan Deng in the south, Yan Dynasty in the north, and Zhou and Song Dynasty in the east".

It is self-evident how important salt is to the country!

In the pre-Qin Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, salt, like other local products, was probably taxed in the place of origin, or handed over to the state as a tribute, and the Chinese people were free to mine, transport, sell and sell, and there was no special salt law at all.

Until the Spring and Autumn Period, the state managed the production, sales and trading of salt, and opened the beginning of China's salt law.

Its law is supplemented by official salt and private salt, and the official revenue and official sales are carried out, and the rent tax is included in the official monopoly salt price, so as to increase the national revenue, and the Qi country is rich and strong, and dominates the princes.

However, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, except for the monopoly of salt in the Qi State, the other vassal states still only taxed salt, but the tax rate gradually increased.

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