Not long after Xunzi came back, Zhao Mu also returned.

Zhao Mu was sent by Zhao Kuo to receive compensation from Yan State, and by the way, he opened up the Yan State market, and sold the lacquerware of Chu State, the silk of Bashu, and the surplus iron farm tools of Zhao State to Yan State.

The Yan State was ceded to the Zhao State, which lost a lot of craftsmen and metals, and compensated the Zhao State for a large amount of copper and iron, resulting in an urgent shortage of domestic iron farm tools.

Moreover, at this time, there was only one country left in the south of Yan State, and without the consent of Zhao State, goods from other countries should not want to enter Yan State. It is even more impossible for Yan to receive support from other countries, so it can only buy goods from Zhao State.

Zhao Mu took the opportunity to quickly win most of the Yan market, and then relied on the advantage of state support to suppress some competitors, win over some businessmen, and collect most of the rights of the Zhao Chamber of Commerce into his hands.

However, after all, Yan Guo is only a part of the market, and it is a part of the market that is not very important, so it is impossible for Zhao Mu to completely control the Chamber of Commerce with these.

At this time, Zhao Kuo sent a letter to Zhao Mu.

Zhao Mu was overjoyed when he saw the letter, took the letter to the Bohai Sea, and began to dry salt according to the method recorded in the letter......

"How? Brother didn't lie to you. Zhao Kuo patted Zhao Mu's shoulder and said with a smile.

After a few months, Zhao Mu has grown to be about the same height as him, and his body has become much stronger.

"Big brother is wise, this method can really dry sea salt, and the whole body is snow-white, without any impurities, which can be comparable to the salt produced in Hedong Salt Pond. With this method, the foolish brother will definitely be able to quickly occupy the northern market and completely control the Zhao State Chamber of Commerce. Zhao Mu said excitedly.

This is a lot of money, and salt is a necessity like grain, nothing can be sold, and salt cannot be sold.

At that time, the Jin State relied on the salt pond in Hedong to become the overlord of the world, and then the Wei State also relied on the salt pond to support most of the military expenses of the Wei Wushu.

The country of Qi also relied on the benefits of fish and salt to become the richest country in the world.

Now the salt of Zhao is basically transported from Qi and Wei.

Now that Zhao has mastered the technology of drying salt, he can no longer be exploited by Qi and Wei, and the cost can be reduced to a lower price than Qi's boiled salt, and he will fight against Wei.

As for the salt pond in the east of the Wei River, how to say it, that thing is as profitable as drying salt, and it is less difficult to mine.

To dry salt, you have to open up a large number of salt pans, and it takes a certain amount of time to get salt.

The salt pond in the east of the river is completely unnecessary, and the concentration is already high enough to crystallize naturally, and the "Water Jing Note" records: "Muddy but not flowing, the water comes out of the stone salt, naturally condensed, and the morning and evening are restored, and there is no loss in the end." ’

See, not only natural crystallization, but also can't be harvested, isn't it annoying?

And the purity is extremely high, and if you purify it a little, it is the finest refined salt.

Even if it is not purified, it is whiter than most salts and can be sold directly.

Legend has it that the salt pond has been mined since the Yanhuang period, and it is still being mined in the 21st century, and it has not been mined for 5,000 years.

If it weren't for the cost of transportation, Qi's boiled salt was not Wei's opponent at all, and Wei could crush the entire Qi country's salt industry by relying on a price war.

As for the other Qin and Chu states, although they also produced salt, the difficulty and cost of mining mineral salt and well salt could not be compared with the salt ponds in Hedong.

For example, Li Bing mined the well salt in Shudi, by digging a well, absorbing brine, and then boiling it to precipitate the salt.

After so many steps, the final salt is still muddy, and the wells dug often collapse and kill people.

If it weren't for Qin's implementation of the salt and iron monopoly, Qin's salt industry would have been crushed by Wei long ago.

However, Wei and Qi are quite conscientious, and the price of salt is not too outrageous, generally about 100 to 200 yuan per stone, of course, these are coarse salt that has not been filtered and mixed with mud and sand.

As for the refined salt eaten by the nobles, it often costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars a stone.

Refined salt is too expensive for the people to eat. There are too many impurities in coarse salt, and eating too much is not good for the body and can easily cause various diseases.

Now that Zhao Guo has its own salt, Zhao Kuo can let all the people eat snow-white refined salt, and at the same time, the price will not increase, and even decrease.

"I plan to take the opportunity to take the salt and iron back to the state franchise, what do you think?" Zhao Kuo's fingers kept tapping on the table, and after a while, he said slowly.

Needless to say, how much profit salt and iron has, Qi State began to manage the Zhong Reform Law, and collected the profits of salt and iron as a national monopoly, making Qi Huan Gong the head of the Spring and Autumn Five Hegemons.

The Shang Dynasty changed the law to collect the profits of salt and iron into a national monopoly, laying the foundation for the Qin State to dominate the world.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took salt and iron as a national franchise, and relied on it to raise funds to attack the Xiongnu, and dragged the entire Xiongnu down.

Previously, Zhao's salt was controlled by others, and domestic and foreign nobles and businessmen cooperated, one ring after another, even if Zhao Kuo ordered the state to monopolize, it was difficult to do, and it would also cause a boycott of merchants, resulting in turbulence in the price of salt in Zhao.

Now it's different, the state of Zhao has its own salt, the state of Qi has declined, the state of Wei and the state of Zhao have formed an alliance, the country has gradually stabilized, and the national strength has continued to rise, even if the merchants jointly boycott Zhao Kuo, they are not afraid.

Zhao Kuo even hoped that someone would stand up, so that he could make an example of the monkeys, and by the way, he would copy a house or something to enrich the treasury.

"What are we going to do with those salt merchants?" Zhao Mu asked.

Many of these salt merchants donated food and salt to Zhao during the Shangdang War and the Five Kingdoms Invasion of Zhao, some for the sake of national righteousness, and some for the favor of King Zhao and Zhao Kuo.

As for the businessmen who donated to Zhao from the five countries in the back, most of them did not donate during the battle of the party, worried that if Zhao Kuo won, he would ask them to settle accounts before donating.

But no matter what the reason, they donated after all, and they helped Zhao defeat the enemy!

This kind of thing doesn't matter what others think, it matters what you do.

At least now Zhao Guo owes these businessmen a favor, and it is impossible for Zhao Kuo to violate morality and shoot all these businessmen to death.

In this era, not only people should be faithful, but the country should also be faithful.

Don't look at Qin Guo's treatment of outsiders so shamelessly, deceiving this and that all day long, and not paying attention to faith at all, but treating the people of his own country, Qin Guo is more honest than anyone else.

The promised rewards and bereavement pensions will definitely be sent to the soldiers or their families.

If the treasury is in difficulty and the distribution is delayed, the king of Qin will take the lead in thrift and thrift, and all expenses will be halved until the reward is fully distributed.

This is also the reason why the old Qin people are willing to fight for the country.

The kingdom has never failed them, and they will never fail the kingdom.

It's the same now, if the merchants of Zhao State did not lose Zhao State, Zhao State could not lose Zhao State merchants.

This is the purpose of these merchants' donations: although it may seem that a lot of money has been lost, the return will far exceed the money donated.

"I didn't expect that now I'm a bad person, how can this be reasonable." Zhao Kuo complained in his heart.