Salt is as important as grain. People would starve to death without food to eat, and die of disease without salt to eat. A stone of grain or salt will cause panic among the people. If the situation is severe, there may even be a riot. Therefore, the price of grain and salt should not be too high. If the price of salt and grain skyrockets, it means that something is going to happen.

The price of salt and grain in the Great Zhou was lower than in the previous dynasty. During the riots of the previous dynasty, the price of salt and grain was ridiculously high, and the people could not afford to buy grain and salt. Therefore, most of the people at that time were starved to death, and some died of illness because they did not have salt to eat.

As soon as the emperor ascended the throne, he first forcibly lowered the prices of grain and salt, so that they could return to normal prices, so that the people could afford to eat grain and salt.

At first, because of this, the wealthy merchants and families who controlled the grain and salt were very dissatisfied and wanted to oppose this policy of the imperial court, but they were suppressed by the crown prince at that time, that is, the current emperor.

In order to stabilize the price of grain and salt, the emperor killed many grain and salt dealers.

Although the grain dealers are rampant, they are not as crazy and vicious as the salt dealers. After being suppressed that year, the grain dealers became honest and did not dare to be demons anymore, but the salt dealers were still arrogant.

A few years ago, the Yangzhou families were so domineering, mainly because they were in cahoots with Yangzhou salt dealers. Back then, when the emperor led his troops to suppress the salt dealers, he killed the most salt dealers in Yangzhou, so the salt dealers in Yangzhou hated the emperor and the imperial court.

After the emperor ascended the throne, he made a lot of decrees to rectify the price of salt, especially the price of salt in Yangzhou.

The salt of Yangzhou is the best salt in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and it is also the tribute salt. Moreover, Yangzhou produces a lot of salt every year. If the price of salt in Yangzhou is too high, it will inevitably affect the price of salt in the entire Great Zhou, and the people will be complaining at that time.

Because of the imperial court's suppression of Yangzhou's salt prices, Yangzhou's salt dealers hated the imperial court even more. They colluded with the families and officials to control the salt of the whole of Yangzhou. Not only that, but they also secretly sold the salt from Yangzhou to foreign countries, making the salt market of the entire Great Zhou Dynasty a mess.

Both the emperor and the emperor knew that the salt dealers in Yangzhou would not always be honest, and they also expected that they would secretly destroy the salt price of the Great Zhou, so they laid out in Yangzhou early. This is the reason why a few years ago, the emperor put the families, officials and salt dealers in Yangzhou in one pot.

The arrogant and domineering salt dealers in Yangzhou were killed, in exchange for the stability of the salt price in the Great Zhou. Now the price of salt in the Great Zhou Dynasty is 500 yuan a stone, and the salt in the previous dynasty was the most expensive at 8,000 yuan a stone.

The salt of the Great Zhou Dynasty is a continuation of the previous dynasty, which is basically well salt, alkali salt and sea salt. Among them, well salt is the best salt, and alkali salt and sea salt are not delicious.

Compared with Zhao Yao's world in his dream, the manufacturing technology of Da Zhou's salt is very backward. Don't mention well salt, let's talk about sea salt. People use the seawater directly to turn it into salt, which is very rough and unpalatable, but the price is very cheap.

Sea salt is eaten only by the people who live by the sea. The people of Lingnan have always eaten sea salt. Of course, there are also good salt sold in Lingnan, but the price is very expensive, and the common people cannot afford to eat it.

When Zhao Yao came to Lingnan, he brought some tribute salt from the capital. However, he felt that the tribute salt was also very unpalatable compared to the salt in Zhao Yao's world in his dream. The salt in Zhao Yao's world in the dream is very fine, unlike the salt of Da Zhou, which is as big as a stone, and stir-frying vegetables for half a day may not be able to fry the salt.

He Lianfang suddenly asked, "What is the price of salt in Da Zhou today?" ”

"The price of salt in the capital is 400 yuan a stone, most of them are at this price, and some remote places may be higher, but it will not exceed 1,000 yuan a stone." Before Zhao Yao came to Lingnan, he deliberately investigated the types and prices of salt in Dazhou.

"Do you think four hundred dollars a stone of salt is too expensive?" In He Lianfang's opinion, four hundred yuan a stone is very cheap.

"It's certainly not expensive for us, but it's expensive for a lot of people." Zhao Yao remembered that salt dealers were rampant and rampant, and his face was very ugly. "Although since the previous dynasty, salt could only be made and sold by the imperial court, and it was forbidden for the people to sell it privately, but the actual situation is that the private sale of salt cannot be stopped at all and is still rampant. If you don't talk about other places, let's just say that the salt dealers in Jiangnan have never disappeared. ”

He Lianfang said objectively: "The salt dealers are inexhaustible. ”

"Yes, the huge benefits brought by salt will make countless people sell it recklessly, and it is impossible to get rid of it, so the price of salt has been unstable." Zhao Yao continued to analyze, "Every once in a while, the price of salt rises. If it weren't for the imperial court's crackdown, the price of salt would have only risen higher and higher. In the past few years, the salt dealers in Jiangnan have been honest and dare not make waves, but the salt dealers on the Qilu side have begun to be demons again. The main reason for the instability of salt prices in recent years is that the salt dealers in Qilu have been raising salt prices. ”

"Didn't the imperial court suppress the price of salt on Qilu's side?"

"Yes, the imperial court has suppressed it, but it can only be managed for a while, and it won't be long before the price of salt on Qilu's side will increase again." Zhao Yao said with a cold face and a tone full of displeasure, "The price of salt has been going back and forth, whether it is for the court or the people, it is not a good thing. ”

He Lianfang listened to Zhao Yao's words and looked at him deeply.

"I didn't expect you to worry about the price of salt."

Zhao Yao asked innocently, "Shouldn't I worry?" ”

"The price of salt should be the worry of the court and your father, why is it your turn to worry about the idle prince?"

Zhao Yao felt that He Lianfang was angry with him, "Second uncle, do you know what the price of salt in Lingnan is?" ”

Of course He Lianfang didn't know, he never cared about these "trivial" things.

"I don't know."

Zhao Yao stretched out two fingers and said with a heavy face: "Two thousand dollars and one stone." “

He Lianfang was frightened by this price: "Two thousand dollars? ”

"Isn't that outrageous?" Zhao Yao raised the corners of his mouth and sneered, "Fortunately, the people in Lingnan are very poor and can't afford to eat." ”

"Why do these officials set the price of salt so high?" The people of Lingnan can't afford it, so who will they sell it to if they raise the price of salt so high?

"Sell to the Gentiles." Zhao Yao said, "The salt of those countries in Annam and Siam is mainly sea salt. Their drying technique is the same as that of Da Zhou, so their sea salt is also very unpalatable, and our salt in Da Zhou is better than theirs, and of course their rich people are willing to spend money to buy it. ”

He Lianfang nodded.

"I tasted the sea salt of Lingnan before, and the taste is indescribable." Zhao Yao thought that the people of Lingnan ate salt as big as a stone and had a bitter taste every day, and he was very distressed. "If it weren't for the salt that had to be eaten, I don't think the people of Lingnan would have eaten sea salt if they were killed."

He Lianfang asked curiously, "What are you going to do?" ”

Zhao Yao deliberately sold Guanzi: "Second uncle, you will know when the time comes." However, my new method of drying salt must not be known to outsiders, otherwise those salt dealers will be demons again. ”

"Are you sure your salt tastes better than the salt from the inland?"

Zhao Yao nodded affirmatively: "It will be very delicious, the most important thing is that I also plan to make fine salt, the current salt is really too coarse, sometimes the salt in the dish has not yet melted, and I accidentally eat it into my mouth." "He was struck several times by the salt in the dish, and when he was seven years old, he lost a tooth.

"Fine salt?" He Lianfang first heard of the salt "fine salt", "How fine can it be?" ”

"It's like snow."

"Salt as fine as snow?" Hearing Zhao Yao say this, He Lianfang was a little looking forward to it.

"That's right, when I make it, second uncle, you'll know how good it is after you eat it." Zhao Yao felt that it was useless for him to say more now. "If sea salt becomes delicious, it will not only make the people on the beach eat better salt, but also increase their income. The most important thing is to curb inland salt dealers from raising the price of salt. ”

He Lianfang reminded Zhao Yao: "If you make new sea salt, you will be against all the salt dealers in the interior. ”

Zhao Yao naturally knew this, but he didn't care.

"I'm going to be afraid of them?"

"If you move their wealth, they will not let you go." He Lianfang was worried about Zhao Yao's safety, "They will join forces with these officials in Lingnan to get rid of you, let me remind you, salt dealers are very vicious when they kill people." ”

"I know, I can't stop making new sea salt because I'm afraid of being killed by them."

"You should know that the officials in charge of salt, if they don't go along with the salt dealers, they will die a miserable death." He Lianfang said, remembering an incident in the previous dynasty, "A salt official surnamed Lin in the previous dynasty did not want to be in cahoots with the salt dealers, and as a result, the salt dealers ruined his family and died, and finally he was killed to extinction. ”

Zhao Yao knew about this, but he was not afraid.

"I'm not an official, but a prince. Although I am not favored on the surface, if they do do it to me, they will be the ones who will become extinct. Besides, I have secret guards around me, and they want to send people to kill me, but they don't succeed so easily. ”

"Open arrows are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are difficult to defend against."

"Second uncle, I'll be fine." The reason why Zhao Yao is so confident that he will not be injured by the hidden arrow is not because he has dragon guards by his side, but because he has a lot of animal eyeliner around him.

He Lianfang saw that Zhao Yao didn't take those salt dealers in his eyes so much, and sighed helplessly in her heart. It seems that he can only worry more about this kid.

"Don't worry about the food in Lingnan, the first thing now is to make new sea salt." Lingnan has been planting double-cropping rice several years ago, and the grain output is the largest in Dazhou. "When I make the new sea salt, I will make the white sugar."

"What is white sugar?"

"It's sugar, wait until I make it, second uncle you know." Zhao Yao smiled mysteriously, "Second uncle, this white sugar is also a treasure, and when I make it, it will be the same as salt." ”

He Lianfang looked surprised: "So powerful? ”

Zhao Yao nodded and said, "Yes, it's so powerful." ”

He Lianfang had no interest in sugar and didn't ask too much.

"By the way, there is a letter from the Wa Kingdom, they have dug up a lot of gold and silver, and asked when you will bring it back?"

"Now, if it is brought back, there will be no place to hide the gold and silver in the swamp house." Zhao Yao forgot about this matter, "Let's come back for the Spring Festival next year." I found a place after a while, and then dug a cellar to store the gold and silver. ”

"Then you have to dig deeper, or you won't be able to pretend."

"I know."

"Your father won't tell me?" He Lianfang said, "This matter can't be hidden from your father. ”

"I can't tell my father now, I'll tell him next year." Zhao Yao thought of his father's rogue and shameless nature, and said angrily, "If you tell my father now that I send someone to dig up gold and silver in the Wa Kingdom, he will definitely send someone to dig it immediately, and there will be no us at that time." ”

"Zhao Zheng can do this kind of thing."

"So let's keep it a secret from him for the time being." He still has a lot of things to do, and these things cost a lot of money to do. With the money he made now, it was not enough at all, so he was in great need of gold and silver from the Wa Kingdom. "Second uncle, do you have anything else?"

"What, you're going out again?"

"I'll have to find someone, or I won't be able to make my new sea salt." Zhao Yao thought that he was now short of manpower, and said with a sad face, "Second uncle, I am now very actively in favor of what you said about raising 100,000 private soldiers. ”

He Lianfang raised her eyebrows and looked at Zhao Yao: "You're going to buy someone now?" ”

"Second uncle, don't you see that I am desperately short of people now." Zhao Yao snapped his fingers and spat bitterness to He Lianfang one by one, "You need people to be a new Haiyan, and you need people to build farms, factories, and dense military bases. and digging cellars, building walls, making new farming tools and new weapons......"

He Lianfang felt a headache after listening to it for a while, and quickly interrupted Zhao Yao: "Okay, you just say how many people do you need?" ”

"Second uncle, what do you think?"

He Lianfang glanced at Zhao Yao, who was full of distress, and said in a mocking tone: "You have to hurry to finish all the things you just said, that is only enough for 100,000 people." ”

"It's not a hundred thousand, twenty or thirty thousand is enough." Zhao Yao asked He Lianfang, "Second uncle, do you think it is feasible for me to bring those people who were exiled to Lingnan and are still serving prison sentences to do things?" ”

"You have the right to mobilize those people to do things." The whole Lingnan is Zhao Yao, and he can do whatever he wants. "However, I remember that these exiles to Lingnan are not in the same place."

"I know, I'm going to bring in the exiles near the Swamp Mansion first." Zhao Yao had already planned, "First get the exiles from the three places of Baiyan Mansion, Biyue Mansion, and Silver Frost Mansion, there are at least four or five thousand people in these three places, which can barely be used." "Of course, these four or five thousand people were not exiled by the Great Zhou, but exiled prisoners from the previous dynasty.

"You got so many people to come to the Swamp Mansion, do you have a place for them to live?"

Zhao Yao was stunned by the question, and after a while, he said stiffly: "...... There is no place to stay. "Well, this idea can only be abandoned for the time being." Alas, let's do things one by one. However, the new sea salt must be obtained as soon as possible, so I'll let our people work hard first, and help make it. "Fortunately, before I was in Lingnan, I cultivated a lot of my own people.

"Then let our people do it."

"Tongxi." Zhao Yao shouted towards the door.

Soon, Tongxi walked in, "Your Highness, what do you command?" ”

"Go and call the chief of the guard, I have something to tell him."

"Slave and maid, go now."

A short time later, a tall, rugged-looking man walked in.

"Your Highness, do you have anything to tell your minister?"

"There is something for you to do......" Zhao Yao ordered the matter. Tomorrow, he'll take someone to do it himself. The production of new sea salt must be watched by him personally.