Dou Changchang, who was groveling just now, suddenly seemed to have bones after seeing the field, he frowned and said impatiently: "What's the big deal, do you have to talk about it at this time?" ”

Xu Dai smiled when he heard this, tilting his head to the other side, as if looking at the scenery in the distance.

The field Ding was embarrassed: "It's the field chief who said, grab Ding Erxiao's cheap embryo, and you must send it to you to listen to it!" ”

When Chief Dou heard the name of [Ding Erxiao], his eyes lit up instantly: "What? You said you caught Ding Erxiao? ”

That scene Ding said excitedly: "That's right, this cheap embryo sneaked home to see his blind old lady and sister, and happened to be seen by our people blocking the house, and he injured five or six of us before he caught him!" ”

Hearing this, Chief Dou nodded again and again: "Okay, good!" Go, put him in the water prison first, and then inquire about it when I'm done!" ”

That Ding nodded in response, and waved a few more times at Xu Dai before he walked backwards.

After the gang pressed Na Ding Erxiao and left, Dou Changchang was taken away from his bones again, and said with a smile: "Forgive me, Chang Yuegong, there are too many things in this salt farm, which disturbs your purity!" ”

It is said that there are three bitterness in the world, burning the stove, striking iron, and grinding tofu.

Xu Dai naturally knew that there were very many fugitives from the stove, and this kind of thing had long been common in the salt farm, so he didn't take it seriously, just smiled and walked towards the Dou family accompanied by the head of the Dou field.

After entering the salt field, Xu Dai rarely saw a house with bricks and tiles, but when he arrived at Dou's house, he was really surprised.

Clusters of flowers and plants, a base of rockeries, verandahs shuttle throughout, stone carved window frames and door openings, in a sentence of later generations, is really low-key luxury.

Xu Dai thinks about it, the Dou family has been operating in Zhangcha for four generations, and the development is even earlier than the Xu family, the Xu family said that it is indeed a big business, but if you really want to take root in the township and accumulate wealth, the Xu family may not be able to catch up with the Dou family.

The banquet was arranged in the front yard, Xu Dai was invited into the hall, a hot towel was served, he wiped his face first, and then a group of descendants of the Dou family came to see.

After Xu Dai dealt with them one by one, the descendants of the Dou family served tea, he took two sips and put down the teacup, and said to everyone in the hall: "These are the ...... of Zhangcha?" ”

Chief Dou hurriedly introduced: "This is a certain stove, how many stoves are under him!" This is a certain chief of security, who controls the number of stove households. ”

Before Xu Dai set off, he also had some understanding of the Lianghuai salt industry and knew the means of controlling the stove in the salt field.

In the early years of the dynasty, the defeated families of local forces were classified as stoves, and their families were allowed to make salt for the salt works for generations.

Later, because of the many fledgies of the stoves, the imperial court made the salt factories confidently recruit the surrounding poor households and exiles.

In the eighteenth year of Zheng, the imperial court once counted the number of stoves in each salt field.

Among them, the two Huai salt farms have a total of more than 66,000 stoves, and after addition, the total number of stove tobacco households has increased to 600,000.

That is to say, there are more than 600,000 households engaged in salt production in Lianghuai alone.

With so many people concentrated in one place, the imperial court was naturally not at ease, so the imperial court set up field ambassadors in each salt field, commonly known as the field chief, and set up a deputy envoy and a number of stove soldiers.

The ambassador is under the jurisdiction of the Yamen of the Salt Division, and because it is not in the stream, the ambassador and the deputy envoy make a little money, which can be almost hereditary.

But even so, the imperial court was still not at ease, so it set up a armor protection system and a compilation and investigation method in the field.

In the case of those who sell illicit salt, the baojia will compete for the head, so that the money earned from the illicit salt will be deducted from the cost and state taxes, and the rest can be rewarded to the person who is the head of the baojia.

In the field of the armor, ten for the card, the card has the head, ten cards for the a, a has a long, ten for the protection, keep the positive.

In this way, there are field managers and stove heads who control the stoves, and there are Baozheng, A chiefs, and brand heads who control the smokers who control the stoves, and the whole field can be said to be full of eyes, and it is actually very difficult for you to do things.

But there are policies at the top, and there are countermeasures at the bottom.

Because the ability of the stove households to resist natural disasters is even lower than that of the peasants, and the exploitation of merchants, field chiefs, stove heads, and the imperial court is heavy, and it is still a dangerous job to burn the stove and boil salt, so it has always been a great deal for the stove to flee.

It doesn't matter if you don't have a stove, anyway, because there have been few wars on the frontier for a long time in recent years, the law of opening the middle has existed in name only, and the imperial court has less salt introduction, and the salt farm does not need to run the salt at full strength.

And they fled, and they fled.

Someone asked, in this way, the demand is reduced, and the salt works are not profitable.

In fact, as the population increases, the demand for salt is increasing.

However, the court still gave so much salt citation, which naturally led to the birth of private salt.

Take Zhangcha as an example, from the Dou family downwards, there are now people sitting in the hall, one counts as one, and all of them are local smuggler salt dealers.

As for the smugglers who were caught and killed by the imperial court, they were all unlucky people with no background in the scene.

Even the chief of the security department and the director of the field are involved in the trafficking of smuggled salt, and the bullshit armor protection system will naturally exist in name only.

Then someone asked, is the salt that the stove cooks have worked so hard to get is left to be exploited by these people? They won't sue the official?

Yes, but the matter in the field is not under the jurisdiction of the local government, and if you are a person from the stove to sue the official, you can only sue the Yamen of the Salt Division.

The Yansi Yamen has long been sent to a lot of money by these people, and ordinary stoves go to complain, which is tantamount to a sheep into the mouth of a tiger.

Xu Dai politely greeted the group of local snakes who decided the life and death of the stove in the tea field, and then began to say the purpose of this trip to the tea.

"I'm here this time, in fact, there is a good thing to tell you!"

Hearing this, Chief Dou lowered his head and said nothing, and exchanged glances with the people in the hall with his spare eyes.

Xu Dai didn't notice it, and said with a smile: "Actually, that's the case......"

He told You Xiao that he wanted to acquire the two Huai salt farms, especially the ten private salt in Huaizhong, of course, he did not say that You Xiao promised that he could go to the Shandong Salt Division to serve as a judge in the future, but only said that it was for the sake of the tea people, and specially arranged this matter.

When everyone heard that the illicit salt they had sold was now about to be taken over by the royal family, they immediately turned their heads to each other.

Chief Dou pondered for a moment and said with a smile: "Chang Yue Gong, this is the emperor's compassion for our difficulties, this is a good thing!" ”

Xu Dai smiled embarrassedly: "Yes, yes, yes, but what, this ...... The price of salt is going to be pressed! ”

Everyone in the tea field, who was still happy just now, suddenly turned pale when they heard this.

"Dare to ask Chang Yuegong, how low is this low?" One of the stoves asked directly.

Xu Dai stretched out his [six] gesture and said, "Six cents of silver for a catty!" ”

"What?" The stove stood up: "Six cents? Are you kidding? Six cents, then everyone has to put silver into it, who would do such a stupid thing! ”