At the same time, iron weapons and armor are not allowed to be sold to the outside world, and the army needs to ensure its superiority in foreign affairs.

The way to ensure superiority is very simple, one is to block the technology, the second is to reward the craftsmen, and the third is to absorb and learn from other local technologies. Wang's establishment of research institutes and craftsmen has always been developing technology.

Wang Che even wanted to open a college to study various technologies, but he was worried about the leakage of technology, so he has been hesitant. Eventually, he plans to educate and train the children of the craftsmen, who are easy to control and not easy to leak, and at the same time a compensation for the craftsmen.

For craftsmen, if they learn the knowledge of writing, they will have the qualifications to be officials in the future, and those who are the master craftsmen are officials with a rank of 2,000 stones.

For all kinds of official positions that require skills, such as water control and the construction of cities and palaces, the great cadres basically arrange craftsmen to take up the positions. Instead of letting those scholars who study various scriptures and classics take the role, let the layman guide the insider.

These large-scale projects involve a lot of manpower and material resources, and once something goes wrong, there are endless troubles, and they must be led by professionals.

Wang Che stayed in Xuzhou for five days, and then came to Huai'an along the canal, as the old capital of Huaiguo, the place of the tomb of King Hao Tianwen, Wang Che naturally wanted to go to pay respects.

Zijue died that year and was buried in Nanshan, and there has been no magnificent mausoleum built for a long time, the entire mausoleum area is not large, and there is only one temple next to it for worship.

After Wang Che respectfully sacrificed here, he began to inspect the Huaidi.

Huaidi is the place where the Huai country was prosperous, although the national capital was moved away later, but it is still prosperous here, the surrounding acres are fertile, and the population is dense.

Wang Che sent people to invite the old people from all over Huaidi to inquire about the current situation in Huaidi. When the questioning was over, he named these old men barons. This title cannot be inherited, and the person dies and sells it, eats hundreds of households, and is awarded a brocade and jade belt.

After doing this, the army went down the canal to Yancheng. As the earliest salt field in Daqian, Yancheng has been an important producer of sea salt for hundreds of years.

In those years, Daqian opened up a salt factory here to cook salt, and traded with other countries for the benefit of fishing and salt, in exchange for grain and weapons, so that he was able to gain a firm foothold. Later, the imperial court reformed the salt and iron monopoly, and after the establishment of the country, the profits of iron tools decreased, and in order to reduce the price of agricultural tools, the iron tools were released, but the salt was still operated by the imperial court.

Although the imperial court operated the salt factory in order to obtain financial resources, it did not raise the price of salt too much. The salt tax is also rich, but in recent years, there have been some problems with the salt tax.

In the 37th year of the Mandate of Heaven, the salt tax in the world was 2 million, and since then it has been rising steadily, and in the 11th year of Yuanfeng, the salt tax reached the highest, with 2.7 million imperial silver coins.

From this year, the salt tax began to be reduced, and until Wang Che ascended the throne, the salt tax was only 1.9 million yuan. According to common sense, the population of Daqian is increasing, and the salt tax should rise, and it should increase steadily, so how can it fall?

Therefore, Wang Che took advantage of the inspection of the world this time to investigate what was going on with the salt tax.

When Wang Che came here, he naturally wanted to go to the salt field in Yancheng to have a look. When the officials of Yancheng heard that the emperor was coming, they immediately rushed to greet him, and the salt merchants here prepared countless gifts.

Daqian's salt farms now mainly include Qidi Salt Farm, Shanxi Salt Solution, Shuzhongjing Salt, Hexi Green Salt, and Huaidi Yancheng Sea Salt, and there are some small salt farms in other places, but the output is not much, and can only be sold around.

Wang Che met with the officials of Yancheng and the salt merchants in Yancheng, but did not receive gifts from the salt merchants. He was also worried that if he accepted it, when he visited other places, the local government would follow suit.

Wang Che just encouraged everyone, and then went to the salt field to inspect and understand the situation of the salt field in Yancheng.

The salt farm in Yancheng is the salt farm with the highest salt production in Daqian, because the salt drying method is adopted, the cost of sea salt is low and the output is high, but the quality of sea salt can only be regarded as average. The highest quality salt in Daqian is the green salt of Hexi.

The so-called green salt is the natural salt produced in the Hexi Salt Lake, which is very pure, has no bitter taste, has the highest quality, and the price is higher.

The sea salt in Yancheng Salt Farm is all by the sea, and the process used has not improved much, and it is still the salt drying method taught by Zijue back then.

"Are the salt workers in the salt works hired or servited?" Wang Che asked.

Xu Wu, the steward of the salt factory, replied: "It is to hire local people." ”

Wang Che asked again: "How much money does Yanding give?" ”

Xu Wu continued to reply: "According to the imperial decree, a salt worker will be given fifty yuan a year. ”

A salt worker earns a lot of money for 50 yuan a year, and you must know that the income of ordinary farmers is only 10 yuan a year. Of course, farmers don't need to buy grain, salt farmers need to buy grain, cloth, etc., and the cost is also large, but even then the income is much higher than that of farmers.

Of course, not all salt farmers can have fifty yuan of money, and the amount of money given depends on the output of salt workers. In general, it is also distributed according to work.

Wang Che then inquired about the annual output of the salt farm, and then asked about the output of a salt field in the following salt farm, as well as the key points of each step of drying salt. Xu Wu can all answer fluently. Wang Che nodded with satisfaction, got up and left the salt farm, and returned to Yancheng.

After returning to Yancheng, Wang Che continued to stay in the city for a few days, and then asked the local inspectors, embroiderers, and secret guards to come and report on the information they had collected for comparison.

I just want to see if any of these inspectors and embroiderers have been bought.

When the emperor goes on patrol, as long as the local officials are not stupid, they will make all kinds of preparations, they will only let the emperor see what they want the emperor to see, as for what the emperor wants to see, it must be covered up, and the emperor wants to see the real situation, it is impossible without a lot of effort.

"Your Majesty, the salt works not only employ salt butchers, but also levy labor, and the ministers went to inquire at will, and the laborers accounted for about half."

"What a bold man, half of it is conscription!" Wang Che sneered.

The big cadres were given money and grain for the levy and labor, but the money and grain given were not much, and the money given to a laborer to go to the salt works was not even one-third of what was needed to recruit a salt man.

"There are thousands of salts in the salt field, and there are 20,000 yuan this year alone, which is really a way to make money!"

"Your Majesty, there may be more than a thousand salters in the salt field!" The embroidered messenger said respectfully.

"There are more than 1,000 people, isn't it 1,000 people who are allocated by the imperial court?" Wang Che said differently.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the imperial court naturally allocates a thousand people, but there are more than a thousand salt people in the salt field."

Wang Che instantly understood that the salt farm didn't look down on the 20,000 yuan of money at all, but used this money to levy labor and produce more salt. The actual output of this salt pan in a year is conservatively estimated to be twice as much as that reported to the imperial court.

(End of chapter)