Chapter 35 Salt Field (2)

If Schneider, a financial speculation expert, were present at this time, he would definitely add another point of view from the perspective of economics: for the means of production currently available to the public, salt is undoubtedly a low-input, high-output, and convenient

Materials for circulation and exchange. If the world can produce salt in large quantities, in addition to using it for its own industrial development, it can also be used in large quantities for foreign trade. You must know that salt is a real hard currency in this era. As long as it is produced, there will be no worries.

It can't be sold. From the Li people who carry all kinds of mountain goods to cross the bases and actively trade salt these days, it can be seen that salt is definitely a very popular commodity in this era.

In the Ming Dynasty, the central government implemented a "gang salt system" for the sale of salt. Merchants holding salt quotas were divided into ten groups according to regions. Each group was worth 200,000 tons, and each quota was equivalent to 300 kilograms of salt. Merchants followed the rules.

After paying taxes and transportation fees to the relevant government departments at the national price, and then registering and registering, you will get a certain number of salt quotations. Only then can you operate and sell salt. Businessmen who have not spent money to purchase salt quotations from the government are not qualified to work in this industry.

Making money.

Absolute monopoly will inevitably breed corruption. This is an objective law of sociology. The salt industry, as a state monopoly industry, is no exception. It is recorded in the "History of Ming Dynasty·Salt Policy" that the capital of the salt industry was very concentrated during the Wanli period, and every year

The scale of the hot money concentrated in Yangzhou alone is astonishing, reaching more than 30 million taels of silver, and its interest is close to the annual income of the Ming Dynasty. And this is only the official salt market. Private salt has no cost of buying salt, so profits

Even higher, there are not a few people who devote themselves to this profession and work hard to make money.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, sea salt production technology began to abandon pots and stoves, build salt fields, and change the complex process of frying, boiling, and boiling to sun-making. Of course, the so-called sun-salt salt does not mean that you can produce salt by digging a few pools on the beach.

In actual operation, seawater must be passed through several processes such as steaming ponds, brine brine ponds, and crystallization ponds to continuously adjust the concentration of brine, and finally salt can be obtained. However, the salt production methods of this era are far less efficient than those of later generations, and the ancients also

There is no way to accurately measure the concentration of brine using scientific means. It is basically still at the stage of relying on experience and feeling. Compared with later generations, the output is naturally not much higher.

As long as the salt fields in Chuanzhong can gradually expand their production capacity, relying on scientific management and salt production methods, it will not be a problem to leave the salt fields of this time and space far behind in terms of production costs. When the output is large enough, it can be used at low prices

Organize large-scale dumping on the mainland and plunder the interests that originally belonged to the salt merchants. Of course, for now, the output of salt will definitely be limited for a considerable period of time. First, it must satisfy the development of the public.

Need to do.

The few people who are inspecting this place have not considered things that far away yet. Their current task is to find out the actual situation of this place and whether it has the value of redevelopment. In addition, they must evaluate this "enclave" from a military perspective.

security, after all, this place is already outside the current main defense circle.

Along the way, the team members have discovered many waterwheels and ditches that carry seawater, and there are many stone salt troughs like inkstones on the plain. Gu Kai roughly counted the numbers he saw along the way, large and small.

There are at least hundreds of them. If the entire area had such a density, there would probably be thousands of them. But these places have obviously been abandoned for many years, and most of the salt troughs are already overgrown.

Weeds.

After going two or three miles into the inland area, the members finally discovered several houses at the foot of the mountain in the distance. As they slowly walked over, they discovered that this place was probably abandoned at the same time as the salt fields, with several adobe houses with yellow mud walls.

The roofs were gone, leaving only broken ruins to let later generations know that ancestors had lived here. Qiao Zhiya found several broken tools in a room, including rakes, wooden shovels, broken water tanks, etc.

.

Finally, Gu Kai found decisive evidence. He called several people together, pointed to a ruined wall with traces of smoke and fire, and said: "There was a fire here, and the residents here did not rebuild their homes after the fire."

, but chose to leave, but I think they may not have left here voluntarily."

"What do you mean..." Wang Tom seemed to understand something.

Gu Kai nodded and said: "Pirates. A long time ago, a wave of pirates looted this salt field, set fire to the houses here, and maybe killed many people here. Since then, this place has become a ruin, and

No one comes here to make salt anymore because they are afraid of pirates.”

"It's a very reasonable conjecture. The ancestors must have spent a lot of effort to develop this place into a salt field. There is no reason to give up here easily." Gu Kai's inference coincided with Wang Tom's own guess. He gently touched the place with his fingers.

Scratching the remains of the wall, it seems that one can still feel the scene at that time: "About this, after we go back, we can ask the captured officer. It is said that three generations of his family have served as soldiers in Yazhou.

I’m not sure what I can ask.”

It doesn't matter how much Luo Shengdong knows. At most, it is just a confirmation after the fact. What is important now is to make a comprehensive assessment of the development value and risks here in preparation for the executive committee to make a decision.

Everyone walked around the valley along the foot of the mountain, and after seeing almost everything they needed to see, they took the Zodiac boat back to the seaside. Johnson set up a beach chair on the deck and lay half shirtless.

From time to time, I raised my telescope to look at the sea. When I was bored, I finally waited until the team came back, and I quickly got up and came over to ask how the situation was.

"From a military perspective, it may be difficult to effectively defend this place until we can blockade and control the entire bay." Wang Tom directly set the tone: "Although it is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the coastline on the sea side is too long, and the inner seaside is too long.

The land is flat and there is basically no danger to defend it. Unless we make great efforts to build another bastion defense there, but even if we build it, we will still have to send people to guard it."

"I think we can forget about building the bastion. Base No. 1 has not been completed yet. How can we have the manpower to build new fortifications there?" Gu Kai also backed down when he heard that he had no strength to work.

During this period, after dinner every day, the Executive Committee organized people to work overtime to build the defenses outside Base No. 1. Many people have begun to complain that "the calluses on my hands after traveling for half a month are growing faster than the past thirty years of being single."

Of course, complaints are complaints, and they still need to be repaired. After all, it is a life-saving thing at critical moments. However, most of the labor force has been transferred to the hydropower station construction site. With the few remaining manpower, it is necessary to complete the defense of Base No. 1.

It will take at least ten days, let alone opening a new construction site.

"If we can't defend, we have no choice but to hide." Qiao Zhiya had a new idea: "We can build the settlement at the foot of an inland mountain away from the sea, or even build it on a higher hillside, so that the distance from the sea can be reduced

It should be close to two kilometers. This way, if something happens at the seaside, the people working in the salt field can get early warning in time and have time to retreat to the mountains."

"The post at Yulinjiao is facing the coastline of the valley over there. If there are pirates landing in the valley, the base camp will get the news soon. There is not much time left for the pirates to cause trouble." Wang Tom also admitted that Qiao Zhiya

The plan does have merit. After all, the time-traveling public has the advantage of communication. Any warning can be clearly conveyed to the relevant personnel in a very short time. The response speed is definitely the fastest among all military forces in this time and space.

"What are the development prospects of the salt farm?" Gu Kai continued to ask Qiao Zhiya. He was the only one in the group who was engaged in chemical industry, and he was the only one who could have a say in whether the valley had development value.

Qiao Zhiya shrugged and said: "At least the location of the salt farm is better than the one we were looking for before. The executive committee originally planned to build a salt farm in the fishing village. I have also visited there. It requires a lot of work, including leveling the land and digging canals.

Water diversion is definitely not something that can be put into operation in the short term, and the most important thing is that it is too close to the entrance of Tiandu River, and the concentration of seawater is not ideal. Even if it is reluctantly started, the salt production efficiency will not reach the expected value. And this

I think it only takes half a month to dredge the water channels and repair some lifting and irrigation devices, and then it can be put into production directly. Of course, even after it is put into production, this place will still need a lot of manpower."

Manpower! This is like a shackle on the feet of the time traveler, slowing down the progress of the time traveler anytime and anywhere. The person in charge of every project has a headache for manpower, and many projects even cannot be completed due to lack of manpower.

If we don’t put it aside temporarily, for example, only half of the land passage from Base 1 to Base 2 is currently open, and the remaining half has to be suspended indefinitely to take care of the hydropower station project. This is a cross-country road that is used to convenient transportation.

It's a nightmare for everyone.

Although there are Han or Li migrant workers who come every day after hearing the news, they are only a drop in the bucket, and the total number is still far from the requirements of the Executive Committee. According to the data Gu Kai has obtained, as for the current construction and construction projects,

In terms of projects to be built, the labor gap is still at least around 500 people.

It is said that some radicals have already suggested to the executive committee that they might as well go out in full force and collectively act as slave traders, attack villages and towns directly along the coastline to the west, and every time they capture a place, they can directly bring the local young men back on boats to serve as coolies, or they can

Simply capture Yazhou City in one fell swoop. The local navy and garrison soldiers number at least a thousand people. These are all excellent labor forces. If we can capture them all, we can solve the current labor shortage problem in one fell swoop.

Naturally, this kind of extreme rightism has not been recognized by the Executive Committee, but as the situation develops, the demand for labor is becoming more urgent day by day. Regardless of whether the Executive Committee is willing or not, we must find a way to solve this problem as soon as possible.

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Chapter completed!