(0029)

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Yang Ruifeng explained that Jimo Camp was located in the north of Jimo County. It turned out to be a military camp stationed by soldiers. Hundreds of recruited soldiers were stationed there. When Kong Youde pacified Dengzhou, the soldiers of Jimo Camp were transferred away, and Jimo Camp was temporarily empty. After Kong Youde and his troops surrendered to the Later Jin Dynasty, the soldiers of Jimo Camp did not come back to garrison, but were transferred to the Henan front line to fight against the Shaanxi uprising army. In this way, Jimo Camp was vacant for a long time.

I don’t know when the salt owls began to occupy Jimo camp as a place for trading. Small salt owls from all over the country sold the private salt they collected here. Some larger salt owls bought large amounts of private salt here. If the private salt was sold directly to Jimo camp, each pound of private salt could be sold for more than ten cents.

However, it is hundreds of miles away from Jimoying where Fushan Mountain is coming, and it takes two days to carry salt. Along the way, it is hard to say whether you will encounter other salt owls, and there will be a scene of black eating. This scene is indeed very common. A load of salt reaches Jimoying, and it will cost one tael of silver, which is enough to make other salt owls moved.

Moreover, you may also encounter salt diced by the Salt Inspection Department. When you encounter salt owls, at most, the private salt is stolen and a few people die. If you encounter salt diced, you will lose everything. The Salt Inspection Department's specialty is to catch a person and then extort his relatives, and oil must be squeezed out of the stone. It is absolutely not an exaggeration to describe the ability of officials in the Ming Dynasty to extort money as perfect.

"I'll find a way."

Zhang Zhun took the difficulties without hesitation.

He immediately found Yang Zhiyuan and Hao Linyong to discuss the transport of private salt to Jimo Camp.

Jerry Yang said with some concern: "Captain, if you don't go, it will definitely be unsafe on the road. But if you go, what should I do here?"

Hao Linyong also thinks so.

In fact, Zhang Zhun also had a headache.

The commander should be with his own army!

Without the army, the commander is nothing!

If he goes to Jimo Camp, he must bring the main force of the guard team!

He was very sure of bringing private salt to Jimo Camp. There was nothing great about the salt owl. When everyone met, they would fight hard at most. Kill a few people from the other party and let the other party see their strength, so they naturally did not dare to provoke easily. If they did it more fiercely, they would just come to the door and destroy all the other party to prevent future troubles.

The problem is that it takes at least four days to go there. Four days is enough for Wang Shixin to find the right opportunity to flatten Yangjiatun. The escort team cannot be too far from Yangjiatun. This is everyone's consensus. If the family is raided because of escorting private salt, it is obviously not worth the cost.

However, if Zhang Zhun doesn't go, he will be very confident in relying on others.

Jerry Yang, Hao Linyong and others have no strength to fight against the Salt Owl alone.

The clone was unable to do anything, so Zhang Zhun had to temporarily suppress the matter.

After a few days, the escort team's training results were as good as the new recruits' assassination skills were already available. However, the private salt was piled up more and more. By early March, every household had already piled up almost one load of salt. In addition, the last time Lei Laosan snatched it, there were almost two loads of salt.

The families of the soldiers of the guard team all rely on boiling salt to subsidize their lives, and tea oil, sauce, vinegar and rice are all from private salt. Now private salt cannot be sold, and the only source of money has been cut off. Although there are still fish to eat every day, people's hearts are inevitably fluctuating.

Zhang Zhun then decided to use the money seized from Lei Laosan to buy all the private salt. There were 60 pounds of private salt in total, about 6,000 pounds, and at the purchase price of five cents per pound, it was exactly 30 taels of silver. In this way, the money seized from Lei Laosan was basically spent.

The private salt has been purchased, and the people of the guard team have stabilized, so everyone continues to train with peace of mind. However, it is Zhang Zhun’s turn to worry about it. How to deal with these more than 60 dans of private salt is really a troublesome thing. Moreover, as time goes by, the military households will cook more private salt. If they still can’t sell it, they will have to accumulate it. He has no money to buy these private salts.

Without income, the escort will definitely be disbanded.

what to do?

Every military household's eyes were focused on Zhang Zhun.

Even Yang Kaide got up and wandered around with crutches.

He couldn't sell so much private salt, so he couldn't help but be in a hurry!

Yang Ruifeng went to Jimo County several times and wanted to find the salt merchant who bought the salt again. But he found that if there was no special relationship, no one would accept the private salt at all. What he learned was that it was not only Yangjiatun, but also the private salt in other towns was also difficult to sell.

The specific reason is not very clear. It seems that due to the war outside, many salt owls cannot transport the private salt and cannot turn over the funds, so it is naturally impossible to continue to acquire private salt. There is no way to know where the news came from, saying that the Shaanxi uprising army was very happy in Henan. Even big cities like Luoyang and Kaifeng must close their doors and prohibit people from entering and leaving.

"Is there no other sales channel?" Zhang Zhun asked.

"No more." Yang Ruifeng replied.

Yang Ruifeng said that the problem now is no longer solved by Brigadier Zhang sending private salt to Jimo Camp. Even if the private salt is sent to Jimo Camp, there will be no big salt owl to take over. Moreover, such a problem is not only available in Yangjiatun.

Private salt must have another sales channel.

This is Zhang Zhun's idea.

On March 15th, the weather was not very good. The sky was gray and the clouds were thick. It seemed to be raining, but it never fell. The air seemed very dull, as if it was breathable.

When Zhang Zhun woke up in the morning, he saw the salt burrow placed in the middle of the open space and found that Yang Ruifeng had uncovered the cloth of several salt burrows, perhaps to check whether the salt was damp. If the salt burrow was damp, it would deteriorate, and the salt merchants were even more reluctant to buy it.

Seeing Zhang Zhun come out, Yang Ruifeng said with emotion: "What a good salt, no one buys it, it's such a pity."

Zhang Zhun walked over slowly and glanced at the salt inside the basket.

He had not noticed the quality of these salts before, because all the salt scoops were covered to avoid absorbing water and getting wet. Now, Yang Ruifeng took the mask away, and Zhang Zhun really saw the true face of these sea salts. He stood next to the salt scoops for a while, with a look of confusion.

“Is this good salt?”

Zhang Zhun asked to himself.

There is no doubt that in Zhang Zhun's eyes, these sea salts are just the most primitive salt, containing a lot of impurities, with a yellow color on the surface, which is very ugly. He reached out and grabbed a handful of sea salt, which was astringent, with large particles and uneven. Such sea salt is obviously a bit forced to use for cooking, and I don't know what it is used for.

He suddenly moved slightly in his heart, remembered something, and asked, "Brother Feng, is all the private salt like this?"

Yang Ruifeng said: "Not. Some people like to add some soil to salt, either to add some fine sand, or to hide a large stone under the salt harbor to increase the weight, but our Yangjiatun is honest and never does this."

“…”

Zhang Zhun was speechless if he had to mix such sea salt into it.

Why don’t you make the quality of this sea salt better?

The salts in later generations were powdery, thin, white, and looked very good!

If the salt in front of me was placed in later generations, not to mention selling three cents per pound, even if I paid three cents, no one would look at it head-on. It would be awful to behave.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Zhun said: "If there is better quality salt, will it be easier to sell?"

Yang Ruifeng said: "The salt with better quality is only fine salt and green salt. However, it is only available in the mainland, but not in Shandong."

He briefly explained that fine salt is used only by wealthy people. It is white in color, powdery, very uniform, and has a good feel to the touch, and the dishes produced are also even. For more high-end restaurants, fine salt is also used. The market retail price of fine salt per kilogram is at least fifty or sixty cents, and the quantity supplied is not very large.

As for green salt, he had never seen it before. It is said that it comes from the far northwest and is very expensive. The amount of green salt transported to Shandong is very small, resulting in the price of each kilogram of green salt being more than 100 cents, which is definitely a sky-high price. In Shandong, only wealthy families have the money to buy green salt. A tuft of sea salt is not as good as several kilograms of green salt, which is a well-known fact.

Zhang Zhun said: "What if I could turn these coarse salt into fine salt?"

Yang Ruifeng looked at him in surprise.

Turn sea salt into refined salt?

Are you a trick?

Zhang Zhun ignored his surprise and said to himself: "Can you sell it?"

Yang Ruifeng nodded and said, "Of course... the fine salt and green salt from Shandong were transported from Shaanxi. Now the people in Shaanxi are in chaos, and the people in Henan are in chaos. The roads are blocked, and the fine salt and private salt cannot be transported, and the price has increased several times..."

He explained in detail that Shandong's salt is actually not ranked in the country, both in terms of output and quality. In the north of Shandong, there is Changlu Salt Field, and in the south of Shandong, there is Jianghuai Salt Field, with large output and good salt output. However, the best salt in the country is still from Yanchi City, Ningxia Town, Dusi, Shaanxi Province, Hui'anbao, Huamachi, and Shaanxi Xingdusi (i.e. Gansu) Xihai (i.e. Qinghai Lake). Because these salts have a little blue color, they are called Qingyan.

Green salt has always had medicinal functions such as saltiness, coldness, cooling blood, and names. In the Ming Dynasty, the biggest use of green salt was not for seasoning, but for rinsing the mouth. The first thing a wealthy family did when they woke up in the morning was to rinse their mouths with green salt. Therefore, for some people, green salt is indispensable. Now that the road is blocked, the good salt outside cannot be transported in, and the coarse salt they produced cannot be sold, which leads to two problems: one is that good salt is more expensive; the other is that coarse salt is cheaper.
Chapter completed!