Chapter 101 Large-scale production and big mutual market
Regardless of whether it is true or false, good words can persuade people to learn. After Wan Lei's deception, Tao and science have become one, and studying science is to study Tao. In this way, except for Zhao Xueer, the Seven Little Taoists
The others have become the most obedient students, and they will suffer whatever Wan Lei does.
The reason why Zhao Xueer didn't become a "duck" was because she didn't change her monkey nature. She only sat in the classroom for two days and found various excuses to arrive late and leave early. In the end, she simply stopped coming. Wan Lei didn't bother to pay attention to her, after all.
Learning relies on self-awareness and cannot be forced. A home-based "Taoist" like her has no sense of urgency for the revival of Taoism, but is deeply interested in martial arts.
Of course, Wan Lei will not discriminate against anyone just because he or she is not interested in learning. It is said that if you specialize in a skill, you will be the best in every field. As a bodyguard, Zhao Xueer is still competent. Wan Lei keeps her by his side as a bodyguard.
In the blink of an eye, March of fireworks has passed, and spring plowing has ended. In April, the spring scenery is bright, and there are red flowers and green willows everywhere. Under the leadership of Wan Lei, seven Taoist priests formed an outing group to go to the Bohai Bay to inspect the salt field production, and went there together
Most of them are officials at all levels of Shuntian Prefecture, which shows the importance they attach to salt farm production.
Salt, as a necessity of daily life, was an official monopoly product in the Ming Dynasty. Salt tax has always been a large revenue for the Central Plains court, so the control is very strict. But the sea water is left there.
Selling, so many people are interested in selling private salt as a way to make a fortune.
According to economic theory, monopoly will inevitably lead to the degradation and bureaucracy of the industry, and the salt industry in the Ming Dynasty was no exception. The common people could buy private salt that was much better than official salt at one-third of the price. In order to strictly control
For the benefit of this industry, successive feudal governments have continuously increased the penalties for selling illegal salt. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, selling one stone of illegal salt was punishable by death. The Ming Dynasty did not use the Tang system and used harsh laws to ban illegal salt.
But then again, no matter what kind of society it is, if there is a 10% profit, people will be ready to take action; if there is a 100% profit, people will do whatever they want; if there is a 300% profit, then people will dare to risk beheading.
risk.
The production cost of salt is negligible, but the selling price is more expensive than meat. In some inland areas, salt is even sold for one penny per pound, and the profit is far higher than 300%. So how can the imperial court use cool methods?
, it is impossible to ban illegal and criminal activities such as selling smuggled salt. This is like the grass growing in Lili Yuan, the wild fire cannot be burned out, and the spring breeze blows again.
In addition, most of the "profiteers" who dared to smuggle salt illegally had official backgrounds. Officials and businessmen worked together to engage in smuggling, and the court was unable to stop it.
As an "autonomous government", Shuntian Prefecture does not charge taxes on the people. However, the two businesses of salt and iron have to be monopolized by the government, because official salaries and military pay have to come from here. Of course, Shuntian Prefecture has a population of hundreds of thousands, and it eats a lot of food a year.
There is not much salt, not much iron, and domestic demand cannot afford the huge military and administrative expenses, so we must expand sales channels and earn money from outside to supplement expenses.
The so-called expansion of sales channels is actually smuggling. Of course, Wan Lei has no intention of selling smuggled salt to Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other nearby areas for the time being. He has set his sights on the Tatar market in the north and plans to open a mutual market with the Mongols.
Therefore, we must increase the production of salt. After all, if we want to do business, we must have goods to sell.
In fact, when it comes to the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, it is really a bloody affair. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia, this neighbor, has always been a headache for the Ming Dynasty. There have been countless wars and negotiations.
After another fight, the original Yuan Dynasty was beaten into the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but no matter how hard it was fought, it never stopped, and bilateral relations continued to deteriorate.
The more serious problem is that the Mongolians do not have their own handicraft industry and agriculture, and the economic structure is seriously unbalanced. They lack everything except beef and mutton. Even if they want to build a closed natural economy, they cannot start it. And in this state of obvious mutual vendetta,
, the imperial court would not trade with the Mongols. Especially when the Yan army rebelled, the Mongolian army supported the Yan army, causing serious harm to the imperial army. The imperial court was even more ruthless towards Mongolia. If it were not for the limited national power,
We have already sent out troops to attack.
Ordinarily, privately opening mutual markets is against the "Basic Law" of the Ming Dynasty, but Shuntian Prefecture is an "autonomous government" and can be completely ignored. No, just a month ago, Shuntian Prefecture assigned a peace mission
When leaving customs, bring gifts and "credentials" to express your good wishes for peaceful coexistence to Mongolia.
The reason why we are looking for the Mongolian headquarters instead of the Duoyan Sanwei and Oara is because only the Mongolian headquarters and the Duoyan Sanwei are bordering Shuntian Prefecture, while the Oara tribe is far to the west and cannot be reached at all. The Duoyan Sanwei has just fought a vicious battle with the Peking Army, and the bilateral relationship is
It's bad, so we can only do business with the Mongolian headquarters.
The main part of Mongolia, the Mongolian Khanate, is also called the Northern Yuan Dynasty. The current Great Khan of Mongolia is Bo'er Jijin, Kun Tiemur, and the Khan's name is Temur Khan. However, his name as Great Khan is a bit unrealistic.
The actual control area is only the Mongolian headquarters, and the three guards of Wala and Duoyan are not interested in him, so it no longer has the glory of spanning Europe and Asia.
As the saying goes, a dragon swims in shallow water and is tricked by a shrimp, a tiger falls flat and is bullied by a dog, a cat with ambition is more powerful than a tiger, and a phoenix that loses its feathers is not as good as a chicken. In this world, the situation is always stronger than the people, the Mongol Khanate is no longer majestic, and the current leader
Khanwo was living in the wind and eating sand on the Mongolian plateau. He was extremely bored. Hearing that someone was willing to do business with him, he was overjoyed and immediately sent an envoy back to discuss trade matters.
In fact, in addition to salt and iron, the most urgent daily necessities for Mongolians are strong wine. After all, the Mongolian plateau is bitterly cold and cannot produce much food, let alone good wine. Those fruit wines made from grapes are
If it is too "light", it will not have the effect of keeping out the cold at all.
Silk, cotton and other soft items as well as yellow and white items are also very popular among the Mongolian nobles. Unfortunately, Shuntian Mansion does not produce these items, and there is also a shortage of yellow and white items. However, there is no shortage of wine, because Wan Lei knows that alcohol is not only able to
Using grain fermentation to extract, any cellulose-containing material can be fermented to produce alcohol, such as wheat straw, sawdust, etc.
Of course, the wine made from alcohol made from wheat straw and sawdust is not as good as the liquor made from grain, but it is better than nothing. Wan Lei will not drink this kind of wine anyway. In addition, Wan Lei also asked people to drink wine from Chongming Island.
He got some reed millet and planted it there, and now it has been planted in his family's experimental field, and it will be harvested when it grows up.
Reed millet is actually sweet sorghum, a variant of sorghum. This kind of thing appeared in the Ming Dynasty, but its planting range is not wide. Don’t underestimate this kind of thing. It is called second-generation sugar cane. It bears grain.
The bottom is like sugar cane, which can be grown in both north and south regardless of climate. Wan Lei introduced this kind of stuff, which is not only used to process it into sugar for sale, but also to process alcohol.
Most of the alcohol obtained from processing will be used to mix wine for external sale, and a small part will be used to make ethylene. Alcohol can be heated and decomposed under concentrated sulfuric acid to generate ethylene. Ethylene is an important raw material used to synthesize plastics. Wan Lei Zao
I just wanted to get it out and study it carefully.
Although ethylene can be obtained by cracking petroleum in future generations, there are currently no such production conditions. It can only be produced by experimental methods that consume the most raw materials. It is okay for research, but it may be a loss for mass production of polyethylene plastics.
Although Wan Lei wanted to make plastic products in exchange for money, he still wouldn't do a loss-making business.
Although plastic cannot be produced for the time being, it is still profitable to mix alcohol with wine and sell it. No, Wan Lei reached an agreement with Shuntian Prefecture to jointly build a large alcohol factory. In addition to exporting to Mongolia, a large amount of the alcohol produced is
It is used for medical purposes and in the production of acetic acid, and the profit is divided into 20% and 80%, Wan Lei, as the technical director, gets 20%, and 80% is classified as government revenue.
Tie Xuan was in favor of this. He was originally worried about financial income, but now he invests in industry, which can be regarded as self-reliant. If it is as Wan Lei said, sugar can be made from reed stalks and alcohol can be made.
There is hope for the development of Shuntianfu in the future.
The reason why Wan Lei wants to join a joint venture with the government is to concentrate on doing big things. After all, building a large factory is not an easy task. Dozens of tons of iron are needed to build various iron barrels and cans, and a press and a fermentation machine must be built.
Building ponds, building distillation towers, building sugar boilers and other production equipment cannot be completed without the combined efforts of everyone.
Along the way, they negotiated with Tie Xuan about building a factory. Wan Lei and his party arrived at the beach. They saw dozens of acres of beach divided into several salt fields, and hundreds of salt workers were busy repairing dams and sluices.
"Everyone, tell me, how is salt produced?" After work, Wan Lei never forgets to enlighten new students.
"Seawater contains salt, and salt is extracted from salt fields. Salt fields are generally divided into two parts: evaporation ponds and crystallization ponds. Seawater is first introduced into the evaporation pond, and after most of the water is evaporated by sunlight, it is then poured into the crystallization pond.
If you continue to expose it to the sun, the seawater will become a saturated solution of salt, and if you continue to expose it to the sun, the salt will gradually precipitate, which is called evaporation and crystallization." Miao Yi answered first.
"Well, yes, that's the principle. In addition, the remaining liquid is called mother liquor, also known as 'bitter brine', from which multiple chemical raw materials can be extracted and cannot be discarded at will."
"That water is smelly and fishy, what's the use of it?" Zhao Xueer frowned.
"It can be used to produce potassium chloride, bromine and halogen blocks. As long as you understand the refining technology, you can produce many useful products."
"My nephew is really knowledgeable and talented. We, Shuntian Mansion, are blessed to have my nephew here." Tie Xuan praised sincerely.