As a result, Emperor Wanli was so praised by the civil servants that he couldn't find anything to do with it! He even scattered a lot of things when he was happy! This is why his pockets have been bulging because of Liu Haojia in the past few years. According to his past character
, it is impossible to give away any rewards!
But not long after the reward was released, the stingy temper of his Lao Zhu family broke out again! He regretted it and felt that the reward was too much!
With this idea in mind, he naturally complained a few words when communicating with Liu Haojia. However, he could hide this matter from Emperor Wanli, but not from Liu Haojia! He knew very well that commerce and industry are the industries that can absorb the most people, so he slightly
After thinking about it for a while, I understood the whole story! It turns out that all the credit I have made has been taken by you civil servants!
Now that he had figured it out, he couldn't let others take away the credit in vain. So he explained the whole story to Emperor Wanli in his letter.
Emperor Wanli was not stupid either, and he had also learned a few things about governing the country over the years. So after receiving Liu Haojia's letter, he became furious and cursed! But those rewards had been given out and he could not get them back, which made it even more frustrating.
He is frustrated!
Emperor Wanli's temperament is that if you don't make it easy for me, I will never make it easy for you! So in the eyes of the ministers, Emperor Wanli suddenly changed during this period!
At the beginning, when everyone came together to ask for merit, he was pleasant and smiling. He was even more happy to hear that the situation this year was better than previous years. Why did he suddenly start to make trouble with everyone? He punished the minister at every turn.
A few months of their salary!
The eyes of the elders were naturally sharp, and they immediately concluded that Emperor Wanli was seeking revenge on those ministers because he had seen through the truth of the matter! Because the ministers who were fined one year's salary were all the first to advocate peace and prosperity for the country and the people. Your Majesty is wise,
The elders of the cabinet have merit, and those few ministers have worked hard!
But several cabinet elders snickered secretly but did not intend to speak. On the one hand, they did not take any initiative in this matter. It was all done by the people below, trying to put gold on their faces and at the same time take the credit from Liu Haojia. This was originally
It's just a routine operation for civil servants, nothing unusual.
Another thing, since these people want to make a career through small means, they must be mentally prepared to pay the price! Anyway, there are so many civil servants, and some of the unlucky ones are substitutes. It’s just that these people suddenly became smarter
Emperor Wanli just saw through it!
However, Liu Haojia ignored the commotion in the temple and concentrated on organizing people to build seawalls and saltworks. Finally, when the weather turned cooler and it was autumn, the first phase and the original third phase of the project were completely completed!
Originally, Liu Haojia planned to build only the first phase of the project this year, but this year there were more refugees to attend, and the people involved in the construction were very capable, especially the engineers who played a major role, which led to the construction period being greatly advanced. In order not to waste manpower, in
After rigorous calculations, Liu Haojia ordered the relatively small third phase of the project to be started ahead of schedule.
The third phase of the project is actually a sea salt refinery. The salt produced successfully in the first phase will be melted again into high-concentration brine, filtered through layers and then recrystallized. The salt produced in this way is very close to
Modern table salt, with a color as white as snow and crystal clear grains, can be sold at a very good price!
Don’t think that since the salt industry was very developed in ancient times, the salt produced will be both beautiful and delicious. In fact, they are two completely different things!
In ancient times, the ancients were still accustomed to using salt when brushing their teeth and rinsing their mouths, but this was limited to wealthy families. Ordinary people could not even afford salt, so how could they brush their teeth with salt? Moreover, wealthy families also used green salt.
Because the brine of green salt is extracted from wells, it has relatively few impurities, is whiter in color, and has a less astringent taste. It is already somewhat close to modern table salt. The salt used by wealthy people is mostly sea salt. But
The color of this salt is still yellowish, and the particles are relatively large. This is because the filtration method they use is not thorough. The salt tastes okay, but it always has a fishy smell and a light astringency.
As for the salt that ordinary people eat, it is unsightly! First of all, these salt particles are very large! The larger salt particles can be as big as a fingernail! And the color is so yellow that it can even
You can see the impurities contained in individual salt grains! As for the taste, it is indeed salty, but fishy and astringent, making it difficult to eat! But even so, it is still sold at an extremely expensive price! 33??qxs??.???
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The reason why Liu Haojia made the salt factory so big was because he planned to greatly improve the level of the salt industry in Daming! So when he built the salt fields, he set up layers of filter tanks to ensure that the brine entering the salt fields was extremely clean.
, the salt produced in this way will be pure white in color, the crystals will be smaller, and the taste will be purer!
As for the salt produced in the third phase of the project, it is basically aimed at high-end users! Therefore, the salt must be made as white as snow as in modern dramas. It is only salty, not astringent, and has no fishy smell! This way it will be sold to high-ranking officials and dignitaries.
Only then can you sell it at a better price!
As for the first phase of the project, it was only to meet Liu Haojia's need to exchange salt for grain, so it was not large in scale. The second phase of the project was extremely large, almost thirteen times the size of the first phase! If the second phase of the project is completed as scheduled
, the salt field will spread from Tianjin to Shandong, forming a huge salt field!
In Liu Haojia's plan, he wanted to use this salt factory to completely destroy the salt industry in Jiangnan, completely drive down the price of salt, and make private salt nowhere to be found! Every kilogram of salt sold must be paid to the Ming Dynasty.
!So this requires that the output of the salt farm must be very huge!
However, Liu Haojia was very confident in this, because in later generations, Changlu Salt Field itself was a huge enterprise, supplying almost one-third of China's edible salt and industrial salt. But for the Ming Dynasty, industrial salt is almost useless
, so he only needs to go all out to produce edible salt.
If the planned fourth phase of the salt farm is put into use, he is even sure to use a salt factory to supply all the salt to the Ming Dynasty! By then, the Ming Dynasty will be able to collect around 20 million taels of silver a year from the salt tax alone, instead of like
Now it's a pitiful three to four million taels, and it's still given to the court like a charity!
But relatively speaking, the operational risk of Liu Haojia is also greater! Because he almost simultaneously offended the two largest businessmen in the Ming Dynasty, the grain merchants and the salt merchants!
All the families who dare to intervene in these two industries are truly high-profile families! They are intricately connected, entrenched in the court and local governments, and have huge energy! Especially when they still control huge capital flows, they can cooperate with each other.