end song

Chapter 252 The Salt Seller
Yun Lianzhou City.

In the luxurious mansion, Wu Tong is drinking with two beauties on each side.

Sitting opposite him was one of his shopkeepers named "Du Zhixin", who was in his 40s and well dressed.

"There are more than 4 registered households in Qingfu County, including hidden households, and the villages of Miao, Yi, and Bo. There should be [-] to [-] people. Calculated on the basis of two catties of salt per person per year, if the whole county only buys us The annual income should be about [-] guan. Plus the salt used to marinate vegetables and meat, there should be more.”

Du Zhixin fiddled with his abacus, and at this point, he said: "But...the supervisor of the well and the transfer envoy will definitely know."

"Calculate, how much money do you need to take care of?"

The abacus was crackling again, Du Zhixin picked up a pen and wrote down the money needed to manage the officials at all levels on the paper, and finally handed it to Wu Tong.

"[-] guan... [-] guan, I can only get [-] guan? Not counting capital."

"Yes."

Wu Tong was silent for a while, staring at the official names line after line on the paper, none of which could be omitted.

Finally, his eyes fell on the words "Qingfu County Lieutenant Li" and asked, "Give Li Xia six thousand guns a year?"

"Dong Weng said, at least five hundred guan per month." Du Zhixin said: "Besides, without Li Xia, we would not be able to sell salt in Qingfu, not only the county government, but also other salt merchants would cause trouble. "

"Money is hard to earn." Wu Tong sighed.

Du Zhixin asked: "What does Dong Weng mean?"

"Go ahead, set up the shop first, and expand the business. Next year, see if there is a new county captain."

Wu Tong is not a stingy person, if it was before, he would still send the first year's [-] strings over now to ensure that everyone is on the same boat... If there were no festivals at that time.

"Yes, the villain rushed there first, prepared the shop before the year, and it can be opened after the new year..."

Du Zhixin left Wu Tong's mansion.

In the alley behind him, an iron hook tapped against the wall.

Jiang Fan stared at the sedan chair going away, and said, "Song He, follow this Du man back to Qingfu, and report the news you have found in the past few days to the county captain."

~~
Two days later, Du Zhixin sat in Li Xia's public room.

As a private salt dealer, he was really not used to sitting in the government office.

Of course, it's not that Du Zhixin hasn't explained to the officials, the officials he has dealt with are several times higher than the county lieutenant.But everyone has a private house or another courtyard, and they don't talk about things in the public house.

Du Zhixin couldn't help thinking to himself: "No wonder you want to make money like this, and you don't even have a place to live."

But he also knew that although Li Xia loves to make money, he is not incompetent, and the credit for beheading the Mongolian general lies there.

And just entered the county seat, he already felt his control over Qingfu County.

To Du Zhixin's surprise, Li Xia treated him very warmly, far exceeding his expectations.

"I don't know much about salt affairs, and I would like to ask shopkeeper Du for advice."

"The county lieutenant is too polite, and I dare not give advice... In addition, the county lieutenant doesn't need to know too much about doing business with my proprietor, just need to suppress some people."

"Which people?"

Du Zhixin said: "There are two salt merchants in Qingfu County who are currently selling salt, the Lu family and the Yin family. When we start selling salt, they will definitely come to make trouble."

Li Xia said: "I heard that shopkeeper Du wants to open a shop. I'm curious how to open a shop for smuggling salt?"

"On the surface, of course we sell official salt. We also have a small amount of salt. But when guests come, we can sell private salt."

"I don't know."

Du Zhixin could only smile wryly, and patiently explained to Li Xia.

"If the county lieutenant wants to understand the way, I'm afraid the villain will have to start with the Yanzheng of my dynasty."

Li Xia said: "I'm very free, it's okay for shopkeeper Du to speak slowly."

"At the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, it was stipulated that salt would be sold by the government or sold to the states and counties. In the third year of Zhizhenghe, Cai Jing created the "salt introduction method". For a quotation, set up a bibliographic number book. Salt merchants first pay taxes to receive salt bibliography, and use the salt bibliography to check the number book to get salt.

Sichuan produces well salt, which is slightly different from other places. Salt merchants buy salt directly from well households.The government inspects, weighs, and distributes, but it is also the first to collect the introduction tax, tax payment, and housing tax. "

Li Xia asked, "It's the same method of importing salt. The only difference is that elsewhere, salt merchants buy salt from the government, while Sichuan buys salt from well households?"

"That's right." Du Zhixin said: "In short, it's a heavy tax, especially these years when the Mongolian army attacked Shu and the court couldn't make ends meet, so the salt tax is naturally rising. The salt merchants paid heavy taxes to buy salt, so the price of salt naturally remained high.

Recently, the price of salt in Qingfu County is around 140 renminbi per catty. In addition to the usual trick of the Lu family and the Yin family, they also mixed sand into it, and bought the sand at a high price.

Once our salt is sold, no one will buy their salt.They will naturally come to make trouble, such as asking the county to sell their salt forcibly. "

Li Xia asked, "Why should I sell them forcibly?"

"The salt tax in Qingfu County is the county magistrate's achievements." Du Zhixin smiled and said, "Of course, County Lieutenant Li does not lack such achievements. Unlike other county magistrates."

Li Xia asked again: "If all these troubles are settled by me, why don't I sell salt myself, but cooperate with Brother Wu?"

Du Zhixin was stunned for a moment, the smile on his face froze, and he said after a while: "The trouble Li County Lieutenant settled is just a small trouble in the county. The salt tax is only a matter of the county, and there is also the supervisor of the well. , the state capital, and the transshipment department, these are the big troubles, and they are all settled by my proprietor."

"anything else?"

"Li Xianwei doesn't have salt either, does he?"

"Well salt is not difficult to make." Li Xia said: "Dig the well, draw out the brine, and fry out the salt."

"Huh?" Du Zhixin smiled and said, "It's not like just digging a deep well will produce brine."

"I heard that most of the rocky mountains not far from the river in Sichuan can dig wells to get salt?"

"That was exaggerated by people at the time." Du Zhixin said, "It's not easy. For example, digging and repairing wells requires experienced mountain craftsmen; for frying salt, there are salt burners; for setting marinade, there are mountain craftsmen; , There is a stove to set the fire ring; there is a water bearer to transport the brine... there are forty or fifty kinds of labor. Li Xianwei is a noble civil servant, so he can't take care of such trivial matters."

At this point, he laughed again, and said: "Besides, my proprietor worked so hard to sell salt in Qingfu, and even after excluding the capital, his annual income is not as much as that of Li Xianwei."

"Business Manager Du is deceiving me that I don't know how to do business. Brother Wu is going to sell salt to the southwest, and sell Qingfu for an extra county. There is no need to dig a well or start a stove. How can I add a few capital?"

"So, the proprietor and Li Xianwei will benefit from cooperation, won't they?"

"Yes." Li Xia said: "It seems that I am more comfortable eating a bonus with peace of mind."

Du Zhixin was overjoyed and said, "Exactly."

(End of this chapter)