Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 159 Seaside Factory
How to ban the sale of illegal salt?

It's difficult to stop it with violence. Even if it's a business of losing people's heads, there are still people willing to do it, and Bai Tu doesn't want to make it so bloody. After all, it's salt trafficking, not drug trafficking, it's just a struggle for interests.

Stop it with benefits, it's very simple...

Some people do the business of losing money, but no one does the business of losing money - when the cost of official salt is far lower than that of private salt, and the production capacity and quality are far higher, it is too easy to make private salt dealers lose money!

In November of the second year of Jian'an, the Cheqi General's Mansion officially announced that starting from next year, Yangzhou's salt tax would be included in the General's Mansion for war preparation purposes.

When several Jiangdong heroes who had built their careers in salt heard the news, they were really panicked.

However, Bai Tu already had many communication channels with the nobles at this time, so this panic did not escalate into a conflict...

Before the Cavalry General's Palace announced the collection of salt and iron taxes, selling smuggled salt was also illegal, but before it was equivalent to poaching the court.

Now, as the nominal governor of the country's military, the General's Office of Chariots and Cavalry has placed the Yangzhou salt tax that could not be collected under the name of the General's Office, and then sells smuggled salt, which is poaching Baitu!
It is easy to imagine that this is to attack Hao You, who is a salt-based businessman. Bai Tuye, Lu Kang and others had mentioned it implicitly before.

Along the Jiangdong coast, there are a large number of wealthy families who control salt fields. There are [-] families in total, and seven or eight of them use this as their pillar.

The strongest among them is undoubtedly the Lu family, but boiling the sea into salt is only one of the pillars of the Lu family's economy, and it would only be a pain to cut it off. The Zhang family, the Yu family, and the Wei family are also among them, but these real The family would not put its foothold in such a fragile industry.

Seventeen salt merchants have met several times because of this, but they were appeased by the Lu family and other big noble families.

Afterwards, Baitu's actions made everyone relax their vigilance, as if they had no intention of cracking down on illegal salt, but...in the name of Cheqi General's Mansion, they built a large flat beach in the east of Wu County, saying that it was to be used as a salt farm. ?
Is it to compete with private salt?
This made everyone feel relieved - competition?As long as it is not a direct dimensionality reduction attack, even if the General Mansion tries to sidestep it, they will not be able to compete with their old profession.

The Zheng family in Kuaiji, a wealthy family with some years of experience, who was worried before, even said frivolously to the Lu family member in charge of the salt cooking business: "It seems that Mr. Bai really has no money... How about we pool our money and donate some?" ? Wouldn’t it be a waste of money to open a salt farm in a place like that? Hahaha..."

Seeing Zheng Xing's proud look, Lu Da glanced at him, and then the former restrained himself.

In terms of seniority, Lu Tao is Lu Kang's nephew. Although he is only a side branch, his ancestors and Lu Kang did not have the fifth service, and they once had an official at the prefect level. He is considered a relatively recent side branch. At this time, he is in charge of the Lu family's salt fields.

"My old man said long ago that Bai Gong's mind is beyond your imagination. Only by deepening the relationship with the General's Mansion as soon as possible can we gain greater benefits in the future changes and challenges!" Lu Tan said.

"Yes, yes."

"Master Lu is wise..."

Everyone said 666 one after another, but most of them disagreed - it sounded nice, but I didn't see your Lu family donating the salt fields to the General's Mansion!

"The ugly words have been said earlier. Mr. Bai has given us the opportunity to communicate and has never forced anyone. But...if someone wants to cause trouble to Mr. Bai, I, Mrs. Lu, will be the first to let him go." Lu Tao relayed What Lu Kang meant.

"How dare you? Mr. Bai will be satisfied if he can leave some scraps for us." Zheng Xing said immediately.

Lu Tao glanced at him. Can the profit from private salt be said to be scraps?
But...after all, he wasn't very noble, so he didn't criticize anything.

At this time, the seventeen salt merchants, who were either distant or close to the General's Mansion, had the same view on the so-called official salt fields - if they really wanted to boil salt there, they would lose money to death!
What kind of place is suitable for boiling salt?

There is endless sea water, but boiling salt requires the use of fire, so it needs to be close to the fuel. Of course, it cannot be far from the coast. Otherwise, whether it is transporting fuel or sea water, the cost will rise to an unacceptable level. .

Therefore, only coasts that are close to reed swamps or mountains and forests are qualified to become salt fields.

For example, the largest sea salt field in later generations, the "Changlu Salt Field", was originally located here because of the abundant reeds in the area. Later, even though the salt drying method was developed, the salt field was not moved.

As for the beaches circled in the white picture, there are no shade trees around, only patches of sand. Wouldn't it be a waste to boil salt there?

Of course, we can't blame Baitu for choosing a bad location. After all... all the places suitable for salt fields have long been bought by Jiangdong's wealthy family through various means.

At this time, Pang Tong was inspecting the site selection. Looking down at the large flat beach from a high place, Pang Tong quickly calculated the scale of the trench beach excavation, the division of evaporation ponds, crystallization ponds...

"Unfortunately, based on the composition and concentration of seawater, the seawater near the entrance of the Huaihe River is more suitable for use as a salt pan... However, the salt pan can only be opened there after the lord regains Huainan in the future.

It is not a waste to build a factory here now. There is not only salt in the sea, but also the sand here meets the needs of firing colored glaze, and soda ash can be extracted from seaweed..." Pang Tong said to himself.

"Dr. Pang, what did you say?" Zhou Tai asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, construction will start tomorrow, and the defense task will be left to General Zhou." Pang Tong said.

Pang Tong was temporarily appointed as a doctor of the Ministry of Industry. At this time, "doctor" was originally an official position, and Zhou Tai had been reinstated by the official after the last "rebellion".

At the same time, Bai Tu gave him a task that was no less important than protecting himself—protecting Pang Tong!
At first, Bai Tu was worried that those powerful right-wingers might have made a mistake and considered sending someone to assist Pang Tong, but then he thought... Although he is now starting to develop towards engineering, that is Pang Tong!
Give him enough people and authority, who can use crooked ideas against him?
Bai Tu had also been having a headache before about the candidates for the Ministry of Industry. He once wanted to send someone to proactively look for Ma Jun, the famous engineering expert from Cao Wei, but Ma Jun's hometown was in the north.

Now there is the best "substitute", Pang Tong is not only more versatile than Ma Jun, but... regardless of his engineering attainments, he is also a top-notch counselor in terms of the law of war and internal governance alone!
Pang Tong is just obsessed with knowledge now, and he arrogantly refers to "art of war" and "politics" as trivial matters. But if someone deceives him as an ordinary science and engineering man, he may have to experience all-round crushing.

Even as a top student who is tired of physics and only looks at chemistry as a rest, Pang Tong is going to play out the profound meaning of firing glass in "Secondary Chemistry" here...

Moreover, burning glass also requires fuel. Considering the value that the glass can achieve at this time, it is completely acceptable to transport the fuel to burn it, which can provide additional confusion!
(End of this chapter)