Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 238
To monopolize so many places, 100 million rock salt is not enough, and it is not enough to process salt with only a few thousand people.

There are already four salt factories around the salt lake. Li Jing initially plans to build four more salt factories around the salt lake, and then increase the number of salt workers in each salt factory to 3000 or even [-].

Otherwise, how dare Li Jing promise to give Zhu Youjian 100 million taels of silver every year?It's not that Li Jing has a bad mind, so naturally he wouldn't subsidize Zhu Youjian out of his own pocket.

Of course, Li Jing will not use strong means to crack down on private salt, and then raise the price of salt, which is tantamount to squeezing the hard-earned money of the common people.

In addition, cracking down on private salt requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and I'm afraid it won't change anything.

To crack down on private salt, the best way is to lower the price of official salt. The price of official salt is lower than that of private salt. Who would risk their heads to tinker with private salt? Isn’t that sick?
To reduce the price of official salt, we must first change the original production process, improve production efficiency, expand production scale, and reduce production costs.

It turns out that the salt worker cooks salt in a large pot and burns firewood.

What Li Jing is using now is a boiler, the kind used for iron and steel making, which burns coal.

Coal is more fire-resistant than wood, and it doesn't need a lot of manpower to go up the mountain to cut firewood, and it also saves the time to dry the wood.

Of course, it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to transport coal, but it is obviously more economical than wood.

In addition, Li Jing's cement plant has started construction, and part of the cement produced is supplied to the military factory, and the other part is shipped to the salt factory.

With building materials like cement, if Li Jing didn't build a few large salt drying farms around the salt lake, then he would have come here from later generations in vain.

In fact, the sun-dried salt farms produce the most salt from the salt factory. In hot summer, the efficiency of sun-dried salt is much higher than that of boiled salt. The fly in the ointment is that sun-dried salt has seasonal restrictions.

Li Jing asked Zhu Youjian for the monopoly of salt. In fact, the main purpose was not to make money, but to change the ills of the Ming Dynasty's salt administration.

With a huge consumer population, it is a joke that the country does not get any profit from the salt industry.

Not counting other salt farms, the salt produced in the Salt Lake alone can pay for the entire military expenditure of Liaodong, but in fact, Daming defaults on the military salary every year, and even dares to default on the military salary.

It's just that Li Jing is not yet the country's top decision-maker, and he has no ability to change the country's policies for the time being. For the time being, his influence is only in Pingyang Prefecture. If he wants to influence other places, he can only use some means.

Giving benefits to these local officials in Henan was a small trick he took.

If these officials want to keep their pocketbooks, they have to assist Li Jing in implementing the salt policy in Henan.In fact, the benefits obtained by the officials were obtained from the salt merchants. Li Jing did not spend a lot of money. In addition, the price of salt was fixed, and the common people did not pay more.

On the surface, it seems that the salt merchants have lost profits, but in fact, Li Jing did not arrest everyone to give salt certificates. There are only so many salt merchants who can obtain salt certificates. These salt merchants are tantamount to monopolizing the sales rights of Lijing Salt Factory. .

As long as the sales increase, they won't earn much less than Li Jing.

Of course, Li Jing would not be so stupid to let them grab a lot of profits from the salt factory. Selling salt also has to pay taxes. The tax rate is not low. The tax slipped away.

After receiving the salt certificate promised by Li Jing, all the officials present without any hesitation promised Li Jing that as long as Shanxi could accommodate them, they would never stop the victims from going to Shanxi.

Seeing that the officials agreed, Li Jing did not hesitate, and immediately ordered someone to rush back to Pingyang Mansion to inform Yuan Keli, asking him to issue twenty salt certificates and send them over.

Li Jinglei acted resolutely, and this group of officials was also unambiguous, writing a notice on the spot, and then affixing the official seal.

Li Jing couldn't help scratching his head when he saw these people writing the notices in person. It seems that money is more powerful. Perhaps the people here have never written notices in person, right?

For Li Jing, writing may be a lot of effort, but for these officials, writing is a daily routine. I saw these people scribbling ink and writing one after another in an instant, and Li Jing was greatly admired.

Especially Governor Wu's handwriting is as good as Yuan Keli's, and Li Jing is full of praise while reading it.

"Master Wu, it's really a pity for you to write a notice with this handwriting? How about sending me a copy later?" Li Jing looked at it for a while and smiled.

Governor Wu was amused when he heard this, and thought, can a person like you see whether my handwriting is good or bad?I'm afraid I don't know how to pretend to understand, right?
However, after being flattered by others, I felt at ease after all, and with a smile, Governor Wu said: "If Mr. Li likes this official's handwriting, I will write a picture and send it to Mr. Li."

"Thank you! Thank you! Just write these few sentences: If the people are enough, who is the ruler and who is not enough? If the people are not enough, who is the ruler and what is enough? Li's word aids the people, sir, don't forget." Li Jing laughed.

After hearing Li Jing's words, Governor Wu felt a sudden shock in his heart, and the pen fell from his hand.

"The people are enough, who is the king and who is enough? The people are not enough, who is the king and enough?..." Governor Wu repeated several times in his mouth.

After a while, Governor Wu suddenly looked up at Li Jing, only to see Li Jing looking at him with a smile.

Governor Wu suddenly had a realization, he hurriedly pushed away the seat, bowed to Li Jingchang and said: "Master Li, I have been educated, please be respected by me."

Li Jing stretched out his hand to grab Governor Wu's arm and said with a smile, "I dare not, I dare not."

"It's right, it's right, I have read the sage books for so many years in vain, but I don't even understand the most simple truth. I was rude before, and I hope you will bear it." Governor Wu said hurriedly.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Master Wu, you're being polite. Mr. Li has something to say and listen to him. I don't know if he is willing to listen."

Governor Wu cupped his hands and said, "My lord, please tell me."

Li Jing smiled and pulled Governor Wu's arm and said: "Master Wu is too polite, Li doesn't dare to be that."

Seeing that Governor Wu was about to speak, Li Jing waved his hands and said, "Li doesn't like to be courteous, and he doesn't like these vain rituals. Mr. Wu is a man of temperament, which suits Mr. Li's wishes very well, so I just want to say a few words to Mr. Wu. "

Governor Wu was silent in his heart, glanced at the other officials, and thought: So you don't take us officials seriously at all.Hearing what this means, if you didn't have something to ask us today, you wouldn't even bother to talk to us.

Li Jing naturally saw Governor Wu's expression, and smiled, Li Jing said: "Master Wu is thinking too much."

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "My lord, as a man and an official for a while, I don't know what you want to leave for future generations? Li didn't want to leave a name in history, but he didn't want to be poked at the back and scolded me for being a vegetarian." After a hundred years of Li, when later generations comment on Li, if they say that this person has done a lot for the people, then Li will be satisfied. What about my lord? How do you want future generations to evaluate you?"

After listening to Li Jing's words, Governor Wu thought about it for a while, and couldn't help Cen Ran sweating.

Smiling, Li Jing said: "Master Wu, for this disaster relief, Mr. Li may have to stay in Henan for a while. If Mr. Wu is interested, you can come to Mr. Li, and you and I can have a good chat."

"Definitely, definitely." Governor Wu cupped his hands.

Li Jing waved his hand, signaling Governor Wu to please sit down.

Seeing that the sky was getting darker, Li Jing ordered the soldiers to take out the notices written by the officials and post them everywhere, and then ordered people to arrange wine and food, preparing to treat these officials to a meal.

After all, these people came all the way here and helped a lot, so they couldn't let people go back on an empty stomach.

At this moment, a soldier hurried into the main hall, walked up to Li Jing, and whispered something in a low voice.

Li Jing's face changed when he heard this, and he suddenly cursed: "You bastard! At this juncture, you actually robbed the victims of food! You immediately send an order to Yang Liufeng and Sun Hutou. If King Fu takes a grain, I will chop it up. took their dog's head."

Hearing Li Jing suddenly mentioned Fu Wang, the hearts of all the officials present jumped suddenly.

Governor Wu hurriedly said: "Master Li, what happened? Why did you suddenly mention His Highness King Fu?"

Li Jing shook his head, sighed and said, "Henan Mansion came to report that King Fu sent someone to ask for food from my subordinates, saying that Luoyang is the territory of King Fu, and that if we want to release food, King Fu should release the food. Let us hand over the food. To King Fu."

When Governor Wu and others heard it, it was King Fu who co-authored the bastard sentence just now. This Li Jing is really too courageous.

You must know that Fu Wang is the uncle of the current emperor, and the emperor has always been respectful to Fu Wang.

Li Jing scolded King Fu as an asshole, didn't he scold the emperor together?

But looking at Li Jing's indifferent look, it was obvious that he didn't take King Fu seriously at all.

After thinking for a while, Li Jing said: "My lords, I don't know who instigated this King of Fortune to reach out to grab food from the victims. I guess he might still put pressure on you. Stay here for a few days, and the adults will go back after Li has finished handling the matter. Otherwise, the adults will be difficult to do."

Everyone nodded after listening.

After pondering for a while, Li Jing said to the soldier: "Go back and tell Yang Liufeng right away, I don't care what he thinks, first, don't let King Fu take a grain of food, second, the troops can't conflict with King Fu, and the third Three, find a way to dispel King Fu's thoughts."

Smiling, Li Jing continued: "You tell Yang Liufeng, I'll wait for his news here, this matter will be settled, I will allow him to take a concubine, and I will pay him the expenses."

Everyone was shocked when they heard that Li Jing was too stingy. After such a big matter was settled, the reward was to agree to take a concubine. Although you, Li Jing, paid for it, how much did it cost?In addition, even if Yang Liufeng is your subordinate, Li Jing, can you control him taking concubines?
As everyone knows, taking a concubine in Pingyang Mansion is not a trivial matter.

It turned out that after Li Jing married Zhu Huiying as his concubine, he found that Zhu Huiying was very cautious in front of Shen Ying, and he never saw the happy and frolicking scenes when the sisters got along with each other.Li Jing felt that concubines were not fully protected in this world, so he made a special law for concubines.

(End of this chapter)