Feng Xing

King Wei didn't stay long, and left the next day, as if he was just passing by as he said.

Feng Sheng didn't bother to care what he was thinking, this person's mind was too difficult to guess, she had too many things to do, so she didn't have the time to analyze him.

However, she took apart the New Year gift from the King of Wei. They were all pens, ink, paper and inkstones. The only thing that was a little unusual was a golden hairpin. Feng Sheng held the golden hairpin and thought about it for a long time, but still had a terrible headache, so he simply put it back in the box and stopped thinking about it.

It is another year of Yangchun in March, and the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming.

Feng Sheng frequently traveled between Banpu Town and the sun salt field, and she also went back to Yangzhou in between, and only stayed for five days before returning to Haizhou.

Because she has been in the salt farm for a long time, now Feng Sheng is not as fair as before, and her skin is tanned to a honey color, but the whole person is much healthier than before. In the past, she had weak stomach and intestines, but now she may be eating too much simple food, and her food intake has increased a lot, and the number of stomach attacks has also decreased.

"Lord Fang, come and see, the salt pond is foaming." A barefooted dark boy ran towards Feng Sheng who was standing on the edge of the pond. After hearing this, Feng Sheng didn't care about getting his shoes wet, and followed him to Yanchi.

On the endless flat ground, there are all shallow pools built of bricks, one with a radius of several feet, and dozens of hundreds of them in a row. This salt field is located in the coastal silt land, and it was determined by Feng Sheng and Wang Lao after repeated explorations.

Mr. Wang is that old farmer. Not only is he proficient in water conservancy, but he has been immersed in the Lianghuai area for many years.

As for this barefoot boy, he is the grandson of a family whose ancestors have been born in a kitchen household for several generations. His grandfather's surname is Ma, and his grandfather contributed a lot to the proper proportion of brine in Huainan. No, Feng Sheng brought old man Ma with him this trip, and also brought his grandson Ma Xiaohu.

Feng Sheng followed Ma Xiaohu and walked along the narrow brick road, and saw several people standing in front of a salt pond from a distance.

"Lord Fang, look."

In fact, Feng Sheng couldn't see anything, only the water in the salt pond was bubbling.

The sun-drying method used this time was created by Feng Sheng after reading many ancient books, together with old man Ma and several old kitchen folks brainstorming. Ditches are dug deep and salt ponds are built near the sea to be at the same level as the sea water. When the north wind blows in deep winter, the tide water will flood the ditches.

The seawater stored this time has strong brine gas and can be used as brine. After that, it is only necessary to draw the tide into the pool when there is sunshine, and let it sit in the sun for a few days. After the tide bubbles, the stove household can sweep it into the water with a broom, and it will become salt immediately after sweeping.

Just as he was talking, someone had already entered the water, holding a broom made of bamboo strips, paddling in the salt pond.

I didn't realize it at first, I just felt that I was doing useless work, and gradually white objects piled up.

"Salt out, salt out."

Ma Xiaohu yelled happily, and everyone smiled, and this smile reached its peak with the amount of salt estimated after the first sweep.

"Lord Fang, if the old man is not mistaken, around Xiaoman, he can probably produce a grain of salt."

"Yi Gang?" Feng Sheng was surprised.

Yanyin is divided into ten categories according to the region, and each category of salt is 200,000 yuan, and each salt is more than 300 catties. That is to say, with the sun-dried salt method, it took more than a month before and after Guang Xiaoman to reach the annual output of the three salt fields in Huaibei.

"Isn't the estimate wrong?"

The old man Ma showed a smile: "Based on the old man's experience in frying salt for so many years, he can estimate the approximate weight by visual inspection, and the estimate should not be wrong."

"Okay!" Feng Sheng clapped her hands high and fell into excitement. She walked back and forth on the pool stem, as if she was thinking about something. After a while, she suddenly stopped and strode away.

Ma Xiaohu wanted to call her, but was stopped by his grandfather.

"My lord has something to do, don't bother him."

The weather is beautiful, and the weather has been sunny and cloudless for the next few days.

Seeing that the salt piled up in the sun is piled up into mountains, and the piles are getting higher and higher, and the more you accumulate, the more you accumulate. Everyone went from being excited at the beginning to being unable to control themselves, to gradually having doubts in their hearts

Why don't adults find someone to transport the salt?

After waiting for several days, the salt transporter finally arrived.

Huang Jinfu followed Feng Sheng all the way, complaining as he walked. When he got near Yanchi, he couldn't drive the carriage, he could only rely on walking, but Huang Jinfu was born fat and could sit and never stand. Let him walk such a long distance, and he couldn't bear it after a while.

Feng Sheng didn't care about him, just walked in front.

"What the **** is this place? What did you bring me here for?"

Soon, Jin Fu knew what this place was, and he saw the salt mountain.

Few of the big salt merchants are fools. Huang Jinfu soon realized the relationship between these broken ponds and the salt mountains, pointing to the salt ponds, and pointing to the salt mountains.

"This, is this from here?"

Feng Sheng smiled: "Don't worry about where it came from, do you want this batch of salt?"

Huang Jinfu was somewhat vigilant: "Going to be an official or smuggling? No, Mr. Fan is still in Yangzhou trying to get someone to kill you. Do you dare to come down and sell smuggled salt?"

"Whoever told you that this is private salt will naturally leave the official position."

Hearing this, Huang Jinfu immediately raised his eyebrows: "I don't want to leave the official position. If I want to leave the official position, I can't get much salt. How can I go to this remote place?!"

"You should show some face."

"That's no good, face is not as important as wealth and life. I didn't say it, so don't make fun of me. I can't make ends meet, don't you know? I just need to fry this body in a pan and squeeze it out. There's some oil out."

Seeing his pitiful appearance, Feng Sheng put on a serious look: "Okay, I won't be a fool, although it is an official resignation, but this resignation is different from usual, you only need to give me the money to buy the salt. No, it is for the Haizhou branch, I have already requested a receipt from Mr. Fan, you just need to take the receipt and ship the salt out."

"Shipping out? It's easy to say! Master Fang, you are also an old acquaintance, so I won't hide it from you. As salt merchants, we are indeed rich, but we can never keep the money in our pockets. Take Yan as an example, just to invite Yanyin, you have to go through three items of invitation, submission, and addition, and there are four corner cutting items along the road, such as leveling, up, going, and entering, not to mention leather tickets, mast seals, Zhu Dan, etc. patterns.

"Just to go to the clerk's office in Yunsi's yamen, I have to go to at least nineteen rooms. The documents have been turned around more than a dozen times, and the gates of the big and small yamen have been more than 20 times. Every time I go there, I will peel off layers of skin. To be honest, If my foundation hadn’t been passed down from my ancestors, and it’s been passed down for more than a hundred years, do you think I’m willing to do this? Can’t I be a grain merchant or tea merchant? I deal with those grandparents?!”

When mentioning these things, Huang Jinfu burst into tears, and said it very sadly.

After hearing this, Feng Sheng also felt Qi Qiran.

After Huang Jinfu finished sighing, she said: "You just say whether you believe me or not?"

"This—" Huang Jinfu was very skeptical, but thinking that relying on Master Fang, he had obtained a lot of private salt and made a lot of benefits, so how could it be easy to say such a thing.

"Of course I believe in Master Fang."

"Then you pay the money and get the ticket to get the salt. Well, you can pay the money later, first transport the salt away, and I will guarantee that you will not have to worry about this trip. But first let me tell you, I will help you save the miscellaneous expenses on the way." Don't ask me for a lot of money when you transport it to the place, and the salt won't be sold at that time, so don't say I didn't tell you in advance."

Huang Jinfu became puzzled, "Master Fang, just explain clearly, what does this mean!?"

"Didn't you keep guessing what the higher-ups are going to do to you? That's it."

"This, is, yes? Why can't I understand?"

"You'll understand soon enough."

Huang Jinfu took the salt ticket and left in horror.

The so-called salt ticket is no different from the paper salt quotation, only the material has been changed, and the text marked on it has also changed. The so-called salt imports are roughly divided into two types, one is copper plate salt imports, and the other is salt imports that are invited to the salt transport department every time salt is transported.

Tongban Yanyin is Yongyong Hundred Years. According to the certificate of the nest, it is published and cast by the imperial household department. Every ten years, there are ten such salts in Lianghuai. This guide is held in the hands of the top ten salt merchants, who own this guide has the right to sell and sell salt here. As for the small salt merchants below the big salt merchants, they are actually attached to this copper plate salt guide.

The cardboard salt importer is a salt merchant who has the qualification of transportation and marketing. After purchasing salt import from the salt transportation department, according to the salt importer to go to the salt farm to extract salt, and then transport the purchased salt to the designated area for sale, it is necessary to provide vouchers to each checkpoint. .

But now Fang Fengsheng issued him a salt ticket, which also has the above qualifications, but he paid all the taxes at once when the transportation company bought the ticket, and there was no need to pay it separately. All the previous procedures of landing, boarding, going, entering and leather tickets, mast seals, Zhu Dan, etc. are all omitted. If these procedures are omitted, it is natural to avoid being skinned layer by layer.

This is not a big deal, what shocked Huang Jinfu was that the purchase of this new type of salt ticket does not require a copybook, no matter who you are, as long as you pay the silver to the salt transport department to buy the salt ticket, you can use the ticket to transport the salt. Sales sell.

"You guys are crazy!"

This is Huang Jinfu's evaluation of this, Feng Sheng doesn't take it seriously.

But he couldn't care less about worrying about the nest books passed down by his ancestors for several generations, which might become worthless in the future, because Fang Fengsheng told him that because of his personal relationship, the first batch of pilot projects came from him.

If it is done well, after the promotion of the new policy, all matters related to business can be handed over to him to handle. Just because of this sentence, Huang Jinfu ran faster than a rabbit, whether he would turn into a mayfly that was about to fall down from the building, or rise up with the trend, it all depends on this.

Of course, Huang Jinfu is not careless, regardless of whether this trip can be successful or not, he has nothing to lose anyway. If it can be done, he will take advantage of the east wind to board the first boat. If it can't be done, it won't be embarrassing for him to turn his face and deny it.

More importantly, Huang Jinfu understands the current situation of salt merchants better than outsiders, and he is not the only one who is trying to support him. In recent years, the number of salt merchants relying on their nests has dropped sharply, which is a harbinger of the collapse of the Lianghuai salt administration.

Either the imperial court sits idly by and allows private salt to run rampant, and the imperial court cannot collect salt tax, or it will completely smash the stall and be reborn from the ashes.

Not to mention this, because of the official document issued by the Haizhou branch, Huang Jinfu's salt was shipped out of Haizhou smoothly. During this period, many checkpoints were passed, and there were some troubles, but the salt ticket had the big seal of the Haizhou Branch, the big seal of the Lianghuai Salt Transport Division, Zou Yunju's personal seal, and Fan Jinchuan's admiral's seal. The people from the Yamen of the Haizhou branch accompanied him all the way, which cannot be disputed.

This batch of salt finally entered the canal and went to the shore. At the same time, news about Huaibei as a pilot for a new salt policy was also spread.

This news first broke out in the largest dental shop in Yangzhou. There has always been a place where there is a business, and there is no shortage of teeth. The dental shop manages the intermediary, plays the role of evaluating commodity prices and conducting business, and even expands to agent trading, as well as storage and payment. payment, tax collector, etc.

The establishment of a dental clinic must be approved by the government and issued a dental license, which is commonly known as official teeth. Salt merchants in Yangzhou were the most extravagant and prosperous in the world, and the local economy was prosperous, which also led to the popularity of dental shops.

And this time the news broke out, it was not limited to one dental practice, but hundreds of dental practices in Yangzhou City were talking about it. At first, it was just a private greeting from the Yaren and the closer businessmen, but somehow the news got out.

It is said that Huaibei has set up a new policy pilot, and anyone with a wealthy family can go to the Haizhou branch to buy salt tickets and sell salt.

It is said that in order to encourage merchants, the Huaibei New Deal raised the price of salt from 350 catties to 400 catties, and the price remained unchanged on the original basis.

Not to mention some other odds and ends in the New Deal, these two alone are enough to surprise people. You don’t need a salt guide to sell and sell table salt, you only need to have money to get a salt ticket and get the qualification to sell and sell?

Salt merchants are not the only ones who are well-to-do. The people outside the door and those inside the door are always beautiful, so there are many people who want to enter the salt business. But he had no choice but to invite the nest, and he had nothing to do with renting the nest from the nest merchant, so he regretted it.

So when these news broke out, one can imagine what kind of sensation it would be.