Spring and Autumn I Am King

ps: The second is more dedicated

Fan Xu is a lean and honest young man, only with thick arms and a strong waist, he looks like a good crop. [Latest chapter read..] He was originally from Xilu, and after being conquested by Zhao Wuxi as Xilu's agricultural envoy, he ran for hundreds of miles around the area to find out which crops were suitable for planting, and where was the soil quality? He knows how.

So when Zhao Wuxi called him to ask where there was such a thing as "earth salt" in Xilu, Fan Xu immediately thought of the dry riverbed east of Zhencheng.

"Si Kou, it's the land in front."

Zhao Wuxi was now standing with Fan Xu and others in the countryside thirty miles east of Zhencheng, and a dry riverbed caught his attention.

Mid-spring and February are the seasons for the germination of all things. Under the moisturizing of the continuous spring rains, whether it is the green seedlings in the fields or the various wild grasses in the wilderness, they all begin to grow vigorously. But only the riverbed in front of him, and the surrounding land, were white, ranging from a layer of frost in the morning to snow overnight.

This is the saline-alkali land, the poor quality land where no crops can be grown, and there are only a few goats greedily licking the soil and rocks on the surface for the minerals they crave.

Wu Xie squatted on the edge of the riverbed and grabbed a handful of soil from among the pebbles that had been dried out by the sun. The pale yellow sand was mixed with crystals of white flowers and flowed from the gaps in his hands. They were originally dissolved in the soil, but the rain fell a few days ago, and they were only resolved after being exposed to the scorching sun.

"Is this white soil?"

Fan Xu also squatted aside and explained: "Si Kou, this is white soil, also known as salty soil. The farmers here often use it to make soil salt."

Wuyi knows that most of the time, salty soil refers to the soil on saline-alkali land. Because it is mostly white, it is called white soil in many places, that is, white soft soil. There are three main reasons for the formation of saline-alkali land, one is the degradation of ancient salt pools, and the other is the product of sea leaching. The third is the old route of the river. The latter two situations are more common in the Xilu area.

Next, Fan Xu called the local pavilion chief and the li chief, and said so in the ears of a nervous old farmer. Let him demonstrate to Zhao Wuxi how to produce soil salt.

The old farmer saluted tremblingly, and brought his children and grandchildren to collect soil, set up pots, and chop wood to start work.

Earth salt, also known as small salt. It is made by scraping salty soil and frying. As far as I can see, the processing of soil salt is relatively rough. Take a pot of salty soil, soak it with water, remove the soil after night, put the water in the kettle and boil it into cubes, and it becomes soil salt.

After the soil and salt were cooked, the old farmer stepped aside again tremblingly. In their opinion, it was only possible for them to squat in the fields for an afternoon. Fan Xu, who is chatting cordially, needs to be respected by the nobles who came from the city to the countryside.

The pavilion chief and the li chief, like offering treasures, put the slap-sized piece of yellowish-brown soil salt on the ge cloth, and carefully presented it to Zhao Wuxi.

"I'll try it." Wu Xie rolled up his sleeves and was about to go up, the pavilion chief and the lieutenant hurriedly explained, saying that this soil salt tastes bad and cannot be insulted by the sages.

"It doesn't matter."

Zhao Wuxi waved his hand, broke off a small piece in the eyes of everyone's astonishment, and licked it with his tongue, suddenly. Not only the tip of the tongue is numb, but the whole mouth is also salty and bitter.

The common people and even low-level officials usually eat this kind of soil salt, and they naturally know the taste of it, and the attendants next to them also quickly handed over the water bottle. I want Zhao Wuxi to rinse his mouth.

But Wu Xie endured nausea and tasted it again, which really surprised everyone even more.

Fan Xu also said blankly: "Si Kou, you are..."

Does Master Si Kou think this is delicious?

"It's not delicious."

Zhao Wuxi sighed, and said to the local village elders and the chief: "It turns out that the rest of the people eat this kind of food on weekdays, and it is indeed as bitter as a gallbladder. In the past, I focused my energy on making the people not hungry for two meals. In winter, if you have clothes or brown, you can wear warm clothes, but you don’t pay enough attention to salt, which leads to a salt shortage, so you should take it as a warning. Come here, bring this piece of soil salt back to Yuncheng and hang it in my living room , I must taste it once a day, so as not to forget this!"

Fan Xu was shocked by this move, and the pavilion and lichang by the riverbed were even more interested in worshipping Songde, and the people in Zhencheng who surrounded the circle were even more grateful. Rationing" and some of the thoughts of complaining disappeared in an instant.

Xiao Sikou doesn't forget our pain because he eats the best green and white tiger salt every day. Since he will taste the bitter earth salt from time to time, why not eat it for a month or two?

After returning to the car park amid the cheers of the crowd, Zhao Wucai started thinking.

It is now mid-February. With the economic sanctions imposed by the State of Qi wielding the salt policy, the salt merchants from Qi who transported from Xuju, Ji, and Qinyi to Xilu have not come for a long time, and they are now flowing downstream from Taoqiu. There are also many fewer salt boats going straight down.

Although Zigong got the news in advance and snapped up some of the salt to stock up, who knows if this trade war will last for a few months or a few years. Therefore, the price of salt in Xilu has risen slightly, and the salt-selling stores in each city have begun to ration, and each mile can be purchased in a limited amount with the help of salt tickets. The salt used by the soldiers is guaranteed first, while the Chinese, commoners and savages can only eat low-quality and rough soil salt.

Public uproar is not enough, but panic and complaints are inevitable.

As long as people deliberately publicize what happened today, these strange voices can be silenced for a few months. Zhao Wuxi did it deliberately, and he is still very popular among the people.

But at the same time that Zhao Wuxi and Zigong decided to fight back against Qi's sanctions, a new salt road must also be found and opened, otherwise, they will always be controlled by others. This is like the oil-poor countries of later generations who had to grit their teeth and swallow blood when the oil price soared and the oil road was cut off.

…

Zhao Wuxi's next stop was Chengpu, and Zigong came from Taoqiu to meet him here, discuss how to completely solve the demand for salt, and set out to counterattack the Qi people.

"The salt that Zigong hoarded before can only solve the urgent need for two months. There are 170,000 to 80,000 people in the cities of Xilu, as well as a large number of horses and livestock, and they need seven or eight hundred hours of salt every month. Mr. Ji and Zichi have already counted After that, the yield of soil and salt in the various towns of Xilu is not high, and even if it takes great effort to turn the dry riverbeds and saline-alkali land upside down, it will be enough for 20 to 30 thousand people at most.”

He had tried soil salt before, not to mention that the taste was too unpalatable, because it was mixed with a large amount of metal oxides that could not be filtered by the technology of this era. Died from foaming at the mouth.

Medicine is one-third poisonous, and salt is also one-part poisonous. One of the reasons for the low life expectancy of the ancients may also be this.

Only the high-quality tiger-shaped green and white salt specially designed for the emperor and the princes' chambers can make Wu Xie taste the taste of an ordinary bag of salt in the supermarkets of later generations.

Also, no iodine added yet...

Zigong knelt across from Wu Xie, recalling what he had seen in Qufu: "The rest of Lu State also produces soil salt, and several small towns under Ji's jurisdiction also have salt wells, and the taste and quality are far superior to soil salt. But the output is not much, it can only satisfy the consumption of Feiyi and Qufu.”

Wu Xie denied this recent source: "This time the state of Qi banned salt, and even the state of Lu was affected, and the price of salt in Qufu has doubled. I have already asked Feng Rin to test it out, and I'm afraid I won't buy it from the hands of the other generation. easy."

It's not that he didn't think about opening wells in the territory he controls to find salt mines, but this is a time-consuming and laborious process, and it can't quench thirst in the near future.

Zigong said: "Indeed, as Guanzi said in the past, what can a country without mountains and seas do? Because people's mountains and seas are fake! We still have to rely on foreign salt. Seventy percent of the world's salt is produced in Qi Among the seashores of the country, the place where the Qidi water flows into the sea is the best, it is close to the mountains and forests, and it is possible to cut wood and cook salt nearby, so it is called Quzhan salt.

Wu Xie asked incomprehensibly, "The state of Qi has strictly prohibited the flow of official salt to Cao, Xilu, and Qufu. No matter how much Qi salt is, we won't be able to get it."

"No, because the subordinates are most aware of the nature of merchants seeking profit. Although Qi implements the policy of officials, mountains and seas, the border is too long to guarantee that there will be no flaws. Under the temptation of heavy money, there will definitely be private salt merchants sneaking into Xilu."

Wu Xie's eyes lit up when he heard it, Zigong was right, as the saying goes, all the hustle and bustle in the world are for profit, and all the hustle and bustle in the world are for profit. This is a leak that the people of Qi can never stop. If he encouraged those smugglers in Qi, the profit would be enough to allow them to risk the punishment of being slaughtered in the market! It can be regarded as one of the tricks.

And the salt transported by Qi to other cities and towns can also be transferred and traded by merchants who are not from Xilu and Taoqiu.

But Zigong added: "After all, the official salt in the state of Qi occupies the majority, and the salt that the private salt merchants can bring is too little, not enough to consume in the border areas of Yi and Qin. On the one hand, the trade will be blackmailed by middlemen. On the other hand, the people of Qi have already declared that once they find that they sell salt to Taoqiu, Qufu, and Xilu, they will never expect to get a grain of salt from Qi again, and the merchants will definitely be timid and dare not cooperate with us.”

Wu Xun knocked on the table in annoyance: "This is the Qi people's decision to slap salt, the master will deceive customers, but the merchants can only take their breath away, this destructive idea probably came from Chen's hand. Bar."

Zigong nodded and said, "Therefore, if we want to defeat the Qi people in this battle of cargo colonization, we must first find a new and stable salt road to stabilize the hearts of the people."

He also had a business selling salt, and he kept all the salt-producing places in the world in his mind.

"After Duke Huan of Qi cut down the mountains and the arrogant bamboo, Yan's territory expanded to Shaohai (the ancient name of the Bohai Sea). From then on, Yan had fish, salt, jujube, and chestnuts. Generations, and even Su Shen in the further north all rely on it.”

Wu Xie shook his head: "The country of Yan is too far away, and it lives in Beibei, so I don't often have alliances with princes. Moreover, the roads are inconvenient, and there are Xianyu, Qi, and Zhongxing in the middle. It will take two months to go to Yandi, and we will wait for it to be negotiated. It is not advisable to let the caravan go back and forth in the business affairs, and half a year has passed."

Besides, Beiyan was also an in-law and ally of Qi.

Zigong said: "Of course, the Fangcheng, Wushan and other places in Jingchu are similar, so I won't mention it. Now there are three places for Si Kou to choose, and the distance from Xilu is no more than a month."

"Which three places?"

"One is Yanchi in Anyi controlled by the Wei clan of Jin State, the other is Huaihai land controlled by Wu State, and the third is Ju State, which is located in the east of Lu State and has the Langya waterfront!" (To be continued.)

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