Late Ming Dynasty: Conquering the world starting from riding and cutting

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"Hurry and inform the two adults." Still, he was not overwhelmed by the joy.

Without waiting for anyone to go, Li Chun and Li Yi came over on their own and laughed heartily when they saw the salt pond full of salt.

At this moment, news came from the new soldiers guarding outside Yantian Village: The General and Lord Zhuge had brought people.

Li Chun suddenly felt a double happiness, and immediately led the salt households to visit him.

Li Chun is black!

This was Qin Hao's first impression of Li Chun after many days.

There were a few wrinkles on the originally thick face, the whole skin was dull, and even the body had a faint smell of sea.

"Thank you for your hard work these days."

Qin Hao held Li Chun's rough hand and looked over it several times, only to see that his fingernails were filled with sand and his mouth was full of cracks.

"Sir, Zhuge Xuan, come and have a look with me. The salt fields are producing salt." Li Chun didn't care about the crack in his hand, greeted everyone and walked towards the village.

What he wants to share most now is this joy.

After a while, Qin Hao was a little surprised when he saw the neatly piled salt fields on the sea. He thought they were just a few salt fields, but he didn't expect there were dozens of salt fields, far beyond his imagination.

I followed Li Chun to the salt-producing crystallization pond. The seawater inside had basically dried up, leaving only piles of sea salt.

"Is this salt that has been boiled and processed with seawater?!" Qin Hao dipped his finger into a piece and put it in his mouth to taste.

It is salt, but the taste is very bitter, the taste is not very mellow, and it is a bit difficult to swallow.

In fact, it is clear from the appearance that the coarse salt particles are in the most primitive crystalline state and contain a lot of impurities. The surface of the particles is yellowish in color, and the particles are large and uneven.

In Qin Hao's memory, it seems that when he was very young, his grandparents would use such large grains of salt to pickle pickles in winter, but it didn't look that ugly.

"This, can this be eaten?!" Qin Hao asked with some confusion.

Before Li Chun could reply, a young man from Yantian Village who followed him said unconvincingly: "Of course you can eat it! How can such good salt be inedible? I don't know how many people in my hometown want to eat such salt. Still can’t eat it!”

These officials are just hypocritical!

Qin Hao knew he had made a mistake, so he quickly waved his hand and apologized: "It was my fault, and I apologize to you all here."

After saying this, he bowed to everyone and expressed his apology. This small gesture immediately shocked the salt households.

When had they ever been humiliated by the elder? They all stood stunned, not knowing why. When they came back to their senses, they all said "I can't do it", but the warmth in my heart was retained.

The upright young man also realized that he shouldn't be like this, and he was secretly afraid that if he were still in his hometown, he would definitely get beaten up a few times. Fortunately, the old man was kind-hearted, and he couldn't hold it accountable and even apologized to himself. He was ashamed for a moment. Face flushed.

Qin Hao didn't care about his outspokenness. If he was wrong, he was wrong. He should never apologize carelessly.

Then he called the young man to him and asked, "How much does a pound of salt like this cost at your house?"

"Normally, you can buy a pound for 40 cents, but in times of disaster and famine, it's not surprising to pay 7 or 80 cents."

After hearing this, Qin Hao felt confident.

Haha, a big gold mine for me! Continuous cash flow!

He remembered a lecture he once attended at school. At that time, he invited a master of red learning to give a lecture. When he mentioned Lin Daiyu, he couldn't help bragging about how rich the Lin family was, even more wealthy than Xue Baochai's family and Jia's family. The money is much more, and it is not considered as rich as the enemy of the country. It is more than enough to be as rich as a large province on the western frontier!

What's the reason for this? It's because of "salt". Her father, Lin Ruhai, is the salt inspector of Yangzhou! Yangzhou is the best place to sell salt in the world. Half of the salt imports pass through here every year, not to mention the private salt sold privately.

You must know that apart from eating and drinking water, the only thing a person needs is salt. This is a necessity of life!

According to the price mentioned by the young man just now, Qin Hao made a calculation in his mind. According to the cost of 10 Wen per catty, he sold it for 40 Wen per catty. Excluding the loss and freight in the middle, a pound of salt can be sold for 25 Wen. profit.

According to one pound per month for a household, one can earn about 300 taels a year. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were probably more than 30 million households. Calculating the total revenue in a year is a profit of nearly 10 million taels. This was during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. 5 times.

Of course, this salt price figure is the general price in the coastal provinces of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it is still low. If you go inland, the price will rise rapidly. It is common for the chief ministers of Shaanxi, Shanxi and other provinces to have salt prices of hundreds of cents.

This shows that the salt merchants are rich and the Ming court is poor. Qin Hao estimates that the annual profits of the salt merchants in Yangzhou are now equal to the imperial court's annual taxes.

However, officials will definitely not say anything about such a matter. They and the businessmen are a collective group of interests, and the people below have no chance to say it, so they can just put it off.

When our sea salt arrives, the salt merchants of the Ming Dynasty will cry.

"In this case, you must protect it well and make sure nothing goes wrong." Qin Hao is very serious about this. This is his future money bag and cannot be careless.

"promise!"

"The entire Yantian Village and all the seaside land have been built into salt pans. The salt pond covers an area of ​​about 3,000 acres. Five hundred people were recruited to serve as salt guards, and they were all registered. In addition, a team of 30 soldiers was stationed in Yantian Village. It is stationed and patrolled day and night, and it is absolutely difficult for outsiders to enter. "Li Yi, a simple and dark young man who serves as a guard in Yantian Village, is now able to stand alone.

"I wonder how the output is?" Zhuge Xuan, who was listening in, could no longer contain his excitement and pulled Li Chun aside and asked.

"Based on the fact that every fifteen acres of salt field can process one hundred tons of seawater per day, every fifteen acres of salt field can produce about three tons of coarse salt in one day and night." Li Chun said a few figures in a leisurely manner.

Fifteen acres, three tons!

Zhu Ge Even if calculated in half, 600,000 kilograms is staggering.

Zhuge Xuan immediately told Qin Hao the number he had calculated, which really shocked Qin Hao.

"You mean, just this salt field, if we follow the normal salt price, it can bring us at least 300,000 taels a year. This is after labor, freight and other unexpected losses."

Qin Hao looked at Zhuge Xuan in disbelief. He knew that it was impossible for him to lie to him, but he still couldn't accept it for a while.

300,000 taels of silver is equivalent to 10 million RMB in future generations. I didn't expect that I didn't have this opportunity to earn so much before, but now it seems so simple. It's really a twist of fate.

"Sir, it's actually more than that." After hearing the two talking about money, Li Chunqi retreated from the salt house and walked up to give them another surprise.

"If coarse salt is made into refined salt, this number can be increased by 3 to 5 times."

After all, it is pure snow salt, eaten by dignitaries, but it is different from the coarse salt eaten by ordinary people!

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