At night, the General Flag Office.
The official hall of the general flag where Liu Yan lived was not large, just a small courtyard. There were three main rooms in the courtyard. The left wing was where Liu Yan worked, and the right wing was the dining room and kitchen. In addition, there are several inverted rooms, which are barracks for Wang Bo's group of Dunjun troops.
At this time, in the right wing room, Liu Yan prepared a table of wine and food to entertain Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu, accompanied by two small flag officers, Chen Xun and Wang Bo.
After drinking for three rounds, Wang Wenzhen gave Jia Hongyu a look. Jia Hongyu smiled knowingly, and then said to Liu Yan: "Brother, you said you have something to report to the team leader. What is it? It has to be so mysterious.”
Liu Yan said with a smile: "That's right. Some time ago, when I led the military households in the fort to explore various wastelands, I found a cornucopia on the beach in the south. I wonder if the team leader and Brother Jia know about it?"
Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu suddenly changed their expressions. Jia Hongyu hurriedly shook his head at Liu Yan, but Liu Yan pretended not to notice and still stared at Wang Wenzhen waiting for the next step.
I saw that the smile on Wang Wenzhen's face had disappeared and he said in a deep voice: "What does Mr. Liu mean by saying that he is preparing to reopen the salt drying field?"
"Exactly!"
"Does Mr. Liu know about the situation of that salt drying field? Do you know why that salt drying field is abandoned?"
"My subordinates know something. The salt drying field was originally run by Dai Baihu. Later, it was forced to be abandoned because it was exploited by Shangguan."
Wang Wenzhen said: "Since Mr. Liu knows the whole story, why bother to go into this muddy water? The water in this salt selling business is very deep. If you are not careful, you will drown someone!"
Chen Xun and Wang Bo on the side did not dare to interrupt, but after hearing Wang Wenzhen's words, they hesitated a little and sat aside and looked at Liu Yan.
At this time, Liu Yan said: "My lord, please forgive me. I have sent people to clean up the salt drying field. It won't be long before it can be reopened."
"What!"
Wang Wenzhen stood up abruptly, and Jia Hongyu on the side also stood up, and then said in a slightly reproachful tone: "Brother, you are too impatient. Why don't you report such a big matter to the team leader in advance? Today? The Lord has already turned against Dai Baihu for the sake of you, my brother, and with the salt drying incident, Dai Baihu may cause some trouble in the future. You are causing trouble for the Lord!"
Liu Yan stood up, clasped his fists, and said, "Master in charge of the team, Brother Jia, please be patient and listen to me."
Wang Wenzhen sat down again under Jia Hongyu's persuasion.
Liu Yan said: "Sir, I think that although there are some disadvantages to reopening the salt drying field, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages in the end."
"Then Dai Baihu has been spying on the position of defense officer, which is a stumbling block on your way to promotion. Even if Dai Baihu doesn't come to trouble us, you will definitely have to compete with him in the future. So I think that you don't have to Pay attention to Dai Baihu's reaction and just tell him where he's going."
"In addition, once the salt drying farm starts operating, the money it will earn will definitely not be less than that of the soap workshop. Can you do the math, how much money can we earn every month and every year?"
When he heard that there was money to be made, Wang Wenzhen's face became slightly better and said: "You! Mr. Liu Qi only thinks about making money. Don't forget that the salt drying field is Dai Baihu's property. Even if it is abandoned, It’s the same thing. We’ll just take it over and run it, and we won’t take any action if there’s a stalemate!”
Liu Yan burst out laughing and said, "Who can prove that the salt drying field belongs to Dai Baihu? Does Dai Baihu have any documents?"
Wang Wenzhen was speechless immediately, and after a moment he said: "You mean..."
Liu Yan said: "Sir, the salt drying field was clearly built by my subordinates. What does it have to do with Dai Baihu!"
At this time, Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu took a breath of cold air and secretly shouted "How brave!"
"This kid actually turned his back and refused to admit what happened before. Even if these Dai Baihu knew about it, they would be dumb and eat coptis!"
Jia Hongyu thought to himself, with a smile on his face, and said: "Sir, I think what General Liu Qi said makes sense. Anyway, the salt drying field is abandoned. Why can't we take it and run it?"
Wang Wenzhen was already a little moved, but he still asked Liu Yan: "If something happens, do you have a plan for the aftermath?"
Liu Yan pointed at Chen Xun and Wang Bo who were accompanying him, and said: "Sir, with just one soap workshop, my subordinates trained a hundred and eighty elite soldiers and built a fort like Dapanbao. If we add another In the salt drying field, it won’t take long for my subordinates to expand their army several times! Of course, the same can be done for adults!”
After hearing Liu Yan's words, Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu's eyes widened, and their breathing became heavier.
Yes, after you have a large amount of money, you can naturally train your troops!
Wangjiazhuang is a place with hundreds of households. As a team officer, Wang Wenzhen can naturally invest money in training the people of the place.
Jia Hongyu was more direct and said to Wang Wenzhen with excitement: "Sir, what General Liu Qi said is true! As long as our Wangjiazhuang has strong soldiers and horses, Dai Baihu will not dare to cause trouble for us."
Wang Wenzhen nodded in agreement, but at this time, Wang Wenzhen was not thinking about large-scale training of Dunjun and Tunjun everywhere, but about whether to expand his servant team after having the income from the salt drying field. There must be at least fifty servants to support.
"Um!"
At this time, Wang Wenzhen was completely convinced by Liu Yan, so he said: "Since Mr. Liu is determined to do this, as the chief officer of Dapanbao, I can only give my full support."
"Thank you, sir!"
Then Jia Hongyu mentioned Liu Dayu, Shen Wenyun, and Liu Qunyi again. Wang Wenzhen said coldly: "These three bastards actually colluded with Dai Baihu to give me eye drops. Find an opportunity when you go back, Mr. Jia Qi, you Take people to check the conditions of Huangshan Dun, Shagou Dun, and Fengshan Dun, and find a reason to reprimand them!"
Jia Hongyu clasped his fists and accepted the order, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, sir, I will do it in the next two days!"
The next morning, Liu Yan took Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu to the salt drying field. Everyone climbed over a small slope on the seaside and faced the endless sea. The water was gray-brown and the sky was blue. The contrast was very spectacular.
Surrounding the salt drying field are large tidal flats, and large and small wetlands formed by fresh water are covered with aquatic plants and reeds.
Zhang Yi, the flag officer, led the team back here and was busy with more than thirty strong women.
At this time, everyone had completely cleaned the two salt-drying ponds, and the water diversion channels of the two ponds had also been repaired. In addition, Zhang Yi also led people to repair the rest of the salt drying field.
"What are they doing?"
Wang Wenzhen pointed at the busy strong woman and Dunjun and asked.
Liu Yan said: "Master Qi, my subordinates have asked them to start trying to dry salt. Now they are diverting seawater, filtering and cleaning impurities in the seawater. Although they are not officially ready to produce salt, at this time everyone is practicing the process of drying salt. After getting familiar with the process for a few days, you can officially start producing salt.”
Then, Liu Yan explained the general process of drying salt to Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu.
The first is to receive the tide, that is, to bring in sea water.
This is also very particular, "receive the head of the tide in dry and sunny days, the middle of the tide in normal times, the end of the tide after rain, and the night tide in summer and autumn."
As the so-called dike catches the tide, Zhang Yi led people to rebuild the dike at the seaside, forcing the seawater into the diversion canal and introducing it into the salt bath. Then, during this season, it was exposed to the sun for about seven days, and the seawater evaporated naturally. The soil at the bottom contains a considerable concentration of salt, and the soil can be taken later for later use.
The next step is to make brine.
The thatch from the seaside is dried in the sun, then the wet soil is used to build the stove, and the thatch is covered with bamboo slices. After laying it, a natural salt leak is formed, which can be used to make brine.
Spread the salt mud collected by the tide on the grass, use a large bucket to fetch seawater, and continuously wash the salt mud and thatch. After passing through the mud and grass, the brine that is filtered out is usable brine.
The brine is filtered again to remove impurities and placed in a jar to settle for a period of time. Then the final step of decoction can be carried out.
Decoction of brine requires large stoves and large iron pots. At this time, Zhang Yi had led people to build several houses to the north of the salt drying field. Inside the houses were several large stoves and large iron pots, which were specially used for decoction of brine.
First, burn it over high heat. After the brine boils, then simmer it slowly. After about four hours, the water in the brine will be boiled dry, and the white sea salt will be formed. This is the complete method of boiling salt.
Wang Wenzhen and Jia Hongyu sighed after listening to Liu Yan's introduction. Although Wang Wenzhen was somewhat involved when Dai Baihu was running this place, he had never been here and didn't know much about salt drying.
At this time, Wang Wenzhen asked: "What is the current price of salt? Has General Liu Qi ever inquired about it?"
Jia Hongyu also asked: "How much sea salt can these two ponds produce?"
Liu Yan said with a smile: "Master Qi, please tell me back to Brother Jia. If the sea salt is of better quality now, it can be sold for one or two and a half cents per pound. Now the salt drying field has cleared two salt drying ponds, and other salt drying ponds will be added in the future. The salt drying ponds will be cleaned up, and new salt drying fields will continue to be excavated according to the actual production demand."
As the saying goes: Three stones of rice and one pound of salt describe the high price of salt at this time, and the price of official salt on the market is even more expensive. So Liu Yan priced a pound of sea salt at one to two five cents, which was already very low.
"Based on the current output of the two salt-salting ponds, each salt-salting pond can introduce about 2,000 kilograms of seawater, and after exposure, more than 800 kilograms of salt mud can be obtained. After this salt mud is processed, more than 700 kilograms of salt mud can be obtained After the final decoction of the brine, you can get at least more than 300 kilograms of sea salt, and two sun-dried salt pools are nearly 700 kilograms."
Wang Wenzhen said with some disappointment: "Seven hundred catties of sea salt, one tael and five silver per catty, which is only more than a thousand taels of silver!"
Liu Yan said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the production cycle for this round of production is not one month, but five to seven days. In other words, the output of the two salt-drying ponds in one month should be more than 4,000 kilograms, and the income should be It’s more than six thousand taels.”
"That's too little!"
You must know that Wang Wenzhen can earn more than 10,000 taels per month from the soap business alone. Now Liu Yan's promised profit from the sea salt business of more than 6,000 taels per month is just gross profit. After deducting labor costs and other expenses, he also has to share the profits with Liu Yan. In the end, the money in Wang Wenzhen's hands can be How many? It is estimated that one or two thousand taels would be enough to burn incense, and I would have to bear the possible pressure from Dai Baihu for this. This business is somewhat uneconomical no matter how I think about it.
Looking at Wang Wenzhen, who was a little disappointed, Liu Yan pointed to the surrounding tidal flats and said: "Adults should know that Dai Baihu made a lot of money when he ran this place. That was because the salt drying field was very large, like these two. The size of a salt bathing pond is only a small one."
"My subordinates found the old man and learned that there were ten large salt-drying ponds and fifteen small salt-drying ponds. The monthly output of those large salt-drying ponds was at least about 10,000 kilograms. From this, your Excellency can Calculate the income after all the salt drying fields are cleaned up."
When Wang Wenzhen heard this, he immediately began to calculate: "If all these salt ponds resume production, they can produce more than 130,000 jins of salt in a month, which would be around 200,000 taels in silver!"
Thinking of this, Wang Wenzhen's face turned red, and Jia Hongyu next to him also breathed heavily and whispered: "Sir, do it!"
Wang Wenzhen nodded heavily.
Liu Yan immediately said: "Since your Excellency has agreed to Li, then I will make it clear to you: All the initial investment and all the manpower investment in this salt drying farm will be handled by me, without your capital of one tael of silver."
Wang Wenzhen's face was overjoyed, and then he heard Liu Yan say: "After the sea salt is produced, my subordinates will send people to sell it to Wangjiazhuang, the Ancient Town Inspection Department, and other places in the surrounding areas. You have 30% of the shares in the salt drying farm, and you will get the profit when the time comes. How about we calculate it as 30% and send it to the adults every month?"
