The prosperity of the market economy has made the city increasingly lively. They have adapted to the changes and have gradually become accustomed to this era of change.
For the vast majority of rural areas, the static and conservative life has hardly changed for thousands of years.
The Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, no matter which court came, had to pay taxes and taxes, and there was no escape.
Starting from the mouth of the Xiuzhen River at the junction of Shandong and Shandong in the north, and ending at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the south, this long and sloping coastline formed the foundation of Huaiyan during the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties.
The newly established Tongzhou Prefecture is located here, separated from Yangzhou Prefecture, and governs the four counties of Tongzhou, Rugao, Taixing and Haimen, with a population of less than 300,000.
Although this is a barren and sparsely populated place, there is more saline-alkali land along the coast than ordinary farmland.
Under such circumstances, many people's families were kitchen households and made a living by boiling sea salt. It was precisely because of this that the power of the words of the Tongzhou prefect were not even as powerful as those of the salt transport envoys from the Huaidu and Huaidu capitals.
Before dawn, Han Dafa got up quickly, woke up his son, and after his wife cleaned up, ate a piece of vegetable cake, and then sent his son to cut the reeds by the river.
Carrying a large pan, he carefully came to the salt flat and placed it on the stove that had been set up a long time ago.
Immediately, several people took Echeveria seeds and carefully rowed into the sea to test the concentration of the sea water.
Others began to scrape soil and pour brine, and the sand and soil at low tide accumulated together to make brine.
"Old Han, you're here." Zhang Wu, who was also a stove owner, had bad eyesight due to the smoke. He couldn't see clearly until he got closer. He shouted, came over with a jar of brine, and put it directly into the pot.
Then, he threw himself into the sea water and began to help him to torture him.
Immediately, the two families started their busy work today.
The smoke and fire, coupled with the hard work of cutting reeds, kept the kitchen households busy day after day, and there was basically no longevity.
Han Dafa worked numbly. After years of exposure to the sun, his skin was black and cracked. He was only in his forties and already looked like an old man. His teeth were loose, his eyes were blurred, and his limbs were stiff.
"When will this life come to an end?"
No matter how numb he was, seeing his two young sons repeating his old deeds made him sad.
Han Wu on the side sighed: "Who told us that our fate is unworthy? Our ancestors have not been able to escape for generations..."
"Dad, didn't the emperor say that the lowly households should be abolished and converted into civilian households? We salt households are also lowly households!"
The eldest son on the side suddenly spoke up.
"Huh, that's the emperor's wishful thinking." Han Wu raised his eyebrows and said to the rampaging salt men over there: "With these officials here, who will boil the salt for them when we leave?"
After paying the salt tax, the salt farmers usually kept a portion of it, which they used in exchange for money, food, etc., while the salt officials forcibly bought and sold the salt surplus hidden by the salt farmers and resold it to make a lot of money.
At the same time, they also want to hide their secret salt accounts and earn more profits.
"Alas, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, everyone is the same. We Zao households are all miserable people, and this will be the case for all our lives."
Han Wu sighed and continued working.
And on the beach, there are hundreds of numb salt households like them. They endure exposure, hunger, and exploitation, just trying to survive.
Skinny, yellow-faced, and blurry-eyed, they are even more pitiful than ordinary farmers, and their upward passage is completely blocked.
It is inevitable that salt households will not be free. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the hereditary confinement of salt households has been formed. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the source was the imperial court's attempt to control the production of salt.
The reason why the salt-drying method is not adopted and torture is the mainstream is that the weather in coastal areas is unpredictable, and countless salt merchants come to collect salt every day, so there is no room for any delay.
In addition, the bureaucrats followed the rules and regulations, and the creation of salt fields required a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and the court had no spare money to spend.
Finally, the kitchen households are naturally dissatisfied. The salt drying method and the existence of salt fields require a lot of labor, so wouldn’t it be difficult for the kitchen households who only know how to cook salt to live in food and clothing?
At noon, the salt class ambassador suddenly arrived with a group of people, which forced the kitchen households to stop what they were doing.
I saw this fat-headed and big-eared salt class ambassador looking at a man with a look of flattery on his face. Although it was not groveling, it was not far off.
The other man on the side was far ignored, like a nobody, following behind awkwardly.
The only person who could allow him to do this was Wei Kang, the salt transport envoy of the two Huaidu capitals.
The embarrassing person is naturally the magistrate of Tongzhou, a fifth-rank official.
"Lv Sichang is the largest salt farm in this province. It has 630 kitchen households, more than 1,900 salt cubes, 300 kitchens, and a monthly output of 10,000 stones of Huai salt..."
The salt ambassador reported carefully.
"Including the old and weak female relatives, I'm afraid there will be three thousand."
The Tongzhou magistrate on the side muttered: "Almost caught up with a whole town."
"There are too many people."
Wei Kang sighed softly: "Your Majesty's kindness has abolished the system of low-income households, but for these salt households, although they no longer have the name of low-income households, they are still the reality of low-income households."
As he spoke, he said to the Tongzhou magistrate and the salt class ambassador: "I am here to pass on your majesty's order to carry out reforms in the salt households."
"Ah?" The prefect and ambassador looked surprised.
"As part of the salt policy reform, most salt households will be converted into private households and the wasteland in Tongzhou Prefecture will be reclaimed."
"However, most of Tongzhou Prefecture is a salt flat land, where it is difficult to grow any grass and cannot grow food. It is better to gather these people to boil salt."
The salt class ambassador couldn’t wait to say: “If these salt households are lost, Huaiyan may not be able to continue!”
"Don't worry, the court has its own plans."
Wei Kang said loudly: "The Salt Department will use the salt field method to produce salt. The output will be several times or even ten times that of boiling, but it will consume nearly half the manpower."
"Although it costs a lot for a while, it is inevitable. Now Huaiyan produces too little salt, so we have no choice!"
At this time, the Tongzhou magistrate on the side began to make up his mind: "As far as I know, during the Hongwu period, there were more than 400 salt households in Lusi Salt Farm. After hundreds of years of growth, how can there be only 200 more households?"
"That's because Shiotou fled -" the Shiotou ambassador said quibly.
"Huh!" The Tongzhou prefect didn't believe it at all: "As far as I know, the salt farm has recruited dozens of families of refugees in the past two years, but the salt output is still the same. There must be something fishy..."
"you--"
"alright!"
Wei Kang didn't bother to listen to the two people arguing. He said directly: "Each household will take a small number to be assigned to the salt field, and they will be responsible for managing the salt fields. They will be treated as soldiers and will be given money and food on a monthly basis. The rest of the salt households will be distributed to the people and to the court." Please replenish your household registration!"
"Yunsi Mingjian!"
The prefect of Tongzhou said with great joy.
As a result, this group of kitchen households, who had been busy but penniless for half their lives, suddenly learned the news of liberation and were stunned for a moment.
They were able to divide their fields, leave the wishing wall of the salt field, and even have their children pass the imperial examinations, which was unimaginable to them for hundreds of years.
But it's true.
The numb Han Wu also knelt down at this time, crying with joy, and kept slapping his mouth: "I am such a bad mouth, such a bad mouth, long live the emperor, long live, long live -"
At the end of the sentence, he grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his mouth, constantly shouting: "It's so sweet, the sea water is sweet today."
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