As a salty and wet smell wafted into the nose, a large salt drying field came into view.
By this time, the weather had cleared up and many workers were drying salt in the salt field.
The pure white salt particles have appeared in everyone's eyes, like white flowers.
Seeing this scene, these Jiangnan nobles almost stared down.
In their eyes, this is not salt, it is just gold spread on the ground.
Seeing everyone's eyes, Yang Fan said deliberately: "Oh, why don't you leave? This is a salt drying field built by me in my spare time. It's not worth seeing at all. Are you interested in this?"
Li Tai asked in astonishment: "What is sun salt?"
This question actually asked everyone's thoughts.
The ancient method of making salt, in addition to mining salt mines, was to boil salt with seawater.
According to ancient records: "At the beginning of late spring, the people of Beihai boiled the sea to make salt."
Boiling salt means putting seawater into a container and boiling it, evaporating the water and crystallizing it into salt. Therefore, there is no such thing as "drying salt", let alone deliberately building a salt drying field.
Seawater boiled salt has been around since ancient times, but seawater sun-dried salt did not appear until the late Song Dynasty.
Therefore, everyone present did not know the method of "salting in the sun".
Ahem!
Yang Fan coughed dryly and explained: "This is a brand-new method of making salt that I have mastered. It does not require fuel for cooking, but only the space and workers needed to dry the salt."
"You also know that I have a lot of navy personnel and consume a huge amount of salt every day. Procurement is troublesome, so I had no choice but to build this salt field."
"Alas, I have the emperor's mandate, and my affairs are complicated. I have to build Huating County, open a waterway, and build a bank. I don't have much time to take care of the salt field. If you want to use the method of drying salt, you can also join us. Come in, and once you sell the salt overseas, the profits will naturally be huge."
In addition to government operations, salt and iron in the Tang Dynasty could also be mined privately without many restrictions.
Just like Changsun Wuji, he was the largest iron ore merchant in the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, no one was surprised when Yang Fan asked everyone to run the salt farm.
But even with such a huge profit, the people present did not seem to immediately clamor to participate. Instead, they all looked at Zhu Pei.
You know, the Zhu family is the largest salt producer and seller in Jiangnan.
If everyone clamors to participate, wouldn't it mean that they are clearly targeting the Zhu family as their enemy?
Of course, a relatively weak aristocratic family does not want to face the behemoth of the Zhu family.
The powerful families were weighing the pros and cons, so no one spoke.
Yang Xun and Lin Xi looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.
The two of them have absolutely no doubt whether this so-called "sun salt" can be profitable.
But they didn't expect that Yang Fan would deal with the Zhu family so blatantly.
Obviously, Yang Fan was a little angry because Zhu Pei didn't express his position just now.
Only then did he come up with his trump card, hoping to alienate Zhu's supporters in order to divide the Jiangnan gentry alliance in Wu County.
They were both deeply grateful.
If Yang Fan hadn't agreed to cooperate just now, Yang Fan might have come up with something to slap them in the face.
It seems that if Zhu Pei doesn't cooperate, tragedy will happen soon!
At this time, everyone wanted to see how Zhu Pei would respond.
Sure enough, Zhu Pei's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
If Yang Fan can really produce salt in large quantities, his Zhu family's business will collapse.
However, Zhu Pei asked with the last glimmer of hope: "How much can a salt factory produce using this method of drying salt? Will the cost be too high?"
Yang Fan chuckled: "The method of drying salt invented by me can produce 1 million stones of salt a year in such a large salt field. The cost is just to build such a salt field and hire dozens of workers. As for seawater, Everyone knows it’s free.”
One stone in the Tang Dynasty was about 120 kilograms, 1 million stone salt...
call……
Even those who are not good at arithmetic would not know how large an output this is.
Anyway, they know a lot!
Everyone present took a breath of cold air.
You know, during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, each pound of salt cost about 100 Wen.
If a salt farm can produce 1 million bars of rock salt a year, how much does it cost?
Although excessive salt production may cause the price of salt to fall.
Even so, it is definitely a huge gain.
What's more, now everyone wants to cooperate with Yang Fan to open up overseas routes.
As long as you have the ability, you can transport these salt packets overseas and sell them, and the profits will definitely be considerable.
Although they may not be able to build a salt drying field as big as Yang Fan.
But less than half are still capable of construction, even if the annual production of 100,000 shi of salt is equivalent to 12 million kilograms.
Even if a pound can only be sold for 1/10 of the previous price, it can still be sold for 10 cents per pound.
Calculated, a small salt farm can earn at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Excluding the cost, it is definitely a huge fortune for an average family.
The most important thing is that this is a transaction that is not restricted by others.
After all, if the sea water is not exhausted, it will be inexhaustible, and no one can control it?
Thinking of this, the eyes of everyone present turned red, and they looked at Zhu Pei anxiously, their eyes full of greed and urgency...
Obviously, they no longer care whether Zhu Pei agrees to it or not.
Looking at the appearance of these Jiangnan nobles, Zhu Pei smiled helplessly.
The largest salt business in Jiangnan is undoubtedly the Zhu family.
If the Zhu family does not master this salt-drying method, then my other aristocratic families will slowly eat away at the Zhu family.
Although I don't know if the cost mentioned by Yang Fan is really that low, I think there is no need to lie to them.
Zhu Pei understood that Yang Fan was deliberately looking for trouble before taking revenge.
He intends to unite various families to put the Zhu family to death.
Li Tai on the side also hesitated to speak.
He had heard that "sun salt" had such an amazing yield, and he wanted to get involved.
After all, this is another golden mountain.
However, it was difficult for him to directly conflict with the Zhu family.
Once he competed with these Jiangnan nobles, he was afraid that they would all turn to the prince's side, so he gave up the idea.
Yang Fan ignored Zhu Pei's ugly face and said to himself: "It's not that I look down on you and say you are stupid. You are guarding such a big sea, but the people can't even afford salt. It's a waste of resources. This is all money!”
"I plan to apply to His Majesty. From now on, Datang can only have ten salt manufacturers. Five of them will be controlled by the court. The remaining five places will be sold to the one with the highest price."
"At the same time, all salt in Datang will be produced by these ten salt factories in the future. These salts will be priced uniformly within Datang, and those shipped overseas for sale will be based on their abilities!"
Zhu Pei had a sullen look on his face and looked extremely unhappy.
If the emperor really approved that only ten salt farms could exist in the Tang Dynasty, wouldn't it mean that he had taken away the Zhu family's salt business?
Even if Yang Fan, as the governor of Jiangnan Province, blatantly banned the Zhu family's salt business, Zhu Pei would not agree.
So Zhu Pei stared at Yang Fan and said: "Grand Governor, since ancient times, free trade has been implemented in the business world. Isn't it too overbearing for you to interfere so strictly?"
It’s not surprising that Zhu Pei was angry.
If it is true as Yang Fan said, the salt fields in the world are divided into ten places, five are controlled by the court and five are controlled by private individuals.
Obviously, everyone will be eyeing the quota for this salt factory.
Obtaining these quotas is obviously not an easy task.
When the world's famous families bid together, the Zhu family may not be able to win one of them.
What's more important is that his Zhu family's business is relatively simple, and they originally made a living by selling salt.
If this way of making money is cut off in the future, his Zhu family will be in ruins.
Seeing Zhu Pei's dissatisfaction, Yang Fan didn't say much, smiled and continued to introduce to others, ignoring him at all.
The salt drying field was just the first bait he threw out.
The reason why I said this was to retaliate against Zhu Pei's lack of cooperation just now.
Of course, Yang Fan mainly wanted to exploit the Jiangnan nobles and squeeze out their family fortunes.
After all, if people like Jiangnan want to get these crafts, they must first raise money.
And this amount of money is huge, obviously impossible for them to raise.
Now the Datang Royal Central Bank is about to be established.
Don’t these people want money?
Just come and get a loan.
Of course, the loan must be mortgaged, and the fields occupied by these aristocratic families are Yang Fan's target.
Without the fields, the Jiangnan family naturally has no need for the refugees who farm, and they will naturally spit out these people when the time comes.
We are short of people!
Yang Fan can only set traps for these aristocratic families!
Nowadays, these Jiangnan aristocratic families only consider their interests and have not realized that they have fallen into a trap.
Of course, even if these aristocratic families find out, there is nothing they can do. After all, Yang Fan is a conspiracy, and they have to submit.
After walking through the salt field, Yang Fan came to a huge building.
There are three huge words hanging on the door of the building - Liulichang!
Before Yang Fan and his party arrived, Yang Laifu was already waiting at the gate.
As soon as he saw Yang Fan, Yang Laifu bent down to salute and said respectfully: "I have met the young master."
Nowadays, Yang Fan's official position is getting higher and higher, and the title "Gongzi" is rarely used by anyone except his own family members.
"Uncle Fu, no need to be polite!" Yang Fan helped Yang Laifu up and asked casually: "How is the arrangement inside?"
Yang Laifu smiled and said: "Master, please rest assured that arrangements have been made. As long as these people don't wander around, they will not involve the key steps of glass production."
"In addition, Wang Shufen has already prepared people for the paper mill next door, and you can visit it at any time."
Liulichang and paper mills are among the most profitable products. After Yang Laifu and Wang Shufen arrived, Yang Fan was handed over to their management.
After all, your family is the most at ease.
After hearing Yang Laifu's words, before Yang Fan could express his position, Yang Xun hurriedly said: "Grand Governor, there are so many people out there right now, let's not go to the glaze manufacturing factory... How about we go directly to the paper factory? "
"Yes, Governor, let's go directly to the paper mill to visit!" Lin Xi on the side also hurriedly joined in.
Seeing the anxious two people, Yang Fan certainly knew what they were thinking.
These two guys were obviously afraid that the method of making Liuli would be seen by others.
After all, they have regarded the Liuli business as their own.
Seeing things through without telling them, Yang Fan didn't force it on purpose.
Others didn't dare to have any opinions, so the group turned directly to the paper factory next to them.
During the march, Yang Fan asked Yang Laifu: "Is Xin's papermaking going well?"
Wang Shufen and Yang Laifu are husband and wife, so they should understand the situation.
Yang Laifu said: "Don't worry, sir, the paper made from bamboo is more tough and whiter. It is definitely the best choice for writing."
When we were in Guanzhong, hemp and tree fibers were mainly used to make paper. Naturally, the original formula could not be copied and it had to be improved on the original basis.
There are many bamboos in the south, which is most suitable for the development of the paper industry.
So Wang Shufen was asked to lead the craftsmen to study the technology of making paper from bamboo.
Xiao Ran was surprised when he heard Yang Laifu's words: "Can you really make paper from bamboo? How is the output? How is the quality?"
Yang Fan was not surprised that Xiao Ran was so surprised.
Although the paper industry has a long history in China, most of it uses fiber from trees and hemp as raw materials.
Since the vines were cut down in the Song Dynasty, bamboo papermaking gradually began to appear, which greatly enriched the source of papermaking materials.
It was still the early Tang Dynasty, so it was not surprising that Xiao Ran didn't know that bamboo could be used to make paper.
Yang Laifu smiled and said respectfully: "Reporting to Sir, I don't know what kind of paper is of good quality, but the output is definitely high. Our goal is very clear, which is to allow scholars all over the world to use our paper. "
Yang Laifu's tone was respectful, but his expression was arrogant.
Let readers all over the world use our paper...
Indeed, this is the goal of these paper craftsmen.
Hearing Yang Laifu's shameless words, Xiao Ran obviously didn't believe it, and he laughed angrily: "What a joke! Even if you have mastered making paper from bamboo, how dare you say, 'Let everyone in the world use your paper'?" if?"
"Do you know how much each piece of paper costs? How much labor is required? How many scholars are there in the world?"
"I admit that when the Governor was in Guanzhong, he should have improved papermaking and even reduced a lot of costs. But even so, it is not something that ordinary scholars can afford. Your statement is simply fantasy."
Yang Laifu looked at Yang Fan and saw that Yang Fan didn't stop him. He knew what he knew, so he turned to Xiao Ran and said, "Because paper is expensive, we have developed various ways to reduce costs. There are many bamboos in the south, so we use bamboo to make paper." , so we can keep the cost of paper to a minimum..."
Xiao Ran obviously didn't believe Yang Laifu's statement. He snorted and said dissatisfied: "If the quality of the paper is affected in order to reduce costs, and even the writing effect of scholars is affected, then what is the use of this paper?"
Yang Laifu didn't need to speak this time. Yang Fan had already interrupted: "Brother Xiao, will you know if the quality of the paper is good or not and whether it will affect writing?"
"However, I have never done anything fraudulent. I either don't do it or do it the best. If the quality of the paper produced by your Xiao family is better than the one here, don't say you can refuse to cooperate. I will eat all the paper directly. Can!"
Well.
Yang Fan's words were too rude, and Xiao Ran was speechless.
As a literati, he just didn't want the quality to be affected by the output, so he made some complaints.
What a crazy person you have to be to say something so confident.
If improving papermaking is really that simple, wouldn't the papermaking technology inherited by the Xiao family for thousands of years become worthless?
(End of chapter)
