The salt cooked after filtering impurities is a dimensionality-reducing blow to the current salts of various qualities and origins throughout Dahan.
As long as the stall is large enough and it becomes Liangzhou's flagship product, it is unknown whether it will be sold throughout the country and the Western Regions in the future.
However, if the stall is to be spread to this extent, Liu Bei obviously cannot handle it alone, unless he is the emperor.
Even the emperor would probably have to cooperate a little with the major forces in the DPRK. Unless he was a particularly centralized and prestigious emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang or Yong Zheng, he would not be able to do it alone.
With Liu Bei's current situation, there is obviously no problem if he wants to manage this industry.
But he needs a certain number of partners, and he needs to rely on this technology to form a powerful and "domestic" interest group, and share some of the profits, in exchange for the concerted efforts of some people, to protect this interest. , destroy the original old salt interest group, seize this "salt comfort zone", ask the original owner to get out, and then walk in by himself.
This may be the best way to get out of a difficult situation.
Just do what you say, Liu Bei has always been a practical person, and he immediately started tinkering with filtering equipment.
As for what to use to filter it, he just knew.
Because when they were students, the teacher once asked them to make a homemade filtration tool belt for experiments. Later, they used a crucible to boil salt water and kept stirring and stirring to let them watch the process of salt precipitation.
For the relatively boring era of answering questions in class, it was quite interesting to be able to go to the laboratory and conduct chemical experiments for a few classes, so although it has been a long time, the memory of that time still remains.
To filter salt water, you need activated carbon and sand, which seems to be both fine sand and coarse sand, and it needs to be divided into several layers.
Liu Bei didn't know the industrial method of making activated carbon. The activated carbon used in the experiment was provided by the teacher, but the teacher mentioned it, burned it with firewood and then suffocated it, then crushed it, and the effect was almost the same.
So Liu Bei asked his subordinates to get fine sand and coarse sand. He took out an afternoon from his busy schedule to personally operate the production of activated carbon in the backyard of Fuzhong. He made a pack, then took out the coarse salt he used daily and tasted it. A little bit.
Well, it tastes astringent and not delicious, and it obviously contains various impurities.
He dissolved these coarse salts into water to obtain coarse brine, then found an earthen jar, knocked off the bottom, covered the bottom with a piece of cloth, tied it with a rope, and then poured fine sand, activated carbon and water into it. coarse sand.
A simple filter was completed. He poured the crude brine in and watched the filtered brine filter out from the bottom of the jar. Finally, he got a jar of filtered brine.
The next step is to start a fire and boil the water, then slowly stir and wait for the salt to precipitate.
The result was successful.
After the salt particles precipitated, Liu Bei picked out a portion and tasted it. He was overjoyed.
It is no longer astringent. The obvious astringent taste before has disappeared, replaced by a relatively pure salty taste. There may be some impurities that have not been filtered out, but based on the actual feeling of his tongue in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he has already eaten it. There is no bitter taste anymore.
So beautiful!
The only fly in the ointment was that during the final stirring, the earthenware jar was burned and cracked, and some of the salt particles fell to the ground, which made him feel distressed.
It is still necessary to use a salt basin specially used for boiling salt. Liu Bei has seen such salt basins, including copper and iron. They are large and very durable.
But no matter what, the filtration is considered a success. Salt of this quality is enough to beat all types of salt currently on the market. The salt Liu Hong ate as an emperor may not be as good as the salt Liu Bei eats now.
It is definitely Liangzhou’s top product and is also good for people’s health.
Anyway, after tossing out this salt, Liu Bei will not eat the salt in the past for the sake of his own life safety. At the same time, he will also arrange for his subordinates to eat this relatively clean salt as quickly as possible. , instead of eating the old salt.
As for large-scale production, it is not very difficult. The process of collecting and boiling salt already exists in this era. It is nothing more than adding a filtration process.
It is not a problem for the salt produced in this way to sweep through the Sanfu Land and Sanhe Land in a short period of time. By winning these two markets, there is the possibility of further developing the national market.
Of course, Liu Bei did not make any advances in this regard, and did not think that everything would be fine if he had the skills in hand.
Like peach wine, although the product is a good product, it is not easy to succeed in business in this era. There are many methods worth studying.
Technology is one thing, interpersonal communication is another, and politics is another.
A successful businessman must have all three.
In the past, Liu Bei had only managed business within one county at most. Once the scope expanded, the situation would inevitably be different, so Liu Bei decided to find a professional businessman with experience in doing business across multiple regions to inquire about the specific situation.
There are not many such candidates, and if they are reliable, there are even fewer candidates.
Liu Bei thought about it and thought of Meng Tuo. This guy had poured the peach wine in Liangzhou to go to Luoyang to do things. He must have relevant experience, so Liu Bei wrote a letter inviting Meng Tuo to come to Liangzhou to discuss important matters.
Meng Tuo was very excited when he got Liu Bei's letter. He packed up and set out on the road. He hurriedly hurriedly and slowly arrived at Jixian County and met Liu Bei.
Then Liu Bei discussed with him about the cross-regional transportation and sales of goods, and wanted to ask Meng Tuo for advice on this aspect.
Meng Tuo thought Liu Bei was thinking about selling peach wine in the future, so without thinking much, he told Liu Bei some of the secrets in it.
After his story, Liu Bei learned that transporting goods across regions for sale these days is not as simple as he thought. It is really difficult and expensive.
Just an escort along the way is a big part of the cost. It's okay if the journey is safe, but if you encounter some bandits and force someone to pull you away, someone will die and the cost will increase sharply.
That’s why Pu Tao wine is not expensive in its origin in Liangzhou, but becomes sky-high when sold to Luoyang.
Of course, the escort fee is only one aspect. This fee is manageable and does not necessarily have to be a lot. The most important thing to make these foreign products sky-high is the tax fees of the Guanjin places along the way.
Under the Han system, when passing through passes or crossing Tianjin, a tax of 10% of the total value of the goods must be levied on the goods passing through.
This is still stipulated by law. In practice, this fee will usually exceed 10%. In some places, it is even close to 20%. Meng Tuo has also encountered a 30% black-hearted level.
Along the way, the goods will encounter more checkpoints, ferries, and more unscrupulous bureaucrats, and the more taxes and fees they will have to pay. If the merchants themselves will not bear them, they will push up the price of the goods, which will eventually fall into the hands of consumers. Here, isn’t it a sky-high price?
Of course, because the target group of consumers for such goods is limited, higher taxes and fees will not hinder the sale of these luxury goods.
"Items like peach wine are generally only enjoyed by dignitaries and dignitaries. These people are generally not short of money. What they value is the scarcity of these things and that these things are indeed good things. For this reason, they are more willing to Spending an exorbitant amount of money on it makes them feel good about themselves."
Meng Tuo smiled treacherously: "So I won't hide it from you. If something as good as peach wine is sent to Luoyang for sale, it will usually be necessary to add some more after all the expenses have been added up. Sell to dignitaries."
Liu Bei smiled.
"How much is this?"
"Then the benevolent sees benevolence and the wise see wisdom."
Meng Tuo whispered: "If you don't want to make more money, then don't increase the price. If you want to make more money, then learn from the government taxation, create a clever name, work harder on the rose apple wine, and make some for the origin of the rose apple." Distinguish where the quality of the apples is high and where the quality of the apples is average. In this way, the apple wine from certain places can be sold at a higher price."
Liu Bei nodded slowly.
"According to this, if peach wine can be sold to the entire Han Dynasty, wouldn't it be sold at the price of gold in some places? For us, wouldn't it be a huge profit?"
Meng Tuo smiled and shook his head.
"It's basically impossible to sell peach wine to the entire Han Dynasty. Even if there are a few bottles, it's useless."
(End of chapter)
