So he actually said before Emperor Wanli: "My Lord, what are you causing trouble here?"
At this time, Emperor Wanli waved his hand and said, "I know you are not a random person. Please get up first and speak slowly and clearly."
After thanking Liu Haojia, he stood up and said, "I visited several places in Jiubian during my inspection this time and discovered a problem, that is, there is a shortage of food in Jiubian! Moreover, the price of food remains high, making it difficult for residents in border towns to eat. It's especially difficult for soldiers! The money allocated by the court has been peeled off by the civil servants. By the time it reaches the border town, there is not much of it, and when it is divided into the hands of the soldiers, it is even less! Not to mention that the family has seen meat and fish. It’s hard to even eat enough!”
Then he described to Emperor Wanli exactly what he had learned along the way. In his depiction, the border troops were all brave and unyielding heroes, who would guard the border for the Ming Dynasty even if they were hungry! And all civil servants are vampires, and there will be no shortage of money and food in their hands!
Finally, he said: "So I thought of using these heads to make friends with the generals of the border army and let them protect my food shop, so that I can earn some pocket money and provide food for the soldiers and civilians in the border town. Bring food so that we can maintain the combat effectiveness of the border town!"
Emperor Wanli knocked on the table with his hand and remained silent, but he was thinking rapidly in his mind! The current Emperor Wanli is no longer the Wuxia Amen of the past. He has a profound understanding of how Kaizhongfa was corrupted back then?
One of the first reasons is that it damages the interests of the salt industry monopoly! If I ask you to exchange grain for salt and sell it, how can you make more than selling it yourself? Therefore, those officials deliberately refused to give salt to the merchants who grew grain, even if they took the salt, they would not sell it. As a result, the merchants who farmed the fields lost their grain in vain!
The next most offended are those high-ranking families! They hoard food and artificially raise food prices. Because the biggest business in an agricultural society is food. Even in modern society, food may not be as profitable as other industries, but it is definitely a good way to make money stably without showing off anything! Therefore, under the attack of the two phases, the opening method will naturally be destroyed slowly!
Thinking of this, Emperor Wanli said: "I see! But if you want to restore the Kaizhong method, where does the salt come from? Where does the food come from?"
Zhang Jia also said: "Yes, those salt merchants and grain merchants are all backed by wealthy gentry and prominent families. How can it be so easy to pluck salt and grain from their mouths!"
Liu Haojia said: "Long live Lord, actually this matter is simple! Wouldn't it be enough for the inner court to open a salt farm specifically for Jiubian to use salt? Then exchange the salt for grain and send it to Jiubian. Moreover, if there is more salt production, it will also The price of salt can be brought down so that those who sell private salt are unprofitable, and the salt tax can also be increased a lot!"
Zhang Jia said: "Then where do you plan to open your salt farm?"
Liu Haojia said: "Isn't there a Changlu Saltworks in Tianjin? Just open one next to it! As for grain, I know many merchants and can let them go to the northwest to farm. In the early days, this will affect the grain merchants in the northwest at most. The income will not cause too much counterattack. When the stall becomes bigger in the future, maybe I can easily bring down the price of salt. By then, the official salt will be sold cheaper than the private salt. Let’s see how those salt merchants deal with it! "
Emperor Wanli shook his head regretfully and said, "But how can this salt be produced so easily? Although I have never seen boiling salt, I have read about the process of producing salt in books. It requires manpower and a lot of firewood. Once it cannot be disposed of, Well, gathering too many people will cause trouble!"
Liu Haojia heard this and said with confidence: "Long live my Lord, you can rest assured of this! I can produce a large amount of salt with a relatively small number of people!"
Emperor Wanli's eyes lit up when he heard this and said, "What is the solution?"
Liu Haojia said: "Salt sun method!"
When Emperor Wanli heard this, he immediately became discouraged, shook his head and said, "I also know the salt-drying method! But if the salt-drying method is useful, it is impossible for no one to use it all the time! It can be seen that the salt-drying method is flashy and cannot be used for much purpose!"
Liu Haojia immediately said: "Long Live Lord, I'm afraid I'm wrong on this point! The method mentioned in the book is slightly different from my method, because they don't have the same thing that I have in hand, which is cement!"
After speaking, Liu Haojia explained to Emperor Wanli his plan to build a salt field using cement. Meanwhile also
Tell Emperor Wanli that the salt-drying method is actually very promising. It can be done without cement, but no one does it!
In fact, the method of drying salt had already appeared as early as the Song Dynasty, but why was boiling salt still used in the Ming Dynasty? The main reason is that there is no money to build salt fields.
First of all, when making salt fields for drying salt in ancient times, the foundations for digging the salt fields were the same. However, after the foundation was built, it was different. It had to be mixed with glutinous rice slurry and compacted repeatedly, which required a lot of man-hours and money. , it can be said that every salt field is paved with silver!
However, the salt fields built in this way still have big problems! That is, although the rammed earth has been smashed very solidly, it is still soil after all. When the push plate is used to collect the sun-dried salt, the soil will fall off and mix into the salt, causing the color of the salt to deteriorate!
Moreover, no matter how strong the rammed earth is, under repeated scraping by the push plate, the rammed earth will be thinned layer by layer over time. A salt field will be abandoned and rebuilt within a few years, so the cost of the salt produced in this way is high. Too high!
What's more, building a salt field requires a vast area, which requires even more money, which is simply not something ordinary people can afford! Those kitchen households were so poor that they were naturally unable to build salt fields. And because those salt merchants are already making a lot of money, they are naturally too lazy to invest in building salt fields. Maintaining high salt prices like this will help them sell private salt and make more huge profits. Naturally, they will not use it!
After hearing Liu Haojia's explanation, Emperor Wanli was so angry that his face turned red and he cursed loudly! Said these salt merchant officials really deserve to be killed! Not only were they eating up to a great extent, but they also made the price of salt extremely high, and then secretly sold private salt to make huge profits!
But after he scolded him, he felt guilty! Because these people saluted him again and again, even Zhang Juzheng did not dare to confront them head-on. He could only play by the law and play by the sidelines! So he really had no confidence in Liu Haojia's success this time!
However, he still held on to a glimmer of hope and said: "Liu Aiqing, just do it this time to collect the salt field. Tomorrow, let the inner court issue a decree and the salt produced will be supplied directly to the nine sides! I would like to see who dares to take the initiative. , I chopped off his head!"
