"Aunt Liang, I have something else to ask you." Shen Cha knocked on the table lightly, "It has been almost a hundred years since your family came to live in the Southern Territory, right? From the time we really arrived in the Southern Territory In terms of normal life, it should be a hundred years old, right?"
"It has indeed been such a long time. You see, we are several generations old and have changed our names for many years." Liang Jieque looked at Shen Zhonghe and said, "He doesn't even know what his original surname is, of course. , we didn’t want to tell him, it would be better if he knew less about such things. But we still didn’t expect that we wanted to avoid trouble, but trouble would still come to our door.”
"Since this is the case, I would like to ask, have you always been doing business with Hu merchants from the Western Regions or Fanbang? If I remember correctly, Er Niang said before that you are actually in the aquatic products and dry goods business. ,right?"
"That's right." Liang Jieque nodded, "After arriving in the southern border, we did business with Fanbang and the Western Regions for the first twenty or thirty years. What we sold were the Central Plains items they liked, especially the tea and sugar they were in urgent need of. , silk, and occasionally a little bit of salt. At that time, the Central Plains was in chaos, but our side was relatively clean. The war had not reached our side for the time being, but our things would definitely not be sold back, so, There is only one way out to sea."
"Wait a minute!" Xue Ruitian was stunned, "You still sell salt? Where do you get the salt to sell to them?"
"Don't worry, Lord Marquis, it's not what you think. What we sell is not official salt. However, at that time, everything was in a mess and no one cared about it." Seeing Xue Ruitian's confused look, Shen Zhonghe chuckled lightly , said, "I can tell at a glance that you have never lived by the sea. People on the seaside do not eat official salt."
"You don't eat official salt?" Xue Ruitian looked at Jin Jing who nodded silently, "Why? If you don't eat official salt, what do you eat?"
"Because sea water is inherently salty, many seafood products are very salty, even salty to the point of bitterness, and must be processed before they can be eaten. Therefore, many dishes do not require additional salt. We are more likely to eat salt than in the Central Plains. There are very few people." Jin Jing couldn't help but smile when she thought of the taste when she was a child. "When you have the chance, you can try it. It's a completely different taste. Because it has a salty taste. People at the beach do not need to buy official salt. In addition to the seafood itself, they will extract salt from the seafood themselves. However, the taste is not as good as official salt, not as delicate, and it tastes a bit rough, and it also It was a bit painful. But what does it matter? Anyway, they are all sold to merchants from Fanbang and the Western Regions. They think it is particularly suitable. They don't pick and choose, and they feel like they have found a treasure." He looked at the other people, "Don't make a fuss. , this kind of salt, people in the Central Plains would not even take a look at it, even..."
"No livestock can eat it." Shen Zhonghe glanced at Jin Jing, "Do you want to say this? It's okay, I can help you say it. It's true. The salt we make ourselves is sold to the Western Regions Although they don't think it tastes good, they can't get any salt from the Central Plains, so they can only settle for the next best thing. Even now, the salt business in the south is very prosperous." He looked at it. Everyone, "Everyone knows how demanding the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs are. Every time they ask for military pay or money, they are not willing to give it. We can afford such a good warship because Liu Shuai agreed to cooperate with the Western Regions People do business by selling this crude salt.”….
"Oh, I know that." Xue Ruitian nodded and looked at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha who also nodded, "But I didn't know before that what you were selling was salt. Your Majesty just said that you would sell it to the people in the Western Regions who need but very little. Unpalatable food, I was still thinking at the time, what is it that is so unpalatable and so urgently needed? It turns out it is this." He looked at Shen Zhonghe curiously, "There is a saying, I don't know whether to ask or not. "
"One ingot of gold can buy a pound of salt." Shen Zhonghe saw Xue Ruitian's expression and knew what he wanted to ask, "However, this was a long time ago, almost four or five years ago, and the price should have increased a bit recently. .”
"Is it so expensive?" Xue Ruitian looked at Shen Zhonghe dumbfounded, "No wonder he can afford such an expensive warship."
"We may think this price is particularly outrageous, but businessmen from the Western Regions and Fanbang think it is of high quality and low price. They even told us that they would raise some prices to
Our salt is all wrapped up, so let's not sell it to other businessmen. Shen Zhonghe spread his hands, "Look, whether something is expensive or cheap depends on what the buyer and seller think." "So that's it." Shen Cha nodded, looked at Liang Jieque, and said, "That's what happened before. When you do this kind of business, your contacts there are quite extensive, right?”
"Yes, because we were the buyers they contacted, the contacts between us were very frequent and numerous. Later, when Emperor Taizu established Daxia, some businesses could not be done, and he felt that our business was too dependent on Fan Bang and In the Western Region, it is easy to be manipulated and unable to take the initiative, which is a taboo in business."
"That's right." Xue Ruitian nodded, "If someone doesn't buy it or puts forward more stringent conditions, I will be the unlucky one."
"So, when my grandfather was very young, several families discussed it and slowly gave up doing business with the Western Regions. They were told that the conditions for doing business here are very harsh, and now the inspections are very strict. Especially Later, a navy began to appear in the southern border, and the inspections were very strict.
"They weren't suspicious?"
"At first, they didn't believe it, but then they tried it several times. Not to mention homemade salt, even ordinary seafood could not be brought out, and then they realized that what we said was true." Liang Jieque sighed softly. He took a breath and said, "Speaking of which, the timing was indeed very clever. It happened to coincide with the beginning of the garrison in the southern border, and all business that needed to go to sea was temporarily banned. They had to find out all this situation clearly. will begin to reopen. But in this case, the opening time is uncertain, and Hu merchants have no choice but to follow the arrangement and tell us that after opening, our business will continue. Slowly, It doesn’t matter at all. I just ask someone to bring something from time to time. In the end, it’s basically just one letter a year at most.”
"Understood." Shen Cha nodded, "Just when you were about to forget about them, they suddenly appeared, right?"
"Yeah, just when I thought they had completely disappeared, they actually ran out and almost caught us off guard."
"Then..." Shen Cha thought for a while, "Aunt Liang, could you please tell me the content of that letter?"
"It's convenient. There's nothing inconvenient about it." Liang Jieque smiled, "Even if the general doesn't ask, I will still tell you."
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