Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 158 Seaside Factory
How to prohibit the sale of illegal salt?
It is difficult to stop it with violence. Even if it means losing their heads, there are still people willing to do the business. Moreover, Bai Tu does not want to make it so bloody. After all, it is salt trafficking, not drug trafficking. It is just a dispute over interests.
It's easy to stop it with interests...
There are people who do business that will cost them their heads, but no one does business that will make them lose money - when the cost of official salt is much lower than that of private salt, and its production capacity and quality are far higher, it is too easy to make private salt dealers lose money!
In November of the second year of Jian'an, the General's Office officially announced that starting next year, the salt tax from Yangzhou would be incorporated into the General's Office for war preparation purposes.
When several Jiangdong tycoons who made their fortunes from salt heard the news, they were quite panicked.
However, Bai Tu already had many channels of communication with the nobles at that time, so this panic did not escalate into a conflict...
Before the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Office announced the collection of salt and iron taxes, smuggling salt was also illegal, but before that it was equivalent to digging into the imperial court's territory.
Now, as the nominal governor of the country's military affairs, the General's Office has transferred the Yangzhou salt tax, which was originally impossible to collect, to the name of the General's Office. If they continue to sell salt privately, they will be digging into Bai Tu's territory!
It is easy to imagine that this is to target the wealthy and powerful who make their living from salt. Bai Tu had also mentioned this vaguely before with Lu Kang and others.
Along the coastal area of Jiangdong, there are a total of 17 wealthy and powerful families who control the salt fields on a large scale, and seven or eight of them rely on this for their livelihood.
The strongest among them is undoubtedly the Lu family. However, boiling sea water for salt is only one of the Lu family's economic pillars. It would only be painful to cut it off. The Zhang family, the Yu family, and the Wei family are also among them. However, these true aristocratic families will not place their foothold in such a fragile industry.
The seventeen salt merchants had already met each other several times because of this, but were only appeased by the great aristocratic families such as the Lu family.
Bai Tu's subsequent actions made everyone relax their vigilance, as if he had no intention of cracking down on smuggled salt. Instead... in the name of the General's Mansion, he leased a large flat beach in the east of Wu County, saying that it would be used as a salt field?
Is it to compete with private salt?
This made everyone feel relieved - competition? As long as it was not a direct dimensionality reduction attack, even if the General's Mansion took sides, it would not be able to compete with their old business.
The Zheng family of Kuaiji, a wealthy family with a long history, who had been very worried before, even said frivolously to the member of the Lu family who was in charge of the salt-making business: "It seems that Mr. Bai really has no money... Do you want us to collect some money and donate some? Wouldn't it be a loss to open a salt field in a place like that? Hahaha..."
Seeing Zheng Xing's somewhat smug look, Lu Da glanced at him, and the former restrained himself.
In terms of seniority, Lu Da is Lu Kang's nephew. Although he is only a side branch, his ancestors are within the five generations of Lu Kang, and there was also an official at the level of prefect, so he is considered a relatively close side branch. At this time, he is in charge of the Lu family's salt fields.
"My old man has long said that you cannot guess Mr. Bai's mind. Only by deepening ties with the General's Mansion as soon as possible can we gain greater benefits in future changes and challenges!" Lu Da said.
“That’s right, that’s right.”
"Mr. Lu is wise..."
Everyone said 666, but most of them disagreed in their hearts - it sounds good, but I haven't seen your Lu family donate the salt fields to the General's Mansion!
"Let me be frank with you. Lord Bai has already given us the opportunity to communicate and has never forced anyone. But...if anyone wants to cause trouble for Lord Bai, my Lu family will be the first one to not let him go." Lu Da relayed Lu Kang's meaning.
"How dare we? We'll be content if Mr. Bai can leave us some leftovers." Zheng Xing said immediately.
Lu Da glanced at him. Could the profits from smuggling salt be considered as leftovers?
But...after all, he was not that noble , so he did not criticize anything.
At this time, the seventeen salt merchants, whose relationships with the General's Mansion were either distant or close, all had the same opinion on the so-called official salt fields - if they really wanted to boil salt there, they would probably lose a lot of money!
What kind of place is suitable for boiling salt?
The seawater is endless, but boiling salt requires fire, so the place must be close to the fuel, and of course not far from the coast . Otherwise, whether it is transporting fuel or transporting seawater, the cost will rise to an unacceptable level.
Therefore, only coasts near reed marshes or mountains and forests are qualified to become salt fields.
For example, the Changlu Salt Field, the largest sea salt field in later generations, was originally chosen because of the abundant reeds in the area. Even after the salt-drying method was invented, the salt field was not moved.
As for the beach circled in the white picture, there is not even any shade of trees around it, only vast expanses of sand. Wouldn't it be a huge loss to boil salt there?
Of course, we can’t blame Bai Tu for choosing a bad location. After all... all the places suitable for salt fields have long been bought by the wealthy families in Jiangdong through various means.
At this time, Pang Tong was inspecting the site. Looking down at the large flat beach from a high altitude, Pang Tong quickly calculated the scale of the ditch and beach excavation, the distribution of the evaporation pool and crystallization pool...
"Unfortunately, according to the composition and concentration of seawater, the seawater near the mouth of the Huai River is more suitable for salt fields... But we have to wait until the lord recovers Huainan in the future before we can open a salt field there.
It is not a waste to build a factory here now. There is not only salt in the sea, but also the sand here can meet the needs of firing glass, and soda ash can be extracted from seaweed..." Pang Tong said to himself.
"Dr. Pang, what did you say?" Zhou Tai asked in confusion.
"It's nothing. We will start construction tomorrow. I will leave the defense mission to General Zhou." Pang Tong said.
Pang Tong was temporarily appointed as the Doctor of the Ministry of Works. At that time, "Doctor" was an official position, and Zhou Tai had been reinstated after the last "suppression of the rebellion".
At the same time, Bai Tu gave him a task that was no less important than protecting himself - to protect Pang Tong!
At first, Bai Tu was worried that those powerful people might have bad intentions, so he considered sending someone to assist Pang Tong, but then he thought... Although he is now starting to develop towards engineering, that is Pang Tong!
If you give him enough people and enough authority, who can have any bad intentions towards him?
Before, Bai Tu had always been troubled by the selection of personnel for the Ministry of Works, and at one point he wanted to send someone to actively look for Ma Jun, the famous engineering expert of Cao Wei, but Ma Jun's hometown was in the north.
But now we have the best "substitute". Pang Tong is not only more versatile than Ma Jun, but also...regardless of his attainments in engineering, he is also a first-class strategist in terms of military strategy and internal governance!
Pang Tong is now just obsessed with knowledge. He is so arrogant that he calls "the art of war" and "governance" minor things. But if someone treats him as an ordinary science and engineering guy, he will probably experience an all-round crushing.
Even as a nerd who reads chemistry as a break when he is tired of physics, Pang Tong is ready to use the secret of glass making from "Chu Er Chemistry" here...
Moreover, burning glass also requires fuel. Considering the value that glass can reach at this time, it is completely acceptable to transport the fuel here to burn, which can serve as an additional confusing effect!
