Ning Yushi looked at his expression and felt that he was a fool but he was lucky. However, during this period, he and Zhou Liwei shared a room and board next door. He knew how hard it was for him to work as a steward of the salt field, and it seemed that he deserved such a future.
But such an opportunity is not available to everyone. He reached out and patted his shoulder, "You have a good aunt and a good uncle."
After saying that, he turned around and left laughing.
Zhou Liwei scratched his head, feeling that these scholars liked to leave half of what they said. He shook his head, and after watching the carriage go away, he turned back and continued to record his own account books.
Ning Yushi returned to Beihai County Office with Yan. Bai Shan met him in the county office and treated him to a working meal: "The prince went to Dengzhou."
That's quite a distance, and Laizhou has to go further east, which is considered the easternmost place in the Jin Dynasty.
Ning Yushi thought for a moment and simply left in no hurry, "Then I'll stay here and wait for His Highness the Crown Prince."
Bai Shan: ...Although he is not afraid of the censor, Ning censor is still somewhat uncomfortable here. For example, if he finishes his official duties in advance every day, should he return home early or continue to spend time in the county government office?
?
However, he didn't show it on his face. He still smiled and responded, saying: "I will take Mr. Ning to the inn."
The inn in Beihai County is not very far from the county government office, but it is not on the main street, but next to a relatively small street entering the main street.
It is also very small, with two floors up and down, and two yards at the front and back. Yi Cheng and his family live in the back.
The cooks and waiters at the inn are all served by his family members.
It is free for officials traveling to and from the inn to stay at the inn, but Beihai County is too poor. Except for the occasional official from Qingzhou City who comes to deliver official documents and stays for one night, most of the time the inn cannot receive officials.
So they will receive foreign guests, and in order to compete with the better inns on the main street, they will keep the prices very low.
It attracts businessmen who come to Beihai County to visit relatives or who are not very wealthy.
When Bai Shan sent Ning Yushi to the inn, a group of people came out cursing and looking very angry, "What a scam. Last year when we came here, it was only five cents per catty, but this year it's six cents."
Yes? Our purchase price is six cents, and the sale will cost at least twelve cents. If people are willing to take twelve cents, why not buy fresh fish instead of this smelly salted fish? "
“That’s right, twelve cents, you can even buy pork and chicken, so why eat fish?
"Let's dry it for a while. There's not much else here, but there are a lot of marine fish. In two months, if their fish can't be sold, they'll have to lower the price."
Bai Shan frowned and glanced at the faces of those people. Ning Yushi also raised his head and glanced at each other, passing by these people when he entered the door.
Yi Cheng was holding a pen and writing down the accounts carefully on the counter. He didn't dare to make a mistake, otherwise the paper would be waste and the paper would be very expensive.
A yamen servant took the lead and knocked on the table. The Yi Cheng said without raising his head: "This restaurant only accepts guests staying in the hotel. If you don't stay in the hotel, you have to go out to eat and turn left to the street."
Yamen servant: "...Yicheng, it's your Excellency who is here."
Yi Cheng raised his eyelids to look, and when he saw Bai Shan in casual clothes, he immediately put down his pen and said, "It turns out to be the county magistrate, please come in quickly, please come in quickly."
Bai Shan asked Ning Yushi to go ahead. He looked up at the back of his building and said, "This is Ning Yushi, an official from the capital. He has arranged a quiet, spacious and ventilated room for Ning Yushi."
"Yes, yes, please come upstairs, Censor Ning."
Although the inn accepts foreign guests, he always reserves two good rooms to avoid officials coming to complain about the lack of good rooms.
He led people up to the second floor, walked to the innermost room, opened the door, and invited a few people in to see the room.
The room is very spacious, with a bed and a round table taking up most of the room. There is a wooden couch next to the window. On the other side is a bathroom separated by a screen. There are wooden barrels and shelves inside. On the shelves are wooden boxes.
The basin and the space are not small.
The window opens, facing an alley. It seems that few people are walking there, but looking from a distance, you can see the main street across the alley, and it is indeed quiet.
Or find peace amidst the chaos.
Bai Shan turned to look at Yushi Ning and asked with a smile: "What do you think, sir?"
Ning Yushi was very satisfied and booked this room. Ning Yushi's chief attendants brought his luggage in, and the guards also turned around to choose their own rooms. The inn, which was not big in the first place, occupied all the empty rooms.
Full.
Yi Cheng quickly put up the full sign.
Ning Yushi saw him busy and turned to ask Bai Shan, "Is salted fish so cheap?"
He was in the salt field during this period, and occasionally chatted with the long-term workers in the salt field. He knew that they fished and often sent the good fish they killed to Beihai County and Qingzhou City to buy them. The price was variable.
Some sea fish are cheap and can be bought for ten yuan per catty, while others are very expensive and cost hundreds of yuan per catty.
The most talked about by the long-term workers is that someone caught a particularly rare fish when they went to sea. They soaked it in sea water overnight and sent it outside Qingzhou City. They sent it into the city at dawn the next day. They could sell it for 200 yuan per pound.
Wen, that fish is not big, weighing just over two kilograms, and can be sold for nearly 500 wen, which is equivalent to the 100 kilograms of salted fish they dry.
He thought it was just an exaggeration to highlight the preciousness of the fish, but it turned out that it wasn't that the fish was too precious, but that the salted fish was too cheap?
Now is the beginning of the fishing season, and Bai Shan is also having a headache. Even including Qingzhou City, the consumption of fish is actually limited, so more fishermen still dry the fish into dried fish and sell it to the merchants who come to buy it.
But they kept the price too low.
Fishermen not only have to catch fish, but they also have to dry it in the sun...
After all this hard work, a pound of fish only costs a few cents.
"Nowadays, the roads are difficult and the cost of transportation is very high. When merchants receive the goods, they have to at least double the price to make money." Bai Shan is not ignorant of the fireworks of the world. Naturally, he knows that merchants also have difficulties.
So he said: "So I think it will be good to wait until the Longchi Ferry is built. By then, the official road leading to the outside of Beihai County will also be built, and the price of salted fish should be able to go up."
Censor Ning sat at the table and asked, "What else?"
Bai Shan smiled and sat across from him, "As expected of Ning Yushi, I do have other plans. I have always thought, why can't salted fish be more valuable than other fish? It's not just meat, it's also
It also has salt."
"There is salted fish in one dish, and there is no need to add any salt, so isn't it natural that it should be more expensive?"
Ning Yushi: "Poor families don't have the opportunity to eat salted fish. I can't think of this method for the time being. People who would take the risk to buy salted fish and want to taste the fish in the sea are not very short of money. They don't lack that little salt."
"So who sells salted fish and where to sell it is also very particular," Bai Shan said: "Xiaguan is looking for such merchants now."
Ning Yushi then smiled and said: "Don't you have an uncle who often travels to the grasslands of the Western Regions? Maybe he can help you."