Since the pre-Qin era, the source of salt in Guanzhong has come from Dongluchi in Fengxian County. After more than a thousand years of large-scale mining and boiling of salt, the salt resources in Dongluchi have gradually been exhausted.
The current output is only one-tenth of what it was in the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties. In fact, in the past few decades, Guanzhong generally used sea salt from the East, and the Dongluchi has basically stopped production. Since the current salt production is still slightly insufficient, Guo
Song then decided to use Dongluchi to rescue the emergency.
Accompanying Guo Song during his inspection of Dongluchi were Zhang Qianyi, the Right Sima in charge of the Household Department, Li Yangui, a doctor in the Household Department, Xie Huai'en, the head of the Salt and Iron Department, as well as the county magistrate and county magistrate of Fengxian County and other officials.
Dongluchi covers an area of thousands of acres, with sparkling waves, thick reeds on the shore, and many water birds. Guo Song was a little strange and asked: "Since it is called Bittern, it should be a saltwater lake. Why are there still aquatic plants and birds?"
"
Zhao Jun, the magistrate of Fengxian County, bowed and said: "Your Highness, the salt water in the East Brine Pond has been boiled many times. Now the salt content is not high and some plants and water birds can survive."
Guo Song frowned, "If that's the case, wouldn't the Donglu Pond be abandoned? What value does it have?"
Xie Huai'en, the commander of the Salt and Iron Department next to him, said: "Your Highness does not know. The water in the East Brine Pond has long been dilute. Now the salt produced is mainly well salt. When you dig a well, you will encounter a salt layer, and then pour the pond water into it. Wait for the well water.
After it turns into very salty brine, it is then taken out and boiled with salt."
"In that case, how much does a bushel of salt cost?"
"Not much, the cost of a bucket of salt is at most twenty coins."
"Is it that low?" Guo Song didn't believe it.
Next to him, Li Yangui explained: "Your Highness, the cost of mining salt is indeed not high. The key is the freight. For example, when we mine salt from the West Sea Salt Lake, the cost per bucket is only a few cents, but when it is transported to Chang'an, the cost increases to thirty cents.
, Salt in Yanzhou is also expensive to transport. The cost of transporting it to Chang'an is 20 yuan per bucket. The shipping fee here is low in Fengxian, but mining is a little troublesome. It requires digging wells and boiling salt. It is only cheaper to transport, but due to mining and boiling salt
It’s a little more expensive, but the final cost is the same as in Yanzhou, about 20 yuan per bucket.”
"To put it this way, the cost of Puzhou salt should be the lowest."
Zhang Qianyi nodded, "Your Highness is right. The final cost of transporting each bucket of salt from Puzhou to Chang'an is about fifteen cents. That's why everyone is so active in mining the Puzhou Salt Pond. After all, it is profitable. We can make every bucket of salt
Earn fifteen cents."
The current selling price of each bucket of salt is one hundred and thirty cents, of which one hundred cents is military salary, which is untouchable. So if the Councilor Hall wants to make money, it can only make a fuss about the thirty cents and develop Donglu in Fengxian County.
The pond is more troublesome and the cost is slightly higher, while the cost of the Puzhou salt pond is low and the profit is large, so the Shenshitang prefers to mine Puzhou salt.
Everyone came to a salt well, which was very large and filled with lake water. Xie Huai'en introduced: "After the salt well is filled with water, it takes half a year to a year before the salt concentration is saturated before we start taking water to boil salt. At present, we are all in
Use well water from a year ago to make salt."
"How many salt wells are there here? How much is the daily output?" Guo Song asked continuously.
"Reporting to Your Highness, there are about 600 old wells, and we have drilled more than 700 new wells. Now all the old wells are being mined, producing about a thousand stones of salt every day. When the old wells are finished, the new wells will be almost ready.
, then start digging new wells, and inject water into the old wells, repeating the process over and over again, so that the production can be maintained at about one thousand to one thousand two hundred stone per day."
Guo Song quickly calculated in his mind that the imperial court could make about 40,000 yuan a year from the salt wells in Fengxian, and the output in Puzhou was three times that here. Adding in the salt from Yanzhou, the counselor's hall could make a profit of 200,000 yuan a year.
Guan, of course, there is no need to consider military expenditures, plus wine purchases, land rental income, taxes, etc., the government's annual profit is more than one million Guan.
There is also food income, which is also a large part of the income. In the end, Lin Lin finally calculated that the government has an income of about 1.5 million guan a year.
This is actually not much. It can only be said that the government can barely maintain the operation. The root cause is the relatively small population base. But even if we conquer Hebei now, it is of no use. Hebei is too weak. If we don't rest and recuperate for more than ten years, we can't even hope to recover.
Water from afar cannot quench the thirst of nearby people. The only way is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. We must learn to live frugally. Salt mining, which is one of the major sources of profits and taxes, must also find ways to reduce costs.
Then there is open source, the development of productivity, sufficient supplies, increased wealth, and a corresponding increase in government income.
Thinking of this, Guo Song asked: "What is the most expensive item to make salt here?"
“It’s probably boiling salt that consumes the most!”
"Have a look!"
The crowd gathered around Guo Song and came to the salt cooking field. The salt cooking field was very large, with hundreds of huge crucibles set up. There was also a ladder on each crucible. Some people stood on the ladder, or dug out the salt crystals with large spoons.
, or pour buckets of brine into the crucible.
"We first filter, filter several times to filter out various impurities, and then boil the salt. Although the salt obtained is still relatively coarse and cannot be compared with sea salt, we are very cheap. The price of salt in Yangzhou has reached 500 yuan now.
It is more than three times that of ours, and it is also a place of sea salt production. The price of salt in Luoyang is 800 yuan, which is even more outrageous."
Guo Song was a little speechless. The quality was not good, so let’s talk about the price. The low price of salt in Chang’an was suppressed by his own power, okay?
But Guo Song was helpless. The quality of well salt in different places is also different. For example, the quality of well salt in Bashu is very good, but the quality of well salt in Fengxian County is not good. It has more impurities. Although the well salt in Puzhou is not well salt, it also has more impurities and the quality is poor.
It is also slightly inferior. This is a congenital deficiency and there is nothing we can do about it. The quality of the salt from Qinghai Lake is very good, but it is too far away and the freight is too expensive.
As for sun salt, unless you have endless tidal flats by the sea, don’t think too much about it.
At this time, Guo Song discovered that what was actually being burned was wood, which really shocked him. He vigorously promoted coal, and even used wood in the major process of cooking salt.
"Why not use charcoal to boil salt?" Guo Song asked very dissatisfied.
Xie Huai'en hesitated for a while and said: "This is a habit. We have used wood to boil salt for hundreds of years, and we can't change it for a while."
"No! Change it for me immediately. Next time I come back, if I still use wood, the Fengxian County Magistrate and the Salt and Iron Supervisor will all be replaced. Not only in Fengxian County, but also in Puzhou and Yanzhou. It must be
Use pebbles to boil salt."
Guo Song was really a little angry. He tried every means to reduce costs for them, but they didn't use such an obvious way to reduce costs. They used habits to excuse themselves.
He then said to Li Yangui and Zhang Fengyi: "Both Hedong and Guannai Road are rich in pebbles. The quality is very good and easy to mine. Moreover, pebbles have high calorific value, which can greatly shorten the time of cooking salt. If we switch to pebbles, the cost of each bucket of salt will be at least 100% more."
If you want to reduce the money by another three cents, if you do the math, you can increase your income by three hundred guan a day, an increase of 100,000 guan a year, and everyone's welfare benefits will be improved. Why not adopt this good plan?"
Zhang Qianyi said with shame: "Your Highness is right, we are more conservative in our thinking and cannot accept new things. This matter must be changed, and it must be changed immediately. Within three days, everything will be changed to charcoal burning."
Guo Song nodded, "We can draw inferences about this matter. We will discuss it carefully later. There are many similar things."
"I understand the humble position!"
At this time, Guo Song asked the soldiers on the side: "What's going on?"
He saw that this soldier seemed to have something urgent to do with him.
The soldier stepped forward and whispered a few words. Guo Song's expression changed and he immediately ordered: "Go to Fengxian County!"
There is a pigeon mail station in Fengxian County. Wang Yue sent a pigeon mail to Fengxian County, and the situation was quite critical.
Wang Yue used cruel methods to finally get the result. Twenty large iron fire mines were on their way to Jizhou.
This is a loophole in the management of iron fire mines. The iron fire mines manufactured by the Jin Army have a shelf life, usually three years. After three years, they have to be sent back to Zhangye for refilling. In fact, they can still be used, but they are just a precaution.
Li Wujun's men used 1,500 taels of gold to bribe Li Chao, the chief of the Ordnance Department who was responsible for escorting the iron fire mines. During the transportation, Li Chao cooperated with them and exchanged a ship for transporting iron fire mines at night in Lanzhou.
, the three soldiers on board were also killed by them.
This incident happened three days ago, and now the whereabouts of the ship are unknown. It contains twenty large iron fire mines.
Guo Song was extremely annoyed and immediately ordered the Chang'an Internal Guard and Taiyuan Internal Guard to dispatch to find the ship. At the same time, he sent a pigeon letter to Ying Caihe, asking her to participate in the investigation of the matter.