1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 35

If Schneider, an expert in financial speculation, was present at this time, he would definitely add another point of view from the perspective of economics: for the means of production currently in our hands, salt is undoubtedly a small input, high output, and convenient Circulating and exchanging goods.If Chuan Zhongneng produces salt in large quantities, in addition to its own industrial development, it can also be used for foreign trade in large quantities. It must be known that salt is a real hard currency in this era, as long as it is produced, it will not be sold.It can be seen from the Li people who came to Chuanzhong base with all kinds of mountain goods to actively trade salt these days, salt is definitely a very popular commodity in this era.

In the Ming Dynasty, the central government implemented the "Gate Salt System" for the sale of salt. Merchants holding salt citations were divided into ten categories according to the region.After merchants pay taxes and transportation costs to the relevant government departments according to the national price, and get a certain amount of salt after registration, they can operate and sell salt.Businessmen who have not spent money to buy salt from the government are not qualified to make money from this industry.

Absolute monopoly will inevitably breed corruption. This is an objective law of sociology, and the salt industry, which is a state monopoly industry, is no exception. It is recorded in "History of Ming Dynasty·Salt Policy Discussion" that the capital of the salt industry was once very concentrated during the Wanli period. The hot money concentrated in Yangzhou area every year is astonishing, as high as more than 3000 million taels of silver, and the interest is close to the annual income of the Ming Dynasty. up.And this is only the official salt market. Private salt is more profitable because there is no cost to buy salt, and there are not a few people who devote themselves to this way to earn money.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the salt-making technology of sea salt had begun to waste pots and stoves, built salt fields, and changed the complex process of frying, boiling, and boiling to drying.Of course, the so-called salt drying does not mean that the salt can be produced by digging a few pools on the beach. In actual operation, the seawater must be continuously adjusted by several processes such as steaming pools, brine drying pools, and crystallizing pools. .However, the salt-making method in this era is far less efficient than later generations, and the ancients could not use scientific means to accurately measure the concentration of brine. go.

As long as the various salt fields can gradually expand the production capacity, with scientific management and salt production methods, it will not be a problem to leave this time-space salt field far behind in terms of production costs.When the output is large enough, large-scale dumping can be organized on the mainland at low prices, and the part of the interests that originally belonged to the salt merchants can be plundered.Of course, for now, the output of salt must be very limited for a considerable period of time, first of all, it still has to meet the needs of its own development.

The few people who are investigating this place have not considered things that far away for the time being. Their current task is to find out the actual situation of this place and whether it has the value of re-development. In addition, they have to evaluate this "enclave" from a military perspective. security, after all, this place is already outside the current main defense circle.

The members of the group went all the way and found a lot of waterwheels and ditches for irrigating seawater, and there were many stone-made salt drying troughs like inkstones on the plain. Gu Kai roughly counted them. There are at least hundreds of them, and if the entire area has such a density, I am afraid there are thousands of them.It's just that these places have obviously been abandoned for many years, and most of the salt troughs have been overgrown with weeds.

After going two or three miles inland, the members finally found several houses at the foot of the distant mountain.After walking slowly, I found that this place was probably abandoned at the same time as those salt fields. Several adobe houses with yellow mud walls even lost their roofs, and only the wreckage was left to let later people know that the ancestors once lived and lived here. Pass.Qiao Zhiya found several broken tools in a room, including rakes, wooden shovels, and broken water tanks.

In the end, Gu Kai found decisive evidence, he called several people together, pointed to a residual wall with traces of fireworks and said: "This place suffered a fire once, and the residents here did not rebuild their homes after the fire. , but chose to leave, but I don't think they left here voluntarily."

"What do you mean..." Tom Wang seemed to understand something.

Gu Kai nodded and said: "Pirates. A long time ago, a wave of pirates ransacked this salt field, and set fire to the houses here, and maybe killed a lot of people here. Since then this place has turned into ruins, and Because of the fear of pirates, no one comes here to make salt anymore."

"It's a reasonable guess. The ancestors must have spent a lot of time in turning this place into a salt field. There is no reason to give up this place easily." Gu Kai's inference coincided with Wang Tom's own guess. It was as if I could still feel the scene at that time when I crossed the remnant wall: "About this, we can ask the captured officer after we go back. It is said that three generations of his family have been soldiers in Yazhou. It's not good to ask anything."

It doesn't matter how much Luo Shengdong knows, it's just an afterthought at most.What is at stake now is a comprehensive assessment of the value and risks of the development here for the Executive Committee to make a decision.

The crowd circled around the valley along the foot of the mountain, and they had almost seen what they should see, so they returned to the sea by the original road of the assault boat.Johnson propped up a beach chair on the deck, half-recumbent shirtless, and raised his binoculars from time to time to look at the sea. When he was bored, he finally waited for the group to return, and quickly got up and asked how the situation was.

"From a military point of view, it is difficult for this place to be effectively defended until we can block and control the entire bay." Wang Tom directly set the tone: "Although it is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the coastline on the seaside is too long, and the interior is too long. The land is flat and basically safe to defend. Unless we put a lot of effort into building another bastion fortification there, but even if it does, we will have to send people to guard it."

"Let's forget about building a bastion. The No. [-] base is still unfinished. How can anyone go there to build new fortifications." Gu Kai also retreated when he heard that he had the strength to work.

During this period of time, after dinner every day, the executive committee organized people to work overtime to build the fortifications outside the No. 30 base. Many people have begun to complain that "the calluses on the hands of half a month are growing faster than the past [-] years of being single."Of course, complaints are complaints, and repairs still need to be repaired. After all, it is a life-saving thing at critical moments. However, most of the labor force has been transferred to the construction site of the hydropower station. It still takes ten days, let alone opening a new construction site.

"If you can't keep it, you have to hide." Qiao Zhiya had a new idea: "We can build our settlement at the foot of an inland mountain far away from the sea, or even on a higher hillside, so that the distance from the sea will be reduced. It should be close to two kilometers. This way, if something happens to the seaside, the people working in the salt field can be warned in time and have time to retreat to the mountains.”

"The outpost in Yulinjiao is facing the coastline of the valley there. If pirates land in the valley, the base camp will get news soon, and there is not much time left for the pirates to make trouble." Wang Tom also admitted Qiao Zhiya The plan is indeed worthwhile. After all, Chuanzhong has the advantage of communication, any warning can be clearly conveyed to the relevant personnel in a very short time, and the reaction speed is definitely the fastest among all the military forces in this time and space.

"How about the development prospects of the salt field?" Gu Kai continued to ask Qiao Zhiya.He is the only one in this group of people who is engaged in chemical engineering, and only he can have a say in whether the valley has development value.

Qiao Zhiya shrugged and said, "At least it's a better location than the salt field we were looking for before. The executive committee originally planned to build a salt field in the fishing village, and I've been there too. It takes a lot of work, leveling the ground, digging canals, Water diversion is definitely not something that can be put into production in the short term, and the most important thing is that it is too close to the mouth of Tiandu River, and the concentration of seawater is not ideal. I think it only takes half a month to re-drain the waterway and repair some irrigation devices, and then it can be put into production directly. Of course, even after it is put into production, this place still needs a lot of manpower."

Human!This is simply like the shackles on the feet of the traversers, slowing down the pace of the traversers anytime, anywhere.The person in charge of every project is having a headache because of manpower, and many projects even had to be temporarily put on hold due to lack of manpower. For example, the land passage from Base No. [-] to Base No. [-] has only been opened halfway. The remaining half had to be suspended indefinitely to take care of the hydropower project, which was a nightmare for the commuters who were accustomed to convenient transportation.

Although there are Han or Li migrant workers who come here every day after hearing the news, it is only a drop in the bucket, and the total number is still far from the Executive Committee's requirements.According to the data obtained by Gu Kai, as far as the current projects under construction and to be constructed are concerned, there is still a labor gap of at least 500 people.

It is said that some radicals have already suggested to the Executive Committee that they might as well come out and become slave traders as a group, attacking villages and towns directly westward along the coastline, and pulling the local youth directly back by boat to serve as coolies every time they attack, or If you just shoot down Yazhou City in one go, there are at least a thousand local navy soldiers and guards. These are all excellent laborers. If you can capture all of them, you can solve the current labor shortage problem in one fell swoop.

Naturally, this kind of extreme rightism has not been approved by the Executive Committee, but as the situation develops, the demand for labor is becoming more and more urgent day by day. Whether the Executive Committee is willing or not, it must find a way to solve this problem as soon as possible. .

(End of this chapter)