Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 161 Agents

The new salt field in Wu County is truly astonishing in scale and mysterious. Not only are high walls built around it, there are even sentries guarding the surrounding mountain tops to prevent unrelated persons from approaching.

There are probably thousands of guards stationed here, which makes it even more difficult to understand what the general's palace is trying to do with this fierce operation.

Some people even speculated that it was Duke Bai who discovered the Pirate King's treasure offshore. In fact, these people came to dig for treasure...

Of course, there are very few who are bold enough to go and verify it, and the very few who are bold enough to do so under the temptation of huge profits never come back, even if someone comes to ask for it, it is useless - since they dare to come, they will Just work as a coolie for a few years... Let people know that the General's Mansion is not easy to bully!
Instead, when the firewood started arriving in batches, everyone "suddenly realized" - they really needed to boil salt?

When Bai Tu saw Pang Tong's plan before, he was also impressed by Pang Tong's idea.

The reality is imaginary, the imaginary is reality. They deliberately chose to open a salt drying field in a location with a large sandy land, and even placed a glass factory nearby. In this way, fuel will really be used, making it even more elusive for others. Tohru what he is doing.

When Lao Lu heard his nephew Lu Ta talk about this, he thought Bai Tu was crying about poverty, so he came to see Bai Tu specially and suggested that the Lu family could "help" him.

But Bai Tu didn't accept it...

"In a few days, the first batch of salt from the General's Mansion will be released. It will be about...a million stones. If Mr. Lu wants to help, please contact me with sales. The quality...is better than the ones from the General's Mansion." That’s a lot,” Bai Tu said.

Lu Kang looked at Bai Tu in surprise, seeming to be a little distracted, wondering what the hidden meaning was in Bai Tu's words.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Bai Tu looked at Lu Kang doubtfully.

"I am old. What does my lord mean? You might as well tell me." Lu Kang said that he had not thought of it.

"Huh? What I'm talking about is producing millions of stones of salt. Come and help me contact sales... There's no other meaning!" Bai Tu said with an expression like "If you don't even understand this, just retire."

Lu Kang still looked at Bai Tu inexplicably - in his eyes, Bai Tu was talking nonsense!

In the entire Jiangdong, the total salt production of the seventeen largest salt tycoons in Jiangdong is only about one million shi per year, and the other scattered ones... together will not be more than this. And what did Bai Tu just say?
A salt farm, the first batch...a million stones?

Seeing Lu Kang's disbelief, Bai Tu said seriously, "Of course, if you seventeen want to be an 'agent' in the future, I can give priority to you."

These wealthy families whose business is cooking salt also have many channels at their disposal - what Bai Tu values ​​​​most is naturally buying salt "outside" so that the area under his rule can benefit as a whole.

As long as they cooperate obediently, although the General's Office will definitely take the lead in the future, it is not impossible to let them serve as "agents" - that is, salt merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, who would get salt from the court and then sell it themselves.

Seeing that Bai Tu said it so solemnly and with a serious look, Lu Kang also believed it contrary to common sense. At the same time, he did not forget to add: "My lord made a mistake, how could there be 'you' seventeenth family, it's 'them' Sixteen...ahem, we are all on the same side as the Lord."

Lu Kang was also not thick-skinned enough. He felt that including the Yu family, Wei family, etc. as "them" seemed to mean speaking ill of people behind their backs.

"That's good. Then the salt workers and so on can be sent to the salt field of the General's Mansion." Bai Tu said.

From what Bai Tu meant, it seemed as if as soon as he took action, all the salt farms would be bankrupted by him...

This is indeed the case!
More than 100 million stones a year... sounds like a lot, but in fact, calculated in terms of "stones" in the Han Dynasty, it is only more than 3 tons!

The modern Lianghuai Salt Farm has an annual output of 300 million tons...

Of course, the Lianghuai Salt Fields are not just one household. In the Ming Dynasty, when boiling salt was still the main focus, the Lianghuai Salt Fields also had an output of nearly 40 tons.

To put it into a more intuitive concept, the ancient method of drying salt under modern technology can produce half a ton to one ton of salt per mu of salt flat per day. In fact, even modern sun-drying salt does not have a fundamental breakthrough in principle. Just more machinery and equipment.

Originally, when Baitu was asked to do it, he would definitely have to slowly explore to achieve the optimal ratio, but... now that Pang Tong is here, even if Pang Tong still needs to get used to communicating with the craftsmen below and directing Ji Zao's work, he still needs to get used to it. The process of the exploration phase is greatly reduced!

It was cloudy and rainy, and Pang Tong only needed [-] acres of salt fields to tie with the [-] largest salt producers in Jiangdong. If the output was lower because he was just experimenting... [-] acres would be enough, right?

Oh, the site selection is not the best. Let me give you some more. Is four hundred acres enough?Five hundred acres...is one thousand acres enough?
And this time, the combined salt and glass factory built by Pang Tong covers a total area of ​​[-] square meters...

As for the surge in salt production, will it change market supply and demand and cause salt prices to drop sharply?

Bai Tu had studied this issue with Lu Su and Pang Tong before, and concluded that it would only increase the salt production in Jiangdong by ten times...the room for decline is very limited!

After all, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "salt" was not only a seasoning, but also a "refrigerator"...

The people's demand for pickled ingredients is extremely short. Even if the salt in Jiangdong increases tenfold and is digested internally, it will only make everyone happier pickled salted fish. It is not even close to the "freedom of pickled salted fish" The distance is so large that there is no surplus of salt, not to mention... most of the salt in Jiangdong is shipped outside.

Lu Kang was puzzled after that. After all, the scale of the salt farm was there, not to mention...even if he couldn't go inside to see it, he could always roughly estimate the firewood and charcoal that was transported in every day.

Where did the millions of rock salt come from?
The ugly man in charge of the salt field...ahem, Dr. Pang, who has a strange appearance, can he conjure salt out of thin air?

After Lu Kang and Lu Tao talked about this, Lu Tao swore from heaven to earth that there was absolutely no way that inexplicable salt field could "change" so much salt!

However, Lu Kang, who had been inspired by the miracle of Bai Tu Shi for a long time, still told Lu Tao to be ready... to cooperate with Guanyan, whose output was nearly ten times that of the seventeen companies combined.

Lu Tao even wondered if his clan uncle was too old and really confused...

I just didn't dare to show it on my face, so I just retreated honestly.

……

On the other hand, in Xudu, Xiahou Dun approached his younger brother Xiahou Yuan.

"Brother Dun, why are you so free today and why do you come to my house? Want to compare notes?" Xia Houyuan asked enthusiastically.

The two of them were brothers to begin with, and they both got it from playing with Cao Cao. Naturally, they were on good terms with each other, but they didn't have so much etiquette in private.

Xiahou Dun, on the other hand, asked Xiahou Yuan mysteriously: "What a talented person... Brother, I see that Juan'er is quite young, and you haven't gotten engaged yet, right?"

"Huh? This is strange...who is it? He actually asked Yuan Yuan to kiss you?" Xia Houyuan immediately asked warily, changing his title to a pseudonym.

Xiahou Yuan, also known as Miaocai, and Xiahou Dun, also known as Yuanrang, were all generals who were from the Xiahou family and were related to Cao Cao.

Xia Houjuan is Xia Houyuan's niece, but she was adopted by him since she was a child, and because Xia Houjuan's late parents were kind to him, during a famine in the Central Plains, Xia Houyuan's own sons all starved to death, so they also gritted their teeth and raised Xia Houjuan. , closer than my biological daughter.

He also knew that the person he was talking about was definitely not Xiahou Dun's son. After all, he hadn't even released the fifth server yet...

"What do you think of Bai Tu?" Xiahou Dun continued to be mysterious.

"Bai Tu? Which Bai family...wait...Bai Tu?" Xia Houyuan looked at his brother Dun, more confused than Lu Kang who was far away in Jinling.

Where is this going?When can you say goodbye to Mr. Bai?
(End of this chapter)