Chapter 134 After half a year of rest, it’s time to take action

Chapter 133

Being poor cares themselves, being wealthy cares the world.

In other words, if it is poor, it will be roundabout and interspersed; if it is great, it will be carpet bombing.

In fact, Cheng Shijie is also such a person. How capable he is, how energetic he can be, and what he is incapable of doing, he won't even think about.

Now after nearly a year of hard work, he finally has some wealth and energy, so he can get a piece of the pie from Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants.

Speaking of the salt merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is like talking about the coal bosses of later generations. That is extraordinary. They seem to be synonymous with rich people, and the adjective "wealthy as the enemy" can be used.

Many merchants in the Ming Dynasty, such as Shanxi merchants, relied on the establishment of slaves to rise to prominence. They took collaboration with the enemy to the extreme and sold everything they could.

Cheng Shijie also knew that Shanxi merchants were now delivering grain to Jiannu, and each stone of grain was sold at a high price of more than ten taels of silver, which was almost more than ten times the price.

The silver coins and pawn business conducted by Huizhou merchants were of course hugely profitable industries, and they were also stained with blood and tears. In fact, the money earned by the big businessmen of this era was almost never clean.

However, from another dimension, the existence of pawn shops is actually doing good things. Even if they make money, without pawn shops, people have no way to find sellers for valuable things, and there is no way to exchange them for silver.

Help. In fact, people who go to pawn shops are the last resort.

Salt merchants are even more hateful than Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants. Taking the Jiangnan landlord household expenses recorded in "Zhuang Zhongfu's Miscellaneous Works" as an example, food expenses accounted for 70% of living consumption expenses, and salt accounted for 70% of food expenses.

The proportion is 34.6%.

To give a simple example, let’s not talk about others, but let’s calculate based on the author’s family of five. The average monthly living expenses are two to three thousand yuan, which includes water, electricity, mobile phone bills, gas and heating bills, but the proportion of salt

, probably less than one percent.

This is the landlord family in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, which is also the richest region in the country. They already have the highest consumption level in the country. Salt is a consumer product with relatively low elasticity, and landlords and farmers consume about the same amount of salt.

Everyone wants to buy it, and the profits can be imagined.

Cheng Shijie found that Yang Chen had been in a daze. His three questions were very difficult for Yang Chen. Since the salt farm was Cheng Shijie's earliest industry, everything was on the normal track and he didn't pay much attention.

In the past, the salt produced in the salt farm was always produced for self-use. Yang Chen did not even conduct cost accounting for salt. Of course, before the protection law was promulgated, the cost of salt production was also very low.

Except for a few foremen, the stewards were paid, and ordinary salt workers received one bucket of grain a day as salary. These calculations were too difficult for Yang Chen.

Cheng Shijie also knew that Yang Chen was illiterate and did not know how to calculate. This kind of thing was excusable, and he could not force others to make things difficult. In later generations, there will be competition in the workplace. If you can't do it, there are people who can.

The problem is that in the Ming Dynasty, Yang Chen was a good salt worker and was very skilled in the purification, analysis, detoxification and other processes of salt production, but he was not a very suitable salt farm manager.

Cheng Shijie can replace Yang Chen, but the problem is that if Yang Chen is replaced, who will replace him?

If there were capable people, why wait until now?

In fact, many craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were illiterate. In terms of technology, their skills were excellent and could stand the test. However, they were illiterate but could understand the drawings. Some craftsmen did not know the dimensions marked on the drawings, but they could according to the drawings.

Do you think it's magical to create a machine that meets the drawing requirements?

Just like the artillery of Ning Haijun, among the ten artillerymen, nine gunners did not understand parabolas, but they had their own way of quickly adjusting the firing angle of the artillery and successfully hitting the target.

Since there was nothing wrong with this, Cheng Shijie changed his approach and calculated it himself.

"With one month as a deadline, how many workers do we have in our No. 1 Salt Plant?"

"Six hundred and four!"

"Where is the second salt factory?"

"Four hundred and thirty-five!"

"The Third Salt Factory!"

…

Regarding these figures, Yang Chen is quite clear.

Cheng Shijie had no choice but to record it himself. All four salt factories now have a total of 1,744 workers.

"Second question, how much salt can the No. 1 Salt Factory produce every month?"

Until now, Yang Chen seemed to understand Cheng Shijie's real problem. He said seriously: "Commander, we used to not pay wages and spend less money, which means the cost is low. Now that we pay wages, we spend more money and eat better.

It costs more. Our salt farm also has salt workers who came from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Those unscrupulous salt dealers don’t pay the salt workers, they only pay for the food. Sometimes they give out some salt. They spend less money and the cost is less than us.

…”

"well!"

Cheng Shijie sighed. The cost is higher than other salt merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition to the good salary for salt workers, the second is that the temperature in southern Liaoning is lower than the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Under the same sunshine conditions, seawater evaporates much slower, so the cost will naturally increase.

improve.

Even if you want to smash the salt merchant's fault, your strength won't allow it.

Of course, this does not mean that the salt from Liaonan has no advantages, because Cheng Shijie adopted a more complex purification and analysis process when drying the salt. The salt from Liaonan has no impurities and only tastes salty, unlike Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The salt made crudely by salt merchants is not only bitter, but also contains a lot of sediment.

Then take the high-quality route. In fact, even if you take the high-quality route and do not engage in price reduction competition, once Liao Salt squeezes into the market, wealthy people who can afford refined salt will absorb a certain market share.

This will force Shangyan to focus on quality and improve processes in order to improve competitiveness.

Once any industry operates a monopoly, it will rarely focus on developing technological innovation, so let the salt from southern Liaoning serve as the catfish.

When Yang Chen left the General Military Mansion, where he was the governor's pacification envoy, he was in a very uneasy mood. He could see Cheng Shijie's dissatisfaction with him, and he could hear Cheng Shijie's sigh in his ears.

Although Cheng Shijie's sigh was not loud, it seemed like a heavy hammer hitting his chest and heart.

Yang Chen originally worked as a salt worker at the Salt Factory in Wenquan Town, Ninghai Prefecture in August last year, and was gradually promoted to the director of the salt factory. Later, Cheng Shijie moved entirely.

He also followed Cheng Shijie to southern Liaoning and began to resume his old business.

Later, in February, he hired someone to write a letter to his family and asked his wife, son, and daughter-in-law to immigrate to southern Liaoning. Now Yang Chen enjoys general-level treatment, with seventy-two shi of grain per year.

, plus a salary of one hundred taels of silver.

In this era, it undoubtedly takes courage to move your family to Liaonan. Several salt workers that Yang Chen knew came to Liaonan like him, but they were still alone. They planned to make money in Liaonan and return to their hometown to buy land.

Buying a property.

It's so nice in southern Liaoning that you can eat and live in the collective canteen in the salt field. Not only can you eat three meals a day, but you can also earn more than one hundred taels of silver and seventy-two shi of grain.

You must know that with this salary, in Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt fields, they would not be able to earn a hundred taels of silver even if they work for a lifetime, let alone one year.

Yang Chen asked his wife and children to come to Liaonan mainly because he was worried. One of his was named Guo Sixi. There was a landlord in their hometown village. The landlord got into trouble because he had some surplus food at home. He was killed by bandits overnight a few years ago.

Regardless of the conditions in southern Liaoning, there is no problem in terms of security, especially in Ning Haijun's victory over Haizhou, where even the vicious Jian Nu were killed by thousands of people by Marshal Cheng Shijie.

Since eating Marshal Cheng's meal, Ning Haijun has been fighting continuously for nearly a year, but except for Qin Wu who touched the Dengzhou Guard Qianhu Station at that time, other bandits and rebels are not Ning Haijun.

The opponent of the navy. Ning Haijun became stronger and stronger as they fought. They just started with Ning Haijun, and later moved to Jinzhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou and Haizhou.

Every time a war was won, everyone in Ning Haijun felt proud and proud, and all factories benefited greatly from it. It was considered that the dividends of the war were shared by all the people.

After returning to his home, several of Yang Chen's old friends came to him for a drink. In southern Liaoning, people rely on technology to eat. Good skills naturally lead to high incomes. People with high incomes have already passed the initial stage of food and clothing, so they can buy some meat.

, you can also buy wine.

Even wineries in southern Liaoning have begun to be built.

This is Cheng Shijie's advance arrangement. The main reason is that the land developed in southern Liaoning is more than 5 million acres. Although it only accounts for about 1.5% of the cultivated land in southern Liaoning, there will definitely be inexhaustible food, even if the population in southern Liaoning increases.

Three times, it’s still too much to eat.

However, the shelf life of food is limited, especially when a large number of new high-yielding crops such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are planted. When there are no people and no oil and water, everyone is a big-bellied man. He can eat three bowls of rice without feeling exhausted.

Panic, I still feel hungry after eating two large bowls of rice.

But now, in the canteens of many factories and companies, meat is no longer a rare thing that only happens once in a century. With Yang Chen's income, he can eat meat freely. But he is reluctant to do so. He only eats it occasionally when guests come.

Only then would he buy some meat, but before he knew it, he found that his appetite was decreasing.

"Old Yang, you still have the foresight to bring your sister-in-law and children to Liaonan early. My wife and children came three months late, and now they have to..."

Yang Chen's colleague, Jiang Dahai, a worker at the No. 3 Salt Factory, clapped his thigh and expressed regret. Yang Chen's family came to Liaonan at the end of February in the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, and Jiang Dahai's family came to Liaonan at the beginning of May.

Three months decided the fate of two families.

When Yang Chen arrived, the 100-household project house was building houses for all Ning Haijun soldiers and factory managers. The foreman Jiang Dahai was the director of the branch factory. How could he be on the same level as the sentinel commander and enjoy free welfare housing?

However, Jiang Dahai was alone at that time. He was assigned a homestead, but no house was built for him. However, Yang Chen built a new house with five halls and two wing rooms on the left and right, totaling nine new houses with red bricks and red tiles.

When Jiang Dahai wanted to apply to build a house, it was not his turn yet and the welfare dividends had been cancelled. Now that he is building a house in Liaonan, there are no welfare houses.

This makes many Ning Haijun soldiers who are not single but have not built a house regret very much, but regret is useless. No matter how regretful they are, they will never leave Liaonan. It is very easy to return to the pass, but it is too difficult to survive in the pass.

.

The court's land tax itself is not heavy, but it can be added layer by layer. For example, in the Liao Dynasty, the court collected one cent and two cents of silver per mu. If it were converted into copper, it would be equivalent to twelve coins of Xiaoping coins.

You need six. If you want to buy vegetables, about one and a half kilograms of leeks, or four cucumbers.

It's not that the common people can't afford it, but the problem is that when it comes to the Chief Secretary, it's 10%, when it comes to each government, it adds another layer, and when it comes to the county, it adds another layer. After adding up the layers, it's not enough to charge three or four qian for one acre of land.

It's rare. If you charge ten times more, that is, one penny or two cents of silver, you can be considered a conscientious official.

Yang Chen looked at Jiang Dahai and said: "Lao Jiang, you have to hurry up. Now the price of building materials is getting higher and higher. At the beginning of the year, nine large tile houses can be built with more than ten taels of silver. Now it takes thirty or forty taels of silver. In the future, it will

It’s getting more and more expensive…”
To be continued...