In the morning, the inn wanted to sell salt in large orders, but the house was neglected. In the afternoon, the Yangcheng Commercial Store was noisy and crowded like a vegetable market, and it changed from selling salt in to selling salt into salt.

The Yangcheng Shopping Mall was temporarily rented by Chen Xi, Hui Niang and Li Jin. The two girls would not show up from beginning to end. They were just behind the scenes, directing people outside to do things.

The mall is open twelve hours a day, which means that anyone who wants to buy salt or ask for the price at any time can enter the mall. The mall has officers and soldiers providing comprehensive protection, and even provides services such as "masked entry", "back door departure" and other services.

To put it bluntly, it means that you intend to sing a stage drama with the yamen of the governor and the yamen of the government. If you have the ability to threaten the salt merchants, I have the obligation to protect the interests of the salt merchants and local people.

More than an hour in the afternoon of the first day, plus six hours in the night, by the morning of the next day, more than 40,000 salt was sold.

Chen Xi estimated that after increasing publicity efforts in the next few days, small merchants from Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan will also join the official salt transactions, and it will be sold out in a few days.

By that time, according to the military expenditure surcharge of about six cents of silver for one salt, he could get about one hundred thousand taels for military expenditure.

This money was enough for him to support an army of about 3,000 to fight the rebellion. It was well-equipped and well-fed, and the soldiers' treatment and pensions were generous, which helped the soldiers leave their worries and fight desperately with pirates and Japanese pirates.

Just as Shen Xi was planning all this, Yu Niang was released from the Jiaofang Sect. She came to Chen Xi with some shame and anger and questioned Chen Xi for her rude treatment.

"...You had a bet with me before, but now it seems that I won." Chen Xi said with a mocking smile on his face.

Yu Niang asked, "Did the adult win?"

Chen Xi spread his hands: "What else?"

Yu Niang said: "Although the lord has not compromised and settled directly with the lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord's lord

"In the end, the generals are harming the people in Guangdong, Guangxi and southern Hunan!"

Yu Niang spoke righteously and fiercely, and she refuted Chen Xi's shameless behavior of disregarding the interests of the people for her own selfishness.

Chen Xi clapped his hands and nodded, "Yu Niang scolded her well. I couldn't help but feel creepy when I heard it. It turns out that my guilt is so great... However, I want to remind you that salt has been sold, but the price of salt on the market is a different matter."

Yu Niang was angry at first, but she was not compassionate to the people for complaining to the people, or for the sake of the court and the country, but in fact, she mainly hated Chen Xi for imprisonment for three days. She hated the loss of personal freedom the most because she had psychological shadows. When she heard Chen Xi's words, she couldn't help frowning: "What does Lord Shen mean by this? Does the governor's yamen have to force the salt pricing to make the salt merchants lose their money?"

Chen Xi shook his head: "The value of commodities is determined by the market. If the goods on the market are in short supply and supply exceeds demand, the prices will naturally rise. On the contrary, when the supply of certain commodities on the market is oversupply, unless the government forces it to interfere, the price will inevitably fall. This official is also a merchant, so of course he will not interfere with the market with power..."

Yu Niang thought for a moment and asked, "Does Lord Shen have a large amount of sea salt in his hand?"

Chen Xi shook his head and sneered: "It seems that Yu Niang has a bad memory. I propose to exchange tea with the Folang Jiren for salt. If the Folang Jiren brings ships of sea salt, and I fulfill the contract and exchange tea for them, what is the purpose of the salt exchanged? Will it be poured back into the sea and let them melt into the sea water?"

Yu Niang looked at Chen Xi carefully and said, "Mr. Shen, don't laugh. Even if you have the authority to trade with Folang Jiren without tea and salt, Folang Jiren will not have a large amount of sea salt. Even the yamen of the governor and the yamen expected that Master Shen was just pretending!"

"Yu Niang, you are smart but are mistaken for your intelligence. I think that I am a person who uses tricks to deceive the governor's office, but in fact it is just your wishful thinking."

Chen Xi said coldly, "I am the Ming Dynasty, the country of the Heavenly Kingdom, guarding the border of thousands of miles. There are countless salt-producing places in the four seas. In the end, the borders are closed and the people cannot afford to go into the sea. The people cannot afford to eat salt. The young man is blank. Why do you think this is? It is not because my Ming Dynasty lacks salt, but because my Ming Dynasty wants to use salt to make the people bear national taxes. In the years of war, the price of salt is high, and the people can only eat bland soup and have no strength to do things!"

"But how did you know that in any coastal land, taking those small countries in the South Ocean region as an example, the people have never regarded salt as a precious thing. Things are not rare, so why is it expensive?"

Chen Xi talked happily. After he finished speaking, even if Yu Niang was angry before, she still kept silent.

The Ming Dynasty lacked salt, so salt was so expensive. This is a fact, but the reason for the scarcity of salt was not the lack of raw materials, but the court gave it certain quotas.

The imperial court stipulated the number of people in each person a year before the year of the Monkey and Horse Month, and then according to this quantity, the production was quota in major salt fields.

It is precisely because of the fixed number that means scarcity and cannot be increased again. With the support of the government, it will increase the taxes from it, so that the cost of salt, which originally cost only two or three cents per kilogram, will be more than ten cents in the end, and forty or fifty cents in the hands of the people.

The starting point of the salt industry is good, but politicians ignore the background of the times and the greed of people's hearts.

Those small countries in Southeast Asia do not have a salt course franchise system. They never lack salt when they are near the sea. Even if they are short, the worst thing is that the people cook salt themselves. The materials and tools are ready-made. What are the difficulties?

Yu Niang looked a little ashamed, but she still argued: "What survives in the Nanyang land is just a group of foreign peoples outside the royal world. How can she understand the art of salt making?"

Chen Xi smiled and said, "Yu Niang considers salt making too complicated. Besides, even if they don't know, aren't there any skilled craftsmen from the Ming Dynasty who teach them the skills?"

Yu Niang was stunned and soon realized that the person who taught the people of foreign countries advanced salt making methods was not someone else, but Chen Xi. It was just that Chen Xi didn't want to be guilty of being a foreign country and refused to admit it.

"Mr. Shen, you..."

Yu Niang was speechless and thought to herself, Lord Shen wanted to use sea salt produced by the people of foreign countries to interfere with our Ming Dynasty's salt course franchise system. Isn't this competing for profit with the government and the people?

Chen Xidao: "Yu Niang, I didn't say anything. You want to report it, so I will go. But I need to remind you that I just trade according to the details of trading with the Folang Jiren. As for what goods the Folang Jiren transported to my Ming Dynasty, I don't know anything!"

After a pause, Chen Xi waved his hand and said, "Send out the guests!"

Yu Niang originally wanted to remind Chen Xi that we still had bets to fulfill. But when we saw Chen Xi, she seemed to have forgotten about this matter, and Chen Xi ruthlessly issued an order to expel the guest, so naturally she would not take the initiative to mention it.

...

...

When it comes to salt making, Chen Xi did not take any sloppy eyes with Yu Niang.

He really planned to open several salt fields outside the Ming Dynasty. The salt-making methods he knew, such as filling the brine pool with seawater, exposing the brine pool in layers, and then introducing the salt-drying pool to make salt. For example, the salt-decoction method used in the Ming Dynasty is much more advanced. Not only is it cheap, but the salt produced is very purity and has few impurities. It is basically the best fine salt. Even the salt eaten by the royal family may not be as good as the salt made by the method Chenxi.

Today, the Ming Dynasty court knows little about the Nanyang Islands, only knowing that the residents on those islands are barbarians. Little do they know that when Zheng He went to the West, he traded with the people on various islands, but after the ban on the sea, everything stopped. However, after that, some small countries on the Nanyang Islands would pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty every year.

Taking Luzon Island, which is very close to the coast of Guangdong as an example, Zheng He once accepted the edict of Emperor Yongle and appointed Xu Chailao, an overseas Chinese leader in Jinjiang, as the governor of Luzon, to take charge of the country's political, economic, military and cultural power. For twenty years, he spared no effort to promote Chinese culture, implement the rule of Confucianism and Confucianism, spread advanced technologies in agriculture, fishery, industry and commerce in southern Fujian, and promoted shipbuilding, textile, pottery, tea planting and salt making.

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty wanted to bring Luzon into territory was just an imperial edict. Unfortunately, until the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, the court never had the intention to king the land of the South China Sea, let alone the shallow Qing Dynasty.

Chenxi is different. He had to take over the place that the Ming Dynasty was not planning to occupy, so he had to take over it himself. The people of Flangji could take over it. Later, the Netherlands, England and other countries could take over it. Why didn’t I take advantage of the pirates and Japanese pirates to take over the Nanyang Islands for myself?

At present, we can even do a deal with the Florians and ask the Florians to "sell" the islands such as Luzon to him. At that time, not only will we not have to fight with the Florians, but we can even let the Florians be his ally to wipe out the indigenous people on the island who "disobeyed the king".

As long as the entire island belongs to the Ming Dynasty, or to him alone, he will be able to manage it no matter how he wants.

There are all kinds of salt farms, farms, and harbors on Luzon Island. In addition, the new crops he cultivated can even immigrate on a large scale. It will not take long to make islands such as Luzon a prosperous coast of the Ming Dynasty. It is much easier to reclaim in the northwest, northeast and other places.

It may take several years or even decades to do these things, and it took a long time. What Chen Xi needs to do now is just to buy salt from the Folang Ji people, and then stabilize the salt prices in several provinces in the Ming Dynasty, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.

At the speed of a Ferrari and a manned ship, it takes about seven or eight days to take Luzon Island. With the time to load the ship there, it takes about sixteen or seventeen days to transport salt at a time.

There are not many salt fields in Luzon, and their stock is only enough to transport it back one or two times. The subsequent salt needs to be manufactured. Chenxi has sent people to take the drawings of the salt field to follow the sea boats of the Flangji people. He used the locals to open several large salt drying fields along the coast of Luzon, continuously providing sea salt supply from all over the southeast of the Ming Dynasty.

The method of salt drying in salt fields will not be gradually formed until the Jiajing period. After the salt drying method is adopted, "it can be brine in one or two days, and it can be salt in four or five days." The salt preparation time was shortened from about half a month to five or six days, and the output increased several times or even dozens of times.

With sufficient funds, Chen Xi could turn against the Folang Ji people at any time. As long as he had the military power on the southeast coast, he could control the sea border, and then smuggling to allow Hui Niang and Li Jin to use the commercial network he protected to transport private salt to various places for sale.

Although this move violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty, it can allow the people under its jurisdiction to eat real affordable salt, and it is the most excellent sea salt, which will benefit the people. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!