At this time, a red sun slowly fell in the sky, emitting thousands of rays of rays of light, as if the whole world was getting warmer.

After passing Henan Prefecture, facing west was Shanzhou, and then arrived at Shaanxi Road. He immediately left the Central Plains. Xu Ping felt that every grass and tree here was particularly friendly, as if he couldn't see enough. He was greedy for the scenery, so he did not enter the inn and asked Tan Hu to send someone to take a few seats and sit outside with Zhong Shiheng.

The sun had just lie down on the hill far away, and Zhang Dayou rushed over. A few days ago, Xu Ping recommended him to set up a salt removal envoy for Shaanxi Luquan, who was in charge of Shaanxi's salt administration. He happened to go to Shaanxi with Xu Pingyi and others to discuss the salt removal by the way.

Since the implementation of the new policy, the ban on tea, salt and wine has no longer been important to the court's finances, and the legal ban has gradually begun to relax. Among them, the ban is equivalent to a luxury tax, but the system that was originally not allowed to be sold across states has changed, and the ban is still the same. Because salt is equivalent to a capita tax, the laws have been much looser, and the three departments basically no longer draw salt from the people. The tea industry is between the two, and the cultivation of tea is on the mountain, and it does not waste food or compete for land with grain, and it has been gradually relaxed.

Now that war with Dangxiang is going on, wine is not convenient for long-distance transportation, so it can be ignored. Tea has now become a daily necessity for nomadic peoples due to the large-scale promotion of the Tang Dynasty and needs to be restricted. The tea ban on three borders along Hebei, Hedong and Shaanxi is more stringent than before. Merchants are not allowed to trade long distances, and they can only purchase goods from the Sansipu. Sansipu has a certain transportation volume, and at the same time controls distributors to prevent them from smuggling tea abroad. Tea trade, which is monopolized by the official, is basically used to exchange horses. According to Xu Ping's plan, after the entire system is straightened out, the northern ethnic groups must exchange horses for tea, and all other materials are not allowed to be traded, and tea and horse trade is forcibly carried out. For the Song Dynasty, horses are truly useful materials.

The situation of salt is relatively complicated. According to the law, Shaanxi Road should be open to salt removal, but because Dangxiang and Qingtang Qiang, under Qinzhou, both had large-scale salt ponds, they used to be gentle with them and allowed their salt to enter the Song Dynasty for sale. Now that Dangxiang has rebelled and trade has been cut off, Dangxiang's salt will definitely not be allowed to enter the country.

Salt profit is an important source of financial resources for Dangxiang. If official trade is cut off, large-scale smuggling will inevitably occur. In the border areas of the Fuyan and Huanqing routes, the raw and mature foreign households are mainly Dangxiang people. They travel between the two countries. No matter how strictly prohibited it, it is difficult to prevent them from smuggling. Dangxiang's blue and white salt is better than the previous salt removal quality, so it is difficult to cut off their financial path.

Before Xu Ping left Sansi, he decided to take advantage of the salt profit of Dangxiang. First, reform and improve the production and transportation of salt to improve the quality. The purification of salt is not difficult, but in the past, it was equivalent to general cap tax collection due to official bans. Some regions directly allocated according to population and had no motivation to improve quality. Now the country needs to force the improvement of quality. Another way to use Sansi shop to distribute, official subsidies, and sell it to Shaanxi Road at cost prices, forcibly suppress the price of salt. The most thorough way to deal with smuggling is to eliminate the price difference and make smuggling unprofitable.

This policy could not be implemented in history because the cost of military operations on Shaanxi Road relies heavily on salt profit, and in fact, it is to use salt to plunder the people. Using this method to cut off the salt profit of Dangxiang, the Song Dynasty's own finance could not support it. Now the Sansi is not short of money, and salt profit is dispensable, so it can engage in an economic war against Dangxiang.

Zhang Dayou went to Jiezhou for this matter. In the past, the establishment of the Salt War was mostly a commissioner on Shaanxi Road or a transfer officer, and there was no special official. Now that the economic war was first launched, it is necessary to set up a special official.

After the ceremony, several people sat at the entrance of the inn and talked about the situation they were about to face.

Xu Ping said to Zhang Dayou: "I have demonstrated it to you many times in the capital, and sent dozens of craftsmen to Jiezhou to teach craftsmen. After you get there, you must pay close attention to this matter, and don't make the salt coarse and useless as in previous years."

Zhang Dayou bowed: "Yunxing is at ease. I know this matter is important and I will definitely not mislead the matter!"

"Okay, I'll feel relieved with you. There are not many salt in Jiezhou. I checked the previous year. There are countless people who have not sold there. The oldest ones are the salt stored in the past ten years ago. Originally, Dangxiang did not rebel, but Jieyansi also reported that it would stop the salt production for one or two years and remove the old salt. Now that Dangxiang has rebelled and the court does not rely on salt profit, there is no need to mention this matter. After you get there, refine the salt stored in previous years and transfer it to Sansipuzi

In previous years, salt transport was mostly done with straw mats. The soldiers who transported salt on the road and the officials worked together to cheat, steal salt and mix it with mud and sand. Therefore, the further away from Jiezhou, the less salt there was, the more sand there was. This year, the factory in Luoyang City specially made wooden boxes, transporting rice from Luoyang land to Shanzhou, and then loaded ships along the river to Guanzhong. All the empty wooden boxes there were sent to Jiezhou, and all the refined salt was put into wooden boxes and properly sealed, and no opening was allowed on the road."

Zhang Da nodded and said, "Okay, since Yun Xing has made arrangements, everything will be safe."

Xu Ping also said: "Also, in the past, in Jiezhou salt pond, we had to wait until midsummer to make salt, and use the south wind to dry salt. When we were in the Jinshi, the title of the poem was "Southern Wind: Fusion". In ancient times, the south wind was very important. In fact, salt ponds made salt in salt ponds, and it did not have to wait until the south wind. Using the south wind only reduced the cost of decoding. After you get there, if there is still some spare time after simplifying and storing salt, and there is not enough salt on Shaanxi Road, you can also decoct salt directly. Jiezhou produces a lot of charcoal, and there is no need to cook salt. It is inseparable from the charcoal land. As long as you need it, you can decoct all year round."

Zhang Dayou smiled and said, "This is not necessary. I have read the report from the Salt Warning Department. Every year, it is enough to use salt from wind-dried every day. Now that there are many years of salt storage, it should not be missing."

"Everything is done, and if it is not done, it will be useless. After you get there, you should find a carbohydrate production area first. Anyway, it is also useful when refining salt. Moreover, the so-called enough salt was under the conditions of high salt prices and coarse salt and uneasy food. In order to help the Fanhus such as Dangxiang, they deliberately suppressed their salt and did not sell it. Now that the salt has been refined, the price of salt has been suppressed, and the blue and white salt of Dangxiang has been banned. It is only a matter of whether it is enough."

Zhang Dayou thought for a while and said, "What Yunxing said is that when I went to Zhizhou, I sent someone to find Carbonifer. By the way, I also read the previous report that there are several types of salt households in the salt pond, and some of them lived a very difficult life. This time, I went there and wanted to follow the laws of the Sansi Company, and everything was changed to hiring and paying wages to calm people's hearts."

"Okay, just do it like this! The most difficult thing to do is to win the hearts of the people. As long as you have the hearts of the people, what can't be done well? In the past, the imperial court has made a lot of profits from the salt removal department, but now there is no need for salt reproduction. You can use this to appease the salt owners who make salt!"

In fact, the root of all the disadvantages of the policy lies in the salt profits of the court's reliance on Jiezhou Yanchi. Once the Sansi no longer needs this money, all the problems should be solved and not complicated. Using Jiezhou Yanchi and Sansipu's commercial system is enough to ban Dangxiang's sales of green and white salt, which cut off his financial path first and let Yuanhao know the consequences of anti-Song.

Zhong Shiheng listened quietly while watching Xu Ping and Zhang Dayou talk, he couldn't help but say, "Jie Shuai, when you go to Qinzhou, there are Qingtang Qiang in ancient Weizhou, and there are also salt ponds in the territory. In previous years, you have made a lot of profits. If the salt profit of Dangxiang is prohibited, it will probably affect them. The people of the Fan Qiang value profits, and suddenly they can't make money from it, and they are afraid that there will be changes."

Qingtang Qiang was a branch of Qiang people living in Weizhou of the Tang Dynasty. They had many tribes and were quite powerful and under the jurisdiction of Qinzhou. Although they were called this name, they had nothing to do with Qingtang in Yansiluo by Qinghai Lake, and their ethnic groups were also different. There were salt ponds in ancient Weizhou, which supplied many places on Qinfeng Road and Jingyuan Road. The tribes that occupied Yanchi benefited a lot.

Xu Ping said to Zhong Shiheng: "We will discuss the matter in Qinzhou when we get there. Now the border situation is unknown and we can't understand it."
Chapter completed!