Chapter 740 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Chapter 740 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Pei Ju smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, have you ever been to the brine pool in Yanchuan County?"
Xiao Xia shook his head, and Liu Wenjing and Zhang Yunqiu also said that they had never been there.
Pei Ju said, "Emperor Wen once told Qimin Khan to return the Hetao area and the court would give them the salt pond in Yanchuan County, but Qimin Khan did not agree. I went to discuss this with the Turks. For this, I went to the brine pond in Yanchuan County three times and found out why they refused to agree."
"Why?" Xiao Xia asked curiously.
Pei Ju smiled and said, "There is no grass growing within a hundred miles around the brine in Yanchuan County. If we want to boil salt, we must first transport a lot of firewood. The Turks are all grasslands, where can we get firewood? We can either transport firewood from thousands of miles away, or buy it from us, but there is not much firewood in the north to sell to them.
There is another very important reason. The brine lake in Yanchuan County has too many impurities. After being boiled into salt, it is not only salty, but also very bitter, which greatly affects the taste. Eating this bitter salt for a long time will make your physical condition very poor. Therefore, the grassland people buy salt from Yanchuan County to forge knives, not to eat. Although the Turks also need salt for quenching knives, they think it is not cost-effective to exchange it with Hetao!"
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment and said, "So the merchants of Youzhou are the largest source of salt for the Turks?"
Pei Ju nodded, "Your Majesty, it can be said that Youzhou is currently the largest salt source for the Turks!"
"What about Hexi?"
Xiao Xia asked again: "Could Hexi be one of their salt sources, and could they transport the salt from the West Sea Salt Lake to the grassland through the Dadouba Valley?"
Pei Ju smiled and said, "Your Highness, the distance is too far, thousands of miles apart, and transportation is very difficult. More importantly, there is no salt production there. Xue's father and son moved all the salt farmers to Longyou. There is no human area around the West Sea Salt Lake for thousands of miles. Who will cook salt for them? Even if there are herdsmen who cook a small amount of salt, it is only enough for local consumption. How can it be transported to the grassland? Your Highness, cooking salt is not such an easy thing. Many conditions are required. The Turks only enjoy ready-made things, and they don't know how to organize production."
Xiao Xia nodded, "Prime Minister Pei, please take a seat!"
Although he had finished asking Pei Ju questions, Xiao Xia did not let him leave, but joined the meeting.
Xiao Xia said to the three people: "Our destruction of Liu Wuzhou has triggered a backlash from the Turks. The Turks have sent people to negotiate with us. The envoys have arrived in Mayi County and are heading towards Luoyang.
I guess what they want is for us to recognize the Turkic occupation of Hetao, Shuofang and Hexi. The Turkic will support us in unifying the world. I will certainly not agree to such negotiations, so I decided to use the navy to directly capture Beiping County, cut off the salt source of Youzhou salt merchants, and completely cut off the salt source of the Turkic people. "
Liu Wenjing smiled and said, "I suggest that the navy attack Dou Jiande's Bohai Salt Field at the same time to cut off Dou Jiande's salt source before winter comes."
Although Hebei is almost entirely adjacent to the Bohai Sea, salt is not produced along the coast. There are only two places that produce salt. One is on the coast of Yanshan County in the north of Bohai County, where tens of thousands of salt farmers live. The other is the Beiping County Salt Field, which also has 20,000 salt farmers.
Once Xiao Xia sent his navy to occupy these two salt fields, Dou Jiande and Luo Yi would be furious, not to mention the Turks. The small amount of salt would become the most powerful weapon.
Of course, we also need to take a two-pronged approach and empty out the salt reserves of the people.
Leshou County in Hebei Province is Dou Jiande's capital. It was originally just a medium-sized county town, but under Dou Jiande's management, it has now become a big city with a population of nearly 100,000, most of whom are family members of soldiers, and business is very prosperous.
In the east of the city there is a river which is a tributary of the Zhangshui River. There are warehouses on both sides of the river. The government warehouses are on the north bank and the private warehouses are on the south bank, storing all kinds of supplies.
In Leshou City, the word "Lei" can be seen everywhere, such as Lei's Restaurant, Lei's Inn, Lei's Mule and Horse Shop, etc. Lei was actually Dou Jiande's concubine. As the concubine was favored, her father and brother became prosperous as well.
The concubine's father was Lei Rongsheng, who was originally a businessman who ran a cloth shop. After his daughter became favored, Lei Rongsheng's business empire expanded rapidly. He established Lei's Trading Company and obtained many unique businesses, such as providing various supplies to the military.
Lei Rongsheng was also the only salt merchant in Hebei. Dou Jiande also learned from Jiangnan and implemented control over salt, but there were some differences. Dou Jiande banned all small salt merchants and only left the largest salt merchant, Lei’s Salt Shop. The Salt Shop naturally made huge profits, and Dou Jiande could personally get half of these huge salt profits. This was the difference from the Jiangnan Road.
In addition, Dou Jiande actually also supplied a large amount of salt to the Turks, and obtained the support of the Turks' war horses. Luo Yi also acquiesced to the passage of these caravans. He himself also served the Turks and obtained their support.
So what Pei Ju said was not entirely correct. It was not only Youzhou that supplied salt to the Turks, but also Dou Jiande.
That morning, a big customer came to the Lei family's trading company. This customer could pay with gold. Of course, he was the most welcome guest of the Lei family.
Lei Rongsheng's eldest son Lei Jude personally received the distinguished guest. He came to buy salt and asked him to buy as much as he could. When the distinguished guest hinted that he came from Chang'an, Lei Jude immediately understood.
"I wonder what price you can offer?" Lei Jude asked.
"Two strings of coins per stone!" The salt in Hebei is coarse salt with a high impurity content and not salty enough. It has always been sold at a relatively cheap price, one hundred and twenty coins per dou, equivalent to ten coins per catty. The normal market price is one thousand two hundred coins per stone of salt, but the other party gave an extra eight million, which made Lei Jude's eyes widen with a smile.
He quickly asked, "How much would you like, sir?"
"I want as many as I can get, but I'm in a hurry. I have to transport it within three days, otherwise it will be intercepted in the Yellow River."
Lei Jude quickly reported to his father, and Lei Rongsheng nodded, "I heard that the King of Jin used salt to choke the King of Tang's neck, so they can only ask us for help. How much salt do we have in our warehouse?"
"Currently there are 20,000 stones!"
"Can they eat 20,000 koku?"
"They say it's not enough. They want as much as they can get. Pay with gold. Gold, father!"
Gold has always been the scarcest treasure when the world is in chaos, and Lei Rongsheng was really tempted. He knew very well that Dou Jiande would be destroyed by King Jin sooner or later, and the Lei family's wealth would be in danger. But if the wealth was gold, it would be different. The gold could be hidden and left to future generations.
According to the market price of gold, twenty strings of coins could be exchanged for one tael of gold, so their twenty thousand stones of salt could only be exchanged for two thousand taels of gold, which was a little less.
"How much salt do we have left in our Salt Mountain warehouse?"
"We still have more than 100,000 stones, but they want to transport them away within three days. We can't wait."
Lei Rongsheng frowned, "So urgent?"
"They are going through the Yellow River. They probably know someone in the patrol fleet who happens to be on duty these few days, so they can let them through. After these few days, they won't be able to pass. They said we can buy it next time!"
Lei Rongsheng waved his hand, "As the saying goes, good fortune doesn't come in pairs. If you do big business, saying you'll do it again is just a lie. Good things only happen once, and you'll never see them again after you miss them."
Lei Jude whispered, "I have an idea. I can borrow salt from the government warehouse, make some money first, and then withdraw salt from the salt mountain and return it to the government warehouse."
"This is a good idea!"
Lei Rongsheng asked cheerfully, "How much salt is there in the government warehouse?"
"I asked Li Canjun, and he has 80,000 stones of salt."
Lei Rongsheng quickly calculated in his mind that the total amount borrowed would be 100,000 shi, and the selling price would be 200,000 guan, which was exactly equivalent to 10,000 taels of gold.
Ten thousand ounces of gold! If you hide it, your descendants will be able to enjoy wealth and splendor forever.
"They guarantee they can come up with the gold?"
"Father handed over gold in one hand and salt in the other. This is our territory. What are you worried about?"
Lei Rongsheng made up his mind and said, "Borrow all the salt from the government warehouse! I promise to return it to them within seven days."
Lei Rongsheng whispered to his son, "Give Li Canjun some benefits, and don't let Dou Jiande know about this. Remember?"
"My child understands!"
Lei Jude knew very well that once Dou Jiande knew about it, he would take the five thousand taels of gold, so he must not let him know.
(End of this chapter)