Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

The salt industry in Hedong is an important pillar industry in its territory, so many personnel in its territory are also arranged around this.

Previously, the Northern Wei Dynasty ensured that the salt produced in Hedong could be easily transported, and diverted passenger water that flowed into the salt pond due to various accidents. It also specially built a canal in the territory called Yongfeng Canal, which led directly from the salt pond to Puban.

Li Taiben started his career in water conservancy and knew the importance of smooth logistics, so he chose to go to Yanchi via Yongfeng Canal. Most of the countrymen who came to Puban to greet him were arranged to disperse and go home, leaving only those with official positions to accompany him.

The overall terrain of the Yuncheng Basin where Hedong is located is relatively low-lying, so there are many ponds in the territory. The Yongfeng Canal was built based on these surface water sources. Because its downstream meets Suishui, another important river east of the river, the water volume and navigation conditions of the river are relatively good.

However, after going upstream and passing a lake called Wuxing Lake, the water conditions of Yongfeng Canal became visibly worse. The river channels have narrowed, the water volume has decreased, and congestion and siltation have occurred in some places. Not to mention navigation and transportation, even more basic flood drainage and drainage cannot be done.

The first reason for this situation is that the river is obviously in disrepair. It should be noted that even naturally formed rivers must be dredged regularly to ensure smooth water flow. Artificially excavated rivers require higher maintenance work. If maintenance If it is not done well, it will lose its water conservancy effect in just a few years.

The second reason is that Li Tai saw that there was a lot of newly reclaimed land along the river canals, and these lands were irrigated by arbitrary diversions along the river canals. With the forks in all directions, the water flow in the main river canal was naturally limited. decreased.

"Although I have not visited this township, I also know how important the Yongfeng Canal is to the maintenance of rural affairs in Hedong. Now that the canal is in this state, can you, the state and county pastors, and other governors be exempted from the blame?"

Li Tai rode his horse on the road beside the Yongfeng Canal, pointing at the river in extremely poor condition, looking at Cui Quan and other state and county officials and frowning.

Cui Quan, Pei Xia and other Hedong government officials heard Tang Gong's rebuke. They quickly got off their horses, walked behind and bowed their heads and said: "I failed to fulfill my duties and failed to live up to my favor after entering the country. I am indeed guilty. The Yongfeng Canal is silted up. The widespread disaster will not only occur in a short period of time, but it cannot be solved by dredging. In order to avoid using harsh orders and hurting the people's sentiments, we can only work hard slowly. Please take some time off, and I will ensure that the land is properly treated. solve!"

These people were appointed here because they were close associates of the Ba Mansion. With such a situation in Hedong, they must have communicated with each other for a long time. Now Li Tai scolded them for dereliction of duty in front of everyone in Hedong, which also showed that the Bafu took this matter seriously.

"Is it because I don't give you time to wait? When you look back at the poor villagers, once the disaster of this canal breaks out and affects the salt pond, will you have the face to look down on this place in the world!"

Li Tai waved his hand to interrupt these people impatiently, then frowned and asked, "Why did this happen? Who can explain it to me clearly?"

"Your Majesty, there is indeed a reason why Yongfeng Canal is here. Please allow me to report it in detail!"

Pei Xia stepped forward and began to explain in detail the reasons why Yongfeng Canal was in disrepair.

First of all, the responsibility also lies with the original Bafu. As Hedong is the front line of the east-west war, the people's taxes and servitude are already relatively heavy, and the manpower and material resources required to dredge such an artificial canal that is hundreds of miles long are also very considerable.

However, Bafu has not made any arrangements for this. Not to mention allocating personnel and materials to dredge the canal, there is not even a compensatory reduction or exemption of part of the tax. Therefore, the dredging and maintenance work of Yongfeng Canal can only be carried out by both sides of the river. The big families organized manpower to carry out the work, and it naturally happened occasionally.

Li Tai also has a deep understanding of this. Not to mention the canals here in Hedong, even in Tongzhou where Bafu is located, he took the initiative to take on this task.

The Hedong clan itself had an interest, and the Bafu was indifferent to this, but they could not turn a blind eye. After all, the Yongfeng Canal was maintained, and they were also the most direct beneficiaries. Moreover, the benefits from the salt ponds plus the harvest from land cultivation along the river are enough to sustain their investment. It should be noted that back then, even if Li Tai simply put money into it, he was still willing to do it in order to gather local influence.

Previously, the local wealthy families in Hedong were willing to invest in this, but the turning point occurred when Bafu implemented the salt introduction system, which imposed relatively strict restrictions on the production and sales of salt, which also caused certain damage to the interests of these large families in Hedong. , after all, through the system, some participants have been added, and these new entrants will inevitably squeeze the profit margins of the original practitioners.

Although these losses will not make the big households in the east of the river break their muscles and bones, the discomfort is inevitable. Therefore, my original enthusiasm for rural affairs gradually changed, and I started to mess around with resentment, and I became less concerned about the maintenance of river channels.

Although Bafu has added management procedures, it is unwilling to increase investment costs. It remains as indifferent to the dredging of Yongfeng Canal as before, so the canal became blocked.

Another point is that with the implementation of the salt introduction system, the amount of salt that can be sold every year has become rationed. Even if more is produced, it will be difficult to export and sell it, which will inevitably affect the scale of salt production. After all, producing more salt consumes labor and requires certain storage costs.

There are tens of thousands of salt households producing salt ponds in Hedong. As production capacity is reduced, a group of salt households will inevitably be eliminated from the production process. These people do not have any unemployment benefits. If they want to survive, they can only turn to farming and reclaim wasteland, which will increase water consumption and further increase the pressure on the Yongfeng Canal.

Although Pei Xia has been working in Shannan Daoxingtai for the past few years, he is a native of Hedong after all, and the reasons for this are well-founded.

After listening to Pei Xia's explanation, Li Tai frowned and thought deeply. Of course, this conversation and his expression were all for the Hedong people who were following him to see.

After pondering for a long time, he spoke: "In the past, the imperial court did not pay enough attention to the people's livelihood in Hedong. There were some merciful things that were not done, and there were also some punishments that were not established! Based on this, Yongfeng Canal is now There is no one party to blame for the blockage, but if it can be repaired and dredged, the people who benefit will be the same after all.

Since Hedong is now my country, I really can't bear the people being trapped by sorrow. The money collected from the country's tax this year will be used to dredge this canal. Even if it doesn't work for one year, it will be done again next year. In short, if this canal is not unobstructed for a day, no silk from the country will be able to cross the river and enter the house! "

The blockage of the Yongfeng Canal is a hidden danger on the surface that Cui Fan, Pei Xia and others focused on reporting. If the canal is not smooth, it will affect not only waterway shipping and agricultural irrigation. The biggest danger is if flooding occurs in the upper reaches of the river. If it is poured into the salt pond, it will greatly affect the production of the Hedong salt pond, and more seriously, it may even cause a permanent reduction in production.

Of course, Li Tai could not let this happen, so he would rather use the tax revenue from the feudal state to dredge the Yongfeng Canal.

Of course, some things need to be explained clearly in advance. The Bafu did not take enough care of you before, but at the same time, it also gave you a lot of extrajudicial favors to the big families in Hedong. Now that he is spending money to govern, everything from now on will naturally have to be dealt with. Follow his rules. Apart from anything else, the phenomenon of arbitrarily digging canals to obtain water must be absolutely and strictly prohibited in the future!

People in Hedong may not know the importance of Yongfeng Canal, but they are still somewhat short-sighted in their hearts. As the saying goes, the three monks have no water to drink. They only feel that the profit sides have increased, and they cannot pay all the costs. Now that Duke Tang is willing to take on this matter, they are all happy to see it succeed, so they all praise Duke Tang for his righteousness.

The salt ponds in Hedong are mainly located on the southeast side of the Yuncheng Basin and the northern foothills of Zhongtiao Mountain. It is a completely closed artesian basin. There are two main parts of the salt pond distribution. The one in the southwest is called the female salt pond. It has many impurities and the salt produced is of poor quality. It is usually only used as a backup production area.

Located on the northeast side, also known as Jiechi, is the main production area of ​​Hedong salt. The salt pond is more than eighty miles long from east to west and ten miles wide from north to south. It is artificially divided into different salt-producing areas. The brine in the pond is introduced into the square pond border, and it naturally crystallizes into salt at the bottom through solar evaporation. The salt is then fished out by the salt collectors and air-dried before it can be sold.

Later Li Tai also visited the salt pond, but he could no longer see the bustling salt production scene. Now he can see thousands of salt cubes working hard in the salt fields, and the salt fields are full of crystals. The salt is like patches of snow, and the picture is extremely magnificent under the sunlight.

Both the government and the people participated in the production of the Hedong Salt Pond. The share of direct production by the government was not large, and it was mainly used for the use and consumption of the Bafu and the imperial court. As for sales to the market, it is mainly carried out by powerful local users. As for external transportation and sales, they are controlled by the government. Through the division of different links, a benefit distribution plan that is both public and private can be reached.

Li Tai stayed in Yanchi for another two days. In addition to inspecting the production and sales of Yanchi, Li Tai also waited for Shaozhou Governor Yang Guo to come here to meet him.