[Red House] Big Salt Merchant

Xia Shengzhi is the head of the Yangzhou Cao Gang, and it was an extremely simple matter of escorting the Cao Gang. Not only did he meet Jiang Bandit on the road, but he even got to know Lin Yu because of it.

Although this person has no official position, he is Lin Hai's son at any rate, and there is no harm in getting acquainted with him. Who would have thought that he would come in handy today.

When they were at Tongzhou Wharf, the water boats had already unloaded one after another, and the grain was unloaded first, and then the soil was brought over from the south.It's just that there are more than these things on board after all, Xia Shengzhi guarded them to get the private salt, but he didn't want to give it to those salt merchants at all.

Not long after he became the head of the Cao Gang, he encountered the overthrow of the Lu family, a great salt merchant in Yangzhou.Without the original tripod bearer, the rivalry between them is very fierce now.

The private salt transported by Xia Province this time was from Song Qing, a well-known salt merchant in Yangzhou.These people all went together with official salt and private salt. After all, they were not as capable as the original Lu family. They almost monopolized the sale of official salt, and they were blessed by the government.Although they disappeared for some reason, in the business of salt merchants, the Lu family has always kept their promises, but for the salt that his family said they wanted to sell, they were rarely robbed on the road.

When a family has become the norm of an industry, their existence is like gods.

Sometimes, Xia Shengzhi felt that this was the real reason for the collapse of the Lu family.

This time was no different than before, the situation had changed, and there were not a few people who wanted to devour Song Qing's private salt. What's more, now that the Lu family was gone, it was Song Qing who dominated, and became the target of public criticism.These salt merchants came here to talk to Xia Shengzhi about the sale of private salt.

It's just that Xia Shengzhi didn't expect that he, a thief, would meet the official here.

Fortunately, he had noticed it a long time ago, so he was not implicated together, but it would be a lie to say that he never plotted against those salt merchants.He has his own selfish motives. If those salt merchants are gone, no one will know the whereabouts of the salt. Maybe it will be another huge fortune.

At this time, he met Lin Yu and happened to get out of the siege. This man seemed to be on good terms with the nobleman, and he was the son of the Xunyan Yushi. For Xia Xingzhi, Lin Yu was a person worth using.

But for Lin Yu, Xia Shengzhi is a person worth using.

This kind of mutual utilization relationship makes the two people warm up as soon as they meet, and there is no unpleasantness of using or being used.

After Lin Yu asked him to sit down, he personally poured a cup of tea for him and put it in front of him: "I never expected to meet you in the capital. It's very fateful. But every time I see you, the situation is different Something special, what a coincidence."

Xia Xingzhi was noncommittal, knowing that Lin Yu was teasing him, so he joked a little, but asked why Lin Yu got along with the guy from Jia's house.

Lin Yu said a little recently, "How do you say that?"

"Although I haven't been in the capital for a long time, and I don't come to the capital often, I have heard about Jia Lian."

Xia Shengzhi really knows a little bit, after all, the Jia family is a wealthy family in the capital. I heard that the eldest daughter of Mr. Zheng, Jia Yuanchun, entered the palace a while ago as a female historian. I heard that she was quite favored. Although Yuan Wai Lang is a small official, he is quite important. He is not comparable to Lin Ruhai, but he has a lot of money.What's more, Jia's family is a successor, and the high officials and rich salary of a family don't come from themselves, but from their deceased ancestors.

Someone said early in the morning that this Jia family is really not as good as one generation after another. Although it is "white jade as a gold horse", it can't compare with the scenery when the country was founded.

This Jia Lian is the "leader" among the dudes.

Xia Xingzhi told all the things he knew, telling all kinds of ridiculous things about Jia Lian.

Although Lin Yu had expected Jia Lian to be a troublemaker, he never expected that he would be so ridiculous outside. "Master She doesn't care about discipline, it's Mrs. Xing..."

He secretly wondered, Xia Shengzhi seemed to see his doubts, and said: "It is absurd for him to pardon the master, not to mention that the current wife is a successor, not Mrs. Xing's own birth, so it doesn't matter."

Lin Yu admired and doubted that an outsider knew the situation of Jia's mansion well.

"I didn't even know there was such a thing here."

Come to think of it, if Mrs. Xing continued, how would she dare to discipline her original spouse's son?Besides... She doesn't teach, that's the reason. The so-called praise kills, how can there be kill if you don't praise?Looking at Jia Lian's current state, it doesn't look like he has been disciplined at all.

After Jia Lian came back, Lin Yu suddenly had a new idea for him.

Thinking of this, Lin Yu smiled and continued to talk to Xia Shengzhi as nothing happened.

This time it was Xia Xingzhi who owed him a favor, and he was very forthright, saying that if Lin Yu had anything to do in the future, he could go to him, and he would help if he could, and he would never refuse.

Lin Yu thought in his heart that it sounded good, if he really encountered a difficult and unprofitable matter, even if someone died in front of Xia Shengzhi, no one would take care of him.It's just that Lin Yu couldn't mention it like that on the surface, he smiled, followed Xia Xingzhi's words and agreed, and added a few compliments.

Seeing that the conversation was about the same, and he could talk about some things in more depth, Lin Yu asked casually: "Just now in Tanghuayuan, it is really dangerous. Those individuals seem to be salt merchants?"

Xia Shengzhi glanced at him and nodded, "Mr. Lin, you probably know what I do. The salt market is tight these days, and it really is white salt like white jade. This place in the capital is also a place where news gathers. When the ship arrives, naturally ask for a good price."

This is a bit strange. There are many salt farms. Only when official salt is in short supply, how can private salt be affected?Unless there is a sudden tightening by the government, there will be no problems with the salt that is actually circulating in the salt market.

However, there is another possibility that some well-known large salt fields suddenly stopped producing salt or something else happened, which led to a decline in salt production.But there is almost no need to consider this situation, because there has never been such a thing since the Daqing Saltworks began to operate.

"The recent talk about the tightness of the salt market, where do we start?"

Lin Yu thought it was strange at first, but this time, the most impossible thing he thought became the truth in Xia Sheng's mouth.

Lin Yu never expected that Xia Shengzhi would say such a thing.

"Mr. Lin should know something. Sichuan salt has been exported to all over the country, north and south, and Qing Dynasty. Sichuan salt merchants are becoming more and more popular. They have already overshadowed Yangzhou salt merchants. Not long ago, Yangzhou went to the giant Lu's house, and their strength weakened. , Sichuan salt merchants took the opportunity to get up."

"It was said a while ago that a few new wells were drilled in Sichuan. I thought the brine would be good. When they came out, there was a new salt field. Last year, salt merchants came to Yangzhou for a party because of this—"

"The opening of the new salt field will benefit almost all the salt merchants. Yangzhou salt merchants also joined in and invested countless money to develop the new salt field. Who would have thought that this new salt field would make countless salt merchants large and small Nothing to lose!"

Lost money.

Such a word, when used, has a sense of weight.

Lin Yu raised his eyes and looked at Xia Shengzhi, only to see that Xia Shengzhi's eyes were full of dark calculations. He didn't seem to feel any anxiety about this situation, on the contrary, he was very happy.The silver of the salt merchants was in vain, and he was the one who got the chance to make a fortune.

Businessmen are very familiar with such eyes, which are eyes attracted by interests.

Perhaps because he was afraid that his eyes would be too sharp and cause unnecessary suspicion, Lin Yu lowered his eyelids calmly, and asked, "It's just to develop the salt field, and the salt merchants are all people who know the world. If it comes out, even if it loses a little money, it won’t mean that you’ve lost all your money, right?”

It sounds like Lin Yu knows a lot about salt, but he is not proficient.

Everything he showed was in line with the identity of Lin Ruhai's only son. Although he was not completely a pedantic person who read books and knew some things about salt merchants, he looked down upon him and was an absolute layman.

"It's so simple to say that you have nothing to lose?"

This news was not a secret at first, Xia Shengzhi still wanted to laugh when he thought about it now, he stood up from his seat, and paced around the room with a calm expression.

"I don't know why there is no way to return the money, but I am curious. Can Brother Xia clarify the doubt?"

Lin Yu asked straightforwardly, and Xia Xingzhi didn't bother to play tricks on him, so he said, "Master Lin must have heard of the reputation of Ziliujing in Sichuan, right? It's a small place, but it's very famous among salt merchants recently. Ziliujing, opened One glance at the well, and the brine will come out automatically, the terrain is advantageous. The well salt is produced in Shu, and it is famous for the fire well—"

The fire well is a special kind of salt well.

It has been recorded that when a well is drilled, a flame seven or eight feet high emerges from the ground, and there is brine below which can be refined into salt.

Why is there fire in the salt well?Just because of "Qi".In fact, this is what later generations call natural gas. When a salt well is dug, gas and brine coexist, and when the brine emerges from the ground, the gas also emerges.

As early as hundreds of years ago, talented ancestors had already researched the method of using cone-shaped basins to cover the wellhead to extract gas and cook salt.

"Sichuan fire wells are mostly burned with gas. The salt is boiled on the spot in the salt field, and even the firewood and charcoal are saved. Cooking the salt with gas saves a lot of trouble." It can be heard that Xia Sheng's tone is very appreciative, after all It is very extraordinary to be able to come up with such a way to cook salt with qi, but now his expression is a bit gloating, "Sichuan Huojing, success is also based on qi, and failure is also based on qi. A month ago, the artesian well—"

Xia Shengzhi stopped his voice and stopped his steps, seeing Lin Yu look up at him again.

He remembered how surprised he was when he heard the news, but also how many calculations he had made. He only leaned over slightly, curled his lips, and said two words: "It exploded."

The artesian well exploded.

The author has something to say:

Sichuan used natural gas to cook salt more than 1000 years ago. The history of artesian wells is not the same as the time in the article, but it was brought up for the sake of plot needs.

In addition, not only natural gas but also oil were produced from salt wells, but the technical conditions were not mature at that time, so they could not be utilized.The utilization range of natural gas is also very narrow, a very small (almost none) part is used for civil life, and most of them are used for boiling salt on the spot.