The wind on the beach is very strong, and it is easy to blow the clouds over, and it is easy to blow the clouds away, so it will not maintain a certain weather for a long time, no, yesterday it was rainy, but today is a sunny day.

Xu Jin, accompanied by Zhu Kun and others, went to the salt field early in the morning to inspect it. In order to facilitate the use of seawater to boil salt, the salt works are built on the open tidal flats by the sea, digging the ground as a pond, and diverting seawater into it for later use.

For example, in front of the Phu An salt factory, many cisterns have been dug in front of you, and the salt workers are busy carrying wooden barrels back and forth. Not far from the reservoir, there are rows of straw huts, under the straw huts there are salt stoves for boiling salt, nearly 100 salt stoves open fire at the same time to cook salt, but see the flames are blazing, the smoke is billowing out, the scene is very spectacular.

It is said that the fuel used by the stove households to cook salt is grass and trees, so it burns crackling, and the soot is very large, and it is blown by the fierce sea breeze, and it suddenly floats everywhere. Xu Jin only walked around the salt field for a short while, and a thin layer of grass and wood ash fell on the official robe, and Xu Ji, the judge of the Salt Transportation Division, walked to the upwind area with the group very cleverly.

Xu Jin dusted off the ashes on his official robe, frowned and asked, "Judge Xu, don't I have a salt drying method yet?" ”

Xu Zhen said with a smile: "Lord Hui Qincha, there is a natural one, the salt drying method has existed since the Song Dynasty, and now the salt farms in Fujian use the salt drying method." ”

Xu Jin couldn't help but wonder: "Then why do you still use the backward salt boiling method here?" ”

Xu Zhen's eyes flickered a little and explained: "Lord Qincha doesn't know, although the salt drying method is simpler and more trouble-free, and the output is much larger, but the salt drying method also has shortcomings, that is, the salt produced is too coarse, and the quality is far less than the salt boiled in an iron pot, so the salt farms in Lianghuai and Zhejiang have always used the method of boiling salt. ”

Xu Jin's pair of sword eyebrows couldn't help frowning, this explanation seems to be reasonable, but in fact it is bullshit, you must know that the salt drying method is much more advanced than the boiling salt method, saving time, effort and cost, and the output can be increased N times, even if the salt is too coarse, can't it be filtered and purified again, anyway, this is not much technical content, and those who know the salt drying method should also know how to purify.

At this time, Zhu Kun pointed to the salt stove not far away and asked, "Lord Xu has seen the iron plate on the salt stove?" ”

The iron pot that Zhu Su refers to is actually an iron pot on the salt stove, this iron pot is amazing, the diameter is nearly three meters wide, weighing hundreds of catties, it must be more than 20 people to work together, some people pour brine into the pot, some people are responsible for burning the fire, and some people are responsible for cooking, usually a day and night down to cook two hundred catties of salt.

Xu Jin's heart moved, and he nodded: "See, what's the mystery?" ”

Zhu Su said lightly: "This kind of pan iron for boiling salt is only capable of being cast by the government, and it is impossible for ordinary people to get it out by themselves, and the government also stipulates that stove households can only use this kind of pan iron to cook salt." This kind of iron can only be used by more than 20 people, so naturally more than several laborers have to work together to cook salt, so that it can play the effect of mutual supervision, and it is difficult for salt farmers to hide private salt. ”

Xu Jin couldn't help but suddenly realize that the salt farms in the two Huai and Zhejiang regions were still using backward salt cooking methods, the purpose was to better control the stove households and stifle the production of private salt from the source.

In order to monopolize salt, the government gave up the more advanced salt drying method, forcing the stove households to use a more backward method of boiling salt, which is simply eating people without spitting out bones, but the hundreds of thousands of stove households along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have to pay the grass tax in addition to paying the salt tax, but also have to pay the grass tax (the fuel for boiling salt comes from the grass on the river beach, and the grass has to pay a tax), and there are not a few children left throughout the year, and the days are getting poorer and poorer.

Although Zhu Kun is upright and severely cracks down on illegal salt, as a parent official in the salt-producing area, he is also well aware of the suffering of coastal stove households, and it is because of this that he pointed out the reason in front of Xu Jin, the purpose of which is naturally to hope that Xu Jin, a close minister of the Son of Heaven, can report the situation to the emperor. If even land can be remeasured, why can't we push for the reform of the salt law to benefit the hundreds of thousands of poor stove households along the coast?

Xu Jin naturally understood the reason why Zhu Kun told him, but he quickly calmed down after being angry. The current salt is as important to the Ming Dynasty as the oil of later generations is to the Republic, accounting for a considerable part of the country's fiscal revenue, and can bring considerable income to the national treasury every year, and the rulers naturally try to monopolize it in their hands.

For example, in the case of oil in the Republic, various surcharges account for half of the price of oil. If one day a new alternative energy source emerges, or even ordinary people have the technology to easily obtain oil, then the government will naturally loosen its monopoly on oil.

Salt is a good example, as technology and productivity have improved, humans have been able to produce it easily, and with the inexhaustible supply of seawater for salt production, it is natural for the government to give up on continuing to monopolize salt.

The backward productive forces will inevitably be replaced by the advanced productive forces, so Xu Jin believes that even if he does not promote it, the salt drying method will eventually replace the boiling salt method. Of course, if the lifting of the sea ban can be promoted, and the imperial court can obtain huge profits from maritime trade, it will naturally not continue to stare at the income of salt.

Therefore, in the final analysis, it is still necessary to open the sea ban.

All in all, development is a good medicine to solve all problems, if a country's economy stagnates, or even regresses, then all kinds of problems will definitely arise, when social problems erupt in a concentrated manner, it will inevitably be followed by revolution, overturning everything and starting over.

After inspecting the salt works, Xu Jin walked through the tidal flats and walked on the Fangong Embankment, preparing to go to the Xixi Inspection Division to inspect the troops.

Fan Gong Embankment is a 300-kilometer-long embankment built by Fan Zhongyan, a politician and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, to prevent the destruction of coastal farmland and salt farms by sea tides.

"The worries of the world are worried, and the joys of the world are happy. Fan Wenzhong's words and deeds are consistent, this sea defense embankment is in the present generation, and it will benefit the future generations, and it will indeed seek great blessings for the people of later generations. Xu Jin stood on the Fan Gong Embankment, looking at the blue sea in the distance and sighed.

Zhu Kun nodded in agreement: "The merit is in the contemporary, the benefit is in the future, Brother Ziqian's sentence is very wonderful." ”

Xu Jin laughed dumbly, a sentence from the rotten street in later generations sounded fresh to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Kun raised his eyebrows and said, "Why is Brother Ziqian laughing?" ”

Xu Jin pointed to the sea in the distance, and said with emotion: "I have a feeling for a while, Brother Zichun, you look at the tidal flats of dozens of meters outside the embankment, thinking that Fan Gong built the sea defense embankment here back then, the sea water at that time must have overflowed under the embankment, but now the sea water has retreated dozens of meters, revealing a large area of tidal flats." The vicissitudes of the sea have become mulberry fields, and that's just the case. ”

Zhu Kun really couldn't keep up with Xu Jin's leaping thinking, so he could only say casually: "If it is a high tide, the sea water can barely reach the embankment!" ”

Xu Jin smiled helplessly, in fact, five hundred years later, the coastline here has receded even more, exposing dozens of miles wide tidal flats, which has nearly doubled the area of Dongtai County, and the Fangong Embankment has also been transformed into a national highway line, running through the county from north to south. This sense of time and space confusion of the sea changing into a mulberry field can only be felt by Xu Jin, a lonely traveler.

A few miles north along the Fan Gong Causeway, a freshwater river flows into the sea, and the mouth of the river here is deeper, but it is suitable for a small number of seagoing boats to dock, and the camp of the Xixi Inspection Department is built here.