Along the way, the group finally came to the salt-drying salt pan, Heifu ordered the craftsmen to slightly renovate, excavate some rectangular acres, with stone bricks as the bottom, shallow and wide, and the qualified brine at the filter was picked up here by the craftsmen and subordinates in small wooden barrels and poured in the salt pans.

It is now in the afternoon, the scorching sun, coupled with the rapid sea breeze, the brine is constantly evaporating, the bottom of the salt field has formed crystal salt grains, after the water is completely dry, the subordinate concubines go down to the field, with shovels to pile up the salt, each salt field, can accumulate half a person's height salt munes......

These salt munes look gratifying, Qin Shi Huang asked people to spoon a lamp to see, but saw that this salt is snow-white and fine, pure quality, and the color is no less than Anyi salt.

It turned out that the previous filter salt mud and bamboo mat leakage, in addition to increasing the concentration of brine, also had a purpose, that is, to filter impurities in seawater. Therefore, the brine in the salt pans looks very clean, and there are fewer salt impurities in the sun.

There is no problem with quality, then Qin Shi Huang cares about efficiency and output.

He then asked Hef: "How many days will it take to drench and dry salt with the new method?" ”

The reason why Qi people cook salt is because it is too slow to simply dry salt, and it depends on the heavens to eat, once the time drags on too long, the showers fall, and the previous efforts are wasted, so not every place is suitable for drying salt.

Hei Fuyu reported: "Scraping the soil and accumulating soil, leaking and leaching the brine, it will be successful in three days!" As for the salt, you need to have the right time and place, when the sun is in full bloom, let the brine be exposed to the sun until the evening, and you can get salt! ”

So to sum up, this method only takes four days and five processes! It's as fast as boiling the sea! And the cost is much lower than boiling sea.

But Heifu also said that this method is extremely dependent on the time of day, first make salt mud, must wait for the tide to recede before drying, generally there are two times a month when the tide rises, each time about five or six days, so the time to dry salt every month is only half a month to about 20 days.

If the sun is not strong enough, the salt yield of the brine is very low, so the best time of the year to dry salt is only from April to October, which is the opposite of boiling salt, which means that a lot of labor is occupied in this industry.

This is a difficult choice, judging the merits of the two methods, leaving one criterion: "The old law and the new law, which produces more salt?" ”

Jiang Qi used the method of boiling salt, and worked for three months from October to December, obtaining 36,000 bells of salt, about more than 200,000 Qin stones.

During the Tianqi period, a new salt field was opened, and the output increased to 300,000 stones, of which Jiaodong produced 100,000 stones, but now, due to various reasons, the salt production in Jiaodong has shrunk to 50,000 stones.

In Qin Shi Huang's mind, it was already good that Jiaodong could catch up with the previous output.

But Hefu gave him a big surprise: "In September of the thirty-first year, in just one month, this salt field has obtained 20,000 stone of salt!" Even if it is only dried for half a year every year, you can get at least 120,000 stone of salt, plus the rest of the small salt farms, with an annual output of 150,000 stone, no problem! ”

Not only is the yield half as much as boiling salt, but the cost is also much lower.

Zhang Cang carried a small abacus with him, and immediately calculated the account for Qin Shi Huang: "For all the amount of salt, five liters for a month is less than half for a husband, half for a woman's three liters, and half for a baby, so that a family of five will have 15 liters of salt per month." ”

150,000 stones, which can supply one million families and about five million people. This means that on the basis of meeting its own needs, Jiaodong can also solve the problem of salt for more than 4 million people!

Moreover, the salt produced is still white salt of good quality, not black salt mixed with a large amount of sediment. In this year's salt, there are many impurities, and the soil salt in many places must be "cleared of the soil" and eaten after drying, and it is normal to have two liters of soil in a bucket of salt.

This is also the reason why the people of the Warring States Qin and Han dynasties ate salt very heavily, reaching 45 grams per capita, far exceeding the standards of later generations. One is because of the heavy physical work, and the other is because there is not so much salt in it.

Zhang Cang was very happy: "In this way, if the law of Jiaodong can be extended to the world, especially the three counties of Langya, Donghai and Huiji, it can produce an additional 200,000 or 300,000 stones of salt per year!" In this way, the Shaofu can obtain huge profits by levying salt taxes! ”

Zhang Cang is specialized in managing expenses and living within his means, which is equivalent to the National Development and Reform Commission, and naturally understands that salt is the lowest cost and the most effective means of taxation!

He immediately offered advice: "Your Majesty, the minister has watched "Guanzi", although this book is the work of the great doctor of Jixia, but it has a lot of insight! ”

In the "National Savings" chapter, Qi Huan Gong asked Guan Zhong about the policy of enriching the country, and Huan Gong planned to tax the population, houses, trees, and six animals, but Guan Zhong denied them one by one. Rents are visible, and collecting money and food directly from the people will naturally lead to discontent. A better way is to take it from the invisible, so that people don't get angry! ”

Zhang Cang's words mean something, in recent years, the imperial court has spent a lot of money, but the Qin Dynasty has many people who understand the law, but those who understand the economy are burning. The solution is nothing more than to continue to increase the amount of money, which leads to complaints from all counties in the world.

Theoretically, the mouth money only needs to be paid once a year, 100 yuan per household, and the burden is not too heavy, but whenever the imperial treasury is tight, it will make up its mind on the mouth money, so 200 yuan per household every year is the norm, and when it is more, it reaches three or four hundred!

Many households in the Central Plains, in order to pay less money, have reached the point where they can't afford to have children! Zhang Cang thought that if this continued, the empire would lose the support of the people sooner or later, and he had to think of a new way.

But he is good at calculations, but he doesn't know much about real politics, but fortunately, Heifu always seems to be able to open source with novel ideas......

Qin Shi Huang was very interested in how to increase the income of Shaofu, sat down at the pavilion by the sea, and asked Zhang Cang to say carefully: "How to take it from the invisible?" ”

Zhang Cang said: "It's very simple, tax is at the price!" ”

He made an analogy: "The household registration in the world is about 6 million, and the mouth is more than 30 million, according to the law, people over one year old, pay 20 yuan a year, and a household is 100 yuan......

100 money, which is also the amount of each additional levy.

But as long as you add 10 yuan to a liter of salt, a bucket and a half of salt can get an extra 150 yuan, which is more than the oral tax paid by a family. On the surface, it is true that the government has not levied taxes and has not aroused the "clamour" opposition of the people, but in fact it is "all those who do not obey their status".

Salt is a must-eat, no one can leave for a while, and even if it is too expensive, the people have to find a way to buy it. In addition to direct purchases, the salt tax is also hidden behind many goods, and most people will not realize that the government has already taxed salt in a salted fish they bought......

Heifu was also nodding, Zhang Cang's suggestion was common in later generations, hiding taxes in commodities and implementing indirect collection, so that taxpayers could not see or touch, and paid taxes unconsciously, and did not cause psychological resistance.

Zhang Cang said excitedly, and then bowed again: "This is the economic policy of Qi in the past, boiling the sea to be from the world!" The reason why the country of Qi is so rich is because the king of Qi is already on the head of the people in the world. Collect an invisible salt tax! ”

"These Qi people have come up with a good plan."

Qin Shi Huang groaned: "You said that this policy is from "Guanzi", which was written by Dr. Jixia? It seems that the learning under the grass is not all useless learning, and it is not a useful book......"

He looked at the vast sea and said with a smile: "It's me, sitting on boundless benefits, but Shaofu and Zhisu Neishi will only squeeze the endowment from the head of Qian, never thought that in the East China Sea, it is actually an inexhaustible treasure house, it is really in vain!" ”

Heifu was a little awkward when he heard this, isn't it for Your Majesty's grand cause to levy rents in the Shaofu and Zhisu Inner History? Every time he levies taxes, he also gets the acquiescence of the emperor, but the emperor also understands that this is a way to quench his thirst by drinking a donkey, and since there is a better way to collect money than adding money, he will of course abandon the old and use the new.

Zhang Cang's words made the emperor's heart moved, the salt was resold by the government, the Qin Dynasty was doing it as early as the Shang Dynasty era, but Guanzhong was not a salt-producing area, and he had to rely on the supply of Saiwai, Bashu, and Hedong, and he didn't have a deep understanding of this policy, and he couldn't make too much money, just to control this strategic resource and avoid being held hostage by salt-producing countries.

Now, in the Qin Yihai, sitting on the sea, Heifu has presented the method of drenching and drying salt to double the salt production, it is time to sacrifice Guan Zhong's salt brine stick, use it to knock the world, gather wealth in Shaofu, and make it for the country!

Seeing that Qin Shi Huang was about to gladly adopt Zhang Cang's strategy, at this time, Heifu came forward and said: "Your Majesty, although Zhang Cang's words are reasonable, the minister thinks that the premise of taking it from the invisible is to make a hole in the salt." But now, Jiaodong is flooded with private salt. ”

"Illicit salt?" Qin Shi Huang frowned, in the Qin Dynasty, anything with the word "private" was not a good thing.

Heifu said: "However, the coast of this county is thousands of miles long, and the county soldiers and thieves are understaffed, so that they are repeatedly banned, so even if the official salt increases the official salt, it has little effect, and the head of the Qianshou would rather take the risk to buy cheaper private salt to eat......"

"Who are the people who are frying and selling illicit salt?"

Heifu shook his head and sighed: "Most of them are coastal nobles, that is, ......"

He looked up and uttered those two words flatly.

"Moroda!"