PS: Thank you for being the master of this book, the data of this chapter comes from "Pipe", please find the original author for all questions, July is not responsible, the second chapter is in the afternoon

One day in early February, just after the rooster crowed, Zigong was summoned to the palace by Cao Bo's Yousi for questioning.

In the past, Uncle Cao was not interested in political affairs at all, everything was handled by Da Sicheng and other doctors, and he was fond of hunting and shooting all day long.

It wasn't until last autumn and winter that he was persuaded by Zigong's clever tongue to participate in the "Hunting Country" game of Zhao's father and son, although in the end he was defeated by the fish-belly guards and dragged him back, relying on the support of Post Wuzheng to ensure that the position was not lost. However, Cao Bo became more interested in warfare, and after seeing the magic of the Zhao light cavalry, he not only tried to buy horses from the Jin State and expand the number of horsemen in the office, but also encouraged horse racing in the extravagant place.

For a time, Zhao Wuxian's horse racing that he wanted to promote but could not rely on this coincidence gradually became popular in the upper echelons of Cao State.

Cao Bo was much more punctual in his time when he had always been able to push and push, and he flipped through the book all day long, wondering when the land of Lishan-Leize in Punan would be delivered......

But he had never been summoned so early, Zigong guessed that he was afraid that the matter had already been known to Cao Bo.

When Zigong covered his yawn and visited Cao Bo, the lord threw a silk book in front of him.

"See for yourself!"

Zigong knew that this was definitely not from Xilu, and Zhao Wuxian had already clearly stipulated that the official office and external documents had to be paper.

Really. But he heard Cao Bo say angrily: "The Marquis of Qi has issued an edict strictly prohibiting the transportation of sea salt into Cao State and Xilu. How this should be for the better! ”

Zigong was not in a hurry, he glanced at the words on the silk book. It was the Qi people who asked the Qi businessmen in Taoqiu to hand it over. The above was sternly worded, stating that in order to punish Cao for "aiding and abetting" in the war, it was decided to terminate the salt trade from Linzi to Taoqiu and Qufu, and sell it in Puyang, Xinzheng and Shangqiu instead. This move was not until Cao Guo took the initiative to ask Qi and Wei for peace, severed all relations with Jin and Xilu Zhao Wuxian, and returned the forcibly occupied Punan provinces.

He had to admit that the threat of Qi was weighty.

……

Zigong also bought and sold Qi salt, and he knew that the prince wanted to be sealed in Yingqiu back then. Its land is laxative, and the people are few, so Qi Taigong persuaded his female skills to weave, extremely craftsman skills, and the benefits of fish and salt.

People can live without eating fish, without wearing the clothes woven by Qi country, relying on monotonous corn, wild vegetables, and bean leaves, and barely replenishing protein. When it is cold, it can also sustain life with rough kudzu cloth brown. But there is only one thing that cannot be missing, and that is salt.

The white crystalline particles that seemed to be ordinary in later generations condensed life-threatening and prosperous!

Spring and autumn. Salt is stored and used as a scarce resource, no less than grain and copper tin.

Shangshu. "Say Fate" has clouds: If you make a soup, Erya salt plum. As early as the time of Yu Shun Xia Yin Shang. Salt has been used together with sourness and sweetness to make food, and it has become a very important condiment. Because it's rarer. Salt is not often added directly to the meal during the cooking process to avoid waste. When the Zhou people eat, they first use meat or vegetables mixed with salt and other condiments to marinate and make sauce. When eating meat, it is eaten with white meat and sauce placed in copper beans.

The nobles are so stingy, let alone the common people? Later generations rarely have similar experiences, and if they don't eat this thing for a long time, they will be weak at least and swollen all over the body. An important reason for forcing the people of small countries and widows to go out of the world and go to the city of Tuyi to trade is largely to buy salt. The salt dealers were probably the earliest merchants in China, and the original trade routes of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were largely opened up for the purpose of trading salt.

However, the origin of salt is not even, among which the seaside Qi country is the most, and there is a sea where you can boil salt in seawater, and it is called the country of "Sea King". As a result, the state of Qi became rich, and the state of Lu, which had only a small number of salt mines, lagged behind Qi from that time on.

When it came to the world of Qi Huangong, it was even more amazing, Guan Yiwu thought: "The country of the sea king, be careful about the salt." He suggested that Huan Gong implement the salt policy of "Guanshan Hai", and from then on, the boiling and selling of salt would be handled by the Qi official, and a pass was set up at the border, which almost killed all channels for the sale of private salt.

Therefore, the salt of Qi was sold all the way to Chengzhou, Wei, Song, Cao, Chen, Cai and other places, and they did not produce salt locally, and they all lived by importing sea salt. The salt produced in Lu is only enough to supply the people of Lucheng, and most of the time they have to rely on Qi salt.

Zigong calculated that in a month, adult men eat nearly five and a half liters of salt, adult women nearly three and a half liters, and minors nearly two and a half liters. That's an approximate number. One hundred liters of salt is a kettle, and ten kettles are a minute. A family of ten people eats salt, at least 40 liters a month, and a town of 100 people eats salt, and a town of 100 people eats salt, 400 liters a month.

A small state with a population of 100,000 has to eat 400 bells, and a medium-sized state with a population of nearly 1 million like Lu has to eat 3000 or 4,000 bells! This does not include salt for livestock and cured meats.

Qi salt is sold in China, and one hour is worth one hundred and fifty yuan, and it is sold abroad, reaching more than one thousand yuan a minute at the highest!

The Qi State produces more than 30,000 bells of salt every year, which is enough for 10 million people to eat, covering almost all the needs of the Zhuxia State. The official trade of salt allowed the Qi State to earn millions of dollars, accounting for almost half of the annual income! And it's a bit of a short supply.

By selling salt to other countries and making foreign money, no one complains, and no one can hide, this is the salt policy of the pipe, because with resources in hand, Qi people can increase the price if they want to, and cut it off if they want to. Duke Qi Huan used the stick of salt resources to implement the law of severity and forced the princes to obey.

From then on, between the rich sea and Dai of Qi, the princes of the East gathered their clothes and went to the court.

Only the Jin Kingdom, which has a natural treasure land of Jiechi, dares not to be a bird.

In a short period of time, Zigong has been a businessman for many years, and has sorted out his understanding of Qi Yan, and now Qi State is using a salt strategy similar to that of Qi Huan to force Cao State and Xilu to submit.

He closed the silk book and said lightly: "The Qi people are taking advantage of the sea salt to intimidate Cao Guo, and they have done so in the past. But in the eyes of the ministers, there is nothing to be afraid of. ”

Cao Bo was very angry: "Don't be afraid? DID YOU KNOW. The annual output of Qi is 36,000 bells of sea salt, of which 10,000 bells are transported to Taoqiu for trading. If you charge two dollars for each kettle transaction, one bell is twenty dollars, and ten thousand bells are two hundred thousand dollars (Qi knife coins, weighing about half a tael)! Nearly two-tenths of the annual income of Cao Guo City comes from this, which is twice as high as the tax you pay in extravagance! ”

Zigong knew in his heart, it seemed that before he came, Cao Bo had summoned Chu He, who was in charge of the market, to ask for details.

These data are probably correct, Taoqiu is a commodity colonization capital in the Central Plains, so the merchants of Qi will also be allowed by the official. Haiyan was transported here to wait for merchants from Chen, Cai, Song, Chu and other countries to buy it, and Taoqiu City collected part of the transaction tax from it, which has always been the bulk of Cao Guo's annual income. Now under the economic sanctions of the Qi people, Cao Guo is likely to reduce two-tenths of his income, and then the soaring price of salt in Taoqiu, as well as a series of effects brought about by the decrease in the flow of salt sellers, Cao Bo is not anxious.

Thinking about this time, the Qi people who proposed this strategy are secretly having fun, waiting to see the tragic situation of Xilu's lack of salt.

But it doesn't matter who that person is. I'm afraid he hasn't realized that the opponent he met this time is called Zigong!

He is full of assumptions and has made a fortune in history. Tie a thousand times, the ancestor of the Confucian merchants who can compete with the princes, Duanmuci!

……

Facing Cao Bo, who retreated at the slightest threat, Zigong held his hands in his sleeves. Speaking out:

"Could it be that the prince wants to accept Qi Hou's request? In the past few months, Cao Guo has also paid hundreds of casualties, and countless grains, leather armor, and arrows. In exchange for the victory of opening up the territory and expanding the territory, although the Cao State was defeated by the Wei Guo. However, Zhao Xiaosikou was still willing to garrison the area south of Lei Xiaze-Lishan by Cao Shi. The subordinate has been doing business all the year round, and he once heard a proverb that it is easy to get on the ship but difficult to get off the ship, and this is the current situation of Cao Guo. ”

Cao Bo's face was pale, what Zigong said was right, Cao Guo is now tied to the chariots of the Zhao family and the Jin State, and if he wants to overtake him halfway, the price he will pay is probably not small.

"What should the widow do?"

In Zigong's view, although there have been rumors of discord between Zhao Wuxian and Confucius on the side of Lu recently, in his mind, he and his brothers are highly used, and Ran Qiu has been promoted to Suju Sima, even if there is, it is only a small difference of "gentlemen are harmonious but different". Who would think of going together for everything? Zigong and the brothers will think very differently from the master from time to time!

So no matter what outsiders say, he is still doing his best to serve Zhao Wuxian, after all, the careers of Zhao and Xilu are in a period of vigorous rise, and Zigong himself has earned more and more money in Taoqiu, and his status is getting higher and higher.

After the expansion of the Grand Arena, the extravagant business became bigger and bigger, adding many competitions and gambling games, acquiring a lot of Taoqiu's real estate, and the profit last year was as high as 400,000 yuan! Among them, 100,000 were handed over to Cao Guochushi as high taxes, and the remaining 300,000 were kept for development, and the other 150,000 were exchanged for food, clothing, and copper and tin to support Zhao Wuxian's war.

The reason why Zhao Wuxian was able to persist in the dilemma of a strong wall and a clear field was due to the uterus.

Zigong has such a huge amount of money and resources, if he changes to an ordinary lord, he will definitely be suspicious. But Zhao Wuxian only let a few military officials assist him, and basically did not interfere with Zigong's policy of colonization, allowing him to give full play to his abilities.

So Zigong was grateful, but also had a sense of crisis, he was now the second person after Zhang Mengtan in the forces of Wuxi, but after all, he was far away from Xilu. Kan Zhi, who was at odds with him, rose up to catch up, got the post of inspector, and inspected all the provinces, and it is said that some Confucian disciples who were officials in each city were not less strictly interrogated, and they were almost difficult.

So this time it happened to be the Qi State to launch the Haiyan War, which was Zigong's specialty, how could he not exhaust his efforts to help Zhao Wuxian come up with a way to crack it? It is good to fight for the hole and suppress the arrogance of the lower Kan.

There is no impermeable wall in the world, not to mention Shang Jia's sense of smell is the most sensitive, as early as half a month ago, he got the news from the Qi country, and he made all kinds of preparations for this.

Taoqiu Waiguo, which belongs to Zhao Wuxian's warehouse, has already been stored in thousands of bells of green and white salt that can be used for several months through Zigong's crazy purchase for half a month. It is enough to temporarily stabilize the salt price of Cao State, and it can also go down the river at any time, enter Dayozawa, and then land in Yuncheng to save Xilu's urgency.

Not only that, Zigong also has a series of follow-up means!

So he said with a smile: "Don't worry, the ministers already have a countermeasure, and within three months, the Qi people's salt ban policy will inevitably fail!" ”

"Can Qi people defeat themselves? I don't know what the trick is, I hope Zigong will teach me! Uncle Cao asked Master Chu, and he was at a loss for anything, and when he saw that Zigong had an idea, he was immediately overjoyed.

"Yes, but the premise is that the king must cooperate with Zhao Xiaosikou's actions. Since the State of Qi relies on itself to be the kingdom of the Sea King, and has the courage to abuse the salt strategy to coerce the princes, then we must immediately launch a countermeasure, so that the other generation can taste the pain inflicted on their heads by the heavy policy! ”

That's right, Zhao Wuxian's battlefield is on the outskirts of the city, between the courts and temples. The battlefield of Yi Bian Que and his disciples is within the patient's intestines, skin, stomach, and plaster.

And above the market, in the treasury, and on the transportation line of boats and chariots, it is a battlefield that Zigong is very familiar with, and the place where the victory or defeat of this salt war is lost!

Since the people of Qi have their own economic sanctions, let them see what counter-sanctions are! (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you for the book friend Wuchen & Gongzi Xiaobai, the end of the day, the second reincarnation, the male fish who committed suicide by jumping into the sea, Yongcan, the water and electricity bills hehe v, songqunn, Chen Dingguo's reward! Thank you for your commuter passes!

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