Fight the Giants

  Chapter 114 Illegal salt dealer

  After the boat rowed some distance away from Huai'an Wharf, Huo Xi turned around and saw that the tall archway of Huai'an Wharf could no longer be seen.

   came to two fishing baskets.

   "Xi'er, why did Young Master Gong give us salted fish? Could it be that we gave him dried shrimp, crab and fish, and he gave us salted fish in return? Could it be that he is also a fisherman?"

  Huo Erhuai rowed at the stern of the boat, raised his voice to respond to Yang Fu: "He is not the same as us."

  Huo Xi nodded.

  Removed a few salted fish covering the surface of the fishing basket with his hands, revealing the contents inside.

   "Hey, what is this?"

  Yang Fu started to look through it, and was stunned: "Xi'er, isn't it salted fish? How can there be so many bamboo tubes?" Picking up one to look through, it was still heavy in his hand.

  Huo Xi didn't answer, just picked up a bamboo tube, found the gap, and pulled off the cover...

   "Huh? This is salt!" A bamboo jar filled with white flowers.

  Yang Fu was stunned, quickly picked up a few grains with his hands, put them into his mouth, smacked them a few times, and his eyes widened: "Salty! It's really salt!"

   "What!" Huo Erhuai stopped rowing, ran to the basket, picked up a few grains, rolled them with the tip of his tongue, his eyes widened: "It's really table salt!"

   Much better than the fishing salt they bought.

  The two of them looked at Huo Xi together: "How can we buy so much salt? How much is so much? Master Gong is afraid that we can't afford salt?"

   "Could it be that Master Gong belongs to a salt merchant?"

  Huo Xi was silent, "I don't know if it's a salt merchant, but there must be salt smugglers." Otherwise, what kind of salted fish will be made.

   "Smugglers with salt? Could it be that these are illegal salt?" Hiss, the two hands trembled, and the bamboo tube almost fell into the basket.

  The boat swayed up and down in the canal, like Huo Erhuai's restless heart.

   "Dad, you go rowing. It's okay."

  Huo Erhuai went with the same hands and feet. He couldn't hold the scull board even after several times. He looked around for fear of being seen. Niangle, there are two big baskets of salt!

  Private salt! A heart thumps and beats non-stop.

  It feels like countless eyes are watching his family's boat from all directions.

   "Xi'er, quickly hide!"

  Yang Fu was too scared. Private salt too! If they were discovered, they would be beaten with a hundred sticks and sent to exile for three years. If the amount is large, the punishment will be increased.

   These two baskets of salt are enough for a sentence of several years. so afraid.

   "Uncle, clear out a wine basket, let's hide the things in it."

  Yang Fu quickly climbed in to find the wine basket.

  Pour the wine from a wine basket into a bamboo cup and bamboo tube, and put the bamboo tube containing salt into the wine basket. One wine basket was not enough, and another wine basket was cleared out.

   There are still a lot left, and they are wrapped in oilcloth and mixed into the grain.

   "If someone stops the boat to check, these two wine baskets will be quietly thrown into the river." Huo Xi ordered.

  Yang Fu nodded in fright.

   His voice trembled: "Young Master Gong, why did you send us these terrible things? He doesn't look like a bad guy?"

   "He probably just thought it was fun. He didn't want to cause us any trouble." Huo Xi gritted his teeth.

  Hmph, she scared her father and uncle.

   Comforted: "We still have the flag on the boat along the way, and there should be no inspectors on board to check the cargo. It's okay." I hope so.

  In the first year, fishing boats were mobilized to transport grain, and it was agreed that if fishermen carried goods with them when returning to empty space, they would be exempted from taxation on the goods.

  So, there should be no inspectors coming up to check and collect taxes.

  But Huo Xi was still worried, and ordered Yang Fu to put some important things in the bilge. Can hide some is some.

   This Gong Ziyi did not expect to be a private salt dealer.

   He boarded her family's boat to see, and he should be more than curious. Could it be that he wants to sell salt to fishermen?

  Private salt dealer? No wonder he was a little bit capable, and still had that priceless ambergris in his hand.

  Since ancient times, which family of salt smugglers is not a pile of gold and silver? There are quite a few people who dared to rise up and enter the Golden Luan Hall.

   In the early days of Taizu's establishment of the Wei Dynasty, he also ruled with a private salt dealer who established the Great Zhou Dynasty.

  But in the end, the Taizu will unify the south of the Yangtze River, and then unify it. Although Taizu was not a salt smuggler, he was helped by many salt smugglers in the early days of the dynasty.

  Huo Xi was sitting on the deck in a daze, Yang Fu was busy hiding things, wishing to throw away a load of private salt, but also reluctant, in a dilemma. Huo Erhuai rowed absently.

  The swaying of the boat made Huo Xi's mind very confused.

  The salt in this bamboo tube weighs three to four catties. Two bamboo baskets must weigh about a hundred catties, which weighs more than one stone.

  Who doesn't know that selfish salt is huge and can make a lot of money. The official salt tax was heavy. At the end of the former dynasty, the price of salt once reached the point where a stone of grain was exchanged for a catty of salt, and the common people could not afford salt.

  However, Taizu established the dynasty and implemented the national policy of light corvee and low tax, and Lianghuai is also a salt-producing area. The price of salt in the south of the Yangtze River is almost maintained at the price of five catties of grain for one catty of salt.

  According to modern nutrition calculations, a person needs to eat six to ten grams of salt a day, so her family of four must eat at least one and a half to two catties of salt a month.

   Now her family spends thirty or forty renminbi a month on salt, which is still affordable. But in areas that do not produce salt, the price of salt is more than five catties of grain if the salt is transported from the salt area, plus the freight.

   It is not a small burden for ordinary people to eat some salt.

  If the official salt is twenty-five yuan a catty, and the private salt is only fifteen or sixteen, which is half of the official salt or 22% off, who would not want to buy private salt?

   How can it be easy for ordinary people to save a penny or two?

  Selling a stone of grain only earns a hundred cash, but selling a stone of salt can earn one tael, so I ask you whether you sell grain or salt?

  Huai’an produces salt, and the people in the capital want to eat salt, so there is not much shipping cost, and the price of salt is not expensive. But if you sell it to a place where no salt is produced, you can earn more than one tael per stone?

   Huo Xi wants to sell salt, how much can he earn from selling grain.

  Huo Xi cast his gaze leisurely at the private salt hidden in the cabin. Heaven and man are at war.

   "Xi'er", Yang Fu came over.

  Huo Xi glanced at him.

   "Xi'er, tell me, why does Master Gong have so much salt? How did he get it? Is he really a salt smuggler? Can't he be a salt merchant?"

  Yang Fu is very grateful to Gong Ziyi for helping him recover the payment, and has a particularly good impression of him.

   Almost, he couldn't hold his head up in front of Huo Xi.

  Don't want to think that he is a private salt dealer.

   "Even if he is a salt merchant, he is still a smuggler of salt. Otherwise, why would he give us salted fish?" Huo Xiyou said leisurely.

  How many ships come and go on the Grand Canal every day? Huo Xi didn't know how many tank boats traveled to and from Huai'an this time.

  However, there were as many as tens of thousands of tank boats in the previous dynasty. If they returned to empty, each tank boat would carry private salt, and only her Huo family's boat could transport a hundred stones of salt.

  How much salt can the entire Taoyedu transport! How much salt can the tank boats in Jiangning County carry!

  One rock salt makes a profit of one tael, and her family can earn a hundred taels of silver by loading a hundred stones in a boat. As long as you win over some ships, you can make a lot of money! Become a small rich in one year, become a huge rich in five years!

   Hiss!

  This picture of Gong Ziyi is not small.

  Who doesn’t want to do profitable business? Huo Xi also thought, the smuggling business has always been profitable, let alone this private salt. Quick money.

  Huo Xi touched his head on his neck and shook his head.

  Turning to see Huo Erhuai's worried face, he smiled, "Father, it's okay, let's save it and eat slowly."

  Huo Erhuai was very worried, "When will I have to eat this?"

   This can’t be like eating chicken, duck and fish every day. When I had no money to buy salt, I was worried. Now there is a whole load of salt in the cabin, and I am still worried.

  Huo Xi laughed: "It's okay, when we go back, we won't sell the fish we caught, and we will make salted fish for sale."

   Morning~ Thank you for your rewards and various supports, thank you~

  (end of this chapter)