Chapter 2874 Salt Lesson

Bai Shan was obviously very excited, and he described the sea all the way to Zhou Man. When he got home and washed up, he talked to Zhou Man about business affairs, "The sea is beautiful, but people living by the sea are very hard."

He said, "I walked by the sea for three days, and every village I visited was even poorer than Zhaojiagou."

He lowered his voice and said: "The house is low and shabby, and the medical treatment is not covered. I have asked, they are fishing all year round, and when the harvest is the most abundant, lucky merchants buy salted fish. They buy salted fish every year. Their income is only about 200 yuan per capita. You know, the fishermen by the sea basically have no land, and they all rely on fishing and chopping firewood for the salt farm to cook sea salt for a living, so they have to buy food.”

Man Bao was surprised, "That's even when the grain is ten cents a bucket, they don't have enough food."

Bai Shan nodded, "That's right, so they go hungry for half a year, and they can't get enough to eat at all."

"Isn't there a salt field?" Man Bao frowned, "How much does the salt field cost a day?"

Bai Shan glanced at her and said, "Nine to twelve a day, but they still have a small family. I'm calculating the average income."

"Then nine to twelve wen is too low," Man Bao said. "In those days, your family paid twenty wen a day to build a house, and twenty-five wen for good craftsmanship."

Bai Shan: "...How old were you at that time, how can you remember?"

Man Bao said proudly: "I have an account book. At that time, my fourth brother lost money in the bet, and there was no money in the family, so I remember every penny earned in the family during that time."

Her memory doesn't remember these things, but her ledger does. Sure enough, a good memory is not as good as a bad writing.

Man Bao asked him, "Then what are you going to do? Since they can't make anything from the land, they can only make it from the sea."

Bai Shan nodded, "I think so too, but in the sea... I can only think of fish and these things at the moment. I have to meet with the merchants who buy salted fish before making a decision."

Man Bao asked excitedly, "When will you go to the beach again? I'm going too."

Bai Shan smiled: "Aren't you staying at the medical office?"

Man Bao's shoulders slumped, "There are no patients in the hospital."

She sighed: "I don't know why, I have told people all over the county to beat gongs and drums, and I also asked Fang Xiancheng to send documents to each Lizheng, and let them notify the villages under their respective jurisdictions, but still nothing. People come to seek medical attention."

Bai Shan hesitated: "Then are you going out for a free clinic?"

He lowered his voice and said softly, "I don't think those fishermen by the sea are in good health."

Man Bao instantly sat upright, nodded again and again, with a look of approval, "Yes, I'm going to a free clinic!"

Bai Shan laughed instantly, rolled up his legs comfortably and sat cross-legged on the couch, and said with a smile: "Then you are ready, and I will go with you when I handle the official business of the county yali."

Man Bao nodded happily.

Bai Shan is not in the county government office, and he has accumulated few affairs recently, but not a lot.

Most of the county magistrates can handle it for him, and the rest are waiting for him to come back and make up his mind.

Bai Shan spends half a day dealing with these official duties, and then takes an hour every day to go to court to deal with the accumulated cases, and the rest of the time is to meet various people.

There are various merchants in Beihai County, as well as the Song family and the Li family, which are relatively large nobles in Beihai County.

Three days later, Bai Shan packed up his things, and took the Song master bookkeeper and Dong Xianwei together to go to the countryside.

Dong Xianwei, who has only been back for three days and feels that his butt is still hot: ...

Master Song was also in a trance, and touched his face before Bai Shan took office. Before Bai Shan took office, he had been in the countryside for nearly a decade, and even in spring, people almost peeled from the sun.

Magistrate Bai also loves going to the countryside too much, right?

What's so good about the country?

Shouldn't you compete with Fang Xiancheng for the power of the county government?

Running to the countryside all day, most of the affairs are left to the county magistrate. Who is the magistrate of the two of you?

Bai Shanzheng talked to Fang Xiancheng, "I took a look. We only have one salt field in Beihai County, but the amount of salt produced is not high, so that the wages for cooking salt are also very low."

Fang Xiancheng seemed to have been waiting for Bai Shan to ask, and said: "The salt farm is in charge of the director of Song, and when the county magistrate was there, he reported back that there were few mountains, forests and trees, so the scale of cooking salt was limited, so the amount of salt produced was not large. high."

Fang Xiancheng paused and said: "Sir, the salt production in the salt farms has not been high. From the previous dynasty, after the efforts of the county magistrates in these years, it has actually increased. Now Beihai County has 60% of the finances. It depends on the sale of official salt, and the remaining 40% depends on various taxes.”

It can be said that the ratio is very unhealthy.

Bai Shan raised his eyebrows and asked, "How much did it grow? Why did it grow?"

He smiled slightly: "I found a way to grow, maybe we can make him grow longer."

Fang Xiancheng lowered his eyes and said, "As the cooking pot grows, it will naturally grow."

Bai Shan:  …

This kind of growth without any technical content is the last thing Bai Shan wants to see.

He stretched out his fingers and rubbed his forehead, and said, "Forget it, let's check the accounts of the salt field first."

Bai Shandao said, "When I took Lieutenant Dong and Chief Bookkeeper Song out, the county magistrate Laofang was very troubled. He checked the accounts of the saltworks and reported them to me."

Fang Xiancheng was stunned for a moment, and when he saw Bai Shan got up to leave, he couldn't help but stand up, "Sir—"

Fang Xiancheng stopped him, frowned and thought for a while, but he couldn't help but hint: "Your Excellency means to check the accounts of the salt field? But the accounts of the salt field have always been in charge of the head bookkeeper Song..."

"But Master Song will go to the beach with me tomorrow. We won't be able to come back for at least a ten-day period. Since Fang Xiancheng is staying at the county office, he will work harder if he can, and check the accounts of the salt field." Bai Shan Turning around to look at him, he said meaningfully, "I've seen it before. The coastline of Beihai County is very long, and it is absolutely possible to set up several more salt fields. Why stick to one?"

Fang Xiancheng lowered his eyes and said, "The magistrate Lu thought the same thing before he left. He has already sent someone to set up a salt field in the area of ​​Dajiawa. It's a pity that it was only half-built, and the forest near Dajiawa caught fire."

He said: "The mountain fire has destroyed a lot of trees. Even if the salt field in Dajiawa is built, there will not be enough firewood to cook the salt, so this matter is put on hold."

Bai Shan's face sank. He didn't know about this. He asked, "When did this happen?"

"Two years ago," Fang Xiancheng said: "The salt field was stopped for more than a year, and the magistrate Lu saw that a lot of new trees had grown on the mountain, and he wanted to restart the salt field. Who knew that Qingzhou would undergo great changes, and the magistrate Lu was arrested. He was promoted to Yidu County."

Although they are all magistrates, Yidu County is Qingzhou Guo County, or Shang County, and the official rank is half a rank higher. This is an unexpected promotion. Otherwise, according to the qualifications of Lu County magistrate, he will have to work in Beihai County for another three years. will move up and leave.

In three years, maybe he really got a good fight with the local gentry.

See you at 6 pm