On the northern foot of Tandao Mountain, Jiechi, Wu Xiang, who led his army here, looked at the vast waters in front of him and felt deeply moved: This salt lake is really amazing.

Jiechi, also known as "Yanze" and "Hedong Salt Pond", has been a famous salt-producing area since ancient times.

The lake water here is very salty. People can boil or dry the lake water to obtain salt.

Therefore, in all dynasties, any court that controlled Jiechi would set up a salt official here to preside over the mining, transportation, sales (taxation) of salt in the pond.

Wu Xiang looked at the troops moving not far away. Seeing that it was still early, he listened to a few salt officials and the owner of the Yanchi Pond explained the history of this area.

After the rise of the Tuoba clan, the Wei Kingdom captured the Hedong area and immediately set up a salt official in Jiechi, levy salt tax, and used it as an important "purse".

Later, the Wei State moved its capital to Luoyang, and the royal family changed its surname to "Yuan Family", and the Jiechi area became more and more prosperous. At that time, the management method of the salt industry was "official supervision (taxation) and private mining."

At this time, the production technology of pond salt has been greatly improved. People produce more refined "flower salt" and "printing salt" based on the "white salt" obtained from the "bridge-reclamation method" (small pool salt drying method).

Flower salt and sealed salt, white Ru Kexue, tastes delicious and can be sold at a very high price.

However, in the late Yuan and Wei dynasties, civil unrest occurred. In order to win people's hearts, the court abolished the salt tax on the pond. At this point, the mining of salt in the pond gradually changed from "official supervision and private operation" to a comprehensive "private".

The production, transportation and sales of salt in the pool are all handled by private groups, so more salt in the pool (Hedong salt) is transported to other places and to Luoyang, creating a large group of rich people.

When Hedong salt is transported to Luoyang, of course, it will not detour Pujin, more than a hundred miles west, and ship it out there.

Instead, we directly cross the Tandao Mountain in the south, reach Yuban on the southern foot of the mountain, and then to the ferries on the north bank of the Yellow River, cross the river there, reach the boundary of Shanzhou on the southern bank, and transport it eastward to Luoyang.

The reason why the salt is not directly transported to Luoyang on the north bank by boat is because the Yellow River is located in the Shanzhou section (eastern end), and there is a canyon channel that is very turbulent.

There are "three gates" at the canyon river channel, that is, three waterways, which are very easy to capsize when ships pass through.

Therefore, many salt merchants are cautious and would rather pay more money to transport salt across the river at Yubanjin Ferry, pass through the "Sanmen" area by land, and then carry the salt to the downstream Luoyang.

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Over the years, because of the large amount of salt transport in Chi Dao Mountain, the salt transport teams crossing Tandao Mountain "stepped" several mountain roads for salt transport on the mountain.

Tandao Mountain is thus called "Yandao Mountain".

However, because all the private salt merchants organized their own teams to transport salt, the salt roads on Tandao Mountain were all small roads, and large groups of soldiers were difficult to pass through.

After all, if the government did not take the lead, private salt merchants would not be able to cooperate and raise money to broaden and repair the salt road.

Later, Wei divided the east and west, and Jiechi was located in Puzhou area. After several competitions, it was controlled by the Chang'an court (Western Wei, Zhou State).

The Chang'an court strengthened the management and taxation of Jiechi. After all, this is the most important source of salt in China, and salt benefits are quite a small income for the country.

However, the controlled areas of the Western Wei Dynasty ended eastward at Shanzhou, and the Luoyang area was occupied by the Eastern Wei Dynasty for many years, so the demand for the Eastern Transportation of the Chi Chi has dropped significantly.

Over the past thirty years, there have been few salt transport teams on Tandao Mountain that are already bumpy and difficult to walk. Only local people occasionally walk and gradually become deserted.

The wind, sun and rain are all year round, and these salt paths are gradually encroached with gravel and vines, which is equivalent to no road.

Speaking of this, several salt officials, together with the owner of the small salt pond who was "invited", knelt down with a plop:

"General, General! These salt paths really can't get through the army!"

"The road on the west side of Yandao Mountain is a lot of roads along the way, which were originally dug up on the cliffs. No one has walked for many years, and there are many collapses, so it is hard to find traces now."

"Even if the mountain people walk, they have to climb the vines. That's not to walk, but to climb. After climbing up and going down the mountain, they have to slowly explore the old road. It takes a long time to walk a mile..."

"If you walk eastward and cross Baixingling, the road is relatively easy to walk, but it is only relatively easy to walk. You have to cross the cliffs and walk in the valley. Once you encounter severe rain, you will easily be flooded by mountain torrents."

"Even if a villain has 1,000 or ten thousand lives to lead the way, it is not enough to pay."

"The life of the villain is nothing. If it delays the great affairs of the King's Master, even if the villain has ten thousand heads, it will be useless if it cuts it."

Wu Xiang saw these people so slippery, so he was too lazy to say more.

The situation in Tandao Mountain (Yandao Mountain) has actually been sent to touch people. These "spy agents" who disguised themselves have conducted on-site investigations very seriously and have also walked through the abandoned salt road.

Otherwise, he would not have taken such a risk and regarded the lives of so many soldiers as a joke.

Indeed, the salt road that used to be deserted and it was very hard to walk, but it would not be really broken.

These people are so rude that they are indeed afraid of danger and beheaded after mistake.

Secondly, I was afraid that they (Chu Army) would stay here for a short time, and when Zhou State again controlled Jie Chi and settled the score in the autumn, he would be in trouble.

The other party has difficulties, but it is not a reason to be inappropriate.

The Yandao Mountain Road is indeed difficult to walk, but it is difficult for the well-trained and well-prepared Chu soldiers.

Wu Xiang looked at the team that was ready to climb the mountain in the distance, remembered what Li Li said, and smiled:

"There is no road in the world, and when more people walk, it becomes a road."

"Since people have walked a few roads on the Yandao Mountain over the years, they have been abandoned for only 20 or 30 years, and will not disappear without a trace..."

Wu Xiang flooded the Zhou army camp with heavy water in Pingyang, and used artillery to force the Qi army to surrender. At the same time, he divided his troops south and rushed towards Puban on the east bank of the Yellow River, trying to make Guanzhong a mess.

However, the Zhou army reacted very quickly and sent troops to Pujin on the west bank of the Yellow River to block the passage of the Chu army to pass through Pujin into Guanzhong. In this way, the plan could not be implemented.

For Wu Xiang, the Zhou army's response was normal, and he did not expect the forward to cross the river from Pujin to stab Zhou Guo's waist, so based on the actual combat situation, plan 2 was implemented.

After taking Pingyang, he personally led his army south, not only to confront the Zhou army across the river in Puban, but also to implement Plan 2:

The army crossed Tandao Mountain from near Jiechi, arrived at the north bank of the Yellow River, crossed the river from several places, and entered the Shanzhou area on the south bank of the Yellow River.

The Shaanxi area is east-west, the Yellow River is north, and the mountains are stretching in the south, just like a narrow land passage on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Shanzhou is connected to Luoyang in the east and Guanzhong in the west. As long as it can be "cut off", it can temporarily cut off the connection between the Zhou army in Guanzhong and the Zhou army in Luoyang.

If the Qi army in Luoyang wants to leave, they will enter Shanzhou and even Guanzhong west, so they will not be able to leave.

If this plan is implemented successfully, the premise is that the army quickly crosses the Tandao Mountain, and if you want to walk the mountain road, you need local people to be guides.

However, the effect is not good now, and Wu Xiang said: "Now, the unification of the world is imminent, and Chi Yan is bound to move eastward again on a large scale, which is inevitable."

He pointed to the vast Yan Ze in front of him, and his voice became deeper:

"Farming, cultivate the land in spring, weeding, sowing, watering in summer, protecting seedlings, and in autumn, it is about to be harvested, how can you feel tired and not harvest crops?"

"You have been relying on salt to support your family for generations. After these 20 or 30 years, don't you want to continue to hold a salty golden rice bowl after the arrival of a good year of salt profits several times or even more than ten times?"

"Can you give this golden rice bowl to someone else?"
Chapter completed!