Yonglijian is located in the south of Bingzhou City, not far from the bank of Fen River. When Du Zhongxiao arrived here, it was noon. The Zhijian Fu Rui and his officials welcomed him outside the door. When he saw Du Zhongxiao and his party coming, he went up to see him and welcomed him into the prison.

As soon as he entered the Wynn Supervisory Office, Du Zhongxiao saw a large pile of soil and salt piles piled up on the open space, covered with straw curtains, covered with dust. Due to the rain, the feet were covered with white flowers, as if walking on the snow.

When he arrived at the official hall, the guest and host took a seat. Fu Rui ordered tea to come and said, "The water in the well here is very alkaline and cannot be drunk. The water used to order tea is taken from the mountain by a small special order, which is sweet water."

Du Zhongxiao took a sip of tea, without expression on his face, and asked casually: "Zhijian, why have you accumulated so much earth salt in recent years?"

Fu Rui said: "In the past few years, the war with Dangxiang was tight, and there was a shortage of money and food. The salt bought from the people was more than enough to be used as military expenses. Since last year's peace talks with Dangxiang, the salt has lost its place and has accumulated a lot of money."

Du Zhongxiao nodded and asked again: "Where will the salt I collected in the past few years be sold?"

"Where can it be sold to? It's just that the Binzhou Army is close to the war. During the war, we have to buy horses, food and grass, and we have to ask for money everywhere. Where can the imperial court have a lot of money? We collect salt and pay it one by one, and send it to the merchants and people."

Du Zhongxiao was speechless when he heard this. To put it bluntly, he was to deal with the war funds of the previous few years and collected salt as money. As for whether the salt was used to be used by the people, it was not something the officials considered. Now that the war was over and the money was used, the salt would accumulate here, and no one knew what to do. If it was not dealt with, the conditions for stacking outside would be as long as the years went by, and there would be no more left in a few years. However, there was no salt in the salt farm and the government's account, so we still had to find a way to cancel the account.

Seeing that the Superintendent Fu Rui and several officials were listless, their clothes were worn out, and some of them were almost like beggars. Du Zhongxiao couldn't say a lot of things in his heart. The soil and salt were accumulated and there was no money to allocate them, so these people had a hard time.

After drinking tea for a while, Du Zhongxiao tried to ask: "Zhijian, you have been here for many years, so can you sell the accumulated salt? It's not a solution to be piled up outside, and the sun is exposed to rain. Only when the salt is sold out will your life get better."

Fu Rui shook his head repeatedly: "The salt and mud are quite a lot, and the taste is bitter. Who will I sell it to? If the government had not forced the government to suppress the distribution, even the newly collected salt classes would not be sold, let alone the accumulated ones. To be honest, this salt is similar to soil. Because we are in charge of the salt supervision department, because there is a lot of salt, the state uses salt to pay for our salary. If there is a way, will this be the case?"

After saying that, he pointed to the worn official uniform on his body and just shook his head.

Looking at Fu Rui, and then looking at the several officials standing aside, Du Zhongxiao could only shake his head. Because there was too much salt in the backlog, the officials in the Yongli Supervisory Bureau were all used as salt to pay for their salary. Fortunately, they still paid some rice, otherwise it would be a problem to eat. What's the use of giving them salt to them? It's like a mountain outside. If they can be sold, they can make a fortune by scraping them at will, and they can still be paid by the state.

After a while of silence, Du Zhongxiao stood up and said to Fu Rui: "Let's go out and see how the salt collected is and how it is stored. The magistrate and the minister sent me here to sell the salt, so don't be careless."

Fu Rui and others didn't believe that the salt could be sold at all. Everyone was lazy, which led Du Zhongxiao to the place where the salt was piled outside.

He lifted the straw curtain and looked at it. Du Zhongxiao saw that the earth salt was yellow in color, and it was lumps and lumps, which looked extremely ugly. He touched the salt with his hand and put it in his mouth. He felt it was bitter and astringent, and the saltiness was not significant. Obviously, the salt was of great quality, no wonder it couldn't be sold. There are blue and white salt from Dangxiang in the north and Jiezhou Chi salt in the south. They are all good salts in the world. Who can I sell such earth salt to?

After walking for a while, Du Zhongxiao could only sigh. It was all because he was not careful and spoke quickly, and was deceived. Now it is difficult to get on the tiger, but it is really difficult to deal with it. This cannot be blamed on the officials in the state to cheat him, because he does not understand the situation.

On one side of this salt mountain is the wharf of the Fen River. When the salt was sold well, it was directly shipped to the wharf along the Fen River to other prefectures and counties. The wharf was once very prosperous, but there are still many old houses.

As I walked all the way to the Fen River, I saw that the river water was rapid and there was no ship, which was very desolate. Bingzhou was just the exit of the Fen River from the mountains, and in summer and autumn, the river water surged, which was not suitable for navigation. The rainy season has just passed, but there were only occasional boats.

Standing by the river for a while, Du Zhongxiao was upset and said to Tao Shiqi: "You and the people in the salt farm went to the town to buy a sheep, slaughtered meat, and we drank a few glasses of wine. It seems that we have to find a way to do this, and we can't go back to the city in one or two days."

Tao Shiqi responded with his hands and called two officials to go to the town together. The officials were listless, but when they heard that they bought lamb and ate meat, they immediately became energetic and volunteered to follow Tao Shiqi to the town.

Du Zhongxiao pointed to an empty room next to him and said, "I'm so tired of walking, let's go there for a rest."

When I arrived at the empty room, I saw that it was originally a shop selling some food, and there were several tables and stools on the shed. Several people sat down in the shed. Shisanlang and several officials walked around inside and came out and said, "It's so good. There are pots and basins inside, which are just for cooking meat."

Du Zhongxiao was too lazy to ask why he couldn't go to the official's residence, so he let a few people fetch water from the Fen River and wash the pot and basin.

After looking at the scenery for a while, Du Zhongxiao asked Fu Rui beside him: "I think the salt I collected is extremely inferior, with a lot of mud and sand, and a yellow color. No wonder I can't sell it. Zhijian, if we cook it again and turn it into fine snowflakes, I wonder if it's easy to sell it?"

Fu Rui shook his head repeatedly: "The signing of the verdict is useless. There are many households nearby who cook salt, which was not short of it. The previous few days of buying food and grass for the sake of war, so they were worth a lot. Every family had no idea how much earth salt had piled up, and even good salt was hard to sell."

Du Zhongxiao was quite helpless when he heard this. The quality of salt was not good, and there was no market yet, so it was difficult to deal with it.

The Yongli Supervisory Bureau was originally a county-level prison. Not far from the salt farm, it was the town. It took not long to take long, Tao Shiqi bought sheep, and together with Shisanlang and the officials, they slaughtered it clean by the Fen River, threw the meat and bones into a big pot, and started cooking.

Seeing that it was almost cooked, Fu Rui said loudly: "Get some salt from the pile of salt over there and put it in the pot. Although the earth salt tastes astringent, it is excellent to cook the meat. The mutton cooked with earth salt has no slight smell, but it is not as good as it can be."

The two officials agreed and quickly ran to the salt field, held two large pieces of earthen salt, and sprinkled them into the pot. Someone went to the river to find some seasonings such as wild onions and wild garlic, put them into the pot together, and added two handfuls of firewood.

In a short while, the aroma was filled with fragrance. Tao Shiqi took a large piece of boiled meat, put it in a clean basin, and brought it to Du Zhongxiao.

Du Zhongxiao was stimulated by the desperate situation in the salt field, and even asked Tao Shiqi to pick up the spirits he brought and distributed them to everyone.

After drinking a bowl of wine, Du Zhongxiao felt hot all over. He took a breath before replying.

At this moment, a small boat came down from upstream and arrived in front of him. A man standing at the bow of the boat said, "It smells so fragrant! We are guests from afar. We are hungry. Will the officials be willing to moisten the meat and make us feel uncomfortable?"

Du Zhongxiao was a little bored and was about to have someone drink with him, so he said, "If you want to eat meat and drink, just go ashore!"

The man thanked him, shook the boat over, tied it at the dock, and the three big men came ashore.

When Du Zhongxiao stepped forward to sing, he saw the three of them wearing Fan Yang hats and leather robes, not like ordinary businessmen. He asked them to sit down and asked, "Look, you are not a businessman, don't know what the origin?"

A man in front said, "The officials have a bad guess. We are doing business. In Xia Fengyuan, this one is Wei Balang and the other is Lu Xingyuan, doing some fur business. We bought Khitan fur from the northern court and were about to go to Luoyang, Xijing."

Du Zhongxiao looked on the boat and then saw that the cabin was full of good furs. The Song and Khitan had a scene in the border area and could trade. The fur was not popular among the people of the Central Plains and accounted for a small proportion of the trade between the two sides. Most of them were run by these small merchants.

Several people sat down, the public official poured wine for them and served meat. Du Zhongxiao raised the bowl and said, "Customers come far away, let's drink a drink."

Feng Yuan and the other two raised the bowl and drank it all, and blushed. Putting it down, Feng Yuan exhaled and shouted: "Good wine, I have never seen such a strong person! Come again!"

Du Zhongxiao smiled. The market for spirits is not big in the Central Plains. After so many years, poor liquor is enough to supply the market, and there is no motivation to brew liquor specifically. But for northerners, due to the severe cold climate, it feels different. The northerly, the more they like spirits.

Several people drank and ate meat. Feng Yuan talked about what he saw when he came to the Khitan, which was very lively.

After drinking for a while, Feng Yuan said to Wei Hachiro: "How can we use other people's meat and meat for nothing? Hachiro went to the boat to get some fur as a thank you."

Du Zhongxiao was about to refuse, but at first glance, he saw Fu Rui beside him full of joy, and then he looked at his worn-out official robe, and did not make any noise. He may not care about these things, but the officials in the salt field were different. They were so poor that they would not let go of any wealth.

Wei Balang took a few furs and came to give them to Du Zhongxiao: "I hope the officials will not dislike them."

Du Zhongxiao asked Tao Shiqi to answer, touched it casually, and said, "What a good thing, it's a pity that I haven't tanned it, so it's a bit troublesome."

After hearing this, Feng Yuan sighed: "To be honest, there are so many furs in the north, and the price is cheap. But they are clumsy and rarely have craftsmen who tanned furs. They can only buy them back like this. It is not easy to sell when they arrive in the Central Plains. Alas, not to mention the Central Plains, even in the North, the tanned skins are several times more expensive. Unfortunately, there are no craftsmen and few medicines there, so this money cannot be made."

Du Zhongxiao's heart moved: "If you talk about tanning fur, Hedong should have no shortage of craftsmen. But the Han people don't like this thing and cannot become an industry. As for the medicine for tanning skin, there are not everything--"
Chapter completed!