Going out on patrol (part 2)

  "Director Liu, what is the price of salt in this domain?" Fifteen, coincidentally, was a market day. Zheng Kezang, who was inspecting Dongning, would not miss the opportunity to observe Taiwan's basic economy at close range. Early that morning, he brought his entourage to the countryside filled with the stench of chicken and pig dung. "How do ordinary people usually buy salt?"

  "Since the implementation of the same An salt law, the price of salt in Taiwan has dropped to two taels for one shi." Liu Chongxi replied that due to Taiwan's lack of mineral resources and underdevelopment, it could only rely on importing copper ingots from Japan, resulting in expensive copper and cheap silver. One tael of silver was usually exchanged for 800 coins, so a catty of salt cost only 16 wen, which wasn't too expensive. "Except for special days, normally you can only buy salt at the official salt shops in each state's city."

  Zheng Kezang didn't say much after hearing this, but instead sent a servant to buy a catty of salt. When the salt arrived, Zheng Kezang took a handful and examined it closely in front of his eyes. Although the coarse salt grains were not as fine and white as the refined salt he had eaten in Anping City, they didn't have any visible black mud or yellow spots, showing that no dirt or sand had been mixed in.

  Liu Chongxi had been observing Zheng Kecang's movements, and seeing him nod in satisfaction, he finally put his mind at ease: "Don't worry, Shisun, the salt piled up like a mountain in the government office can't be sold, so they won't intentionally adulterate it with inferior quality to cheat the common people."

  "This is the best." Zheng Kezang had just spoken when he suddenly thought of something. "You mean that the salt in the official warehouse has nowhere to sell?" Liu Chongsheng asked again with some doubt, but Zheng Kezang showed a regretful expression instead. "If I had known this earlier, I would have arranged for it to be sold to Qiong Lei." But now it was too late to regret, and Zheng Kezang tried to make up for the loss. "Someone, immediately go back to Anping to see Chen Zongzhishi, ask him to allocate 5,000 dan of salt to the Tongzi Army Water Soldier Camp, and tell Ying Taonong to transport it all to Qiong State."

  "Descendant, absolutely not!" Liu Chongxi was shocked and immediately spoke out to stop him. "If it were before, it would be fine, but the king has already appointed Chen Tingzhang as the salt transport commissioner of Qiongzhou. If we transport salt from Dongning into Qiong, wouldn't that be snatching food from a tiger's mouth? If Mr. Chen reports this to the king, I'm afraid even you, Descendant, will...

  ??”

  "Are you going to be scolded by the king as well?" Zheng Kezang's face turned gloomy. "The grand situation of Qiong Lei has been ruined by them, do they still have the face to report to the king!" Perhaps feeling that Liu Chongxi was not one of the high-ranking officials from Qiong Zhou like Chen Qing, Zheng Shengying, Chen Tingzhang, and Feng Xihuan, Zheng Kezang's tone automatically softened. "The boat is going to sink, if we don't make a quick grab now, when will we?"

  Liu Chongxi only did his duty to advise, but Zheng Kecang didn't listen. He was also helpless and could only make up his mind to send someone to report to Chen Yonghua later. In this way, the conflict would be handed over, and in the end, even if Zhu Jin wanted to spank him, he couldn't reach his butt.

  Zheng Kezang didn't know about Liu Chongxi's little abacus, and continued to look around the market: "Liu sir, why are there only vendors selling chickens, ducks, eggs, and no butcher shops? There are still those selling wooden, rattan, and bamboo goods, but where are the blacksmiths and fabric stores?"

  "The descendants, farmers, have vegetables in the field, can be picked and eaten at any time, chickens and ducks are easy to raise and do not need much care. But pigs eat a lot and are difficult to raise, except for large households, ordinary people dare not raise many, raising one head for the New Year or happy events is enough. Naturally, there are no butcher shops in the market." Liu Chongxi explained. "As for the ironworkshop and fabric store, they are all in the salt industry, Dongning lacks iron and cloth, so these are operated by officials. Unless farm tools are completely broken, people will not buy new ones, at most, they will make a stove at home and repair it themselves."

  "Isn't there a butcher?" Zheng Kezang turned his head to look at one of the guards beside him. "How did the naval camp report on the disposal of the salted shark meat?"

  "Add meals for the children's camp and each scout team." The guard responded. "But they can't finish eating, the warehouse is piled up like a small mountain, and there aren't even enough wooden barrels to store them."

  "Nonsense!" Zheng Kezang didn't know if he was talking about himself or the people in the Water Troop, but at least a dozen head of cattle were needed to match one gray whale. The Tongzi Camp and the Tongzi Army including Kunlun Banner had so many people that even if they ate every day, they couldn't finish it all. Rather than leaving it there to feed the rats, it would be better to sell it cheaply across Taiwan.

  "Let them all sell immediately, no!" As he said this, Zheng Kezang suddenly remembered that the Tongzi Camp didn't have a commercial system and naturally didn't have enough manpower to carry out this order.

  "Lord Liu, isn't the salt trade managed by the Ministry of Revenue? How about using the leftover pickled whale meat to exchange for salt?"

  "This is a win-win approach, but Liu Chongxi blinked: "Shi Sun, what is this pickled whale meat and how should it be priced?"

  "Let's just consider it pickled beef then." Zheng Kezang only thought of the fact that, compared to the common people, the officials of Dongning were a larger consumer group. However, in this era, the number of whales in the ocean was not comparable to the mere tens of thousands of cattle owned by Taiwan. For him, it was simply a risk-free business deal. "Wait, first send ten catties to each official in the province as a sample, and as for the price, Tongzijun and Hubu can settle at half the current meat price." This matter was decided just like that, and Liu Chongsheng still had some reservations, but he believed that before long, he would find himself making a profit. "By the way, will the province collect the surplus grain from the common people?"

  Liu Chongxi smiled lightly, but soon realized that his actions were somewhat frivolous and rude. He immediately became serious: "Of course, we must buy it. Otherwise, how can the granaries of various provinces and our own Taifu Granary be filled? It's just that now is not yet the time for harvesting and storing grain, so Shisun naturally cannot see the bustle of selling rice."

  "Ah!" Zheng Kezang didn't say much, and continued to stroll around the small market. In fact, there were very few things in the market, and considering Dongning's current situation, it had actually regressed from the capitalist sprouts of the late Ming dynasty back to a self-sufficient small peasant society. This couldn't help but make Zheng Kezang sigh, China was indeed innocent, every time it touched that threshold, there were irresistible external factors that pushed it back. "How come I don't see any medical halls or pharmacies in this market, not even a single traveling doctor? What if someone gets a headache or fever?"

  "There are medical clinics and pharmacies in every province, prefecture, and county," Liu Chongxi explained helplessly. "The better doctors in our region are all serving in the military, so there's a shortage locally, but fortunately, Dongning is not too big, and it only takes half a day to travel from any place to the provincial capital. If it's not a serious illness, you should be able to hold on, as for Lao Tun Zhuang, it originally belonged to each town, so there are doctors from each town to take care of them. Only Xin Tun is remote and doesn't have the convenience of Lao Tun Zhuang, I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult."

  Zheng Kezang was alarmed upon hearing this. He had only just managed to bring in tens of thousands of immigrants from Min and Yue, and if they were all to perish due to the water and soil, wouldn't that be a case of losing everything? However, he also understood that things had already reached this point, and there was no use getting anxious about it. He could only focus on asking: "Have you told the immigrants from Taiwan what to do in case they encounter severe cold or heat?"

  As all previous dynasties were equally concerned with land reclamation and population growth, the Ministry of Revenue, which was responsible for the highest supervision in this regard, would naturally not ignore Zheng Kezang's report. However, Liu Chongsheng thought that Zheng Kezang's inquiry at this time was a manifestation of excessive concern, unaware that most of the people who had recently arrived on Taiwan were actually from Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and some were even from Hainan Island, which is hotter than Taiwan. Therefore, they should be able to adapt to the environment in Taiwan: "I have already told them all to drink boiled water, not raw water, and when they get a cold, they should drink mugwort decoction."

  "Min and Yue were developed as early as the pre-Qin period, and now there are tens of thousands of households in Qiongzhou." Zheng Kezang let out a slight sigh of relief. "This is absolutely incomparable to the current Taiwan, which is plagued by malaria. It's always better to prepare ahead of time than to regret it later!"

  Liu Chongxi suddenly nodded, hastily responding with a "yes", Zheng Kechang didn't say much either, and immediately turned back to prepare to leave. As they walked, Zheng Kechang suddenly pointed: "Isn't that the Pingpu Society over there?"

  Liu Chongxi often worked in Anping City, but had never killed a pig and only saw pigs running. He immediately confirmed it and asked Zheng Kechang as they walked: "In the past, were there many Pingpu tribes coming to the city?"

  Liu Chongxi didn't know, he hesitated, and Zheng Kecang didn't think much of it. When they walked to the stall in front of them, Zheng Kecang took a closer look, but apart from a few damaged deerskins, there was nothing else worthy of praise on the ground.

  Zheng Kezang asked the Pingpu aboriginal in front of him: "The deer should be almost killed now, right?"

  "As for what this young master said, it's true that there are fewer deer than before, but they can still be hunted." This Pingpu aboriginal spoke Minnan dialect very fluently, obviously having had deep contact with the Han people. "But maybe one day they'll all be gone."

  "What's going to happen after all the deer are hunted out? Can farming alone support the whole family?"

  "We've learned farming from you Han people, and the yield of our fields has increased a lot compared to before. It's not like before when we couldn't survive without hunting." The Pingpu aboriginal said calmly. "And even if we don't hunt anymore, we can still trade with the high mountain tribe in the mountains." As he spoke, he pulled out a small bag from his waist. "There's some gold sand here that I got from trading with the people up in the mountains. Do you want to buy some?"

  Zheng Kezang took the bag, poured the gold sand into his palm, and there were only a dozen or so grains. He wanted to help him out, so he asked: "How much is it? Name a price."

  "Five bags of salt." Unexpectedly, the opening price of Ping Pu Fan was not high, and even Zheng Kezang could see that these gold sands far exceeded the price of two catties of salt.

  "Give it to him!" Zheng Kezang ordered, the guard took out a handful of silver and copper coins from his pocket and handed them over. The Pingpu barbarian counted them, returned the excess amount, and Zheng Kezang thought for a moment before letting him keep it. He then took away an equivalent value in deerskin. "People all say that Taiwan's deerskin makes the best armor, but I have whale skin and shark skin here, which may not be inferior to this deerskin."

  "Shi Sun is right," said Liu Chong Xi in agreement. "It's just that Taiwan doesn't have good alkali for tanning, so it can't produce good leather armor."

  "So, everything has to be imported." With Liu Chongzi's mention, Zheng Kecang couldn't help but say with some heartache, "It's all a waste of money, after all."

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