"We can use ox carts, horse carts, and part of the waterway." Lord Zhang said again.

Baili Tang nodded, approving of Master Zhang's method. He only wanted to transport the items back in one go, and be done with it. Separating them would be troublesome.

Speaking of which, if Baili Tang hadn't traveled back to ancient times, he would have continued to be deceived by costume dramas.

In costume dramas, only a hundred or so people are responsible for escorting military rations, while more than a dozen soldiers need to eat and drink. If each person eats one pound of food per day, that's over 100,000 pounds a day. Marching and fighting is not a matter of a day or two, so how many tens of thousands of pounds of food are needed? - The filming is too sloppy.

Although the soldiers would bring some food with them to the battle, it was still far from enough...

Transportation in Jing State relied solely on human or animal power, with each local government having distinct responsibilities. Counties were responsible for arranging vehicles and boats, while towns were responsible for mobilizing laborers and animal power. Vehicles and boats were primarily used for long-distance transport, while human and animal power were primarily used for short-distance transportation.

Moreover, oxen, horses, and carriages are not readily available. Horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts can pull more, but livestock also need to eat, and their appetites are huge. If they eat bean feed, it's okay, but if they eat grass, it will take a very long time for them to feel full.

Yu Tang remembered the episode "My Fair Princess 3" where the Qing Dynasty was about to invade Burma. There were also historical records: In April of the 33rd year of the Qianlong reign, Shuhede and E Ning, who had arrived in Yunnan earlier, jointly submitted a memorial stating that there were five difficulties in invading Burma:

First, it is difficult to obtain horses. Based on the scale of 10,000 Manchu soldiers and 30,000 Han soldiers, 100,000 war horses and harnessed horses are needed, which is urgent and difficult to obtain.

The second problem was the difficulty in obtaining food. Based on 40,000 soldiers and 100,000 horses, 420,000 dan of food were needed in just ten months. However, the province's granaries only had 350,000 dan of food, so the supply was seriously insufficient.

The third is the difficulty of marching. The road from Yongchang in the inland to the border is difficult to travel, and the terrain outside the border is even worse.

Fourth, transportation is difficult. Just to transport grain from Yongchang to the border, assuming three men carry one stone of rice, it would require more than one million people. However, if the grain is transported abroad, the Chinese people are unwilling to leave, and the population abroad is sparse, making it almost impossible to hire laborers.

Fifth, the climate was difficult and the water and soil were not suitable. In all the wars, the number of people who died of illness or lost their combat effectiveness due to illness was greater than the number of casualties on the battlefield.

Since rice is difficult to transport, can I sell salt?

According to the "History of the Song Dynasty: Food and Goods Records", each salt voucher was for 116.5 jin of salt, which cost 6 guan.

There's another anecdote, also about Emperor Qianlong: In his 30th year, during his southern tour to Yangzhou, Yangzhou's salt merchants spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build him a palace and renovate the Dahong Garden. Later, Emperor Qianlong discovered that, over the previous 20 years, officials in the "salt administration" had secretly "overissued" salt permits, withholding and retaining over 10 million taels of silver. Furious, he ordered a thorough investigation.

Ji Xiaolan was implicated in the case, so he secretly wrote a special letter to his relative Lu Jianzeng, who was the Lianghuai Salt Transport Commissioner at the time. The letter contained only a packet of salt and tea, hinting that the boss was going to investigate the salt.

In the Kingdom of Jing, one kilogram of salt could be exchanged for 30 kilograms of grain. Salt merchants eligible for "salt permits" were all large-scale salt merchants with close ties to the government. By paying taxes to the government, they secured a monopoly on the national salt industry. Because of this monopoly, these large salt merchants were extremely wealthy, both in the government and the country.

Not to mention those far away, the magistrate of Dongyun County secretly traded salt and made as much as Jia Shidao.

Then they don’t have to pay taxes to the court?

Hand it over!

However, if Dongyun County can produce 10 tons of sea salt, they only report 3 tons to the court, and they only need to pay the salt tax for these 3 tons!

check?

In the devastated Jing Kingdom, such phenomena are common.

What is a sense of security? Having money and your own army is what you call a sense of security.

Therefore, Baili Tang set his sights on sea salt.

No matter how smart Zhang Zhuangyuan was, he could not guess that Baili Tang's mind was now on salt.

"My dear, please tell me how we can sell the salt and get it back into my hands."

Zhang Dongzheng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "Your Majesty, this is probably as difficult as heaven! This matter has far-reaching implications..."

Yu Tang remembers a sentence from his history class: (The fundamental reason for the failure of the Qingli New Deal, Wang Anshi's Reforms, etc.) was that they violated the fundamental interests of the big bureaucrats and landlords...

If he touches the "big cheese" of these classes now, there will be no room for maneuver - he will die!

(Brother Shan Zheng, if you broadcast your own movies online for free, you will be scolded and question your life)

"My dear, starting tomorrow, you will start sending people to produce sea salt and transport it back to the capital with me!"

"Your humble servant will never disgrace the Holy Order!" Zhang Dongzheng's eyes were burning. He knew very well that although His Majesty's behavior was inappropriate, a wise ruler should love his people like his own children!

As the king of a country, just issue an edict and the money will come, right?

What comes next is nothing more than "plundering" from the people... This is the world that Lord Zhang knows. Several times, he thought about resigning, but his wife stopped him every time - husband, if you can do something for the people, what does this little hardship mean?

Unfortunately, they have been in love for many years but have no children...

For a moment, Baili Tang didn't want to go back to the palace. There was no heating in ancient times, and it was much warmer in the south.

He has his own power here... How about moving the capital? He must be tired of living!

Another four or five days passed.

Early that morning, Chao Man'er, Xiaolian and Liang Erhu came to see Lin Yiyi.

She was not allowed to take a bath or change clothes for five consecutive days and could only eat one meal a day. At this time, Lin Yiyi was as dirty and miserable as she could be.

"Confess sooner rather than later, and escape punishment sooner." Chao Man'er said, "Tell me about your intelligence..."

"Hehehe." Lin Yiyi sneered.

"Let's go. Let's go for a walk." Chao Man'er took the two of them away.

Liang Erhu has been training for several days and is taking a rest today.

Xiaolian was even more idle. Her Majesty basically didn't want her to take care of him, while His Majesty only wanted her to take care of him.

Lin Yiyi definitely couldn't escape, but now that she was exposed, there was only one outcome for her - death. She couldn't die yet. She could only endure.

"Xiao Lian, why is Dongyun County poorer than Xiyun County?" Chao Man'er was puzzled.

Xiaolian shook her head, she couldn't understand why.

Liang Erhu said: "People are lazy."

Chao Man'er rolled her eyes at him.

Dongyun County was half the size of Xiyun County, and the buildings were run-down and dilapidated. The goods sold on the streets were similar and a bit expensive.

Chao Man'er bought three large pancakes. After the three of them divided them, they went for a walk.

"Hey, what are they running for?" Chao Man'er grabbed an older woman and asked, "Aunt, what are you in such a hurry for?"

"Song Chi, the nephew of Song Laowu, tricked the daughter of the Yu family into going up the mountain. Not only did he defile the girl, he also drowned her to death!" said the aunt.

"Murder? Drowning, can't the person be saved?" Chao Man'er was puzzled.

"After half a cup of tea, it can't be saved." Liang Erhu explained.

The three of them hurried off to join in the fun.