Chapter 62 Refugees
Why go to the beach while it's still hot? Of course, it's because the sun is strong and it's good for drying salt.
Winter comes early in Yan area, and snow in September is the norm, so a batch of sea salt must be dried before winter comes.
Whether it is for your own consumption or for reselling in exchange for supplies, it is very important.
He now has more than 3,000 people to support, and he has a number of enemies. Not only are Prince Yu and Queen of Chang'an far away, but he has also offended the Zheng family so much.
Grandpa Ling and Gu Changxiao also don't know when they can come? Hao Duojin has no faith at all.
With only over 6,000 taels of silver as a family asset, it really makes me feel uneasy. I have to make money quickly!
When it comes to making money, you have to make big money and small money as well.
Before potatoes and tomatoes were grown, Jinsui placed his hopes of making a fortune on sea salt.
In addition, restaurants need to be opened quickly and border town trade needs to be prospered.
As for Xiao Qian, she looked at the Thirty-Six Stratagems at hand.
Yan Jiulang said it was good after reading it!
We don’t want ten thousand taels of silver for one copy, one thousand... no, one hundred taels for one copy. The King of Li will stamp it himself, and we’ll sell as many copies as we can.
Yan Shier Niang will come over tomorrow, and we will ask her to promote the business in Yanzhou.
In order to welcome Yan Shier Niang, Jin Sui personally cooked some snacks that girls would like.
Steamed egg cake, steamed milk and eggs topped with caramel to pretend to be pudding, and ice jelly made with rock seeds and sugar water.
She invited Chen Yunniang to try the snacks and taught her how to make the three desserts. She also called Cheng Yu to come and watch.
The main purpose was to avoid suspicion. After all, it was rumored that Chen Yunniang was a beauty abducted by the King of Li.
She is not afraid of other people's nonsense, but she has to be on guard against Cheng Yu's feelings!
After all, our King Li is a young man full of vigor and vitality, Chen Yunniang is beautiful, and there are not many women in the border town.
When two people are alone, it is easy for people to think of pornographic scenes.
Chen Yunniang praised the three snacks highly. She deliberately did not mention her days at the Zheng family and only said that she had never eaten them in Yanzhou.
If I could open a shop in the city to sell it, business would definitely be booming.
Without Jinsui saying anything, Cheng Yu rejected the idea of opening a store.
He laughed and said that these three snacks looked ordinary, but they used a lot of eggs, milk and sugar.
Eggs and milk are fine, but the amount of sugar alone is not suitable for opening a store.
According to Cheng Yu, sugar is cheap in the south, but becomes more expensive the further north you go, especially white icing sugar, which has always been priced at one ounce of gold.
In Yan area, sugar, salt and tea were hard currencies. Trade was prohibited at the border and smuggling to other ethnic groups was investigated. The most common items found were these three.
Smugglers risked being beheaded because these three things could be exchanged for more valuable war horses from foreign races.
Horses in this era are equivalent to cars in later generations, and war horses are equivalent to famous brand sports cars.
It's hard to believe that sugar and salt can be exchanged for a sports car.
Jinsui laughed after hearing this. Making white sugar is indeed a high-end technology for others.
But we have a laboratory. As long as we give her the raw materials and time, we can make as much sugar as we want!
Once the sea salt is dried, we will have these two things, and we can trade them with foreigners for war horses, with the nobles of Yan for pig iron, and with merchants for food...
It makes me happy just thinking about it.
Sugarcane is the best raw material for sugar, but it is not suitable for growing in the border town. Corn is also good, but there is no seed.
That leaves the beets.
She called Captain Liu from the Tuntian Camp and gave him five hundred taels of silver as start-up capital. She collected beet seeds, reclaimed a hundred acres of land, and built a greenhouse to grow beets.
Captain Liu hurriedly said that so much silver would not be needed.
Jin Sui smiled and said that the extra silver would be used as food expenses for the soldiers. Reclaiming wasteland was hard work and they needed to eat well.
By the way, in addition to beets, peanuts are also planted for oil extraction.
Captain Liu was deeply moved. Who in the entire Yan area treated the soldiers in their farming camp as human beings?
There has always been an order coming down from above, when has any money been given?
It is such a great honor to be able to serve under the King of Li!
Chen Yunniang was a smart and kind-hearted person. She discovered that among the three desserts, ice jelly had the cheapest cost, so she took the women from the Tuntian Camp to collect ice seeds to make ice jelly.
Even without adding syrup, a little nai juice can still cool you down and quench your thirst.
Cheng Yu supported Yunniang in whatever she wanted to do. He never thought of locking Yunniang at home and not allowing her to show her face in public.
He helped Yunniang set up a stall next to the Lidajixian restaurant to sell ice jelly.
The women in the Tuntian Camp were motivated to open a food street along the restaurants, although they only sold simple snacks.
Tea eggs, braised dried tofu, and braised soybeans are all high-end products, while mutton offal noodle soup and farmer's wine are even more luxurious delicacies.
But the food street in the border town is at least back in business. Wei Zhubo said there are many refugees and herdsmen.
After autumn comes, people will venture out to stock up on supplies for the winter. There is only one street like ours in the border town, so business will definitely pick up.
Jin Sui asked hurriedly, "Refugees? Who are refugees?"
She always thought that refugees were people who fled to other places due to natural disasters in their area.
Cheng Yu looked incredulous, as if to say, "You've been the crown prince for so long, and you don't even know about refugees?" But because of the incident of saving Yunniang, Cheng Yu no longer confronted the King of Li, and at most turned his head away.
Wei Zhubo was just the opposite. He liked to answer King Li's questions the most, so that he could appear to be valued.
He laughed and said, "When the government imposes heavy taxes or the nobles oppress the common people, most of them will abandon their registered permanent residence and flee to the mountains. They are refugees."
Jin Sui asked hurriedly, "What about the people who fled from natural disasters?"
Cheng Yu straightened his neck and said, "Those are refugees!"
Jin Sui finally understood the difference and asked:
"Why would the refugees risk their lives to come out and buy things? Can't they just come out openly?"
Cheng Yu choked again, and his eyes almost rolled up to the sky. Then Jin Sui saw him waving at the soldiers digging mud in the distance: "What's the matter? I'll be right there."
"Your Majesty, I will go and take a look."
Jinsui: ...
I clearly didn't say anything, okay? If you want to ignore me, you don't have to be so blunt!
The flesh on Wei Zhubo's face trembled, and he looked at Cheng Yu in shock as he quickly left.
This guy, the prince should not have saved him. He deserved to be beaten to death by the Zheng family! Respectfully reply to Jin Sui's words:
"The government regards refugees as bandits. Whenever there are bandits causing chaos, refugees who dare to show their heads will be arrested."
Jin Sui pondered for a moment and asked, "If I gather refugees, give them land, and register them in the border city, will the government care?"
After asking, she laughed: "Tsk, so what? Border Town is my fiefdom. I am taking in some refugees. Who dares to say anything?"
Wei Zhubo carefully reminded: "There are many refugees and bandits. If the prince wants to gather them, he must investigate carefully."
Jin Sui nodded: "Don't worry, I won't use everyone. I will never use murderers and arsonists, no matter how capable they are."
Wei Zhubo was relieved only then. He was really afraid that the prince would recruit people regardless of the consequences in order to deal with the Zheng family.
Jinsui became more and more eager to dry the sea salt. Now with salt he could not only exchange it for silver, but also attract refugees.
The next morning, she cleaned up the reception room and had the streets of the city cleaned, at least to clean up the animal manure.
While Chen Yunniang was making new snacks, Jinsui rode to the riverside and picked a large bunch of wild flowers to put in a vase.
(End of this chapter)
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