Old Jiang felt uneasy after receiving the silver note.
Not only him, but the remaining twenty-eight villagers also did not want to take Sun Jian's money for nothing.
Although they suffered an assassination attempt while following Sun Jian, resulting in the deaths and injuries of many, they fundamentally believed that it had nothing to do with Sun Jian and that it was their own bad luck.
Sun Jian felt a little guilty, but pretended to be angry and said, "What work are you doing? You should take care of the brothers first. As for the other brothers who can move, I will make arrangements for them in a few days! Remember, use the best recovery medicine!"
“Sir, we’re fine. Didn’t you treat us before? You even used that box and gave us injections. Look, we’re recovering quite well now.”
"Yes, sir, let the seriously injured brothers rest. Most of us can still work. We only have minor injuries. We eat and live in your house all day long, and we can't just not work for you!"
The villagers all wanted to do something for Sun Jian, and they all showed him how much their wounds had healed.
"Alright, alright, we'll listen to Sun Jian. We'll remember your kindness, but we're not in a hurry to repay you. Once we've recovered, we'll work hard."
Old Cao coughed lightly, stopping everyone.
The villagers fell silent, but Old Jiang was still somewhat at a loss. "Sun...Sun Jian, twenty taels is too much...Even if we get the best medicine for everyone and give them a month's supply, it wouldn't cost that much silver. We wouldn't even spend half of it..."
"Hey Lao Jiang, when did you become so indecisive? Just take it. If you can't spend it all, why don't you buy fish and meat for the brothers every meal?"
Sun Jian rolled his eyes at Old Jiang and continued, "Remember to clean the rooms again later. Let the brothers live in the front and side houses. Use the remaining money from the twenty taels to buy things."
"All right."
Old Jiang stopped talking, his heart filled with nothing but gratitude.
Sun Jian looked at Cao Cao and said, "Cao Cao, I have a total of 175 taels of silver notes."
As he spoke, Sun Jian split the silver notes in his hand into two parts and continued, "I'll divide the money into two parts. You take this 160 taels to the West Market in the capital to rent a shop and get the property deeds."
“I’ve inquired around. Xing Le Street in Xifang is quieter and there are fewer people there. A two-story shop of 300 square meters can be negotiated down to about 160 taels if you bargain.”
After saying that, Sun Jian took out a piece of rough paper from his pocket and handed it to Lao Cao: "Use the remaining fifteen taels of silver notes to purchase goods according to this list."
Old Cao glanced through them; most of them were materials their previous brewery needed.
However, it was only a small portion of the materials that Lao Cao couldn't understand.
100 jin of quicklime, 500 jin of marble, 100 sets of filter screens, 10 large steamers, 100 stone mills, 100 iron pestles...
Especially noteworthy is the label: "One thousand catties of coarse salt blocks!"
Oh my god!
A thousand catties, that's enough for three large horse-drawn carts full of salt blocks!
What do you need so many salt blocks for?
eat?
There's definitely not enough salt for everyone. Even the Sun family, with its large population, couldn't possibly consume that many blocks of salt, let alone ordinary people.
At that moment, Old Jiang felt a chill run down his spine and gasped for breath, almost collapsing.
"What's with that expression? Fifteen trucks would be more than enough to sell all this stuff, right? You'd still have at least five or six taels left over."
Sun Jian saw Old Jiang's face turn from green to purple and assumed it was because he didn't have enough money.
Old Cao stammered, "No...it's not that we don't have enough money, it's just...Sun Jian, did you write this form wrong?"
"You can't put too much salt in a meal at once, you can only rub a little bit on it. A thousand catties of coarse salt, even if all the people in our mansion ate together for ten years, we still wouldn't finish it."
What?
A thousand catties of coarse salt blocks?
Upon hearing what Lao Cao said, everyone crowded forward to examine the purchase order that Sun Jian had handed over.
"Gousheng, get out of here. What are you doing here? You can't even read."
Old Jiang shoved aside the village youth, Gou Sheng, and, not believing it, went over to check.
Upon closer inspection, it was indeed written on the label: 1,000 jin of coarse salt blocks.
For a moment, everyone thought that Sun Jian had written it wrong, and even Chu Qingcheng, Gu Zijian, and Zhou Wan'er looked puzzled.
"Who said I was going to eat?"
Sun Jian said irritably.
"But... but what else could coarse salt blocks have been used for since ancient times if not for eating?"
"To be sold!"
Sun Jian smiled and deliberately kept everyone in suspense.
Sell?
Do you buy coarse salt blocks yourself and then resell them?
Although dealing in coarse salt blocks isn't illegal in large-scale operations, the price is similar across the country, so it doesn't fetch much money.
If it were truly profitable, everyone would have done it already.
The businesses that mine this stuff make money; those who resell it might even lose money.
Selling coarse salt blocks is less profitable than growing potatoes.
"Husband, stop teasing everyone. Do you have some new ideas?"
Chu Qingcheng pursed her lips and said coquettishly.
"Okay, okay!"
Sun Jian turned to the crowd and asked, "Have any of you ever eaten refined salt?"
Everyone shook their heads.
Refined salt was an extremely luxurious thing in this era!
Although buying and selling refined salt doesn't violate any major laws, it's something that only royalty, nobles, high-ranking officials, and wealthy families can afford.
These people from impoverished backgrounds, let alone eating refined salt, few of them even had the privilege of smelling it.
Before war, fine salt was sold in the market for 500 coins per pound.
In the current chaos of war among the four kingdoms, resources are scarce, and fine salt can sell for more than one tael of silver per pound!
And that doesn't even include the secondary salt dealers; they can sell fine salt for two taels of silver per pound.
In those days, the vast majority of people were starving and lacked proper clothing.
They would have to work hard for half a year to earn one tael of silver. Who would use half a year's savings to exchange for such a pitiful amount of fine salt?
Even a fool could figure out that one tael of silver could buy 100 bushels of grain and one tael of silver couldn't even buy a pound of fine salt.
Therefore, most ordinary people in those days who could afford to eat mostly used vinegar cloths and coarse salt blocks for seasoning.
"I've never eaten it."
Everyone shook their heads, but they couldn't understand what Sun Jian was up to.
In their understanding, coarse salt and fine salt are two different things.
Although both are salt, at least in their view, the two are essentially unrelated.
The coarse salt blocks are mostly sea salt, although there is also a lot of mineral salt, but these have not been used to remove any impurities.
Refining salt is time-consuming and labor-intensive. First, you need to select a suitable mine that can produce fine salt; it absolutely cannot be a salt block, otherwise it won't meet the requirements...
Secondly, it requires complex mining, followed by smelting and grinding to obtain!
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