Chapter 92

You have to know that in this era, salt, as an important material, was much more expensive than grain; one jin of coarse salt cost a full sixty wen, and sometimes you might not even be able to buy it.

After all, in times of war, salt would be hoarded by those wealthy families and officials as an important resource to control refugees and recruit able-bodied men.

And according to Jiang Jinshi's calculation, it took nearly three jin of coarse salt to exchange for this one jin of fine salt.

This ratio was not absolute; first of all, the loss during the first production would naturally be higher, and it also depended on the quality of the coarse salt. If the quality was good, this ratio could be reduced quite a bit.

Li Xinyue naturally realized this problem too. If calculated at the price of sixty wen per jin of coarse salt, then the material cost alone would be one hundred and eighty wen, plus labor costs, selling it at the market price of four hundred and fifty wen was simply robbery!

The two of them looked at each other; this business was truly viable!

Moreover, this price was based on the situation of buying coarse salt. If Jiang Jinshi could find a piece of saline-alkali land, then even if he sold this refined salt at the price of coarse salt, he could still make money.

Li Xinyue thought completely differently from Jiang Jinshi; with such high profits, who wouldn't be confused.

"Accelerate production!" Jiang Jinshi said solemnly.

"No problem, you go handle the sales channels. If you can get those merchant caravans to come here to pick up the goods, we won't even need shipping costs." Li Xinyue looked at Jiang Jinshi with burning eyes.

"Wouldn't it be better if we sold it ourselves?" Jiang Jinshi was puzzled.

Li Xinyue smiled mysteriously: "One person cannot earn all the money. Let others earn money with you, and they will invisibly become your allies!

And if you want to earn money alone, you will be isolated and targeted. By then, this fine salt might not be able to be sold out of Beijiang. Earning money from the whole world is much more than earning money from Beijiang."

Jiang Jinshi understood now, patted his chest, found a handkerchief, and poured some refined salt into it: "Leave it to me!"

Subsequently, Li Xinyue continued to carry out the salt production work in full swing; these facilities were not enough, the quantity was far too little, while Jiang Jinshi walked in the opposite direction.

He dared to guarantee to Li Xinyue, so naturally, he had some ideas in his heart; this would depend on Lazy Toad.

Thus, Jiang Jinshi went to the kitchen to get some wine and food and returned to the dungeon again.

"Creak!"

The dungeon door was opened, and Lazy Toad, who was still in his dreams, was completely unaware. Yu Heng, who was on the side, hurriedly hugged Jiang Jinshi's thigh.

"Good sir! I beg you to let me go!"

While speaking, he wiped his snot and tears onto Jiang Jinshi's trouser leg. Seeing this, the corner of Jiang Jinshi's mouth twitched.

"If you want to die, then go ahead and disgust me!"

Yu Heng immediately let go of Jiang Jinshi's leg, turned around, and faced the wall, not daring to look at Jiang Jinshi again.

Jiang Jinshi took the things and walked to Lazy Toad's side. Looking at the sleeping Lazy Toad, he felt a surge of anger and kicked him in his fat belly.

"Ouch! Who the hell dares to..."

Jiang Jinshi squinted at Lazy Toad, waiting for the other person to spit out the second half of the sentence.

The sober Lazy Toad hurriedly slapped his own face and smiled fawningly at Jiang Jinshi: "Master, why are you here?"

"This is my place, can't I come?" Jiang Jinshi signaled Xiao Hu to move tables and chairs while speaking; it wasn't a good thing to keep holding the wine and food!

The observant Lazy Toad hurriedly reached out to take the wine and food: "Master, let me, let me, don't tire yourself out!"

After Xiao Hu moved the tables and chairs, Jiang Jinshi sat down and said: "I have something to find you for!"

Hearing this, Lazy Toad didn't feel honored at all. You have to know that Jiang Jinshi had so many people under him, what kind of thing would he need a prisoner to do?

Thinking of this, Lazy Toad's face turned ugly, and looking at the wine and food in his hand was like looking at his own last meal.

"Put the things down, sit down and talk!" Not getting a response, Jiang Jinshi was a bit displeased, always feeling that this Lazy Toad was a bit silly.

"Eh! Master, can you tell me what it is?"

Lazy Toad sat down obediently and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Even if he were to die, he had to die knowing why!

Jiang Jinshi took out the handkerchief from his bosom and opened it in front of Lazy Toad.

"Taste it!"

Lazy Toad nodded and smiled fawningly, but in reality, he was observing what this thing Jiang Jinshi had taken out really was.

Even though Lazy Toad had some knowledge, he couldn't distinguish it for a while, and he even picked it up and sniffed it in front of his nose.

Seeing that the other person was slow to eat, Jiang Jinshi had no patience and slapped the table heavily.

"I told you to eat, so eat. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't need poison."

Lazy Toad's bitter face really couldn't squeeze out a smile, so he could only close his eyes and pinch some with his fingers to put into his mouth.

The moment it entered his mouth, Lazy Toad opened his eyes in surprise.

"Eh! This is salt!"

"Right! What do you think of this salt?" Jiang Jinshi poured himself a glass of wine leisurely.

Lazy Toad held the handkerchief with both hands and leaned in to look closely.

"Top quality! Even my brother has never eaten salt of this quality."

Jiang Jinshi raised his wine glass and asked nonchalantly: "Then... what do you think is the value of this salt?"

Lazy Toad gently put down the handkerchief and said solemnly to Jiang Jinshi: "According to the current price, it won't be lower than five hundred wen, only higher, not lower."

Hearing this, Jiang Jinshi stopped beating around the bush. "Then do you think this business can be done?"

Lazy Toad finally knew Jiang Jinshi's purpose for coming to find him, and his eyes widened in astonishment: "Selling salt? This is a crime punishable by beheading!"

Jiang Jinshi laughed: "Isn't being a mountain bandit also a crime punishable by beheading!"

"This, this, this... Master, this is different!" Lazy Toad was anxious to explain.

"When I'm a mountain bandit, as long as my brother doesn't hand out my portrait, who knows I'm a mountain bandit? Moreover, in the case where the County Magistrate doesn't report it, the Prefecture Governor might not even know there are mountain bandits here.

But salt, this thing, whoever dares to touch it will be pursued to the end, exterminating the three clans!"

Jiang Jinshi said with dissatisfaction: "Are you stupid! Don't you know how to hand things over to others to do?"

"There's no wall in the world that doesn't leak wind!" No matter what, Lazy Toad refused to do it, shaking his head and refusing.

"With your guts, I didn't count on you anyway. You write a letter to your brother, and I'll talk to your brother." Jiang Jinshi rolled his eyes, not wanting to waste time on this coward.

Lazy Toad had no reason to refuse now, after all, he still wanted his big brother to know his news and come to save him!

Moreover, his big brother could be the County Magistrate of Lin City, so he was naturally smarter than him. If he wouldn't agree to something, his big brother would agree even less.

Thus, Jiang Jinshi fetched pen and ink and watched Lazy Toad finish the whole letter.

When Yu Heng heard that this person wanted to sell salt, he was just about to snicker, a mountain bandit who didn't know life from death dared to touch even this, but he suddenly noticed a flash of purple light on the other person's forehead.

Impossible, right?

Yu Heng suddenly thought of a possibility, hurriedly took out three copper coins and threw them on the ground, and then laughed up to the sky like a madman.

"Hahaha! I didn't calculate wrong, Master, I didn't calculate wrong! I found it, I found him... haha!"