Qianqing Palace, Nuange.
Xia Yuanji, Yang Rong and other court magnates came one after another against the evil wind, and they all sat next to the coal stove as soon as they entered.
Everyone was old acquaintances with Zhu Gaoxu and knew the temperament of Prince Han, the prisoner of the country, so they were not formal.
Xia Yuanji warmed himself up by the fire and took the initiative to ask, ‘His Royal Highness, the King of Han, hurriedly summoned me to come. Is there something important？’
All the big guys also looked over, some of them not quite understanding.
Since the formation of the young army, the Han prince has given up all the government affairs and left all the government affairs to them. He has lived in Xishan for only half a month.
This is the first time in recent days that he has summoned everyone to discuss matters.
Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his hands and said with a smile, ‘Wait a moment, the prince will be here soon. I can’t control this matter.’
After hearing this, everyone suddenly frowned.
The King of Han is making a big move. He even invited the prince out.
What is he trying to do？
After a while, Big Fatty hurriedly walked in.
The prince looked around, walked directly to Zhu Gaoxu, and squeezed him down.
‘Hey…it’s really cold today…but my brother, your briquettes are so useful…they’re so good and cheap…hey…where are you two？’
Zhu Gaoxu ‘？？？’
Your uncle!
Are you cold and am I not？
The dignified prince, how dignified he is!
After opening his mouth, Zhu Gaoxu still didn’t curse out loud. He silently brought a small stool and sat next to the prince.
The cold wind outside Nuan Pavilion is biting and the evil wind is howling, but inside Nuan Pavilion it is warm and pleasant.
Everyone gathered around the coal stove, waiting for Zhu Gaoxu to speak.
‘Old Xia Tou, how do we make salt in Ming Dynasty now？’
Making salt？
Did the King of Han want to innovate the salt law？
Xia Yuanji replied solemnly, ‘The production of salt is directly operated by the government. The income from the production and distribution of salt accounts for half of the imperial government’s fiscal revenue. It plays an important role in ensuring the needs of border defense, food, wages, and war horses, as well as river engineering disaster relief and other emergency expenses.’ .”
‘My Ming Dynasty inherited the kitchen household system of the Tang and Song Dynasties, ordered the kitchen households to pay the original salt, and implemented official collection of the remaining salt, and nationalized all the salt, making the production of salt a government operation…’
Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu finally understood what he meant.
The Ming Dynasty still relies on the method of boiling salt to produce table salt.
Sea salt is made by pouring seawater into salt fields in coastal areas and then drying it or boiling seawater in an iron pot.
Pond salt is made by frying or drying the brine taken from the salt pond in an iron pan. It is also called class salt.
Well salt is made by digging wells to obtain brine in places with brine sources, or boiling water from wells with natural salt water. It is produced in Sichuan, Yunnan and other places.
Nowadays, the methods of making salt in Ming Dynasty are nothing more than these three.
However, these methods of making salt are not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also require coarse salt.
Coarse salt tastes very light, more bitter and astringent.
Because of this, the price of salt varies depending on its taste. For example, the royal court uses the most expensive refined salt, so Zhu Gaoxu did not notice this before.
‘Old Xia Tou, doesn’t our Ming Dynasty have many salt mines and mountains？ Why not make salt from these places？’
As soon as these words came out, everyone’s expressions suddenly became extremely exciting.
There was even a trace of contempt hidden in the eyes of many people.
Xia Yuanji shook his head and smiled bitterly, and explained helplessly, ‘His Royal Highness, the salt in the salt mines and mountains is all poisonous salt. If you eat the salt, your whole body will turn purple and you will die of poisoning. In the past, it is not that no people ate it by mistake and no one survived.’
He also found it a bit ridiculous.
I thought this Prince Han had some good ideas, but I didn’t expect that he would actually make salt from the Yanshan Salt Mine!
Even the most basic common sense among the people does not know, what is the difference between this King of Han and those fools who ‘why not eat minced meat’？
The look in the eyes of Yang Rong and others when they looked at him changed instantly, they were a little contemptuous and a little dissatisfied.
Zhu Gaoxu, however, had no expression on his face. He met their gazes and smiled and said, ‘Of course I know that the salt in these Yanshan salt mines is poisonous.’
nonsense!
Could he not know？
Those salts contain nitric phosphorus and other impurities. It would be strange if they are not poisoned if eaten!
However, his statement was not recognized by everyone.
You know and still ask？
What are you pretending to be？
‘My lords, have you forgotten that this coal was poisonous before？’
Facing the malicious looks of these big guys, Zhu Gaoxu spoke quietly.
After hearing this, all the giants looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what he meant.
Xia Yuanji was the first to react and asked excitedly, ‘His Royal Highness the King of Han means… do you have a way to remove the poison from these poisonous salts？’
Zhu Gaoxu spread his hands and said with a smile, ‘Why else would I invite you here with such a big fanfare？ Let’s warm ourselves together by the fire？’
Numb!
Completely numb!
After hearing this, all the giants felt numb!
Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, was able to extract salt that was safe for human consumption from poisonous salt!
what does that mean？
Half of the Ming Dynasty’s fiscal revenue came from huge profits from salt and iron!
However, there are only so many salt farms in the world, and the annual output is limited. In addition, the cost of labor time makes salt expensive.
If this Prince of Han can really turn poisonous salt into edible salt, then the salt mountains that were originally ignored will become mountains of gold and silver, adding incalculable revenue to the Ming Dynasty treasury!
Xia Yuanji took a deep breath, suppressed the excitement in his heart, and asked in a deep voice, ‘Your Highness, the King of Han, this matter is related to the people’s livelihood in the world, and there is no room for jokes…’
Zhu Gaoxu didn’t waste any time. He took out a ceramic jar from his arms and handed it to Xia Yuanji.
This was the result of a day of hard work that he used the power of the Han Palace to refine.
‘In fact, the process is not complicated. It is crushed, dissolved, filtered, analyzed and finally crystallized. After this series of processes, the poisonous salt can be eaten, and the quality and appearance are far better than the coarse salt currently on the market.’
Crush？ Dissolve？ filter？ Analyze？ crystallization？
What is all this？
Everyone was confused and looked at each other in embarrassment.
Xia Yuanji couldn’t wait to open the seal and poured out a stream of fine snow-white powder.
Crystal clear as snow and as fine as sand, is this really salt？
Subconsciously, he reached out and dipped some into his mouth to taste it, which made the others look shocked.
This is poisonous salt!
After just tasting it, Xia Yuanji’s eyes suddenly lit up.
‘This salt has a pure taste and pure color. It is even better than the best quality green salt on the market!’
‘His Royal Highness the King of Han, a great talent, has surrendered!’
After hearing this, everyone was even more shocked and couldn’t wait to taste it one by one.
‘Oh my god, this salt is better than green salt. How is this possible？’
‘And this salt is produced from poisonous salt, it’s amazing!’
All the big guys were shocked and looked at Zhu Gaoxu with horror on their faces.
His Highness the King of Han is truly a genius!
Coal is poisonous, but he turned waste into treasure and became briquettes that benefited all people.
Poisonous salt is poisonous, but he can now remove the poison, bringing huge benefits to the Ming court.
The prince also tasted it carefully and praised repeatedly, ‘Hey, this salt tastes so pure!’
‘Boy, do you want to taste it？’
‘Well…this is the first result. There may be some residual poison, so I won’t taste it.’
Everyone ‘？？？’