Chapter 1545 Xiangshan Salt Field
Several thousand acres of land have been initially planned for this salt farm in Xiangshan County, but the ownership of part of the land is still in the process of being handed over, and the number of migrant workers that can be recruited locally is relatively limited. It is impossible to start full-scale construction from the beginning, and can only be constructed in phases. It was put into production in batches.
In order to seize the time for implementation, Yang Yun did not even have time to organize and formulate a relatively complete construction plan. After several foremen from the Ministry of Construction surveyed the topography and landforms on the spot, they roughly demarcated an area for the migrant workers to first Level the foundation and then design the overall layout of the salt field while construction is underway. Although this seems very hasty, fortunately, Haihan already has rich experience in salt field development and construction. All he has to do is apply the construction plans that have been used in the past to the local area.
Haihan has popularized the use of wind and steam-powered irrigation devices in salt fields all over the country in recent years, making the seawater treatment capacity of the salt field much stronger than that of its counterparts in Daming. It has great advantages in terms of production cost and production efficiency. This is also the reason why Haihan One of the main reasons why the refined salt produced in the Han Dynasty can beat the official salt in the Ming Dynasty market. For Haihan, opening a salt farm is basically a sure-profit business. Although the initial investment will be relatively large, the subsequent profit period is long enough, even far longer than the average plantation operating cycle. Moreover, Haihan's industrial development also requires a large amount of salt as raw materials. Even if the output at a certain stage is greater than the sales volume, Haihan's own demand is enough to easily absorb this part of the production capacity.
Haihan hired hundreds of migrant workers locally, and naturally the news of building the salt farm quickly spread throughout the county. The public's reaction to this was relatively calm. After all, Haihan had been operating in Shipu Port in the south for more than a year. The locals had basically adapted to Haihan's existence and knew that these foreigners came to seek wealth rather than invade the Ming Dynasty. , so I was not particularly surprised by a project like the salt farm. Moreover, the Haihan people said that the salt from this salt field will be sold as official salt in the Ming Dynasty in the future. It is not private salt that violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty, so there will be no procedural troubles, and ordinary people do not have to worry about being prosecuted by the government for participating in this matter. liquidation.
Of course, the most important point is that the Xiangshan County Government has maintained a completely indifferent attitude towards the salt field construction site outside the county seat. According to Haihan, arrangements have been made for the County Magistrate King in advance, so the Yamen There won't be any problems with the sides. It is estimated that Wang Huan in the Yamen could only knock out his teeth and swallow it after hearing such a statement.
With the start of the project, Gu Qufei and others who cooperated with Haihan finally surfaced. For these people to get the opportunity to jointly open the salt field with Haihan, the locals naturally had various emotions of envy, jealousy, and hatred. All. But only the people involved knew that when they originally invited the Haihan people to come to Xiangshan for inspection, they had never considered building a salt farm locally. If the Haihan people had not come up with such a bold idea and took the lead in the operation, they would not have even considered it. They won't touch it.
They decided to take the gamble with Yang Yun that day. These people also made great determination and even prepared for the worst. But now the situation has stabilized, and they have transformed from risk-takers trying to save their fortune into discerning, bold and careful investment masters, attracting a lot of envious eyes. There are also people who belatedly want to cooperate with Haihan and find some coastal wasteland to build salt farms, but Haihan has stopped accepting the offer. Zhoushan did not want to make the scale of the salt field too large, so that the Ming court could not pretend to be blind, so it was just about appropriate, and it would save some face for the Ming Dynasty.
The price of the wasteland that Gu Qufei and others listed was extremely low. The total cost was less than 10,000 taels of silver. Of course, this price was the level before the news of building the salt farm broke out. Now he wants to spend the same amount to acquire this wasteland. It's no longer possible.
After Yang Yun negotiated with them, he finally transferred the ownership of this wasteland to the salt farm by buying shares in the salt farm at a discounted price of the land. Gu Qufei and other five people jointly held 20% of the shares in the salt farm. . Although it seems to be a small proportion, this is not a one-time deal, but a long-term benefit that can be obtained continuously. As long as they and their descendants do not sell their shares, the dividends will be paid as long as the Xiangshan Salt Farm is open. how long. The expenditure they spent on acquiring the land will definitely be repaid in the first year after the salt farm is put into operation, so this investment is worth thousands of dollars.
In addition to the production facilities of the salt farm itself, Haihan will organize migrant workers to build a residential area that can accommodate at least two villages in this area to accommodate future salt farm workers nearby. With the creation of residential areas, many supporting industries and service facilities will also appear on this originally barren land. A prosperous scene similar to that of the Yinggehai Saltworks in Hainan Island is very likely to appear in the Xiangshan Saltworks in the future.
In addition, Haihan will also build a cargo terminal on the coast near the salt farm to ensure that locally produced salt can be easily transported to other places through sea channels. Wharfs like this can be found in all the salt fields owned by Haihan, and the construction standards are relatively uniform. There is no need to spend a lot of time on design, as long as the details of the construction plan are slightly modified according to local conditions. There are indeed many docks along the coast of Zhejiang, and it is not difficult to find some knowledgeable local foremans to direct the construction.
The person most dissatisfied with the saltworks project is probably the county magistrate Wang Huan. The previous contact with the Haihan people made Wang Huan feel that he had been humiliated. He refused to let go, hoping that his persistence would create some resistance for the Haihan people and make it difficult for them to settle down here. But in the end, he discovered that this was just his wishful thinking. The Haihan people did not regard his persistence as an obstacle at all. Instead, after failing to bribe him, they chose to bypass him directly and go their own way in Xiangshan County, organizing people to start construction. saltworks.
Although Wang Huan is the local parent official, it is difficult for him to restrain himself from such actions that are close to demonstrations. The city defense troops in the county were all members of the Changguo Guard, and Yan Guowei, the commander of the Chang Guo Guard, had long worn the same pants as the Haihan people. It was obviously unrealistic to expect the city defense army to go against the Haihan people.
In addition to the city defense army, the only armed personnel that Wang Huan could command at ordinary times were county government officials and a few police officers. But the function of this group of people is only to maintain local security. If they are to come forward to fight the Haihan people, Wang Huan will probably be regarded as mentally ill by his subordinates - people who fight against the Haihan people here in Zhejiang are not There are only a few, and there are even imperial officials among them, but now the grass on the graves may be taller than people.
Moreover, Wang Huan heard that the brother of the county government’s captain Yu was working as a foreman at the Haihan saltworks construction site. Yu, the captain, had been on sick leave for the past few days. It was obvious that he was already working as a foreman for the Haihan people near the construction site. Watchdogs maintained order.
In fact, as long as the people in the county government have connections, most of them will take the initiative to show their favor to the Haihan people in order to get an opportunity to make a fortune. For such a big project as building a salt farm, as long as the Haihan people can make some living from the cracks between their fingers, it will be a bit of income. To put it bluntly, the Haihan people have now settled in Xiangshan County. From now on, everyone will look up and not look down. If we build a relationship early, it will be easier to get along with them in the future. We can't all be like the county magistrate, who doesn't want the benefits that come to his door, but has to fight against the Haihan people with all his strength.
Although no one dared to express such thoughts in front of Wang Huan, it was not difficult for Wang Huan to feel that the atmosphere in the county government was not biased towards his side. But he did not dare to go to Haihan's construction site to cause trouble on his own, so he could only pretend to be deaf to the situation outside the county and pretended not to know that Haihan had started construction in the county. Yang Yun really didn't take Wang Huan seriously. He had so many things on his hands that he didn't have the time to care about Wang Huan's feelings. From the day Wang Huan rejected his solicitation, Yang Yun had already crossed this person out of his list of social partners. For Yang Yun, Ming officials who are unwilling to cooperate with Haihan can be treated as transparent people. If there are still people who dare to go against Haihan, it will not be too late to notify the Ministry of Security to come forward to solve the problem. Like Wang Huan, an official who was greedy for life and fearful of death and who pretended to be honorable, Yang Yun planned to wait until the salt farm construction project was on track, and then see what means he could use to remove him from the position of county magistrate.
Haihan was not afraid of the Ming officials he was dealing with reaching out, but what he was afraid of was that the other party would not accept the benefits. As long as he is willing to accept money, the power in his hands will definitely have a price, and what Haihan is best at is wooing Ming officials to conduct power-for-money transactions. For someone like Wang Huan who refuses to accept money, the best way to deal with it is to remove him and replace him with an official who is willing to accept money.
While construction was in full swing in Xiangshan, Haihan also began to mobilize contacts in Hangzhou for this salt farm project, sending benefits to the yamen officials in charge of the salt industry in order to win an official salt status for the future production of the Xiangshan Salt Farm.
Obviously, this job will not be as easy as spending money to acquire land in Xiangshan County. It requires a lot of preparation to meet with these officials and negotiate a reasonable price. Although Haihan is known for not being short of money, he still maintains the values of a businessman in details, and will inevitably bargain during every transaction to show how much he values it.
On the tenth day of construction, good news finally came back from Hangzhou. The people from the Salt Envoy Department and the Salt Class Promotion Department had been found. As for the position of Salt Inspector, it was currently vacant in Zhejiang, but it was for Hai. Han saved a lot of money.
After securing the yamen in charge of the salt industry, the Xiangshan Salt Field under construction has successfully obtained the shell of the official salt field, and the future production will naturally become official salt. Although the salt tax must be paid to the competent government office for this, there is a lot of room for maneuver.
For example, assuming that the actual output of the Xiangshan Salt Farm requires 10,000 taels of silver to be paid to the Ming Dynasty treasury as salt tax, then as long as Haihan falsely reports the output, it will shrink to only one thousand taels of silver, and then prepare another two thousand taels of silver. Go and crack some joints and shut up the officials in charge, so that you can make a lot more money inside and outside. As long as Haihan gets the title of this official salt farm, he will be able to control how much he produces and reports in the future, and the profits will not be much lower than during the smuggling period. The large amount of freight saved by local production can be used to subsidize the cost of burning incense for various yamen.
The original list of targets for burning incense also included the Xiangshan County Government Office, but Yang Yun had directly crossed it out because of Wang Huan's performance. After taking care of the two yamen in charge of Hangzhou, there are no other objective factors that can hinder the Xiangshan Salt Farm Project. The existence of the Xiangshan County Yamen has also become dispensable for the implementation of the salt farm project. In addition to an army company sent from Zhoushan to maintain law and order here, Chang Guowei also specially sent a commander with about a hundred people to station beside the official road one mile away from the salt field construction site to act as bodyguards Role.
The reason why Chang Guowei was particularly active in this regard was because the commander Yan Guowei hoped to obtain the salt marketing rights in some areas. He wanted to use his convenience in the military to squeeze into the salt merchant industry. Although Haihan has not agreed to his application for the time being, Yan Guowei is also an old fox and deliberately sent troops to guard the construction site. This means to show outsiders that the Haihan salt farm project is guarded by Chang Guowei, and other There is no need for the rest of the crowd to come and join in the fun.
Yang Yun couldn't see Yan Guowei's calculation, but he didn't have the extra energy to slowly negotiate with Yan Guowei. Anyway, Chang Guowei's men did not consume Haihan's food, nor did they disrupt the order of the construction site, so Yang Yun allowed Yan Guowei to do his best.
And Yan Guowei is not the only one who is interested in the salt farm project. The two yamen in charge of the salt industry in Hangzhou each want to obtain the sales rights of 10% of the production. At that time, the businessmen arranged by them will come forward to negotiate with Haihan. contact. After Ningbo Magistrate Qu Yutong heard about this, he naturally would not let go of this opportunity to make a fortune at his doorstep. He immediately sent a letter to Shi Diwen, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
As the saying goes, the county magistrate is not as good as the current manager, not to mention that Qu Yutong still pays locally, so with a stroke of his pen, Shi Diwen allocated another 10% of the output to Qu Yutong for underwriting. Of course, these Ming officials may not be able to find out the real production capacity of the salt farm after it is put into operation. Only Haihan knows what the proportion of underwriting will be allocated to them.
Time has entered August, and with the smooth progress of the salt farm project, Haihan has recruited more than 500 laborers in Xiangshan County, all of which have been put into the salt farm construction site, hoping to put the salt farm into production as soon as possible. A large amount of cement used to build the salt ponds has been shipped here from Fujian. Although the freight cost is high, it was finally delivered in time and the construction schedule was not delayed.
(End of chapter)