The entire Dengzhou City has become a huge training ground, and soldiers in training can be seen everywhere.

There are still many things that need to be dealt with next, such as open source issues.

Although after taking Dengzhou, I harvested a lot of food, grass and salary, and there was no problem in a short period of time, but it was impossible to lose all the money. Now I have more than 10,000 people in my subordinates. In order to improve their physical fitness, food is unlimited, and the cost of supporting them is not a small amount.

After Kong Youde finished training for the recruits, he returned to his general army government office. This yamen was actually Zhang Tao's general army government office. Now that Zhang Tao has been taken into custody, Kong Youde has taken it for granted.

As for what can guarantee wealth, Kong Youde thought of a very ordinary thing - salt.

Dengzhou Prefecture and Laizhou Prefecture have long coastlines, and they are naturally good salt-producing places. The imperial court set up a large number of salt inspection departments in Dengzhou Prefecture to produce official salt and then sell it, as the main source of tax revenue for the imperial court.

The profit of selling salt is huge, so it gave birth to many salt owls, just like drug dealers in later generations. The court's crackdown on selling private salt was not less than that of drug dealers in later generations. After all, one of the main financial sources of salt is second only to grain tax.

In order to ensure their own safety, these salt owls have a large number of outlaws as thugs on the Internet, and often manage local officials in order to sell private salt more safely.

However, the profit of selling private salt is so great that the Salt Inspection Office and the Military Office also wanted to interfere, so the salt owls often fought fiercely with the Salt Inspection Office and the military soldiers of the Military Office, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the military soldiers in the Denglai Prefectures, which was much higher than that of the other governments.

Since the profit of selling salt is so large, salt is naturally the first way of wealth that Kong Youde values. As a necessity for daily life, salt does not have to worry about sales at all. Although it is impossible to ship it in large quantities now, there is always nothing wrong with preparing to get up early first.

The day after taking down Dengzhou City, Kong Youde ordered the army to attack everywhere and control the entire Penglai County. Penglai County, as the Fuguo County of Dengzhou Prefecture, after taking down Dengzhou City, the entire Penglai County basically had no resistance. It only needed to arrange some troops at the important basic passes and towns, which basically controlled Penglai County.

The bay northeast of Dengzhou City.

The Shahe Salt Inspection Department is located on the beach. As the name suggests, it is the place used by the imperial court to produce official salt.

The people living around are all stoves who rely on fried salt to make a living. Their work for generations has been to boil salt, and the salt produced is handed over to the Salt Inspection Department, part of which is used as a salt course, and the other part can be exchanged for meager profits.

However, the Salt Inspection Department was responsible for selling the salt, and most of the income was handed over to the court, which became one of the main sources of tax revenue. The chief officials of the Salt Inspection Department could naturally make progress and gain considerable benefits.

Although the inspection of the Salt Inspection Department is only a ninth-rank sesame official, it is a popular position. The inspection of the Shahe Salt Inspection Department is named Tan Lun, and he is also a product that costs money and lives. Although Kong Youde took Dengzhou, he still did not escape.

He understood very clearly that no matter who was sitting in Dengzhou City, the most profitable industry of salt must be held in his hands. The Salt Inspection Department can still exist. The management of the Salt Inspection Department requires professional staff, and as an inspector, Tan Lun has a great possibility of continuing to stay.

Since Kong Youde took Dengzhou, at most, he could hand over the salt tax to the court to him. He could still make profits from it. Therefore, under his insistence, the work of the Salt Inspection Department and the salt households did not stop, and the entire Salt Inspection Department was still in operation.

When Kong Youde came, these salt households did not feel scared, but continued their normal work. For them, there was no difference between Kong Youde and the senior officials in Dengzhou Prefecture City.

Because they are so poor that even thieves are reluctant to patronize them, they are not worried that anyone will do their good.

There are some endless things that have been sold to the salt owl for some money, but their grave grass has been replaced several times.

Seeing the salt farmers carrying sea water buckets one by one, Kong Youde asked in confusion, "Tan Lun, why do these salt farmers use buckets to carry sea water back? Can't boil salt near here?"

Kong Youde is the object of Tan Lun's new loyalty. In order to have a good impression in front of his new boss, Tan Lun explained in detail, "Sir, there are not many plants and trees on the beach, and cooking salt is a long time to work. If you just cook salt on the beach, the cold wind in winter will make people unable to stand it, and the scorching sun in summer will also make people unable to stand it.

So, these salt households could only carry the salt water home, pour it into a large pot for every household, then put firewood on it, and boil the water in the pot all the time, and the rest was salt!"

Hearing Tan Lun say this, Kong Youde couldn't help but shake his head. This efficiency is too low and it is too expensive, which is not cost-effective.

The group walked to a large pot placed by a salt household at the door of the house, picked up a piece of salt lump, looked carefully, and put it in their mouths to taste it. There was indeed a salty taste, but it was mixed with astringent taste, and it was even a bit bitter, which tasted very bad.

"Is this the salt produced by boiling sea water?" Kong Youde asked in confusion, because he had never seen such salt before.

The coarse salt particles show the most original crystalline state, contain a lot of impurities, the surface of the particles has a yellow color, and the particles are very large and uneven.

In Kong Youde's memory, the small particles used in his previous life were all used, snow-white iodine salt, which was not like this. It seems that the large particles of salt used to pickle pickles in winter are not as ugly as this.

Moreover, after traveling through time, as a senior officer, he ate and used both the best salt and the green salt, so he did not pay much attention to the salt aspect.

Standing aside, the salt man said, "Sir, this is the salt that the villain cooks today!"

"This, can this salt be eaten? It can be sold so bitter?" Kong Youde was very confused.

Tan Lun didn't know what to say. It seemed that this new boss didn't know much about the situation among the people, so he could only explain, "Sir, of course this salt can be eaten! In the entire Ming Dynasty, except for people as noble as adults, most ordinary people, even those of their subordinates, could only eat such coarse salt.

Moreover, some poor sticks can’t afford such coarse salt!”
Chapter completed!