Chapter 197 No story, only money, money
Yang Chong stayed in the Jiang family's tavern for five days in a row. Five days later, Zi Nu and her group arrived in Raoan City before it snowed again.

In the Jiang family tavern which had closed down, Jiang Meng looked at the beauties in the lobby and didn't know what expression to put on her face. If there hadn't been a group of armored warriors in the front hall, she would have suspected that Yang Chong had done nothing in the past few years but was busy collecting women. But even so, Jiang Meng still had deep doubts about what Yang Chong had been busy with in the past few years.

"What we have to do next is to completely control Jibei County, and then use the power of Jibei County to form an army that is completely loyal to us. Of course, the prerequisite is that we have enough money, so making money is also the most important part of our plan." In the backyard of Jiang's tavern, Yang Chong took out two scrolls of bamboo slips and pushed them in front of Caidie and Jiang Mengshi.

Although there are many women in Zilanxuan, not many of them can really stand on their own. Nongyu is one of them, and Caidie is another. As for Hongyu and the like, although they are also good, their abilities are limited after all, and they are not qualified for important tasks.

"Is this what you use to make money?" Zi Nu took the bamboo slips from Cai Die's hand, but saw a series of irrelevant things written on it, which finally converged on the last word: paper.

However, on the bamboo slip in Jiang Meng's hand, there were pictures of a series of various objects, and finally they landed on the word "wine".

"Although it's a bit tacky, it's the most profitable method and it's the best choice for us right now." Yang Chong was also a little helpless. This method was too tacky, but there was nothing he could do because there were not many industries with huge profits. If Yang Chong were to expand it bit by bit, he would not have enough time and energy to manage it. In this way, cheating became his best method.

As a time traveler, if you don’t know how to cheat, are you still a time traveler?

"Although wine makes money, food is the foundation." Jiang Meng looked at the bamboo slips in her hand. Although she didn't know what was drawn on them, the word "wine" explained everything.

"It doesn't matter. We are taking the high-end route. We only buy rich people and make huge profits just to make money. As for other things, they are not what we need to consider right now." Yang Chong said.

"Should I do something too?" Yan Lingji asked. Yang Chong was now on the showdown mission, how could he leave her out?

"Han Fei will bring the Baiyue refugees here soon. Although they are all old, weak, women and children, they were able to escape, so they must have some abilities. The sea in the east is where they can display their strengths. I will build a city there, and you will be responsible for settling the Baiyue refugees." Yang Chong said.

Although there was no salt and iron monopoly in this era like in the Han Dynasty which caused the prices of salt and iron to be exaggeratedly high, their prices were still not low, especially table salt, which was still a highly profitable industry in this era. At least one-third of Qi's wealth was due to salt, not to mention half.

The east of Jibei County is right next to the sea. How could a place close to the sea be short of salt?

Moreover, Yang Chong also mastered salt-making technology that was ahead of his time.

In this era, people generally made salt by boiling it, cutting down mountains and deforestation, burning wood, and boiling sea water with flames to obtain salt. However, in later generations, after a long period of exploration, people mastered a more convenient and efficient method of making salt, which is the beach drying method using the sun and sea breeze. This method mainly includes the following steps: absorbing tides, making brine, crystallization and collecting salt.

Compared with the salt-making methods of the entire era, the beach drying method is far superior to this era in terms of efficiency and quality. By then, Yang Chong will be able to become the largest salt merchant among the seven countries, and will have grasped a real gold vein.

After all, although paper and liquor can be sold at a good price, people can survive without them. The rich can use them, and the poor can live without them. But salt is different. In this era, who can live without salt, from royal nobles to ordinary people?

The State of Qi could become rich because of salt, and Yang Chong, relying on Jibei County, could also become strong because of salt.

What he just said about building a city was to build a fortress on the coast of the sea, specifically for making salt. The Baiyue refugees were the best salt farmers, because they were not only familiar with the climate of the sea, but also easier to control. Yang Chong could use them to minimize the wind direction that could leak information to a certain extent.

However, although money is important in this era, it ultimately comes down to military force. No matter how much money you have, if you don't have sufficient military force, the money is just saved for others.

Therefore, Yang Chong wanted to use these people to build an army and store food.

"It seems that I can finally have some free time." Zi Nu saw that she had nothing to do, but she didn't mind at all. It would be good if she could take a rest.

"More capable people should come. How can such a capable person like Zi Nu be idle? We have to do another thing." However, Yang Chong would not let Zi Nu go. He had spent a lot of effort to pursue Zi Nu in the first place. What he wanted was not a vase.

"What should we do?" Zi Nu asked curiously.

"We will set up a county magistrate's office and build a new administrative system." Yang Chong said.

In the Jiang family's tavern, Yang Chong laid out the tasks to everyone. When all the tasks were put together, a three-year development plan for Jibei County was completely formed.

……

In this winter, Jibei County completely changed. It welcomed a new county governor. As soon as the county governor arrived in Raoan City, he began to carry out drastic reforms. First, he abolished the government office, built a new administrative system, divided the system into six departments, assessed the officials at all levels in Jibei County, and then reappointed them. In this process, as many as 60% of the original officials were laid off. For a time, the whole Jibei County was full of complaints.

In early spring, some people even launched a rebellion, either hiring assassins or sending out private soldiers to take the county magistrate's head, but in the end the county magistrate did not lose a single hair, but instead seventeen families were wiped out by the county soldiers in the name of rebellion.

In less than a few months, the entire Jibei County was filled with killings, and the county magistrate's reputation for cruelty became well-known, but correspondingly, the county magistrate's office also controlled a large amount of land.

In Lixia City, Yang Chong looked at the State of Qi on the south bank of the Ji River with a longing look. Power is indeed the most addictive thing for men, making people unable to stop.

"The Ministry of Household Affairs has now checked the household registration of all residents in Jibei County. By wiping out the seventeen families and the land previously controlled by the county magistrate's office, we now have 200,000 acres of fertile farmland and about 500,000 acres of land to be developed. These lands should be enough for you to form an army, right?" Zi Nu, who had truly seen another side of Yang Chong during this period, looked at Yang Chong in front of her. For a moment, she didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing for her and Yang Chong to embark on such a path.

"Two hundred thousand mu? It's enough to form an elite force of 3,000 people, and five hundred thousand mu can form a young army." Yang Chong retracted his gaze towards Qi State and said. "Young army? I thought you were always eager for quick success, but I didn't expect you to have such patience." Zi Nu was relieved when she heard this. Yang Chong's killing intention was too strong during this period. Although a sharp knife can cut through the mess, using a butcher knife is not necessarily a good thing. It is easy to show the knife, but it is difficult to put it away.

“The emergence of a strong army cannot be accomplished overnight. An army with only sharp weapons and sturdy armor is not necessarily a strong army. I know that I don’t have much time, so I will be eager for quick success. But it is precisely because I know that I don’t have much time, so I must remain stable and must not take a wrong step.” Yang Chong said confidently.

"So you are going to recruit fifteen-year-old boys into the army?" Zi Nu asked.

Yang Chong had told her about this plan. A fifteen-year-old boy is half mature and half naive. He has expectations and ambitions for the world. Such people are most easily influenced and instigated. More importantly, such boys are not yet adults and have strong plasticity. By intensively training them for a few years, they can really be trained into an elite force.

"I came too late. If I want to win, I have to find another way. There is no other way." Yang Chong said.

If possible, Yang Chong would certainly like to directly establish an army, but such a directly recruited army may not necessarily have much combat power. After all, the people of Jibei County are not completely Zhao people, nor can they be completely Qi people. Whether Yang Chong uses the name of the Zhao prefect or the name of Qi's Lu family, it is not easy to gain the loyalty of these people, so he can only use huge benefits to establish an army.

After all, if justice is useless, interests are the most direct way.

But interests alone are not enough. Fame and fortune must go hand in hand to build a truly strong army. And how to earn this fame became Yang Chong's choice since he was a teenager. You know, passionate teenagers are the easiest to be influenced.

"The salt fields in Canghai City have already been built and will be completed before summer. However, a lot of money was spent on building these salt fields." Zi Nu, who didn't know much about the military, changed the subject.

"We can earn more by then. However, there is still a lot to do to open up trade routes, so we still have a lot to do." Yang Chong said.

Now that the paper has been produced, how to sell it is still a problem. Although Guo Kai's connections in Zhao State are enough, such a thing cannot rely on Guo Kai alone.

Although the cooperation between the two was good at the moment, Yang Chong still didn't know who Guo Kai was. If Yang Chong really trusted Guo Kai, that would be a big joke. Everything was just mutual exploitation.

Moreover, the main market for paper was not in Zhao, but in Qi. In Qi, when it comes to influence, the Jixia Academy is undoubtedly the leader. Although Yang Chong cannot do business directly with the Jixia Academy, he can do business with Confucianists who have a wide influence in the Jixia Academy.

Paper is just a useless thing for ordinary people, but it is a great treasure for Confucianism and other schools of thought. Yang Chong appeared in Lixia City, the southernmost city in Jibei County, just to wait for the Confucianists to come.

Not long ago, Yang Chong sent a copy of the Analects bound in paper to the Confucian Small Sage Manor. Yang Chong didn't need to do anything, as the Confucian people were already eager to do business with him.

Now that paper has been marketed, the next step is to market liquor. There is no shortage of markets for liquor in the Yan and Zhao areas, and even in the Wolf Tribe and Donghu areas further north, liquor can be sold at a higher price.

In Yang Chong's plan, the sales of liquor in Zhao State should be controlled by Guo Kai, and in Yan State, it should be controlled by Yan Chunjun. Both of them were very greedy and had a great interest in money, so they could be considered suitable partners.

As for why Yang Chong did not open stores in various countries himself, the reason is very simple: he did not have that much energy.

Of course, he could make more money by opening shops in various countries, and he wouldn't have to feed Guo Kai and Yan Chunjun, two greedy guys, but it would take up a lot of Yang Chong's energy, and human energy is limited, and Yang Chong is no exception.

In Yang Chong's memory, in the Western world at the same time, there was a special tax system called the tax farming system.

The so-called tax farming system means that because a country's administrative system is not so developed, it is more troublesome to collect taxes. In order to change this situation, the rulers created a compromise tax system, which is the so-called tax farming system.

That is, the whole country will be divided into tax zones, and then a preliminary estimate of the tax in this area will be made. Then, based on this amount, it will be subcontracted out to the tax contractor to collect the tax. The amount of tax that can be collected depends on the contractor's ability.

This system was certainly not very good, as it was easy for tax farmers to levy excessive taxes, but it was a very suitable means for rulers to obtain the most sufficient taxes with the least effort.

For Yang Chong, the same is true for cooperating with Guo Kai and Yan Chunjun. Although the two are greedy, they can save Yang Chong a lot of energy.

As for how much money the two of them would make in the process, Yang Chong didn't care. He just wanted to get his share. Besides, no matter how much money the two of them made, it was not certain who would benefit in the end.

As for how to sell the salt, Yang Chong also has his own plan. Han has Han Fei, Wei cannot intervene for the time being, but Zhao has Queen Zhao, who is the partner chosen by Yang Chong for himself.

Why didn't Yang Chong cooperate with King Yan of Zhao? Who would cooperate with a king who would die next year? On the contrary, the Queen of Zhao would be promoted to Queen Mother of Zhao next year and become the most powerful person in Zhao, and this power would continue until the demise of Zhao.

Yang Chong doesn't want to waste such a big asset.

But the Queen Mother...is there something wrong with this identity? Yang Chong thought strangely.

Zi Nu did not notice the strange look that flashed across Yang Chong's face. She looked towards the dock in front of her. In the middle of the Ji River, a ship had appeared. It was a Confucian ship.

(End of this chapter)