Especially when Bai Yuqi was reduced to the point where she could hardly even drink millet porridge.

How can we expect him to be pure-hearted and regard money as dirt? He is not a true immortal who can eat the wind and drink the dew!

But looking at the thick layer of dark brown hard material on the rock wall next to the bitter spring, Bai Yuqi suddenly had a change of thought and turned around and asked: "Is there a lack of salt in the village?"

Yang Tieniu was stunned and didn't understand why the little god mentioned salt. He nodded honestly and said: "Of course it is in short supply. In recent years, salt and grain shortages have occurred in the capital, Guanzhong, and Longyou. Grain and salt are so expensive that a bushel of millet is not enough."

A piece of silk, a piece of salt also requires a piece of silk..."

"Um?"

Bai Yuqi was stunned when she heard this. After thinking about it for a long time, she still couldn't figure out how many kilograms a bucket weighed.

Fortunately, I have read a lot of novels, and after thinking about it for a long time, I thought I had seen it in that book. The "one bucket" in the Tang Dynasty seemed to be 6000 milliliters.

One bucket is 6000 ml, and the test weight of corn is 0.82 (because there are gaps).

In other words, a bushel of millet weighs about 4920 grams. In ancient times, it was not so accurate. Let’s calculate it as 5000 grams. A bolt of silk can only buy five kilograms of corn?

And what is silk? The collective name for all kinds of silk!

A piece of silk is four feet long, one foot and eight inches wide, one foot and ten feet. In the Tang Dynasty, one foot = 30 centimeters... What the hell?

Doesn’t that mean that a piece of silk that is 12 meters long and 54 centimeters wide can only buy five kilograms of corn? Is it so expensive?

Wait a minute, how much is one unit?

There are ten liters in a bucket, ten liters in one liter, and one heap is 60 ml. The density of salt is 2.165, and one heap is about 130 grams.

After racking her brains and counting on her fingers for a long time, Bai Yuqi was shocked!

A bolt of silk can only buy two and a half taels of salt? Is the salt too expensive, or is the silk too worthless?

Bai Yuqi, who thought she was confused, was stunned again, and then she realized, why do you need to use silk to buy things?

Uh... It seems that the main currency in circulation in the Tang Dynasty was copper coins. Although gold and silver were also precious metals, they were rarely circulated among the people.

In other words, even if Bai Yuqi digs out the gold and silver mines in Kugu, he can't use them directly. The excitement of discovering the gold and silver mines is like being poured a ladle of water on a stove, cooling down!

Yang Tieniu and others were confused by how excited Bai Yuqi was at one moment, and then wilted like an eggplant beaten by frost.

"By the way, how much does a bolt of silk cost?"

After Bai Yuqi came to his senses, he was almost driven crazy by the ancient weights and measures, so he simply asked Yang Tieniu directly.

"At the beginning of the year, His Majesty initially set the two taxes..."

Yang Tieniu thought for a while and said: "A piece of silk ordered by the official office is worth three thousand two hundred Kaiyuan Tongbao."

Although she didn't know whether the price of 3,200 copper coins per piece of silk was more or less, Bai Yuqi knew that it was definitely expensive to buy two and a half taels of salt at this price.

"Actually, 'silk combined with salt' is just the price in the market."

"In the past few years, the Turks have been violating the border every year, and the trade routes in Shandong have long been cut off."

Seeing Bai Yuqi struggling with the price of grain and salt, Yang Tieniu thought for a while and added: "Salt cannot be transported in. Even if there is salt, it will be supplied to the army first. If you take silk to the market, you can't buy salt."

Bai Yuqi was stunned, why should we transport salt from Shandong? Isn't salt produced locally?

As Bai Yuqi gradually understood this era, some information about this era that he had seen from various channels in the past was slowly recalled in his mind.

I recall that in ancient times, because impurities in mineral salt could not be filtered, there were very few places in the mainland that could produce salt and the output was extremely low, unable to meet the demand at all.

Therefore, in ancient times, people in the mainland basically ate sea salt produced in Shandong, but even sea salt was far from enough to consume.

Not to mention that the trade route to Shandong is now cut off by the Turks, and the salt from the salt fields in the coastal areas of Shandong cannot be transported, and there is no salt in the Guanzhong area.

It is not surprising at all to find someone holding a bolt of silk worth 3,200 pieces of Kaiyuan Tongbao but unable to buy two and a half taels of salt.

If a person does not eat salt, he will have no strength.

In order to fight against the Turks, salt must first be supplied to the army.

People consume a lot of horse chews, so people naturally have no salt to eat.

Yes, horses also need to eat salt, and their consumption is greater than that of humans, otherwise they will not be able to run fast.

Moreover, salt was not only used for food in ancient times, but also played a huge role in animal husbandry, medicine, agriculture, and handicrafts.

Animal husbandry requires salt because animals eat salt and grow strong, strong, and have plump meat.

The pharmaceutical industry needs salt for disinfection, hemostasis, blood stasis, and phlegm... Can you believe that salt is put into the medicine used by the military?

"So you can't buy salt?"

Bai Yuqi asked doubtfully: "What do you eat?"

"Actually, there is no salt in the market, but ordinary people like you can't afford it."

"We can only save some mountain goods and exchange them for some salt cloth. It's better than eating without salt."

Yang Tieniu smiled bitterly and said: "If you don't eat salt for a long time, you will lose strength and get sick."

Bai Yuqi was shocked, what kind of rare thing is salt cloth?

Yang Tieniu took out a piece of animal skin from his arms, unfolded it, and took out a hard, blackened piece.

Bai Yuqi curiously took it and took a look and found that it was a piece of coarse cloth about the size of a palm, but it was covered with a layer of dark substance and felt very rough.

Putting it in front of her nose and smelling it, Bai Yuqi almost vomited.

I don't know whether this thing originally smelled like this, or whether it was stuffy and rancid after being held in Yang Tieniu's arms for too long. It was fishy, ​​salty, and had a strange smell.

"This is the leftover brine mud left over from boiling sea salt by salt merchants. It is boiled with cloth. Although it is not as good as the big salt, it still has a salty taste."

Yang Tieniu took the piece of salt cloth that smelled like the insole of sneakers that had not been washed for several years, wrapped it in rare animal skins and stuffed it into his arms: "If I hadn't had the strength to go hunting in the mountains, I wouldn't even have this salt."

Bu Du can’t bear to eat it.”

Bai Yuqi understood, what is braised mud?

Isn't it just that after drying the salt, you first scrape away the sea salt particles and then the remaining layer under the salt pond?

In ancient times, there was no cement to build salt ponds, so you can imagine what scraps were scraped from the bottom of the salt ponds.

"Isn't this thing poisonous?"

"Like this rock brine, it contains a lot of toxic substances!"

Bai Yuqi pointed to the crust on the rock wall next to the bitter spring, frowned and said, "You will get sick if you eat it!"

Sea salt is actually not suitable for consumption and is used as industrial salt in modern times.

"You know, braised mud is less poisonous and you won't die if you eat it. You will die if you eat it without salt."

Unexpectedly, Yang Tieniu nodded calmly: "Although these rock brine are salty, they are not salt. They are highly toxic and will kill you if you eat them."

Although he spoke calmly, his words were full of the helplessness, bitterness, and even numbness and resignation of ordinary people in this era, which made Bai Yuqi fall silent. As a modern person, it is difficult to understand their sorrow.
Chapter completed!