Chapter 170 Visiting the Saltworks

After the goods were loaded, Tao Donglai also hurried to the dock with a group of technicians responsible for installing equipment. After everyone boarded the ship, they raised the sail and set sail for the open sea. Li Nai was still wondering where the Haihan people's salt field was hidden.

Then I heard Schneider say: "Mr. Li, please look, the bay ahead is our salt field."

"So close?" Li Nai was a little surprised. He originally thought that since he had to take a boat, the Haihan people's secret salt field was at least an hour or two away, but he didn't expect that he would have to go there just after leaving the harbor.

arrive.

Li Nai looked at the bay that Schneider pointed to with some confusion, but all he saw was a forest of coconut trees on the shore, and not even a human being could be seen. Where was the salt field?

It wasn't until the boat reached the shore that Li Nai noticed that there was a small estuary here, where workers drove several small flat-bottomed wooden boats. Everyone got off the boat and transferred to the boat, and the workers rowed the boat along the

The river flows upward.

The boat traveled about two miles, and a small pier appeared in front of it. Anxi and others from the Saltworks Commune Management Committee were already standing here waiting.

Tao Donglai gave a brief introduction to both parties, and Anxi greeted warmly: "Welcome friends from Guangzhou to visit our place! Please come with me, and we will talk as we go."

Based on the current internal establishment of Chuanchuan Group, most units belong to the production department, and only a few departments such as culture, education, and health are public institutions that need to rely on financial allocations. Since the executive committee proposed the establishment of an independent settlement system, each production department

Everyone is trying to find ways to improve production efficiency in order to obtain more profits. Especially departments such as the military industry and chemical industry that are exposed to import and export trade are very motivated.

The salt farm has been designated as a key production support unit from the beginning of Chuan Chuan Group's establishment. The executive committee believes that the salt farm's production capacity has a "strategic role" in the development of the entire Chuan Chuan Group, and has also given sufficient attention and comprehensive support.

As long as the reports typed up from Anxi are basically approved by the Executive Committee, manpower is needed for manpower, and materials are needed for materials. For products in short supply like cement, the Executive Committee also provides them to the salt works as much as possible to protect them.

The production transformation plan went smoothly, which caused many complaints about the military and police department, which wanted to build concrete forts.

The Saltworks Commune did not disappoint the Executive Committee. Since it was put into operation, the salt production of the Saltworks Commune has been showing a rapid upward trend. It can not only meet the local chemical production needs, but also has exported thousands of kilograms of refined salt. From an economic perspective

Generally speaking, the Saltworks Commune has initially acquired the ability to be responsible for its own profits and losses.

Of course, given that the external wholesale salt price of the Ministry of Commerce has always been maintained at an extremely low level, the actual transaction amount is not large, and the sales profit of the salt farm commune is also very limited. However, the Executive Committee is still very optimistic about this project.

Without it, because the sales market for table salt is so huge, as long as the current salt price of 100 taels per ton is maintained, it will be enough to create a dumping trend on the salt industry market in mainland China and even the entire Far East. As long as sales volume increases, originally

What seems to be a relatively small profit can also turn into an astronomical figure.

The Management Committee of the Saltworks Commune is also very aware of this fact, so when Anxi learned that merchants from Guangzhou would visit the saltworks today and were very likely to sign a salt industry order, they had already held a preparation meeting one day in advance. Everyone on the saltworks was busy.

After receiving the notice, everyone must work more seriously today. As long as everyone behaves well, the two pigs sent from the farm the day before will be killed for extra meals in the evening - for ordinary people with little education, material stimulation is obviously

It is more intuitive and effective than spiritual encouragement.

"The construction of our salt farm started three months ago. At the beginning, it was just a wasteland." Anxi raised his hand and pointed to the inland plains in the distance that had turned into neat salt fields, and proudly introduced:

"Under the leadership of the Executive Committee, the members of the Salt Farm Commune worked hard to transform this wasteland into the salt farm with the highest output in the entire South China Sea in a short period of time! Everyone, according to our latest statistics, the current salt production of the commune

The daily output has reached four thousand kilograms!”

Li Nai clearly heard the sound of He Qiang swallowing hard next to him. This figure was indeed astonishing, no less than what he heard at the farm yesterday that the yield of rice fields per mu could exceed one thousand kilograms.

Regarding the salt production capacity of the Haihan people, it was also one of Li Nai's tasks when he came to Victory Port to inspect this time. Li Jifeng, the head of "Furuifeng", believes that if the Haihan people's salt production can really reach a certain scale, then in the future "

"Furuifeng" is also a good choice to open another lucrative private salt business, but if the output is low, then it is questionable whether to take this risk.

As homework beforehand, Li Nai also learned about the operation of general salt fields. For example, the salt field on Qiongzhou Island in Danzhou Bay is known as the largest salt field on Qiongzhou Island. Its maximum output is about 1,800 kilograms per day, which can exceed 1,000 kilograms.

Very few. Moreover, the salt field has been operating since the Song Dynasty, and all production links can be said to be very mature. The salt collectors are also experienced in the family for several generations. But compared with the salt production efficiency claimed by the Haihan people, Dan

The output of the state salt farm is more like the result of manipulation by a group of laymen.

There are a total of 29 salt fields in Guangdong and Qiongzhou under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Salt Class Tiju Division and Haibei Salt Class Tiju Division. Their production data is not a secret. Li Nai dared to say that no salt farm can maintain its daily output.

More than 1,000 kilograms.

Of course, Li Nai also thought that the salt fields of the Haihan people would be much more efficient than the salt fields in Danzhou or other places, and the salt produced could not be fully digested in the local market. Otherwise, they would not need to take the Guangzhou line and go directly to

It would be nice to sell it locally. But he didn't expect that the salt production here would be so ridiculously high, four thousand kilograms per day, which made "Furuifeng's" previous request to supply at least ten thousand kilograms per month sound like a success.

I made a joke - don’t say a monthly payment of ten thousand catties, even a monthly payment of one hundred thousand catties, Haihan people can afford it!

Li Nai has already begun to calculate in his mind, if the trading volume is increased from 10,000 catties per month to 50,000 catties, then the profits that "Furuifeng" can obtain from the transaction can be used to buy two more Haihan artillery pieces.

Of course, before that, Li Nai still had to try his best to implement the Haihan people's statement. Who knew whether the man named An was bragging? The salt farm with a monthly output of more than 100,000 kilograms was right in front of him, and Li Nai was really good at it.

I want to see their production methods.

After passing through a row of palm groves, Li Nai saw the true face of this salt field plain. There were no stone salt baths commonly seen in salt fields, but huge rectangular salt baths neatly laid out on the ground.

Each of them is four or five feet long and wide. The water in these ponds is very shallow, only about two or three inches. The sea salt in many ponds has crystallized and spread on the bottom of the pond. Some workers are standing there.

In the sun-dried salt pond, use a rake to collect the sun-dried salt together, then put it into sacks and transport it to the designated place.

Li Nai just took a cursory look and found that there were at least hundreds of salt-drying pools like this on this plain. The sea salt precipitated in one pool was collected together, at least twenty or thirty kilograms. From this point of view, the Haihan people

The said daily output of 4,000 kilograms is not a boast.

Anxi took them around and explained. In addition to these harvesting ponds, there are also some places where workers are using human-powered water trucks to lift seawater from the river into the salt fields. There is a filter next to each salt field.

Most workers work in the filter tank, stirring and squeezing the salt mud soaked in seawater. This is a very time-consuming and laborious process. After stirring and filtering, the high-salt brine will be put into the brine storage tank next to the filter tank.

, only after passing the inspection will they be lifted into the salt pond for full drying.

The Executive Committee is not afraid of exposing these production processes. This method of producing salt is not pioneered by the public, but is a technology currently being used by salt farms of the same era. The difference between the Salt Farm Commune and the Salt Farm Commune is that it was industrialized on a large scale.

production methods, and such a production method cannot be achieved by those old-fashioned salt farms that are still in the feudal system production structure. The technical advantages in civil administration and production organization have greatly increased the production efficiency between the salt farm communes and their counterparts in this era.

There is a gap, and it is absolutely impossible to make up for this gap through a casual visit.

Li Nai was a smart man who had seen the world. When he saw the exquisite irrigation devices and the flat-bottomed salt-drying ponds made of plaster, he knew that the Haihan people's salt-making method could not be copied elsewhere. This was not because of the Haihan people's salt-making methods.

The Han people used the more advanced method of sun-drying salt. In fact, the salt fields in Chaozhou, Huizhou and even Danzhou had already used the sun-drying method to make salt. The reason why it cannot be copied is actually very simple.

The salt envoys and officials do not care about how to improve production efficiency. What they have to do is to squeeze the salt households with all their strength and directly assign the production tasks to them. As for whether the salt households chop firewood to cook salt or build ponds to dry salt,

These officials don't care.

It is obviously impossible to build such a large-scale salt-drying pond in a salt farm without official economic investment. This requires a considerable amount of manpower, material and financial resources to achieve, and those poor salt households do not have such resources.

Organizational ability. Even if private salt merchants with such financial resources are willing, they are powerless. After all, the salt farm is set up by the court, and salt merchants can only buy and sell salt. But if you want to build your own salt farm, you will definitely not get approval from the court.

Li Nai has even figured out that the reason why the Haihan people are so confident in showing themselves the entire salt production process is because they know that this set of things cannot be copied and implemented in other areas. In addition to secretly sighing that the Haihan people are so good at calculation.

, Li Nai also felt a deep sense of powerlessness - why can't I, Daming, do these seemingly uncomplicated things?
Chapter completed!