When I was in Qin Dynasty, I lost contact with the wave

Chapter 674: A distinguished guest from the grassland, Luandi Maodun

After conquering Yanze, Zhang Ji did not choose to transport the salt back to Yanmen Pass, but poured it all into the Yanze, leaving no trace for the Donghu.

The Qin State had no shortage of salt.

In recent years, the Qin State has conquered quite a few saltwater lakes, and many areas have dug salt wells one after another thanks to the help of Mohists and geomancers.

In the land of Bashu, there is brine. People dig wells to get water and boil the brine to make salt.

This is the record of salt wells in the Bashu area in ancient books. After the Qin State conquered Bashu, the Shu County Governor Li Bing and his son not only built water conservancy projects and roads and bridges on a large scale, but more importantly, they pioneered the method of digging salt wells and mining the brine underground.

In addition, Zhang Ji had used the method of boiling salt and crystallizing it to make refined salt a few years ago when he had nothing to do.

In fact, the evaporation and crystallization method used in experiments in junior high and high schools in later generations is not sufficient to produce real refined salt.

The tiny transparent salt grains look like refined salt, but they are actually still bitter and hard to swallow. The bitter taste comes from the presence of calcium and magnesium ions.

To remove these calcium and magnesium ions, wood ash is needed.

Adding wood ash to boiled brine can filter out the calcium and magnesium ions. The refined salt obtained in this way is crystal clear and has no bitter taste. Although it still contains many ingredients that are only found in industrial salt in later generations, it is already far superior to the refined salt of later generations for thousands of years. It is not comparable to the table salt of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which only met the refined salt standards in appearance.

Wood ash is not a difficult thing to find, so after Zhang Ji proposed the method of making refined salt, Ma Xing, the Minister of Grain, almost kowtowed to Zhang Ji on the spot.

As the Minister of Grain, he was well aware of the huge profits from salt. Why did other countries punish those who smuggled salt by beheading at the very least, or even exterminating the entire family at the worst, yet there were still countless salt smugglers?
The profit of this thing is too high!
Especially for the three coastal countries of Qi, Chu and Yan, it is not difficult to produce salt with the sea, and the profits are more than a hundred times!
However, this refined salt without any bitterness could not be produced by private salt dealers or other countries, so refined salt became a specialty of Qin.

However, the price of refined salt is ridiculously high.

A stone of refined salt could be sold for 20,000 coins in Qin State, while a stone of gold could be exchanged for about 40,000 coins, which means that the price of refined salt was nearly half of the value of gold, a high-value currency. If refined salt was sold to other countries, it could be sold for 50,000 or even 60,000 coins per stone.

The common people had no right to even think about refined salt, and they were not even qualified to buy it. Even the most extravagant nobles might not be able to afford it, and even if they could, they could only buy a little.

Of course, the customers that Qin wanted to exploit were precisely the top nobles and wealthy families in the world, just like the various kinds of precious paper that had just come out.

Although a stone of refined salt is expensive, it is enough for an adult man to eat for twenty years.

What? You don't buy it?
It's okay! If you are not decent, someone will help you to be decent.

Zhang Ji generously and directly used several stones of refined salt as a reward, and invited many of the world's recognized nobles and wealthy families to help him start a public opinion war with no winner, making these nobles and wealthy families vaguely reveal to the outside world that "those who do not eat refined salt are not worthy of being called nobles and wealthy families."

This sentence instantly ignited the fire in the hearts of the nobles and wealthy families in the world. They were not fighting for bread, but for their reputation. It was too shameful to be deprived of the title of nobles and wealthy families because of refined salt.

This is an open conspiracy. Although most of the nobles and wealthy families were very rational in the early stage and even agreed to join hands to boycott refined salt, there were many conflicts and hatreds among the nobles and wealthy families. Other families had it but they didn't, and the other party came to show off. How could this be tolerated? For the sake of face, those nobles and wealthy families had to jump into the consumption trap even though they knew it was a trap.

Thanks to the generosity of these nobles and wealthy families, the Qin State was able to quickly recover its national strength after every war, and had the spare capacity to build and develop frontier areas such as Zhao and Dai.

Therefore, the Qin State really looked down upon this crude and inferior salt.

At the same time, Zhang Ji was really targeting the Donghu.

When it comes to breaking up the alliance, Qin is number one and no one dares to say they are second.

Didn't Qin State repeatedly break up the coalition forces by defeating them one by one?
The Donghu was the first target chosen by Zhang Ji to be defeated one by one!
Among the three overlords on the grassland, the strongest was Donghu, followed by Yuezhi, and Xiongnu was the weakest. Donghu had always wanted to annex Yuezhi and Xiongnu to unify the grassland, so Yuezhi and Xiongnu formed an alliance, and Xiongnu Chanyu Touman sent Crown Prince Maodun to Yuezhi as a hostage, maintaining a relative balance between the three overlords on the grassland.

Logically speaking, when defeating them one by one, the weakest one should be chosen as the target. However, Zhang Ji rejected the opinions of many people and asserted that the Donghu, who was apparently the strongest, was just a paper tiger.

Today's Donghu still maintains the old system of the grassland, which is just a loose tribal alliance system. The tribal leaders of each tribe divide the country. The King of Donghu is the king in name, but in fact he is just the head of many Donghu tribes.

My vassal's vassal is not my vassal, that's it.

In stark contrast, the Xiongnu, as the first Khan of the Xiongnu, Touman, followed the example of the Zhou emperor and called himself "Chengligutu Khan", meaning "Son of the Eternal Heaven". He established his prestige with his bravery and religious beliefs, and gradually concentrated the power of various tribes around him.

Although it was only a preliminary implementation, the power that Touman could directly mobilize as the Chanyu was actually greater than the power that the King of Donghu could directly dispatch. The King of Yuezhi was inspired by Touman and imitated him, but the larger the family and the more powerful the business, the more difficult it was to change. However, doing it is better than not doing it.

The fuse that finally made Zhang Ji determined to defeat the Donghu one by one was ignited by a guest from the grassland.

In the Qin Army's tent
Zhang Ji received a special guest. Unlike the grassland men of that era, this man was tall and strong, with messy long hair draped over his shoulders. His not-so-handsome face revealed a hint of ferocity and domineering.

Zhang Ji narrowed his eyes slightly, stared at it, and his left fist unconsciously clenched slightly.

Although Zhang Yi did not pass down his martial arts skills, he still passed on the Guiguzi's physiognomy to later generations. Anyone who knows something about physiognomy would see this kind of face... protruding brow bones, three white eyes, pointed mouth, eagle-like nose... If they meet such a person, they would kill him. They would never wrongly accuse him. At most, they would say that he has not done anything evil yet.

People who possess all of these facial features are deep-minded, vicious, greedy, mean, ungrateful, and fierce. Zhang Ji did not immediately order the guards to chop this man into meat sauce, which really shows that he has mastered the art of cultivating his qi.

Especially after thinking about this person’s remarkable “results” in the future!
"You really have given me a great gift." Zhang Ji read it roughly and looked at the young man in front of him. "It is impolite not to return the favor. So, Prince Maodun, how do you need me to return the favor?"

This guest from the grassland who entered the Qin army's tent alone was none other than the greedy and treacherous Huns' second-generation Khan, Luandi Maodun, who almost completed most of the centralization process and dominated the grassland!

(End of this chapter)