Chapter 9

Deep night!

In the Zhang family compound, 99% of the people were asleep.

Zhu Zilong, however, was wide awake in his room.

Not only was he not sleeping, but before returning to his room, he had asked a servant to bring in a small bucket of hot water.

This was naturally not for bathing, as there wasn't much water.

He was using the hot water to prepare instant noodles from Master Kang and Uni-President as a midnight snack. These were modern instant noodles he had brought from the 21st century, in a five-pack.

It had been about a week since he arrived in the Ming Dynasty. Without electricity, the internet, or television, the environment was vastly different. Even the food was incredibly bland.

First, let's talk about salt in the Ming Dynasty. Not only was it extremely expensive, but it also had a bitter taste.

According to the "Salt Administration Records" of the Ming Dynasty, "At the beginning of the Jiajing era, in the regions of Huguang, Jiangxi, and Nanjing, one pound of salt sold for 3 to 4 silver coins. By the 7th and 8th years of the Jiajing era, one pound of salt in Huguang and Jiangxi sold for 1.5 silver coins, and in Nanjing, it sold for 1.2 silver coins."

If you didn't understand that, it's fine. Just know that in the mid to late Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver was roughly equivalent to 300 RMB.

Let's do the conversion, and you'll understand.

In other words, one pound of salt in the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to about 100 RMB in modern times, or even more. After all, the situation in the country was becoming increasingly chaotic!

Look, 100 RMB per pound of salt! If the salt in 21st-century China were this expensive, people would probably storm the government gates. Life for the common people in ancient times was truly hard, sigh!

Moreover, the salt in ancient times was of low quality. This wasn't just a rip-off; it was a rip-off to the level of betraying one's ancestors!

Think about it, in modern 21st-century China, a pack of salt in the supermarket costs about 2 to 3 RMB and is of high quality. The factory price is even cheaper. Compared to the salt in the Ming Dynasty, don't you suddenly feel like shouting "Long live socialism! Long live the People's Republic of China!"?

Anyway, the food served to Zhu Zilong by the Zhang family, aside from being green and pollution-free, was not very good. The salt used in the dishes and the cooking methods were simply unbearable for a modern person.

Zhu Zilong felt that this was the standard of living for a landlord?

Is this the taste of the food they usually eat? Are you really not just messing with me? Therefore, these past few days, Zhu Zilong mainly focused on drinking and eating.

Now, he couldn't take it anymore and decided to eat instant noodles.

(To be fair, sea salt was divided into three grades: high, medium, and low. The high-grade salt mentioned above was for the elite. The common people ate low-grade salt with more impurities, but even compared to 21st-century prices, it was still extremely expensive.)

While waiting for the instant noodles to cook, Zhu Zilong fell into deep thought.

He remembered reading in various novels and news articles that in ancient times, each dynasty strictly regulated the sale of salt, iron, and tea, making private sales a capital offense.

At the time, Zhu Zilong didn't fully understand why.

Now, back in the Ming Dynasty, he understood completely. If he were the emperor, or even a half-emperor with a doppelgänger, he would also monopolize the salt trade.

Salt is essential for human health.

The human body is two-thirds water. A 70-kilogram person has about 46 kilograms of water, containing 375 grams of salt.

Sodium ions in salt are essential for transmitting information in the nervous system, muscle contraction, and heartbeats. Without salt, the nervous system becomes weak, and one feels listless and more prone to illness.

Salt also helps maintain the pH balance necessary for the proper function of gastric enzymes, the balance of the body's pH, and the normal circulation of bodily fluids.

From this perspective, salt is almost as important as food.

In ancient times, the production of salt was limited, making it extremely expensive and highly profitable, almost comparable to the profits from drug trafficking.

Even in modern times, with salt being so cheap, people still smuggle it. How much more so in ancient times?

Such high profits, even at the risk of death, would still attract smugglers. In the mid to late Ming Dynasty, capitalism was already taking shape, and for the emerging capitalists, profit was life!

Especially for sea salt, which was abundant and required mainly labor and time. The cost was negligible, and the profit was high enough to motivate people to smuggle and defy the authorities.

With the collusion of officials and merchants, the officials and Donglin Party members secretly took kickbacks, and private salt smuggling became rampant in the late Ming Dynasty, impossible to stop. In some places, it was even done openly!

Thinking about this, Zhu Zilong sighed heavily.

To be honest, there were many reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty, but the most important one was the lack of funds in the national treasury!

It is said that the official salt tax in a few provinces was underreported and falsified, causing the court to lose over ten million taels of silver annually. This doesn't even include the income from private salt smuggling!

The literati told the emperor that the Son of Heaven should not compete with the people for profit, but that was nonsense.

According to historical records, the annual tax revenue in the late Ming Dynasty was only a few million taels of silver, while the state's expenditures were nearly ten million taels, clearly exceeding the income. However, the country's money did not flow out significantly. So where did the money go?

Well, for modern people, it's obvious even if they think about it with their butts.

However, the emperors of the late Ming Dynasty clearly didn't understand.

(Wanli Emperor didn't attend court for decades, maintaining a low profile while secretly managing affairs. His eldest son, who was not favored by Wanli, fought for the throne for decades but ultimately failed. The Prince of Fuguo never became the crown prince, and the true crown prince, Wanli's eldest son, was delayed in his development. The grandson, Emperor Tianqi, became semi-illiterate, which was a huge disappointment!)

Knowledge changes destiny and broadens horizons.

In modern times, even a university graduate from a key university would lack the confidence to manage a country after graduation.

Emperor Tianqi, who started managing a vast empire at the age of 15 or 16 and was semi-illiterate, was a disaster for the Zhu family!

Before his death, Emperor Tianqi, in a panic, chose a successor who was stubborn and had a narrow perspective, Emperor Chongzhen. It's no wonder the Ming Dynasty didn't fall!

Zhu Zilong became increasingly angry the more he thought about it. He was so depressed that even the instant noodles lost their appeal.

He hastily finished the instant noodles in a few large bites, checked his travel bag, and wondered why he couldn't see his laptop.

Slap!

He slapped his forehead, remembering. Before coming here, for safety, he had hidden the laptop and some valuable items in a cave, following the principle of "a cunning rabbit has three dens."

Now that he was in the Ming Dynasty, he wanted to carefully review the records, movies, and documents on the laptop.

For Zhu Zilong, who had recently lived in 2020 and was a fan of novels and a jack-of-all-trades, it was completely normal to store some favorite materials and images (like photos of women in stockings) and videos (including adult films, ha ha) on his laptop.

The laptop also contained many documents related to the Ming Dynasty, which would be useful for refreshing his memory.

Thinking about this, Zhu Zilong decided to sneak out under the cover of night to retrieve the hidden laptop.