Entry

The regulations for supplying salt in exchange for grain at the Teng-chong Command in Yun-nan were fixed. At this time, the Imperial army was being deployed to bring to surrender or eliminate the bandit Si Ji-fa. Jiao Hong, vice minister of the right in the Ministry of Revenue, had been ordered to go and prepare grain supplies in advance. Hong and others advised that the official stores in Teng-chong were extremely low and requested that merchants be called to provide grain in exchange for salt. They proposed that for salt from the Shang-liu and Jiu-jing wells in Si-chuan and the An-ning well in Yun-nan one yin of salt be provided for four dou of rice, that for salt from Zhe-dong/Zhe-xi and the Xian-quan well in Si-chuan, one yin of salt be provided for six dou of rice, while for salt from the Hei and Bai wells, one yin of salt be provided for five dou of rice. This was approved. Note: Other untranslated references to the kai-zhong (開中) salt-for-grain system as it functioned in Yun-nan can be found at: Ying-zong juan 179.3a-b and Ying-zong juan 179.6a.