Three days later.
Xie Sanbin "sold" the Fuzhou salt fields in Liaodong to the merchants of Lianghuai for the high price of 1.5 million taels of silver.
I use quotation marks for "sold" because it was not a true sale. Rather, it was a lease for a fixed period. In other words, the salt fields were contracted out to the salt merchants. Once the term expired, the management rights of the salt fields would revert to the Imperial Court. This was a special product of a special time, and Xie Sanbin saw the matter through despite facing impeachment and infamy.
Chapter 1237