Chapter 425: Want to Earn It Yourself?
The Salt Inspector of Hedong Circuit had only just fallen asleep.
He was jolted awake by a servant's report that the guard captain from the salt village across the way requested an audience. Immediately, he straightened up, all traces of sleep vanishing.
Having held the position of Salt Inspector for a long time, he naturally knew that salt smugglers would sneak to the southern shore of Xie Lake in the dead of night to acquire salt.
Typically, they would slip the guards a small bribe to open the gates, then buy a few hundred catties of salt and flee.
But if a salt smuggler wanted to play a bigger game, the guards across the lake wouldn't dare handle it themselves. They would come to him. At such times, it wasn't about a few small coins anymore, but a substantial sum of money, a major operation.
So, when someone woke him in the middle of the night, it meant profit was at hand. It was hard not to be pleased.
The Salt Inspector threw on an outer robe and got up. Stepping into the outer chamber, the guard captain approached and presented a pouch.
The Salt Inspector knew from the weight alone it contained roughly two hundred taels of silver.
His heart instantly swelled with delight!
The guard captain murmured, "He wants all the salt from Feng Family Village."
"Oh!" The Salt Inspector smiled. "That's quite a gamble. This smuggler must be quite formidable."
The guard captain nodded. "It's an old acquaintance of ours, one you've met before: Tie Niaofei."
The Salt Inspector mused, "Tie Niaofei? I don't quite recall."
The guard captain said with a peculiar tone, "Just name your price."
The Salt Inspector exclaimed, "Ah, I remember now! It's that fellow. I recall his business wasn't all that substantial. Can he really swallow a whole village's worth of goods now?"
The guard captain replied, "Whether he can swallow it or not, I don't know, but he certainly gave two hundred taels of silver."
The Salt Inspector nodded. "Alright then, for the sake of these two hundred taels, I don't care what trouble he stirs up. Sell him all the salt from Feng Family Village. I'll report to my superiors that Feng Family Village suffered a fire and is currently rebuilding, so no salt can be submitted. That will settle it."
The guard captain responded, "Understood."
He said "understood" but didn't withdraw. Instead, he gazed expectantly at the Salt Inspector.
The Salt Inspector reached into the silver pouch, pulled out a few silver ingots, roughly fifty taels' worth, and tossed them into the guard captain's hand. "Distribute these taels among your brothers in Feng Family Village, and ensure no word of this gets out."
The guard captain was overjoyed. He quickly cradled the silver and retreated, then rowed a small boat back to Feng Family Village.
His round trip involved rowing eight *li* on the water, which indeed took up a considerable amount of time. By the time he met Tie Niaofei again, it was already past midnight. "Boss Tie," he announced, "the deal is done. The Salt Inspector has given his nod. All the salt from Feng Family Village is yours, but... you understand, those two hundred taels merely secured the right to buy the salt. To take it away, another payment is required."
Tie Niaofei laughed. "Name your price."
The guard captain held up two fingers. "Twenty coppers a catty."
Tie Niaofei declared, "Done! You can also tell the salt workers in the village to bring all the salt out. I'll pay an additional transportation fee for them to help me carry it to Puzhou."
Under normal circumstances, in a salt-producing area like Xie Lake, salt could be sold for as little as four coppers a catty. In non-producing areas, it would fetch around seven or eight coppers a catty.
But during years of severe drought and war, things were different. Even in producing areas, it could sell for twenty to thirty coppers a catty. In non-producing regions, it might even reach seventy or eighty coppers a catty. The prices had soared to absurd levels.
Tie Niaofei didn't care about the high price. After finalizing the deal with the guard captain, he immediately returned to the woods and called out to Xing Honglang. Xing Honglang's forty-two subordinates, along with Tie Niaofei's eighteen men, emerged from the forest and stood guard at the village entrance.
Soon, the guards organized the salt workers, who began to transport the contraband salt out of Feng Family Village, cart by cart. The two sides then negotiated the price for transporting the salt all the way to the Gudu Ferry in Puzhou. Happily, the salt workers pushed their carts and set off.
Xing Honglang's and Tie Niaofei's subordinates guarded the caravan.
Up to this point, it looked like any other illicit salt transaction.
The guards didn't think much of it. They waved with smiles as the caravan departed.
Once the salt caravan passed out of the sight of the officials...
Suddenly, hoofbeats echoed from the forest. Zao Ying, leading fifty cavalrymen and several dozen riderless horses, burst out with a rush.
This spectacle startled the salt workers transporting the goods.
However, the cavalrymen did nothing to them. Instead, they handed over the horses to Xing Honglang's and Tie Niaofei's men. The two groups swiftly mounted, transforming into "unordinary salt smugglers."
The salt workers watched these mounted, formidable-looking salt smugglers. They secretly wondered: *Boss Tie seems different today. He never had such a grand escort before. What's gotten into him?*
Just then, Xing Honglang addressed them directly. "Salt-worker brothers, the salt I bought from you today, how much of that money will actually end up in your pockets?"
The salt workers exchanged glances, then murmured, "Two coppers a catty."
Xing Honglang sneered, "I actually paid twenty coppers a catty."
The salt workers stared in stunned silence.
Xing Honglang chuckled. "The officials are exploiting you too severely. Would you be interested in bypassing the officials altogether? I'll buy directly from you, and I can offer ten coppers a catty."
Wasn't that obvious? Who wouldn't want their income to quintuple?
The salt workers replied in unison, "Of course we do!"
Xing Honglang said, "If you want to, it's simple. Do you have the courage to escape Feng Family Village, and dig a new salt pond where the officials can't see it? Then sell all the illicit salt you produce to me?"
Hearing this, the salt workers were bewildered. "But... how could we dare? If the officials discover us, it's a death sentence."
Xing Honglang scoffed, "Don't be afraid! Xie Lake is massive—over forty *li* long and four *li* wide. Find a secluded nook, a lakeside spot the officials won't see, and secretly dig a salt pond. As long as tall reeds conceal the pond, it won't be visible unless someone walks right up to it. Then, divert water into the pond and freely sun-dry salt. Every copper you earn will be entirely yours. Isn't that better than your current plight?"
A salt worker said, "If we do that, we'll all become undocumented."
Xing Honglang countered, "Don't you know what's happening outside? Shanxi is plagued by bandits. Half, maybe even six out of ten decent folk, have joined the rebels. They're all undocumented now. Who's afraid of that anymore?"
The salt workers considered this; it was true.
One salt worker offered, "It would be very difficult to secretly dig a salt pond right by Xie Lake without the officials noticing. However, to the west of Xie Lake, there's a pond called Xiao Lake. The salt it produces tastes slightly bitter, not as good as Xie Lake's salt, so the officials never bother with it. If we were to dig a private pond beside Xiao Lake, we wouldn't fear imperial inspections."
He gritted his teeth and continued, "If Boss Tie and this... Lady Boss are willing to guarantee my wretched life, then I dare escape Feng Family Village and become a refugee. I'll set up a shack by Xiao Lake and dig a private pond to make salt for you. I just worry that the bitter taste of the salt might displease you."
Xing Honglang grinned. *Gao Family Village needs salt mainly for alkali production. What does bitterness matter? It's not for human consumption anyway,* she chuckled. "Excellent! Let's do it by Xiao Lake."
Their declaration instilled courage in the other salt workers. Several more spoke up, saying, "We're willing to come too."
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