gnovel Chapter 139 Mobile Crime
Chapter 139 Mobile Crime
Zhou Datou, a salt worker in the eighth salt-making area of the Xiashachang quarry, had just gotten up when he pulled up his pants and dashed out.
His father, Zhou Baigang, returned carrying a bundle of firewood. Upon seeing the scene, he cursed, "Lazybones! You're only getting up now. The salt collectors will be here soon." Zhou Datou waved his hand and shouted, "I'll be back in a bit."
As he spoke, he had already darted to the outhouse behind the house, pulled down his pants, and started slapping himself.
A satisfied sigh rang out.
The only regret is that it eats too little and poops too little.
Thinking of this, Zhou Datou scanned his surroundings, his hungry, green eyes fixed on every corner, trying to see if there were any wild vegetables he had missed, or if there were any wild duck eggs in the reeds not far away.
But he quickly lost heart. Was it even possible?
The wild vegetables are long gone, and you guys keep catching wild ducks every day, who would dare lay eggs nearby? You might as well go check if there are any fish or shrimp in the nets you set last night, and satisfy your cravings a little.
"Hey bro, got any salt?" A voice suddenly came from behind.
Zhou Datou was startled and almost fell into the latrine, but the person who asked the question rushed over and pulled him back.
"Who...who are you?" Zhou Datou asked, both shocked and angry, while wiping his butt with a leaf.
The person who came was dressed in coarse brown linen clothes, straw sandals, and had a red cloth strip tied around his forehead.
His left hand was still resting on the hilt of his sword, and he seemed to be carrying a shield on his back. He looked intently at him and said, trying to speak in a gentle tone, "I come from Huzhou. Do you have any salt?"
Zhou Datou didn't answer, but quickly wiped his butt, pulled up his pants, and ran away.
Unexpectedly, two more people emerged from the grove ahead, each holding a long spear, and silently watched him.
He ran to his left, where Wu Heizi appeared, carrying a wooden club, and looked at him with what he thought was a friendly smile.
To everyone's surprise, Zhou Datou, as if he had seen a ghost, ran away again, only to bump into the arms of the first swordsman. He tried to struggle, but his arm was held tightly.
"Good sir, spare me!" Zhou Datou pleaded. "I have elderly parents to support and younger siblings to raise. The entire family depends on me. If I die, my whole family will starve. Please, I beg you!"
Wu Heizi walked over, grabbed Zhou Datou's arm, and said, "Gentle words are useless. You have to use force with this kind of scoundrel. Mengde isn't entirely right either."
"Yes, Uncle is right." The card player nodded.
"Huh? Why are you calling me when we're out and about?" Wu Heizi glared at him.
"Brother Crashing the Sky is right," the Swordsman corrected expressionlessly.
Wu Heizi felt like he had swallowed a fly; how could he have suddenly become a generation younger?
But now was not the time to dwell on that. He turned around and shouted, "Come on," and then, with his nephew on either side, he carried Zhou Datou into his yard.
The mottled adobe walls are pitted and uneven from the erosion of wind and rain.
The windows were in a terrible state, and no window paper was pasted on them.
A pig was grunting and groaning in its pen; it was thin and weak.
Two children stood by the vegetable patch, their faces covered in mud.
An elderly woman sat on the doorstep, the thin porridge in her bowl almost reflecting her face.
The man, who was over forty years old, was tidying up firewood when he saw this and instinctively bent down to pick up the wood-chopping knife.
"Brother, put down your knife. We're here to collect salt, we mean no harm," Wu Heizi said, releasing Zhou Datou's arm.
Zhou Datou struggled and darted back like a startled rabbit, shouting, "Father, they are not good people!"
"A salt buyer? Good." The man ignored his son completely, thought for a moment, and then nodded steadily.
"Father, you've never done this before."
"Shut up!" the man shouted, turning around. "I'm going to be a bailiff in a few days. Who will boil salt at home? Who will help me at the drying ground?" With that, he strode back into the house.
Wu Heizi leisurely surveyed his surroundings, thinking to himself that this family was truly poor.
He'd heard that salt producers were divided into upper-class and lower-class households, and some were very wealthy, but he didn't know how they'd become rich. Was it really possible to get rich just by sun-drying and boiling salt? Was it a legitimate way to make money? Did the government care?
The card player stood beside him, slightly behind by half a step.
Two sailors, one on the left and one on the right, stood apart, spears in hand, and peered furtively at the door.
Wu Heizi didn't care much. Actually, there was no need for such vigilance; this family looked poor and clearly wanted to sell salt, so why bother? However, Shao Ge'er had somehow acquired a handwritten copy of an ancient military treatise, which he frequently read and, along with various sudden inspirations, ultimately led to this rule. By the way, the book didn't sound like a military treatise at all; it was called *The Divine Mechanism for Enemy Enemy Tai Bai Yin Jing*, consisting of ten volumes. It seemed more like the work of Taoist priests dabbling in superstition, which puzzled him greatly.
While I was lost in thought, the man had already come out of the house, clutching a cloth bag in his hand.
Wu Heizi put down the wooden club, took out a burlap sack from behind his back, and opened it.
The man didn't waste any words and said, "It's twelve catties and eight ounces in total, that's all. The rest is for the steward."
"How about 150 coins per catty?" Wu Heizi looked at the salt, felt the quality was acceptable, and asked.
The man shook his head and said, "I don't care how much it costs per pound, I just need two strings of cash, it's useful."
Wu Heizi glanced at his nephew and asked, "How much does that cost per pound?"
"I don't know," my nephew said blankly. How could I possibly know how to calculate this?
"I told you to read more books, but you didn't listen." Wu Heizi took out a piece of paper from his pocket, looked down, and finally saw the two lines "twelve" and "thirteen", followed by "two thousand four hundred coins" and "two thousand six hundred coins" respectively.
Shao Ge'er allowed them to make their own decisions within 200 coins and provided them with a price list. 200 coins for 12 catties would cost 2,400 coins, and 13 catties would cost 2,600 coins. The other party only wanted 2,000 coins, which was within the price limit, so he immediately said, "Okay, I'll give you two strings."
After saying that, he took out two standard banknotes and handed them to the other person.
The man carefully put it away, his expression one of utmost reverence.
Wu Heizi took out a scale, roughly weighed it, and found it to be roughly accurate. He then poured the salt into his burlap sack.
The man with sharp eyes noticed that the sack was already half full.
"Do you have any salted fish? Freshly caught ones are fine too," Wu Heizi asked again.
The man shook his head.
Wu Heizi then said no more and said, "Let's go."
The four people left one by one, slowly disappearing beyond the fence.
Zhou Datou stared intently at them, his eyes filled with longing.
He simply couldn't continue the work of drying and boiling salt. He didn't have the patience, and he didn't want to spend his whole life boiling salt like his father, only to be unable to provide enough food for his family and instead live in a precarious situation where they were neither full nor starving.
He wanted to eat his fill, he really wanted to.
Wu Heizi spent most of the hour collecting in the village, and a sack was full.
The other two riflemen were also carrying bulging bags on their backs, which was quite a burden for them.
"Get back to the ship first," he ordered, waving his hand.
The group responded and arrived at a small river.
The two remaining seafarers came forward, took the salt bags, and put them into the cabin.
"Don't rush back to the big ship yet, let me pack up a bit more." Wu Heizi took a water jug from the cabin, took a couple of sips, and then instructed.
"Yes," the seafarer replied.
"Have you seen Wang Yiyi, uh, Shenxing Taibao and the others?" Wu Heizi asked again.
"Not yet," the seafarer said.
Wu Heizi nodded, and after resting for a while, he called the three of them to continue collecting salt.
Wang Huadu, the "Swift-Footed Protector" whom he was constantly talking about, had already sent salt back twice, and his enthusiasm remained undiminished.
Wu and Wang traveled to the various villages where the salt farmers lived until evening before they stopped.
The two small boats left the river branch one after the other and rowed out to sea.
On the sea, two ships were anchored, one on each side, several hundred paces apart.
The sea breeze was a bit strong and cold, but it couldn't extinguish the passion in everyone's hearts.
On the Pingjia boat, Yu Yuan loudly proclaimed, "Zhen Sanjiang (Liang Tai) has added 1000 jin of salt."
After about half an hour, he sang again: "Mengde has returned with 1460 catties of salt."
After each line was sung, a note was made in the ledger to ensure that everyone could hear and see it.
Just then, a small boat was sent over by the "Pingyi" ship to inform them of the amount of salt collected that day, so that it could be recorded in the accounts.
"The 'Swift Traveler' collected 980 catties of salt."
"850 jin of salt were harvested after the 'sky-collision' incident."
"A total of 4290 catties of salt were collected throughout the day, costing 725 strings and 10 cash."
After finishing the accounting, Yu Yuan rushed to Shao Shuyi's cabin and asked, "Brother Gongming, shall we move to another place?"
Shao Shuyi didn't answer, but instead looked at Kong Tie, Liang Tai, Gao Daqiang and the others, and asked, "Someone just said that the news didn't spread today, so not much salt was collected. More people will arrive tomorrow, and in a few days, even salt farmers from afar will bring their salt. What do you all think is the proper procedure?"
"Let's go somewhere else," Liang Tai said. "There are plenty of salt fields in western Zhejiang, including one in Jiaxing. I even know people there."
Kong Tie was silent for a moment, then said, "There's no need to stay here and take the risk."
Gao Daqiang was indifferent, only saying, "Staying here and waiting for others to deliver salt to our door is indeed comfortable. But we might end up with government troops—actually, it's not a big deal, there are only a few government troops."
Shao Shuyi didn't make a decision immediately, but instead said something that seemed irrelevant: "Sun Tzu's Art of War says, 'The skillful strategist brings the enemy to victory, not the other way around.' What is our advantage? We have boats! With a tailwind, we can travel over two hundred li in a night. Once the inspectors and saltworks managers hear the news, even if they walk, they won't be able to catch up. Therefore, we can freely choose where to buy salt, taking them by surprise. This is the essence of military strategy, and it has similarities to actual warfare. You should all think about it carefully."
Everyone fell into thought.
Liang Tai actually understood this principle. He looked at Shao Shuyi with admiration, not for his knowledge of military strategy, but for his ability to cultivate his subordinates' thinking skills by utilizing various aspects of life.
This incident should give everyone a deeper understanding of "playing to one's strengths and avoiding one's weaknesses" and "avoiding the real issues and attacking the weak ones," because a real-life example is right in front of us, which helps us understand better.
Shao Shuyi waited quietly. After everyone had thought it over, he stood up and said, "Raise the following flag, weigh anchor, and set sail south to Yuan's camp." "Yes, sir," everyone replied in unison.
The two ships then set sail in turn and arrived at Yuanbuchang that night. On the 25th, they collected more than 5,000 catties of salt.
That night, they left Songjiang Prefecture and entered the coastal area of Jiaxing Road. On the 26th, they collected another 4,000 catties of salt at Lulichang.
On the morning of the 27th, two ships appeared near Chepu and collected 3,000 catties of salt and more than 8,000 catties of fish at Baolangchang. However, they were discovered by the government, since this was indeed a large fishing port and a commercial port, as well as the ancestral home of the Chepu Yang family, a maritime family.
The two ships turned directly north and headed towards Hengpuchang and Pudongchang.
At this time, Saidianchi Tuohuanchaer (courtesy name Yanming), the Tongzhi of Liangzhe Transport Office who was on official business in Chepu City, also received the news and immediately led people to Baolangchang to check.