Chapter 254: Gang Leader Smuggles Salt
Seeing Ding Gong yawning continuously, Hua Yue said, "Let's take a rest, as we can't help much if we wait here."
Zhao Yulin nodded, told Ding Gong to rest early, and then turned around and went back with Lao Cao.
In Jinghu's Xiangyang City, the female gang leader is getting anxious.
She has been worried about salt these past two days. Jiangdong cut off the supply of salt to the Shenwei Army's territory, and the first place affected was Xiangyang where she was.
Although Jingzhou was ahead of her, the prefect of Jingzhou and the surrounding counties were mostly former officials of the previous dynasty, and there was some connection between them. When he heard that Jiangdong was going to cut off the supply of salt, he immediately raised funds and managed to get through it.
Xiangyang is deep in the Han River and is surrounded by the Shenwei Army’s garrisons. By the time the female gang leader had to deal with the emergency, there was no salt available from the surrounding areas.
This made the female gang leader extremely anxious. She mobilized the garrison and the downstream forces to crack down on illegal hoarding and malicious panic buying. However, the people were in a panic and rushed to buy salt. Soon all the shops were empty and closed.
Qu Zhengxiang of Shunfeng immediately reported to Yang Xingyun of Xixia that the female gang leader was holding a dog-beating stick and pointing and cursing at people in the government office.
She quickly turned her curse on Zhao Yulin, muttering that he had given her clothes from a dead man, and that being a prefect was so difficult. She asked the elders of the Beggars' Sect to help her smuggle salt back from Jiangdong.
The gang leader was still worried, and Master Qu Zhengxiang ran over and shouted, "Mr. Prefect, General Meng has sent salt. General Meng has sent salt to Xiangyang."
The female gang leader was so excited that she flew to the hall, opened her eyes wide and asked, "Is it General Meng Gong? Do we really have salt?"
Qu Zhengxiang nodded excitedly and told her that Huangzhou had sent 50,000 kilograms of salt, so we have salt now.
The female leader immediately ordered everyone to make arrangements, limiting each household to one pound of salt, no, half a pound of salt. The female leader counted on her fingers and quickly made arrangements.
Soon, the salt-grabbing trend in Xiangyang subsided.
The gang leader was very curious and asked Master Qu why General Meng sent the salt over.
Master Qu told her that the Third Young Master had transferred 5 million strings of cash to Meng Gong's Jingzhou Army, but the Minister of History in Lin'an sent someone to ask Meng Gong for money, and told him to laugh at our Shenwei Army and cut off the Shenwei Army's salt route. Meng Gong was grateful for the Third Young Master's kindness and gave us the salt he had stored.
After the female gang leader knew the whole story, she sat down on the armchair and murmured that the people could not live without salt for every meal, so what should they do in the future?
Master Qu asked her: "Didn't the master read the newspaper?" The third young master said that we have plenty of salt. First of all, we should do our own thing well, ask the salt wells in the area to make a lot of salt, continue to crack down on hoarding , and limit the purchase of salt according to the master's wishes.
When our salt arrived , the third young master even asked for a price reduction.
The female gang leader said this in confusion, where is the salt?
Where is the white salt?
Seeing is believing, and the people accept this truth.
In the afternoon, Yang Xingyun's secret order arrived, telling them that the salt was still on the way. He had ordered the army's warehouse to be opened and all the military salt to be moved out without leaving a single grain for emergency use, first of all to ensure that the people had salt to eat.
This is an extremely risky decision. If there is no salt in the future, what combat effectiveness will the army have without salt to eat?
Qu Zhengxiang smiled and told her to believe the Third Young Master, we must have salt.
The female gang leader's spirit and energy returned, and she called on everyone to go out and package and sell the salt. She wanted to tell the people of Xiangyang in person that our Shenwei Army would use all the salt in the army's reserves to protect the people first, and a large amount of salt would be transported to Xiangyang later.
Zhao Yulin did not sleep well that night. After he entered the government office at dawn, Dongmei came to report to everyone. The investigation of the canal collapse yesterday made too much noise, and some ordinary people got the news that Changping Warehouse was in serious deficit and there was no salt in Chengdu. More and more people were lining up on the street to buy salt.
Zhao Yulin was sensitive to the fact that the panic buying trend would soon happen. Once it developed, it would quickly spread to the surrounding areas. He slammed the coffee table and said that he would immediately send a message to the army to mobilize all military salt to ensure the use of local people. He also sent a message to Gongzhou and Xiningzhou to increase the intensity and speed of salt transportation.
Dongmei immediately took the order and left.
Mr. Ding asked him worriedly, what if the army ran out of salt and the soldiers lost their combat effectiveness?
Zhao Yulin said with certainty: We have plenty of salt, and he would make Shi's son's efforts to draw water in vain.
He stood up and said he wanted to go out for a walk, then went straight to the inn without looking back.
Luzhou and Xuzhou were also attacked by Jiangdong earlier, but these places were close to salt-producing areas and had abundant storage, so the people soon returned to peace.
Zhao Yulin's fourth and second mother were in charge of the affairs of the Shenwei Army Cooperative. Seeing the salt-grabbing trend was coming in full force, they immediately went to Chen Chen's government office.
The young lady said worriedly that the Third Young Master must be in trouble in Chengdu.
Si Niang told her that there were still 100,000 kilograms of low-priced salt in the warehouse, which were purchased for emergency use when the salt wells were in high production. Otherwise, we can send it to Chengdu immediately and make some money by selling it at the market price.
Chen Chen had read Zhao Yulin's article in the newspaper and had always believed in Zhao Yulin. However, when she received the secret order from Chengdu to use military salt, she suspected that Zhao Yulin lied about having salt in order to calm the people.
She immediately ordered all the goods to be loaded onto the ship and shipped immediately to Chengdu.
In the afternoon, Si Niang was about to set off with the fleet, and Chen Chen went to the dock to see them off in person. At this time, a fleet came up from downstream, and a man on the bow shouted: Is this Miss? Mr. Chen asked me to deliver salt.
Chen Yun's Xuzhou was close to an artesian well, so he certainly had no shortage of salt. When he saw the rush to buy salt due to the salt shortage, he immediately thought of his good daughter and immediately organized the delivery of salt to Jiading.
Chen Chen then saw clearly that it was Yang Zhishan who came, and she immediately shouted: Uncle Yang, Uncle Yang, no need to dock, send it directly to Chengdu, Brother Yulin urgently needs salt.
Yang Zhishan bowed to Chen Chen at the bow and said goodbye, then followed Si Niang's fleet.
Not only Chen Chen and his team were on the move, but even the salt trader in Shimenzhai, south of Xinshi, was also on the move. The salt merchants had a keen sense of smell and knew that the supply had decreased after Jiangdong cut off the salt route to Shu, so business was coming. They all worked hard to make and sell salt.
In Chengdu, Zhao Yulin was completely depressed. He returned to the inn and lay down in the backyard to bask in the sun.
It was late spring, with grass growing and birds singing, and the fragrance of various flowers wafting in the air, but he was not in a good mood.
Seeing Xiao Yan coming back, he asked how to reply to Mrs. Cao?
The girl said she told her ladyship: My brother doesn't want the general to see him being anxious, so he wants to stay in the inn quietly.
Zhao Yulin was very satisfied with the girl's honest words. He waved to her and called her over. He pulled her neck down and kissed her on the face. The girl returned the kiss tenderly and looked at him lovingly.
He asked: Do you feel that your husband is a little depressed and decadent?
Xiao Yan reached out and touched his face and said, "Brother, you are very thoughtful." She was very happy.
Zhao Yulin put his arms around Xiao Yan's waist and fell asleep.
In the government office, Lao Cao saw Zhao Yulin leave without saying goodbye and knew that he was in a bad mood. He continued to discuss with Ding Gong and mobilized the garrison to maintain order on the streets, assigned all the officials in the government office to stabilize the market in sections, and urged the judicial inspectors to personally supervise the streets.
In the afternoon, they caught the first store that hoarded salt and drove up the price of salt. Shunfengchu investigated the case thoroughly and found farmers who were secretly operating outside the city. They also found pigeons and secret letters that were used to communicate with Lin'an in Jiangdong.
Xu Zhiyuan seized the clues and conducted a surprise interrogation. He used all the interrogation methods of the Imperial City Division to pry open the prisoner's mouth, dug out the hidden gangs in the Imperial City Division in the past, and successfully uncovered the channel through which the stolen secrets in Chengdu were transmitted to Lin'an.
Two days later, the salt ship from Jiading arrived and docked at the pier in a crowd. Dongmei was overjoyed when she saw it, and the onlookers were even more excited.
Dongmei immediately thought of a way to expand the propaganda effect and stabilize the people's hearts. She asked Zhang Guoan to use the military camp's cart to transport salt, and then went to a framing shop to ask the gentleman to write the word "salt" on large red paper and stick it on the pockets. A line of carts carrying salt slowly drove into the city.
Within one night, people in the streets and alleys knew that the salt from Jiading had arrived.
Everyone says that the salt from Ziliujing is tribute salt, and we can’t eat it all.
The next day, the momentum of people queuing up to buy salt in the city gradually slowed down.
Zhao Yulin went to the government office to discuss matters. The inspector reported that he had caught three merchants who were hoarding salt and driving up the price of salt. Lao Cao asked the chief judge to go to the death row and find a death row prisoner who pretended to be someone who bought a large amount of salt and execute him together with the others, in order to scare those cowards who were frantically rushing to buy salt.
This time Zhao Yulin did not object. In the old army, in order to force soldiers to go into battle and kill the enemy, they would find a few scapegoats to kill before the battle to boost military morale.
Mr. Ding said that the panic buying in the city has been suppressed for the time being, but the problem has not been solved and the shortage of salt still exists. What should we do?
Some people suggested compromising with the small Lin'an court in Jiangdong, and cited the principle of "people are more important than the emperor", proposing to make concessions and transfer taxes to Jiangdong to open up the salt route.
The dozens of people became louder and louder in their discussion, and finally they all turned their eyes towards the main table where Zhao Yulin was sitting.
He sat in a chair, drinking tea leisurely without saying a word.
Lao Cao became unhappy and slammed the table and said, "They haven't even started fighting yet, and you're all getting scared?"
Didn’t Commander Zhao say the day before yesterday that we have plenty of salt, so what are we afraid of?
Even if there is no salt in Chengdu for ten days or half a month, people will not starve to death.
Everyone shut up immediately.
After taking a sip of tea, Zhao Yulin began to speak. He said that the salt road in Jiangdong was cut off, causing a shortage of salt and triggering a rush to buy salt. The reason was that we did not transport taxes to Lin'an.
The problem is that it is difficult to tell whether the small court in Lin'an is genuine or not, and its status is yet to be determined. They want to use a piece of waste paper to take away 50 million strings of money from our Sichuan and Shu. Do you still think this business is worthwhile ?
The salt road to Jiangdong was cut off and salt was in short supply, but we had salt, so why couldn't we get things done?
The key point is that the grain transport officials were partial and corrupt, and they deserved to be killed for their incompetence.
Everyone held their breath when they heard his murderous words.
My god, the third young master wants to kill people as soon as he opens his mouth.
Zhao Yulin asked: Should those who replaced emergency salt with sand be killed?
If the emergency salt was still there, would the people be so panicked?
The grain transport is like the blood vessels of a country. If one vein is blocked, the whole body will be out of balance. This is why when salt ran out in Jiangdong, Chengdu went crazy to buy it.
