Chapter Twenty-Five: Salted Fish Rod

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  The current Xue family's thousand households, or the surrounding thirty miles or so, currently have very good public security. The scoundrels who committed crimes in the past were either dead without a corpse, or they were all honest and stayed at home to cook salt, or they worked hard to move around, hoping to have the opportunity to follow Li Meng together.

  Li Meng in Xue Jia's thousand households is already famous. This young man was said to have been a fool before, but suddenly became smart later on. Many people nearby have seen him, he is a very gentle and affable young man, his treatment of others is extremely courteous, and his speech is also very logical.

  The military household cannot participate in the imperial examination, so there are not many people who know characters. Everyone is a rough man. It's rare to have someone like Li Meng with a clear mind and a gentle temper. In short, it's rare to have a military household son who seems to be a scholar, and this person used to be an idiot.

  These are just rumors among the elderly and married people, but it's different in the rumors of young men. This Li Meng is said to be the reincarnation of Erlang Shen, brave and unmatched in martial arts, who once killed over a hundred salt smugglers with just a carrying pole, and those who followed him also gained some bravery. It's said that several honest young men from Xicun village each killed more than a dozen salt smugglers, using only bamboo poles.

  Folk legends are basically exaggerated, and this fact is deeply reflected in the rumors about Li Meng's deeds.

  Although the Ling Mountain Garrison has more than 5,000 households, only over 400 of them are engaged in military training, and the rest have been farmers for generations. However, as people who grew up under this military system, they may still have a fondness for battle deep down. These young men, especially the second and third sons who cannot inherit the household registration and military status, live in poverty but have boundless energy to spare. Following Erlang Shengjun, they fight against those salt-smuggling bandits that harm the common people - this is what it means to be a man.

  There's another reason, young people are reluctant to mention, following Li Meng together, every day can eat full, a few days apart there is meat to eat, it is said that "Second Master God" earns silver to buy food for everyone, following such a righteous and brave person, who would not yearn for.

  What's frustrating for these young people is that to follow Li Meng, even just to boil seawater and extract salt by the sea, there are several conditions that must be met. They must have someone who has followed Li Meng before vouch for them, they must be able to carry an 80-jin load to Fengmeng Town and back, they must get up from a prone position on the ground using only their hands twenty times without bending any part of their body, and there are some other strange requirements.

  If one's physical body is not strong enough, it would indeed be hard to hold on.

  Because of the harsh conditions, Li Meng now has only thirty-two salt transport teams and seventy-five salt cooking and collecting teams. These salt transporters are all young people who fully meet Li Meng's physical requirements, as well as the original seventeen people. The young people who cook and collect salt are somewhat below standard.

  These people were buying salt goods in various villages during the day, or drying and boiling salt by the sea. Only in the morning and evening, they were trained to death by Li Meng. Modern training for new recruits, all kinds of physical training were used by Li Meng. If there was anything different, it was just that there were more rough and violent beatings.

  Li Meng held a few bamboo sticks tied together with straw rope in his hand, and whoever made an unstandard move would be whipped away. Even Zhao Neng, Chen Liu Zi, Wang Hai, and other close friends were no exception. These military dependents were just slightly stronger farmers who had been lazy for a long time. Suddenly, they were subjected to such strict training, discipline, physical strength, and obedience, all of which were unbearable. However, in this era, it was difficult to find a place where one could eat a full meal, and Li Meng was already legendary in the Ling Mountain area. Although the training was unbearable, seeing the envious glances of those who couldn't join, seeing the silver money distributed to them after each salt sale, thinking about these two things, they could endure any hardship. After all, it wasn't as bitter as the lives of the people in Dengzhou City and Huang County, who were treated as "two-legged sheep" by Kong Youde.

  Now Ling Shan Wei has two thousand households, and there are also some scattered civilian households here. All those who rely on the sea to boil salt, these people's salt do not dare to sell elsewhere at this time, all of which are sold to Xue Jia Qian Hu Suo's Xi Cun, where they are given four silver coins, no arrears, no deductions.

  Li Meng can deliver about 50 loads of salt to Fengmeng Town every month, and the profit is only about 40-50 taels of silver. This silver is used to distribute dividends to the people below, as well as to provide various expenses, salt collection fees, and to buy grain for these young men to eat.

  Zhao Neng was a bit older and more thoughtful, so he did the math for Li Meng. The result was that they could save three or four taels of silver per month, which was already quite good considering the relatively good harvest and cheap grain prices. Spending so much money to raise over a hundred strong men would be too wasteful even if they were used to boil salt.

  Moreover, many of the tasks seem to be enough for a dozen or so people to do originally, what's the point of supporting so many people, every day's work, apart from boiling salt and drying salt, is just physically demanding, carrying bamboo poles horizontally.

  We're smuggling private salt, some martial arts for self-defense are right, but there's no need to train so desperately. The military households in the Wei prefecture know a thing or two about military affairs. When Commander Qi Jiguang trained his elite troops back then, they only had a grand exercise once every five days, and you're practicing every day!

  Zhao Neng had also advised Li Meng, but Li Meng just smiled and didn't respond, still insisting on his own approach. Zhao Neng stopped advising him because he believed that Li Meng must have thought things through more thoroughly than himself, and besides, they were making some silver and not losing money, so their lives were much better than before.

  As for other military households, they are too lazy to manage them. In a military household, only the eldest son can inherit the family business, and the second and third sons often have no place to settle down. The land is barren and yields little, and staying at home to eat idly always causes trouble. Being able to earn some small money outside and having a few meals to eat is a great thing.

  Li Meng and his family's salt farm is a distance from the village, with some slopes in between. From the village, it's easy to see the sea, but hard to spot Li Meng and his family, which also adds some concealment.

  Every day, Li Meng would take some of the less intense training from the troops and use it on these young people. The salt transport team made more money and ate better food, while the salt boiling team made less money and ate worse food. Those who didn't train well were sent to join the salt boiling team.

  Zhao Neng, Chen Liu Zi, and Wang Hai are considered to be quite spirited. They have always been among the best in transporting salt without falling behind. However, these young people are very puzzled, thinking that they are just smuggling private salt, why do they need to train so hard? Every day, holding a bamboo pole stupidly, facing forward, and the bamboo pole must be placed flat, cannot be tilted. Haven't heard that outsiders call us "salt poles"!!