Chapter 7: Sense of Justice

  As they walked and talked, time seemed to pass quickly, and soon Li Meng and the others arrived at Fengmeng Town. Although it was called a town, it was just a few hundred households gathered together, and there were not as many people as in Xue's village. However, Fengmeng Town was located in a good position, being the intersection of land routes from Fushan, Mokou, Jiaozhou, and Lingshanwei. Moreover, Fengmeng Town was also situated beside a river, making transportation very convenient.

  People from all walks of life doing business are gathered here, either to exchange goods or take a short rest along the way. All in all, it can be said that there is a small prosperous scene.

  When they were still two miles away from the town, Li Meng and his group came out of the small road and onto the main road. At this time, there were many more people in sight. It was only then that Li Meng and his companions thought, what if they encountered an official or a salt inspector on this main road?

  Just as I was in a flurry, a young man standing by the road came up with a smile and said:

  "A few sirs, are you selling salt? Are you selling to the Wang family or the Lin family? Judging from your appearance, I suppose this is your first time here. Why don't I show you the way?"

  Li Meng still didn't know what was going on, but Zhao Neng let out a sigh of relief and said:

  "It turned out to be a salt collector, this Fengmeng Town should have no one checking."

  Zhao Neng had been conscripted to repair the city walls a few years ago and had seen some of the world. He explained to the crowd that when salt merchants who sold private salt went around collecting salt, many private salt producers wanted to sell their salt to them, but this was a risky business after all, and no one dared to come forward loudly.

  It would be better to hire some clever and agile people to walk around and watch out, if someone wants to sell salt, they will come forward to lead the way and chat, earning some small money. Upon hearing this, Li Meng suddenly understood that this was an intermediary, earning intermediary fees, which made things more convenient. He immediately spoke up and said:

  "Brother, how much hard-earned money do you want."

  That young man was taken aback, thinking that this person was too direct. Those who were involved in private salt production usually collected money after the transaction was completed, and they couldn't even ask openly. They would say "Please give a few coins for our livelihood", and if the customer refused to give any, they could only accept it. Who would have thought that this person would directly ask? Looking at Li Meng, although he was thin and tall, with some intimidating aura about him, he didn't dare say much, and simply answered honestly:

  "I dare not deceive your honor, ten cents..."

  Looking at Li Meng hesitating without speaking, this young man gritted his teeth and said again:

  "If you think it's too much, seven coins will also be fine."

  Who would have thought that Li Meng reached into his bosom and pulled out a string of cash, nearly fifty coins, and tossed it directly into the young man's hands, smiling as he spoke:

  "We came here for the first time and wanted a higher price, if the price is satisfactory, I will give you more money."

  This young fellow had never seen such a generous guest, with nearly fifty cents in his hand, and said that he would add more money later. The young man's enthusiasm suddenly rose, and his smile became much more sincere. He patted his chest and said:

  "Don't worry, gentlemen, I'm Hou Shan from Fengmeng Town and I have a reputation to uphold. I'll make sure you get a good price for this salt!"

  As they spoke, he walked up to Li Meng's car and said with a smile:

  "Open the salt bag and take a look at the goods before discussing the price."

  Hehe, just about to open the salt package, but as he leaned in, he saw a waist knife pressed under the salt package. Private salt traders and salt bandits were all fugitives, having a blade was not unusual, but these twelve small private salt traders also had such good weapons, which seemed quite unusual. However, thinking of Li Meng's promised conditions, his heart still burned with excitement.

  As soon as the salt bag was opened, Hou Shan reached in and rummaged through it a few times, looking very puzzled. He opened the mouth of the grass bag wider and dug in again, taking out something to examine closely. At this point, all the soldiers put down their things and gathered around, thinking that there must be some problem.

  "Sir, is all your salt of this quality?"

  Li Meng was somewhat perplexed, stretched his neck to take a look, and the salt grains didn't seem to have anything unusual about them. He nodded along, but then Hou Shan's next sentence made him almost fall over:

  "Sir, you don't even have a bit of sand mixed in!!?"

  And what's more, the title of this mountain is getting more and more polite, but the content of this word is really laughable, it seems that adding sand to the road is the normal way.

  Next, Hou Shan led Li Meng and the others towards the center of the town with great confidence. Generally speaking, those who act as intermediaries are eloquent and have a silver tongue, whether in ancient or modern times. Even in the Ming Dynasty over 400 years ago, an intermediary in a small town was not ambiguous.

  It turned out that Fangmeng Town had been collecting salt from private salt merchants here for a long time, but they only came once or twice a year in the spring and autumn seasons. It was about six years ago when Fangmeng Town started to have salt merchants who lived here for a long time to collect private salt, which sounded like the accent of western Shandong province and southern Shandong province.

  It is said that Shandong's salt administration has always been a difficult task. The salt produced in the salt fields was not popular among buyers, because to the north there was the Changlu Salt Field of Northern Zhili, and to the south there was the Huai Salt Field, which was known as the best in the world. Both official and private salt from these two regions were sold all over the country, leaving the Shandong Salt Field with no good days.

  Normally, no salt merchant is willing to sell salt in these Shandong salt fields as there are usually no sales channels. These private salt merchants have come to Mengkou Town to collect salt, and it's considered good that someone is buying salt. The salt fields in the south of Laizhou and the small households along the coast who boil and dry sea salt all sell their salt here. Although some people with insight say that the purchase price is much lower than elsewhere, for these people from Laizhou, being able to sell is already not bad.

  Moreover, Li Meng and others also learned that the so-called official salt of Ling Mountain Salt Field was also sold to Pingmeng Town, and the person in charge was Mou Xun Jian. Of course, Mou Xun Jian himself was the largest salt smuggler in Laizhou Prefecture.

  After saying so much, Li Meng finally understood that the Ling Shan salt farm was a government-run enterprise with chaotic management and no production at all. It relied entirely on collecting salt from military households like Li Meng's who boiled seawater to produce salt, then mixed it with sand before selling it in Fengmeng Town.

  It's no wonder that the corrupt officials and their underlings were so enthusiastic about investigating these private salt sellers, and it's no wonder that the privately sold salt in the market wasn't being cracked down on as strictly. It turns out there was a reason for this.

  Think about the patrol inspection and salt control under Li Meng's command, bullying the weak, women, to be strict, almost a group of bandits who burn, kill and loot, beasts!!

  Most of the military households in Xue's thousand-household battalion can only fill their bellies on ordinary days, but they still have to be oppressed by people like Mou Xun and others who exploit them to the bone.

  Thinking of this, the guilty feeling of killing for the first time suddenly disappeared a lot, and it was almost imperceptible.

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  New book uploaded, requesting everyone's recommendation and collection support, speeding up tomorrow, updating one chapter at zero o'clock.