Chapter Sixteen Seventeen People

  Rushing to the top of the chart, urgently needs everyone's support, asking for recommendations, collections, and comments, Old Bai thanks everyone.

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  It sounded like Wang Hai's voice, so Li Meng moved the waist knife by the door and walked out. After going out, he was stunned to see more than a dozen people standing outside the broken door that could be pushed open with one push. There were those who had gone to smuggle salt, as well as those who hadn't gone. Zhao Neng, Chen Liu Zi, and Wang Hai stood at the front.

  Li Meng couldn't help but burst out laughing and said loudly:

  "What are you all standing outside for? Come in! This broken door can be opened with just a push, have you all lost your strength?"

  It's not a funny joke, but these people outside are all laughing, and with this permission, Zhao Neng leads the way in.

  Li Meng's courtyard was not large, and with so many people coming in all at once, it suddenly seemed a bit crowded. Li Meng felt puzzled and asked:

  "Brother Zhao, what brings you here?"

  Zhao was embarrassed and smiled awkwardly, hesitating without speaking up, but Chen Liu Zi spoke first, saying hastily:

  "Brother Li, last time we went to smuggle salt, we made a fortune. When we got back home, my mother was overjoyed. I thought to myself that we should do this kind of good business several more times. But the salt tax inspectors are really troublesome. Brother Li is a man with ideas and responsibility, let's all think about how to get Brother Li to take charge."

  These people around him chimed in one after another, making a racket, but they all meant the same thing:

  "My dad saw the money and his hands were shaking at the time."

  "My dad and mom were eating the pork I bought for them at night, both of them shed tears, it's really..."

  Everyone talked endlessly until finally it all boiled down to one sentence:

  "Brother Li, you take charge and lead everyone to sell salt and get rich!"

  After all, it was Li Meng's idea to go to Fengmeng Town to sell salt for the first time. Li Meng looked at the dozen or so young people around him who were excited and thought that he had originally intended to persuade them, but now they had come to him of their own accord, saving him the trouble.

  Li Meng burst out laughing and said in a loud voice:

  "We all want to live a good life. Everyone has taken care of me, Li Meng, for over 20 years, and it's time for me to repay everyone's kindness."

  As soon as he said this, the atmosphere relaxed a bit, and everyone burst out laughing along with him. Li Meng continued to say:

  "This business isn't about getting money easily, the risk is not small, you all are from good families and should think carefully."

  Although people in this era get married early, the men in Weisuo are so poor that they can't even afford to get married. The ones who come to the hospital are all single. When Li Meng said those words, Zhao Neng opened his mouth, he and Li Meng have a close relationship, they can talk freely. He walked over and patted Li Meng's shoulder, smiling and saying:

  "This risk, all brothers know, it's just that Li Meng you lead everyone to do it, and follow you everyone is at ease!"

  Li Meng suddenly discovered that, without knowing when, everyone was treating him with the attitude of a leader. In the past, this attitude was always reserved for Zhao Neng. Recognizing this situation and seeing the eager expressions around him, Li Meng's heart also felt at ease. He then spoke out loud:

  "Believe me, brothers, I, Li Meng, won't decline, but when we all work together, we still need to establish some rules."

  Everyone's attitude towards Li Meng has changed from trust to awe, the previous incident of beating and killing Yan Ding had already shocked everyone, and regarding the murder of Mou Xun in Jiaozhou City, everyone had a faint suspicion. Thinking of this point, they felt even more chilled, looking at the silver they earned, thinking about what Li Meng did, everyone thought that following Li Meng would not suffer losses, but also could not disobey him, this person was too powerful and formidable.

  Mou Xun Jian of Jiao Zhou was killed at home after being robbed and murdered by a group of thugs, but the government hastily closed the case.

  The death of a ninth-grade official is nothing, but the death of Mu Yanwang is a small matter. However, who will take over the position of patrol officer is a big deal. Although this position is called the Jiaozhou Patrol Inspector, it actually governs more than half of Laizhou Prefecture. Moreover, above him, there is only one superior official, the Salt Transport Commissioner in Jinan Prefecture. At that time, he can gather hundreds of rascals and scoundrels, set up checkpoints to search for private salt, and then sell it himself on a large scale. With money and power, he can dominate the region, which is indeed a lucrative position!

  As soon as there is a vacancy here, someone will go to the Jinan Prefecture to lobby the Salt Control Office, wanting to take down this fat vacancy. However, although this is just a small inspector position, the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, the Governor, and the Ministry of Revenue all have the right to participate in the decision-making process, which also involves various aspects of the game.

  Although Shandong's salt administration is not as profitable as Lianghuai or North Zhili, it is still a lucrative position and not an easy decision to make. However, this year has been particularly eventful, with various government agencies in Shandong busy suppressing the rebellion of Kong Youde in Dengzhou, mobilizing grain, fodder, and silver for the armies, while the imperial court in Beijing is preoccupied with responding to the civilian uprising in Shaanxi and the threat from the Tatars beyond the Great Wall. This minor matter will have to be put off, but as the saying goes, "those above have policies, those below have countermeasures," a tradition that has been passed down for centuries in officialdom.

  In Shandong, the salt transporters were left to their own devices as long as they handed over silver to the patrol officers of Jiaozhou on a regular basis. This was equivalent to giving those salt workers the power to act on their own. Almost as soon as the order reached Jiaozhou, the salt workers under the patrol officers immediately split into more than ten factions, with varying numbers and strengths. Don't expect these rascals to accomplish anything; they were just a bunch of loose sand. These people went around searching for private salt and extorting money from each other, but it was all just endless infighting. The land of Jiaozhou was thrown into chaos once again.

  However, these salt-control dogs are running wild everywhere, but there is one place that they never go to check, which is Fengmeng Town. The salt merchants here openly purchase private salt from various places in Jiaozhou and Linhai, and then transport it out of Jiaozhou by boat. This is the biggest private salt offender.

  However, the salt smugglers of the Patrol and Inspection Office, big or small, are all private salt merchants. If they were to crack down on this place in Fengmeng Town, who would they sell the salt in their hands to? They couldn't cut off their own source of wealth.

  In the fifth year of Chongzhen, on June 21st, there were seventeen people gathered in Li Meng's broken courtyard, and they made a plan to sell private salt to improve their lives.

  Li Meng, through selling private salt in Fengmeng Town, killing Salt Ding and the vague speculation about Mu Xun's death cause, had established his leading position within this small group from the very beginning. In written language, he could also be considered a small-time salt smuggler.

  Since it was settled, they would do it immediately. On June 22nd, Zhao Neng and Chen Liu Zi dispersed to nearby coastal villages to spread the news, of course through channels of relatives and friends, saying that a basket of salt would be exchanged for three and a half taels of silver, with no delay or deduction.

  The entire northern part of the Ling Shan Wei Suo consists of these thousand-household and hundred-household units, half of which are coastal. Most of them boil seawater to make salt to supplement their household expenses. Their salt is generally sold to the Ling Shan Salt Yard, where they only get three cents in silver per dan (unit of weight), and they also have to curry favor with the salt collectors and endure delayed payment and shortchanging.

  I heard that San Qian Wu Yinzi acquired it, and it was introduced by the military household son of Ben Wei Suo. It's quite impressive, but during the previous inspection, almost all the remaining salt goods were either confiscated or destroyed out of fear. If production were to start again, each household's scattered manual operations would not yield much, and now with more fog and rain, it would further affect production. Although the news was released, by July, only a dozen or so bags of salt were received, all paid for by Li Meng. This can also be explained as the silver money confiscated from the salt workers during that inspection.