Chapter Nineteen Begins

  During the rush to the top of the charts, thanks for the recommendations and comments, also, I got up late today, thank you everyone.

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  Hou Shan's mind was quick and nimble, but at this moment he seemed a bit distracted. As a mediator, he needed to have some insight, and naturally, he could tell that the people who came with Li Meng this time were the same group as before, but they seemed different from before, with an air of urgency emanating from them. Li Meng was even more unusual. In Hou Shan's experience, only officials had such an aura and demeanor, but those officials didn't have Li Meng's affability.

  These people are not simple, and Li Meng is not an ordinary person. Hou Shan has this view, after making up his mind to be accommodating and fawn on them carefully, he will never go wrong.

  Li Menglian asked twice before he reacted and hurriedly smiled and replied:

  "The salt workers of Xun Jian Si are one group, the Ling Shan Salt Field is another, and the coastal villages are also a group, it's these people who come to sell."

  "Who sells the most?"

  "The most abundant salt is from Lingshan Salt Field, and the total amount from each village is not small either. However, they are all individual households, with one person pushing a cart or carrying a pole to deliver, and they can't sell for a good price. They just make some money for oil and salt. The salt workers set up checkpoints everywhere to send the seized private salt for sale. There are also several powerful forces that have joined forces with the salt field. To be honest, it's really your family's salt production that is the largest in quantity and best in quality."

  Hearing this, Li Meng's heart moved and he smiled and asked:

  "Is the price given by Wangjia Salt Store also high?"

  As they spoke, he grasped the waist knife in his hand. When this question was asked, Hou Shan first smiled and nodded, then shivered and stiffly turned his head to look at Li Meng's expression, which seemed to be smiling but not quite. He looked at the waist knife placed on one side. Salt merchants were all bold and desperate, and although Li Meng had always been polite and gentle, Hou Shan felt that there was something more frightening about him. Seeing Li Meng's hand on the waist knife, Hou Shan could no longer maintain his composure and knelt down with a thud, begging:

  "Yan Cang gave me two taels of silver, but I was blinded by the pork fat and didn't realize it until now. Mr. Li, you...you..."

  As Li Meng held the knife in his hand, Hou Shan's body turned icy cold and he was so frightened that he could hardly speak, but he didn't expect Li Meng to tie the knife behind his back and stare at him with a smile:

  "I'll let you earn this money, but there's a condition."

  Hou Shan felt like he had escaped from death at this moment, and as for what Li Meng said, there was no reason not to agree. He nodded silently, almost swearing an oath.

  "Help me gather some information..."

  However, Li Meng did not notice that Hou Shan suddenly knelt down on this side, and many people had already noticed.

  Today's salt smuggling went very smoothly, everyone was in high spirits and strolled around Fengmeng Town for a while. On the way back, there were no signs of anyone, it can be said that it was a smooth journey all the way.

  At the village entrance, they agreed to go to Li Meng's house again tomorrow at the same time to move salt. Just as they were about to disperse, Li Meng called out to everyone and said loudly:

  "Tomorrow, everyone must not forget this bamboo, and there is one more thing, selling salt also requires capital, my brother's money for this month has been spent almost, let's still order a share, the money earned later can be distributed well, dear brothers calculate clearly, what do you think?"

  When this was said, everyone present felt somewhat embarrassed. Li Meng thought to himself that perhaps he had made his point too clear, and as a result, no one dared to speak up for fear of losing face. It wasn't until after a long while that someone finally spoke up in a soft voice:

  "This isn't all Li Dage's business, is it? We're all just following Li Dage to make some money and spend it, what's the point of talking about shares!"

  As soon as someone opened their mouth, others chimed in with all sorts of opinions. It turned out that the reason for their previous silence was this. Li Meng put his heart at ease and laughed loudly, saying:

  "Li Menggan's lawless behavior is all for the sake of everyone having a better life. If I were to get rich alone and have you all work hard for me, how could I live with myself?"

  The key to the problem is that these poor people in Xue's thousand households, young men who can't even afford to marry a wife, often go hungry, who still has spare money to join this faction? Many people's money in hand is just the few hundred copper coins earned from selling salt in Měngtūn Town today, but Li Meng insists on doing so.

  This kind of investment thing would never be owed first, and in the end, Li Meng took out eight taels of silver, Zhao Neng and Chen Liu each contributed one tael, Wang Hai, although a young child, had a big heart, invested 800 coins, as a result, Li Meng occupied 70% of the shares, Zhao Neng and Chen Liu each had one share, Wang Hai occupied five shares, and the remaining five shares were shared equally by everyone.

  Others who participated in the salt transportation, each time according to the amount of salt transported, would receive 200 or 500 wen, and their salt was given priority for purchase. This was a win-win distribution. In those days, 10 wen could buy two kilograms of white flour in good times. How much money is 200 wen per year?

  Zhao Nai felt sorry for Li Meng and kept giving him meaningful glances, but Li Meng ignored him.

  Li Meng's life was very regular, and his biological clock was quite accurate. Even after crossing into this era, he still maintained it. In the Xue family's thousand households, there were no clocks or calendars, and they could only judge time based on the sun, moon, and even the tides. This was a particularly uncomfortable thing.

  However, the approximate time point can still be judged. For example, Wu Geng Tian is from 4 am to 5 am in the morning, and Li Meng can get up on time at this hour.

  Because he still had to get up early to transport salt to Měng Town, Lǐ Méng woke up around 5:00 AM. According to his own estimate, it should be about half an hour before everyone gathered together. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh, and thought that there was still a small half-hour before the appointed time, which is the Ming Dynasty's way of calculating time, with one hour being equal to two hours.

  Walking into the courtyard, Li Meng picked up a six-foot-long wooden stick, struck a pose, and prepared to review the bayonet training techniques of his troops.

  That day, he encountered a salted fish, and the technique he used with his carrying pole was actually bayonet training in the army. Speaking of Li Meng, he was just an officer in the army, and the cold weapon and hand-to-hand combat training he received were all very monotonous, not comparable to those special troops and special forces.

  In terms of fist and footwork, there is only military boxing, and in terms of weapons, it's just bayonet stabbing training.

  By the late Ming dynasty, Li Meng knew that without some defensive skills, it would not work. In this Wei Suo, he could only come into contact with some farmers who were hanging military households, let alone at this age wanting to learn martial arts, fearing it was also too late, so he might as well practice what he already knew and refine it.

  The great victory of the battle on that day, although it has the courage and suddenness of a desperate struggle, but this assassination action also has the initiative and advantage of facing knives and axes.

  Li Meng held a wooden stick and had just struck a pose when he felt a commotion outside the door, so he carefully walked to the edge of the door and opened the gate.