Chapter Twenty Isn't So Smooth

  Wish you all a happy weekend, new book rush list, collection, comments, thank you everyone, Lao Bai wants to be ranked higher!

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  In the summer, the sky is long, and there is a faint light on the horizon by the sea. It's not too dark yet, but I see that many people have already gathered outside the door, waiting there.

  As soon as Li Meng opened the door, they all stood up from their wheelbarrows, smiling at him. Li Meng asked somewhat puzzled:

  "How did you get here so early? There's still some time left, why didn't you sleep a bit more?"

  "Thinking it's his own business, he can't sleep in bed, so he might as well come over early."

  As soon as Chen Liu finished speaking, the scene suddenly became noisy and everyone chimed in with enthusiasm, all looking very motivated. Li Meng was also delighted and smiled, saying:

  "Alright, let's get going early, I'll treat everyone to drinks at noon!"

  The crowd cheered, and seven or eight people started moving salt onto the rickshaw. Li Meng carefully checked everything once, and it turned out that no one had forgotten the sharpened bamboo pole, which was inserted obliquely on the rickshaw, like a flagpole.

  Li Meng bought some pancakes in Fengmeng Town yesterday and shared them with everyone to eat. Then a group of people rushed along the road excitedly, today's rush each person pushed more salt than yesterday, but no one felt tired, they were all in a very relaxed state pushing, and still making jokes with each other there.

  This small path winds its way between hills and low mountains. In the midst of summer, the shrubs are lush and dense, the only nuisance being mosquitoes. The roads on both sides are blocked by the grass and trees on the low mountains, making it difficult to see far ahead, with only the front and rear views being relatively open.

  Today, they walked even faster than yesterday. Everyone's pace was accelerated, and after a brief rest halfway, they continued on their way. Li Meng estimated that it would take about half an hour to reach Fengmeng Town. Just as he was about to urge everyone to hurry up, he saw more than a dozen people standing up from the side of the road not far away, walking towards them head-on.

  Wang Hai, who was behind him, also saw that the unicycle in his hand had fallen over and was about to flip over to the side of the road. Wang Hai trembled with fear as he said:

  "Salty dog, salty dog!!"

  This salt-trading team, except for Li Meng, everyone else was in a panic. The other side had obviously chosen this section of road on purpose to make their move, because they had just walked down a long downhill slope. On the downhill slope, people were using all their strength to control the unicycle and prevent it from sliding down, which was very physically demanding.

  Even if you turn back and run now, the salt goods are not to be kept. A person who has just gone through a difficult journey, turning back to run on an uphill slope again, is also easily caught up by these idle salt workers waiting in ambush.

  Li Meng stretched out his hand and pulled out the long bamboo pole from the car, all his companions saw Xian Ding running quickly from that side. The few who came out to sell salt with Li Meng a month ago were fine, they all turned their heads to stare at Li Meng, waiting for him to make a decision, while the new ones were clearly panicked.

  "Pull out your own bamboo poles and learn from me how to hold them properly, then stand here with me!"

  Seeing so many people trusting him, Li Meng was indeed moved. Zhao Neng and Chen Liu Zi were doing what Li Meng said, holding the sharpened bamboo poles and moving to the front of Li Meng. Wang Hai was young and although he had been through things, he was still scared but he gritted his teeth and stood in front of Li Meng with both hands grasping the pole. A newcomer who couldn't take it anymore shouted "Ah" and threw away the unicycle, turning around to run.

  He ran, Li Meng's reaction was faster than his, the bamboo pole in his hand flipped over and chopped down directly. The bamboo pole was ten feet long, and the man had only run a few steps before being whipped on the shoulder by the bamboo pole, and was knocked to the ground. Li Meng didn't hold back either, whipping him twice with great force.

  The person who ran first was beaten and shouted loudly in pain, Li Meng coldly shouted:

  "If you run again, I'll chop you with a knife. Even if you run back home, do you think I don't know where your family lives?"

  This direct threat, combined with the previous actions of Li Meng, immediately calmed down the restless military households. They approached Li Meng with their bamboo sticks, and even the one who had run away earlier returned to his side with a sullen expression, also holding a bamboo stick.

  On the other side, twelve people walked over with short weapons such as waist knives, iron rulers and axes in their hands. At first, they looked at that person wanting to run away, but when they saw most of them holding bamboo poles horizontally in the middle of the road, they felt a bit puzzled and couldn't help but stop moving.

  In the end, looking at these private salt smugglers, they were all standing in front of the chicken coop, holding long bamboo poles in their hands. They finally confirmed that these Ling Shan Wei Suo military households had been scared silly, and it was possible to buy their salt goods at a good price. Compared to the usual number of single households blocked by card checkpoints, there were many more this time. It seemed like they were going to make a fortune this time.

  These salt carriers couldn't help but burst out laughing, slowly and leisurely approaching. Originally, they were worried that the dozen or so carts of salt might still need to be pushed to Fengmeng Town themselves, and at that time, they would let these fools push the carts instead. However, they wanted to severely beat these killers once, holding onto those bamboo poles thinking of resisting? Provoking Grandpa's displeasure, directly chopping off your head.

  "This is all our own salt goods, we spent a lot of money to collect them and walked so many miles to deliver them. Everyone has a share, if they run away, these salt goods will be cheap for the salt dogs. If they follow us back to our village, our family members will also suffer!"

  Li Meng felt the fear of the people around him, he repeatedly stated the pros and cons, had to admit that the plan he proposed yesterday was a stroke of genius. Everyone in this private salt trading business has some shares, they were afraid that if these young people ran away, the salt goods they worked hard for would fall into the hands of those unscrupulous salt smugglers on the other side, and their anger slowly rose up.

  At the very least, Li Meng and those people next to him didn't tremble, and those salt bandits didn't rush to chase them either. They walked up slowly, and everyone could clearly see the triumphant sneers on their faces. These salt bandits did not engage in production, but specialized in plundering, just like blood-sucking mosquitoes and beasts, making people more and more angry as they looked at them.

  "Put the bamboo poles in your hands flat, follow me and hold them level like this. Don't rush, if it's too crowded here, stand in a row at the back and stretch the bamboo poles out through the gap, also holding them level!"

  Li Meng was shouting loudly there, and the companions around him were all doing the same. They were even more nervous than Li Meng, and for now, the only thing they could do was to mechanically follow Li Meng's instructions. Whatever Li Meng said, they would follow suit. However, Chen Liu Zi was a relatively calm person, and he was just wondering why Li Meng didn't use the waist knife on his back, but instead held a sharpened bamboo stick, which was really strange.

  "Pull your arms back in, don't move around, moving is death, listen to my commands!"