Chapter Twenty-Two: After the Kill
Tonight, let's make a dash for the charts. Please leave your recommendations and collections until after midnight or tomorrow morning. Lao Bai wants to rush towards a higher ranking on the new book chart. Thank you everyone! Tomorrow, in addition to the update at midnight, there will be two more updates, making a total of three updates. Thank you everyone!
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Twelve salt dings, without much effort, were already cleaned up. Unlike the last time when they turned pale and vomited, those new ones almost fainted on the ground. Those who had witnessed the scene of killing salt dings before stared at the blood-dripping bamboo sticks in their hands with wide eyes and tongue-tied.
How can such an ordinary thing become a deadly weapon? Smuggling private salt is a serious crime, almost as severe as smuggling drugs in modern times. As long as the amount of salt sold reaches a certain level, it will be sentenced to a heavy penalty, with the lightest being exile for thousands of miles, and generally beheading or hanging.
Anyone who dares to sell private salt is a bold and courageous character, either a lone wolf or a team of private salt smugglers. These teams are more powerful than ordinary strongmen and bandits, and the salt police officers summoned by the patrol inspector are also desperate rascals with some ferocity and strength, and they dare to charge and fight.
The sons of the Ling Shan Wei Suo's military households were somewhat different from those honest and kind-hearted farmers, and they also had some courage to gather and fight, but they didn't dare to offend these salt workers. The sons of the military households could only fight at most, while these salt workers were killers.
Whenever the two sides clashed, the sons of military families were like sheep, hiding if possible and begging for mercy if not. In reality, they had suffered countless losses, and their main occupation was farming every day, without any military training, how could they compare to these brave and fierce salt workers?
When I saw the twelve salt smugglers coming over today, many people, including those ten who watched Li Meng kill the salt smugglers last time, were all nervous and their minds went blank. Behind them was nearly thirty loads of salt goods. If they got caught, not only would they be in trouble, but also their families might get implicated.
The crowd with blank minds and tense limbs waited until they were fully awake, only to find that the twelve seemingly invincible salt men had fallen to the ground.
After the first or second time of killing, these people looked at Li Meng's eyes as if they were looking at a god, and began to believe in the rumors about the so-called Erlang True Lord. Otherwise, how could they use these sharpened bamboo sticks to easily kill those who held knives, axes, and sharp blades?
This is not about Li Meng's rich military history knowledge, but he only knew the existence of bamboo spears from modern detailed descriptions of peasant wars. He also knew that only sharp stabbing weapons could achieve bayonet technology, and in this era, long guns and long spears were the best, but these goods were only available in the armory under the jurisdiction of the commander and the thousand households, so they had to make do with simplicity and find some bamboo sticks to make bamboo spears.
It was a lucky coincidence that Qi Jiguang fought against the Japanese pirates back then. Because the long guns of the Ming army couldn't compete with the Japanese katana, they were often cut off at the tip. They adopted the use of large bamboo poles soaked in tung oil, also cutting out a beveled surface. The length of these bamboo spears was extremely long, and even if they were cut off, there would still be a sharp point left, firmly controlling the Japanese pirates' long swords.
There were also, in the Battle of Sekigahara that took place decades ago in Japan, a large number of scattered samurai who fled to the countryside. These samurai wore armor and carried long knives that were standard-issue weapons, and they had systematic military training, but most of them died at the hands of peasants who used sharpened bamboo spears, also known as "bamboo guns", just like what Li Meng and his men are using today.
These salted gangs are at most some relatively brave and ruthless rascals, how can they be compared to those extremely evil Wokou pirates, and yet they are still arrogant and complacent, dying under the bamboo spears is not unjust.
"Don't just stand there, search those salt carriers' bodies for silver and copper coins, and hand them over to Brother Li along with the waist knives and other weapons. You few come with me, let's throw these dogs into the grass, and they'll be eaten clean by wild dogs tonight!"
This time it was Wang Hai who shouted, and Zhao Neng, standing beside Li Meng, couldn't help but rebuke him in a loud voice, but was stopped by Li Meng. He thought that this 15-year-old Wang Hai was clever and resourceful, and had actually arranged things according to his own previous instructions. These military dependents were honest and loyal, but there were fewer who were clear-headed.
After the bloodstains on the road were covered with soil, and after treading back and forth several times, Li Meng slowly walked a circle on the road, feeling that no signs should be discovered. Only then did he turn his head and shout:
"Everyone take a rest, we'll hit the road later."
Everyone was silent, each finding a place to sit down. The military dependents who were usually engaged in farming and had no contact with military training had gone through this bloody battle. Each person needed time to calm their emotions. Li Meng looked at the silver money that had been searched from those salt workers, about ten taels of silver, looking much poorer than the last batch. With Mu Xun's death, the originally chaotic private salt market became even more chaotic.
The powerful single households, the salt tyrants' forces and some other influential people all want to get involved in this, but those who suffer from such involvement are only ordinary civilians with no connection to it, such as the common people of Xuejia Village. In recent days, there have been reports of someone being robbed outside, barely escaping with their life, and some even losing their lives. The reason is simple: more and more people are selling private salt, and the salt tyrants are becoming increasingly dispersed, resulting in a breakdown in law and order that looks like it's on the verge of collapse.
Li Meng left one or two silver coins behind and handed over the remaining nine coins to Zhao Neng, saying in a low voice:
"Brother Zhao, let's divide this money among everyone!"
Zhao took over the silver money and nodded, suddenly saying in a low voice:
"Just now I was staring at these people, and no one took anything randomly."
Li Meng was taken aback by these words, and nodded with a smile. He had also been paying attention to these things all along. No one knew whether the personal items on their bodies would be recognized by others. If someone coveted small benefits and stole them, who knows what kind of trouble they might bring, so they had to keep an eye on them.
This was a habit he had developed while working for the security company, where he would think through all possible scenarios that could arise in any situation. Li Meng hadn't expected Zhao to think of this point as well, but given his age and meticulous thinking, not to mention being someone close to him, he really was trustworthy. Li Meng smiled and replied:
"I understand, Zhao Dage is giving out money."
Having said this, he raised his voice and shouted at these people:
"Brothers, today everyone's hands are stained with the blood of the salted dog, no one can shirk responsibility. In the future, we must stick together and not suffer losses at the hands of outsiders!"
Zhao Neng from the other side has started distributing silver, and everyone's mood has lifted a bit. Upon hearing Li Mengyang say this, many people trembled with fear, and the scene fell silent once again.
