Chapter 68: Standing Wood

  This afternoon, I'll be recommending this, and after midnight, it will go on sale. I hope everyone will continue to support Lao Bai at that time. People are always getting married, and this book also has a day when it goes on sale. How should I put it? I hope everyone subscribes to this book and casts their monthly votes for me. Thank you very much!

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  Although Li Meng returned to Laizhou Prefecture's Jiao State's Fengmeng Town on the 28th of the twelfth lunar month in the sixth year of Chongzhen, this Spring Festival was also the most joyful one for both Lingshan Wei and Fengmeng Town.

  Li Meng brought back a large quantity of New Year's goods to Jining City, which were much better than those in the prosperous city of Jiaozhou. These goods were distributed as welfare benefits to the people who followed Li Meng's private salt system. This was their second Spring Festival together; although they had made some money during the first Spring Festival, they didn't know if they would be able to make a profit again the following year, so they kept their money in reserve for emergencies.

  This year is different, Li Meng is already the salt administration inspector, with nearly a thousand elite soldiers under his command. In Lai State Prefecture and its neighboring Qingzhou to the east, Dengzhou to the west, whoever wants to do private salt business without Li Meng's consent can't even sell one catty of salt. Looking at this trend, it will only get better and better, good days are yet to come.

  Everyone has put their minds at ease and is now more willing to spend money to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Compared to the joyful atmosphere here, the Spring Festival scenes in other places are getting worse and worse. As a result, half of the pigs and sheep from Laizhou Prefecture were sold to Jiaozhou.

  The people below were happy to live a good life, but the core personnel around Li Meng were even more excited, earning a lot of money, which means that Li Meng can further expand his personnel and power, indicating that the entire salt industry's power is still expanding.

  Ning Qian Gui now increasingly feels that his decision to kneel in front of Li Meng's door on that day was correct. In just a few months, Li Meng has made so much money with his unpredictable methods, which are simply unheard of. Originally, those salt team captains discussed among themselves that Li Meng was possessed by the spirit of Erlang, and Ning Qian Gui sneered at this, thinking that rural people had shallow knowledge. However, following Li Meng for these days, Ning Qian Gui has also gradually come to believe in this rumor. If it weren't for divine intervention, how could such a series of clever moves be made? He thought that they would only make money this once in Jining.

  Who would have thought that there were still follow-up tricks, thinking about it feels unbelievable, a martial artist who grew up in the Wei Prefecture, how can he have so many ways to make money from business.

  The people of Gangmeng Town and Lingshan are rejoicing, but the salt merchants from Qingzhou Prefecture and Dengzhou Prefecture are crying out in distress. The originally disorganized private salt merchants of Laizhou Prefecture have suddenly produced a freak like Li Erlang, who is using ruthless tactics to squeeze their market share. Although Qingzhou and Dengzhou also have coastal salt pans, under the same conditions, their salt cannot compare with the quality of the other side's product. With prices being equal, everyone naturally prefers to use better goods.

  If we want to improve the quality of salt on our side, it would only be a loss. Originally, the south was the territory of Huai salt, and they could still transport goods in the east and north. Now that the east has been occupied by Li Meng, they can only do business in the north, relying on Ji'nan Prefecture here. Ji'nan Prefecture is the provincial capital, with convenient transportation and not high salt prices, making less and less money. The situation in Dengzhou Prefecture is similar to theirs, except that there has just been a war disaster there, and the salt merchants are all individual households, without even having the right to speak in front of Li Meng. It's estimated that in another month or two, the private salt trade in Dengzhou Prefecture will completely fall into Li Meng's hands.

  Desperate Qingzhou salt merchants, individual households simply gave up this business. It was a deadly trade to begin with, and if they couldn't make any money from it, why bother? Some people were local landlords who usually bought private salt and resold it to the surrounding villagers. They sought stability, and these people had already prepared to go under Li Meng's wing. It was said that over there, one could make a stable income with protection, and when the time came, selling to those below would be less worrisome than before.

  As for the big salt merchants in Qingzhou Prefecture, these people were the ones who made the most profit from private salt in Qingzhou. They bought salt from salt farms and other places and sold it to single households and those landlords and local tyrants. Now that Li Meng has taken over these things, they are making less and less money.

  These several Qingzhou salt bandits hated Li Meng to the bone, but the key issue was that pulling people out to fight, no one had confidence in being able to deal with Li Meng's salt army. If they reported to the authorities, Shandong had a total of four inspectors, and the inspector responsible for investigating the region just happened to be Qingzhou, Laizhou, and Dengzhou three prefectures.

  Now these salt bandits all know that Li Meng is going to expand outward, but according to Li Meng's way of using salt pawns, there are not enough people to set up checkpoints and intercept in the new expansion areas, they can only recruit more people to expand, and the 750 people under his command are already the conventional limit.

  If Li Meng continues to recruit and buy horses, go to the government office to report his conspiracy, then use silver to let Li Meng wait for being captured by the army. If he doesn't recruit new soldiers and maintains the current situation, it's naturally not a good thing for the Qingzhou salt bandits.

  In the seventh year of Chongzhen, on the twentieth day of the first month, each thousand households in Ling Mountain Wei and each city gate in Jiaozhou City had erected a wooden stake. The stakes were roughly as thick as a sea bowl mouth and over six feet tall.

  On both sides were young men wearing gray thick soil cloth shorts, looking at this dress everyone knows that this is Li Erlang's salt pawn.

  Yan Ganzi has become Yan Ding, it's almost been a year. People in Jiaozhou City all know that these Yan Ding are different from before, they do things by the rules and don't bully the common people. So curious crowds aren't afraid to approach them directly and ask questions. As for those on the side of Lingshanwei, with so many sons of military families, they're even more familiar with each other.

  As more and more people gathered around to ask questions, the young man under the wooden stake began to shout loudly:

  "My family's Li Daren, taking advantage of this New Year's festival, gives everyone more programs to add to the excitement."

  Li Meng's power and wealth were already well-known to the people of Jizhou City and Lingshan Wei, but for most people, there was still a sense of mystery. During this first month, everyone was looking for excitement, and when they heard that several programs were being performed here to add to the festive atmosphere, many people gathered around.

  "This is an easy task, just move this log to the front of the Zhenyimen mansion in the city, and you will be given two taels of silver, paid in cash, no delay!"

  After finishing speaking, the man went away directly. If it was in Wei's place, then he would move this wooden stake to Xue's family thousand households' west village. Whether it was Jiaozhou City or Lingshanwei Village, the distance of moving this wooden stake was almost two thousand steps. This wooden stake looked not light at all, which required a lot of strength.

  Nor did I know what reason, in the city gate of Jiaozhou and Ling Mountain Wei Suo, the salt workers just shouted once and then left without explanation.

  What's going on here? Everyone is confused...