Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 107 Plan Arrangement

sunset.

Cao Tong and Liu Jiu, who were waiting at the entrance of the fishing village, felt somewhat uneasy.

They were initially quite calm, walking around the vehicle and looking around.

But as the river harbor beside the dirt road gradually filled with boats, and fishermen came and went, pointing and whispering at them from time to time, the atmosphere became somewhat subtle. They felt as if someone was trying to harm them!

They had already retreated into the car.

Cao Tong gripped the horsewhip with trepidation, as if it were some kind of peerless divine weapon.

Liu Jiu was bolder than him, but he kept a straight face and stared intently at his surroundings until that familiar figure appeared in front of him.

"Brother Shao!" He and Cao Tong got out of the car at almost the same time and shouted.

"Thank you for your hard work." Shao Shuyi tossed a grilled fish to each person, saying, "I made it."

The two hurriedly accepted the gift and thanked the man repeatedly.

Wang Huadu shoved himself into the carriage, took off the ring knife from his waist, and shouted, "Brother Shao, tell me quickly, what did that slut say to you?"

As Yu Yuan entered the carriage, he heard this and said, "Brother Gouyi, Madam Liu can't be that despicable, can she?"

"I'm from Zhejiang, don't I know the true nature of women here?" Wang Huadu said disdainfully. "If she really wanted her son, how could she possibly get married? This woman lives for herself. Hey, Shao-ge'er, you'd better watch out. If you're really feeling restless, I know a few women, I can give you two. Women are like clothes, brothers are like limbs, it's no big deal."

Hearing this from outside the car, Shao Shuyi thought to himself, "There are so many 'yellow-haired' women, and none of them are the same."

"Brother Shao, don't take this lightly," Wang Huadu chimed in, "We're about to do something big, you need to build up a few more strongholds. Hey, what's that saying again? Right, 'a cunning rabbit has three burrows,' you need to have three. Which of these ruthless bigwigs in the village hasn't committed a crime? Killing and injuring people is commonplace, they all need to go out and lay low from time to time. My ambition is to have a home wherever I go, to have hot meals and someone to warm my bed when I'm out in the dark. That way, I can outlast the corrupt officials until they can't take it anymore."

As Cheng Ji approached from afar, he heard Wang Huadu spouting nonsense. Surprisingly, he didn't reprimand him but instead whispered something to Shao Shuyi.

"Master Cheng, these boots are nice. Where did you buy them? They must have been expensive." Wang Huadu said with a grin, "I passed by your house the day before yesterday and smelled the aroma of meat. My nephew, with his chubby face, was gnawing on a meat pie. It looked delicious. Eat more, so he can do great things with Brother Shao when he grows up."

Cheng Ji was starting to lose his composure, but he didn't know what to say. He just lowered his head and walked towards the oxcart, as if he had done something wrong. Wang Huadu was so happy he slapped his thigh.

Shao Shuyi got into the car, slapped Wang Huadu across the neck, and said with a laugh, "Master Cheng, you're so thin-skinned, why bother saying all that?"

Wang Huadu touched his neck and turned to look at Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan looked serious, as if he was thinking about some difficult problem.

Wang Huadu then looked at Shao Shuyi again.

Shao Shuyi gestured for him to calm down, and after Tie Niu came up, he instructed Cao Tong to drive away and return to the old locust tree.

"Iron Ox, you could break this car," Wang Huadu complained. "It's got such a big backside, one person takes up half the space."

Tie Niu remained silent.

"Alright." As the carriage swayed, Shao Shuyi said slowly, "I need to find some time to go to Shanghai."

"Are you able to leave?" Wang Huadu asked.

"I'll try my best," Shao Shuyi replied. "The Chuzhou celadon is coming over, so we can't leave now. In a while, the Jingdezhen white porcelain will be almost ready, and it will be heading west by early May at the latest. By the end of June, we'll have to go to Jiangxi to bring back the Guiguo kiln wares."

Wang Huadu thought for a moment and sighed, "We really will have to work for the Zheng family again."

Shao Shuyi nodded.

While working for the Zheng family was certainly for money, the bigger reason was to rely on them for development.

To put it bluntly, he needs a protector.

Perhaps Zheng Guozhen wouldn't treat him particularly well on a regular basis, but outsiders knew he was a member of the Zheng family, which naturally avoided a lot of trouble. To put it more clearly, this is an exchange of benefits.

"I'll go run it," Wang Huadu volunteered. "Last time in my uncle's village, I heard people say that so-and-so was bold enough to sneak off to the salt field and exchange grain, fruits, vegetables, and chickens for salt with the villagers."

"Were they embezzled privately?" Shao Shuyi asked.

"We can't survive without intercepting it," said Wang Huadu. "The salt industry has been ruined by the imperial court. In addition to the regular salt, there's surplus salt on top of that. The people in the villages are almost suffocating, yet their wages haven't increased much, making life even harder than before. If something goes wrong, the higher-ups don't care. I heard that one salt field originally had 17,000 salt workers, but due to floods, droughts, plagues, and those who fled, now there are only 7,000 left, while the amount of salt produced has increased tenfold compared to the beginning of the dynasty."

"Not bad, you dog slave. You haven't been wasting your time in Shanghai," Shao Shuyi laughed. "You've gathered so much information." "Salt farmers, like seafarers, also have to perform various corvée duties. Officials like commanders, assistant commanders, supervisors, clerks, and inspectors often appear by the sea, leading the villagers in carrying earth to build dikes. They don't talk to me, but when they go to the country restaurants to eat and drink, they start talking nonsense; it's not hard to hear things from them," Wang Huadu said. "If all else fails, just ask Brother Wei, why did he flee?"

"Since that's the case," Shao Shuyi closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then said, "Go to Shanghai first, and take your second brother, Sanbao, and Li Fu with you. Stay at your uncle's house for now, and gradually get to know them. Estimate how much salt you can get."

"If the salt inspector finds out, should we take a hard line?" Wang Huadu asked.

"It's just gathering information," Shao Shuyi said. "If we really want to buy, I'll personally lead a group of several dozen people." "That's enough," Wang Huadu laughed. "This damned government is truly inhuman. The salt police are having a hard time too, relying entirely on extorting money from those who sell salt privately. Without this income, their families would definitely starve."

"Salt police?" Shao Shuyi asked in surprise.

"They're just a few soldiers under Guan Gou, not many, and they're pretty lax. If you encounter them, just confront them head-on; they're afraid of you," Wang Huadu said. "Don't try to bribe them; I've disliked them for a long time."

Who is in charge of the sand quarry now?

"The commander of the lower salt field has the same surname as me," Wang Huadu said. "I can't remember what the assistant commander's name was, Timur. The head of the management was surnamed Chen, and I don't know the others. By the way, there's also a Qu family in the lower salt field. They're quite famous. For generations, they've managed the salt fields and even served as high-ranking officials in the transport department. I still know many of them. Several times when the people of the village suffered from disasters, the government didn't care, but they did the disaster relief themselves. They're really rich."

Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi thought of the Qu family, who were highly respected and influential among the salt producers.

However, these established families also have their own problems. The most typical problem is their stagnation. Their wealth and prestige cannot be effectively converted into strength. They have too many possessions and burdens, and their strategies are very conservative. When chaos comes, none of them stand up to start a rebellion. In the end, they can only rely on newly rising rebel leaders or warlords, and if they are not careful, they will become fish on the chopping block.

"Alright." Shao Shuyi put his arm around Wang Huadu's shoulder and said, "The Qu family won't pay any attention to us. Let's think of a solution from the bottom up."

"Okay." Wang Huadu nodded in agreement.

April passed in a flash, and on the first day of May, another batch of Chuzhou celadon arrived at the shop.

By this time, the inventory of porcelain had reached more than 25,000 pieces, of which 15,000 were custom-made.

On this day, Zheng Fan came to the shop to say goodbye, as he was going to join the Spring Festival transport fleet to head north to Dadu.

Taking the opportunity, Shao Shuyi asked him about the inside story of selling salted fish and the salt fields. It was not appropriate to ask anyone else about this matter, so after thinking it over, he decided that asking Zheng Fan would be the least risky option.

"Salted fish sells so well?" Zheng Fan glanced at him and said, "Do you know that half of the salted fish in the Jiangzhe region comes from Shandong and Lianghuai?" "No," Shao Shuyi replied truthfully.

"Fish farmers can only sell their fresh fish locally, while salted fish can be sold far away," Zheng Fan said. "The imperial court is aware of the fish farmers' difficulties, so it allows them to apply for government salt to preserve fish. However, the fish and salt bureaus under the Liangzhe Transport Commission were abolished in the thirtieth year of the Zhiyuan era due to Sangge's actions, making the application process cumbersome and expensive for fish farmers. The fish and salt bureaus under the Shandong and Lianghuai Transport Commissions still exist, and the salt sold to fish farmers is cheaper. Moreover, they can buy one yin of salt by catching a thousand catties (1066 catties) of fish, while the people of Jiangzhe need to catch more than two thousand catties (2132 catties) to buy one yin. Therefore, salted fish from Shandong and Lianghuai have flooded into Liangzhe, a case of small fish encroaching on large ones. I don't know how many of these are actually selling fish and how many are selling salt."

"I see." Shao Shuyi bowed to express his gratitude.

Salted fish also faces competition, with some even transported all the way from Shandong – it's incredibly competitive. These days, it seems only cheap, illegally salted fish can beat the competition from those from other regions.

After all, the selling point of many salted fish is salt, not fish.

"Xiao Hu, is this really necessary?" After staring at Shao Shuyi for a moment, Zheng Fan sighed and said, "Didn't you transport another batch of goods for Madam Shen a few days ago and earn more than ten ingots?"

"You know that too?" Shao Shuyi asked, somewhat surprised.

Zheng Fan rolled his eyes at him and said, "Rongfu came yesterday and said that her second sister transported a lot of copper and iron from Liujiagang to Suzhou, and then took three boatloads of fragrant glutinous rice back. Wasn't that you?"

"It's me." Shao Shuyi smiled awkwardly and said, "Actually, I have to take another boat trip tomorrow to transport a batch of tea and rice to Tongzhou for Madam Shen." "Don't forget about the trip to Jiangxi," Zheng Fan reminded him.

"I won't forget," Shao Shuyi said. "The ship will be back in a few days, and then we'll go to Jiangxi."

Zheng Fan hummed in agreement and prepared to get up and leave.

Before leaving, he glanced at Shao Shuyi and said, "Xiao Hu, we get along well, and I really like your adventurous spirit and quick wit, but I hope you can last a long time. Liujiagang has no shortage of people who soar to great heights, but not many who can stand strong for many years to come. You'd better take care of yourself."

"I understand," Shao Shuyi said, bowing.

Zheng Fan sighed, turned and left.

Shao Shuyi also sighed. There are many things he couldn't tell anyone; what could he do?

That afternoon, while he was checking the accounts in his study, Song You, who had returned from Yantietang, looked at him with a strange expression and said, "A letter from Shiliu."

After saying this, he placed a letter on the table and quietly left.