Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 164 Mutual Testing

The river surged, and the grass and reeds rustled.

Shao Shuyi and Wang Bai walked and talked as they walked along a section of collapsed earthen river embankment.

"I was just joking around," Wang Bai said with his hands behind his back, looking at the ebb and flow of the great river.

Shao Shuyi laughed and said, "A little over a year ago, I couldn't even afford to eat and couldn't pay my debts. It was only thanks to the kindness of my brothers that I was able to start a private salt trade that my life improved a little. If this is considered a big deal, then there are far too many big deals in the world."

Wang Bai smiled but remained silent.

After a moment, he stopped, looked at the Yangtze River, and asked, "Can Cao She read history?"

I've read a few of them.

"Since you've been to school, you must have heard of Yang Xingmi, right?"

Shao Shuyi nodded.

Wang Bai gave him an approving look and continued, "After Xingmi won the Battle of Qingkou, due to repeated battles with Qian Liu, most of his manpower, financial resources, and materials were consumed in the Liangzhe region, making it difficult to expand northward. Isn't that a great pity?"

Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi thought to himself, "It's not even a chance yet, and you're already thinking so far ahead? Brother Dazhi, the government isn't blind; they'll see through your arrogance sooner or later."

"It's a pity," Shao Shuyi said. "However, Xingmi was able to control Huainan, Xuanzhou, Shexian, and even parts of western Zhejiang not because of the Battle of Qingkou, but because he defeated Sun Ru. If he couldn't even get past that, there's no point in talking about anything else."

After hearing this, Wang Bai laughed heartily and said, "Indeed. Talking to Cao She is quite different. You can tell whether a person is knowledgeable or not just by listening to a few words from him. Cao She is well-versed in both ancient and modern times, and he will surely thrive. Given the right circumstances, his rise to prominence will be no problem. It's a pity that I only recognized such a hero today. However..."

"Please speak freely, Your Highness."

"The world has been in turmoil for over a decade, the country is in uproar," Wang Bai said. "The people are living in ditches and ravines, unable to find peace. Villages and towns have been reduced to ruins, and fields are overgrown with thorns. What is your opinion on all this, Cao She?"

As he said this, Wang Bai looked intently into Shao Shuyi's eyes.

Shao Shuyi did not evade the question, saying, "Perhaps it is necessary to set things right."

"Where is the chaos?" Wang Bai pressed.

Shao Shuyi pointed to the north.

Wang Bai was taken aback at first, then burst into laughter.

The people carrying salt down the riverbank were startled by the laughter and couldn't help but look over.

"Brother, what are they laughing at?" the boy asked softly as he walked over.

The man who had been asked the question looked away, then at his younger brother, frowned, and said, "Why aren't you moving the goods?"

The boy rubbed his shoulders and said, "I was tired after carrying several bags."

"Ninety-seven!" The man shoved his younger brother, displeased. "We're here to sell goods. According to the rules, we should be unloading the goods onto their boat. They didn't just stand by; they helped us move them, and you're slacking off here. Is that acceptable?"

"I'm really tired." The boy simply sat down on the ground and muttered, "I only ate a coarse pancake all day, I'm starving, I have no strength left." "Zhang Jiuqi!" The man became even angrier, raising his right hand high as if to strike.

The boy was initially frightened, but after glancing at his older brother, he stubbornly retorted, "Go ahead and hit me. I don't have the strength to carry salt even if you beat me to death." The man's raised hand gradually lowered. After a moment, he stamped his foot and said, "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have brought you along." With that, he quickened his pace towards the fishing boat, picked up a bag of salt, and left, seemingly intending to do his younger brother's work as well.

Young Zhang Jiuqi looked at Wang and Shao, pondering to himself.

He had seen Shao Shuyi's portrait; it was given to him by a broker named Sun Yichuan. At that time, they secretly rowed across the river with their fellow villagers to sell salt in Taicang, only to encounter Sun Yichuan hiring someone to kill them. The villagers dared not do it, but they, who were so poor they had to stretch every penny, accepted the job, though they never got the chance. It turned out that the person Sun Yichuan wanted to kill was actually a salt smuggler.

Zhang Jiuqi blinked, secretly thinking how lucky he was that he hadn't found an opportunity back then, otherwise he would have been in trouble, and might have had several people killed, ruining his efforts. Thinking of this, Zhang Jiuqi looked at the dozen or so members of the Zhang family who were still standing on the high ground. They seemed much more imposing than the patrolmen of the salt field and didn't look easy to deal with.

"If only I had a team like that under my command, we could gather together, take over the salt fields, and sell the smuggled salt freely. I wonder how much good stuff we could get in return." The boy dreamt of this. Seeing that his older brother had already made his second round of hauling, he sighed silently, reluctantly got up and walked towards the fishing boat. Then he picked out the lightest-looking bag of salt, and with the help of others, hoisted it onto his shoulder and began his hauling work.

On the other side, Wang Bai and Shao Shuyi had finished their conversation and walked down the river embankment toward where everyone was.

As Zhang Jiusi passed by the two men, he glanced at them out of the corner of his eye and became even more certain of his previous guess. This was Shao Shuyi, a seafarer from Taicang, who had come to Jiangyin to smuggle salt for some unknown reason.

But now there was no one to answer his questions, so he could only bury himself in his work.

The entire moving operation continued until late at night.

Seeing that the moving was almost complete, Shao Shuyi opened the bundle he had brought, took out 140 ingots of paper money, and handed them to Wang Bai, saying, "Your Excellency, please verify them."

Wang Bai smiled and handed the banknotes to his subordinate, then waved his hand and said, "This isn't the only transaction; we'll have to do business together again. Why bother with it? It would make me look stingy."

Shao Shuyi smiled and didn't press the matter, then said, "Your Highness, there probably won't be any salt deliveries before the fifteenth of the first lunar month. If you're coming again next time, it would be best to wait until after the Lantern Festival."

"Of course, of course, everyone celebrates festivals." Wang Bai smiled like a kind-hearted nouveau riche, "I'll do as you say, I'll come again after the fifteenth of the first lunar month."

After saying that, the entire transaction process came to an end.

Shao Shuyi clasped his hands in farewell and took his leave.

More than ten people on the high ground lined up in two columns and walked down one by one toward the several boats moored in the harbor.

Zhang Jiusi stood silently for a while, and after the other person's figure had disappeared, he came to Wang Bai's side and said in a low voice, "Brother Wang, this person's surname is not Cao, but Shao. He is from a family of seafarers in Taicang."

Wang Bai raised an eyebrow, looked at his underling, and asked, "How did you know?"

Zhang Jiusi then recounted how Sun Chuan had hired someone to commit murder.

After listening, Wang Bai was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and laughed, "I don't care where he's from or what his status is. I sell salt, he buys salt, money and goods are exchanged, neither of us owes the other anything, that's enough. Besides, the more fellow travelers you have, the better, they can save your life in a pinch."

Zhang Jiu Si hummed in agreement. Indeed, he didn't have any real grudge against Shao Shu Yi, after all, he hadn't gotten the chance to make a move back then, had he?

With such a generous and never-credit-debt elder brother from Jiangnan around, the smuggling of salt would be much easier in the future.

"Let's go back to the ship. We can talk about it on the way." Wang Bai patted Zhang Jiu Si on the shoulder and walked towards the ship first.

Zhang Jiu Si didn't dawdle and followed closely behind.

He knew that Brother Wang would definitely find an opportunity to ask him about Shao Shuyi in private; that salt smuggler was no ordinary man. Furthermore, Zhang Jiusi felt a pang of envy, and even more so, a sense of being moved.

Shao Shuyi was several years younger than him, yet he had already achieved such a position, running rampant in Jiangyin. In contrast, he himself had to tolerate even the extortion of the salt field patrolmen. The difference was simply too great.

Perhaps I should put in some hard work from now on.

The boats that Shao Shuyi brought arrived in Xiapu before dawn and moored on the riverbank behind Liu's Grain Shop.

The workers were all called up and carried bags of white salt into the warehouse.

Of course, it's just temporary storage; it will still be transported and distributed in a couple of days.

As for why they didn't sell to the Liu family, there's only one reason: it would be too much of a loss.

I can sell it wholesale myself for at least one and a half strings of cash, but I only get one string when I sell it to the Liu family. Why is that?

Furthermore, even if Liu were willing to pay one and a half strings of cash to acquire the ten thousand catties of salt, Shao Shuyi would not agree.

He simply wanted to cultivate his own channels, namely, to sell the 10,000 jin of salt through the group of people Yang Jin had found, so that he could make money while also ensuring that these people could make money.

Otherwise, if the salt sales network doesn't have salt to "nourish" it for a long time, it will inevitably run into problems, eventually become unsustainable, and begin to shrink.

However, since we were using someone else's property, the news was bound to leak out...

On the morning of the 24th, the three Liu siblings suddenly appeared outside Liu's Grain Shop.

Shao Shuyi was practicing his craft in the backyard when he heard Yu Yuan's report. He just smiled and said, "If she wants to see, let her see."

After saying that, he drew an arrow from his quiver, aimed it at the scarecrow in the distance, and released it.

With a thunderous thud of the bowstring, the straw man was shot down to the ground.

Yu Yuan has already left.

Shao Shuyi thought for a moment, put away his bow and arrow, changed his clothes, washed his hands, and disappeared into the backyard.

Inside the grain shop, Yu Yuan led Madam Liu to the warehouse, pointing to the densely packed sacks of salt, and said, "Madam, they're all here." Madam Liu wore a half-smile and said, "This is clearly my shop, yet now I need your permission to inspect the warehouse. Isn't this what they call 'cuckoo taking over a magpie's nest'?"

Yu Yuan blushed.

"Where is Shao Shuyi?" Liu asked, glancing at Yu Yuan in a bad mood.

"Practicing archery."

"Take me to him." Madam Liu sneered, "He made such nice promises before, saying he would only be in charge of transporting the salt, and that I would take care of the sales. How long has it been, and he's already preparing to abandon me and go it alone."

Yu Yuan seemed a little embarrassed, but he stood there without moving, showing no intention of taking Madam Liu to find Shao Shuyi.

Liu's sneer grew even stronger, and she said, "Fine, I don't need you anymore. I'll go find it myself."

After saying that, he turned and left the warehouse, walking towards the backyard surrounded by a group of followers from Wenzhou.