novelAbuy Chapter 311 Dung
Chapter 311 Dung
As dusk fell, Shao Shuyi went up to look out alone.
Liang Tai followed behind, his footsteps making the wooden stairs creak.
"The person has been chosen," he said.
"several?"
"Sixteen, half from Shouchun and half from Xuzhou," Liang Tai said. "They've been training for a month, and their skills are so-so."
Shao Shuyi nodded without turning around.
A river breeze swept in from the northwest, making his robes cling tightly to his body. The last fishing lights on the distant river had gone out, leaving only a gray line between the sky and the water, like a knife cut.
"Tell them they can make a big fuss, but don't get too entangled with the soldiers. They should run away when it's almost over. The garrison troops have just been disbanded and returned to their camps, so it's difficult to mobilize them in such a short time," Shao Shuyi said.
"Okay." Liang Tai nodded.
These sixteen men were trained by him personally, and he had been busy with this matter for the past month. Originally, he planned to assign them to the female tiger so that she could take them to Tongzhou to collect salt, but now they have been temporarily transferred to Jiqing Road, where they will secretly go ashore and cause some trouble.
The Yidu New Army on Jiqing Road suffered heavy losses in the battle to suppress the Huashan bandits, and is now licking its wounds, making it difficult to mobilize them.
As for the local security forces in Jurong County, they had long been ravaged by the Huashan bandits, and the county darughachi was dead. The personnel had not yet been fully replenished, and even if they were, they would not be of much use in the short term. Untrained people cannot fight, and they are equally ineffective against fierce bandits.
As for whether the female worm will run away, that's not a big problem.
She can run away, so what? The sixteen people who went with her all have families; as long as they don't run away, it's fine. This is a good opportunity to test the "Mother Tiger" and see if she keeps her word and her actions match her words.
Of course, Liang Tai also felt that sixteen people were a little insufficient.
As of now, Ma Tuo Sha has gathered 122 households and 491 people from the Huai River region, of which about one-third are able-bodied men. After careful selection, there are still quite a few people. However, this is the next step in the plan, which is expected to be carried out after the New Year.
"The first person to go to Changzhou," Shao Shuyi added.
"I will lead the team myself," Liang Tai said. "We will send four teams of men, including Li, Bian, Gao, and Jiang, plus thirty boatmen led by Yan and Zhou. That should be enough."
"Where are the troublemakers?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"It's still the Lu and Yang families," Liang Tai said.
Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement.
The Lu family is currently the "agent" for Shengye Trading Company's smuggled salt in Changzhou.
Because she had promised Wang Bai that Wujin and Jinling counties would only use the salt he sent, the quantity had always been insufficient. Madam Lu complained loudly and asked several times to send more salt, but she was refused each time.
Shao Shuyi also felt somewhat helpless about this matter.
The private salt needed by Wujin County, Jinling County and Changshu Prefecture was all supplied by Wang Bai, but that guy only delivered salt once every two months, and the quantity was quite insufficient. The most he delivered was 30,000 catties, and the least he delivered was only 8,000 catties. On average, it was more than 10,000 catties per month. What can such a small amount of salt do?
Even with a monthly supply of just over 10,000 jin, it was said that considerable effort was required, leading Shao Shuyi to suspect that Wang Bai's connections in the Lianghuai salt fields weren't strong enough. According to information gleaned from him, Wang Bai had acquaintances serving as officials in Liangduo Saltworks and also some indirect connections in Baiju Saltworks, essentially obtaining salt only from these two saltworks. However, the small quantity indicated that his connections weren't particularly powerful; others might have only managed to squeeze a little in for him. With insufficient supply, the market had to be ceded to government salt, a truly unfortunate situation.
Therefore, Shao Shuyi sent a message to Wang Bai, inquiring whether the monthly supply could be increased to over 30,000 jin. Wang Bai replied that he was powerless to do so… but there was some good news. Perhaps knowing he was in the wrong, Wang Bai agreed to let Shao Shuyi distribute a certain amount of private salt to Wujin, Jinling, and Changshu. This made things much easier. Ten days ago, Shao Shuyi had Yu Yuan send 30,000 jin of salt to the Lu family, promising to send an additional 10,000 jin each month thereafter. The relationship between the two sides was becoming increasingly close—this also shows that Shao Shuyi had been wary of the Prince of Zhennan for a long time and had a contingency plan in place, waiting to see whether to implement it.
As for the Yang family, they were members of the Wuyue Grain Merchants Association, introduced by Qian Dayong in mid-September. They were considered relatively large grain merchants in Changzhou.
Recently, he has been extorted to the point of ecstasy by the Prince of Zhennan. Not only has the Prince been in charge of feeding more than a thousand people, but he has also paid an additional 500 ingots of cash as a tribute. He hates these parasites to the extreme.
The head of the household and Shao Shuyi hit it off immediately, planning to recruit some ruffians to teach the Prince of Zhennan a lesson. The condition was that Shao Shuyi would give him 5,000 catties of smuggled salt every month, which he would sell mixed with official salt in various grain shops to make up for previous losses.
Actually, the plan still has quite a few flaws, but just like the assassinations of Zhu Ding and Zhu Chen before, nothing is guaranteed to succeed. "Take the group you recruited in Jiangyin with you. Make it clear to them that they only want to damage the headquarters, not the government offices. You can hit the clerks and runners, but not kill them. The servants of the Prince of Zhennan are an exception; hit them as you like." Shao Shuyi turned around, leaned against the railing, and looked at Liang Tai, saying, "If anyone sets fire, cut off their hand."
Liang Tai remained calm and composed as he agreed.
A soft sound came from downstairs.
Shao Shuyi peeked out and saw Fei carrying Liu's child, walking along the corridor, humming an off-key tune.
Liu stood inside the threshold, holding a bowl of hot soup in her hand, talking to Fei about something, both of them smiling.
Candlelight leaked through the crack in the door, falling onto the blue brick floor and shattering into pieces.
so good!
"Zhu Daocun just complained to the Fei family and said a lot of bad things about you," Liang Tai suddenly said.
Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement.
That's all this guy is good for, and he seems to have some mental issues—you're living on someone else's turf, didn't you ever consider that someone might be listening in through the walls?
"Zhu Daocun is caught in a dilemma." Shao Shuyi walked down and looked around, his steps neither fast nor slow, and said, "He wants to offend neither side, but there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world."
When they arrived downstairs, the two women had already taken their child for a walk by the dock, with Fu Jian, Fu Yong, and others following closely behind with five or six guards.
Shao Shuyi also went over to take a look, but did not disturb the two.
The wind was strong, the river's sound was low and hoarse, gnawing at the pier posts of the boardwalk, and occasionally splashes of water would rise up and wet a section of the stone steps.
Despite the monotonous scene, the two women were in high spirits. Fei, in particular, laughed incessantly, talking about everything from Xue Tao to Yu Xuanji, from Li Qingzhao to Zhu Shuzhen, and even mentioning Fei's maternal grandmother, Guan Daosheng.
Little Chili's older sister is quite the intellectual; even Liu couldn't quite keep up. This rascal, haha, her lack of cultural knowledge is showing, isn't it?
But it doesn't matter, since Madam Fei is here to curry favor with Madam Liu, there's no way the conversation will be awkward. Besides, Madam Liu is knowledgeable and can talk about maritime matters, which makes Madam Fei, who comes from a family of seafarers, feel quite at ease.
Shao Shuyi listened secretly for a moment and then quietly left.
Early on the morning of the 18th, before dawn, dozens of crew members boarded the three ships, Pingbing, Liuyi, and Taijia, and quietly left the dock, heading towards Huangtian Port.
That afternoon, three ships carrying personnel and supplies arrived at Zaogang, fifty miles north of Changzhou.
Perhaps the Lu family had given prior notice, because the people from the Yutang Patrol Office did not come to inspect.
After nightfall, Liang Tai sent two men south, heading straight for Changzhou City.
On the morning of the 20th, as dawn broke, Changzhou was still not fully awake.
The Prince of Zhennan's headquarters was located in the former office of the judge. A bluestone path led to the gate, and most of the locust tree leaves on both sides had fallen.
The mist hung close to the ground, mingling with the smoke from the morning cooking fires; it should have been an ordinary morning.
The first to smell something was wrong were two guards who came to relieve the guard.
One of them rubbed his eyes and yawned, but froze halfway through.
Another person was holding half a pancake, and as he ate it, he frowned and started sniffing around.
"What's that smell?" The two exchanged a glance and looked towards the door at the same time.
The door panels are painted vermilion, and they were recently freshly painted and still have a sheen.
At this moment, a layer of yellowish-brown substance was caked on everything from the door crack to the door knocker, from the threshold to the stone drums on both sides, glistening damply in the morning mist. A vegetable leaf hung on the door knocker, and a puddle of liquid trickled down the cracks in the stone beneath the threshold.
Excrement! Fresh, still faintly steaming.
"Who the hell did that?!" The guard had barely uttered the curse when he took two steps back and covered his nose with his sleeve.
The news spread quickly. The gatekeeper ran in to report, and within moments, a crowd had gathered outside the headquarters.
The vegetable vendor stopped carrying his load, the pancake shop assistant poked his head out with a rolling pin, and several old men who had gotten up early to collect manure stood at a distance with strange expressions on their faces—they had collected manure themselves all their lives and this was the first time they had ever seen someone throw it on their door.
"Who did it?" someone asked in a low voice.
"Who knows? The night patrol didn't hear anything either."
"Good for splashing it." A woman with a headscarf said in a low voice. The people next to her quickly tugged at her sleeve, but she was not afraid and continued, "So what if it's splashed? This room stinks worse than excrement."
The murmurs buzzed like a swarm of flies.
Some laughed, some cursed, and some pretended to be passing by, walking slowly three times.
As the sun rose higher and the fog slowly dissipated, the door became even more startling in the morning light.
Two servants came out carrying buckets of water, covered their noses, and splashed water to wash themselves. The sewage mixed with the yellowish water they washed off flowed all over the ground, trickling down the cracks in the stone slabs. The onlookers retreated another circle.
An old man squatted under the eaves of the opposite house, smacked his lips, and said to the person next to him, "I've lived for sixty years, and this is the first time I've seen the gate of a prince's mansion this color."
Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.
With the arrival of the Prince of Zhennan, no one has had a good time.
Yes, the Prince of Zhennan doesn't directly exploit them; he only extorts the wealthy. The problem is, he also has about a thousand men with him.
These people are a mixed bag.
Some people ride their horses recklessly through the city, injuring people without paying compensation, and instead blaming you for blocking their way.
Some people eat without paying and then complain that the food you cook is bad.
Some people even harassed women in broad daylight, displaying extreme arrogance.
For all these reasons, they frequently oppressed the people, and their reputation had long been utterly ruined.
Seeing that someone was standing up for them, the onlookers clapped and cheered, showing no fear whatsoever—in fact, they had long been prepared to run away, and before they left, they didn't mind watching a good show.
"It's just a splash of excrement." Someone in the crowd shouted, "The Prince of Zhennan has been in Changzhou for a month, feeding his men and horses every day. I don't know how much money he's spent. After a while, the government will definitely increase taxes to make up for this money, and we'll suffer again. I think tonight some heroes might splash blood—the blood of the Prince of Zhennan's lackeys."
Upon hearing this, everyone cheered.
Just then, the door, which had not yet been cleaned, was suddenly flung open, and a large group of people rushed out in a fit of rage.
The leader's eyes darted around, and he pointed, saying, "Arrest all the onlookers and interrogate them one by one."
Everyone understood that this was a good excuse to arrest more people, and the officials of the Prince's mansion wouldn't blame them.
Whether they did it or not is irrelevant. If the family doesn't pay, they can just rot in jail.