Volume II: Chapter Ninety-Six: The Salt Works

Autumn goes to winter, the cold wind is cold, and on the official road from Fengyang Mansion to Huaibei Salt Farm, a huge convoy is braving the cold wind to slowly move towards the salt field.

This convoy had thousands of horse-drawn flatbed trucks, which were not more than ten miles long, and it looked really terrifying, and the traders, ordinary people, and even post guards and gentry along the way involuntarily stepped aside when they saw it, as if they were afraid of provoking these people.

In fact, there is nothing unusual about the people in this convoy, whether it is the driver or the clothes sitting in the carriage, they are quite ordinary, they do not have any weapons in their hands, except for a little stronger, they are no different from ordinary people.

Why, then, were the vendors, the common people, and even the post guards and gentry along the way afraid of them?

Quite simply, this kind of convoy looks like it is going to the salt field to pull salt, otherwise the carriage would not have been without goods.

Although salt merchants are also traders, they generally have a close relationship with the government, otherwise they will not be able to share the salt introduction at all, and such a large convoy can pull millions of catties of salt, that is to say, the owner of this convoy has at least thousands of salt citations in his hands, and those who can get so much salt quotations are definitely not ordinary people, who dare to provoke them.

This convoy is the Yang family's newly formed grain and salt transportation team, at this time the entire Yang family is also more than 1,000 carriages, the horses that pull the cart are the war horses that Yang Cong and Chang Li bought together in Daizhou Qunmu, and the flatbed cart is pieced together, and it is not easy to get together, as for the other 2,000 carriages, it will take years to build.

The scale of these more than 1,000 carriages is already terrifying enough, Yang Lin rode at the front of the convoy, not to mention how happy he was.

With so many carriages, the salt of 4,000 leads can be pulled in one trip, which is like before, I don't know how many times I have to pull every time, and I have to hire people to hire cars, and I have to beware of bandits and robbers.

He hadn't thought about building so many carriages and buying so many horses before, not that he didn't have the money to buy horses and cars, the main thing was that he couldn't afford to hire so many people, a carriage needed at least two people to take turns to drive, a thousand cars was two thousand, three thousand cars was six thousand, a month of eating, drinking, Lazar plus wages was tens of thousands of taels, plus the consumption of horses was tens of thousands of taels, a year was more than 200,000 taels, four thousand taels of salt might not necessarily make so much money, how dare he do this.

But now it's different, his son Yang Cong has enough to get him a share of more than 60,000 yuan, and the consumption of 3,000 carriages and 6,000 laborers is nothing at all.

This is also the last time he will run this 4,000-lead "small business", and next year it will be more than 60,000 leads, and the imagination is exciting.

Yang Lin looked at the dense salt pans in front of him, and couldn't help laughing: "Jianjiang, Jianlin, there is a salt field in front, aren't you very curious about the salt field, wait for me to tell Master Pan, if you are okay these days, you can go to the salt field to go around." ”

Li Jianjiang and Li Jianlin were sent by Yang Cong to protect his father and assist in the management of the convoy.

Therefore, Yang Lin used to hire guards for fear of being robbed by bandits, but now he doesn't have to be so careful, because there are two thousand strong laborers in the team, and they are all equipped with long sticks, and generally hundreds or thousands of bandits are not their opponents at all.

Li Jianjiang and Li Jianlin brothers are indeed more curious about the salt farm, although they grew up by the sea, they really haven't entered the salt farm, because the salt farm is all government-run, and idle people are not allowed to enter it at all.

It was also their first time in the salt works, and they were a little excited.

However, it is impossible for this salt-carrying team to live in the salt field, which is full of salt pans, and the two thousand or so of them have not even enough place to stay, let alone go to camp.

The team transporting salt usually finds a flat place near the salt field near the water source to camp and rest, which Yang Lin has already told them, so the convoy is still several miles away from the salt field, so they began to direct the strong men who are driving the cart to lead all the carriages to the side of the road, unload the tents and bedding on it, and prepare to set up camp.

They have served as temporary commanders-in-chief, and have even fought against the Japanese Invaders, so it is naturally more than enough to command 2,000 young and strong laborers.

Soon, thousands of carriages were lined up into a huge phalanx, more than 2,000 strong men in groups of ten, groups of ten, skillfully cooperating, and after a while, tents appeared on the flat ground, very neat, just like the army's camp.

After the camp was set up, Li Jianjiang and Li Jianlin's brothers took a few carriages covered with tarpaulins, followed behind Yang Lin, and slowly walked towards a large mansion in the distance.

This mansion is a place for the officials who manage the salt works to work and stay, and Yang Lin has come back and forth a lot, but he is familiar with it.

Soon, everyone came to the gate of the house, Yang Lin stuffed a silver ingot for the guard of the door, and soon, there was a burst of laughter inside: "Oh, it's Brother Yang Lin who is here, I'm sorry." ”

A middle-aged official with a fat face walked briskly from inside, looking very kind.

This is Pan Nian, the official who manages the salt farm, that is, a nine-grade sesame official, but he is quite fat.

Yang Lin also pretended to be kind, and laughed: "Master Pan, I haven't seen you for a long time, I miss my little brother." ”

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and Master Pan led Yang Lin and his party into the compound.

Immediately afterwards, a group of officials came up to take over the carriage, and these people did not even ask, but grabbed the reins of the carriage and pulled it in.

At this time, Li Jianjiang and Li Jianlin brothers were a little nervous, because there was silver on the carriage, a full 40,000 taels of silver, just give it to others, don't you need to count them or something?

They couldn't help but look at Yang Lin with nervous faces, but Yang Lin was fine, shook his head at them with a smile, and then followed Pan Nian to the study next to him.

This filial piety to the silver is the rule, and these silver are not all filial piety to this Lord Pan, Pan Nian is just a hand, and he has to hand over most of the silver.

This rule has also continued for decades, and the salt merchants who came to pull salt knew that no one dared to lose a penny, so Pan Nian didn't count at all, so he directly ordered someone to move to the inner courtyard.

Pan Nian introduced Yang Lin into the study and politely entertained him, and then said cordially: "Brother Yang Lin, I heard that Ling Lang is the top student in high school, now you have a blessing to enjoy, congratulations, congratulations." ”

Yang Lin hurriedly bowed his hand and said modestly: "It's all the emperor's grace, it's all the emperor's grace." ”

He thought that Pan Nian was sincerely congratulating him, but he never thought that when Pan Nian lowered his head, his eyes became extremely complicated, he seemed a little panicked, seemed a little worried, and even had a trace of despair and madness.

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