There were no torches, the group went ashore in the dark, and the child Wang Jian went over to muttered to his father for a while, but the old boatman first objected fiercely, but he couldn't stand his son's repeated persuasion and Pu Dao, who was eyeing the brother next to him, and finally reluctantly agreed.

Brother Jin smiled and approached the side of the eldest grandson, and said a few words in his ear, so that the eldest brother who was wondering why the very horizontal child suddenly changed his personality suddenly realized, and looked carefully at the direction where the stretcher of the eldest grandson Erlang was.

The eldest grandson Hong was lying lazily on the stretcher, his limbs weak, looking at the starry sky in a daze.

Leaving a person from Lijia Village to stay with the boatman, the rest of the people plus Wang Jian, taking advantage of the fact that the night was thick and there was no one around, they carried the burden on the road, and the mountain people were accustomed to walking the mountain road, and by the moonlight in the sky, which was as bright as the day, although they were somewhat night blind, they could also walk.

Fushun county is built in the middle of a hill, all directions are mountains, the road turns east and west in the ravine, up and down, and the well-known Shuzhong well salt is produced in the salt pond area in the north of this county.

Shu land salt, very ancient, can be traced back to the Warring States Period, thousands of years down, has developed into a very developed, marketing provinces of the huge industry, among which the salt industry in the Fushun area is the most prosperous, salt wells are dotted, the ore layer is shallow, easy to excavate, good quality, abundant yield, so the Song Dynasty enclosed the land here as a supervisor, the administrative division is independent of the state capital, directly under the jurisdiction of the central warehouse division, and the imperial court sent the supervisor to be stationed directly.

Therefore, in Fushun, salt administration is fundamental, and the focus of the government is mainly on the control of salt, and the investigation is much stricter than that in other places. The risk is too great during the day, and entering the salt pond at night has become the only choice for the people of Lijia Village.

After walking on the winding mountain path for more than two hours, about three minutes of ugliness, the scenery that had been barren on the side of the trail changed, and some tall wooden shelves appeared on the slopes on both sides of the road, the wooden frames were tall and long, more than four or five feet long, standing on the ground, and a low wall was built below, and the view was blocked, and I didn't know what was in it.

The dog came once, to be familiar with it, and saw that Changsun Hong was attracted by the wooden frame, and while walking, he began to introduce to Changsun Hong, who came for the first time: "These are derricks, but they have been abandoned, and after digging a well, they will be abandoned and the next one will be dug instead." Inside the low stone wall is the well, three feet wide and a hundred feet deep, and people can't even find their bodies when they fall. ”

The black shadow pupils of the derrick bathed in the moonlight in the night, like a hideous monster standing on a high place, the mountain wind howling, and the nocturnal beast roaring, it is inevitable that people will get goosebumps, Wang Jian shrank his body, and instinctively leaned in the direction of the dog and the eldest grandson.

"Dog, it's been so long, who are we exchanging salt from?" Changsun Hong asked, it was almost midnight, and if you go down, it will not be far from dawn.

"Of course it's a pavilion." The dog said in a low voice: "Only the pavilion households are willing to exchange salt for rice, and those officials are the ones who can see our grain, and they all collect copper and silver." ”

"Why are the pavilions willing to accept rice?" The eldest grandson Hongqi said.

"Cowardly." The dog snorted: "After receiving the money and things, you have to spend it, in case it is discovered by Jiatou, it will be troublesome, at least you have to take off a layer of skin, so the pavilion households are afraid of more trouble, they are willing to directly change the rice, hide at home and eat slowly." ”

Changsun Hong let out an "oh", and then he understood.

The Sichuan salt administration of the Southern Song Dynasty is the bulk of the imperial court's tax revenue, there is a saying that "the world is taxed, and the salt administration is half of the wall", the government attaches great importance to it, the system is strict, and the pavilion households responsible for digging wells, taking brine, and frying salt are not allowed to engage in other industries, specializing in the salt industry, and ten households are one first, supervising each other, supplying enough salt to the imperial court on schedule, and the imperial court will pay the necessary costs. Salt that is more abundant than the tax amount is not allowed to be sold to others, but only to the government.

This matter is in charge of Jiatou, Jiatou is generally a local ruffian, has nothing to do, and specializes in his duties, and the excess salt of the pavilion households is generally sucked away by Jiatou, and secretly sold to salt merchants to make huge profits, and the salt officials of the warehouse division also have a commission.

Once the pavilion is found to be stealing and selling salt, the light ones will be confiscated for thousands of miles, and the heavy ones will be beheaded and their homes will be confiscated, and the punishment will be very severe. But the government's exploitation is fierce, a pound of salt is only given a dozen yuan, and the life of the pavilion will not die, but it is not enough for life at all, and it cannot do other livelihoods, and it is not even allowed to farm. Therefore, some pavilion households will take risks and steal salt and sell it to small-scale illegal salt dealers like Lijia Village in exchange for a little living materials.

As he was talking, he saw the eldest grandson Jin who was walking in front of him emerging from the grass pile on the side of the road, and made a gesture to the leading eldest grandson Hao with a grass mustard on his face.

Changsun Hao immediately led the people to turn, turned to the side of the road, and stepped onto a very inconspicuous path.

The path winds and turns, winding in the darkness deep into the woods.

After walking into the woods for a while, it suddenly became clear in front of me, and in the moonlight, a group of people who were squatting on the ground guarding a basket stood up.

The people of Lijia Village walked over and stood still more than ten paces away, and the two brothers, Changsun Hao and Changsun Jin, stepped forward, and the other party also stood up and stood face to face with the two.

"It's a day late, I thought you weren't coming." The man is also a burly figure, although shorter than the eldest grandson brother, but he is very tall among the Sichuan people, under the dark skin exposed by the sun, the strong muscles are almost about to break the tattered linen, at a glance I know that he is a rough man who is used to working hard: "If you don't come tonight, we will move things back. ”

"Something happened on the road, someone got sick and delayed the trip." The eldest grandson Hao clenched his fists and apologized, and sued him: "Boss Liu, I'm sorry." ”

The iron tower man called Boss Liu waved his hand and smiled happily: "What kind of hug, as long as your eldest grandson brother is not caught by someone else, it is easy to say anything." ”

The three of them talked, bursting into a hearty laugh from time to time, and in the crowd of Lijia Village behind, Changsun Hong pointed to the strong man and asked the dog: "This is the pavilion that wants to sell salt to us?" ”

For this kind of scene of meeting the children of the rivers and lakes, the dog is very yearning, he replied in an envious tone: "Exactly, that person's surname is Liu, I don't know what his name is, he is the head of a group of pavilions, it seems that he knew Baozheng before, it is an old acquaintance, so he dared to sell salt to us, and he came over last year, and he also came forward." ”

Changsun Hong nodded, and looked at the group of people behind Boss Liu, and only after a glance did he know that he thought that the people of Lijia Village were extremely poor people, otherwise how could they be willing to risk killing their heads to come out to sell salt.

The people opposite, all of them have yellow muscles and thin muscles, rib-like bodies, looking like their faces are wrinkled and decrepit, their unkempt hair is tied in a bun with branches at will, they are wearing burlap coats with patches and patches, and they have a linen cloth around their lower bodies, they don't even have pants, they are all barefoot, they don't wear shoes, they live like a group of hungry ghosts who haven't eaten for several days, staring at the rice in the burden here.

The eldest grandson Hong secretly smacked his tongue, and couldn't help but ask Wang Jian beside him: "Why are the pavilions on your side so down?" It looks worse than our farmers. ”

Wang Jian is a small person, but he is sensible, he sniffled when he heard the sound, and said gloomily: "Although your township farmers are bitter, they are free, and they will not starve to death if they cultivate the land, and the people on our side will not be able to do it, and they can only fry salt when they become pavilion households, and they are not allowed to do anything else, and people can't live by eating salt, so that's it." ”

When the dog heard this, he also echoed: "I also heard that there were people who starved to death here last year, otherwise how could Boss Liu risk selling salt, he would be killed if he was caught." ”

The two children said as they said that they were not born here, and they were secretly glad. The eldest grandson Hong also shook his head again and again, sighing, the two Song dynasties were rich in the world, with an annual income of 10 million, but the people under their rule were so miserable, compared with the two, it was embarrassing.

And between the eldest grandson brother and Boss Liu, the price has been negotiated at this moment, the two sides have traded last year, they are clear about the details, and they are bartering, simply clear, and soon, the baskets on both sides will be exchanged.

On the side of the pavilion, as soon as the burden of rice passed, some people couldn't bear it, reached out to grab the rice in the basket and stuffed it into their mouths, chewing their mouths full of rice grains, Boss Liu scolded a few times before stopping. The people of Lijia Village are dumbfounded, and they can eat raw rice?

In order to avoid a lot of dreams at night, the two sides hurriedly said goodbye, and left separately while the sky was not bright.