"Second brother, let's take it to make porridge for my younger brother and sister first!" Zhao Da couldn't help but say, stuffing the rice bowl into the money second-hand.

"Big brother, I, I'm ......" Qian Er's lips squirmed, but he didn't know what to say.

"There's a way." Zhao Dadao, and then nodded heavily, "There will definitely be a way!" ”

The next meal was gone, and Zhao Da had no intention of working to make sea salt, and he didn't want to stay at home, so he went out and walked around.

"Brother Zhao!" The scoundrel Wang Qing came sneakily and beckoned at Zhao Da.

If it was in the past, Zhao Da didn't want to deal with this idle scoundrel at all, but today, for some reason, Zhao Da Ghost sent God to meet him.

"Brother Zhao, are you willing to make a deal?" Wang Qing asked mysteriously and secretly.

"What kind of sale? Are you going to buy salt for someone? Zhao Da asked casually, but there was a hint of surprise in his heart.

Wang Qing's collusion is very extensive, and it is said that he also has dealings with smuggler salt dealers, if he is willing to collect salt, no matter how low the price of salt is, he will finally have a way to live.

"Salt can't get out at all, I'll take it for nothing!" Wang Qing smiled awkwardly, and then said, "I'm talking about another deal." ”

"What kind of sale? Let's talk about it first, I won't do anything illegal! Zhao Da said vigilantly.

This Wang Qing is a person who has done all the bad things, although Zhao Da is poor, he is upright, although he is a stove family for generations, he is a pure white family.

"I'll do illegal things, I don't need you to do it, Brother Zhao." Wang Qing said with a smile, "Brother Zhao, don't you have many brothers, I want to ask you to bring your brothers to help me cheer me tonight, you don't have to do anything, I will give each person ten catties of rice afterwards!" ”

"Ten pounds of rice!" Zhao Da felt his heart pounding, if in the past, this bit of rice was nothing, as long as he boiled salt for two days, he could earn it, but now the salt pile can't be sold at home, thinking about the wife and children who are waiting to be fed at home, Zhao Da's heart is moved.

"Is it really just a matter of standing on the sidelines?" Zhao Da's voice was full of weakness and hesitation.

"I can still lie to you, it's just cheering." Wang Qing said with a smile.

"Okay, I promise you!" Zhao Da nodded heavily.

"Wait in front of the Guandi Temple at the head of the town at the second watch, don't be late." Wang Qing admonished and left.

Standing in place for a moment, Zhao Da turned his head and walked into the town, going to gather his acquaintances.

On the second watch of the night, Zhao Da walked out of the town with a dozen or so familiar brothers, and saw Wang Qing, dressed in black, waiting there in front of the Guandi Temple, and there were five or six people standing beside him, and the black light was blind and he couldn't see clearly.

"Let's go!" Seeing that Zhao Da came as promised, Wang Qing nodded and didn't say much, and took the lead to walk out of town.

By the moonlight in the sky, the group walked along the road one foot deep and one foot shallow, but it was in the direction of Rugao.

Zhao Da was shocked to find that along the way, from time to time people from other villages joined the team, when they walked to Rugao County outside Dongguan, the team already had more than 100 people, Zhao Da vaguely recognized, most of the crowd were local stove households, many people Zhao Da could call names.

Rugao County is a low city, located on the side of the Yunyan River, there is a wharf outside the city near the Yunyan River, there are several warehouses by the wharf, a grain store, and several shops along the Yunyan River.

And the purpose of the group is to carry food.

In the coastal salt areas of the two Huai provinces, the land is barren and produces very little, and some of the stove households also have a small amount of land, and the production in the fields is too small, and most of the food needed must be purchased. Therefore, the grain merchants in Yangzhou have done business here, and have opened grain stores in coastal counties and even larger towns, specializing in selling grain to stove households.

In the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the imperial court purchased the salt in the hands of the stove households in exchange for grain, and the price was often one load of salt for one load of grain. But since the reform of the salt system in the Wanli Dynasty, the imperial court no longer used grain to buy salt, but bought it with silver, and the stove households sold the salt and then used silver to buy grain, so the grain merchants came as the times came, purchased from Jiangdong and even Huguang at a low price, and sold them to the stove households at a higher price, earning the difference in price, giving birth to many wealthy merchants.

In Dongguan, outside Rugao City, there is such a Sun Ji grain store.

And today, Sun Ji was robbed of the grain store, and more than 100 strong men came at night to surround the grain store, and the grain store guards inside were so frightened that they were not possessed.

It turned out to be a robbery of the grain store! Zhao Da felt very inappropriate and had the heart to give up participating, but looking at the energetic brothers around him and thinking about the family members who were waiting to be fed, Zhao Da hesitated.

With so many people participating, it was the middle of the night, no one must know about it, Zhao Da thought in his heart.

One torch suddenly lit up, and then another, and each of Zhao Da's brothers was stuffed with a torch and let them hold it. At night, nearly a hundred torches resemble a long fire dragon.

"They are bluffing, not letting the officers and soldiers in the city know the truth and truth!" Qian Er stood behind Zhao Da and leaned into Zhao Da's ear and said softly.

Zhao Da nodded, so many torches seemed to have the scale of thousands of people, even if the officers and soldiers in Rugao City found that something was wrong, they would never dare to make any changes, let alone go out of the city.

Wang Xian kept his word and did not let Zhao Da and his brothers participate in the operation, but let them stand with torches.

Under the firelight, more than a dozen black shadows climbed over the wall of the grain store with a human ladder, and soon, the gate of the grain store was opened, and all the men inside were tied up.

......

In Rugao County, the officers and soldiers guarding the city have been alarmed by the movement outside the city, and they looked at the situation outside in horror on the city wall. Rugao is only a county seat, and there are hundreds of defenders in the city, plus the archers of the Salt Inspection Division, the strength of the guards is enough under normal times.

However, looking at the situation outside, the number of bandits is afraid that there are not as many as 1,000 people, and the defenders of the city have turned all the tendons in their legs and stomachs, for fear that the bandits will attack the county seat.

Rugao Zhixian was also shouted, and climbed to the city wall in fear, looking at the situation outside and speechless.

"Master, please hurry up and give the order to send troops. My family has been robbed of all my food. When he heard that the grain store outside the city had been robbed, he suddenly became anxious, climbed to the top of the city, grabbed the sleeve of the county magistrate and begged.

"Sending troops? How to send troops? Don't you see that the size of the bandits outside the city is enough to make thousands? What if they take advantage of the situation to attack the county seat? ”

The magistrate reprimanded the shopkeeper Sun.

But where did these bandits come from? Rugao Zhixian was also wondering in his heart. There are soldiers stationed in the county seat, and there is a salt inspection department every few dozen miles, which closely monitors the safety of the salt area. So many bandits seem to have appeared out of thin air, and there is a lot of article in this!

Thinking about the official documents from Yangzhou and the recent move of salt merchants to stop buying salt, Gaozhi County instinctively knew that things were not good, and perhaps the peaceful days would no longer exist.