The old man led the walking man of the Salt Transport Administration, followed the mountain road for more than 40 miles, and passed through eight or nine mountains. The big black man was a little out of breath, holding the branch next to him with one hand and crossing his waist with the other, and stopped and said in a muffled voice, "That old brother, are you close to the left?" After speaking, he gasped. Since then, the three of them have asked no less than five times, and at this time, the big black man asked again, and the two of them stopped and looked at the old man.

The old man approached half a zhang and scratched his head and said, "The three officials are not strange, they should have arrived here on weekdays, but today's journey, I'm afraid it's still half an hour away." Seeing that the roosterscomb red in the west had gradually disappeared, the old man was very helpless. Although this big man is strong and thick, after all, he is not as sharp as the old man who walks in the fields and the top of the mountain like the old man all the year round, and the blind mountain road is small and small, and there are many thorns. The first three hours did not hinder it, but after more than an hour, the man was already quite tired, and the old man had to slow down from time to time, waiting for the three of them. In this way, the mountain road, which was originally four hours, has not yet arrived after four and a half hours today.

The scar-faced man looked apologetic, looked around the surrounding dense forest again, and said in a fixed voice, "Let's not leave today, let's find a place here and right, build a fire to make some food, and fill our stomachs, and rest at night." Tomorrow, I will get up early, and my brother will lead the three of us again. The two men also knew that they couldn't get away at this time, so they glanced at each other and swam away, as if they were looking for where they landed.

When the old man heard it, how could he not allow it, and immediately agreed, "This is very good, this blind mountain, the fork in the road is multi-pole, and it is easy to lose direction in the white room on weekdays. ”

The scar-faced man nodded, obviously agreeing with the old man's statement. At that moment, he asked everyone to find firewood, and in a moment, dry firewood with a height of the hips and a square circle of half a zhang had been piled up. The short man took out two knives and stones from his bag, lit a fire on the pine needles that had been clustered, and slowly folded some dry wood branches. The scar-faced man said, "Wan Yong, you are here to serve the firewood, clear a square square blade of grass, but don't set fire to the mountain." Jiang Yang, brother, the three of us are looking for something to eat in this radius. Remember, don't go far! Half an hour's work, whether you find food or not, you need to come back, don't leave the sight of this fire. It turned out that the four of them were in a hurry when they came, but they didn't prepare some dry food and rice, and they were already hungry after a day of walking. After the instructions, the three of them dispersed, leaving a short man named Wan Yong to pick up the dry grass and dead leaves on the side.

Fortunately, the sun sank later in October, and the moon was quite bright, although it was approaching, but they could barely see the things far and near, and the three of them did not delay, and hurriedly dived towards the forest.

This Fuzhou is a large state of Anxian County, in the southwest corner of Anxian County, and the northeast of Cangsheng County. Anham County is the largest salt-producing county in Dahua Kingdom, and more than 100 years ago, several large salt mines were discovered in the northwest of the county, and the imperial court set up a salt transportation administration here. Although the salt transportation administration department of Anham County is the county government secretary, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce, but is directly dispatched by the emperor, and it is a full-time post with a second rank.

In the past ten years, the earlier discovery of mineral salt has been exhausted, and the output has been less than 30% of the previous time, and I am afraid that there will be no more salt in a few years. In recent years, more than 1,000 people have been dispatched to the mines to search for and investigate, eager to find new salt mines, and continue this great urgency for the people's livelihood. These three big men are the walks of the Fuyang Salt Farm, and they were sent out to prospect by the State Salt Transportation Inspector, and the scar-faced man is named He Guanggen, who is the only editor among the three who has entered the official register, and the remaining two are the only ones who can only look at their horses. In recent years, the imperial court has won a lot of prizes in the prospecting book, and once there are people who have discovered salt mines, according to the size of the salt mines, they can show great merit at most, and the three of them said that they will be exempt from taxes for life, and then give the official land 100 acres, and their life will be changed! Therefore, the three of them heard in the wine shop in Fuyang Town that someone had encountered an accident of salty water in a karst cave in the blind mountain, so they hurried to come, and did not dare to delay for a moment, for fear that someone would take the opportunity to explore the salt mine.

It was already two o'clock, and I saw that Jiang Yang was sitting on the ground more than half a foot away from the fire, with a somewhat cowardly expression, and said to Wan Yong, "I was going to catch a pheasant, but I was half a step away, and I got into the thorn bush, and it was very inconvenient at night. ”

As soon as the words fell, a scolding voice came, and I saw He Guanggen holding a bamboo fork in his left hand, two big frogs on it, and a big mountain rat in his right hand, striding over, with a lot of blood marks on his left face, and his left eye still trembled unconsciously. He Guanggen glanced at Jiang Yang, knowing that he must have never found food, so he came over and shouted, "Don't pestle there, clean these things, so that they can be roasted and eaten." Without waiting for Jiang Yang to come, he threw a mouse and two frogs on the ground. "Dog, mark the uncle!" After speaking, He Guanggen reached out again to cover the bloodstains, and from time to time there was a soft groan of "hiss".

Jiang Yang didn't say anything, pulled out a four-inch-long dagger from his dryland boots, and hurriedly drove away. After about a cup of tea, it was sorted out and roasted on the fire. It's just that the amount of one mouse and two frogs that have been gutted is very small, and I am afraid that it can be enough for one person.

After roasting less than half a pillar of incense, I saw the old man walking from below with his bare arms and a bag of things wrapped in clothes. The three salt transport ministers all looked at him, full of anticipation. Jiang Yang approached first, and said with a smile, "Brother, what is this bag, but to eat?" said as he stretched out his hand to reach out to the bag. "It's some mountain potatoes, roasted in the fire, but it's sweet!" said the old man with a smug smile.

When the three of them heard this, they were so unhappy that they all gathered and put the bag of a dozen mountain potatoes into the fire. I only heard the old man say, "A few years ago, I saw a mountain potato on the side of the col below, and dug a few plants, but at that time, the ground potato had not yet grown, and I couldn't eat it." Shicai went down and passed by the edge of the col, and suddenly remembered this, so he went to dig it, but he didn't expect it to grow so big, so he dug up a dozen. As he spoke, he smirked, revealing a mouthful of thin yellow teeth.

That night, the four of them gathered around the fire, eating hot and sweet roasted mountain potatoes, so they were not satisfied, leaving only a peeling sweet potato burnt.

The next day, as soon as the fish belly was white, the four of them got up and walked in the direction of the cave led by the old man. As soon as he crossed the top of a mountain and went down to the halfway point of the mountain, the old man stopped and pointed to the left, and said, "That's it, I'll see it when I pass through this elm forest." When the three of them heard this, their faces couldn't help but pick at each other, they were happy and nervous, reading the imperial court's awards, and their steps quickened, forming the same rhythm as their heartbeats.

There is a karst cave that is one zhang high and three zhang wide in front of him, and a trickle slowly flows out from it, forming a small waterhole in the downstream more than ten zhang, and the bottom can be seen clearly.

The four of them walked to the edge of the pool first, He Guanggen leaned over and picked up a handful of water and drank it, his face was rich in description, and he couldn't tell whether it was sad or happy. Seeing this, Wan Yong and Jiang Yang also took a sip of water and took a small sip, their mouths were extremely salty, and they couldn't help but be overjoyed. Jiang Yang's face was even more flushed, he didn't hide the joy in his heart, and shouted loudly, "Brother He, there is nothing wrong, there must be a salt mine in Zhouzhou here, this water, the taste of this water will never be wrong!"

He Guanggen forced his composure and said in a trembling voice, "Wan Yong, Jiang Yang, we took a file to chisel some mineral sand, and we will check it!" The two nodded heavily, took out some tools for extracting mineral sand from the ambush bag, and quickly drove away, leaving the old man in place.

About half a pillar of incense time, the three of them gathered at the edge of the pool, you look at me, I look at you, my heart is uncertain. At this time, the three of them were 100% sure that there must be a salt mine here, and they could find the ore vein by following this stream upward. Moreover, looking at the color of the stone sand component of this karst cave and the taste of the stream flowing out, it can be seen that the color of this vein must be extremely high, and it is not known that it is even if it is powdered salt. The three of them agreed at the moment that Wan Yong and Jiang Yang would guard the veins here all day, and He Guanggen would immediately set off to return to the state capital to report the good news.

He Guanggen collected the mined mineral sand, and asked the old man to lead him back, and kept telling the old man all the way not to talk about it to others, otherwise he would be sentenced to prison. Of course, the old man promised all the way.

The pace of the return journey was much faster, and Shen Youzuo went down the mountain and arrived in the village. He Guanggen had no intention of settling down, and asked the old man anxiously, "Brother, are there horses in the village?"

The old man rubbed his beard and pouted, "The owner is there, but I don't know if I can borrow it." ”

When He Guanggen heard this, he said happily, "This will lead me there, lead me quickly!"

The old man led He Guanggen to the rich man's house, knocked on the door, and the person in charge saw that the person who came was dressed as an official, so he didn't stop him, and led He Guanggen in to find the owner. I don't know what He Guanggen said to the rich man, but after a while, he brought a rather fat horse from the side room. He Guanggen jumped on the horse, raised the whip and whipped it the horse's buttocks, and the horse was in pain and galloped quickly.

Under the moonlit night, he rode alone to the east.