Chapter 741: The Salt Scheme
Chapter 741: The Salt Scheme
At night, hundreds of tugboats stopped by the river. Five hundred warriors guarding the ships and hundreds of civilian laborers loaded bags of official salt and private salt onto the boats. They were busy until five o'clock in the morning, and all the 100,000 stones of salt were loaded onto the boats.
In the warehouse, a merchant named Li from Chang'an opened ten large boxes. Lei Rongsheng personally brought five accountants to inspect the gold. All of them were gold ingots weighing 25 taels each, and there were a total of 400 ingots.
They are all real gold minted by the government, no problem.
Lei Rongsheng smiled so hard that his mouth couldn't close. He clasped his fists and said, "Brother Li, I look forward to our continued cooperation next time. Other areas are also possible, not just salt, but also food, oil, etc."
Li Guike nodded and said, "I will come again in the spring next year, and I may need to buy food then."
"Easy to say! Easy to say!"
Li Guike boarded the ship, and three hundred tugboats set sail, flying the inspection-free flag given by the Lei family, and no checkpoints along the way dared to check.
The real identity of this Li Guike is Li Hui, the deputy envoy of the Salt and Iron Administration of the Sui Dynasty. He will not honestly follow the Yongji Canal into the Yellow River. It will take too long and the other party will find out that they have been deceived and intercepted. Their plan is to go to Liting County, Qinghe County, and immediately turn to Pingyuan County. It is less than 100 miles away from the Yellow River and there is an ancient canal. After passing through Pingyuan County, they will directly enter the Yellow River. Large ships cannot do this, but flat-bottomed boats like theirs can.
As soon as Li Hui left Leshou County, he immediately sent someone to urgently notify Su Dingfang.
Where is Su Dingfang? Su Dingfang led 10,000 cavalrymen across the Yellow River and headed north along the Bohai Sea, still fifty miles away from Yanshan County.
This area is full of salt fields. When winter comes, the seaside becomes extremely cold. In half a month, the Bohai Sea will begin to freeze. After October, the seaside will stop boiling salt and wait until the beginning of next spring.
Tens of thousands of salt farmers live in Yanshan County. When you arrive in Yanshan County, you will see endless shacks, which are the homes of tens of thousands of salt farmers.
That morning, Su Dingfang received a letter from Li Hui, and it was time to start the action.
Yanshan County is just a small county, but it is an important salt-producing area. Dou Jiande specially ordered the digging of a 200-mile-long canal from Yanshan County directly to Yongji Canal, and stationed 3,000 troops here.
At noon, hundreds of strong salt traders carried their loads into the city, but were stopped by the defenders. The salt traders were only allowed to enter the city if they delivered salt, but the loads they carried were empty. The soldiers said they were buying New Year's goods, but they were not allowed to enter the city either.
At this moment, the leading salt worker shouted, "Do it!"
Hundreds of salt workers pulled out knives from their carrying poles and swung them at the soldiers. Dozens of soldiers were caught off guard and were chopped down one after another. The soldiers then rushed up to the city and seized the top of the city wall.
At this time, cavalrymen from a few miles away rushed in like a tide, and in a moment they reached the city and rushed directly into the county town.
Thousands of large ships appeared on the sea, and hundreds of small boats came over, taking the salt farmers and their families onto the large ships. Thousands of people in the county were also taken away.
At this time, the shacks outside the city were set on fire, with blazing flames and billowing smoke. The salt farmers' homes were burned down, and under the threat of thousands of cavalry, they were forced to board the large ships and be transported to Beihai County.
Three thousand surrendered soldiers became coolies and dumped hundreds of thousands of tons of rock salt into the canal. Several warehouses full of firewood and the entire county town were also burned to ashes by the fire.
The next day, the salt field was completely destroyed, the three thousand surrendered soldiers also left on the boat, and the ten thousand cavalry returned south at lightning speed.
It was not until five days later that Lei Rongsheng learned that more than 100,000 stones of salt in stock in Yanshan County had been destroyed, the salt fields had been destroyed, and the salt farmers were gone.
Lei Rongsheng was struck by lightning. He realized that he had been cheated. The other party took advantage of his greed for gold and not only took away his 20,000 stone salt, but also took away 80,000 stone salt from the government warehouse.
He was not fooled, he earned 10,000 taels of gold, but.
Lei Rongsheng certainly knew that the consequences would be serious. He ordered the warriors to arrest Li Kun, the military officer of the Cangcao, to prevent him from escaping. He had no choice but to ask for forgiveness from Dou Jiande.
Dou Jiande was in a bad mood during this period, and Hao Xiaode finally couldn't bear the tremendous pressure. After negotiations between the two sides, Hao Xiaode formally joined Dou Jiande's Xia Kingdom on the condition of retaining 30,000 troops. He was named Prince of Anyang and stationed in Wei County.
Dou Jiande had just learned that 10,000 Sui cavalry had launched a surprise attack on the Bohai County Salt Field. This made him both angry and puzzled. Why did the other party attack the salt field?
But he was still a little uneasy, and immediately summoned the Prime Minister Song Zhengben, "I just got the news that 10,000 Sui cavalry attacked our salt fields and destroyed Yanshan County. I'm a little worried. How much salt do we have left?"
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I just checked the account book. We still have 80,000 shi of salt in the warehouse. 50,000 shi will be shipped to the Turks after the spring, but the rest is enough. After the spring, we can continue to boil salt. As long as the sea is still there, there will be no problem."
Dou Jiande breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Liu Wuzhou has been wiped out. We can't go through Feihu Pass. I'm worried that Luo Yi will intercept us if we go through Jundu Pass."
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Liang Luoyi doesn't dare to intercept the Turkic salt. Besides, he doesn't lack salt. What's the point of intercepting the salt?"
At this moment, a guard reported in the hall, "Your Highness, the Duke of Pingyuan is outside the palace, carrying a thorn stick on his back to apologize!" Dou Jiande was stunned. Why would Lei Rongsheng carry a thorn stick on his back to apologize?
Then he suddenly had an idea and said with a smile, "I guess Lei Rongsheng is concerned about the destruction of the salt field. Isn't he the largest salt merchant?"
Song Zhengben felt something was wrong and whispered, "Your Majesty, something is wrong. The saltworks was destroyed, so it should be Your Majesty who should apologize to him. He must have some other reason for coming here to ask for forgiveness!"
Dou Jiande also felt something was wrong, so he quickly stood up and walked towards the door.
Lei Rongsheng was seen wearing cloth clothes, with three whips on his back, kneeling on the ground. Some people wanted to come and watch, but were driven away by the soldiers.
"Lord Lei, what are you doing?"
Lei Rongsheng said with a sad face: "I was framed and defrauded of tens of thousands of rock salt!"
"You mean Yanshan County?"
"It's either Yanshan County or the Kuyan here!"
"Ah! Who lied to you?"
"I don't know. They claimed to be from Chang'an and offered a price higher than the market price, so I sold them the salt from the warehouse. They paid with gold, but later I found out that the gold was fake, it was all red copper!"
This is the cunningness of Lei Rongsheng. Even if he came to apologize, he would never admit that he had obtained 12,000 taels of gold. He would only say that he was cheated.
Dou Jiande nodded. He had been hunting geese all his life, but in the end, he was pecked in the eye by a goose.
Song Zhengben still felt that something was wrong. What did this have to do with asking for forgiveness by carrying a thorn stick on one's back?
He asked, "Excuse me, Lord Lei, how much salt was cheated out of you?"
"One hundred thousand stones?"
Dou Jiande was stunned and asked in confusion: "You told me two days ago that you only have 20,000 shi of salt?"
Lei Rongsheng said tremblingly: "I borrowed another 80,000 stones of salt from the government treasury!"
"what?"
Dou Jiande seemed to have stepped on empty air and fell into an abyss. Song Zhengben also became anxious. He grabbed Lei Rongsheng and said angrily: "Who gave you the power to dare to touch the salt in the government storehouse?"
At this time, Dou Jiande was extremely anxious and shouted, "Bring me a horse and go to the warehouse outside the city!"
Soon, Dou Jiande, escorted by a thousand cavalrymen, rode to the warehouse outside the city at lightning speed. He saw officials and storekeepers kneeling on the ground in front of the warehouse, all of whom had been tied up by soldiers.
The warehouse door was wide open. Dou Jiande walked quickly into the warehouse, only to see that the salt warehouse was empty, without even a bag of salt. His eyes went dark and he almost fainted.
The guards supported Dou Jiande, who was furious and ordered the beheading of Li Kun, the assistant general of the Cangcao, and several storekeepers.
Although he hated him to the core, he would not kill his father-in-law Lei Rongsheng. It was not because he wanted to favor his concubine, but because Lei Rongsheng had given him hundreds of thousands of strings of cash in profit, and he would not kill his God of Wealth.
At this time, Song Zhengben stepped forward and said, "I have carefully asked Lord Lei, and it is certain that the King of Jin sent people to defraud salt. They just left five days ago, and the fleet should still be in Wei County. It is still not too late to intercept them."
Dou Jiande shouted, "Send a message to the Ji County garrison by carrier pigeon. Any ships heading south must be detained!"
(End of this chapter)