Chapter 743: Youzhou Salt Famine
Chapter 743: Youzhou Salt Famine
Luo Shou surrendered, and his 10,000 troops also joined the Sui army. The Sui army had a strength of 40,000. Luo Shixin sealed the Pingzhou salt field and the warehouses of 15 salt merchants, and prohibited even a pound of salt from leaving Pingzhou. Anyone who violated the order would have his entire family executed.
The salt industry in Youzhou was different from that in Hebei. It was completely liberalized and the government had no control over it. Fifteen salt merchants controlled the Pingzhou Salt Field, and a total of 20,000 salt workers worked for them.
Although Luo Yi did not interfere in the salt industry, fifteen salt merchants had to hand over 50,000 stones of salt to Luo Yi every year, of which 30,000 stones were shipped to the grasslands and 20,000 stones were used by Luo Yi himself.
Every salt merchant has a warehouse, which is located in Lulong County. The sea water starts to freeze in late October and salt mining stops. Then the twenty days from late October to early November are the settlement time. After the salt merchants settle the accounts for the year, they pay the balance to the salt farmers and transport all the salt stored on the seashore to Pinglu County.
Next, we will start preparing New Year’s goods. A large amount of salt will be transported to Youzhou City in Zhuo County, and the 50,000 stones for the government will also need to be transported.
The Sui army captured Beiping County on the first day of November, which was exactly the settlement period. The salt was all in the Pinglu warehouse, and the Sui army sealed the warehouse door with a piece of paper.
Luo Shou rushed to Ji County, Zhuo County with several followers. In his arms was a handwritten letter from Emperor Xiao Xia of the Sui Dynasty to Luo Yi. Of course, Luo Shou's wife and two sons were in Pinglu County, so he would not dare to do anything tricky.
That morning, an official came to report, "General, a salt merchant just came to say that a merchant from Hebei wanted to buy salt from him!"
Luo Shixin sneered. There was no doubt that this person was sent by Dou Jiande. He immediately ordered, "Bring the salt buyer to see me!"
Soon, a middle-aged man was brought in. He knelt down and confessed his crime. "I am a merchant from Hebei named Liu Jin. I came to Beiping County to buy salt on the orders of King Xia."
"You are quite honest!"
"I dare not hide anything. I only ask the general to spare my life!"
Luo Shixin nodded and asked, "How is the salt situation in Hebei?"
"Reporting to the general, Dou Jiande has ordered the collection of salt in all counties in Hebei. Currently, the people have run out of salt. My family has no salt to eat. The army can only hold out for more than a month, and will run out of salt next month."
"Have you ever thought of breaking open the sea ice to get seawater and boil salt?"
Liu Jin smiled bitterly and said, "How could I not have thought about it? It seems simple, but it is too difficult to do. Ice over a foot thick is as hard as iron. When you knock it with a stick, there is only a white mark. It took a lot of effort to break the ice, but it froze again before I could get a few buckets of sea water. But these are not the important reasons."
“What’s the important reason?”
"The main reason is that the southern part of Bohai Sea has been occupied by the Sui army, and a large number of cavalry are stationed in Yangxin County. Unless Dou Jiande sends tens of thousands of troops to the seashore to get salt, the Sui cavalry will harass them and the seawater they have worked so hard to get out will be gone."
Luo Shixin nodded secretly. It seemed that the emperor was using salt as a lever to start the war to eliminate Dou Jiande.
New Year's large-scale purchases usually start in early December, and November is still a slow market period. The same is true for Jixian County. After entering November, the market is still like lukewarm water, neither cold nor hot.
But that morning, hundreds of Hu merchants started buying salt like crazy. They bought out all the salt in one salt shop and rushed to the next one.
Originally, the salt shops had little salt in stock and were waiting for the salt team from Beiping County to come in the middle of the month to restock the salt. Unexpectedly, this group of Hu merchants swarmed like locusts and snatched up all the salt in the shops, even scraping the bottom of the warehouse clean. The salt shops had to quickly send people to Beiping County to urge for salt.
The salt shops were also a little uneasy, wondering what had happened. But despite their uneasiness, no salt shop refused to sell to customers. After all, salt had never been a scarce commodity in Youzhou. It could be said that there had never been a shortage of salt in the past few hundred years.
Therefore, the salt shops opened for sale, and in just two days, the stock of salt in fifteen salt shops was snatched away by the Hu merchants, and all fifteen salt shops closed due to shortage of stock.
But at this time, the people still did not pay attention to it, let alone panic. These Hu merchants got the news from Hebei that Hebei was out of salt and the army was snatching salt from the people. The grassland Hu merchants realized that something was wrong and took decisive action, snatching all the salt from various places in Youzhou and transporting the salt out of the city and hiding it.
Soon, the news finally came that Beiping County was conquered by the Sui army and the salt source was cut off. This news immediately set off panic in various counties in Youzhou. Every household went out to sell salt everywhere. At this time, there was no point in hoarding and selling at a high price. All the salt was bought up by the Hu merchants on the grassland.
Even Luo Yi could not remain calm anymore and ordered all salt shops to open for business. The salt shops were forced to open, but there was no salt to sell. For the first time, a small amount of salt caused extreme panic in Youzhou. At this time, if a family had a few buckets of salt in stock, it would be fine if they did not show off their wealth. However, once they went out to show off, trouble would come. All relatives and friends would come running. If they did not lend the salt to their relatives and friends, thieves would come and rob them at night.
Although Luo Yi was still a general of the Sui Dynasty in name, he was loyal to the Sui Dynasty in Chang'an. He first accepted the title conferred by the Western Sui Dynasty and was named Prince of Beiping. After the fall of the Western Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan supported Yang You as emperor and established the New Sui Dynasty. At this time, Li Yuan and Wang Shichong came to win over Luo Yi at the same time. Luo Yi finally accepted Li Yuan's title conferred and was promoted to Prince of Yan. His brother Luo Shou also succeeded him as Prince of Beiping.
Luo Yi also heard some rumors that Beiping County was occupied by the Sui army. Luo Yi suspected that it was false news. The Bohai Sea was frozen. Where did the Sui army come from?
At this time, his son Luo Cheng hurried over. The name Luo Cheng was also given by the former crown prince Yang Yong. At that time, Luo Yi's father was still alive and was from the crown prince's faction. When his grandson was born, Yang Yong named the child Luo Cheng.
This is not Xiong Kuohai or Wu Yunzhao who changed their names halfway. This is the genuine Luo Cheng, who inherited his father's martial arts, wields a plum blossom silver spear, and is brave enough to defeat ten thousand men.
Although Luo Cheng was only eighteen years old, he was no playboy. He led an army of 10,000 to suppress bandits in Shanggu County and Hengshan County. Wei Daoer and Song Jingang, who had over 100,000 bandits, were wiped out. Wei Daoer died under his gun, and Song Jingang fled to Liu Wuzhou. There was also a fierce bandit, Lu Mingyue, who was also defeated by him. He had no choice but to go to Dou Jiande.
The three most vicious bandits in Hengshan County and Shanggu County, Wei Daoer, Song Jingang and Lu Mingyue, were all wiped out by him.
"Father, how much salt do we have left in our army?" Luo Cheng asked anxiously.
Luo Yi said dissatisfiedly: "What rumors have you heard that make you so shocked?"
Luo Cheng said anxiously: "Father, it's not a rumor. I have seen visitors returning from Liaodong. They confirmed that tens of thousands of Jin Wang Sui troops from Liaodong have marched south and Yuguan has been lost."
Luo Yi was shocked. Could it be that the rumor that Beiping County had cut off its salt source was just groundless?
He immediately ordered: "Order Zhang Changshi and Wen Sima to come see me!"
Luo Yi also had two good talents under his command. One was Zhang Gongjin, who had followed Luo Yi for many years, and the other was Wen Yanbo, a talented man from the Wen family of Taiyuan. He had served as a military advisor in the Youzhou General's Office and was later promoted by Luo Yi to be the Sima of the General's Office.
Soon, Zhang Gongjin and Wen Yanbo hurried over and saluted together, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"
"Do you know about the salt rush among the people?"
Zhang Gongjin nodded. "It was the Hu people from the grassland who started the salt robbery. They bought up all the salt on the market. The salt from Beiping County could not be delivered, which caused panic."
"How much salt can I tell you is in the warehouse?"
Wen Yanbo bowed and said, "About three thousand stones!"
Luo Yi frowned. Only three thousand stones?
At this time, a soldier came running over and said, "Your Majesty, the Second Prince is back!"
The second prince was his brother Luo Shou. Luo Yi said anxiously, "Let him in!"
(End of this chapter)