My life skills in Daming Liver

Chapter 41 Mantis and Oriole
Lin Deqing tremblingly brought his mule into the ghost market. Just as his stall was put down and the nameplate was hung up, merchants who bought salt last time surrounded him.

The last time the person who bought salt was a household slave in charge of a certain rich family in a county, he had originally planned to buy salt in Qianshi, but when he saw that Lin Deqing was cheaper, the manager changed his mind.

Lin Deqing's place is [-] Wen cheaper than the one in Qianshi, and you can pay a price difference of [-] Wen for a catty. These servants rely on this little extra money.

(By the way, in the Ming Dynasty, it was forbidden for ordinary people to keep slaves, but big families still have domestic slaves, usually in the name of adopted sons. Therefore, in a certain great book, domestic slaves call Ximen Qing "Ximen father".)
The servant in charge bought the salt and went home, so he was a little uneasy. If Lin Deqing's salt was eaten by his father and something went wrong, the money he was greedy for ink would be in trouble.

Unexpectedly, after the owner finished eating, he would instead praise him for buying the salt this time, and it didn't taste bitter at all.

This time, the steward house slave was extremely happy, but extremely regretful.

What I regret is that I only bought two catties last time, and only spent one hundred Wen.

So this time, as soon as the ghost market opened, the housekeeper rushed to Lin Deqing's booth. Sure enough, seeing that he had put up a sign, the price was still the same as last time, and the housekeeper rushed up immediately:

"Your salt is still a hundred cents a catty?"

Lin Deqing nodded.

The steward asked again:
"How much do you weigh?"

Lin Deqing's personality was dull, he was a little nervous and speechless, and raised three fingers.

"Thirty catties? Then I'll cover it all!"

Thirty catties is [-] wen. Although it is more than the master’s family needs, you can buy it with money first, and make up for it next time the master’s family asks you to buy salt.

Lin Deqing shook his head and said, "Three hundred catties."

Hearing three hundred catties, the manager was stunned. He couldn't eat so much salt, and the master's family couldn't eat so much salt in a year.

"Three hundred catties, all one hundred Wen per catty?"

Lin Deqing nodded, and the steward's breathing became short of breath.

Three hundred catties, the price difference of fifty Wen per catty, this is the price difference of ten taels of silver.

This steward has only earned ten taels of silver for a year of drilling. This is because he has received a fat job purchased by the family, and all parties have to be filial to manage it.

The steward rolled his eyes and immediately said, "Wait a minute, I'll buy it right away!"

After finishing speaking, the manager ran away immediately, and he quickly found several familiar figures.

These are housekeeping slaves who came to buy from the rich families in the county. He gritted his teeth and went to these people, and immediately told the whole story about this "business opportunity".

Since you can't eat in one bite, let's share the fat together.

Every government needs to eat salt, and this kind of low-priced salt makes money.

In the future, these servants of various prefectures who have inherited favors will also recruit themselves when they encounter low-priced commodities.

Lin Deqing didn't expect that three hundred catties of refined salt would be robbed in less than half an hour just after he put out the signboard.

Su Ze, who was on the side, also secretly reflected that he still made a mistake about the value of refined salt in this era.

Su Ze forgot that in the Ming Dynasty, salt was almost the same as currency, and it was called a general equivalent.

Even compared to Baochao, which is inferior to toilet paper, the value of salt remained stable from the early Ming to the late Ming.

Selling refined salt at a ghost market for one hundred cents per catty is almost equivalent to selling gold at a low price in a busy market.

It's no wonder that Zhu Qi and his gang of pirates who sell salt want to target him. This is simply a waste of time.

But Su Ze didn't have time to regret it. Selling salt at a low price was eager to get rid of it, and he made money anyway.

Besides, selling salt in the ghost market will definitely affect the business of Zhu Qi and his group, and it will be a matter of time before they are targeted, so it is better to get rid of these pirates as soon as possible.

Lin Deqing collected the stalls. Last time, the manager of the ghost market immediately came to collect taxes. This time his business was booming, and the manager issued a tax bill of [-] cash. Lin Deqing obediently left the money according to Su Ze's instructions, and quickly left the ghost market with his mule. city.

Just after Lin Deqing left the ghost market, two sneaky people crawled out from the roadside of the ghost market and immediately followed Lin Deqing.

The praying mantis, the cicada, and the oriole were behind, and Su Ze followed the two of them, walking into the depths of the night with them.

Today is the end of the month, when the moon is at its darkest.

The bright moon has no light, but the stars are brilliant.

Lin Deqing held the lantern and led the mule, which became a guiding light in the dark, and the two following men followed closely.

When they were far away from the ghost market, the two men immediately got into the woods, put on the clothes of the county government officer after a while, lit a lantern and caught up with Lin Deqing.

Lin Deqing walked at night with a huge sum of money in his arms, trembling himself, when he suddenly heard a cry of "stop" behind him.

Lin Deqing turned his head and saw two guards coming with lanterns, and felt even more frightened.

These days, the reputation of county government servants is similar to that of bandits, but slightly better than Japanese pirates.

"Check the road! Take it out quickly!"

Hearing that it was Zha Luyin, Lin Deqing immediately said in the local dialect: "You two servants, the grassroots are from the county, so there is no need for Luyin."

The two Chinese characters pretending to be servants dragged on for a while, and Zhu Qi, a former salt worker who found Japanese pirates, took the remaining brothers in ambush by the grass.

Although they were Japanese pirates, the equipment of Zhu Qi and his group still remained at the same level as when they were salt workers, and everyone carried wooden sticks for stirring brine.

Only Zhu Qi was holding a dagger, which was the self-defense weapon he took from the little eunuch guarding the saltworks after killing him.

"on!"

The brother pretending to be a messenger has already entangled Lin Deqing, Zhu Qi immediately ordered his subordinates to rush up.

Making salt and selling salt is the survival of Zhu Qi and his group. There is no fresh water on Meiyue Island, and there is no way to grow food. Food and clothing must be purchased with money from selling salt.

Zhu Qi used various methods, and finally monopolized the channel of selling salt in this ghost market, but was crossed by Su Ze.

Zhu Qi bribed the tax collector of the ghost market, but he couldn't get any information on Lin Deqing. Today, he could only bring his brother, rob Lin Deqing first, and then force him to ask him where he got the cheap refined salt.

Zhu Qiyi rushed out, and two accomplices pretending to be servants were going to arrest Lin Deqing immediately.

But Lin Deqing heard Su Ze's whistle in advance, and immediately rode on the mule and fled.

As soon as the two fake guards and Zhu Qi met, the sound of shouting and killing came from the forests on all sides!

This group of ordinary guards from Changning Guard rushed out wearing cotton armor borrowed from the guard, armed with wolf whisks, harpoons, and hoes.

The agricultural tools in their hands could not be seen clearly in the night, and the remaining soldiers of the guards practiced with Su Ze twice more, and they were more imposing than the last time they fought with weapons, even more neat than the officers and soldiers in the county.

When the fake servants and the real Japanese pirates met the fake officers and soldiers, Su Ze used the whistle to dispatch in the middle, and quickly surrounded Zhu Qi and the Japanese pirates.

Seeing the officers and soldiers rushing out suddenly, Zhu Qi first thought that he had encountered an ambush by the officers and soldiers. He was so frightened that he couldn't hold the dagger in his hand.

Holding a torch, Su Ze shouted coldly: "Put down your weapons and surrender quickly! Those who disobey will be killed without mercy!"

(End of this chapter)