bullyxtreme Chapter 265 Fleeing
Chapter 265 Fleeing
Chapter 265 Fleeing (Bonus Chapter 4 for Alliance Leader Yu Yuanchuyu)
After sunrise, five long dragons rise up from the Taoluo Saltworks to the mudflats by the sea.
The salt workers carried salt bags on shoulder poles, or even drove donkeys and mules to transport all the salt stored in the salt warehouse onto ten small boats, which then transported it back and forth to the larger ship.
The mudflats were even temporarily modified.
The doors of the saltworks government office were removed and laid directly on the mudflats for easier walking. The only problem was that the tide was receding, making the journey quite long.
The salt workers were certainly not acting voluntarily, but under the threat of knives and guns and the lure of five strings of cash a day, they reluctantly complied.
Even if the government wants to investigate in the future, they will have a reason: they were coerced.
Of course, there were also those daring individuals who wanted to take a gamble. On the evening of March 16th, Shao Shuyi had just finished eating two pancakes with fish soup when Liang Tai came over.
"What is it?" Shao Shuyi asked, wiping his mouth.
"Someone wants to join us," Liang Tai said, pointing to the three people standing not far away.
"Have them come over," Shao Shuyi instructed.
Upon receiving the order, the brothers Fu Jian and Fu Yong led the group over.
Shao Shuyi gave him a quick look and asked, "How old are you?"
The three of them each stated their age.
There are differences in accents between the north and south, but after careful listening, it became clear that the three people ranged in age from fourteen or fifteen to thirty.
However, they generally looked much older than their actual age.
The oldest one of them had dried up quickly, and his face was full of wrinkles.
He was wearing a patched-up khaki, the collar and cuffs worn white, revealing black, fluffy material underneath that was probably reed fluff or some other cheap stuff.
In the freezing cold, he didn't even have shoes, he was barefoot, and his toes were covered in black mud. I really don't know how he survived the winter. His toes were probably going to freeze off completely.
The other two were younger, dressed in similarly tattered clothes. The one on the left had a scar on his face, while the one on the right was as thin as a bamboo pole, with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes.
"What's your name? Why did you join?" Shao Shuyi asked the older man.
The man looked up blankly.
Liang Tai asked again.
Although he was from Jiaxing, he was a military household son of the Pizhou Wanhu Prefecture. Even though he had lived in Jiangnan for three generations, due to the closed and special nature of military households, there were still many northern accents in the Wanhu Prefecture. Therefore, Liang Tai could speak both Jiaxing dialect and Pizhou dialect, so he didn't have much trouble understanding the language of the salt farmers in Taoluochang. He was just right to act as a "translator".
The man finally understood and said calmly, "Pan Tingzi. His wife died, his daughter was mortgaged and died a month later. He still owes a thousand catties of salt tax, and he can't pay it back."
"And you?" Shao Shuyi asked, looking at the other person.
"Pan Dalang, your whole family is dead," he said.
"How did he die?"
"Two people froze to death in winter, and two more died of illness after surviving the spring, leaving only me."
Shao Shuyi nodded and looked at the last boy.
"My surname is Pan, I don't have a given name, everyone calls me Chicken," the boy said. "I can't make salt, and my school fees won't be reduced, so I have to borrow money to buy salt to pay for it. The more I borrow, the poorer I get, and the poorer I get, the more I borrow. Now I can't pay it all back, my father threw himself into the river, and my mother abandoned my sister and me and ran away."
"Let's take them," Shao Shuyi said. "Even if we can't fight, farming and working are good. Let them stay in Shandong."
He didn't say what came next, but the meaning was clear: death.
Life was indeed difficult for the people of Jiangnan, with many tragic events, but compared to Shandong and Henan, it was nothing.
This is widespread poverty in their area, yet the tax burden is still very heavy; their lives are unimaginable for the people of Jiangnan.
You think you live in hell, but there are actually eighteen levels of hell, and some people are even worse off than you.
Will these three people live to see the unification of the world and the end of the chaotic era? Most likely not.
Natural disasters, man-made calamities, and the devastation of war mean that leaving corpses to rot in the wilderness is a luxury. Some even die as food. It's not uncommon for corpses to be dug up and bones to be used for soup. There are even people who want the bones of people who have been dead for more than ten years. People who are starving have no reason.
"Do you dare to kill someone?" Shao Shuyi suddenly asked.
All three of them looked at him.
Shao Shuyi clapped his hands and had someone bring in a person who was tied up tightly.
"This man is an archer in the patrol office; he's too diligent. Even on his day off, he still comes to spy on us." Shao Shuyi pointed at him and said, "Give you a knife; who will kill him?"
Fu Jian drew a short blade and asked, "Who's coming?"
The three of them stepped forward together, and the young man was the first to receive it.
He walked up to the archer and, almost without hesitation, plunged the knife into the archer's heart amidst the archer's terrified gaze.
The archer couldn't let out a loud scream; the intense pain made his whole body tremble, and he quickly collapsed to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably.
The boy's expression changed only slightly; the other two were much the same, their numbness far outweighing any feelings of fear or excitement.
This mental state made Shao Shuyi thoughtful.
Environment shapes social trends, and social trends shape people.
In the North, human life is probably worthless, and there's little psychological burden in killing someone.
He recalled the various murder scenes that appeared in "Water Margin" when people read it later. Shi Nai'an had served as a staff member in Zhang Shicheng's army, so he must have seen and experienced something.
The situation in Zhang Shicheng's territory wasn't actually the worst. Huaidong still had some food, but it's hard to imagine what Huaixi and Henan, the areas most severely affected by disasters and where order collapsed the most, were like.
The able-bodied men from those areas, trained into an army, indeed possessed an extraordinary tolerance for death.
When people are numb, they just want to brutally kill or be killed; they don't care if they die.
The salt producers on Yidu Road in front of me have a bit of that flavor now.
When talking about their family's tragedy, there was no anger, no sadness, but rather a numbness.
To make him kill is the same kind of numbness.
"Come and have something to eat." Shao Shuyi waved and had someone serve them some fish soup and bake some flatbread.
The three of them sat down and waited quietly for the meal to be served.
"Are there any grains, meats, or vegetables available nearby?" Shao Shuyi asked, looking at Pan Tingzi, the oldest among them.
Pan Tingzi shook his head.
"No?" Shao Shuyi asked in surprise.
"I don't know." Pan Tingzi paused, then said, "It shouldn't be."
Why?
"There was a drought last year."
Shao Shuyi understood.
Originally, due to the disrepair of water conservancy facilities over the years—not just the Yellow River, but more importantly the ponds (reservoirs) and irrigation canal networks—the harvest was not high. In addition, the weather was uncooperative, with frequent disasters. How much surplus grain was there? If there was any, it was in the fortified villages of landlords and powerful families.
Besides, there are already a lot of refugees in the capital, what are you thinking?
Shao Shuyi looked at the others around him, including Liang Tai, Tie Niu, and the Fu brothers, and said, "See? Going out for a walk makes a difference, doesn't it?"
Liang Tai hummed in agreement and said, "Changzhou alone has over a million households, and that's based on figures from decades ago. If that were in the north, it would probably be equivalent to several prefectures."
"It's not just about household registration," Shao Shuyi shook his head and said, "the financial aspects are different too."
The population is several times larger, and the wealth created per capita is even greater. The overall strength gap between the North and the South has become astonishing.
Of course, there is still much work to be done in transforming population and economic strength into military strength, and the "cooperation" of the enemy is also required. The unique characteristics of infighting on the grasslands are something that cannot be ignored.
Fish soup and noodles were quickly served, and the three of them devoured the food without a care in the world, as if the food in front of them was the only thing that mattered.
After finishing his meal, he looked longingly at Shao Shuyi.
"That's all they can eat for this meal," Shao Shuyi said. "Take them to boil some water and cleanse themselves. They shouldn't get sick on the ship."
Fu Jian took the three of them away.
Shao Shuyi also got up and stood on a sand dune, looking down at the earth.
As the sun sets in the west, the salt transport continues unabated.
Of the five squads of soldiers, Jiang Sanbao's squad was on duty inside the salt warehouse, while Wu Shangyuan's squad was scattered far away to serve as a guard.
The three teams of Li, Gao, and Bian, totaling more than forty people, sat on the ground, ate some food and water, and tried their best to conserve their strength.
If trouble arises, they will immediately rise up and assemble to defend against the enemy. However, judging from the current situation, the Yuan Dynasty's government in Shandong is operating inefficiently and it is unlikely that they will be able to arrive in a short period of time.
As Shao Shuyi had predicted, from the evening of the 16th to the 20th, for a full five days, apart from a few archers from the patrol office who came to spy and were shot down by arrows, the garrison troops were nowhere to be seen. The northern region was mainly composed of Mongol and scout troops, and the level of corruption in these troops seemed to be no less than that of the Han and newly attached troops in the south.
Over the next five days, more and more people, like Pan Tingzi, requested to join. By the evening of the 20th, a rough count showed no fewer than fifty people, and with a few family members added, the total number exceeded seventy.
Shao Shuyi first counted the amount of salt and found that there were more than 184,500 catties, which filled both ships. He finally decided not to recruit too many people. Apart from the Pan family who came on the first day, he only selected twenty strong men who looked relatively healthy to serve as porters when he seized a salt field.
On the night of the 20th, Shao Shuyi wrote eleven large characters on the outer wall of the Taoluo Saltworks government office: "The barbarian is exempt from escort" and "Wu Dalang of Yidu Road," thus ending his mission in Shandong before leaving triumphantly.
The fleet remained in the waters off Xinyangchang throughout the entire day of the 21st.
Such blatant display naturally caught the attention of those on the shore.
Chaos erupted in Xinyang, with everyone in a state of panic. The commander immediately dispatched several messengers on horseback to spread the word, requesting that troops be sent to their aid at full speed.
After nightfall, the five ships made a feint, turned south, left the Shandong Salt Transport Office's territory, and headed straight for Yuzhou Island. They landed at dawn and captured Xudupu Saltworks.
The whole process was very easy. Only one soldier from the Gao Daqiang team was accidentally shot and killed, and another was slightly injured. They then occupied the salt field under the jurisdiction of the Lianghuai Transport Office, obtained more than 215,900 catties of salt, and also seized two ships anchored there.
Shao's actions shocked the two major salt transport offices in Shandong and Lianghuai.
In the eyes of the Transport Department, the extent of Wu Dalang's misdeeds was truly unprecedented.
If the major salt-related case in the country were only one shi (a unit of dry measure), this villain alone would have eight dou (another unit of dry measure), so a heavy blow must be dealt to him.