Chapter 16: People Like Blades of Grass

“Was I impulsive again?”

Yang Xin said.

As for the ruffian, he was being carried away dejectedly by his men at that moment, with the Salt-Boiling Households on both sides laughing loudly, though he probably couldn’t hear it. In fact, this guy still hadn’t woken up. He definitely wasn’t dead. Yang Xin had aimed for the salt pan’s water surface to throw him. Although the water wasn’t deep there, it still provided some cushioning. Besides, the force of the throw wasn’t that great…

Of course, the injuries were definitely serious.

Both his body and his pride were badly hurt.

“That didn’t count!”

Huang Zhen said with considerable approval.

“Don’t worry, Brother Yang. This guy is just a former salt officer who got dismissed. In the past, the salt fields had heavy responsibilities and employed many officers. After the Salt Certificate Law was implemented the year before last, the salt fields only collected taxes. The court didn’t need so many people, so they let a batch of salt officers go. He lost his livelihood and started hanging out with a bunch of thugs. Relying on his martial arts skills and his familiarity with the salt field’s inner workings—plus having many relatives and old friends among the salt officers—he specialized in extorting merchants who didn’t know the inside story.”

Miao Er said with a smile.

“What if he really reports us?”

Yang Xin asked.

“Report to whom? Deputy Commissioner Hu? Deputy Commissioner Hu would slap him! Deputy Commissioner Hu’s three concubines rely entirely on us to support them! The court’s salary isn’t enough for his extravagant pleasures. If he arrests us, how would he survive?”

Huang Zhen said.

Yang Xin understood immediately.

In reality, that ruffian was just trying to scare people. The illicit salt trade in the Great Ming involved everyone from top to bottom, officials to commoners. The entire salt administration was completely corrupt. Salt field officials relied on illicit salt dealers and salt-boiling households selling illicit salt to make a living; they couldn’t possibly arrest the dealers. No one in the Great Ming Dynasty would arrest illicit salt dealers. Arrest the dealers, and who would give them “gifts”? Which of those officials lived on their salaries? Didn’t they all live off the mountains they guarded and the salt industry they oversaw? What benefit would arresting illicit salt dealers bring them? In this situation, any informant wasn’t just blocking the illicit salt dealers’ income; they were blocking the salt officials’ income too. That would cause public outrage, and they might even be silenced.

Scaring relatively honest folks to extort some silver was definitely possible.

But actually taking action was seeking death!

Understanding this, Yang Xin felt relieved. They waited until evening. The salt prepared by Uncle He finally began to be loaded onto the boat. Huang Zhen bought thirty thousand catties, paying twice the official price, which was sixty taels. As for how much Uncle He gave the Salt-Boiling Households, that was none of Huang Zhen’s business.

They only did business with Uncle He.

In truth, whether it was official salt or illicit salt, the Salt-Boiling Households were at the very bottom of the industry chain. The real money was made by wealthy households and officials. Illicit salt dealers made a lot, but it was high-risk. Only these people almost reaped profits effortlessly. Huang Zhen’s boatload wasn’t much, but just that day, Uncle He received three illicit salt dealers. The biggest one came by sea and bought a full fifty thousand catties.

This was where the real torrent of money flowed.

Huang Zhen paid an extra ten taels. This was for the salt field officials, though he entrusted Uncle He with it. The two had decades of business dealings and trusted each other completely. The salt field officials definitely knew about this transaction. The reason they didn’t show themselves was because Huang Zhen was an old customer who would definitely follow the rules; he wouldn’t short their share. One could say that the officials, the households, and the merchants all had a long-standing understanding. There were rules for how much each party got from a deal, and they were all quite honest. Even illicit trade required honesty. In fact, the more illicit the business, the more they emphasized honesty. Legitimate business, on the other hand, was harder to say. For example, Huang Zhen didn’t need twenty-four hours to fill his boat. But in the past, regular merchants with Salt Certificates weren’t surprised if they waited twenty-four months and still couldn’t load their boats…

Well, that wasn’t an exaggeration.

In the early days when Salt Certificates were handed out recklessly, not just twenty-four months, but even longer waits were common. Salt merchants often couldn’t get their salt with their certificates, some even exhausted their funds bribing officials, ending up without even travel money home, becoming refugees at the salt fields.

The illicit salt trade was truly fair to all, young and old.

With no legal protection, everyone in this line of work had to rely on reputation.

“Another deal of just a few dozen taels!”

Yang Xin watched the boat full of salt with speechless dismay.

The quality of this salt wasn’t good. It was even a gray color, not as good as the large-grain salt he remembered from his childhood. Moreover, it hadn’t undergone any processing and surely was full of harmful substances. But in this era, this was considered good, honest salt. Like Huang Zhen said, at least they didn’t mix one-third sand into the salt. For the common people, on one side was official salt sold for several times or even dozens of times the price, and also full of sand. On the other side was cheap, sand-free illicit salt. It went without saying which they’d choose. As for the court’s laws, forget them. When seventy percent of the market in the Great Ming was illicit salt, who cared about the law? If the standard punishment of one hundred strokes for consuming illicit salt were enforced, ninety-nine percent of the Great Ming’s population would get those hundred strokes.

But as for the profit…

“What more do you want?”

Huang Zhen said.

“There are nine of us on this boat, risking our heads, and we only make about a hundred taels of silver? That’s far too low. The risk doesn’t match the reward!”

Yang Xin said.

Sixty taels worth of salt, even at double the profit, only made one hundred twenty taels. It was hard to get much more, since they weren’t like those who formed fleets to transport Huai River salt to Huguang. They just took the waterways to areas like Hejian and Baoding. The salt price there couldn’t be too high. In the Capital City it was five cash. Even if it was higher in these places, how much higher could it be? For Yang Xin, who was used to seeing people on TV and in novels slap down ten taels and yell for the waiter to bring food, this really felt like too little. Especially for smuggling illicit salt! For such a business, if you didn’t make a few thousand taels per trip, it just didn’t live up to the impressive name!

“Nine people? Our nine lives in a bad year might not even be worth one hundred twenty taels!”

Huang Zhen said.

“She should be valuable, right?”

Yang Xin pointed at Huang Ying.

Huang Ying slapped his pointing finger down.

“Someone like me is worth twenty taels at most, and that’s if the buyer is generous enough. A less generous one might only offer sixteen. A fresh, young maid of fifteen or sixteen is only worth under twenty taels!”

She said.

“Uh, so with my hundred taels, I could buy six or seven fresh, young maids?”

Yang Xin said, astonished.

“Regretting it?”

Huang Ying said with a chill in her voice.

“No, I don’t like them too young!”

Yang Xin quickly said with righteous indignation.

Huang Zhen ignored him flirting with his daughter and quickly directed the sailors to pole the boat forward. Soon they were retracing their route, then waited again for the tide. When the water depth was sufficient once more, the group poled the boat over the sandbar blocking their path and re-entered the Hai River, moving forward with the pushing tide.

It was already dawn.

Because it was a cloudy day, the surroundings were still dark. The rising-tide Hai River seemed like a vast ocean. As far as the eye could see, there was only water and reeds. Numerous seagulls soared in the sky.

But right at that moment, a fishing boat emerged from the reed marshes. A boatman at the stern rowed the scull, while a man at the bow held a net, looking at Yang Xin with a simple, honest smile. Huang Zhen glanced over warily but then paid no more attention. Such fishermen were as common as hairs on the Hai River. Even Salt-Boiling Households came out to fish, since relying solely on salt-boiling rarely filled their bellies. The two boats gradually drew closer. Yang Xin smiled at the fisherman, who looked back at him. The two stared at each other like a pair of…

Suddenly the fishing boat accelerated.

Almost simultaneously, the fisherman ducked down. Behind him, from inside the boat’s canopy, a flash of light appeared, and gunpowder smoke abruptly sprayed out. As the grapeshot struck his chest, Yang Xin saw countless small boats accelerating from within the reed marshes.

Then he fell backward.

“River pirates! Grab weapons! Why are we being robbed on the return trip too!”

Huang Zhen’s cry of alarm suddenly rang out.

Yang Xin fell onto the deck. Two sailors beside him also fell. One immediately had blood gushing from his mouth, his eyes wide as he seemed to want to say something to Yang Xin…

Yang Xin snapped awake.

He sat up violently like a corpse springing to life.

From the reed marshes opposite, over ten similar small fishing boats surged out. All the boats held people waving swords and spears, and some were even drawing bows. Yang Xin reached over and pulled the small axe from the fallen sailor’s waist. Without hesitation, he threw it. The small axe accurately chopped into the forehead of an archer. Immediately after, he grabbed a long pole and thrust it hard onto the deck of a small boat that had already collided with their bow. His tremendous force made the small boat jerk violently to one side. A pirate trying to climb over immediately fell into the water. His pole swung up, hitting a second pirate square in the chin. The latter screamed as he was flipped into the water.

But another boat crashed into their starboard side.

A pirate was just about to climb up when suddenly a crossbow bolt hit him right in the head.

Yang Xin’s bamboo pole immediately struck the chest of the pirate behind him. Even without a spearhead attached, his strength was enough. The latter was knocked flying backward. But from the pirate boat behind, two puffs of gunpowder smoke erupted, and a sailor immediately fell.

“Axe!”

Yang Xin shouted.

A sailor beside him immediately threw his small axe to him.

Yang Xin caught it and threw it in one smooth motion. This small axe flew twenty meters, also accurately landing in the chest of a matchlock gunner. By then, Huang Zhen had rushed out from the cabin with his bow, raised it, and shot an arrow that hit another matchlock gunner. This guy fired four arrows in rapid succession, none missing their mark. From behind, Huang Ying fired another crossbow bolt from the window of her little room, hitting a nearby pirate…

The pirates immediately retreated.

They were just a motley crew after all.

Yang Xin had just relaxed when, from the initial fishing boat, a flash of light abruptly sprayed out again. Amidst the billowing gunpowder smoke, a dense spread of grapeshot swept toward them.

Huang Zhen was immediately hit and fell.

Yang Xin rushed to the bow and directly grabbed the anchor. He gripped this iron lump, shaped somewhat like a curled orchid and weighing seventy or eighty catties, with both hands. With a roar, he threw it with all his might. The anchor, trailing its rope, instantly reached that boat. With tremendous kinetic energy, it struck the bow squarely. The next moment, the small boat’s stern shot upward amidst flying splinters. Two pirates hiding inside the canopy, along with their small cannon, were flung out, screaming as they plummeted into the river water.